Scary Things Happen in Lakewood 4: Scary Things Happen in Lakewood

By Kevin Densmore

Everything has come to an end.

 

Over the past three years, the Man in the Bowler Hat has cut a swathe of terror right through the entire community of Lakewood. Standing in his way is an angry werewolf, the vengeful Cliff Recker, and a handful of residents who have had enough. His final act of horror is about to take place.

 

Journey with us for the last time as we spend one final year within the Lakewood community. There will be new faces, surprise reunions, and indescribable losses. Many will die. While there will be violence, the fate of Lakewood will finally be revealed.

 

Everything has to end... Everything must end... Everything will end.

 

But, before you say goodbye forever, would you like to be our neighbor?

 

In his second novel, Kevin Densmore closes an entire saga with this finale to his popular Scary Things Happen in Lakewood series.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin Densmore
• Release date: Oct 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215294444

Kevin Densmore

Kevin began writing short stories when he was an awkward teenager living in a small town in Alabama. Now as an awkward adult, Kevin now lives in a small town in Illinois and still writes short stories. Only this time he is releasing his madness into the world.

Book preview

Part one: Death Leap into Fall

Every fall, the leaves on nearly every tree would turn beautiful shades of red, orange, and brown before falling from their branches and littering surrounding yards. Lakewood was not an exception to this fact. As a matter of fact the leaves changing color was a welcomed sight to many of the residents because it meant that gone were the hot and humid days of summer, and the cool crisp days of fall had arrived.

Residents would unpack their hoodies and fall decor. The air would smell a little fresher as people ventured outdoors more. Fire pits would again be put to good use. It also meant that calm would spread throughout the community of Lakewood, because all the weirdness and strange deaths only seemed to occur when the weather was warm. Not to say strange things did not occur, just the incidents were few and far between.

While everyone did enjoy watching the leaves change and the weather cool, they also knew that a new task for them was soon to come. Once the trees shed their leaves, the task of clearing said leaves was a chore that nearly everyone with large trees in and around their yards performed.

There were no real rules or regulations on how one was supposed to dispose of their leaves after raking them up. Yet most people just bagged up the leaves in little brown bags that they bought at one of the several surrounding hardware stores, meant for disposing of yard waste. Only a couple raked the leaves in piles, where they would then dispose of a little at a time in their trash receptacles. Which was frowned upon, but people still did it. Some gathered the leaves and burned them in their backyard fire pits, filling the air with the sweet and acrid aroma of burning leaves. But one gentleman named Steve, did something a little differently.

Steve, who lived on the corner of Edward and Courtney Street, grew up in a simpler time. He was now much older and missed the days that had long since passed him by, yet one memory of his childhood was strong and in the front of his mind during this time of year, especially when raking his own group of wayward leaves. That was him, as a child, jumping into a soft pile of leaves. This memory led Steve to every year rake his leaves into a pile and he then would put up a sign written with bright colored markers saying, Please Jump!

The children that lived on Alyssa, Veronica, Courtney, and Edward street did not disappoint. For the past six years the children who lived close to his home would take the short journey to his home and leaving their cares behind, they would jump into Steve’s large pile of leaves. Steve would watch from his window, smiling as one by one children would leap and trample his leaf pile until once more the leaves were scattered. Then he would happily gather up his rake and once more collect the leaves into a pile, where the next day a different group of children would arrive and the process would once again repeat itself.

Steve’s neighbors for the most part did not mind. A couple casually complained about the mess of leaves, but there were no real rules against what Steve was doing so nothing could be done. So he kept on doing what he considered was a good deed for a stress filled community,

Unfortunately, a few horrific events that had occurred in the past three years had caused many people to flee the community of Lakewood in large numbers, so not as many children were present to leap into Steve’s large pile of leaves. Some days the pile of leaves would go undisturbed, although every now and then a child would pass his house, see the sign and of course take the plunge, but the daily jumps were no longer a thing.

Not that it mattered much, because Steve was now officially an old man. His bones ached, at the simplest of chores. He of course would still sweep the leaves into a pile after each child scattered them, but at the end of this past summer, he got news that the woman who had been tending to his yard was found brutally murdered under the water tower, so he made the decision to finally leave Lakewood before next Spring.

A new retirement community had opened up not far from his current residence, in the town of Yorkville, and he figured he could live out his days in relative peace and ease. Yet he had one more fall in what was slowly becoming a fractured community and he was going to make sure that he would spread as much happiness as he could. Even if it was just the simple task of sweeping leaves into a pile for children to ruin.

