It started in Maine during 2011, when three little girls were playing at a park. Marie, Lucy, and Kacy, Lucy's little sister. The park had tall redwood trees surrounding the area, with a large iron gate that had big letters spelling out “Sailors Park.” Next to the old slide, swings, and seesaw, there was a little pond. As the children were laughing and playing tag, Marie accidentally knocked Kacy into a pond filled with a little yellow and orange duck and tiny fish. Poor Kacy got soaked head to toe. She was mean to Kacy, but Lucy was still a protective older sister. Marie and Lucy got into a heated argument, which made Kacy cry. She was only eight years old, and their parents had passed away a few years earlier due to a horrific car accident.
As the two sisters left, both crying for separate reasons, Marie stayed at the park steps, sniffling as the sun started to sink behind the mountains, and a realization set in. That is when tears came pouring down her cheeks, stinging her eyes and catching in her throat. After calming down, she looked up. “Lucy?” Marie whispered. In the distance, she spotted a figure with short blond hair walking towards her shaking body. The closer she got, the more she didn't look like her at all. It looked like a creature was trying to replicate her bright blond hair, green eyes, and her undeniably thin stature. Still, she truly believed this creature was Lucy until she saw its bright, white teeth sharpen and its eyes glow a strange, iridescent emerald color. Before she knew it, a sharp pain hit her leg, immediately causing stinging in her eyes as she looked up and didn't see the creature. She looked down and saw red everywhere. She fell to the ground, screaming for help, looking up. She met eyes with the creature , smiling, licking its lips. Marie grabbed her leg, then fell down in shock. It was gone as she looked up. The creature turned back into its natural form, a small yellow duck that looked like a rubber one, almost. Its jaw unhinged like a snake; it took one bite, and Marie disappeared.
The town was small, so word got around fast about how poor little Marie had been murdered and how she was too young to die. When Lucy found out, she was heartbroken, but knew something was off. but couldn't figure it out. When she remembered earlier that day, she and Kacy got to the park early, she looked into the pond like they always do, and noticed only one duck, but instead of black and emerald, it was a bright orange and yellow color. That wasn't even the weirdest part; the duck had made eye contact with her and smiled.
Around 10:00 at night she arrived at the crime scene after waiting for ten minutes so the detectives would leave, she looked around for answers seeing the duck feathers out of the pond which must have been something that the detectives missed, another thing that they missed was the duck, it seemed like it had ketchup smeared on its neck and for a duck that's pretty unusual. Lucy couldn't shake the feeling that the duck had something to do with this crime, a horrifying thought crossed her mind.” Did you do this?” she asked quietly.
She quickly ran home to get supplies such as fishing nets, a knife, rope, and a rabbit she found. Once she got to the park, it was completely dark, making this more terrifying than it was already, with every crack of a branch and hoot of an owl made her even more on edge, shining her flashlight everywhere. After about 20 minutes, she finished setting the trap. She came back to the park very early in the morning so the detectives weren't there yet, and to her astonishment, the trap work had been chewed through and only the rabbits' bones were left. She quickly took down the trap and ran home because Kacy would be waking up very soon now. The whole day, she was thinking of another plan. Later that night, she set another trap, the same one, but stronger and instead of the rabbit being the bait, she decided to risk her life to figure out what happened to her best friend. She decided to film this all night just in case she left. After about an hour, she heard rustling in the bushes. As she looked up in fear, her camera fell into the pond.
20 Years Later
After a few years of being a detective in murder cases, Kacy, Lucy's little sister found out about the recording. After all, she was a detective, so she decided to investigate what happened to her only family and her best friend. The park had been closed for a while now, after three other murders like this had gone down, so that's where this park got nicknamed “The Park of Silence," and all of these happened to have yellow feathers at the crime scene. It was even weirder that the yellow duck had stayed alive in the park while it was closed, and all of the fish had died. She wrote a letter to the chief asking for permission to access the park with the backup of two officers. Two weeks later, she got a letter from the chief stating that she could go with the two officers the next day for 3 hours.
The next morning, she woke up early, braided her long blond hair with streaks of caramel that went down to the middle of her back, and put on a fitted black sweatshirt and matching sweat pants. She headed off to the station, then to the park with two other officers, searching for answers and the truth about this park.
Once she got there, the officers took the duck and put it in a cage so she could search the pond. After wading through the pond for a few minutes, she found the tape. Back at the station, Kacy was spending hours trying to get the tape to turn on by shaking it, using a blow dryer, putting in rice, and wiping it with a towel. Finally,finally it turned on, at first there was a lot of static. Lucy's face popped up on the screen, and she heard her explain the trap and her theory about who the killer was, also showing her saying goodbye to Kacy and how she loved her. After watching for a bit it was about 10:00 at night in the video, and there was some rustling in the bushes, she got very frightened by it, too. Then she saw, blurry at first, but it became clear really quickly as the duck came into frame with a sick smile, teeth ground sharp, and eyes glowing in the moonlight. She heard her sister scream and struggle for a few minutes, then the deafening silence as the camera fell from her grip into the pond.
Tears welled in Kacy's bright green eyes. She remembered how the group of police officers took the little killer, she rushed into the parking garage, and the sight was frightening. Memories of Marie and her sister came back instantly, of blood everywhere and tiny bones, as she was too young to die. One of the officers was still alive, suffering. She quietly took the radio on the dead police officer, telling the other officers on the line not to let anyone into the garage because no one else needed to get hurt. She took a long, deep breath and shot the alive officer to stop his suffering.
She then realized that the duck was nowhere in sight, and she ran around the garage looking for the duck, not knowing that her movement would provoke it more. As she turned one of the corners, she paused, wiping her eyes. “Lucy?.. Lucy, is that you?” she whispered out of nowhere. She heard a blood-curdling scream, but it was her sisters she ran around, confused and crying not knowing what was real and what wasn't. It got worse when she heard Marie's high-pitched scream, too. Then she saw him standing there smiling, mocking her as blood was dripping down his orange beak with feathers all over the place and still floating down from the air. The air was thick with the scent of blood. Kacy breathed a deep breath and remembered Lucy's smile while they were playing with dolls at Marie's house. With her fingers trembling on the trigger, she pulled it, avenging every little girl who was ever attacked in some way by this monster.
She opened her eyes and walked over to the duck ears, ringing from the gunshot. She looked down and saw the duck bleeding out but still smiling.
Back at her house, she sat on her couch holding a framed photo of her, Marie, & Lucy smiling by that cute old pond. Kacy looked up at the flickering flames, a smile started to form on her face as a bright yellow feather fell from the fireplace.
By Penelope H G6