Speaker 1: The summertime in the cul de Sac was the time
Speaker 1: of year we all looked forward to three months of
Speaker 1: no school, days spent running the sidewalks and riding bikes,
Speaker 1: and the familiar sound of the ice cream truck a
Speaker 1: couple times a day. We were all just middle class kids,
Speaker 1: and those without older siblings were under no orders to
Speaker 1: stay with the group if they went out. We lived
Speaker 1: in those halcyon days when you didn't come in until
Speaker 1: the street lights came on. Mom was only worried when
Speaker 1: something came out of the newspapers about stranger danger or
Speaker 1: an abduction. The street I lived on had about twelve
Speaker 1: families and all of them have kids. Me and Mikey
Speaker 1: Castro were best buds, we had been since first grade.
Speaker 1: There were usually enough kids out on the road riding
Speaker 1: bikes or shooting hoops to get a game of stickball
Speaker 1: or soccer going if we wanted. Sometimes, if their parents
Speaker 1: were cool with it, we'd play touch football in someone's
Speaker 1: yard or my radio flyer wagon out of the garage,
Speaker 1: and we'd loaded up with plastic guns and play war.
Speaker 1: Most of the kids came in pairs to play the
Speaker 1: game of the day, pairs of triplets or even quads,
Speaker 1: but everyone on the block had someone or several someone
Speaker 1: Solo kids shot out like a sore thumb. We all
Speaker 1: usually chummed together. I'll tell you all this so I
Speaker 1: could tell you that Robbie was odd by the standards
Speaker 1: of the neighborhood. Robbie didn't have a best friend, and
Speaker 1: I'm not entirely sure that he had any friends at all.
Speaker 1: He was a skinny kid, real thin, my mom would
Speaker 1: have said, with big thick glasses and a mouth made
Speaker 1: for frowning. He never joined in our games, and we
Speaker 1: never really offered. We weren't unfriendly kids, far from it.
Speaker 1: But Robbie didn't feel right. I know that sounds, but
Speaker 1: a weird kind of haze seemed to hang over Robbie.
Speaker 1: It always reminded me of the stink lines around Pigpen
Speaker 1: and the Peanuts, but this one felt more like VB static.
Speaker 1: It was a low background sound that hung around him,
Speaker 1: and if I spent too much time around him, I
Speaker 1: always felt like I had a headache coming on. He
Speaker 1: used to draw on the sidewalk with colored chalk. We
Speaker 1: all joked that his dad must bring back the defective
Speaker 1: sticks from the chalk factory. Where he worked, no matter
Speaker 1: the temperature, no out of the season. Robbie was out
Speaker 1: there drawing on the sidewalk. It was the summer of
Speaker 1: ninety two and Mikey had a new super soaker. He
Speaker 1: wanted to do a water war, so all of us
Speaker 1: with water guns showed up to play. I had a
Speaker 1: couple of water pistols from Easter, and Steve Westers had
Speaker 1: about three of those big super soakers that were popular
Speaker 1: the year before. He and his two brothers took him
Speaker 1: and some of the other kids had a ragged collection
Speaker 1: of water pistols and water balloons. They were about eleven
Speaker 1: of us in all. We divided up teams as fairly
Speaker 1: as we could. The opposing side had more guys, but
Speaker 1: one of them was Davy Michaels and his club foot.
Speaker 1: It kind of held him back from running. We were
Speaker 1: soaking each other in lukewarm water when I heard someone
Speaker 1: yell in frustration. He looked up to see Robbie shaking
Speaker 1: his wet arm, scowling at two of the Western brothers
Speaker 1: who had soaked him with their guns. What are you doing?
Speaker 1: You'll erase it. Get away from here. This is my sidewalk.
Speaker 1: Mom said, so some of us stopped squirting each other,
Speaker 1: moving closer as he brandished his piece of chalk like
Speaker 1: a dagger of the Westers brothers. They were backing away too,
Speaker 1: like whatever he had might be catching, and he bent
Speaker 1: back down to fix the chalk, drawing, the one that
Speaker 1: they had ruined with their water guns. I approached Robbie,
Speaker 1: meaning to apologize, but he stood up and brandished the
Speaker 1: chalk in me again. Get away, this is my sidewalk.
Speaker 1: Go play on your sidewalk, I laughed. Robbie, a sidewalker
Speaker 1: for everyone. You can't own a sidewalk, can't too, he
Speaker 1: belt it can't too. My mom says, so this sidewalk
Speaker 1: in front of our home is mind. I took a
Speaker 1: step forward, trying to calm and but then I saw
Speaker 1: what he had been drawing, and recoiled a little. For
Speaker 1: a drawing, he was very expressive. I'd later think of
Speaker 1: cave paintings or early Primitive drawings, but this was far
Speaker 1: more savage. It was a tall man with long frilled arms,
Speaker 1: long spindly legs. His chest was equally long, stretching in
Speaker 1: many colors as it tapered up to a rounded head
Speaker 1: with a pair of stubby horns on it. His eyes
Speaker 1: were spirals that swirls, changing colors as well as they
Speaker 1: swirled into the irises. Even wet, it looked very formidable.
