The Unfortunate Death of Casey Sennet pdf

No, she was certain she’d seen it— she just didn’t know exactly what she’d seen.. Or maybe— “Can I help you?” Casey jumped at the voice, hand jerking to her heart.. “Because obviously, I

John Larson Ph.D / Casey Pierce Interview / Session #1 / 8 May 2012

“ I’m speaking with Casey Pierce, wife of Inmate #231, Vincent Pierce How are you, Casey?”

“Fine, I suppose What are we here to talk about? Has he done something?”

“No, no, he’s fairly stable You’re here to help me make sense of some claims he’s been making.”

“What sort of claims?”

“Mrs Pierce, your husband seems to believe he’s, ah… a monster.”

“I’d assume there are a lot of patients here who believe that, Mr Larson.”

“A literal monster, ma’am The kind that lives under the bed and eats small children.”

“Oh I see.”

“You see? Is this an ongoing delusion?”

“No.”

“Then it’s a recent development?”

“No, it’s ongoing I meant to say it’s not a delusion.”

“Yes You’ve seen him, haven’t you?”

“Of course I have While it’s obvious that Vincent is… well, very odd looking, his appearance isn’t enough to make me believe that he’s anything other than human As far as I’m concerned, he’s so convinced of this monster fantasy that he’s gone through the trouble to have body modifications There are surgeries for such things.”

“But he hasn’t had any of those surgeries Everything about him is entirely natural; you can prove that, can’t you? Have a dentist or something look at his teeth, you’ll see—”

“Mrs Pierce, you really believe that your husband is not human?”

“Well, yeah I lived with him long enough before you snatched him up I know him.”

“As convinced as you may be, let me assure you that there is no such thing as a monster Your husband is either the psychological find of the century or the greatest actor the world has ever seen, but he is certainly not paranormal.”

“Has he told you his story?”

“Pieces.”

“And?”

“Anyone can make up a story, Mrs Pierce, especially one as far-fetched as what he told me.”

“So you didn’t believe it.”

“Certainly not Do you?”

“Yes.”

“You mean to say that you also believe this nonsense about ancient curses?”

“Yes, because I was there For some of it, at least.”

“Really? And he’s had this delusion the whole time?”

“I told you, it’s not a delusion Look, I can tell you all about it, the whole story, all that I was there for Then will you believe him?”

“Probably not.”

“Well, I’m not lying I’m not insane, either, before you ask.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

“Good.”

“How about this, Mrs Pierce: you tell me what you think I should know about Vincent, and I’ll give this monster issue a bit more thought Is that alright?”

“Sure I— I’ll start with the year we got married.”

“So you’ll be telling me about how you fell in love?”

“Kind of To be more specific, sir, I’ll be telling you how he killed me.”

There was once an unassuming young woman by the name of Casey Sennet.

As you may have guessed, she is going to die

The whole affair began on a Sunday evening, when she broke her streak of seclusion to visit the corner store Rolled up in a coat and scarf to fend off the vicious November sleet, she

had already locked the door and popped open her umbrella when she saw it At first glance, her

mind washed over it as an unimportant detail Stray dog No problem But she took another peek, just in case, and found herself unable to look away

The monster stared back

Its large canine body was normal enough, but the horns curling from behind its ears and the five-fingered hands on the ends of its four legs were certainly not those of a dog She could just make out needle-like teeth crammed at odd angles into its long jaw and what seemed to be signs of decay littering its fur

They stood there, girl and beast, gazing into one another Some inconsequential voice in

her mind was screaming fortheloveofgodRUNAWAY, but the rest of her remained oddly attracted

to the unearthly thing at the corner of Willow Avenue and Church Street Moth to the flame, she stepped closer to the curb, closer to the thing It cocked its head, ears perking Casey’s heart hitched, and her lungs tightened, and her stomach rose toward her throat, so that she knew something very powerful had just filled her, but she couldn’t quite apprehend what it was The monster drew a step closer, closed its eyes, nodded like it knew Like it understood

