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"STOP IT!" Jimmy wailed, "It huuurts!"
"Oh stop crying. Someone shut him up!" Louis Hert, a well known bully by both parents and children, punched Jimmy in the face. Jimmy began to cry, his tears dripping onto the ground which was caked with some of his blood. In the middle of the pool of blood sat his tooth, which the hert brothers ripped out without mercy. One of them had a switchblade and they were making tiny cuts on his fingers as he wailed. "Quit crying, a**l." He and his little brother, Steven Hert, laughed and pushed him away from them. Steven tripped Jimmy who fell onto his nose and broke it. Blood started pouring out from both nostrils and he cried some more. The Hert brothers grabbs his arms and legs, hefted him up onto their shoulders, and threw him onto the wooden bench he'd been waiting on before they showed. The brothers laughed and gave each other high-fives.
"Good job, bro, let's get some food at Joffery's" Jimmy couldn't tell who said this, both of their tenor voices sounded the same to his beaten ears.
The Hert brothers often beat up Jimmy and his geeky friends for little things, like stepping on their worn shoes and looking in their general direction. Although they often just punched them for such things, they loved beating up Jimmy. They liked the way he squeeled and if they found him alone, they'd jump him, beat him up, and take anything he had on him. Once they stripped him naked and ran him through town crying and attempting to cover himself. Louis had laughed and said: "Look at that ginger ******** cover his little peeny weeny!" and most kids broke their stone-like expressions and laughed. Naturally this had hurt Jimmy alot. The Hert brothers father, Kevine Hert, had socked the both of them on the sides of their heads and gave them thirteen beatings that following summer. Because of ths, the Hert brothers blamed Jimmy for their beatings and sought revenge whenever they could. Their father was alcoholic who drank and beat them regularly whenever he felt like. He even beat his wife, Charleen Hert, to death. When the crime was investigated, Kevin managed to bribe the cop a thousand dollars to ignore his finger prints. Kevin Hert got off without any charges and kept his two sons.
Jimmy Anel, or as most kids called him, Jimmy "a**l," was walking home after a midnight stroll. He'd taken a beating and now he was going home to his mother with a black eye and a missing front tooth, along with many cuts along his arms and legs. He was often bullied because of his name and his fiery red hair. Most kids called him a "ginger ********" because of his appearence. Although he had friends, they were a group of geeks and misfits, tiny with black rimmed glasses or fat with acne covering their faces and shoulders. It was Tuesday, a week from the attack on Jeff and Adam, so far the moon had shown no signs of changing and all had been rather peaceful. Jimmy's mother often warned him not to walk home at night, there were dangerous people around just waiting to do dangerous things to him. Because of that, Jimmy tried to walk with a group to the parks. Tonight his friends had all left for their houses and Jimmy was stuck alone in the light of the overhead moon. He wasn't afraid something would grab him, those were just stories made up by parents to scare kids. He kept this in mind as he walked down Runner's street. He walked at a slow pace, fingering the change in his pocket. He had meant to spend it on candy at the shop owned by mister Burke, but it was too late for that and he was trying to get home. Although he wasn't scared, he was nervous. He rounded the corner onto Jefferson Boulevard and was about two blocks away from his house. He could see the light of his house just up ahead and almost squeeled with joy. He quickened his pace on his stuby legs, running with his hand still in his pocket. He stopped at a little puddle of water, he would check his appearence before confronting his mother with his bruises and missing tooth. He ran his hand through his hair, a wave of dandruff floated down and into the dark puddle of water. He adjusted his shirt, brushed his pants with his hands, then turned around, a grin widespread on his freckled face.
The grin didn't last long, in front of him a tiny doll sat on the road. It's dead eyes gazed at him, a wooden smile stood on it's face. The doll had brown fake hair that swept over it's forehead and a suit on that gave it the look of a buisiness man. The doll sat on the street, eyeing him without moving. Jimmy let out a sigh of relief and began to walk away from the doll. He was fifteen feet away from it when he turned back. The doll was gone but in it's place a pool of blood sat, spreading into the puddle and darkening the water. Jimmy felt his body shiver and looked in front of him. The doll was at his feet, the head was turned up at him and in one of it's wooden hands was a knife. The grin seemed to be wider then before and it's eyes did too. Jimmy fell back onto his butt and cralwed back away from the doll. Then, the doll simply vanished. It was there, then it wasn't. He looked around him, trying to find the doll, the evil figure.
When Jimmy was a boy -about seven- he'd gone to shop with his mother, she was looking at candles and he went to the toy section, like he always did when his mother was looking at boring things. He walked into the toy section and found loads of dolls, some that had smiles wider than his head, and some with straight mouths. All of them were staring at him with their glistening, unblinking eyes. Jimmy had screamed tried to run, his leg had tipped over on of the shelves holding the dolls and they all fell on top of them, their mouths opening in the fall. He felt their fake wooden teeth bite his legs and screamed louder, he screamed like a pig. His mother ran around the corner, expecting him to have broken something to be yelling that loud. One of the store clerks was with her and when they found him buried under the dolls, they both laughed. Jimmy wasn't laughing though, he started to cry when he heard their laughter.
Now it was the dolls all over again. He could hear demonic laughter around him and small hands grip his throat. Jimmy started thrashing around, trying to escape the grasp of the evil doll. He felt small arms hold his legs and arms, felt one jump onto his skinny chest and crawl to his throat. The doll on his chest was the doll with the knife. It smiled wide and put it's index finger over it's mouth. and raised the knife over it's tiny head.
"Goodnight Jimmy a**s," The Doll said. "AHAHAHAHAA!!!!!" It's high pitched laughter echoed in his ear as the knife (Jimmy remembered this as the Hert brother knife) drove itself into his neck. Jimmy "a**s" Anes screamed like a pig as the doll murdered him. He managed to convince himself that it was all a dream, that this was some nightmare. He'd wake up and everything would be right again, his mom would be making tea and his dad would be playing some computer game. Jimmy managed to hold onto these thoughts even as the doll sawed through his spine, cutting his head off.

