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Copyright
2017 Albert Oon
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by Albert Oon at Smashwords
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Victims - 1
The story of the Life Thief goes as such. A young teenage girl found it very hard to get accepted by her classmates. She tried a different style and personality every week since they rejected hers, but nothing seemed to work. It then occurred to her that she should be exactly like the others and she picked to be one of the most popular girls. Unfortunately, she made was fun of for this decision, so she ran out of school that day with tears pouring out of her eyes. A normal looking man noticed her crying outside the school and tried to comfort her.
He said, “What’s the matter?”
“I can’t get anyone to like me! I even tried to be like one of them and they just made fun of me!” she answered.
“They probably don’t want another one of the friends they have. That’s why you should be your own person and ignore what the others say.”
Only one part of what he said stuck out to her and she was at her lowest point, so she did the unthinkable. When the girl she was pretending to be was alone, she killed her and hid her body in a place no one would find until years later. Now that the original was out of the way, no one could tell the difference between the original and the new. The girl now felt loved and wondered what else she could do. While she was in Hollywood, she killed and hid the body of a famous child star. Again, with her skill to mimic people, she tricked people that she was that child star and became famous overnight. Being a child star isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be, so she stole another person’s life. That life wasn’t satisfactory enough and again, she moved to another’s. She continued to continuously move from one to another, from one set of positives and negatives to another, from fame to middle class, and from teenager to adult and back.
Yana and Umberto are on a bit of a vacation if you can call it that. They’re traveling the country and enjoy whatever they come across. Today, they’re exploring a deep forest, but first, they get stopped by a police car.
“Is something the matter officer?” Umberto asks.
“Yes,” she says as she gets her gun and points it at them, “Out the car.”
Not wanting to do anything drastic, the couple gets out of the car with their hands up while asking why they’re getting this treatment from the officer. The two put their hands on the car then the officer shoots the gun off into the air.
“Hahaha, I got you two!” she says.
“Don’t scare us like that! What’s wrong with you?!” Yana screams.
“It’s just a little prank that us officers from around here. We don’t get much action around here. Did you see the town that you just pasted? It’s a nice quiet little town where everyone knows one another. There’s no real reason it should have a police force unless some strangers cause trouble.”
Umberto says, “Trust me officer, we aren’t going to cause any trouble.”
“Don’t worry about it, I know you two aren’t troublemakers. You can relax.”
Umberto and Yana take their hands off the car and loosen up a bit.
“You two are going to explore the forest, is that right?” the officer asks.
“That’s right. You’ve seen enough people dressed like us to know what we’re going to do?” Umberto questions.
“That’s right. Try not to walk into the denser parts of the forest that’s where the most dangerous animals hunt. If you ever need help, take these.”
The woman officer gives the two, two flares and a transmitter.
“One is to send a signal to us that you’re in trouble and another is to show us where you are. Trust me, we’ve done this enough times to know this work.”
“Thank you, officer.”
“Safe exploring you two. Don’t be causing any fires or having sex in the woods. That’s what usually kills most people.”
“Got it.”
The officer drives off and the two continue their drive to a spot in the forest to park at.
“That officer was weird,” Yana says.
“I know. I bought a pistol in case something or someone dangerous tries to harm us,” Umberto says, “Hopefully, that won’t happen.”
Umberto drives them to a parking lot that keeps the vehicles of forest explorers safe and pays the guard. The two take their exploring equipment and rations and walk through the forest. There’s no particular direction they want to go to. Umberto and Yana just want to have fun together in the forest by exploring it. Smelling the forest air, enjoying nature and each other’s company. They climb trees and mountains, observe the creatures of the forest, and relax near a nearby lake and not swim in it because Umberto chooses not to. After realizing that it’s getting dark, the two decide to camp near the lake. Yana is in the mood for sex, but Umberto denies her this. He’s not a traditional man, he’s just not in the mood.
