The Prometheus Killer

A Story by Kaden L.

A man obsessed about Frankenstein's monster takes "being a fan of it" to a dangerous level.

Honestly, everything seemed and still seems surreal. My brain is stuck trying to comprehend what happened on Halloween, even after a week. It's not like I got harmed or anything; it's just that everything that occurred c**k fired out of nowhere, and it caught me off guard. I'm going to stop being vague and explain what happened.

It started when all the trick-or-treaters had stopped showing up to my door. I was very disappointed when they stopped showing up because their costumes were the cutest. The costumes ranged from vampires to mummies, which surprised me because I expected to see a lot of kids dressed as popular video game or movie characters. It was pleasant to see children still dressing up as classic characters.

After the trick-or-treaters stopped showing up, I sat on my couch and watched a horror movie while gluttoning out on the remaining candy. The horror movie ended up being boring and not scary, so I turned on the news because it was all I could find that interested me. I wished I hadn't turned it on because when I did, it began to report about a murderer that was on the loose, and it was in my area.

I turned it off when it showed a mother in hysteria because her child was missing. Immediately, I dashed to my back door, my windows, and my front door to lock them.

Before I could lock myself in my room, someone rang the doorbell; my stomach began to drop as paranoid thoughts flooded my head: Could that be the murderer? No, it's probably a neighbor or something. But it could be him. Oh God, what do I do?

I strolled down to my front door and peeped through the peephole. Unfortunately, I could not decipher who or what was at my door, so I creaked the door open. When I saw a small child next to an adult man, I opened the door all the way, expecting it to be a father and son dressing up. But, it was not that, or it did not appear to be that.

"Uh-huh, I'll do fine," the man muttered when I opened the door. I can barely begin to explain this man's appearance. He had on black lipstick; his hair was long and black; his teeth were so pearly white that if you were to shine a light upon them, you would be blinded; his skin was painted yellow, and he had a large, muscular stature. All over his torso were stitches that were either painted or tattooed on. The only form of clothing he bared was some shorts. Everything about him made me want to slam my door in his face and lock it. Oh, I wish I did that.

I let out a gasp when I saw what the little boy looked like. His face was pale, his eyes were drained of any semblance of color, and his neck had thick purple marks circling it. So many thoughts were racing in my head, but none of them reached the finish line.

"Hey, um," I stammered, "I really like y'alls' costumes, but I don't have any candy left since I ate it all. S-Sorry."

"No, no," the man responded, "I should be the one apologizing; I am deeply sorry. I guess I was not paying attention to the time. Anyway, before I take my friend and me home, would you like to be informed about my costume?"

The man's face lit up as he adjusted his hands my wiggling his fingers almost violently. I was very uncomfortable, and I don't blame myself; he had this sick-looking kid leaning on his leg, was at my house that late at night, and his creepy expression set off so many alarms. Foolishly, I decided to listen to him and "be informed" by his costume. "Yeah, s-sure," I stammered.

A long, maniacal smile formed on his face that touched both corners of his eyes, somehow. If my porch light shined on his teeth, I would be blinded. "Thank you!" he cheered. "You see, my friend and I are dressed up as characters from Mary Shelly's masterpiece: Frankenstein! I am Frankenstein's monster, while my friend here is William Frankenstein. Those purple marks on his neck represent the monster's strangle marks from that part in the book where the monster kills William; it was made with some makeup I found, so don't worry about it being actual strangle marks."

His eerie smile formed into a serious expression, and he grunted, "Ahem, I need to stop smiling; it's not like the monster at all. Anyway, I will depart now, farewell! It was nice talking to you...uh, what's your name?" His serious glare pierced through my skin like daggers; it felt mandatory to tell him my name.

"Lilly, the name's 'Lilly,'" I answered.

"Hm, Lilly. Yes, that is a delightful name, I must say." He reached his hand out, wanting me to shake it. I reluctantly did so and regretted it immediately. His grip was so tight, as if he was trying to squeeze it.

He noticed me trying to tug my hand away and let go. He turned around and proceeded to leave. However, his friend leaning on the man's leg tipped over and landed on the ground stiffly. I gazed at it in disgust but thought nothing of it because I wanted to go inside. Before I shut my door, the man interrupted me.

"Oh!" the man gasped. "Please, do not worry about that. My friend and I are actors, and we LOVE playing our characters, which should be obvious because of our costumes. We're still in the process of mastering our characters, but he has a lot more practice to do than I. He's actually practicing right now as we speak, trying to recreate his death. Amazing!" The man turned around and left that time with his "friend" in his arms because he "refused" to get up.

Obviously, that interaction with him had me go and check every window and door to make sure they were secure. I mean, it was apparent that something was off about him. He had this random child leaning on his leg, proclaims to be some actor, is obsessed with Frankenstein, and I can go off!

Feeling safe, I decided to relax a bit and clean the dishes while listening to music on my speaker. It's my way of comforting myself when I'm stressed. Once I got immersed, I was in an entirely different zone, unaware of my surroundings and things going on.

I snapped out of my trance when I saw something in my peripheral vision. The plate I was holding onto slipped out of my hand once I saw who was there.

I shrieked in terror and sprinted to my bedroom: it was the man. He was there. His face was leaning on the window of my back door, and he breathed heavily on the glass, which was noticeable because it left a mark for every breath he took. He wasn't even staring at me; he was just glaring menacingly at nothing. His teeth were clenched, and his veins were throbbing.

Instead of hiding and calling the cops, I grabbed the golf club that was leaning on the side of my bed, intending to fight back. I have no clue what was going on in my head at the time, but I know for sure it involved fear and rage. I rushed downstairs, ready to fight, but to my despair, he wasn't there. Impulsively, I darted to the door and went outside. I was going to kill him if I had to.

He was there.

The man gazed at me with a look only a serial killer would recognize. His hands were clenched, and his teeth were gritted. The Halloween moonlight shined on his pearly white teeth, which made him hard to look at. Before any words could stammer out of my mouth, his voice boomed, "I have murdered everyone I needed to complete the first part of my goal. Now, I shall commence the second half: the part where I EXTERMINATE THE REST OF HUMANITY! And you, Lilly, will be the first victim of many in my goal to wipe out the human race!"

I dropped the golf club in fear and ran for the back door, screeching the most unpleasant sound possible.

"You wretched fiend!" the man roared. He unclenched his fists, pounced on me before I could escape, and pinned me to the ground. His hands tightly grasped my neck, and I had no other choice but to smack his head with the little strength I had. "I stop it, you! You're only gonna make this more painful than it already is!"

His face was full of insanity: his eyes were widened, he had a devious smile, and his veins were protruding. I felt myself begin to pass out. At that point, I had given up. There was no way I could take him down. My flailing arms slowed down as my eyes started to close.

Then a light came on.

He took his hands off me and darted away but announced as he left, "just know that you are not safe, just lucky!" And like that, he vanished into the night.

I looked up to see that my neighbor's light was on. A tidal wave of relief washed over me; if not for my neighbor, I would be dead.

Nothing interesting happened for the rest of the night. However, the next day, I saw a news article titled "a murderer who goes by the name 'the Prometheus Killer' has been caught by county police."

The article mentioned the names of the Prometheus Killer's victims: a young woman named "Elizabeth," a kidnapped boy named "William," and a young man named "Henry." I scrolled down the bottom of the article to find a video of him being arrested.

In the video, he shouted, "mark my words, humanity! Once I get the chance, the Prometheus Killer will arise and destroy all of you!" He was then shoved into the police car with a lot of resistance.

I did not look into it any further; I just wanted to forget all of it. Everything didn't feel real, just surreal. And it may be like that for a while.