Speaker 1: What is that, I asked, and Robbie must have heard
Speaker 1: something in my voice. He grinned. That's the chalkman. I
Speaker 1: draw him all the time. He comes to me at night,
Speaker 1: tells me that if I don't get me, so I
Speaker 1: draw him everywhere, on the sidewalk, on the car port,
Speaker 1: even on the back patio. I shook head turning to go,
Speaker 1: but I heard him say something else, and it made
Speaker 1: my blood run cold. I put him out here because
Speaker 1: he says he likes to watch you guys. What I
Speaker 1: half whispered as I turned back around. What did you say?
Speaker 1: I said, he likes to watch you kids while you play. Someday,
Speaker 1: when none of you are paying attention, he grab one
Speaker 1: of you and drag you into this little world and
Speaker 1: gobble you up. That's what he says. Anyway, he shrieked again.
Speaker 1: When I started sprang the chalk drawing. I couldn't have
Speaker 1: told you why I did it, but I felt certain
Speaker 1: that it needed to be done. The thing needed to
Speaker 1: be gone. Forever, and as it started to fade, I
Speaker 1: heard my squirt gun hiss as he went empty. I
Speaker 1: moved away slowly, Robbie still crying as he yelled at
Speaker 1: me for ruining it, And when Mikey came over to
Speaker 1: see what was going on, I found I couldn't look
Speaker 1: away from the spot where Robbie was fixing that horrid creature.
Speaker 1: Oh is that a Mike? He asked, Robbie, still shooting
Speaker 1: me murderous looks. I I tried to find my words
Speaker 1: for it, but I was unable. I don't know he
Speaker 1: said something I didn't like. It made me feel I
Speaker 1: chewed my lip, trying to find something to describe it,
Speaker 1: and coming up short. Bad, really bad. The water war
Speaker 1: was starting to wind down now, most of us on
Speaker 1: our third or fourth tank, and we were all soaked
Speaker 1: and shivering. Come on, said Mikey, I just got a
Speaker 1: new Super Nintendo game. We could dry off and you
Speaker 1: could borrows on my clothes. I nodded and allowed myself
Speaker 1: to be pulled away, but it was hard to look
Speaker 1: away from that hunched figure as he worked over the
Speaker 1: chalk drawings of his monster. We spent the afternoon playing
Speaker 1: a new spaceship game that had been gotten I can't
Speaker 1: remember the name, and I was shocked to out and
Speaker 1: see that it was getting dark. The street lights would
Speaker 1: be coming on now, and my mom would be angry
Speaker 1: if it got dark and I wasn't home. Mikey asked
Speaker 1: if I wanted to ask his mother to drive me,
Speaker 1: but his house was only a few blocks down from
Speaker 1: my house. If I run, I could make it, I
Speaker 1: told him, and I headed off towards my home. The
Speaker 1: afternoon had gotten away from me, the sun riding low
Speaker 1: in the night fast approaching and after run if I
Speaker 1: intended to make it home. But as I ran down
Speaker 1: the path and towards the sidewalk, I stopped as I
Speaker 1: saw something I had hoped to avoid stretched across the sidewalk,
Speaker 1: the multi colored chalk. Very bright was the chalkman. He
Speaker 1: was even bigger than he had been earlier, his arms
Speaker 1: seeming to twine around the fence posts, and I hopscotched
Speaker 1: over and around him. As I took off for home,
Speaker 1: I was going to be late if I didn't all
Speaker 1: but fly down the pavement. It hadn't gone very far, though,
Speaker 1: when I saw another chalkman, just as large as the last.
Speaker 1: His mouth was open, revealing teeth as sharp as knives,
Speaker 1: a mouth that size and have no problem gobbling me
Speaker 1: up whole. I ran around this one, too, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't the last. They seemed to be everywhere, and Robbie
Speaker 1: had been busy. Indeed, the chalkman was rising and writhing
Speaker 1: around the concrete, his mouth opened and closed as I ran,
Speaker 1: those gnashing teeth going up and down. As my fervent
Speaker 1: strides bore me on, I was filled with the terror
Speaker 1: of bedroom closets and growlings beneath the bed. These chalk
Speaker 1: drawings made me feel the way that strangers sometimes did,
Speaker 1: the way I felt when I listened to a scary story,
Speaker 1: the way I felt when I was outside at night.
Speaker 1: When I tripped. My cry had nothing to do with
Speaker 1: the way the pavement ate up my hands and knees.
Speaker 1: I thought I had just caught the edge of the
Speaker 1: sidewalk in my haste, But as I looked back, I
Speaker 1: felt my neck hair stand up. A single chalk hand,
Speaker 1: the purple claw, looking huge and cruel, had risen up
Speaker 1: to grab my ankle. As I ran. The chalkman was
Speaker 1: even now rising from the pavement, its gnashing teeth chomping
Speaker 1: at my ankle. It nearly had me too. I was
Speaker 1: so surprised to find the chalk arm rising from the concrete.
