Watch out for Wilbur

If one entered the Bedford YMCA past 11 O'Clock PM. on some occasions it would make no sense why a 13 year old boy was the active janitor. However, one would never enter the YMCA that late because at that time it is closed.

That janitors name was Will and for Will it made perfect sense why he was there. He cleaned, he left before anyone saw him and on the 15^th and the 30^th his father would continue to receive a pay check, which for Will and his sisters meant food.

At night the YMCA conserved energy by turning off half of the lights. Will thought this gave the place a dreary, cold and dark feel. He walked the halls mop in hand often quite sure he could hear the echoes of the peoples voices who crowded them hours before. He imagined young kids playing dodge ball and men playing basketball, women splashing through the pool and of course the gym goers grunting as they lifted weights upstairs. Sometimes while downstairs he thought he could even hear the treadmills upstairs on full blast as heavy footfalls hammered out the pit pat pattern that only such a machine could make. He pictured the kids in the Youth Room using the bounce house, the rock-wall, playing yon-calla, and the Old men who would sit in the lobby and play chess. Will loved games! 

Now however, late at night the halls simply seemed cold, silent, lonely and for a 13 year old particularly large.

It was on the first ever shift that Will decided to go into work in place of his drunken father that he noticed something very peculiar. In the janitors closest was a list of nightly chores organized by days. Monday: clean and mop locker rooms, dry mop halls and vacuum upstairs cardio room. Tuesday: sanitize toilets clean sinks and mirrors for all bathrooms and so on (the list went for every day of the week). Under the list a hand written note taped to the door presented a mystery that Will could never seem to solve, it read simply “watch out for Wilbur!”
Just as any menial task sets ones mind to wander, so Wills imagination (as he would clean hours on end) would set itself on deciphering exactly what that post meant, and in turn for Will it became an ample distraction from his tasks. However, he found that the words seemed to engrave on his mind, 'watch out for Wilbur' he thought as he mopped, 'watch out for Wilbur' he thought as he scrubbed toilets.

There was a small janitors room beside the massive pool and Will stopped in on several occasions through his 6 hour shift. On one occasion Will observed something that made him feel very uneasy. Will looked out on the pool and noticed that a ball had slipped into the water and was floating in the shallow end near the edge of one of the swimming lanes. Will hadn’t seen the ball, and in fact he had scoured the pool room as part of his duties and was sure that there was no ball, edge wise to the pool or elsewhere, that would have without intervention rolled itself into the pool. Will decided that it was a stretch of imagination but not impossible that the large heating fans could have enough potential energy to dislodge some previously overlooked ball and push it into the pool. However, as Will found himself scrubbing gout off of the mens shower tiles a few matters of logic seemed to weaken this theory in his mind. More than anything however, he decided that it was a lapse of judgment to allow for an assumption to give advantage to a potential threat as opposed to allowing the assumption to favor his safety. Using this logic Will decided that another presence was in the building with him.

With this new development Will spot mopped the gymnasium as opposed to a full mop so that he could possibly finish his shift much faster than usual. Will sprayed the toilets in the cardio room but did not scrub them, and he ignored the trash-bins that weren’t completely full. As Will cleaned, and scrubbed, and mopped and dusted he made his way around the giant building from one room to the next the first floor to the second floor to the third floor.

And as Will entered one particular hallway long and almost completely dark Will began to feel very weird and part of that feeling came from the hairs that were standing up straight on the back up his neck. This is a physiological response Will thought, a sixth sense programmed into all animals yet watered down in humans, some thought of it as a sign of fear, Will however decided it was a symptom of cognitive danger. The symptom was often accompanied by fear but, existed with out it as well.

