The Hatchet Man

Summer after summer the campers had heard the same spooky stories and for some of them, they were losing their charm. For new campers, they were frightening and exciting. It was upon the suggestion of a counselor that the campers voted to take a trip to the town library to choose a book with ghost stories. They were eager to hear something they hadn’t heard before. However, it turned out that that summer they didn’t need any new stories. They were going to experience something very real and very frightening.

The following day as the counselors who were to accompany a selected group of campers to the library were getting ready a news bulletin came on over the radio. It informed everyone in the area to be very careful. A maniac had escaped from a lunatic asylum not very far from the camp and he was thought to be heading their way. The manic was very dangerous and his crime of insanity was chopping off his wife’s head with a hatchet. The news went on to inform people to keep their eyes and ears open. The maniac walked with a shuffling gait.

The campers listened to the news wide-eyed. This was better than any scary tale this was frightening and real. That night the counselors suggested they didn’t gather around a campfire because it was safer to be indoors. So they all gathered in the social hall and played games. Everyone was greatly relieved to hear on the radio that the maniac had been struck by a truck on the nearby old highway. So the following day they decided to make that trip to the library.

That night the boys in cabin five were having some late-night fun making faces with flashlights. Suddenly they froze in place. The cabin wasn’t very big and they clearly heard from the dark shadows at the back of the cabin a distinct shuffling gait. They looked at one another but not one of them wanted to shine the light toward the end of the cabin. They were wondering if they should make a run for it when that shuffling seemed to be coming closer. They all gathered together and at the same time turned on their flashlights. Shuffling toward them was a frightening-looking man with a maniacal gleam in his eyes completely covered in blood. At first, they were frozen in place then he started cackling and shuffling faster.

Some of the boys dropped their flashlights the others held on to them but they all went running head over heels to the cabin door. It was locked or stuck but it wouldn’t open. Shuffle, shuffle, cackle, cackle. One of the boys desperately tried to turn on the light but when he flicked the switch it didn’t turn on. One of the boys quickly turned on his flashlight to see how far the maniac had gotten. The flashlight beam hit the wall of the cabin and they saw the shadow of the shuffling maniac outlined with a hatchet raised in one hand. That was it one of them managed to yank open a window and one by one they quickly climbed out.

They tumbled onto the ground one after the other. The last boy felt a bony hand close over his ankle and he gave a scream. His friends quickly grabbed a hold of him and yanked him out the window. There was a nasty scratch on his ankle. The counselors heard the boys’ story and let them sleep in their cabin. They put off their story to an overactive imagination. After all the maniac had been killed on the old highway. The following morning the counselors, the boys, and all the other campers went to take a look at the cabin. They found a hatchet struck into the door of the cabin and a sign which read “I’ll be back tonight.”