It was a dark, dreary night in Sunshine Valley, Oklahoma on October 27, 1974. Not many people lived there because of there being a vast amount of trees and many vicious animals running the streets through the day and night. The population exceeded to approximately 43 people among the seven square miles of land. Every year on Halloween there is always a mysterious murder at midnight. The deaths are unsolved with no leads. Only four more days until Halloween night and I was still in town.
Before I go any further, my name is Candy. I am only nineteen years old and still live with my parents. I was homeschooled ever since my older brother died on Halloween in the year of 1968. If you just started asking yourself if he was one of those deaths I was talking about earlier, yes he was. He was actually the very first person who was murdered on Halloween. Ever since then, deaths have been happening on the same day every year around the same time. My family and I were so devastated about it all.
This year, I am tempted to get these murder cases solved and to protect anybody else from getting killed. It hurts to see so many people in emotional pain. Not many people would expect a teenager like myself to go off hunting for a “Halloween Killer.” This would be perfect for me to finally get all settled down and not have to worry anymore.
“Candy! It’s time to get up and get dressed. You have to run some errands for me,” hollered my mother from downstairs. We live in a two story house. The neighborhood isn’t too large, but it also isn’t too busy.
“Coming mother! I’ll be down in ten minutes,” I answered back. I got up some strength to lift myself out of bed. I slipped on a pair of skin tight blue jeans, a plain maroon sweatshirt, black ankle socks, and a pair of black and white Vans. I brushed my long, brown hair up into a ponytail and ran down the stairs. I grabbed my black jacket from the coat rack and put it on. I walked out into the kitchen where my mother was.
“Candy. Darling. Here is the list of items I would like you to pick up from the store,” my mother said, while handing me the list. I looked at the list and saw it ranged from milk and bread to scissors, rope, and tape. There was more on the list, but that is just the general items that stood out to me. “Be back soon sweetheart.”
My father was sitting at the kitchen table with his glasses on. You could obviously tell that he was about to read the newspaper. I started to head out the door when my father called, “Candy! Please bring the mail in before you walk to the store.”
“Yes father. I will bring the mail in for you,” I responded. I walked out to the mailbox. The sidewalk and the street looked icy. There was snow covering the ground. It didn’t seem like we had gotten too much snow last night, but it was enough to get you freezing in your boots.
I opened the mailbox and saw three letters. Two of those letters were for my mom. One from my uncle in Pennsylvania who I never really got to see and one from my mom’s friend who lived in Washington. The last letter in the mailbox was written to me. I was astounded because I never really got letters from anybody unless it was on Christmas or on my birthday, which wasn’t for another seven months yet.
It had no return address on the envelope nor a name. It was written in red ink as if the person who wrote it was nervous and struggling to write the letters. I decided to open the letter before going back inside. When opening the letter, I saw a fingerprint in the upper right corner. It looked as if it was stamped using blood, but I didn’t want to get all frightened for nothing. When I looked at what the letter had written on it, you couldn’t make out what it had said at all. The letter read:
October 26, 1974 (10/26/74)
ZOW GYI OEZZ JEODA! HLABRG!
I honestly had no idea what the message read, but I had a bad feeling about it. Why would somebody send a message where you couldn’t understand a single word on it besides a date? Then again, why would somebody deliberately write a date out and then write it in number form? This month just got a lot weirder. I tucked the letter into my pocket, so none of my parents would know about it, or get worried about me. I took to remaining two letters that were for my mother, inside. “Here mom. There was only two letters and they were both for you,” I stated.
“Thank you dear. You better get going before it starts to thunder and lightning,” she responded. I walked out the door with my wallet and the list of groceries and items that I had to get. I went down to the market that was about half a mile down the road. My family didn’t have a car because we were running low on money. So that is why I had to walk everywhere where I wanted to go. What was brewing through my mind was that strange letter I got in the mail today. It was only four days until Halloween and I was wondering if maybe this was a letter that was informing me about it. I bought everything that was on the list my mother wrote.
