Fox River, Alaska is a small town of about six hundred people. The quiet town consists of the typical small town people: jocks, hipsters, friendly elderly folk, proud parents, and that one crazy alcoholic that every town seems to have. Nothing was ever out of the ordinary in Fox River. Well, not until Zander Fitzgerald moved to town.
Don’t get me wrong, Zander was a pretty normal kid. He looked like the rest of us and talked like the rest of us. He had a fair amount of friends and what looked like a pleasant home life. We all grew to like him. That is, until he started creeping on Jayna Langston.
Jayna Langston was every guy’s dream girl. She had long dark hair and green eyes that reminded you of gemstones. Her grades surpassed the rest of the class and she always treated her teachers with respect. She was loved by everyone and was kind of a celebrity around school. No one seemed to notice that something was a little off about Jayna; not until Zander came along.
Zander was new to Voznesenka High School and was immediately intrigued by Jayna. He couldn’t quite figure out how Jayna was so well-liked, yet didn’t have any real friends. He knew of a large number of people who would love the chance to hangout with her, but she apparently wasn’t interested in their company.
He had talked to her once. They sat next to each other in English and the class was reading Julius Caesar.
“It’s pretty crummy that even Brutus joined in to kill Caesar. You know, since he kind of adored Caesar in the beginning,” Zander said hoping to get a response by Jayna. He waited expectantly, but there was no response.
After several minutes Jayna finally replied, “Sorry, I have dyslexia and it takes me a little longer to read than most people. Did you say something?”
“I-I was just mumbling about how it’s really crummy that Brutus stabbed Caesar. It was nothing important. Sorry if I disturbed your reading.”
“No, no. It’s not a big deal. I usually try to tone the world out when I read. I understand what you mean, though, about Brutus and Caesar. I’m not quite sure if I completely agree with your opinion, though. I mean, sometimes you have to take drastic measures in order to get what you want, especially back then.”
The bell rang, dismissing Zander from the conversation. He was glad because he wasn’t exactly sure how to continue the chat without digging too deep into Jayna’s suddenly dark mind.
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Zander lived on the same street as Jayna and always saw her walking home from school alone. She always followed the same routine once she arrived home: check the garage for cars, unlock the front door, turn the living room light on, and then sneak into the shabby shed on her family’s property. It was if she didn’t want anyone to know she was in the shed. Zander was curious as to what was so special about that shed that made her want to visit it everyday after school. He knew he had to check it out.
The windows of the shed were blackened by what must have been smoke, making it nearly impossible for Zander to see what Jayna was up to. He could only see a burning orange flame, and Jayna’s blurry movement within the otherwise dark shed.
What is she doing in there? What is she burning?
The atmosphere around the drabby shed was eerie and smelled of something you just couldn’t seem to put your finger on. Zander knew that he had to get a closer look. He was too curious to just walk away now. He walked around the shed, cautiously, careful not to make himself heard. Eventually, he found a window on the east wall of the shed that was slightly ajar, open enough to peek inside.
What Zander saw was absolutely terrifying. Jayna was kneeling over a man’s body who had to be dead. He was stiff and motionless. Blood was trickling from his abdominal area which had been gutted recently. He was lying in the middle of a pentagram that had been drawn on the dusty floor with white chalk. Candles surrounded the body, placed perfectly on the points of the pentagram. Jayna was reading a chant from a thick book:
Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet Saeclum in favilla
Teste Satan cum sibylla.
Quantos tremor est futurus
Quando Vindex est venturus
Cuncta stricte discussurus.
Dies irae, dies illa!
Crash! “Oh, curses!” A flower pot fell to the ground, splitting open and covering Zander’s new, white tennis shoes.
She stopped her chanting and looked directly at the partly open window. Zander’s horrified face was faintly visible through the blackened glass. Jayna’s jet black stare was enough to make anyone’s blood run cold. The poor guy was paralyzed, unable to run away from what he had just seen.
“What are you doing here, Zander? You shouldn’t be here. You weren’t meant to see this,” Jayna started, walking toward him as if he were a frightened animal.
“I-I…uh, uhm..” Zander stammered; unsure of what to say or do.