As he had done in the years past when the large Maple and Oak trees in his yard and on the corner shed their leaves Steve began to rake the leaves into a respectable pile. Of course the tree closer to the edge of his yard did not have as many leaves, due to the unfortunate group of men who worked for the city of Plano butchering the trees that were too close to the road, but it did drop enough leaves that his new found pile of leaves was large enough that a small child could momentarily vanish after leaping into it.

Once that task was done, Steve walked into his garage and retrieved the sign, then he casually walked over and placed the sign into the ground next to the leaves. He stepped back to survey what he had done then looked around. He let out a little depressed sigh, there was not a child in sight. Shaking his head he walked back into his house and sat down in his front room and decided to watch television while occasionally turning his head to look out his front room window, hoping to spot at least one child, who might want the opportunity to be the first one to disturb his pile of leaves. Steve watched the sun set and his leaf pile go undisturbed as the sky darkened. Not quite the end of the day he wanted,but he figured since tomorrow was Saturday some child would spot the leaves and decide to take that leap.

Steve was now at the age where eight o’clock was bedtime, and after raking those leaves he was a bit exhausted,he was asleep five minutes after his head hit his pillow. As he slept something noticed the pile of leaves he had created. An indescribable creature no more than three feet high that resembled something that looked like a bipedal cat crossed with a porcupine, hurried over to the large pile of leaves. Yet instead of jumping into the pile it simply nestled itself into the base. Where it disappeared and did not reemerge.

Chance woke up Saturday morning and was excited to see the sun was shining through his window. Today was the day that his parents were going to let him go down to his friend's house by himself. Even though Jaun lived three doors down from him on Courtney Street, he was still excited that he and Jaun were going to be able to play nearly unsupervised today. Both young boys, being at the ripe age of eleven had made plans involving bike riding, a sword fight involving these cool sticks they had found while walking home from school Friday evening, and they wanted to be the first kids to jump into the pile of leaves that the old man on the corner had made.  After that they were going to see where the day would take them.

Chance made short work of his breakfast and was bounding out his house at a reckless speed that only young boys his age seemed to manage. He was pushing his bike out of the garage when his mother appeared on the front porch.  Stay where you can hear me, She called out to him.

Sure thing mom Chance cheered back, before straddling his bicycle and leaving his driveway.

As Chance rode his bike the short distance to Jaun’s house he noticed that his friend was already on his bike doing laps in his own driveway. When Jaun noticed Chance riding towards him he placed one leg on the ground keeping himself propped up, and called out to Chance.Hey there you are! Jaun shouted with a giggle, Thought you would never make it!

Chance slammed on his brakes and tried to purposefully come to a skidding stop in an effort to look cool. He didn’t quite achieve what he was hoping for but he did bring his bike to a complete stop in front of Jaun. What do you want to do first? Chance asked.

Jaun turned his head and looked down the street, let’s go jump in those leaves. He said before turning back to Chance, I saw the old man rake them yesterday, I was gonna come get you but mom said I had to do homework first and by that time it was dark..

Chance cut him off with an, Alright let's go do it, Then he pushed on his pedals and rocketed himself forward towards the old man’s yard. He knew that if he didn’t interrupt Jaun would have continued talking and Chance really wanted to be first in the leaf pile this year. The past couple of years he was always third or forth, but not this year.

Jaun turned his bike and raced after Chance, still talking about something, but Chance could not hear him, he was hyper focused on the pile of leaves and within seconds he brought his bike to a stop (after failing to do a skidding stop once more) then he was on the ground and was running as fast as his legs would carry him, when he was about two feet away he leapt high into the air, laughing maniacally as he went, and then fell butt first into the pile of leaves.He watched as the leaves washed over head and soon he was buried. Still laughing he began to push himself up when he felt his hand brush something that he could not describe. There was a brief rustle in the leaves, that was when Chance realized something was in the pile of leaves with him.  He tried to jump to his feet but before he could he felt something chomp down onto the calf muscle of his left leg, then he did what any eleven year old boy would do in that situation. He screamed.

Jaun was just hopping off of his bike when Chance started to scream. Not knowing what was going on and now completely petrified from fear, Jaun began to scream as well.

STEVE HEARD THE UNMISTAKABLE sound of a child screaming erupt suddenly from his front yard. He was in his kitchen casually sipping a cup of coffee when he heard it. Dropping his cup he ran towards his front room, just as another child began screaming as well. He opened up his front door and stepped quickly into his yard and what he saw was both confusing and frightening. A young child was being pulled from the pile of leaves by a two foot strange looking almost cat like beast. The beast had its mouth clamped down on the boy's left leg and the child was screaming loudly out of both fear and pain. Steve looked to his left and right before noticing his rake was still propped upon the side of his house. Deciding that the rake was better than nothing, Steve snatched it up and then ran across his yard. The beast nor the child did not notice him as he ran towards the strange creature but the child frozen in place at the edge of his yard did.

