I'm so tired after all this has happened so forgive me if I trail off a bit. My therapist says it will probably help if I write out my experiences with that bastard. Supposedly the quack thinks it'll help me move past it, but I'm not sure that's possible after the hell I've been through. Might as well try I suppose. It wont help but what the hell.

News Broadcast: Tonight, an update on the man accused of murdering a family of four. Another sad day in New York, as another victim was found. Looks like the terrors aren't over yet as another killing has occurred. Local residents of this quiet suburb are in shock tonight as another victim along with their dogs bodies were found. The person responsible for gripping the city in terror for nearly 18 months has finally been apprehended. You heard right folks, Black Reaper has finally been caught.

I remember the bullshit the media spewed on and on throughout the incidents and chaos. Trying to tell us that we need to take precautions to protect ourselves. Obeying the curfew, traveling with other people when we venture out, carrying pepper spray or whatever else to defend with. All of that is bullshit, if he wants you he will find a way to get you. No one was safe, I'm not sure we are now though. I guess you wouldn't understand how it felt to be his prey until it was you he was hunting. In the concrete jungle of this shithole city you'd think a man like that couldn't hide. Only now I realize how foolish I was to think that, in the city of darkness its incredibly easy for evil to hide.

I think back to a conversation I had with my friend Mark, we were talking about music or some other shit. I don't really remember. Looking back that was my first encounter with the Reaper. I always thought serial killers only targeted those that were obviously physically weaker than them, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I'm 6'1 and by no means weak. I was also a bit to full of myself back than. He looked like a normal guy, wearing a tie, dress pants, button up shirt, and carrying a briefcase. He looked like your typical office worker.

What is it they always say after a shooting? "He was such a nice boy. We never thought he could do such a thing. He was quiet and kept to himself." Honestly I thought this man fit those descriptions to a T. He looked harmless and a little dorky. I remember he always came to my work almost every day, ordered a simple black coffee and sat in a corner reading. He always left a huge tip before he left. Well I mean it was huge considering the coffee was only a buck 50 and he left a $5 tip. I just thought he was a generous guy, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I wonder what I did to fuck up with him, why he decided I was next.

It started off simply enough. I had started getting little things in my mailbox like letters with weird cryptic writing on them. It was gibberish and thinking nothing of it I threw them away. Until one day I noticed within the nonsensical writing there was the phrase "When the light turns dark, even the shadows fill with fear." It creeped the hell out of me. Until than they made absolutely no sense, there were no complete sentences or anything of value I thought. I looked at the return address and wrote it down. A really stupid move on my part, but I was tired of this creep and was going to tell him off in person.

I decided to hop in my truck and head off, still pretty pissed. When I arrived something didn't seem right. There was an old woman outside tending to a garden. She seemed harmless, ya know a sweet little old lady. Clearly she couldn't have been the one doing all this. I decided to talk to her a bit, but I didn't want to just mention the letters. I mean an old lady like this couldn't possibly be responsible and honestly I didn't want to scare her if it was nothing. I casually tried to bring it up in conversation, but it was weird trying to do that without scaring her. I showed her the cryptic message not mentioning the dark phrase buried in it. Her face suddenly went pale and she told me to leave. I apologized and said I wasn't trying to scare her. She just demanded I leave. She looked terrified, I guess that's understandable when a stranger shows you a letter like that. Especially with news of the serial killer everywhere lately. I didn't blame her.

I was driving away in my truck now feeling like a piece of shit. I cant believe I just terrified a poor woman who was just enjoying her garden. Still, why would the return address be hers. Was someone just using that address as a way to remain hidden or was something else going on. I remembered that I never did ask the woman if she lived alone. Maybe someone else in that house had sent the letters. I guess I missed my opportunity now, If I went back the woman might call the cops on me and I'd rather not deal with that headache. The cops, thinking back i have got to be the worlds stupidest victim for not just calling the police in the first place.