I decided to walk to my friend’s house. My friend’s name is Mary. We have been friends for five years now ever since she moved to Oklahoma from Virginia. I walked up to Mary’s house and the front door was open. I got worried and ran into her house yelling her name. Nobody was there in the house. Nobody! I was scared. I went to Mary’s room. There was a black light on. Written on her walls, there were the words:
You should leave Candy, before it’s too late! I am coming for you! You are in grave danger! Leave now or forever hold your peace!
The message was obviously written in invisible ink. There was no other answer to it. I was too scared to stay any longer. My heart was pounding really fast. Faster than it had ever beat before. I decided to stay at my house, in my bedroom until November 1, when I am assured everything will be okay again.
* * * * *
October 31st came. It was five o’clock and my parents were both at work. Nobody, but me was home. I went downstairs to the kitchen, when all of a sudden the phone rang. I thought that it might have been one of my parents calling me to tell me they needed something to be bought at the market or something. I picked up the phone and heard long beeps and short beeps that went like this:
. . / - / . . / . . . / - / . . / - - / . / . - . . / - - - / . - - / - . - / . . / . . - . / . . - . / . . /. - /. - -
I could tell that this was obviously morse code. I had studied it back when I was in high school and knew exactly what it said. The message was translated to: “It is time for killing.” By this point, I was 100% to the fullest, scared to death. The lights began to flicker on and off. After about two minutes, the lights stayed off. The wind started to pick up speed and it got more cold outside.
There was a small knock on the front door. I slowly walked to the door and stood on my tiptoes to look outside and see who it was. Nobody was at the front door. I decided to open up the door and all of a sudden, I was blindfolded. I couldn’t see a thing. Then I was knocked out with something really hard. I swear it was a frying pan.
* * * * *
I woke up to find out that I was in my basement. The lights were back on. This time, I was strapped to a rocking chair that creaked loudly. “Where am I? Who’s there? Help me,” I screamed, while tears started to run down my cheeks. I saw a shadow from the corner of my eye.
“Hello Candy. I am, Andy, your brother. I was studying you for the past couple years now. You were studying the mystery of the Halloween murders ever since I “died.” No I am not dead. I planned my death using a duplicate person who looked exactly like me. I find it very fun to watch everyone go berserk about these murders. You were getting close and way too curious. It is now your turn to die and disappear. I love you sister, but this is the way it has to be,” explained my so-called brother.
“ I don’t consider you my brother anymore. You’re a murderer. Why would you do this to everybody?”
“I do it because nobody understands me. You took all the attention away from me since you were born. You shouldn’t belong to this world anymore.”
“Andy! Please don’t do this. It will bring our parents pain.”
“They deserve it all. They should’ve thought about this before they gave you all of the attention and stopped paying a lot of attention to me. I used to be the favorite, then you showed up and all of that changed for me.”
Andy started to ease his way towards me with something sharp. I was so scared. I couldn’t say anything after that. I felt so bad for him. I was sorry that I got him so jealous. Maybe it was all my fault and I was the one to start this all. I shut up eyes and all of a sudden I heard a threatening scream.
* * * * *
“Candy! Wake up! It’s time for Church!” Whose voice is that? I realized it was my brother’s. I heard someone start to come into my bedroom. I looked up and saw it was my brother. My parents came in from behind him. “Candy! You finally are alive. You have been knocked out for about a day now. We were all worried sick about you,” Andy said to me.
“What day is it,” I asked, still scared.
“It’s October 31st, 1968, you silly goose.”
My eyes opened wide. Today was the day my brother was going to die according to my dreams. Could they actually be true? Only one thing was for certain, my dreams were all happening the same way they had in reality. Right here and now! Mysteries and curiosity were filling my mind!
Date - Shift Cipher:
October 26, 1974 (10/26/74)
ZOW GYI OEZZ JEODA! HLABRG!
Message Reads: “You are next Candy! Beware!”
Invisible Ink Code:
You should leave Candy, before it’s too late! I am coming for you! You are in grave danger! Leave now or forever hold your peace!
Message Reads: “You should leave Candy, before it’s too late! I am coming for you! You are in grave danger! Leave now or forever hold your peace!”
Morse Code:
. . / - / . . / . . . / - / . . / - - / . / . - . . / - - - / . - - / - . - / . . / . . - . / . . - . / . . /. - /. - -
Message Reads: “It is time for killing”