There’s unrest in the forest as a predator lurks in the darkness. The thing wears the knitted together skin of its prey and has two sharp steel rods as its arms and legs. It approaches the couple's tent and slashes at it. Umberto and Yana quickly get out before the blades get them. They run into the forest together as the predator chases them. As they are chased, Umberto throws sharp branches at the predator’s face. A couple of the sharp branches stick in the predator’s eyes, which blinds it and makes it crash into a tree. Neither of them stops running because of they can hear that the predator is still alive trying to take the branches out of its eyes. They come to a shack covered in forest debris and explore it. Inside, they find the prey of the predator with various coats of skin and masks. Some of the prey are animals while the rest is human. The intestines of the prey are kept in containers and their blood is bottled. There’s a cheap bed on the wooden flooring along with several pictures of people in compromising positions. Several sharp bloody knives and machetes are in a chest, some with skin still on it.
“So this is where that thing came from,” Yana says.
“I guess so,” Umberto says while trying to process all of it.
“What’s this?”
Yana finds a diary that talks about how a person became this predator of the forest after they lost a loved one to a stranger who passed through the town.
“That thing was a person from the town we passed?”
“I guess so. Keep reading.”
The contents of the diary continue to say that this person took inspiration from the legend of the Life Thief to do their killings. After a while, they believed themselves to be the Life Thief as the idea itself overtook them.
“Have you heard of The Life Thief before?”
“I have, but I thought it was the true story of a teenage girl. I didn’t think the idea itself could overtake someone. We should get rid of this person, so they don’t harm anyone else.”
“What?”
“We have plenty of weapons here and now that we know it’s just a person, we can kill them.”
“I don’t know.”
“If it bleeds, we can kill it, right?”
“But how?”
“We’ll make a lot of noise then stab them in the back.”
“I guess it’ll work.”
“Trust me.”
The two make a ton of noise in the forest then hide in the foliage. The predator comes out to investigate the noise and Umberto and Yana execute the plant perfectly. After they kill it, they find that it was an elderly man they caught a glance of when they passed through the town.
Yana looks over the corpse and says, “Some people are crazy, aren’t-”
She’s silenced by a machete through the chest. Before she dies, Umberto shows his chest and reveals to her that he was a she. The original Life Thief. After getting rid of their bodies, the Life Thief uses the transmitter to get the police into the forest. She kills the few officers that are sent including the previous female officer from before. Having never been a police officer, she makes herself look like the officer and takes her life. The bodies of the Yana and the officers aren’t discovered until years later when the Life Thief had gone far away from the town and into the life of another person. Such is the way of The Life Thief.
Victims – 2
A story that’s told about the origin of The Life Thief is this. An entertainer in the Resistance period was famous for playing different roles. He had a vast collection of masks, outfits, and makeup to play as different real and made-up people. One day, he got the great idea to replace the king of his country. He got into the castle while the real king was gone and played it off so well that people thought he was actually the king. Once the real king came back from his vacation, he tried to have the Life Thief expunged from the throne, but no one could tell the difference. The servants and family of the king tested both of them to a stalemate. The Life Thief studied the life of the king in and out, which included some of his secret details. The decision of who was the real king came down to a sword battle, which the Life Thief won since he was so slick. The Life Thief then ruled for years with the king’s family, servants, and country thinking that he is the kind, original king and that the entertainer was the imposter.
During his years as king, The Life Thief visited a witch and made a deal with her that gave him eternal life. The catch was that he had to switch places with a person once he reached the age that people usually die at lest he die and be sent to hell. He agreed and once the time came, he faked his death and took the life of an entertainer. The Life Thief took many different roles throughout his eternal life such as; soldier, politician, scientist, philosopher, pope, president, assassin, and so on. The life of entertainer and ruler were his favorites, but he enjoyed constantly switching roles fun and entertaining. The legend of the Life Thief is this though some don’t know the real story because it is lost to time. People swear they saw the same person during that time, but they saw a false person. They saw…The Life Thief.
It’s the early 1900s and a traveling circus sets up for another grand show not too far from a city. It consists of many veteran performers and newcomers as well all of whom just want to have fun and make people smile.
A female clown, whose name is Dolly, visits the still practicing veterans and says to them, “You old farts are still practicing? We’re going to have guests coming soon!”
They all laugh while one says, “We have to stay in shape. How do you think we’re still in top condition despite our age?”
Another says, “You youngsters better do the same or else we’ll outperform and outlive you!”
