Your favorite German

- Steve Osala

I do not think I have enjoyed anything from the internet as much as this.

The things I have found on the boogie boards at work are awesome.

Darren was a little weird, but I didn’t realize how weird until it was too late. He came to our school at the beginning of fourth grade. The minute I met him, I knew he was going to have it tough in school. He always wore a suit to school. He would often be found dancing as he walked. And he loved quoting old movies, like Casablanca. Seeing as most fourth graders had never seen the films he liked to quote, he would often be met with confused stares and muffled laughter. Nobody wanted anything to do with him, for obvious reasons. But, thanks to my mom, I ended up getting to know him better than I ever wanted to. “You’re going to go have a playdate with him after school. I already set it up with his father,” my mom, the school secretary, told me. “No mom,” I groaned. “He’s weird!” “He’s lonely, he has no friends. And honestly, his parents aren’t around a lot, when I spoke with his father on the phone he told me they are very busy with work. So please Ben, just go hang out with him after school. He lives just a few blocks from here, you can walk home with him and I’ll pick you up after my meeting tonight? Okay?” There wasn’t much I could do to get out of it. In retrospect, I wish I had tried something. Anything. I walked home with Darren after school. The whole way he would randomly break out into dance and start quoting some movie I had never heard of. “Do you like sparkling cider?” he asked me as we neared his house. “Umm, not really,” I said. “More for me then!” he laughed as he skipped the rest of the way. The house was immaculately clean. Not a speck of dust could be seen. As I stepped into the front living room, I noticed an elderly woman asleep on a chair, a breathing machine was attached to her face. “This lovely specimen is my grandmother, isn’t she gorgeous?!” he said, petting her head. I waved awkwardly. “Follow me, I’ll get us a snack!” he said as he skipped into the kitchen. As I walked past the grandmother, I noticed some metal bands wrapped around her wrists. As I stepped closer, Darren came out of the kitchen. “Hey,” he said, his voice sounded deep. “What are you doing?” “Nothing!” I yelped. “Just, uh…” “Admiring her beauty? Of course, who wouldn’t! Now come on silly pants!” he laughed. We sat at the dinner table as he handed me a small plate of lady fingers. At the time, I had no idea what they were and their name sounded less than appealing, so I passed. “More for me!” he laughed again. After he ate, he gave me a tour of his house. Every single room was as clean as the last. It was almost…too clean. “Would you like to meet my father?” Darren asked. “I…uh, sure,” I said. Darren took me to the end of a long hallway and opened the door at the end. It was a large office with fancy furniture. “Father dear, I’m home,” Darren said, skipping to the office chair which was turned away from us. Darren reached over and hugged his father. “Father, this is my friend, Benjamin,” Darren said, pushing the chair around. Seated in the chair was a…mannequin, dressed in a suit. “Say hi Benjamin,” Darren said, his voice sounding deep again. “Hi,” I said nervously. “Father is very busy, he has to get back to work. Love you father!” Darren said as he kissed the mannequin on the cheek. Darren led me out of the office and took me towards the garage. “Now we can meet mother,” he said. He opened the garage door and standing near the washing machine was another mannequin. “Oh mother! It’s me, your snooky poo!” he laughed as he ran to the mannequin. He turned it around to face me. “Is she not the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?” he asked. “I…uhh,” I stammered. “Don’t be rude Benjamin,” he said, his voice deep yet again. “Yes, it…she is,” I said. He hugged the mannequin and ran back towards me. “Let’s go watch movies!” he said, grabbing me by my arm. The next two hours were spent watching a black and white movie. Darren laughed hysterically through the whole thing as I sat on the far end of the couch, praying to God for time to go by faster. Finally, I heard the doorbell ring. I sprinted down the hall and threw the door open. “Mom!” I said, hugging her tightly. “You okay?” she asked. Darren appeared behind us, a creepy smile on his face. “It was a true pleasure ma’m, having your son here. I hope that he can visit again,” Darren smiled. “Certainly,” my mom said. “Are your parents home? I’d love to meet them.” “Oh, sadly no. They are both at work. Aren’t they Benjamin?” he said, his smile vanishing. “Yes, they aren’t here,” I said. “You two haven’t been alone this whole time, have you?” she asked. “No, my dear sweet grandmother is here, she’s napping though, so we need to be quiet.” “Of course,” my mother smiled. “Well, I’ll see you at school tomorrow Darren.” “Yes, I look forward to it,” he said, smiling. Sadly, that would not be the last time I would find myself in Darren’s house. Part 2 http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/2ufoss/the_weird_kid_part_2/ Part 3 http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/2ukil8/the_weird_kid_part_3/ Part 4 http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/2uowdz/the_weird_kid_part_4/ Final http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/2ut4x8/the_weird_kid_final/