I went back home and got ready for work. i looked at my watch and realized I was going to be late. Damn it on top of everything. I hurried to get dressed and headed out. I arrived at the coffee shop I worked at and started to help customers. Than the nicely dressed guy who always gets a coffee arrived. Sweet I thought. An easy order and a good tip coming up soon. It didn't take long for him to walk up to the counter and place the order, I got it ready and was waiting for the glorious moment when I received the tip. He said thank you and walked away. I stood there a little confused. "No tip?" I remember saying in a rude way. Not my proudest moment I know, but I was so used to it by now. He looked back at me and gave me a look I had never seen before on a persons face. A look of almost happy anger, if that makes any sense. It was weird, but I apologized and admitted that was rude of me.

Fast forward a couple hours into my shift and all was going smoothly as usual. I noticed the regular who ordered black coffee had returned. I decided I would walk over to him and apologize for being rude earlier. When I got close enough to see his expression I froze with fear for a second. That same happily angry expression still plastered to his face. What the hell. This guy was pretty creepy. I didn't really know this guy just that he always came in for a black coffee almost every day and looked like the type of guy who worked in an office. Surprise, I was wrong. This dude was one messed up, twisted, sick, pathetic individual. At the time I didn't realize this though. Don't you wish that sometimes people who were bad just had a discernible feature, like a big scar or a mean looking face or something like that. Sure as hell would make things easier.

Finally my shift was over and I just wanted to get home and indulge myself in some good old fashioned violence with a game of C.O.D. or for you none gamers Call of Duty. I powered up the console and chose the game mode. Zombie killing, my favorite way to blow off steam after work. I heard a loud banging at my front door. I'll admit it freaked me out a bit. I decided to ignore it, I wasn't expecting any packages and if it was a friend they would just call to tell me to open the door. A good five minutes later and BANG BANG BANG. Alright at this point it was pissing me off. "No ones home!" I yelled, just a tad bit sarcastic. Than the noise stopped, I figured whoever it was decided to leave. Maybe they had the wrong door. I live in an apartment complex so it wouldn't be unheard of for them to just have the wrong room. I looked at the clock on the wall, it read 1:30 in the morning. Holy shit, time flies when your killing stuff. I started to get ready for bed and as I was brushing my teeth again I heard the familiar noise. BANG BANG BANG! Alright shithead, now I'm pissed. I finished what I was doing and went to grab a bat I had in my closet and went to the door. I opened it up and standing there was the black coffee man. I yelled at him to get out of here. He flashed that same creepy look from earlier and left.

The next day I went into work and told my manager about the creepy guy showing up to my place. He proceeded to call me a wuss and said something like the guys half your size whats he gonna do. I was annoyed by this but decided to just ignore it and continue working. That was yet another example of how naive I was and how I should've just called the cops. I did my job as usual until the creepy guy came in. He sat down and just stared at me for about 20 minutes before he got up and left. I'm not sure what the guys issue is, but in a way I'm glad hes gone. I swear that weird look he gave me the last time freaked me out. It just didn't look like a normal expression for a human.

The next day at work was the same damn thing, he came in, sat down, stared at me, and left. This pattern continued for the next few days, until I was at my limit for creepiness I could tolerate. I went over to his table the moment he arrived and asked "what do you want?" Trying to sound as professional as possible but at this point I didn't really care. He shot back with "no tip?" I was thinking dude, get the hell over it I freaking apologized. After that he got up gave me a look but this time it was evil, pure evil. Like a damn psychopath from a movie evil. After he left I told my manager again about how creepy this guy was. He told me to try not to piss the customers off and that my job wasn't that hard so get it together. This pissed me off, but I just continued on being as professional as a paranoid guy can be.

Now lets get to the fun part. The part all you horror lovers are bound to enjoy. I was at home again after another productive day as the target for a creepy stalker psychopath. I came home and decided to take a shower first thing, I noticed my towels weren't hanging up in the bathroom. This was weird but I thought maybe I just forgot to hang them up after the last time I did laundry. I looked in the closet and grabbed one. That was my first clue to get out of the house. I took a quick shower and decided to watch TV, I wasn't really in the mood for video games. I was watching some kind of cop thriller. I don't know. I heard footsteps, but as I said earlier I live in an apartment so I hear sounds constantly. It could also just been the TV. This was the second clue to get out of the damn house. After the show I decided enough of that. The show was not my thing, it wasn't bad just not my thing. I decided to peruse the channels for a few minutes thinking weekday TV is absolutely terrible. It was on some sort of cooking show, what the hell I thought. If anything maybe I can learn how to make something tasty. I heard a sound that I'm still not sure if it was the man or the TV, it sounded like metal hitting wood. That could been the TV, a chef chopping veggies maybe. In hindsight, this was my third clue. I decided it wasn't very late so I would just go on a quick walk before it got dark. I put on my shoes and headphones and headed out. It wouldn't be a long walk as I was also pretty tired so I decided to just leave my lights on. I'm not sure how long I was gone, but it was about 5 rock songs worth if that helps. Every single light in my apartment was on. Now I know I left the living room one on, but why the hell would they all be on? This was of course another clue and the point where I was a bit freaked out. For whatever reason the creepy guys evil face flashed in my mind for a second. Surprisingly though, this was the last of the creepy occurrences for that night.