A third veteran says, “Let the crowd come and watch us if they see us. We’ll just be making it worth them coming early.”
Dolly decides to train with them especially with a man by the name of Marcus. He’s been her personal trainer for her entire life and is basically her father since her real father disowned her when she chose to pursue the circus.
While practicing, Dolly talks to Marcus and says to him, “You still got it old timer.”
Marcus chuckles a bit then says, “And you’re not bad for a young girl. Are you single?”
“Haha. I am, and I might be looking. I’m not so sure about dating cougars like you or what do you call male cougars? Manthers?”
“Whatever they call me, you don’t need to consider me as one of your partners.”
“Of course I can. If you’re still fit and can do this well, then you might be good in-”
“Ah! I don’t want to hear none of that especially since you’re a mother!”
“Hahaha! A single mother. Besides, I just like teasing you.”
“It’s not right to tease an old fart like me. That could do me in faster than old age!”
“Haha, then old age better hurry up because you’re too much fun to mess with.”
“Why don’t you mess with your kids? My mother used to bother me and make me look like a fool when I was a child.”
“I do every now and then. They’ve gotten used to my teasing and aren’t easy to tease, but you, however, are very easy to tease.”
“Please let my old age take me out of this misery.”
“Hahaha!”
After training together, the crew rests a bit before performing. There’s a large crowd that consists of normal people and some wealthy individuals. The circus that this crew is a part of is popular after all and has been going strong for quite some time. Today’s special event is themed after The Life Thief, so everyone is dressed as someone popular or dressed in similar looking ways. Some people are dressed so well that you can’t tell the difference between several of them. During the break, someone notices that their dad went missing during break. They go to security and they line up everyone, but everyone thinks this is part of the event, so they act the part.
“I’m your father! Just look into my eyes and remember me!”
“Would your dad say something that creepy? I’m your real dad!”
“Guys, stop acting for a second as me. It’s weirding my son out.”
Another person goes missing while this is going on and again this event repeats because people don’t take it seriously.
“You didn’t lose me babe! I’m right here!”
“What are you people doing? You can’t steal my wife away from me!”
“Yeah, you should get away from her!”
“You’re a woman! I’m her actual husband!”
People have fun with the commotion and stage disappearances and act like The Life Thief. During the uproar, a few more people disappear. It isn’t until people start taking things seriously that a firework goes off in the middle of the circus.
Dolly and Marcus say with microphones, “We’ve had you all fooled!”
The people who disappeared enter the circus area from colorful cloud of smoke. Tons of people are relived by the sight of their love ones, but there are still a few people missing. Dolly and Marcus are told the people who went missing and they don’t recall taking those people. Security, Marcus, and Dolly search the perimeter to find the missing people while the other circus clowns keep the crowd entertained and calm.
“I can’t believe some people are taking this act this seriously,” Dolly says.
Marcus chuckles then says, “Me neither. Remind me again why we did an event based on The Life Thief?”
“You thought it was a funny idea especially if something like this would happen.”
“Oh, I forgot.”
“Is that your old age catching up to you?”
“Sort of.”
“What do you mean by sort of? Haha, is it because you’re highly athletic?”
“That and a balanced diet keeps me young.”
Dolly and Marcus walk around the perimeter of the circus a couple times and they don’t find anything.
“How about we check our dressing room?” Marcus suggests.
“Why would anyone be there?”
“It’s a good place to hide and overhear the crowds in case they need to go back.”
“Makes sense. Wait, you aren’t telling me this, so we can be alone together, are you?”
“I swear I’m not.”
“Ok, but I’m keeping my eye on you.”
“Do whatever you want. You’re the only one who thinks I’m going after you.”
“Way to make a girl feel special.”
Dolly and Marcus search the backstage and eventually find several people knockout hidden under a circus tent.
“Now what happened here?” Dolly asks as she looks at the people who are here.
“Maybe they drank too much?”
“Don’t know-”
They find the body of what appears to be another Marcus.
“Wait who’s this? He looks exactly like you Marcus!”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s a fan dressed up as me?”
“I don’t remember seeing any people dressed as me.”
“That’s not important now. We have to find the person who did this.”
