Chapter 1
By Nigel J.Smith
One summer night in 2001, a boy named Joshua and his friends were playing in the backyard behind the house while the parents sat at the dinner table, talking and drinking.
The kids were playing with a ball in the backyard, filling the dark sky with laughter, when a kid accidentally threw it too hard, sending it past the yard to bounce near the bushes.
Behind the bushes was a big lake that stretched around their neighborhood, called Chestnut Village.
Joshua went to get the ball for his friends, but as he reached the bushes and picked it up, he noticed a pair of reddish eyes staring at him.
It was a man in a crouching position, staring directly at Joshua. The man gave Joshua a slight smile.
Joshua stumbled back and fell, dropping the ball. He scrambled up and ran back to his friends, telling them what he saw.
All the kids stared at the bushes for a few minutes until the silence was broken when one of the parents called the kids into the house.
They went inside and immediately went to the bedroom, talking about what Joshua saw.
Most of the kids thought Joshua made it up; one of them said it might have been a fox. As the kids were talking, Joshua's parents came into the room and said it was time for his friends to go home.
The kids left out the door with their parents. Once they were gone, Joshua's mom told him to clean his room and open the window because it was too hot inside. So, Joshua opened the window and cleaned his room like his mom asked.
A few minutes later, Joshua's dad came to see if he finished cleaning. His dad saw that the room was tidy and told Joshua to get into bed and go to sleep.
Joshua got into bed, and his dad said good night, turned off the light, and closed the door.
About four minutes later, Joshua fell asleep. A few hours later, he woke up again, looking around his dark room.
He stared at the window for a bit, starting to grow scared of the darkness, which made him think back to what he saw in the bushes earlier. Then, suddenly, Joshua heard knocking on his window, causing him to panic so badly that he fell off his bed and ran to his parents' room.
Once he reached their room, it seemed no one was in there, so he went back out into the hallway. He looked around in complete darkness with not a single dot of light.
Joshua went to the living room, turned on the TV, and sat down to wait for his parents to come back.
As Joshua was watching TV, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye near the patio window.
It was a man wearing dirty black clothes, and his eyes were redder than a red moon.
The man told Joshua to let him in, but Joshua got up and hid behind the wall near the kitchen.
The man said, "You don't have to be scared. I'm just tired and very thirsty. I'll get something to drink, and then I'll leave, I promise."
Joshua looked at the man and slowly started walking to the patio door, knowing he shouldn't open it for strangers or talk to them. But he felt like he had to help him. So, Joshua hesitantly opened the patio door, letting the man in.
The man stepped inside the house and looked around the living room. Without saying a word, the man quietly walked to the kitchen and poured himself something to drink as Joshua watched him in fear.
Then, the man sat down and sipped his drink.
After he finished, he looked at the frightened boy and said he should not talk to strangers.
"It's very dangerous to talk to strangers... very dangerous. Where are your parents?" the man asked. Joshua shrugged his shoulders, shaking in fear.
The man told Joshua that people eat strange things in different countries. "It's not bad to try something new once in a while, especially something that you would never have thought you could try."
Joshua stayed silent in fear, a tear trickling down his face.
The man told Joshua he wasn't hungry while smiling, then moved closer to Joshua and looked into his eyes.
The man told Joshua that people also collect strange things that you wouldn't expect anyone to collect.
The man sat back in his chair, slowly pulled out a knife, and fiddled with it.
He stared at his knife in silence for a few seconds and said to Joshua, "I have a collection… I collect beautiful things."
The man got out of his chair and slowly walked toward Joshua, who stood there frozen in fear.
"I like collecting little things that help me remember the people I met… like eyes. They are the most beautiful things ever, like jewels. There are different colors—blue, green, gray, brown, and some are multiple colors. Isn't that cool?" the man asked.
The man stood staring, waiting for Joshua to answer, but Joshua was too scared to say or do anything.
The man walked closer to Joshua, pointing his knife at him, and asked if he could take a piece of him to remember him.
Joshua started to cry as the knife came closer to his face.
Joshua continued standing there crying, and just as the blade was about to touch his face, the doorknob began to rattle and the sound of keys could be heard. The parents unlocked the front door and walked in.
They froze in shock when they saw the man ready to stab Joshua.
The man looked at the parents intensely and immediately ran through the patio door. The dad quickly chased after him, but as soon as he reached the patio, the man had already disappeared into the darkness.
The parents called the police, and ten minutes later, officers arrived. The parents brought Joshua to the police so he could tell them everything that happened.
The police asked Joshua to describe what the man looked like, and Joshua described him exactly. As he finished, he told the police that the man wanted to take his eyes.
Once Joshua said that, his mom burst into tears as his dad tried to comfort her.
Hearing that, the police knew exactly who the man was, and the officers assured the family that they were going to catch him. After they finished questioning the family and looking around, they got into their cars and drove off into the night.
The next morning, Joshua's dad picked up the newspaper, started reading it, and talked about last night's incident.
Newspaper: Two years ago, there was a serial killer named Charlie Maxwell who kidnapped and killed six kids, also known as the EYE SNATCHER. For two years, police have been searching heavily for him. He is known for collecting children's eyes after killing them. Last night, he struck again in a neighborhood called Chestnut Village. The police searched everywhere, but could not find a trace of him.
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