Then it was gone

Casey remained rooted to the concrete for some time, gaze fixed on the vacant street corner She wanted to feel something, perhaps the tingle of onset insanity or a buzz of panic, but everything in her remained still There was a crooning in the seat of her sentiments which

said, It’s okay, this is normal, this is normal, and she listened to it That couldn’t be good She should have been freaking out But you’re not, because you’ve seen them before She couldn’t

disagree; she had seen monsters before, perhaps even the same one

How could that be? She raked her mind for a solid bit of information, maybe a movie she’d seen with the creature or a nightmare she’d had before, anything But there was nothing The lack of answers set her teeth on edge, leading her into a harried dash across the street She stepped around the street sign, seeking evidence and finding none Not a handprint or a single hair Nothing Had she imagined it? No, she was certain she’d seen it— she just didn’t know exactly what she’d seen

So she did what any normal person would do: she went to the library to google

“paranormal investigator.”

Sitting at computer #6 with the scent of moist books heavy in her nose, Casey turned the

screen, sending strands of hair like watery coffee spilling out of her ponytail, but bad hair was worth the privacy If she was crazy, the whole library didn’t have to know.

After waiting a moment for her fingers to thaw, she began her search There were several pages about young adult novels and online fiction, but after a bit of scrolling, she found a fascinating article about a psychologist-turned-paranormal investigator named Zachary Kheft who believed he’d discovered an invincible man Another search yielded a number of similar claims and sightings, but Kheft seemed to be the only one who had actually made contact with the supposed superhuman Therefore, he was the most likely bet for helping her make sense of, and perhaps even contact with, the object of her own sighting— after all, if he could track down

an elusive supposed super human, how hard could it be to find a creepy dog-thing?

Ten minutes later, she was grinding the ignition of her ’91 Nissan with a Google Maps print-off in one hand, muttering, “This is unreal.”

Once the car finally sputtered to life, she followed the map into a town several minutes from her own but just as run-down Apartments loomed with scattered windows lit from within, and trees reached overhead with limbs stripped naked by the cold The whole thing made Casey's gut churn, her partially-numb fingers clinging to the steering wheel as she turned into the apartment complex indicated by her map

“Alright, 26C, where are you?” A slow cruise through the rows of buildings finally led her to the apartment in question, which was unfortunately on the second story Uttering a curse beneath her breath, Casey parked, pulled her jacket tighter, and leapt into the sleet Her journey

up the stairs resulted in a few near-fatal slips on the icy metal, and by the time she reached the top, she had to cling to the railing for a few dizzy moments before pressing the buzzer There was a rush of feet then a squeal of hinges as the door opened a few inches, stopped by a chain attached to the door frame In the narrow opening was an overabundance of freckles, bright red hair and eyes mirroring those of a deer in headlights

“Zachary Kheft?” Casey ventured

He shook his head violently “No, no, I’m Arthur.” His jittering fingers appeared, long nails pressing into the doorframe “I’ll get Zach, though, you just— just wait.” The door closed, remaining thus for roughly three seconds before inching back open to reveal Arthur again “Do you want to come in?”

too-Though the prospect of entering a stranger’s house was a little more than unwise, Casey was losing the feeling in her outer extremities, and if worst came to worst there was a can of mace in her purse “Yes,” she admitted, trying to produce an assuring smile but succeeding only

in a shiver

“Okay then, just—” He disappeared momentarily, and the chain slid free, the door opening fully to reveal a pale-skinned, slight-bodied man of some twenty years “Your feet, wipe them please?”

“Sure, of course.” Casey shuffled her feet against the threshold as she bowed into the gloriously warm room Arthur shut the door behind her, assuming a nervous fidgeting with his hands

“Well, I’ll get Zach now, if that’s alright.”