Speaker 1: This was no cartoon this things like this didn't happen
Speaker 1: in the real world. It dragged me halfway to its
Speaker 1: gaping mom before I realized I wasn't dreaming. After bashing
Speaker 1: my head on the sidewalk, I pulled, and I pulled hard,
Speaker 1: but his hands were strong. He dragged me back, more
Speaker 1: of me rising as he yanked at me. But it
Speaker 1: seemed fate had only other ideas. He grabbed not the
Speaker 1: whole ankle, but my sock, and as his hand slipped
Speaker 1: on the fabric, I was up and moving. Before I
Speaker 1: could latch back around it. I was running. I was
Speaker 1: dodging around other chalk drawings, and when I saw my
Speaker 1: house coming into view, I breathed a little easier. That
Speaker 1: wasn't until I saw the chalkman outside my own gate.
Speaker 1: He was already rising like a blighted weed from the pavement,
Speaker 1: and I knew I couldn't get around him. I sidestepped
Speaker 1: into the neighbor's yard, and that's when I saw it.
Speaker 1: His hose was coiled around the spickett, and I reached
Speaker 1: for the nozzle as the shadow of that thing fell
Speaker 1: over me. It was rising huge now, coming up and up,
Speaker 1: and I unwombed the hose, and when the water hit it,
Speaker 1: chalkman seemed as surprised as I was. It stepped back,
Speaker 1: some of its color fading, and as I pelted it
Speaker 1: with water, the chalk began to run into the gutter.
Speaker 1: He was melting like the wicked witch, and as he
Speaker 1: fell away to nothing, I turned off the hose and
Speaker 1: I ran the rest of the way home. I came
Speaker 1: in panting, and any anger my mom might have had
Speaker 1: was washed away like the chalkman. I told her, I
Speaker 1: felt like someone had been trying to snatch me. She
Speaker 1: made the usual sounds about people being watchful. She fed me.
Speaker 1: She told me to get ready for bed, but I
Speaker 1: knew there wouldn't be any sleep for me tonight. How
Speaker 1: can I sleep with that the image of that chalk
Speaker 1: running through my head? For the next several nights, I had
Speaker 1: bad dreams about the Chalkman. In my dream I didn't
Speaker 1: get away. In my dreams, the chalkman dragged me across
Speaker 1: the pavement, and the last thing I saw before I
Speaker 1: woke up, was him pulling me into his mouth. After
Speaker 1: that night, I didn't see any more of the sidewalk drawings.
Speaker 1: Some people in the neighborhood had complained, and Robbie was
Speaker 1: only allowed to draw them in front of his own house.
Speaker 1: His parents got fined, I heard, and his dad grounded
Speaker 1: him from drawing for a week. I assume he still did,
Speaker 1: since the chalkman never got him. But the chalkman never
Speaker 1: darkened our sidewalks again. I can remember on the days
Speaker 1: when I found myself close to the madly scribbling boy,
Speaker 1: the chalkman still seemed to move, but he could have
Speaker 1: been heat shimmer. Those are but the remembrance of a child.
Speaker 1: They're so vivid. I often wonder how much his speculation
Speaker 1: and how much how much truly happened. Hey, did you
Speaker 1: like that creepy pasta story that you heard today? I
Speaker 1: bet you did, because you'd stuck around to hear the outro.
Speaker 1: So if you want to find more crevy positories like this,
Speaker 1: check out the links in the description down below lead
Speaker 1: you over to the Creepypasta collection Volume one and Volume two.
Speaker 1: Volume one and Volume two also have a bunch of
Speaker 1: stories from some of the best authors I've worked with
Speaker 1: in the past fifteen years, which I think is pretty
Speaker 1: high praising as this is like, what four thousand stories, That's right,
Speaker 1: four thousand stories. Subscribe you'll see them. But yes, two
Speaker 1: books available Amazon linked down below. Check them out. Also,
Speaker 1: I want to give a huge thank you to everybody
Speaker 1: on this list of Patreons. Some of these amazing folks
Speaker 1: are Diana Kraus, Acid System, Blake Rattler, Brandon Mendoza, Redda Crow,
Speaker 1: How Tuna, Chicago hit Man, Corey knsh Crusader, Jocobo, Dakota Best,
Speaker 1: Daniel Pulsen, Don Taking Kaid Enchanted Buns. That's to Bean
Speaker 1: Haadie's nephew Himbo, Jerry How a Minute, Second Time, Inger,
Speaker 1: Girt Salstrom, Jay Curts, Jettis, Pat mcmode, Mister Marcus Splitz,
Speaker 1: Psychomel Plant Pis, Red Shadow Cat, Remember the Sun, Salty Surprise,
Speaker 1: Samara l in Seclude, Simbas, Bloody, Mojo Sky, Harbert smile Y,
Speaker 1: The Psychotic Sully Man, Tolly Sue, Team Lao seventy six,
Speaker 1: The Demented Voice in Your Head, The Jabez Brothers, The
Speaker 1: Judger Brus, Tommy Walters, Vice, Roy Scorn William Wellington, your
Speaker 1: bro Keegan, Zubub and Shadow Gardens. A huge thank you
Speaker 1: to you guys, everybody who shows up in the description
Speaker 1: down below, and as always, folks, Sweet dreams,