Stone Dead Chapter One

Our story opens in a quiet suburban neighborhood in the northern western suburbs of Gothenburg, a large industrial city surrounded by a vast tundra. The faint glow of the sun fades as it sets upon the horizon and the street lights activate as it darkens, casting a dim yellow light over the streets. The houses here are nothing special, some cookie cutter designs made to maximize the builder’s profits. Near the center of the neighborhood is a small park with a playground that takes up most of its area. There is a sandpit with two small play cranes and to the north of that a few yards is a concrete bathroom and storage building, on the other side of the park are picnic tables. 

A young South Asian Caucasian mixed brown haired girl is playing in the park, running around on a pink unicorn sawhorse having the time of her life, her blue knee length romper is specked with dirt and debris and her shoeless feet are brown from the sandbox. Kayla, her elder sister, is sitting at one of the picnic tables pointing away from the park, clearly busy on her phone. Kayla is a pretty young woman, South Asian in descent, her dark brown hair is mid back length, she is wearing a short denim jacket, a white crop top beneath and a long denim skirt. Her ears have large gold hoop earrings and around her neck is a gold chain necklace she has headphones in. 

Just across the road is a house with its outside lights on, illuminating the driveway and the old beaten down copper colored buick parked in it. The house is well taken care of. The siding is a dark gray, the front door is a bright white color, the sidewalk looks freshly poured and the yard is well maintained. The mailbox outside the house reads ‘-Stone- 407 15th street’.Inside the house in the foyer there’s a man and a woman, both of which seem frustrated. The man is Ethan Stone, a 44 year old caucasian ex marine with black hair and a short black boxed beard, he is wearing a denim jacket, a black t-shirt beneath, denim jeans and brown work boots. The woman is Vanessa Stone, South Asian in descent, 42 years old with shoulder length dark, her eyes are brown, she has wavy brown hair, she is wearing a dark orange dress shirt with frills. Her pants are black and her shoes are a light brown dress shoe, she’s holding a small pink and white cat character backpack in her left hand.

 “You’re late.” Vanessa chides, holding the bag out to the man expectantly. “I know Vanessa, work needed me.” Ethan replies, waving his hands in defeat.

  Vanessa shakes her head in disbelief and retorts “Alice needs you more. She still needs her toothbrush, we weren’t sure if you were going to make it.” 

Ethan looks over to the kitchen, The kitchen is square, there is a counter on a kitchen island that has a sink on one side, regular height. The counter side is bar height. There is a kitchen table with 6 chairs and a sliding glass door behind it. Sitting at the kitchen counter on a stool, is Noah, a 9 year old South Asian boy with medium length curly black hair and brown eyes. He has a plaid shirt over a denim button up. His pants are white khaki and his shoes are black, his head in his hands, he is clearly bored.

“Noah, go to the bathroom and get me Alice’s toothbrush.” Ethan barks at the boy from the front door.

“Please.” Vanessa butts in.

  “Okay.” Noah responds, getting up and heading towards the bathroom.

Ethan turns his head to the woman “What was that about?”

Vanessa looks back at him angrily. “That’s my son you’re talking to.” She replies.

“You’re babying him, he’s 9. I’m not asking him, I’m telling him.” Ethan waves his hands around matter of factly.

“This is exactly why I-.” Vanessa starts.

“-divorced me!? You say that about everything,” Ethan interjects angrily. Back outside in the park little Alice is still playing, jumping around and making lots of noise. A dark silhouette approaches from the shadows of the park restrooms behind her, Kayla is on her phone. She glances from social media to the clock on her phone. 

“Alright Alice, get ready to go. Your dad’s waiting for you.” She announces, standing up. The silhouette lunges at Alice, frightening her, she lets out a bloodcurdling scream. ”Alice, don’t you want to see your dad?” Kayla says, barely hearing the screaming over the headphones. She turns to face Alice and is met with the image of a wide eyed man with discolored skin on his knees holding Alice with his mouth on her shoulder, dripping with blood. Kayla looks on in terror, as the shock wears off she screams “What the fuck! Get off her!” then runs at the man, grabs Alice’s play horse and smacks the man in the head as hard as she can multiple times, a loud “crack” accompanying the hits. Alice’s cries echo throughout the dark, empty neighborhood. Kayla strikes until the man reels back, letting go of the girl. Kayla drops the play horse and picks up Alice.