Jaun saw the old man running towards both the creature that had emerged from the leaves and Chance and in a panic he shouted out, Help him mister save my friend.

Steve barely heard what the other child had said, instead he adjusted his grip on the handle of the rake and swung with all his might. The metal rake head connected with the side of the creature's head causing it to drop its grip on the child’s leg. The vibration through the handle of the rake was so severe that the shock caused Steve’s forearms to ache. Loosening his grip in response to the violent hit, Steve expected the creature to run away, but instead the beast turned around and leapt up towards his face. He tried to block the beast but it was quick and before he could react the little two foot tall monster had clamped down its teeth over Steve’s throat.The beast began to flail it’s head side to side and Steve felt a tearing sensation at the front of his neck as he tried to push it off of him. Then there was a sudden rush of pain as the beast pulled itself free, jumping off of his chest. Steve felt the front of his chest start to become wet and sticking. Still not fully aware that he was not bleeding to death, he collapsed to his knees, and his eyes started to grow heavy. Just before he succumbed to what he started to realize was a horrific fatal injury to his neck he heard one of the children call out, Daddy! followed by the unmistakable sound of a gunshot and then he was gone.

XAVIER WATCHED FROM his front window as his son Jaun peddled down the street with his friend Chance. His wife Alva was confident that their son was going to be okay and that they were never going to be out of earshot. But Xavier was an overprotective father so he had made it a point to do yard work while the two boys were running around the neighborhood. One could never be too careful and today he was right.

Xavier had just opened his garage door to pull out his weed eater when he heard the unmistakable sound of Chance screaming. Xavier being an avid hunter had his gun safe in his garage and when he heard the sound of his own son screaming he was entering in the security code and had the safe door opened in a matter of seconds. He grabbed his pump action twelve gauge shotgun and a handful of shells, then turned on his heel and ran down the street where he watched the two boys ride off to. By the time he arrived he had all three of the shells he had grabbed loaded and a round pumped into the chamber and what he saw was bizarre to say the least.

Jaun was frozen in place in front of what was once a pile of leaves, Chance was crying and holding his left leg which looked to be bleeding and the old man who lived in the house had what looked to be a rather oversized cat with quills latched onto his throat. Xavier watched in horror as the creature began to flail its head back and forth before ripping the old man's throat out. Blood sprayed like a jet from the wound in the man’s throat before the man collapsed to his knees. Xavier heard Jaun call out to him but he ignored him, instead he raised his shotgun and walked over to the creature. He watched as the creature turned and faced him then the grotesque creature opened its jaws and without hesitation Xavier pulled the trigger.

He was no more than five feet away from the beast and his shot struck it in it;s opened mouth. In a bright crimson explosion the beast's head vanished. It flailed its arms momentarily before falling over, clearly dead.

Xavier rushed over to his son who was crying, Jaun are you alright? he asked.

Jaun pointed over at Chance and said, Daddy Chance got bit!

Xavier set his shot gun on the ground and ran over to Chance who was now wailing holding his leg. Hey Chance Xavier said, let me see, move your hands buddy.

Chance, still crying, did as he was asked and Xavier was relieved to see that the bite wounds were not too deep, Ok buddy, Xavier said, I need you to get to your feet, grab your bike and follow me home ok.

It hurts, Chance cried.

I know bud, Xavier comforted, But it doesn't look broken okay, you can do this.

Chance nodded and using Xavier to steady himself got to his feet. It hurt but he was able to walk. Soon Xavier with his shotgun in his hands led the two boys home.When they arrived back at his home Xavier ordered Jaun inside and told him to tell his mom to call the cops, even though he was pretty sure someone had already heard the shotgun blast and had done that already.

He then led Chance down to his house and as he began to explain to Chance’s Justifiably hysterical mother what had happened he heard the sound of sirens begin to draw close. He watched as a police car pulled up next to the curb of the old man’s house. Knowing that he was going to have to explain himself, Xaviar excused himself from the conversation with Chance’s mother and jogged back down the street still holding his shotgun.

OFFICER BRENT SAMPSON could not wait until the elections were over, the man in the bowler hat promised him he was a guarantee lock for the vacant alderman spot. Which meant he did not have to rush out on calls like this one. Apparently someone shot a dog or something killing it in someone else's front yard. Brent had to be the first one on scene just in case it was one of his master’s little pets.

