The Laughing Man

I yank my earbuds out of my ears in horror. The laughing, the soul-shattering laughing. “What?!!? It’s following me.” Andy is looking at me, concern all over his face, “You ok, Max? You just turned white as a sheet.” I am holding the earbuds in my hand with my mouth half open. I hand him the earbuds, “put these in” I say. Andy puts the earbuds in his ears and just looks at me. “What? I don’t get it” He says sheepishly. I am stunned. I cannot believe he can’t hear the laughing. I say nothing and grab my earbuds back before falling asleep on our way to New Hampshire. We arrive at our destination. It’s a bit cold here, but it’s only for a night. We are staying at Patty’s friend Derek’s house. It’s a huge cabin in the middle of nowhere. The inside of the cabin is beautiful. As you walk through the front door the smell of sage hits you in the face. The entrance opens into a kitchen where everything looks like it’s out of a Harry Potter movie. Different spices are hung up around the kitchen and mason jars are lined up against the back of the countertops labeled with various spices I’ve never heard of. As we pass through the kitchen into the living room, which looks like an antique shop, I place my hands in my pockets just in case I get the urge to touch anything. Derek stops us right before we get into the next room and hands out blankets, pillows, and some crystals. He hands Patty her the items and points her down the hall to her room, next he gets to Andy and I and asks if we are together, I turn five different shades of red and say, “no just friends.” Derek then gives a half smile and says to Elliot, “would you mind sharing a room with Andy? You guys would be staying in the spare bedroom down in the basement.” Andy is so easy going, he says nothing, and Elliot agrees to the accommodations. They grab their things and follow Derek down to the basement.

My room is big, it has a huge king size bed, and the walls are painted a pastel yellow. “This color is soothing” I think to myself. There is a small TV mounted to the wall, and there is a picture hanging over the bed of two red cardinals stilling on a tree covered in snow. There is a bathroom in my room as well, which is nice because I don’t have to share one. There is also this little antique doll sitting in a chair by the bathroom, “it’s so creepy looking” I say to myself. The doll appears handmade and old. I get to my small overnight bag and begin to unpack. I put my music on in hopes that the hideous laughter is gone. I press play and it’s just my music, I get my bedding and begin to make my bed. Derek’s crystals that he gave me are called black tourmaline. These crystals keep negative energy away and are said to help with overall mental health. Derek put a note inside the purple mesh bag that read, “Carry these with you or put them under your pillow.” That seemed like a nice idea, but I am unsure if it would even work. What do I have to lose? I stick four crystals under my pillow and four on the nightstand. I am making my way to the bathroom when Andy knocks on my door. “Hey, Andy! I was just about to get into the shower.” I say awkwardly.

“Hey Max, I was just wondering if you knew anything about this house?” Andy asks. “I think the basement was some sort of mortuary or something”

Andy seems worried. My eyebrows raise up and I whisper, “What? I have no idea, Patty and I never really talk about her friends or family, we just hang out and discuss things like ghosts and exchange spooky stories” my voice becomes low because I don’t want anyone to hear us.

Andy asks me to come with him to the basement. I agree, walk over to my dresser, and grab my crystals per the note. We are heading down the stairs and it dawns on me that Elliot and Andy are sharing the basement room. “Andy, where is Elliot?” I ask.

“He went with Derek to some shop down the street, I guess to get some sage or something?” Andy replies quickly.

We get to the bottom of the stairs and there is a room off the right that has sliding glass doors leading to a room too dark to see into. It’s so weird not having my blue-tick hound with me, instead, I have a frightened adult toddler standing behind me. I push the glass doors open and it’s just a room, nothing is in there, no tables, no weird wall freezer, just an empty room. I hear the glass doors slam behind me and it’s Andy, but something is off. “ANDY WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” I yell.

Andy looks at me and starts laughing, it sounds familiar because it’s the same laugh that I heard coming from my earbuds. Andy’s eyes are all black and his smile seems to be so wide it touches his ears.

