When my mom would go out for the night, she would leave me with babysitters. This made sense; I was too young to stay home alone, and she wanted to go out for a bit. However, depending upon who the sitter was, the event could cause a lot of stress for a young kid such as myself. In one instance, called the “Stickmen Incident,” I was terrorized by my sitters and convinced I was going to die.
It was a normal enough day and the sun was shining. My mom decided with her friend Laurie that they were going to go out for the night and I was going to go to Laurie’s house to be watched by her kids, who were all more than 5 years older than me. As it turns out, they were not the only ones that would be there that night. They also had a few friends over at the house.
Now, I understand how they felt. Why would they want to have some punk kid over when they were hoping to have the place to themselves? It was probably a tragedy for them. They decided to make the most of it, however, by having their friends come over anyway. Their friends knew me too, and a couple of them babysat me a couple of times themselves.
Before my mom and Laurie left, Laurie let us know that we could set up a bon fire and have s’mores if we wanted. That was a win-win for a kid like me. I loved to watch a fire and liked s’mores quite a bit too (well, at least the chocolate anyway). It wasn’t dark yet, so we didn’t want to start the fire until later.
Then they left. I was left alone with the teenagers. The first hour or so went by as one might expect. I hovered around the bigger kids trying to entertain myself when I had nothing to entertain myself with. They were understandably irritated for having to take care of me, so they decided to make the most of it.
Darkness was setting in when they decided to bring their plan to fruition. I do not know whose idea it was, but when it got going, everyone joined in. The likely culprits were Jim or Brian; they were Laurie’s kids and they had a history of pulling pranks on me. Jim and his friend Mason went outside to get the fire going while Sabrina (Mason’s sister) got the s’more stuff ready. I was inside as well, hanging around Sabrina because she was the only sane person in the group. When it got dark enough, we went outside.
Since we were out in the country, the buildings were fairly scattered and there were a number of trees round. Recently, one of the huge trees around the yard had been cut down. It was still lying there, as Laurie’s husband had not yet cut it up. The fire was in the middle of the yard that was adjacent to the house. We gathered around the fire to start cooking up the s’mores, but soon after we did the incident began in earnest.
Crack!
“What was that?” Jim asked as he pointed to where the sound had come from. We all instantly turned to listen for more. When no sound was reproduced, we all turned back to the fire.
Crack!
We all turned again, this time to a different direction. Brian looked at Jim and then said, “I hope it isn’t stickmen.” I must’ve looked confused, because he continued, “Stickmen are stick-like creatures that live in huge trees. They usually don’t come out unless a tree has been recently cut down.” He pointed to the big tree that was recently cut down. “They might be out tonight if they are angry over that tree.”
“Whoa! Move away!” Jim cried as he shot up from his chair and ran over to the other side of the fire. The rest of us also shot up and moved toward where Jim was. We huddled together and looked all around, but it was dark. I certainly couldn’t see anything that looked like it was attacking. However, I had no idea what to look for.
Just then, Brian and Mason ran forward and grabbed sticks off the ground and threw them into the fire. “We saw them walking up!” I huddled close to Sabrina. I didn’t understand what was happening and I just water to feel safe. Jim mentioned that we should move away from the fire because it would attract the stickmen. “I know it doesn’t make sense, because the stickmen are made of wood, but they are like moths and are attracted to it,” he said.
Crack!
We all turned as one toward the garage. I said to everyone, “We need to go into the house!” The bigger kids refused, however, saying that the house was likely already infested. They said that the stickmen would go into the house before coming after us. I didn’t know what to do. In my mind, we were sitting ducks.
Just then, Mason and Brian came up with an idea. They said that there was a wood pile on the other side of the house and that they should check it out to see if there were any stickmen coming from there. Perhaps, they could stop them. I didn’t want them to go, but they were adamant that they should and before I knew it, they had went around to the other side of the house, leaving me with Sabrina and Jim.
After a while, I asked Jim when they were going to be coming back. He looked at me and said, “If they aren’t back by now, they are probably dead.” My eyes widened, “But…but…wouldn’t we have heard them?!” He said, “No, probably not. Stickmen rip out a persons voice box before killing them, so we would not have heard anything.”
We were still huddled in the same spot in the yard, pretty close to the fire, but far enough away to feel safe from stickmen attracted to the fire. After what seemed like an eternity, Brian made his way back to us. “Where’s Mason?” he asked. Jim looked at him, “We haven’t seen him, but he was with you! Did you guys get separated?” Brian nodded and said that they were attacked as soon as they got to the woodpile. He ran off and lost Mason on the way. He didn’t know where he was.
Now, I must mention at this point, that throughout this entire escapade, I was wondering if they were playing a trick on me. I hadn’t caught them yet, which is what was making me believe it was real. However, the time between Brian and Mason leaving and Brian’s return was quite great, and Jim wasn’t keeping the tension up (likely, because I was watching him).
I turned to look at Brian. As I did, I saw him throw a rock at the garage.
Crack!
Everyone turned again…except me. I was already looking. I saw Brian throw the rock. I pointed at him and said, “But Brian, you threw that rock! It was a stickman!” He tried to recover, “Well, I saw one over there. I got him with the rock.” However, it was too late. The spell was broken and I was let go from its grip. I started saying that I wanted to go back inside, and after some persistence, we all went in (I still didn’t see Mason for some time. I don’t know where he went).
I was extremely upset with everyone, Sabrina included, who had never played a trick on me up until that point. The rest of the evening was spent inside the house waiting for my mom to return to take me home. I don’t remember if I ever told her all the details of what happened, but I was exhausted by this point, and I’m certain that I fell asleep shortly after I was put to bed.
Flip Writes 