Full Body Chills - My Diary

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

This story is about an officer who had no witness to a crime but a child's diary.My Diarywritten by: Katie GunkelYou can read the original story at FullBodyChillsPodcast.com Looking for more chills? Follow Full Body Chills on Instagram @fullbodychillspod. Full Body Chills is an audiochuck production. Instagram: @audiochuckTwitter: @audiochuckFacebook: /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck

Hi, listeners. I'm Samantha Ware, and I have a story I want to tell you. A story about an officer with no witness to a crime, but a child's diary. So, gather round and listen close. You see crazy stuff working on the police force. And Weird County is far from the exception. Some drunk driving a lawnmower on the highway. A group of campers going missing on Mount Adith, bodies floating down Copper Creek. Comes with the job, I guess. But then there are the other things.

You can't really call them crazy because just crazy doesn't do them justice. It's the stuff that kind of rocks your worldview. Makes you question how you thought the world ought to work. Anywhere else, an officer would be lucky, or maybe unlucky, to experience even one of those moments. But in Weird, it's almost like a rite of passage. You serve long enough, and sooner or later, you're going to have a story worth telling. I heard a lot of these stories from some of the old vets on the force. If he was in a good mood or a particularly bad one,

I could squeeze a story out of O'Daniel down in Cold Case Division. David Blair, my old mentor, well, took convincing just to get him to shut up. Every so often one would hit the news. Dr. Denver's, Miss Albert. They're the watered-down versions, of course. They have to be. If you would hear one of these stories straight from Blair, you'd think he's pulling a trick on you. But once you've earned your own story, everyone else's becomes a little more believable. I hadn't earned my story yet. Till today, that is. We were called in after paramedics.

It was a house fire. Several victims were caught inside. Emergency units had done their work putting out the flames and saving who they could. I say save, but looking at the poor soul they pulled out, you can't survive long with burns like that. Unfortunately, no one else made it. We were there to clean up the mess, interview neighbors, you know, my job. I would have probably said that this was all just your usual crazy...

But I found something. A diary. Not far from the scene, just left out under a tree. It appears to have belonged to a kid. I think I... I think it's better if I let the book speak for itself. Dear Diary, Today is a great day because I got you as a present for my birthday. After eating breakfast, my parents let me open my presents and I got a diary, a ball, new shoes, and a dolly. Can you believe they still think I play with dolls? This doll has straight black hair and wears a business suit.

She looks like my math tutor. Anyway, let me get to the big incident of today. That's what my parents are calling it. The incident. I was playing outside with my brother, Wiley. He is only seven years old, so I had to teach him to do everything. I was showing him all of Dad's tools in the shed and was telling him that one day he was going to be a man and would have to know about all the tools. He really liked the hammer and kept picking it up and swinging it around.

I told him to stop or he was going to break something. Well, he did. He smashed a window. Luckily, we were so far away from the house that no one heard it and I promised him I wouldn't tell dad. We left the shed and went outside and found the riding lawnmower. It is so big. Our cat, Tabby, likes to nap under the riding lawnmower sometimes. Wiley really wanted to play on the riding lawnmower, so I told him I knew where Dad kept the keys. I know where Dad keeps all of his keys.

So I ran and got them. I told Wiley that I would give him the keys, but I wasn't going to play on the riding lawnmower because I know how much trouble I would get in. Wiley said he didn't care, so I threw the keys, then ran away. Wiley climbed out on the seat of the riding lawnmower and started it up. It was very loud. Then I heard an ugly scream.

Tabby was still underneath. Tabby's leg and tail had been run over by the riding lawnmower. I've never seen that much blood mixed with fur before. Tabby's tail was amputated. The blood looked like black tar stuck to Tabby's body. By this time, my dad, my mom, and my grandpa had run up to see the commotion. I kept yelling, It was an accident! It was an accident!

My grandpa put his hand on my shoulder and led me back to the house. They told me to go to my room, so now I am writing in this diary. No one asked me about the house. They told me to go to my room, so now I am writing in this diary. No one asked me about the window. Dear Diary, All my mom does is cry. I heard her crying in her room, so I went to see her. I asked her if Tabby was alive, and she said that dad had to take the cat to the emergency vet. She said Tabby is gone. I then asked her if I could get another cat to replace Tabby. She wouldn't look at me so I had to ask her again even louder to make sure she could hear me. She took a deep breath in, pinched the top of her nose and said no. I decided I should play with Wiley today so he doesn't think about Tappy.