Kayla’s sprints towards the house holding Alice in close. She dares to look back and sees the man getting back up “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” Her foot slips on the curb as she turns her head back forwards, causing her body weight to shift forward, she stumbles forward nearly dropping her little sister. Kayla catches herself before she falls and takes a moment to right herself, pulling Alice back into her arms. The man is nearly to his feet, he groans loudly at the girls. 

Meanwhile, back inside the house. “You treat them differently than you do Alice. All I’m asking is that you take them with you. They’re not yours but you’re the only father they’ve had most of their lives. How can you be so cold?” Vanessa demands, pointing her finger towards the bathroom and Noah.

“Well, Vanessa, if you didn’t take everything in the divorce I’d be able to afford taking them ALL to the Zoo tomorrow!” Ethan shouts, his face is red with rage.

“If it’s money that you’re worried about I can cover it!” Vanessa counters, pulling her wallet out from her front pant pocket. Suddenly, Kayla shoves the door open. Ethan and Vanessa turn worriedly to the screaming pair as Kayla slams the door back shut and locks it.

“Oh my god! He came out of nowhere! That freak hurt Alice!” Kayla yells, showing the adults the bloody marks on her shoulder.

 “Who? What the hell? What happened? What did you let happen!?” Ethan booms, his concern for his daughter over taking him. 

“He’s outside! I think he followed me! Alice is really hurt!” Kayla yells. Noah makes his way back down from the bathroom with the toothbrush in hand, he drops it and starts to cry, running to Vanessa’s side. 

“Give her to me, I’ll get her bandaged up.”  Vanessa says to Kayla who hands her Alice.”Kayla, are you okay?”

“I’ll be okay, just a little scared is all.” Kayla responds, her nerves still causing her to shake. Vanessa takes Alice into the bathroom to give her medical attention, Noah follows, gripping her shirt as she walks.  

Ethan opens the curtain over the front door window. “Did you see his face?” he commands, scanning the park for any signs of the man. 

Kayla shakes her head “I don’t know, not really, he looked sick or something.”

“What do you mean?” Ethan turns his head to the girl.

“His skin didn’t look quite right, it was pale and wrinkly. Almost looked like leprosy,” Kayla pauses for a moment and seeing Ethan’s confused face she continues “We studied it in our biology class, it’s an infectious disease that eats away at the skin.”

Ethan eyes the park again “I don’t see anyone,” he turns to Kayla, his face twisted in rage  “You were supposed to be watching her! How could you let this happen!?” he barks

“I just turned my head for one second!” Kayla protests, waving her hands around defiantly.

Vanessa hurriedly returns with Alice and Noah, she’s holding a bloody mass of towels over Alice’s shoulder. “We need to get her to the hospital…now. They’re deep.” Ethan walks over to Alice, Vanessa moves the towels and Ethan manically looks her over, his face becoming red with rage.

“…What the hell!? There are tooth marks on her neck! You let some crazy asshole BITE my daughter!?” Ethan growls, his mouth set in a vicious snarl. 

Kayla bursts into tears, clearly hurt “I’m sorry, okay! It was only a few seconds!”

“Hrngh. I’ll deal with you later!“ He grunts and hands the bag to Kayla “Take her to the Hospital, take the kids. I’m going to find that freak, he’s not getting away with this!” 

Vanessa nods “I’ll call the police on the way, don’t do anything crazy. Alice needs you.”

“I won’t. Don’t worry,” Ethan's lips crease as he lies through his teeth, he leans forward and kisses Alice on the forehead “I love you Alice, it’s going to be okay.”

“Noah, I need you to go into the garage and get in the van, please.” Vanessa commands, pointing to the garage. Noah stands with tears in his eyes, oblivious of his mother’s commands “Noah. Noah!” Vanessa raises her voice, attempting to get the boy's attention. Noah’s head shoots up to meet his mother’s requests, wipes his eyes and nods. “Thank you, now go.” Vanessa says while pulling the keys from the ring near the door to the garage. Vanessa and the three kids exit into the garage, Ethan exits out the front door, closing it firmly behind him.

MORE STORY WILL BE ADDED EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY!