The Hungry Hungry Writer

In European folklore, the witching hour is the time when supernatural creatures such as witches, demons and ghosts are thought to be at their most powerful, and black magic at its most effective. This hour is typically midnight, and the term may now be used to refer to midnight, or any late hour, even without having the associated superstitious beliefs.

When I was around 16 years old, Dale, Luke and I decided to drive up to this house hidden in the Chevy Chase hills. It was said that this house was deserted and had been condemn for ten years. The myth was that an old man lived in the house and lured teenage girls from the local Catholic School called “Sacred Heart” and kept them captive – torturing them in a basement. It was as simple as that.

He was discovered after a young girl escaped and who flagged down a passing car in the middle of the night. She led the married couple to the house and the husband went in to investigate. He never came out of the house and the wife and the young girl reported the incident to the Glendale Police department.

The police department uncovered the torture chamber. The dead husband was found decapitated with all his fingers chopped off with a butcher knife. Other interesting things surfaced as they combed the house of clues – the most interesting was the practice of witchcraft and cannibalism.

The smell of decaying bodies was so strong that the investigation of the house was shut down after only eight hours and has never been continued. Due to legal loopholes, plans to destroy the house and to burn it down have been on hold for the past twenty-two years.

The investigation and a national man hunt for the killer has not stopped.

The man who tortured these girls has never been tried for the savage killings and torture that he inflicted on more than fifteen girls and a Good Samaritan man because he has never been found.

And so here we are, 16 years old. Dale, Luke and I were young, ambitious, daring and not afraid of anything. So we drove up the hills and found the house hidden in the canyon.

It was dark, there was no road to drive up to it and so we had to walk from the car to the house a mile away.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a dark, cold Wednesday night around midnight. Halloween 1984.

A chill runs up my spine when I remember hearing the door slam shut behind us. We turned around and figured it was the wind outside that slammed the door. The dust made me cough and my asthma acted up. Our flashlights pointed the way to the back of the house where the police tape still blocked off the entrance to the basement.

Luke swiped at the dust covered spider webs and pulled down the police tape. “Are you ready for some scary-scary?” he laughed.

The night I can remember. What happened next was a blur but I’ll do my best to recall the events.

The hairs on my arms rose and I made a comment about it when we got down to the basement floor. And just as soon as we step foot on the bottom of the stairwell, our flashlights went out. All at the same time. It was pitch black and Dale muttered, “OH SHIT!”

For the first time I heard fear in Luke’s voice. “Let’s go back up.”

I started to make my way back up the stairs, using my hands to find the way when I heard a scream.

“Dale!” I called out.

“Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go” He kept repeating. We crawled on all fours up the stairs and I heard the scream again… it was at the bottom of the stairs.

It was Luke. “No… please God NO!!!”

Then, as if someone’s throat is clutched, Luke’s yell for help turned into a suffocated gasp for air.

Dale went by me and I stopped when finally my eyes adjusted to the dark. I looked back down and tried desperately to find Luke when this spidery figure of a man charged up the stairs right at me.

His arms were long and thin and he climbed the stairs with athletic agility and he was coming after me. He was completely naked and looked like he hadn’t eaten in years. You could see every bone.

I fell back and he hovered right on top of me and sniffed me like a mad dog smelling his prey before taking a bite. The decaying smell of his breath, the touch of his skin on my face and Luke’s warm blood on his lips that dripped on my nose paralyzed me.

My only instinct was to turn my face away from this crazed animal. I tried desperately to get as far away as possible and by doing so I exposed my neck. He was about to sink his teeth into my throat but what he said first has given me nightmares every night of my life.

He said, “Savior - you are my savior and I will feast upon you for eternity.”

I tried to scream for Dale… but nothing.

I tried to move and fight… but nothing.

I think I began to cry a whimper of a cry as he slowly pressed his sharp teeth into my exposed throat when—

“Hiiiii Yaaaa!!!”

Dale’s foot slammed into the man’s head pushing him off of me.

Dale knew only one kick he learned in two classes of Karate with me. And that was all he needed to give me time.

“COME ON, GLENNIE! COME ON!”

It took all my might to turn around. Dale grabbed my arm and we sprinted up the staircase and busted through the door at the top.

We braced ourselves against the door and heard thunderous feet charge up the stairs.

BOOM!

The door splintered into pieces as Dale and I were thrown across the kitchen floor, the moonlight from outside came through the windows – the storm still pounding. Several leaks filled the kitchen floor with water.

The man was about six and a half feet tall. His fingernails looked like fish hooks. And his toe nails looked like claws. He charged Dale as Dale slipped, scrambling backwards on the kitchen floor.

I grabbed anything within reach. It was a pot.

Dale was holding the man off as the man tried viciously to bite Dale’s face.

I smacked the man on the side of the head and he crumpled. I pulled Dale up when the man grabbed Dale’s ankle and I tried with all my might to pull Dale away but the man’s grip didn’t loosen. It was a tug of war with Dale as the rope.

Finally I threw a kitchen chair on the man and Dale shook his leg off. We found our way outside and I remember stumbling in the rain and hitting the rocky ground hard. I looked behind me and we weren’t being followed. Dale helped me up and we sprinted back to the car.

It was the longest mile run I’ve ever run.

In the car Dale gunned the engine and we saw the house in the distance. Luke was in there. Probably dead.

We didn’t know what to do when BANG!

The man jumped onto the hood of the car and rammed his fist into the window. Dale hit reverse and we sped away. I looked back at the house. The headlights of the car illuminated the man. Our eyes met for a half second then he turned away and disappeared into the dark.

We sped to the Glendale Police Department and explained the story.

They thought we were on drugs. That someone had pulled a prank on us. That this was Halloween and every Halloween someone says they go to the house in the Hills and are scared of something there. They told us to go home and by morning Luke would show up at school and we’d all have a good laugh.

You’ve got to be kidding me. We sat in Dale’s car for about an hour in front of my house. Telling each other ‘our story’. We laughed as the rain stopped. It was almost 5:00 in the morning. I was going to kill Luke at school.

But I never got the chance.

Luke never showed up that day. Or the next. Or the next.

The Police didn’t find anything in the house either.

Tomorrow the house will be burned down. Twenty-two years after Luke’s disappearance and death.

I’ve practiced witchcraft for the past twenty years. It is time to get revenge for the death of our friend. Tonight at midnight - my powers will be at its most powerful.

Tonight… at midnight… Dale and I are going to go back and find Luke.