Man's Punishment

By Bryce Campbell

There have been many murders recently. However, these aren't ordinary murder cases. The culprits are obvious, but they don't remember anything except for a bloody scene, the corpse, and a weapon with fresh blood dripping from it.

Intrigued by these strange occurrences, a high schooler starts investigating, in order to find a way to prevent the problem. Eventually he falls victim to the incident as well. Can he find a solution to the plague of homicidal sleepwalkers?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryce Campbell
• Release date: May 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458116192

Bryce Campbell

Bryce is a college graduate with a degree in computers. He has been writing things for much of his life, but has now started publishing his fictional works.

Book preview

Special thanks to those that supported my first book, Death’s Representatives, and my second book, Divinity’s End, especially my proofreader, M.H., for her great proofreading, Lisa M. Jones, and all my other friends.

Man’s Punishment

by Bryce Campbell

Published by Bryce Campbell at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 Bryce Campbell. All rights reserved.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is available in print.

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Mysterious Plague

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Part 2: The Investigation Starts

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Part 3: The Only Solution

Chapter 9

Part 1: The Mysterious Plague

Chapter 1

Young man, we need to talk this instant! said my mother, in an angry tone. Her purple eyes sent out an aura that was heavily tainted by wrath. Her arms were skinny, but they also revealed how angry she was, because blood appeared in her left palm from squeezing too hard. She wore a blue apron, pink shirt and red pants with black sandals that revealed her pale feet.

What do you want, hag? I replied.

That's no way to speak to me!

I do not care!

It is no surprise that your school has troubles with you. Your grades are horrid and your teachers call you a problem child. You are grounded until you improve your behavior and raise those grades!

You are just an idiot, Mom. School does not even teach you anything. It only brainwashes you to be a 'good' citizen.

You want me to take away more of your freedom?

Disgusted, I left the room that had walls painted in white. The whole house, expect for the bedrooms upstairs and the bathrooms, had a light brown, wood flooring. The kitchen table, where my mother sat as she attempted to lecture me, was made out of stainless steel and was surrounded by black, iron chairs with blue and red plaid pillows for cushions. The table was located at the center point of the grooved window frame, which was situated only a few inches from the upper right corner of the room. The window itself was a very transparent red, but opaque enough to make things outside look red. Above the table, there was a four-pronged chandelier with a light bulb on each prong. The chandelier itself was made of gold. In the upper left corner of the room, there was a complete kitchen with an electric stove, gray dishwasher, blue fridge, and white microwave. In the lower right corner of the room there was a silver, leather couch that sat across from a 52-inch, flat-panel, black television that was HD capable.

After walking for only a few moments, I went up the green, wooden staircase that obviously led to the second story, which was where my bedroom was located.

Upon reaching the top, I saw a long, dark hallway with the same white paint as the walls downstairs. My room was on the furthest end at the left, which had a view of the backyard. The hallway was quite spacious though, as fifty people all huddled together would easily fit in it and still have enough space for twenty more people.

Reaching my bedroom door, I turned the bronze doorknob, which was located on the far right of a tan door, and went into my room. It had red carpet and a window in the center, left wall. A bed that could only hold one person lay diagonally across from the window, placing it in the right corner of the wall to my right. The bed had white sheets and blankets and a white pillow, while the bed's frame was brown. In the corner opposite the bed, there was a dark green dresser with a silver radio on top. Across from the bed, there was a black bookshelf that was filled with works from Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Hans Christian Anderson, Edgar Allen Poe, G.K. Chesterton, Edogawa Rampo, and Maurice Leblanc. I read each of them through multiple times before I had even entered high school.

However, I had no intention of staying in that pathetic house like my own mother wanted. After all, there was no point in listening. The reasoning was quite simple. There have recently been large increases in murders being committed by adolescents of my age. From the information made available, the culprits were grounded by their parents and the parents met their demise in that same night. As usual, the police thought it was revenge, but there was physical evidence pointing towards a very strange occurrence at each scene. That occurrence is that fact that the culprits were all sleeping at the time of the crime, yet there was a bloody weapon in their hands. Nobody knows why it happens, since that is the only way to make a preventive measure. All that the local politicians could do was advise parents not to ground their kids or they should place heavy restraints on the kids. Either way, I did not even remotely plan to be part of the fiasco. At the same time, I was ill prepared to try and runaway from home.

My body felt very weak from exhaustion, so I went over to my bed and lied down.

The next day, I pulled the covers away from my body and tried to rub the sleepers from my eyes. It was all that I could do just get rid of the blurred vision. Because I went to bed rather quickly, I had slept in my clothes.

I hope today will be much easier than yesterday.

I got to my feet and washed my face in the bathroom, which was located just across from my room. The bathroom had black tiled wall that met smooth, red hard floor. The counters with made of silver countertops, with a green, wooden frame supporting it. On the countertops themselves, the sinks were located only a few millimeters away from the edge closest to me. The sinks had an interesting faucet. They were in the shape of bronze lion heads with the water shooting out of the mouths. The water still dripped from