I had the day off of work, but sadly I had errands to run. I went to grab groceries, deposit a check from work, and went to get my oil changed in my truck. Nothing special, I wish that were the case. The mechanic working on the truck came out and told me I needed to come see something. I followed him and he told me to look at a cable that was almost completely sawed through. "What the hell?" I remember thinking how the hell would that even happen. Now I'm a guy who enjoys guy things I suppose, except I'm not really well versed in cars. The mechanic said something like the cable was going to snap soon and my brakes wouldn't operate properly if it did. He also told me to tell the police because it looked like it was being gradually sawed through. Great, on top of everything now this. The mechanic was a nice guy though and fixed it for me without incident. I decided to just go home, I was done. Get home and check out until tomorrow I thought.

Now the next morning I woke up really early, around 5. I didn't want to wake up yet so I tried to go back to sleep. As soon as my head hit the pillow again I heard a very quiet laugh. Someone was in my room with me. I got up out of bed quicker than I ever had before and flicked on the lights. At the opposite side of my room was someone in a cloak with what looked like a harvesting scythe. I looked around frantically for something, anything that I could use as a weapon. I grabbed a lamp I had on my nightstand. Not a weapon I know, but better than nothing. Maybe I could smack them a few times before they killed me. Hell I don't know. The cloaked person ran at me and nearly slashed me across my face. I reacted instantly and swung the lamp with full force hitting them in the head. It looked like I had knocked them off balance. Soon after, however they were swinging the damn blade around like a man possessed. I knew at that moment I needed some god tier luck to survive this. The cloaked figure said in that familiar tone "no tip?" Are you kidding me, it was the creepy black coffee psychopathic mental case. He was Black Reaper? I don't know how I didn't notice this before when I turned on the lights, but I was right next to the door that leads to my living room. Thank you sweet merciful God. I ran out my door and quickly out of my apartment. I yelled like a mad man for someone to help. To my surprise the cloaked man wasn't following me. I sprinted to my friend Marks house a full 2 and a half miles away, not stopping once. I pounded on his door until he answered. "Dude, its like 5 a.m." I remember I ran inside and slammed his door behind me. He was visibly surprised. "Call the cops!" I screamed and demanded. Groggily he said "damn alright." When they arrived I gave a full description and mentioned that I heard the man mention the tipping incident, so I was positive it was the creepy coffee man. The officers arranged for me to go to work until the guy arrived and if he did they would arrest him than and there. I agreed and mentally prepared myself.

Next day came and what do you know, the guy came in. Must not be very smart I thought. Surely he knows I know who he really is now. He ordered his coffee and sat there like nothing was happening. The police arrived within seconds and hauled him off. That was the last I saw of him. Now you might be thinking what were the letters about from earlier. I asked the police and it turned out this guy lived with his mom and the reason his mom was terrified that day I came over to show her the letter was that she knew something with her son wasn't quite right. The police got the old woman's permission to search the house and they found what looked like a shrine dedicated to past serial killers. Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, all the well known killers. This guy was not right in the head.

Its been about 5 months since he was arrested and I'm so glad hes behind bars. I cant help but to think though. In all that time this man was tormenting me how many others did he kill. Would I have been able to save them if I had called the police when all this started. Those thoughts keep me up at night, knowing that I may be somewhat responsible for innocent peoples deaths. I haven't really gotten a good nights sleep since this incident. If a lesson is to be learned from this experience just remember if something seems off or just plain creepy, it may not be in your imagination. So please get help before something terrible happens.