“Right! Go ahead, I’ll wait.” This time she was able to smile, and Arthur responded in kind, albeit a bit lopsidedly

“He hasn’t had a girl over in a long time,” Arthur observed

Awkward In an unsuccessful attempt to conjure a response, Casey opened and closed her mouth a few times like a fish Seeming to recognize his blunder, Arthur cleared his throat, peeped, “Right,” and vanished through a door beside him

In his absence, Casey stole a gander at the interior of the apartment It was, for lack of a better term, a bachelor pad, complete with a half-eaten sandwich in a paper towel on the arm of a beaten-in sofa Slightly less-standard was the heart defibrillator on the opposite end of said sofa, and what seemed to be alfalfa sticking from the sandwich Okay Odd Perhaps paranormal investigation called for a paranormal lifestyle Or maybe—

“Can I help you?”

Casey jumped at the voice, hand jerking to her heart A new man stood before her, much taller and sturdier than Arthur, defined by snarls of unkempt hair, dark skin and a stubble-roughened jaw with a goatee Overall, he had the appearance of a crazed jungle animal “Is this about those dorm payments?” he continued, something foreign— maybe African?— apparent in his baritone “Because obviously, I’ve moved out, I don’t want to have to write another letter—”

“No, no,” Casey said “I’m actually here because ” She fidgeted with the strap of her purse, face growing increasingly hot “I think I’ve got a monster infestation.”

Zachary Kheft stared at her for a fleeting moment before tossing his head back in a roar

of laughter “You read that article, didn’t you! By that, uh,” he rolled a hand to supply for some

imaginary adjective, “journalist Mysteries of the Human Body or something like that, yeah?”

Casey nodded “That’s the one Your work seemed impressive, and it said you were doing full-time paranormal investigations now, so I thought—”

“Hold up, there Not to crush your hopes and dreams, but you’ve got the wrong guy.”Crap

“I’m so sorry!” Casey stepped backwards, waving one hand in a gesture of apology and reaching for the doorknob with the other “When I looked up the name, this address was all that came up I was so sure you were the right person; I didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s fine You wouldn’t believe how many times it’s happened.” A disdainful crumple of his brow indicated that no, she probably wouldn’t believe it “Actually, it’s a bit of a funny story; the guy who wrote the article got our names confused The investigator’s name was John something or other, and I’m the one he was investigating.”

Casey stilled with the knob half-turned in her hand, brow raised “You were?”

“Yeah It was all in his mind, though, if you’re wondering I had this close call a few years back when I fell off a high scaffolding and walked away with no injuries, and someone caught it on video, so every paranormal fanatic in the world came out of the woodwork calling

me the ‘Invincible Man.’ The guy you’re looking for was the only one I couldn’t shake off.”

“Oh.” It seemed stupid, but something in her just had to know: “How high was the scaffold?”

Zachary Kheft was silent a moment “Four stories But stuff like that happens, you know Tornado victims are thrown miles and survive.” He shrugged “Just lucky, I guess.”

Casey stared “Uh, right I guess it does Well, I— I don’t want to bother you anymore, but thank you for understanding, Mr Kheft.”

Stepping past her to open the door, he produced a surprisingly charming smile for someone so scraggly “Zach, please.”

Nice as he seemed, Casey’s insides were thrumming with the anxiety of being in a stranger’s house, so she smiled in reply and stepped back into the cold But just as she reached the first stair: “What kind of an infestation did you say?”

She turned back to see him in the doorway, the tilt of his head indicating curiosity

“A monster infestation.”

“What kind of monster?”

Hesitating, she cleared her throat “It’s really not important I don’t want to bother—”

“No, no, I’m just curious I mean ” He scratched at his jaw, squinting “People usually have some kind of name for it, you know They say they’ve seen a ghost or a vampire or the yeti, but you’re just calling them ‘monsters,’ ‘cause you don’t know what to call them You seem nice enough; you’re not a fanatic You’re just some girl who saw something she can’t explain, yeah?”

She nodded

“What did you see?”

Another moment of hesitation passed before Casey described the creature, depicting its horns with two devil-like fingers by her head and its unsettling hands with a wriggle of her own

“And it had these teeth, so many teeth— maybe it was just a stray dog, but I swear, I really thought it was more than that.”