“I FINALLY HAVE YOU, I HAVE YOU WHERE I WANT YOU, I KILLED YOUR DOG AND NOW IM GOING TO KILL YOU BEFORE DRAGGING YOUR SOUL TO HELL!” It replied.

This thing that has taken over my friend’s body hisses and snarls. I’m standing there rubbing my stones, looking around to see a way out of this room. Andy is standing in front of the door twisting and twitching, he is drooling and laughing.

“Andy, it’s me, Max, you need to fight this thing, Andy!” I say before beginning to say Saint Michael's prayer. I have practiced this prayer with Patty over and over, I have the upper hand against the laughing man, at least for this one moment, Andy moves from the doorway and lunges towards me. This gives me the opportunity to make a run for the door. I take a deep breath and go for it. Running past Andy, barely missing his attempt to grab me. I run up the stairs with everything I have in me and slam the basement door. “PATTY?! PATTY?” ELLIOTT?” DEREK?” I am screaming and yelling as Patty comes flying out of her room and sees me in a panic in the kitchen. “Maxine?” Max?” Honey?” she says with concern.

“Patty, Patty! The laughing man is in Andy, I mean he is Andy, Andy is the laughing man! He brought me downstairs and was going to ‘drag my soul to hell!” I am sobbing through my words at this point. “Where is he?” Patty asks.

“In the basement, in the empty room that has the glass doors.” “Did he follow you up here?” she asks calmly.

“I don’t think so, I mean I ran as fast as I could and didn’t look back.” I stuttered out. She looks around the corner, presses her finger to her lips and waves me to the front door. We get outside, and she tells me to take a seat on the grass.

“We have a lot to talk about my dear.” She says. We are hiding behind a huge oak tree. Patty takes out a cigarette and lights it. She is looking out into the distance and takes a long hall from her cigarette. I am in a state of shock, I have no words, so I am watching Patty intently. I am waiting to hear her out.

“Max, are you doing ok?” She hands me a cigarette, and I accept. I am rubbing my stones and kind of rocking back and forth.

“Define ok,” I say with a laugh. “I used that Saint Michael prayer we have been practicing. Patty, why did you bring me here? Why is this my new life? I just want my life back, I want to be normal again and not have monsters and creatures following me and attacking me, I can’t even believe that is a real sentence coming out of my mouth!” Patty lets me get it out, all of my anger.

Patty takes a deep breath and says, “I didn’t want you here, I didn’t want YOU up here. We wanted Andy up here, and the only way he was going is if you went. Andy has gotten mixed up in the occult and was using you to pray on, he was the one that summoned that thing in the woods. He is the one that sent the kids to your house. He has been messing around with the dark arts for a year in a half now.” She continues. “You see, he saw you were retired from the police force and saw how vulnerable you were, at first, he never thought you were going to thrive as you have.”

My jaw was on the floor, I was wide-eyed and in total disbelief. “He was so helpful and kind, I thought he was going to ask me on a date today! Why does he want my soul? I don’t understand this!” Just before she could answer my question Derek’s Jeep pulls into the driveway. “Oh hey, guys!” I said as they exit the jeep. “Can’t go inside, because you know there is a demon-human inside waiting to eat my soul or whatever,” I say dripping with sarcasm.

They both look at each other and say, “Oh no this is bad!” Elliot grabs a bag out of the back seat and instructs us on the plans that they had prepared. We needed to get Andy in Derek’s flower garden. When he gets into the garden Elliot, Derek, and Patty are going to try and see if they can break the deal he made with the demons. Andy was looking for ultimate power and to be god-like. They wanted me inside of course. They only needed me to get Andy to New Hampshire. He was using me as his payment for some reason. I stormed back into the house without even thinking. I am in such a rage I go straight into my room and start gathering my things.

“I’ll take an Uber, I don’t care, and I’m getting the hell out of here!”

I am so upset and angry I don’t even notice Andy slip in behind me. I hear the door shut behind me and I realize I am no longer alone. I turn around on the balls of my feet super slow. Not much to my surprise, Andy is standing in front of the door, he is covered in sweat and panting like a wild dog.