“am I in danger?” Will thought

“Of course I am”

Why so many humans played this game with themselves, analyzing their ways out of danger instead of embracing the obvious, it's what caused terror movies to be terror movies. Will had ignored countless signs of peculiar activities through the entire night, he’d ignored them because he was human. Had the motion lights in the hallway downstairs remained on for a little longer than their timer allowed? Of course not, something had walked that hall. Footsteps that Will excused as imagination, they were there , of course they were!  He heard them clearly coming from right above the family room as he was sweeping. He didn't doubt he heard them he was positive he did. Like an idiot as time dulled the moment and diluted the memory he dismissed he heard anything.Will looked down the long dark hallway, and thought about the other signs he'd seen that he was not alone. The door to the mens locker room was in need of fixing it would catch on the door frame and wouldn’t latch Will had forced it closed at nine O'Clock and then a half hour later Will had noticed it was again open. The dark rugs that Will vacuumed and wouldn’t dare step on, they had dirt on them. Will noticed all these things, yet, he dismissed them. “its my imagination he thought.” But now as he stood to the entrance of one long dark hallway the hairs standing on end on his neck, it was clear to Will it wasn’t his imagination, even now he stared down the hall and could see a figure crouching down near the floor peeking around the bottom corner, too dark to see anything but a shape but it was definitely there watching him. It had followed him for hours, Will had felt it and now he felt it staring at him playing this game with will trying to watch him without itself being seen.Will did enjoy games, and so for an hour more he wandered around the building at least pretending to not notice that he was being stalked. He took odd routes, that only knew of he cut back on weird angles after going around corners and would walk slow and quiet through halls that had motion lights. He would succeed here and there at escaping his followers gaze, but for the most part he'd feel the presence there still as he moved around.

Eventually Will knew he had to return to the pool closet and when he did he found that the ball previously floating in the pool was now placed squarely in the center of the janitors room.

Before Will, could ignore what he knew, now it was alarmingly obvious that something was in the Bedford YMCA with him. Will decided that the placement of the ball indicated in one way or another he was being toyed with, baited an advancement in the game that had been developing all night. He was Indeed being watched, and someone was seeking to garnish some satisfaction from Will finding the ball first in the pool and now in the closet. Will liked this game and if it meant his otherwise menial work would find some excitement he was not one to shy away from a game of intellect. Also as he saw it he was already winning this game whatever it was. By his logic the person who was placing the ball had only one goal so far, to try to scare Will. After all if the person had wanted to hurt Will it would make little sense to give away their presence. Will was small and almost anyone hiding in the janitors closest with violent intention would certainly be able to overcome him. Will wasn’t an egotistical young teenager, however he lacked a certain ability to feel fear in place of logic and one psychologist even suggested that this trait was negative, despite Wills belief that it was not. Either way Will chose once again to ignore that he had seen the ball at all. He was clearly being watched, this gave advantage to his adversary. Will could find no logic in showing any shock or recognition of even noticing the ball placed clearly in his path. This would both frustrate his opponent, cause his opponent to possibly underestimate Wills intelligence and perhaps even cause a more fervent effort to shock will into fear. Now that Will was very sure he was being stalked, he was more likely than before to catch his predator making a mistake, or showing himself.

Will filled his mop bucket he had just mopped the gym floor however, he returned there again. The gymnasium and the halls around it had motion lights, Will froze in the middle of gym until all the lights turned off he stood mop in hand the darkness blanketing him in safety. His opponent would have to trigger the lights as he entered the gymnasium when he did he would be forced to reveal himself, he could not see will unless Will could see him. Will sat patiently minutes passed and then close to half an hour. Will analyzed the situation and gave order to what theories held the most likelihood of being reality . So far he decided on a few things he new for sure and a few things he seemed fairly sure of. First of all the only door left unlatched during the night shift was the one that led out to the dumpster and recycling bins. Will made many trips out that way so he left the door unlatched for his entire shift. Will left a bag of cans outside, this was surely a habit shared for years by many janitors and it would stand to reason that bums and transients may have picked up on the pattern and waited outside to retrieve the bags and recycle the cans. Further more it would be easy for a homeless man on a cold wet night to sneak in and hide, wait for the janitor to leave and sleep until early morning when they could slip out unnoticed. Wills prevailing theory was that a bum was inside the Gym. There was still something that will couldn’t quite figure out why would a bum who was seeking to stay unnoticed set out to play such a game with the Janitor?