While I was talking to Wiley, he told me that he doesn't like my math tutor, Miss Lindsay. Miss Lindsay smells like mothballs and threatens to hit me with a ruler if I don't pay attention. Wiley told me that it wasn't a coincidence that my doll looked like Miss Lindsay. I took the doll out of the drawer along with some scissors that I had snuck away from the kitchen. The dolls painted on green eyes were so creepy because they followed you no matter what part of the room you were in. I decided to draw sunglasses on her. Unfortunately, it turned out that the doll now has two black holes for eyes. I took the scissors and chopped her hair short, thinking that would help make the doll look a little better.

I gave the doll to Wiley, and you will never guess what he did. He threw her down the stairs. He said that the doll is now a voodoo doll of Miss Lindsay. I couldn't believe it, but then again, Wiley always liked to play pranks. We liked to pretend that Grandpa was a Russian spy because he always wore a hearing aid. One time, Wiley took Grandpa's earpiece and did a show-and-tell to his class and told everyone at school that this was proof he was a spy and that they would torture Grandpa for secrets.

I thought the whole prank was silly, but my dad did not. He blamed me for Wiley's actions like I made him do it. It doesn't matter. It just made me and Wiley closer. Oh, I almost forgot. Wiley thinks he knows where we can find another pet. Dear Diary, Miss Lindsay and I were doing our math homework at the kitchen table like usual, except today she was being really annoying. After 15 minutes of her lecturing me, I slammed my pencil down and ran upstairs. Miss Lindsay started screaming for me to come back down,

but she knew I wouldn't unless she came and got me herself. I heard her oversized feet creak each step. Wiley must have hurt her too because he got my ball and kicked it as hard as he could right at her face. Miss Lindsay was not expecting that and fell down the stairs. Her bones creaked louder than the stairs when she fell down. While Miss Lindsay was curled up on the bottom of the stairs crying, I saw Wiley race down the stairs with a pair of scissors. He stood behind Miss Lindsay as she was attempting to sit up on her elbows and cut a chunk of her hair off. He was much faster than Miss Lindsay and ran away. Of course, I got blamed for it since Wiley's just a little kid. Before Miss Lindsay left, I heard her shout to my parents,

How can you live without psychopath? My mom started crying and my dad sent me to my room and locked the door from the outside. I guess they were scared Wiley's wouldn't hurt me. Good thing I have this diary to keep me busy while I'm stuck in my room. I didn't do any math today. Dear Diary, Wiley took me to the attic. The attic is easy to get to since all you have to do is go to the very top of the stairs

into our grandpa's room and find the little door. Inside the attic, there is a standing mirror with a sheet over it, a box full of my old baby clothes, a box full of useless papers, and a lot of old pictures. As I bent over the box and shuffled through the papers, I found a wooden box that was a little red. While I stuck both hands in the box to pull it out, I realized that the attic was too quiet. Slowly, I pulled the box out and turned around. Wiley was standing in the middle of the room with the box of matches in his hand. He put his index finger to his lip to make me quiet. That's when we both heard it.

It was a faint sound of something scampering. Wiley tracked the sound to the corner of the room. There was a mouse with half of his upper body stuck to a sticky patch struggling to break free. Wiley crouched down next to it. He lit one of the matches and held it up to the mouse's tail. The mouse started to squirm. I told Wiley to stop and look around. It looked like this attic would quickly catch on fire with all the dust and junk, so he put the box of matches in his pocket. He took his hand and wrapped it around the mouse. He lifted up the mouse to meet his eyes, and the sticky paper went along with it. He started violently shaking the mouse.

I had to explain that that wasn't going to free the mouse from the paper. He said he knew that as he tightened his grip. I knew I had to get that that wasn't going to free the mouse from the paper. He said he knew that as he tightened his grip. I knew I had to get out of the attic. At this point, I decided to distract him with a game of hide and seek. Wiley loves to be the seeker, so I told him I was going to hide somewhere where he could never find me. I left him in the attic to go hide. That's when I heard the scream. It was Grandpa.