He is looking through me and says, “You need to help me, Max, I am sick, really sick!” He reaches up to his face and starts clawing at it, he is screaming in pain, “just help me!”

There is blood dripping down his hands and splashing on the carpet and wall. I am standing there in total disbelief.

“Andy, I am going to get you help, can you let me out of this room, so we can figure this out?”

He looks at me and starts laughing, that demonic evil laugh. Through his snickers and jeers, he says, “You’re not going anywhere.”

A glow outside my window catches my eye, I look at the time and the clock on the nightstand says 6 pm. It should be pitch black outside. Andy gets on all fours and starts to slowly crawl towards me.

“Andy, it’s me, Max, you know me, we are friends and neighbors! Please don’t do this Andy or I will be forced to use any form of protection I can.” I keep my voice steady and start walking back towards my overnight bag that carried my gun.

“You can’t kill me, Maxine, I am already dead.” Andy Laughs.

He stops crawling and gets on his knees. He starts reaching up to his face where he plucks out an eyeball. I scream so loud I think all of New Hampshire can hear me. I collapse and as my vision begins to fade that bright light from outside my window is now over my body.

I wake up in Patty’s room thinking that maybe this was all a bad dream. Nope, to my horror there is a note that reads, “The crystals worked and you’re safe, we are in your bedroom with Andy.” I look over to the end of the bed and all my things are there. There is money in an envelope that reads “BUS MONEY.” I go into my overnight bag, grabbing my gun and cell phone. I am almost positive Andy is dead, you don’t just pull out an eyeball and live to tell the tale. As I am getting ready to exit the room something pulls me back in. The man that I saw in the woods that started my car is now standing before me. He doesn’t talk to me but looks at me and gestures to the bed. “Who are you?” I ask out loud.

Without talking he says, “Your guardian angel, I have been with you since the beginning of time.”

Before I can say anything, he disappears. My thoughts are interrupted by the sounds of inhuman screaming and a window breaking. I get up, only this time I can leave the room. I walk down the long hallway to my bedroom, I see Andy lying lifeless on the bed and a huge hole in the window. Everyone looks up at me and says, “It’s gone, Andy is going to be ok.”

I am at a loss for words. I am instructed to call 911. I do as I am told and hope to god nobody asks what happened here. I am told to take the bus money and head home. "You are not safe here Max," Patty says.

I protest. "I am staying and will accompany you guys at the hospital. You brought me here and didn't think about my safety then, so why now?" I ask.

"We didn't think he was as bad as he was." Elliott replies.

The EMT's are getting Andy loaded in the back of the ambulance. One of the EMTs interrupt us and ask who is going to be riding with them or if we would be meeting them at the hospital. Elliot and Derek volunteer to go for the ambulance ride to the hospital. Patty and I take Derek's truck.

We sit in silence for a little while when Patty says "I am really sorry we didn't say anything to you before. We just wanted to make sure we got Andy up here and figure out what we could do for him." She says. "We needed to make sure you were safe as well, Andy picked you for whatever reason not realizing you were stronger than you looked."

Patty lights up a cigarette and takes a long haul waiting for my response. I sit looking out the window for a minute trying to figure out what to say.

I finally muster up a sentence, "I am not mad at you, I understand why you guys did what you did, but why not just tell me what was going on. Was Andy that creature in the barn, or was that thing something he sent after me?" "I am not sure, but I can only imagine it was conjured up…" Patty said.

Patty slams on the breaks and it interrupts her mid-sentence. The ambulance is pulled over on the side of the road. The back doors are swung open and there is blood painted across the windows. The two EMTs are missing, meanwhile, Elliot and Derek lay unconscious in the back. Andy is missing. We manage to wake up Elliot and Derek. Helping them back to the truck. I go back and grab some supplies from the ambulance. "What happened here?!” Patty asks frantically. "Where is Andy?" I interrupted. "Give them a minute!" Patty says.

When they finally are able to make sense of situation they explain what happened. Elliot starts, "We were sitting in the back of the ambulance with Andy when all of a sudden we stopped short. I think maybe a deer ran out in front of us. Then all of a sudden we heard this blood-curdling scream."