“That person is here,” someone says from behind them, “And that person is you!”
Another person who looks exactly like Marcus appears from behind them.
“Imposter! I’m the real Marcus!”
“No, you’re the imposter! You knocked me out and left me here after I the show and impersonated me!”
“Then who’s the other Marcus here?” Dolly asks.
“A fan who you mistook for me! You’re trying to steal my life like the Life Thief!”
“You’re the only one who’s trying to do that!”
“How about this, let’s see who’s the real Marcus from your performances! I know the way my Marcus moves, I’m always watching him.”
“If there was one thing that I’d give to my imposter, it’d be your overly flirting personality Dolly.”
“I need a restraining order after this is done.”
“Your performances as Marcus so far is excellent.”
Dolly tells the audience that their loved ones are backstage, and they should go back there to pick them up. This next event, she tells them, is to prove who the real Marcus is. Both perform admirably, but one overperforms. Thinking it’s just Marcus showing off, Dolly determines that this is the winner. The imposter is sent off to jail and the rest of the event goes off without a hitch. The circus won’t meet up again until next week, so everybody goes their separate ways for now.
After the event, Dolly goes up to Marcus and says, “You mind if we train together for next week?”
“Are you honestly taking advantage of my single status?”
“Come on. It’s not like you have anybody at home.”
“Fine.”
“Yes! I’ll make it worth your while.”
“I hope you do.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
As they were together for a week, Marcus and Dolly got close together to the point where they became a couple. They got married, had a special circus wedding, and had two children. Once the Marcus that was imprisoned get out and revisits the circus, he confronts Marcus and Dolly.
“Dolly, what did this Marcus do to you?”
“Aren’t you the fake Marcus?”
“No, I’m the real one I swear! I won’t marry you or have sex with you.”
“That’s a lie. The Marcus I know was just playing hard to get with me. I don’t care if he’s a bit older than I am. He’s the man I love.”
“That’s not right! I never loved you that way!”
“Security get this loon out of here.”
“You’re making a mistake! That isn’t the real Marcus, I am! That’s the Life Thief!”
Security takes away Marcus and the other one comes to Dolly.
“What’s going on here sugar?” he says.
“Just some crazy bastard saying that you’re not really my Marcus.”
“What a fake. Come on, let’s get ready before the show starts.”
“Are you going to dress me?”
“You bet.”
The Life Thief is a sly man who continues to replace people and live in their shoes. He perfectly replicates their personality and looks to the point where not even the closest friends and relatives can’t tell the difference between the fake and the original. Such is the way of The Life Thief.
Victims - 3
An origin for The Life Thief goes like this. A spirit wanders the earth looking for its identity. It is said to have had its original body stolen by somebody else who wanted it to continue living on, another Life Thief perhaps. It’s been centuries since it’s seen its body and remembers what it acted like, so it goes from body to body, looking for what is probably a completely decomposed body by now. The bodies it does inhabit experience strange effects, which usually leads to the death of the original owner. The legend of the Life Thief is this though some don’t know the real story because it is lost to time. People swear the people they knew acted differently for some reason and they indeed saw a different person. They saw…The Life Thief.
A small family is moving into a new house. They’re going to move everything on day one since the dad owns a delivery business. He lends a couple large trucks to bring all the furniture and other items from their previous house to the new one. As they move their stuff inside, they hear screaming from across the street. An ambulance comes a few minutes later to and they pick up someone in a body bag. Later in the news, the family hears that someone died by melting. That person’s skin had been sagging recently despite the person being young and died suddenly after three days. This sparks some concern with the family though they think they don’t have anything to worry about since they think the incident is isolated. The two parents enjoy the new spacious backyard while the brother and sister fix up their new rooms. Besides the neighbor’s death, there’s nothing too special happening to this mostly average family.
The family moved during summer vacation, so they can have time together to enjoy the new house and so that the kids have time to adjust to the area before going to school. Today, the family start feeling strange. Something in their skin itches and twitches. It feels like the skin itself is pushing itself away from their bones. They try to look up the reason behind it on their phones, but their phones don’t have a connection to the internet. They then try to go outside, but the doors won’t open nor with the windows open. The windows and doors won’t forcefully open or break no matter how much force they use, so they are trapped inside the house. The family is also unable to use the TV, radio, and other electronics in the house.