"Okay...okay. I’m going to try to get this all out calmy. I’m at my University’s library right now, and the atmosphere is...well, it’s not helping me stay calm right now. Everyone is pretty much freaking out and some are openly Skyping with their parents right now, talking in frantic voices, trying to figure out how to get home before another snowstorm hits us. One mom is crying, she keeps saying the name of one of the dead girls. God, this is terrible. Please, somebody create a mirror of this just in case. I want there to be proof that this happened to me. I go to a University in the midwest. I’m honestly scared to say which specific one right because I don’t know who could be reading this. I probably shouldn’t have even said I’m at the library right right now, but it seems like the whole University is here so I think I’ll be okay. This morning, three girls were found dead, hanging from three different trees in our downtown about a hundred feet from each other. I actually saw the swarms of police, first responders, and onlookers as I rode past on our University cambus Now, normally I shouldn’t be on this six thirty am bus downtown, as I don’t have class until later and I’m not one for an early morning workout. However, this morning, like a couple of other mornings in the past few weeks, I was woken up by a nightmare. The other times, this nightmare was murky-I just knew I was running from something and I always woke up by the sounds of my screams in the dream. But this morning, it was clear. It started with me at my job at the local movie theater. Now, I spend a lot of time at this place so it’s not entirely weird that I’m dreaming about it. We are playing a special showing of a horror movie, in honor of Valentine’s Day for some twisted reason. This movie is chronicling the murder and torture of forty different University girls, all found dead-you guessed it-and hanging from a tree in the city. Then my dream cuts to me standing downtown, next to a University building I”m always at. It’s night. There are other small groups of college students standing around, and we are all scared because a body has just been found hanging from a tree. Some students band together to take the body down, and to take a video. I’m too scared to be apart of this boisterous group of students, and run into the building. I run up all the stairs until I’m at the top, until I hear a crashing noise. It sounds as if someone has entered the hallway, and they are mad. They’re fuming. The only identifying thing I can pick out is a high pitched male voice, his murmurs are piercing my ears, his quick breaths are surrounding me like a tornado. I quickly jumped into the closest, and while I’m in there I realize I’ve found the hiding spot of the murderer. As soon as this dawns on me, I get out my phone to text somebody for help, and that’s when I’m found by this murdering psycho, he's still bloody and smells absolutely rancid, and my screams start again. The last thing I saw in my dream was his jacket, that had braids of hair tapped onto it. Three braids. So I wake up. It’s four forty five. I do what I usually do in these situations-turn on all the lights in my apartment and get a knife out (I know it’s ridiculous, but it makes me feel safer. It’s something I have always done when I wake up in the middle of the night). I make sure my door is locked. I browse Reddit. But that’s when the absolute freakiest thing happens-I hear someone trying to get into my apartment. The sounds rang out to me in my silent apartment, their body pressing against the door, shoulders knocking against it, the doorknob jingling, and sound of the lock being fiddled with. Part of the reason why I got a cat is so I could attribute strange night time noises to him, but this was unmistakable. Someone was trying to get into my apartment. I felt like those noises were speaking to me, kind of in the same way orchestra music or jazz seems to reveal its secrets to magicians. The shoulder against the door sound frustrated, the doorknob turning sounded like crying, the lock’s jingling sounded like screaming. The footsteps walking away sounded determined and hateful. The noises didn’t last long though, and it seemed like whoever it was, they were trying to be covert. Still, I wasn’t able to fall back asleep and I definitely wasn’t able to get out of my bed until one of my roommates got up early to finish a paper. While they wrote, I took a shower, eager to leave the house and at least try to get some reading done since I was awake so early. Hence my early morning bus ride to my favorite coffee shop. But after I realized what was happening, I knew nothing about this day was going to be productive. I’ve been a mess ever since, too afraid to leave the library and presence of other students. The police have hardly released any information, just a harshly worded email telling students NOT TO WALK HOME ALONE. Which is what I usually do….I’m considering spending the night here. I don’t know how my dream, the person trying to break in last night, and these murders, are connected, but I know that I’m not safe. Not at all. Please, please, please, someone save this so if something happens you can let the police know." If you like this find more of his submissions on reddit and many other well thought out stories on the r/nosleep subreddit.