Elliot breaks down in tears as he finishes his sentence, Derek puts his hand on Elliot’s shoulder and tells the rest of story.

"We hear the screaming and then it just stops. I looked over at Andy and he is laughing. Then his eyes turned all black and he said ‘Hello boys my friends have arrived!" Derek says with fear in his voice. “He started giggling, even more, drooling all over himself. The doors fling open and there are these creatures. Hairless, bony, creatures just standing in front of the open ambulance doors. That’s when Andy punched Elliot in the face knocking him out and I tried to put up a fight, but I end up getting the crap kicked out of me as well.” Derek says quietly “The next thing I know, I am being woken up by you guys."

Derek somehow keeps his composure. Patty is armed with questions and I can see immediately she has a plan of action. "Are you guys ok to go demon hunting?" she asks wearily. "DEMON HUNTING?!" I bark out.

Patty throws some flashlights she has in her backpack at us and off we go. We park the truck in a parking lot down the street from where we are about to begin our trip. The woods where we enter are quiet, dead quiet. There are no sounds, no frogs, no birds, not even any crickets, nothing. The air is stale and musty. It's about maybe forty degrees out, all the leaves have fallen off the trees making them even more sinister.

The way they twist and turn, casting these shadows in the moonlight that play tricks on the mind. Every branch that cracks under our shoes makes me jump and giving my skin goosebumps. I am so afraid. Suddenly we all stop. We are standing in the middle of the woods and suddenly we can hear this ominous dripping, I am not sure where it's coming from. It's not raining out, in fact, it's the only sound we can hear it's like the sound is echoing throughout the woods as if they were an empty cave. I look up and I find where the sound is coming from. I do not scream, as I am not sure what the result will be. I tap Derek on the shoulder and point up to the trees. Elliot flashed his light into the umbrella of trees and there he is, it's Andy. "Oh. My. God." Patty says softly.

Andy is in the trees chewing on what appears to be a human leg. The light immediately startles Andy, as he lets out a deep earth crushing growl, sprouts wings, and flies into the darkness. We all take off running to the truck. All we can hear as we are running through the forest is Andy laughing and giggling.

He keeps repeating this eerie phrase "Don't run, don't cry, I will catch you by sunrise." We are trying to keep up with each other, but it seems impossible. We finally get to the truck and jump in. "What is going on? What happened to Andy?" I ask. "We don't know Max," Patty says quietly. It's now three in the morning and we aren’t sure where to go. "Going to the house will be too risky," Derek says. "Let me grab my things back at the house and we can just head to my farm," I say with confidence.

It took some convincing, but we head back to the cabin. I run in, grab my things, and run back into the truck. All we can hear is laughing and choking as we pull out of the driveway. We discuss what we should do once we get to the farm, but as we are driving down the highway a body falls from the sky and lands in the bed of the truck. It was one of the EMTS. "Do not pull over! Keep going!" I yell.

We don't stop, in fact, we speed up. Finally, we end up back at my farm by around six thirty. All activities have stopped, there is no sign of Andy. We just have this body in the bed of the truck, but we have no idea how to explain how it got there to any sane individual. "What are we going to do about him?" I am pointing to the EMT who I thought was dead. "Ahh help me! Somebody help!" I can hear the EMT whimper.

The moans and cries of the man are weak but I hear it. We all stop and look at each other. Derek goes to the back of his truck and sees a badly injured man. "Hey man! Don't move, we aren't going to hurt you." Derek says.

I run inside the house and grab some towels. The EMTs name is Jason. He is covered in bumps, scratches, and bruises. Nothing appears to be broken but he does have a deep cut above his eye, and weird puncture marks all over his arms and legs. Patty runs and gets him water and we offer to take him to the hospital. As we are driving to the ER, we pass Andy's farm. There are police, fire, FBI and a coroner in front of Andy's house. "What do you think is going on?" I ask with concern. "I'm not sure but it can't be good." Patty says.

Jason starts talking to us about what happened. "I got loose from whatever those things were and ran for it, I found a hiding spot and was there for a good while until that thing spotted me. It took my partner and well…..tore him apart."