Zach stared at her, his eyes widening with something akin to obsession He had cat’s eyes, hazel and a tad wild Casey didn’t like them at all “How many?” he inquired

“J-just one, actually.”

“That’s not much of an infestation.”

He had a point “You’re right I don’t know why I said—”

“It’s always like that, though You see one and you feel like you’ve seen them before, like you’ve seen them everywhere, yeah?”

“Well yes, actually.” Pins and needles nibbled at her heart, made her spine tighten “Do you know what it was I saw?”

“I’m not allowed But I’ll tell you this:” he advanced until he stood nearly toe-to-toe with her, all intensity and energy and just a smidgen of terror, “you know how you feel like they’ve infested?”

“Yes, but—”

“They have Don’t go back home Find someplace to stay, and if you see them again, move someplace else I don’t know what they want with you, but it’s not going to be good Avoid them as much as you possibly can If you don’t have a gun, find someone who does and keep it on you.”

“What?” Casey was lost to adrenalin, breath coming so quick that it scrambled her thinking “What are you talking about?”

“I already said I can’t tell you But they’re real, and they’re dangerous, and if you value the way your life is right now, you will not let them get to you Understand?”

“I-I guess?” She pulled her coat tighter around herself and swallowed a few times to try and steady her breathing “I’m just confused— this isn’t normal—”

“You might be done with normal if you’re not careful,” Zach warned “Now go, get out

of here We’ll both be in trouble if they see you here.”

Casey spun, taking in the street below and the neighboring apartments, as if she’d see monstrous silhouettes in every shadow Then, turning back to him, “Do you have an infestation, too?”

An ironic sort of chuckle escaped him “You’re already getting the hang of it what was your name?”

“Casey Casey Sennet.”

Zach gave a nod and a pat to her shoulder that was likely supposed to console her, but didn’t “Good luck, Casey You’ll need it.”

Casey didn’t move out right away

She was scared, but given the amount of blood and sweat she put into paying her rent and the fact that the only place she had to go was back to her parents’, it didn’t seem worth it— especially not on the advice of a man who might or might not have been crazy But as every fleeting shadow began to resemble a monster and the creak of the shifting foundation sounded like death on the prowl, she started to wonder if he’d had the right idea Paranoia made sleep elude her, and the creeping night hours were giving way to increasingly unpleasant workdays

“Listen, ma'am, I swear to you, these sunglasses will look good with anything you wear What color? They're black, with, uh, a little orange What do you mean, you don't wear black? Ma’am, everyone wears black sometimes I’m wearing black right now Well, if you ever attend

a funeral, and it’s sunny outside— No, ma’am, please Alright Thank you for your time, we look forwa— Or you can hang up on me Thanks, thanks so much for that.”

Casey’s forehead dropped to her desk, the phone following shortly with a clatter Every day she allowed to slip through her fingers as a telemarketer made the ideas of bankruptcy and homelessness seem just a little less unwelcoming Food was a pleasant and necessary part of life, however, and she wasn’t willing to give up her ever-blossoming friendship with Chef Boyardee

to go live in a cardboard box with an empty stomach just yet.

“The Man getting you down, Casey dear?”

“Oh.” Casey turned her head to gaze up at the woman beside her, right temple still glued

to the desk of her half-cubicle “Hey, Margaret.”

Margaret was an older woman with two grey braids, one over either shoulder Casey had never seen her without her braids, probably because they were one of the many aspects of

Maggie’s ongoing campaign against “The Man,” and the war He’d started in Vietnam that had taken her son from her years ago The war which was, according to Margaret, still going on in secret

“I haven’t made a single sale tonight I think I’m going to try and slip out early soon.”

“Don’t blame yourself, dearie You just go home and rest Sales will get better when the government pulls out of ‘Nam and they give my boy back to me The economy will be fixed in

an instant, you know.” The woman pushed her thick glasses up on her nose and examined her call list for the rest of the night

“Alright, Maggie I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“No, you won’t.” Maggie batted Casey’s arm with the call list “It’s your birthday

tomorrow, dearie! Stay home and make that herbal tea I gave you— stuff’s mighty strong, you know.”