Will continued analyzing his theories, and soon so much time had passed that he began to wonder if perhaps the game was over. He had been standing for some time in the dark, fighting the urge to move at all. The thought occasionally passing through his head that perhaps somehow his opponent had disabled the motion lights and was slowly sneaking up on him, maybe even standing behind him at that very moment. Will pushed those thoughts out of his head, this wasn’t a fantasy world horror movie where the bad guy had un realistic advantages. If someone were to enter this gymnasium even with the lights disabled Will was still at every advantage. He was silent and unmoving where as they would have to produce footfalls, Will was highly alert, young with sharp senses and even the softest footfall would immediately direct his attention, and yet there had been none, no sound, not even a scratch. Perhaps the person had left? Will thought of moving, his muscles tensed and he began to move. Then however, Will saw it, the hall light visible through the gym window turned on. Clearly triggered by someone passing through. Everything, at that moment was confirmed, perhaps maybe the ball was a mistake some unimaginable uncalculating odds could've pushed that ball into the pool and even less likely but possibly into the janitors closest. The sounds he'd heard, the shadows he'd seen, and the presence he'd felt all of these things were arbitrary, potentially imagined. This however, nothing could've turned on those motion lights except another creature passing through the halls. Will stared through the darkness at the glowing rectangle of light that was the small gym door window. It was now glowing from the hall light on the other side. Then Will felt that same familiar feeling he had felt earlier, the hairs on his neck began to move, goosebumps rose up on his skin, Will was fully encompassed in the moment. A moment that Will recognized as highly dangerous. In that moment A shadow passed over the glowing window and as his eyes focused Will saw the shape of a human figure silhouetted by the light of the hall. Its hands clasped to the window, it was staring into the gym trying to find its prey, and a moment later just as quickly as Will had noticed the shape, it was gone moving on down the hall. Will fell frozen unmoved, a new piece of confirmed information, he had to act against his instincts he couldn’t let this situation pass him by. As it stood he knew exactly where the person was, if he made no sound and let them move on he had no reason to believe they would return to the gym. After all in their mind they had ruled out the area. This would mean that Will would loose track of them once again, the odds would swing to their favor, they would have an opportunity to meet Will at another time, at another place on their terms and not on his, This was not part of the plan to win this game. In chess giving up your queen to take your opponents queen was a tactic that was meant to make things clear to both players.  It was a way of saying I’m in charge not you, and I don’t need this particular advantage to win this game because I’m smarter than you are. Will slowly tapped his mop on the ground, a small movement not enough to trigger the motion lights but loud enough that surely anyone within the halls beyond would hear. Again and Again he tapped it louder and harder, and then the silhouette again reappeared then the door opened and for a moment as the silhouette stood there revealing its full form Will recognized something wasn’t right, there was something off, about the make up of this form, an unnatural proportion to the outline of the thing that stood before him. It had a bulky heavy top thick and tall, and its legs seemed skinny and far too long. Will held steady and then with a sudden break In silence he heard a small giggle that transformed into an eery high pitched request,

“come on out here little boy!”

Will found no calculated purpose for a response, this was a trade, you’ve seen me now let me see you. Will stayed silent. The form hesitated in the small area of the door where it wouldn’t trigger the lights. It stood silent its odd shape bulky on top and thin on bottom continued to perplex Will. His eyes were focused quite well in the dark and he knew that soon the figure coming from the light hall into the dark room would also focus enough to spot Will. The high pitched voice rang out again cracking and achy as if it belonged to a smoker or a person with a cold,

“oh, I see you little boy.”Followed by a clapping sound.

Then all at once it made a jerking movement and Will felt something zip by his body and heard the heavy sound of something crashing to the ground.

The motion lights triggered and Will saw with horror a 45 pound barbell was the object that had just missed his body. This was a clear message to Will if the weight had hit him it would've very likely incapacitated him, had it struck him in the head he would've very unlikely survived the impact.

In the light Will now stood 40 yards from his opponent. With little time to take in anything Will first noticed the swinging arm and that another dumbbell was barreling towards him, this time with suprising accuracy Will had to step out the way as the dumbell completely obliterated his mop bucket. Will make a mental note that the strength needed to throw a weight of that size was likely far greater than an average man, he realized too (although his gaze was still on the projectile that had just missed him) that out of the corner of his eye the figure was sprinting towards him. Not at all elegantly, but clumpy and off balance as if it the figure was wildly out of control, it's limbs flailing about gave Will the impression of a great ape.  Will had made calculations for every potential happenstance, he had an easy escape route through the emergency exit behind him but he needed at once to sprint away this left little time for him to look over and take in the scope of his enemy. However, Will had to look back taking a snap shot in his mind his focus on the mans odd proportions. He sprinted towards the back emergency exit and in an instant he was outside the door and into the parking lot. He heard the door click behind him and when he looked back found that he was no longer being chased. Will wondered for a moment why the man hadn’t given chase outside the building and into the parking lot.