The next day, Jimmy's corpse was found, the head was missing from the scene and found three blocks down in a trash can. Miss McKewite found the head when she was taking the trash out after her husband refused to do say, saying he was "too tired and too damn fat." She pulled the lid of the silver-grey trash can open and saw Jimmy's severed head smiling at her. His teeth and eyes were missing, but the head had no blood or marks on it. It was like whoever killed him cleaned his face and healed the black eye. She gazed at the head, terrified, then she screamed, dropped the garbage (which was full of maggots- into the can and ran away. When the police arrived at the scene the head had been all but eaten away by the maggots. When questioned about who's head it was McKewite said it was: "Definately that Jimmy boy down the street. He was bullied a lot by the Hert kids." The police went to the Hert residence and questioned the twin brothers. They admitted to bullying him but that they'd never go that far. They were listed under suspects along with all the other kids who bullied Jimmy. They police that night got a phone call from a concerned parent. She said her son was missing and she'd last seen him over by the river with his girlfriend. The police arrived at the lake only to find the rotted remains of Alan Free. Later that night they got another call from yet another concerned parent. This time the boy was missing outright. One minute he was with the parents shopping and the next he was gone. The boy was nine years old and had just lost a tooth when he went missing. The police later found him stuffed with teddy bears in his stomach and a note that read: "Teddy said he'd always be apart of me." The boy had been Felix Crone
The police issued a cerfew until the murderer was caught and tried for the murders of Jimmy Anes, Alan Free, and nine year old Felix Crone. All the while, Adam and Jeff were attempting to make sense of everything that was happening. Adam was using the internet to locate any old legends about a murderer in Canterview while Jeff asked everyone in town and went to the library. When Adam asked "why the library?" Jeff told him it was sorta like "a time capsule for all the weird s**t."

Adam sighed and rubbed his brow, the computer screen tinted his face a low white, making him paler than usual. He was struggling to find anything on a killer from the past of Canterview. He'd searched on every search engine he could think of, even the famed Google. Now he sat with his nose a few inches away from the screne. Finally he decided to give up for now and head to bed. That's when Jeff burst through the door, drenched in rain-water. His brown hair hanging low her his face. He was smiling and held a tattered tome under his arm. He stepped through the doorway, darkening the already brown carpet darker shades of brown. He pushed the keyboard off Adams desk and placed the tome in it's place. He flicked through seventy pages before coming to an answer. He pointed to the word "Shape-shifter."
Adam read the word twice, not understanding was Jeff was getting at. "I don't get it," He said. "What about a shapeshifter?"
"The 'Devil' you saw," Jeff was smiling wider now. "It was a shape-shifter!"
"But how?"
Jeff's smile faded away and he looked at the word closely. He frowned and his grin faded back. Adam took a closer look at the book and found nothing of importance in it. The book was just a list of mythical animals. He sighed and slumped in his chair. He felt they were neving going to catch this monster. Outside of their aparment window, he heard singing.

Little Devil, big or small,
Please don't eat us all!
Our ma's adn pa's won't won't fit
In your ja's.

Adam listened intently, his heart racing. Jeff didn't notice, he kept talking about the book and something about "Trying again." Adam ignored his stupid preaching and listened closer to the singing. Each verse getting louder and growing in strength. He noticed it wasn't just one voice, it was many.
And they were kids' voices too.

Nothin' to fear
But Fear itself.
You wander around
The Fears on our shelf.

The Angels-
The voices faded away, taking the song away with them. Adam rushed to the window to see the two little girls standing outside. They had dropped the skip-ropes and had taken up chains. Their hair was sleek, wet, dripping down their faces. He couldn't see the features of the faces but of only flat surface beneath the hair. They had their pale yellow dresses on, only they seemed like cloaks now, hiding the seemingly dead skin beneath the fabric. He could see their eyes though. They were a pale, frightening blue. Unlike the Devils, they were cat-like. The two girls wrapped their chains around themselves and pulled. Their bodies exploded in a red mist and they were gone. Not dead. Just gone.
Adam had a feeling they weren't Devils. Beside him, Jeff watched. His body seemed frozen for a moment, until he blinked three times. He scratched his head and asked Adam what happened. Adam just shook his head. "I think we were visited by ghosts."