Casey had no sooner registered the suspicious comment about the herbal tea than the full meaning of Maggie’s words hit her: tomorrow was her birthday.

She had entirely forgotten

“Oh, but I’m sure you’re having a party.” The old woman’s braids leapt as she nodded in the affirmative “Tell me all about it when you get back, won’t you? And don’t stay in bars past midnight That’s where they abduct all the new recruits.”

Casey put a hand to her temple “That— that can’t be right.”

“It’s true! There was this man—”

“No, not that.” Casey waved a dismissive hand, ignoring Maggie’s conspiracy talk purely out of habit “What’s tomorrow?”

“The first of November, of course.” Maggie said, glancing at her call list for verification

“I never forget a birthday But dearie— did you forget?”

“Well… yeah I did.” There was no use lying to Margret The woman may have had a few screws loose, but she was suspicious enough to smell a lie from six miles away

Breathing a low tsk tsk, Maggie shed her glasses with a stiff movement, as if taking off a

hat out of respect “You’ve been working too much, dearie, spending all day around these

computers and their radiation Go ahead and get home early like you said, and you call up all of your hip, young friends to have a party tomorrow, you hear? Have fun!”

“Right,” Casey murmured “I will Thanks.” She stood, dragging her coat and scarf from underneath the desk “Bye, Maggie.”

With a sagely nod farewell, the woman reapplied her glasses and turned back to her own desk

The first item on Casey's list, after wrapping herself in the blue scarf Margret had kindly knitted her, was a trip to the store

As she walked to her car, she took extra care to step in every puddle that presented itself

on the rain-soaked Colorado pavement, reflecting that the blue of the scarf was probably her favorite color And her elderly, half-senile coworker was probably the only person who had remembered her birthday It was still alarming that she’d forgotten it, herself, but she attributed it

to all of the craziness with monsters and paranormal investigators Obviously, she was too

stressed She needed more sleep, more social life, and less work She needed to do something productive with herself before she lost it and started seeing flying monkeys

Sliding into her car, she briefly wondered who, other than Maggie, she could invite over for her birthday, but decided to save those thoughts until later Surely, by the time she got home,

she could think of someone

When Casey stepped into the grocery store, she tugged off her scarf and couldn’t help but smile as she melted into the people A couple holding hands, a mother pushing a fussy child in a shopping cart, two teenagers messing around by a rack of sunglasses… this was real life She needed more of this

A few minutes later, she stood in the pharmaceutical department, a can of ravioli in her hand and her eyes on the sleep aids Perhaps tonight, with the help of a pill or two, she was going

to remedy her sleep troubles and keep the fitful dreams away Maybe—

Whap!

Casey jumped, yanked from her thoughts by the sound of a box of bandages hitting the floor She cast an absentminded glance down at the box, returned her eyes to the sleeping pills, then promptly looked back again Was the man who had dropped it barefoot?

She followed bowed legs up to a bony torso wrapped in gauze, from there to a spindly neck and finally a head On this head was a nest of long black hair, and beneath the mess he seemed more-or-less Asian, though it was hard to tell, as medical patches completely obscured half of his face Only one eye was visible for the bandages, and it was so wrought with cataracts that she couldn’t divine its color It stared at her like something ungodly had just grown on her face

“So…” She drew out the word, swallowing and backing away a bit Given that he was built like an emaciated pile of sticks, she shouldn’t have been very intimidated, but he was tall—

six and a half feet, if she had to guess Was this what serial killers looked like? She was in a

Wal-Mart at ten at night… “You dropped your Band-Aids.” She nodded at the abandoned box, crouching to retrieve it when he made no move to do so himself He continued to stare at her, expression thoroughly unchanged “Do you… want them back?”