Will stood for a moment under a tall light he stared at the glass door he had just exited and the oddly disproportioned figure who was still standing there staring at him through it. Will determined it was indeed a man. The man was tall and large, but still something odd was obvious about his shape, his skinny legs and large torso. Still Will determined if he had wanted to overpower Will physically he'd have no problem at all doing so, but instead he’d decided to play a game. Will walked away. He had tripped a silent alarm by exiting out that door. A security guard for allied services would call the YMCA and if no one answered would come by and determine what had set off the alarm.

Will thought about the game, and how quickly it had evolved. It had begun before the ball had appeared, no doubt the large man with odd proportions and high pitched voice had been stalking him throughout the night. He’d grown bored and drawn attention to himself, in an effort to enjoy observing a person in great fear. However, in the end Will concluded the man quite obviously intended to harm Will, the dumb bell if it had made contact with any part of Will would have incapacitated him, in one way or another if not killed him. This was predatory behavior, no animal humans included killed another for no reason if no use was to be garnished from their body.

There had been murders in Bedford, if Will remembered correctly which he always did. A bum and his dog were killed near a freeway exit nearly a year ago the mans head was bashed in although they determined he was strangled to death first, the dog was torn apart. Another man was shot in a dispute outside a casino And over the last 5 years two boys have disappeared Will remembered perfectly, and none of these murders were ever solved. Of course Will wasn’t blaming all these murders on the man inside the YMCA right now, simply drawing possible connections.

Will fingered the keys hanging from the lanyard around his neck, it was amazing how many keys a janitor needed for a single night of work. Will thought about if perhaps the intruder had been offended that Will showed no fear of his ball trick. Will certainly felt a little offended about the dumbell, it would have been a blinding and bland way to die. He unlocked the front door and entered the YMCA lobby, the phone was ringing now and Will answered it assuring the security guard everything was okay, he provided him with the code to turn off the alarm, and grabbed a pair of scissors off the front counter.

In the Youth Gymnasium a jump castle was left out on weekdays. Will plugged in the air pumps and climbed inside. The castle was completely enclosed save for a small opening designed for children in the front, it was made small so that even a child would not fly out while bouncing. On the far side of the bounce castle Will used the scissors he’d borrowed to cut out a small portion of the safety net wall.

Will had a free membership at the YMCA since his dad was an employee. He spent many days after school here with his sisters. He loved the bounce house, he loved the rock-wall, he loved playing dodge-ball and basketball, and soccer,all in all Will loved to play games and Will loved winning. Will didn’t hear a sound, or see anyone, it was the slight movement of the bounce-house that brought Will out of his trance. His opponent had learned to be quiet, he was evolving nicely Will thought. Will looked over in the dim light of the youth hall and through the small opening of the bounce house he saw a pair of hairy dirty bare feet. Had Will continued day dreaming, perhaps this intruder would've won this game he had gotten surprisingly close to Will. He'd assumed the man would have triggered the lights as he walked down the long corridor to the youth gym. He must have figured out how to disable them, or perhaps he simply walked slow enough that they didn't turn on. Will was slightly impressed, and at the same time dismayed at the predatory maneuver. He Pictured the large man lurking slowly down the hall so as not to trigger the motion lights, his gaze likely focused clearly on Will like a lion fixated on it's prey during a hunt. 

Will had refrained from speaking to his opponent. Thus far he’d found no logic in it. However, it must be confusing to a man like this, as to why Will had returned, and so Will thought it an appropriate time to speak.

“Are you going to hurt me?”