This turn in situation has gotten the family extremely worried to the point each of them start acting odd. One would say something weird, then another would say another, and another would say something else. The person who said something strange didn’t remember what they said so they had to put all their memories to put together this sentence.
“One of you has my body. Give it back.”
No one in the family knows what this can possibly mean. Everyone is in the family is an innocent person as far as they know. The father runs a delivery business, as previously mentioned. The mother writes books and the children are just children. No one knows how to get rid of spirits or entities, so they try appealing to it by offering it things they have. The spirit doesn’t respond at all for the rest of the day.
During the next day, the family contemplated taking different kinds of medicines to try to get rid of the feeling in their skin. It’s starting to sag and bubble in a weird way that’s both unnatural and uncomfortable. The spirit possesses each of them again and gets them to say this sentence.
“I don’t know who it is. But someone here definitely has my body! Reveal yourself sorcerer and I will spare your family!”
Not one person in the family has ever shown that they can use any form of magic. This again confuses the family who tell the spirit that they have them confused with different people and beg to be spared. Again, the spirit doesn’t respond for the rest of the day. The family gets desperate and tries all day to break down the windows and doors of the house to no avail. Because of their efforts, their skin continued to melt at a faster rate.
By the next day, their skin began to fall off and erode into a bubbly mess on the floors. Again, they begged the spirit to spare them and this time the spirit joined itself only with the sister. It then got kicked out of her body and joined itself with her brother.
“Occultist!” the possessed boy says, “I finally remember who took my body away from me! Where is it?!”
The sister says, “It’s has been rotting for years now and outlived its use. I’ve gone through dozens of bodies since.”
“You monster!”
An invisible force clashes between the two until it crashes through the ground and the entire family gets is knocked out. When they awaken, their skin and house is back to normal as if nothing happened. They barely remember what happened as well and just go back to living their normal lives on this surprisingly nice day. A young man knocks at the door with presents that have the names of each of the family members.
He says, “This is for you for any of the damages I might’ve caused you. Please accept it.”
The father asks his wife if he should accept the gifts. He turns back to give their response, but the man has disappeared though the gifts are still there. They take in the gifts anyway and find that each gift is tailored to the things they wanted most as if the young man knew their deepest desires. Just like that, the Life Thief is gone from the face of the earth. No human being knows what happened to him or the other Life Thief. As soon as they made themselves known, they vanished without a trace. Such is the way of the Life Thief.
Victims – 4
This is the origin of The Life Thief that some people spread. The Life Thief isn’t a person or a spirit, instead it’s an idea. Once a person hears or even looks at the words of The Life Thief, they become them. Only the people who’ve seen or heard the words are the ones who know it. Everyone who hasn’t are spared from being taken under the influence of The Life Thief. The legend of The Life Thief is this though some don’t know it because the real story has been lost to time. People swear the person they knew turned into someone different due to an unknown idea. The idea that is…The Life Thief.
It’s the 1800s and two officers are in hot pursuit of a pair of criminals who are said to be in possession of a weapon that could destroy humanity. The officers are instructed to not look in the case once they obtain the weapon. Carriages crash as the chase goes on in an almost intentional matter. The criminals’ carriage eventually crashes, which forces the criminals to escape on foot. As the officers follow suite, people start throwing themselves at the officers and attacking them as if they were possessed. Fortunately, the officers are able to get through without seriously hurting anyone. Continuing the chase, the officers corner the criminals in the alley who pull their last trick. They show the weapon to the officers, which turns out to be the words of The Life Thief. Now that the Life Thief has control of the officers, they force them to take the words to the city square where it infects the rest of the city. The city then became known as Legion where no one who resided in it or entered it left. After a month or so, the town was struck by a force similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Not a trace of the city is left nor a trace of the words that turn people into the Life Thief. It is said that some people will come under the influence of the Life Thief and will be possessed by them and die horribly. Such is the way of The Life Thief.