I left my spot and went to see what was the matter. Grandpa said he found a dead mouse on top of his pillow. He said the mouse looked like it had been squeezed to death and part of the tail was missing. I heard Wiley tell him he deserved it because he was a Russian spy. I was the only one that laughed. My dad told me he was going to punish me because he knew I did it. He wouldn't give me any time to explain. He started to scream and that upset grandpa because he had to sit on the bed gasping for breath and touching his chest.

Dad stopped yelling about the mouse and decided to take Grandpa to the hospital for his heart. Mom stayed at home, but she sat in a rocking chair outside with her face in her hands. I was left alone with Wiley inside. He told me he had a plan. While their parents were gone taking Grandpa to the hospital, Wiley and I put tape over the blocks. This way, when my parents went to lock me inside my room at night, I would have a way out. I am absolutely sick of being locked away like a prisoner. We made a plan to sneak out of our rooms in the middle of the night to meet up. I can't believe the tape worked. I couldn't find Wiley in the hallway, so I checked our parents' room. He was standing over our parents, watching them. I stood right next to him, trying to figure out what he was looking at.

I became aware of my breathing and tried to breathe slow and quietly. I don't know how long I was standing there. My dad suddenly opened his eyes and gasped. Jumping out of bed, he led me back to my room. Today, he put a deadbolt on my door to lock it from outside. I feel like a prisoner in this house. Dear Diary, My dad unlocked the deadbolt and told me to come downstairs as soon as I was ready. I knew something was up, so I made my way down the stairs quickly. I sat down at the kitchen table across from my dad while my mom slumped against the wall behind me.

He said there was someone who wanted to meet me. She was a doctor and was very interested in our family. She sat at the head of the table and brought out a lot of pieces of paper, crowns, and colored pencils. She asked me to draw a picture of my family. I started with me in the center of the paper. Then on my right, I drew my dad with his mouth open yelling, my mom crying, my grandpa lying down in a hospital bed, and then on my right, I drew Wiley smiling, giving me a high five. I thought the picture was cute, but I could hear my mother sniffling behind me, which meant that she was about to start crying.

The doctor pointed to Wiley and asked who that was. I told her that it was my little brother, Wiley. The doctor looked at me without blinking and said, Where is Wiley right now? I looked around the room. I turned my head around and saw my mom leaning on the wall with a handkerchief to her nose. I slammed down my colored pencil and stood up on the chair. I rotated my body so I could stare my mother in the eye.

Where is Wiley? I felt so much anger towards my mom. She better not say what I think she's going to say. She will pay for this if she says the wrong thing. I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks and my fists started to clench. I know how to make her cry even harder. Where is Wiley? I asked her face to face.

My mom wouldn't look at me. She looked at the doctor and said, Wiley isn't here. He doesn't exist. I jumped down from the chair and screamed, Liar! I told the doctor I could prove he exists. My dad, the doctor, and my mom

followed me up the stairs to my room. I flung my drawer open and pulled out my diary. This, this is proof that Wiley exists. I kept shouting. My dad pushed me aside. Something inside the drawer caught their attention. He pulled out the wooden box and slammed it on the table. As they opened the lid to the box,

I snuck out of the door and deadbolted them in. I knew what was in that box. Inside is a bloody piece of the cat, my grandfather's hearing aid, my math tutor's hair, and the mouse's tail singed at the tip from the matches I had in my pocket. Now they are the prisoners in my room. I crawled through the little door to the attic, took out my matches, and started lighting things

on fire. After creating a small fire, I made my way outside. I knew my best option was to run away, but I couldn't just yet. Right now, I am sitting under a tree, writing in my diary. As I look up, I can see my window, which has iron bars around it. Good thing my dad took extra steps to make sure I wouldn't escape from my room. I thought I would feel happy watching my three helpless prisoners. But honestly, I don't feel anything. That's where the diary ends.

First responders say they don't remember seeing any little girl. We scoped out the neighborhood but found no trace of her. It's possible she'll try to hide out with some extended family for a while.

I've already begun to contact them. I tell them to be on the lookout for the girl, to be careful around her. They ask me why. That's when I tell them the story. The watered-down version, of course. Thank you. slightly for an audio retelling, but you can find the original and full on our website. Full Body Chills is an audio Chuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?