The man didn’t reply but instead his hands replaced his large feet and he pulled his head into the bounce house, and then his shoulders and waist it was a very tight squeeze for any adult but especially a man of this size. As the man squeezed into the tight opening it reminded Will of a large snake fitting through the tight wire openings of a chicken coupe. Completely unconcerned with it’s helpless prey for the few moments it took to squeeze into the cage. As the man wiggled in Will realized what made the mans silhouette so oddly misshapen and the realization chilled him very deeply, as it revealed a sinister and disgusting motive. It was Winter and the man wore on his upper body the appropriate clothes for the season, a thick jacket over a hooded sweatshirt. His lower half however was completely bare. He wore nothing, his privates dangled out as he slipped into the bounce house his bare skin squeaking oddly on the inflated rubber.

And then he spoke through a high pitched half giggle, as his hand seemed to stroke up and down his own penis.

“you must be a little slow, little boy.”

This sentence warranted no response. Will slipped out the slit he’d made in the back netting and simultaneously used the scissors to stab a gaping hole in the bounce house. Almost immediately the house half collapsed on itself. Will calmly unplugged the inflater pumps and poked a few more holes into the rubber. Already Will imagined it was quite impossible for a figure the size of his opponent to escape. It was a few moments before the man himself realized what was going on. When he did he began to thrash around, mildly at first with some degree of organization, no doubt looking for the entrance he had just squeezed through with out success. After a few moments the thrashing increased and Will decided that at some point the amount of panic seemed quite beyond the realm of logic.

“Calm.” Will said “Calm.”

the thrashing continued as the bounce house further deflated. Will set to work folding the corners over, they were heavy but he was able to get them folded a few times despite the desperate thrashing of the poor creature inside of them.

“Calm, Calm, please.” Will shouted, and now he began to feel quite irritated at the mans blatantly unintelligent actions of flailing about in increasing panic.

“Calm down!” Will was genuinely yelling now, the man was dealing with what would soon be a lack of air and Will could see absolutely no logic in why he would raise his respiratory rate in such a matter given the situation.

The entire bounce house was completely deflated, and the man wreathed and moaned and kicked inside of it. Will folded the house over the man again and again until he was able to just roll him up like a giant squirming burrito.

He couldn’t make out the shouts, but they had gone back and forth at least in tone from pure panic to threats. Will wanted nothing more than to assure the man that he wasn’t going to kill him.

It took only a few seconds for will to find out where the mans head was he used the scissors to cut his face out of the mess of rubber that surrounded it, soon the mans entire head was revealed, and he looked like a tick on a dogs ear.

His eyes went from fear to an absolute unexplainable gaze of pure predatory hate. No human not even the strongest men alive could break free from the weight of the rolled bounce house over him. Because of this Will could not understand the streaming of threats that protruded from the mans mouth. Of course Will realized that he had never been a very angry person himself, so he couldn’t anticipate what such an emotion would make someone do, however he couldn’t imagine an emotion so easily taking the place of sound logic. Of course as far as Will remembers he couldn’t recall feeling very many strong emotions at all.

With his opponents head revealed, Will had to cognitively ignore his screaming and immature comments. Will needed the man unconscious but after striking him over the head with a pool stick quite hard severel times all Will was succeeded at doing was opening several deep gashes in the mans head. Will decided that it would take some strong vindicator or bleach to clean up the blood. However, he would save that for after the game was over. Will was able to postion the burrito in such a way that the mans head was sticking out and easy to kick. After a few tries Will finally succeeded at rendering the man unconscious.

By the time the man woke up Will had hoisted him up the rock climbing wall so that he hung about 4 feet in the air his hands were bound at his waist and will duct taped the mans mouth shut. Will wanted to continue playing the game, he had several more hours of cleaning to do and he knew the time would go by much faster if the half naked man was once again stalking him through the building. If he set the man free Will was convinced that he would immediately kill him. Will had almost no advantage, his advanced intelligence was now apparent and the games that the man seemed interested in playing earlier Will doubted he was interested in playing now. This left Will slower, smaller and weaker than his opponent and those odds stood too heavily against him.