She held out the box to him, and the eye flickered to her hand When her peace offering didn’t elicit any other reaction, she shook the box a little, succeeding only in shifting his

attention back to her face

“F-fo-forgive me,” he gasped, lips quivering His accent was odd, confirming his Asian ethnicity but clipped at the edges by something almost English

Casey’s brow lowered a bit in wonderment as she stared at this strange, unfortunate creature Just as it began to occur to her to offer some kind of help (a couple dollars or some employment advice; she wasn’t sure exactly what she was going for) she found herself staring at

an empty aisle The man had vanished, leaving her with naught but a box of Band-Aids, a can of ravioli, and the feeling of a hit-and-run

After a moment of thought and a long exhale, she returned the Band-Aids to their shelf and picked up two bottles of sleeping pills, just to be safe As she made her way to the checkout, she glanced about, craned her neck around corners, and asked if others had seen the strange man

No one had, and she didn’t catch sight of him again

The walks from the store to her car and from her car to her house shocked her full of miserable shivers and left her scarf dripping with sleet, making what would have been an

inconsequential sack full of groceries into a bit of a burden by the time she reached her doorstep

Her house was shabby-looking at best, but well-insulated and armed with a security system, so she couldn’t ask for much more Though the oven sat nestled rather uncomfortably near the sofa, if she turned it on the lowest heat and left it on for a few hours, it would warm the house nicely Her television had finally given up the ghost but still resided on the coffee table she

had neglected to move it from, and she brushed the back of it idly with her fingertips as a matter

of habit when she passed by, heading to her bedroom with the sleeping pills in hand

Once in her room, she peeled off her wet clothes and changed into warm sweatpants and

a t-shirt She then stepped into the bathroom, where she cast a glance at herself in the mirror— slight bags beneath her eyes, hair twisted into a lost cause of tangles— before setting one bottle

on the counter and holding the other for examination Having skimmed the label and made sure

of the dosage, she tossed back two pills with a handful of water

It was then, on her way back to the kitchen to unpack the groceries, that she thought of someone to invite for her birthday: Abbey Graves Of course! Abbey, from human resources at work, was a lovely girl, always interested in how Casey’s day was going She’d been transferred, but her cell phone number would still be the same Grinning, Casey pulled a notepad and a pen out of a kitchen drawer and flung Abbey’s name across the top

When she began to write the phone number, however, it occurred to her that she had never actually asked for Abbey’s information They’d talked at the office, but never exchanged

any contacts Frowning, Casey took a seat at her table and crossed out Abbey Graves Who else

could she possibly—?

“Oh!” The gasp came on the coattails of a grin Biting her lip, she wrote Jacob Surley at

the top of the list She’d met Jacob at the library, and he’d seemed interested in her— No Wait His phone number had been disconnected; she’d found out when trying to call him a few months ago He hadn’t been at the library recently, either “Shoot,” she murmured, resting her cheek on her palm She drew a strike through Jacob’s name

Over the next few minutes, Casey wrote down and crossed out a dozen more names She didn’t know anyone from high school well enough, her string of jobs had yielded people she merely tolerated, and her family… Well, she didn’t want her parents arguing about her dad’s gambling, or worse, him showing up drunk at her house She briefly contemplated inviting only her mother, but they didn’t get along well enough for that Besides, her mother was never

pleasant during the month of November Since Casey’s younger brother, Tyler, had passed away that month a few years prior, her parents had gone so far as to stop having Thanksgiving Casey definitely did not want that kind of gloom on her birthday

Her chest grew heavy the moment she had that thought She’d spent the majority of her young life jealous of Tyler, the honor-roll son, the one her parents introduced first at parties She hadn’t even been able to completely share the grief her parents had felt at his death Her mom had fought depression, her dad’s drinking addiction had extended to gambling, and Casey had said, “Well, that sucks, guess I’ll move out now,” and essentially estranged herself from them out of shame She currently sent them extra money each month to help out, but she felt crumby every time she did, like a disinterested father sending off child support

With a frown, she scribbled Family off of the list.

Blessedly, the sleep aid chose that moment to kick in Putting the thoughts of a lonely birthday behind her, Casey relinquished to the vague dizziness of the drug and forced herself to put away a few groceries before wandering back to her room