He was of course first and immediately when he saw the headless beast next to the dead old man in the middle of the yard he immediately began to put two and two together. The old man did not seem to have a gun which meant someone else had shot it. He was wondering who had done it when he was greeted by a hispanic male holding a shotgun.

Excuse me sir, Brent called out,as he rested his hand on the handle of his firearm and undid the strap on his holster. You mind putting the gun down, and telling me your name.

My name is Xavier The man called out as he slowly began to set his gun down on the ground.

Brent relaxed a bit and resnapped his holster strap before walking over to Xavier. You wanna tell me what happened here Xavier? He asked.

It took Xavier about five minutes to fully explain what he knew. Just as Xavier explained the sirens of an ambulance sounded out and both men watched as an ambulance turned onto Edward Street before turning down Courtney street, before coming to a stop in front of Chance’s house.

Brent nodded as Xavier finished his story and when the man finished Brent said, Well that makes you a hero, friend. Look, why don’t you go ahead and get your gun and go home and check on your son.

Xavier reached down and grabbed his shotgun before asking, Any idea what the hell that thing is?

Brent looked down at the beast and answered, A coyote, has to be. A goddamn ugly one too. Those kids are lucky you got here.

Confused Xavier said, That don’t look like no coyote I had ever seen,

Brent looked back and gave Xavier a sly smile before adding, Well the ones around here are indeed ugly little bastards,

Still confused and not wanting to argue Xavier muttered, If you say so and then began to walk back home.

Brent turned and watched as Xavier walked away when he was confident he turned back to the dead beast and said softly to himself, You’re goddamn right I say so. He then walked back to his car to call for the coroner. After the coroner was done he knew that he was going to have to bag up the other corpse, but for now to avoid any further paperwork or nuisances, he was going to have to sell the idea of fatal animal attack.

Xavier spent the rest of the day in his front room watching the house on the corner. More officers showed up, along with a black van that was clearly there to collect the old man’s body. Another officer did show up to take a statement from him, and after that was done, he heard nothing else about the incident until Chance arrived home from the hospital. Curious about the shape of the boy, he walked over to Chance’s house where he was greeted by Chance’s father Brian who he knew but only by name and in passing.

Hey Brian how is he? Xavier asked as he went in for a handshake.

A few stitches, and his lab work was clean so no rabies or anything. Brian answered before he squeezed Xavier’s hand a little tighter, But it could have been a lot worse if not for you.

Hey, just doing what father’s do. Xavier said as he patted Brian on the shoulder.

I cannot believe a coyote attacked my boy in the suburbs. Brian said as he looked down the street, And killing that poor old man. Brian then shook his head.

Xavier shook his head too and said, That was no damn coyote.

Brian looked up and asked, What?

Xavier looked at the confused look on Brian's face and said, I’ve seen coyotes, I killed a couple before and not only was that thing too big to be one, it had the head of like a cat or something. Its mouth was huge and it had quills.

What was it? Brian asked.

Xavier shook his head before answering, I dunno man, but we’ve all heard about those weird things in the field and those other critters people see, hell we read all them stories online

Yeah Brian said trying his best to sound dismissive, but their just stories, typical bullshit people spout in those stupid ass social media groups.

Is it though? Xavier asked.

Brian nodded, before asking, You sure?

Look, all I know is that goddamn thing was no coyote or dog or cat I ever seen, Xavier said as he looked back down the street, before adding, But what I do know is that whatever it was can be killed.

Brian sighed then said, well you killed it so that’s the end of that.

Xavier shook his head again before saying, Nah, if there’s one there’s more, look if you got a gun keep it at the ready. If you don’t, then get one.

Why? Brian asked.

Xavier turned to leave and said, Just in case.

The two men shook hands once more before Xavier walked home. He hoped Brian would take his advice, but that was not his business, his business  was making sure that his family was protected and he was going to prepare himself to do just that. Because after  all, one could never be too careful.

Chapter One: Depression and Anger

Cliff was clearly out of it. He just laid there on Jerry’s couch not saying a word. He was aware of Jerry trying to talk to him, but honestly he did not care to hear what the man had to say. Lindsey was gone, her life taken with just one violent punch by that monster in the bowler hat.

Cliff truly considered Lindsey his one true love, but now with her death he felt as if he had nothing really to fight for. The asshole in the bowler hat was going to win. There was no way he was going to be able to fight a god. Even with that little trick he had accomplished with his gun.

That also bothered Cliff, what exactly had he done? How did he do it? Was it just by chance that he shot a bullet of light?It seemed to