Victims – 5
The actual origin story of The Life Thief is unknown. Many legends are made about it because of how mysterious the thief is. Though parts of them are accurate, none of them are true nor do they accurately describe the real Life Thief. There have been many pretenders that claim to have been The Life Thief and they’ve convinced many people. The actual Life Thief, however, is largely unknown to the world as he, she, or it wanders the world, looking for its next victim. People say that the loved ones they knew changed in a subtle but noticeable way before disappearing. This person indeed wasn’t the person they knew and was...The Life Thief.
The Life Thief has been revealed to a small town in Europe. Since their identity was compromised, they decided to burn the town to the ground along with everyone in it. So far, the town is hell with blood, bodies, and fire in the town’s streets. The townspeople who weren’t killed are tied up in the center to be burned alive. A daughter and her mother are the only one who’ve managed to evade The Life Thief and are on their way to free the townspeople and kill The Life Thief. The Life Thief knows they’re coming and has infected several people with their ideals and has them defending the thief.
“Do you girls really think you can save them and kill me?!” the Life Thief says aloud, “I’m an entity as old as time and as sly as the devil himself!”
This Life Thief looks like a cross between a man and a woman with a voice that changes between a tone associated with either sex. They have a few other people with them that look exactly like the thief. They seemingly switch between bodies as if the thief was a spirit.
“We are legion!”
“We are unity!”
“We are the shadow in the darkness!”
“We are The Life Thief!” they say together.
The mother and daughter hear this from a distance and are distressed by it.
“Mom, I don’t know if we should do this. Do we really stand a chance against The Life Thief?”
“Of course we do. You and I are way stronger than that pretender who thinks they’re a living legend.”
“Don’t you think that someone else had tried this before? We probably aren’t the first.”
“We can do this, now stop complaining. We have company.”
Several of the thief’s minions search the house the mother and daughter are in, but they find nothing as they left before the minions entered. The two dart between alleyways, shadows, and cover to stay concealed. They break into the town’s gun store and replace their meager pistols with a new weapon. The mother looks through the inventory for the best weapons that’s best for her and her daughter.
“Mom, I’m not sure about this. What if the thief already has a trap for us?”
“We’re ready for him her whatever it is especially since we have better weapons now.”
“I don’t even really know how to use any of these guns. Do you?”
“I’ve used them before you were born. Don’t worry, it’s like riding a bicycle. Stop worrying so much. Your mother will protect you from anything that tries to hurt you.”
The thief’s minions find the two and start to shoot at them. With a store full of guns, the mother and daughter duo defend themselves from the small horde of brainwashed people. Though the mother kills most of them, the daughter eventually gathers the strength to take down a couple.
“See? What did I tell you?”
“I’m still a little afraid.”
“Well don’t be. I can do this if you can’t.”
“Mom, what are you saying? Are you superwoman or something?”
“You can call me that.”
Hurrying her daughter along, the mother takes them to the center of town to confront the Life Thief.
“Do you really think you can kill me? Me?! The-”
The mother shoots all three of the Life Thiefs and puts another bullet in their skulls to show her daughter that they’re really dead.
“See? Your mom is tougher than she looks.”
As she was about to smile, the daughter is stopped by the sight of bullet holes in her mother. The bullet holes in her mother are hollow and no blood flows out of her. Her daughter is even to vaguely see through her body.
“M-Mom? Did you get shot?”
The mother notices this then turns the gun on her daughter and shoots her then burns the town and its people to the ground. Since she doesn’t feel pain when hit, she neglected to check herself after the gunfight with the fake Life Thiefs’ minions. The real one leaves the burning town behind to get a new body and a new life. Later, officers find nothing remaining from the burning town. The only thing they manage to find is a hollow female body miles away from the town. A hollow body as in that it doesn’t have a skeleton or organs inside of it, yet it manages to stay in normal shape as if it did. It’s lifeless with bullet holes in it and some speculate that it belonged to another one of the Life Thief’s victims though no one can truly confirm that.
The Life Thief goes from place to place, life to life to steal and ruin. No one truly knows what it or who it is or where they came from. Some think they’re people with paranormal powers or they are a manifestation of the paranormal itself. They are a mysterious being indeed that will never be truly known. Such is the way of The Life Thief.
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