His voice trailed off. We sit in the car for the next twenty minutes in silence. We pull up to the front of the ER and Patty drops us off at the front door. I assist Jason inside the waiting room. Jason looks at me and says "Follow my lead, and keep with my story." I nod my head and agree with him. Once we are settled into a room Jason tells me I can leave."Are you sure?" I ask. "Yes," he says.

I leave my number and tell him that Derek will be back to pick him up and bring him back to New Hampshire. He thanks me, I grab Patty in the waiting room, and we exit the ER. "I need to get Roy from the vets." I say to Patty.

When I arrive at the vets Roy is all bandaged up waiting for me. He has a bandana on that says "mommy's boy." He walks over to me with a smile, wagging his tail back and forth. "Hi buddy, hi buddy! I missed you!” I sequel with excitement. We get into the truck and I buckle Roy into the seat. "Want to go see what's up at Andy's?" Patty asks. I think about it for a second and say, "Let me drop Roy off first, just in case."Patty sighs and says "OK." I get Roy home and comfortable on my bed. I put the crystals I was given under my pillow to protect Roy and light some sage. "You’re a good boy Roy. I'll be right back ok?" I pat him on the head, give him his pain medication, and head back to my truck. Derek, Patty, and Elliott are sitting outside waiting for me. Patty filled them in on what the EMT told them on the way to the ER. "I wonder if he went home last night," Elliot said with fear. "I don't think so, the FBI was there! They had it all crossed off." I say.

Before we can get into the truck a police cruiser is heading down my driveway. I look at everyone wide-eyed.

"How do we explain that Andy turned into a creature, sprouted wings, and flew away?" I mumble before the officer gets out of his cruiser. "Hey, Shawn!" I say. I knew him from when I worked at the station myself.

"Hey, Max." Shawn says. "You have a minute? I have a situation I need to talk to you about." Shawn says very seriously.

"Sure." I say stepping away from my friends and walk over with Shawn to his cruiser. "Max we have a very serious situation with Andrew Dwell up the road. We found four dead bodies of women badly mutilated.” He continued. “We also found some weird things in his house. A shrine looks like voodoo or occult type activities." He never breaks eye contact with me and his voice remains steady. "We also found lots of pictures of you in his bedroom. We are putting a police detail in front of your house for the next few days to make sure you’re safe. He has been missing for the last 24 hours, and we aren't sure where he is or who he is with, so consider him extremely dangerous and possibly armed" Shawn says. I look at him and say "Thank you." We say our goodbyes and I head back over to my friends. I tell them everything that I know and we all are in shock. My cell phone rings and we all jump.

"Hi, Max? It's Jason, can you guys come to get me?" Jason asks on the other end with a tired a voice. "Sure." I say.

I have decided to stay behind and get myself all settled while Elliot and Derek go bring Jason home. Patty offers to stay with me and decline the offer.

"I just need to process everything, get some sleep and back to my normal life, we haven't seen Andy yet, and I'm not sure we are going to. Thank you for your kind offer." I thank Derek for letting me come up to his cabin. "Anytime." He says. He gives me a hug and slips his number into my jacket. Gives me a smile and says "please call me anytime."

I am slightly embarrassed, but also not opposed to seeing him again. "Ok, I'll call you tomorrow when I'm settled in and back to my routine." I say softly. We all say our goodbyes, give out hugs and go our separate ways. "Max, I'll be back later today to help you seal your house away from negative energy." Patty says. "I'll call you when I wake up from my nap." I say. "Alright." She replies.

I grab some salt and head up to my bedroom, Roy is sleeping soundly on my bed. I take the salt and put it on the thresholds of my bedroom. When I am done with that I start to unpack my bags when that creepy doll from Derek's house comes rolling out of my bag. "Great." I say out loud. I stuff her back inside the duffel bag, take the bag and drop it outside of my bedroom door. "Not right now." I say. I just need to sleep, I look at my bed and decide to take nap. I crawl into bed next to Roy and drift off to sleep.