“Just go home, Zander. I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. Please just go home and don’t tell anyone about what you just saw. You seem like a nice kid and I don’t want your reputation to be ruined by you starting rumors that no one at Voznesenka High School will ever believe.” Jayna’s eyes had turned from dark and intense to the enticing emerald color that they usually were. She was transformed from the callous being that she was just moments before to the ordinary girl that Zander had talked to in Mr. Callahan’s English class almost everyday.
After standing there for what seemed like an eternity, Zander came to his senses and ran home without looking back. He didn’t stop running until he got to his bedroom and had slammed the door shut. He couldn’t breathe and he couldn’t decide if it was from the running or a panic attack from what he had just seen. He lied on his bed to try to calm himself down, and finally ended up falling into a deep sleep...
The sky had a decent amount of light for it being about 4 in the morning. The moon shone bright through the bare tree branches, causing an eerie feeling to seep into Zander’s bones. It was cold, uncommonly cold and Zander was clad in just his blue flannel pajama pants and the barbeque sauce stained white t-shirt that he prefers to sleep in. Zander could see a warm light coming from a window off in the distance. He was drawn to the light, felt what seemed like a gravitational pull to the glowing window. The next thing he knew, he was at the window with his face pressed to the glass, yearning to see what the mysterious window had to hide behind its glass panes. Nothing could pull his glassy blue eyes away from the sight before them. Not the gut wrenching screams, not the blood splatter on the window, not even the carnivorous technique in which the scene was executed could tear Zander’s stare from that window.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Zander was awakened from a deep sleep by his alarm clock. He sat up quickly, breathing heavily. I have to talk to Jayna, he thought, remembering exactly what he saw the night before and relating it directly to the dream he had just awakened from. Not even bothering to shower or brush his teeth, Zander grabbed his bookbag and ran out the door, hoping to catch Jayna on her way to school.
“HEY! WAIT!” Zander had seen Jayna walking about half a block ahead of him and knew he had to stop her. She slowed her pace, but didn’t stop. Zander had to run to catch up to her. When he finally got to her side they were just behind a group of ninth graders who were also on their way to school.
“Zander,” she whispered, “You shouldn’t be talking to me. Just go away. I’ll explain everything later, I promise. Meet me at the shed at nine. Come alone.” She then picked up her pace again, and left Zander in the cluster of ninth graders to think about their encounter.
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Zander made sure to be at the creepy shed by exactly nine o'clock. Jayna was already there waiting for him.
“What I’m about to show you might scare you, but I promise that I’m not going to hurt you,” Jayna informed Zander. She led him into the shed and for the first time in the past few days, Zander felt strangely safe. Although the room looked like the inside of a serial killer’s home, with pentagrams and Satanic bibles, he wasn’t scared. He believed that Jayna was telling the truth and she must have had a reason to do the things she had done to that man.
“Sit down. I’m going to explain to you what you saw last night. It might sound weird or crazy, but you deserve to know.” She sat in a chair across from him, leaning close. “That man you saw was worthless. He was a waste of space in this world. He tried to rape me when I was walking home from the grocery store the other night and I had to get rid of him before he hurt anyone else. No, he was not my first victim; I have killed others like him.”
“What’s with the pentagram? The chanting? Why not just kill him?”
“I sacrifice them to our Lord, Lucifer. He is building an army in Hell and he has asked me to help him.”
Just then, they heard a twig break outside the shed. “Go, get out. Go home and don’t come back,” Jayna said as she rushed Zander out the door.
As he was walking back to his house, Zander couldn’t help but look back toward the shed. Jayna was watching after him, with the same black eyes that she had when she was murdering that good-for-nothing weasel. Then suddenly, she vanished into thin air.
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It’s now been fifteen years since the last time Zander saw Jayna. She never came back to school after that night. The feds say she was kidnapped, but Zander doesn’t agree with that theory. He has been researching her disappearance himself. He kept a journal which held his personal beliefs about the situation.
The journal read: “Jayna Langston’s disappearance wasn’t a kidnapping. She was too strong for that. After researching for many years, I have concluded that Jayna was never human during her time at Voznesenka High School, she was a demon. Lucifer had sent her to Earth to gather souls for his army, and the man I had watched her kill was the last one Lucifer needed. When her job was done, he brought her back home to him and his army. I can only hope that Jayna stays strong and that she brings victory to her Lord.”