Will used a pair of bolt cutters to remove the mans thumbs. Will had never seen an injury like the missing fingers before. The pure white color of the bone was very interesting to Will, the way the man shook around and almost went into fits of convulsions was also very intriguing and Will could not look away. The sounds however and the feel of the separating bone had made Will feel a bit queasy. And of course the blood which was so dark it almost looked black. Will liked the warmth of it, he liked pushing it around the floor with his shoe and he wished there was more of. Will thought of a canvas as large as a football field but as white as the mans protruding thumb bone, covered in the dark red color. The thought thrilled him. Will didn’t want the man throwing anymore dumb bells at him, at least not with the ease he had before, he was confident the missing thumbs would take care of that issue. The man could use his other fingers at least to some extent to pick up some other blunt weapons and Will thought that this was a fair trade. Later during the game if Will made some mistake his opponent even with the missing thumbs could likely still grab Will and bash his head in with his bared fists. Will was already analyzing some tactics, he thought of certain rooms he had to avoid, so as not to get cornered.

Will was disadvantaged by speed as well. So before setting the man free His plan had been to dislocate his opponents ankle using a series of dumbbells dangled from a rope tied to the foot. But Will couldn’t be sure this would work so he decided on a small ankle or tibia fracture. For this Will had initially intended to use a vice that was kept in the maintenance closet, but it was bolted down. He found a hammer, but by the time he had returned the man had somehow freed one of his bloodied arms and was scratching away frantically at the ropes.

“not the ropes.” Will shouted “ the harness straps.” Will motioned to his own hips . “you’re in a rock-climbing harness undo the waists strap.”

Will hadn’t intended to let the man loose so soon, but he figured this was a fair trade in the game. Will was the one that had over looked the mans ability to free his arm after all, so he felt it was unfair to re tie it. This made the game more interesting as he still had to break the leg but now he was just restrained by time because any moment the man would escape. In the mans seemingly panicked state Will figured he still had a minute or two before he clawed his way out of the harness.

Will walked towards him, and the man responded his voice wasn’t so confident now as it was before but it still seemed a bit high pitched.

“stay away from me you sick little fuck” the man spit the words out more than he spoke him. And as will drew closer he swung his free arm frantically at will and managed to catch a hold of Wills hair, he tore and ripped his head from left to right and Will was enamored by the staggering pain, and the strength of the mans hands. Will swung wildly at the man with the hammer a few times until he finally connected with a blow that made the man release his grip. The hammer had poked quite a deep hole in the mans rips a few inches below his arm pit. Will swung at the mans shin bone but his adrenaline was still up after the encounter and instead of the fracture he had wanted the bone seemed to crush at the blow.  The mans leg looked as if it was filled with water the way it flowed fluidly back and forth. This leg began bleeding where some of the bone fractures protruded from the skin. It was a different blood than that of the thumbs, a much lighter brighter red and it spurted from the inside of the leg like a fountain. This was a color to add to the canvas Will thought, and he rubbed the squirting blood around on the floor, it was quite beautiful, and Will thought that he should go find a paint brush in the children's room to paint with the color, but not until after the game!

Will walked away a few yards. He left the hammer a decent weapon that the man could use against him.

“The harness.” Will said and motioned to his waist

but the mans demeanor had changed he just hung there staring all around his head looking every which way and his eyes huge like they were going to bulge out of his head.

“The harness , you freaking moron! Pull the harness, come and get me.” Will yelled

but the man seemed like he didn't hear a thing. Will got closer

“I'm sorry I yelled,” Will said softly he stretched his arm as far as he could go, blood splattered on it as he started to undo the harness and soon with a final turn of the wrist the harness was released and the man thumped to the ground. Will gave the body a soft kick but the man didn’t respond his eyes were still open but they just stared off at nothing and his body began to shake. Will put his face right by the mans and looked at his eyes. “ do you see me, can you play?”

There was no answer

Will didn’t get off work until later than usual. He never liked to think badly of anyone however he was very disappointed at the way the man had played the game and the way the game ended, "he'd given up completely" Will thought. However, he had thoroughly enjoyed the game, and he hoped one day he could play again. He walked home and the night hugged him tightly, he laughed a little. He imagined those lists of chores that hung up in the janitors closet. What if he had to write those lists. Monday: clean sinks, and mirrors, vacuum rugs, dispose of severed thumbs in the back dumpster, scrub urinals, and windex youth room windows, sweep up all bone fragments , take out the trashes, clean toilets, and showers, turn off cardio machines and mop up all the blood.

And of course he'd leave the note that read "Watch out for Wilbur."