Warning: the fallowing contains themes of self-harm and suicide. Reader descretion is advised.

Like, it all started one day when I got some horrible news at work. As I walked into my job at Reininger's, the clothing store at the local mall. I saw one of my co-workers, Fiona talking to my boss Mrs. Carmicheal.

Fionna was a girl about my age. She had thick brown hair, that she tied in a ponytail. She wore blue jeans with a red and pink stripped sweater and a cute yellow scarf.

Mrs. C was a tall red headed woman with a dark blue suit and blue dress skirt.

They both looked super sad, and I could tell something was up.

Also the store was full of cops. They were questioning Fiona and Mrs. Carmicheal about something.

"Are you Leni Loud." One of the cops asked me.

"Y-yes." I said shyly. "Am I in trouble?"

"LENI!" Fiona rushed over to me. She had a sorrowful look on her face.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"It's Miguel." Fiona said. "He..."

"Your co-worker was found dead this morning." The cop interrupted.

"D-dead?" I said, my heart sank. "What happened?"

"So far we're ruling it a suicide." The cop said. "But we can't leave any stone unturned."

I felt my cheeks getting hot. This couldn't be real.

Miguel is dead.

Miguel was my other co-worker and a good friend of mine. I've known him since I started this job. And now he's gone forever. Just like that.

I didn't even get to say goodbye.

Suicide? Why would he... No, he can't... he would never.

After I talked to the cops, Mrs. C came up to me.

"Are you ok Leni?" She asked

I didn't answer.

"I'm closing the store for today... and probably tomorrow as well." Mrs. C told me. "I know you and Fiona need some time to grieve. And you're literally my only employees now..."

"Yeah I... I understand." I said. I threw my purse over my shoulders and turned to the door. Fiona caught up with me as I left.

We sat down at an empty table in the food court.

"I can't believe this." Fiona said.

"Me either." I said. "This can't be real. Miguel was happy. He wouldn't kill himself."

"Sometimes the people who seem the happiest, are the ones who are hurting the most." Fiona said.

Come to think of it. For the past few months, Miguel did seem a bit paranoid about something. But what?

"Did you talk to him. Before it happened?" I asked.

"Yeah, he actually called me last night." Fiona said. "I thought he was high or something, he just kept mumbling something about... a rake."

"A rake?"

...

My little brother Lincoln was sitting on the couch when I got back home. The twins Lola and Lana tumbled past my feet fighting about some little thing. Lisa had mixed some chemicals in a beaker which promptly blew up in her face (don't worry she wasn't hurt). Lynn rolled by on her skates knocking a little ball around with a hockey stick despite mom and dad telling her to stop playing hockey in the house.

Meanwhile Lucy was writing a poem in her notebook. Or at least trying to despite all the chaos around her. Luna was tuning her guitar and Luan was practicing her comedy routine with that creepy dummy of hers.

"Leni, you're home early." Lincoln said.

Instantly the entire house fell silent

"Reininger's is closed for a few days." I said.

"Why?" Lincoln asked.

"There was... an accident and um... someone was hurt. It's complicated." I lied. Lincoln's a smart kid, but he's too young to understand this kind of thing. Maybe when he's older.

"Sweetie are you okay?" My mom asked. Clearly, she could tell I wasn't myself.

"Yeah, can I like, talk to you and dad in private?" I asked.

So I talked to my parents in their room. I made sure to talk as quietly as I could, I knew my siblings would be listening in. I didn't know much, but I sure knew my siblings.

I told Mom and Dad what happened. This was a very sensitive subject matter, and I didn't want my younger siblings to know about it just yet.

Later that day I was up in my room.

This whole thing was bugging me. Fiona said that, before he died Miguel had been saying something about a rake.

I pulled up my lap-top and googled rakes.

I didn't know what I expected to find. But all I found was garden rakes on sale. I also found out that the rake was invented in 1874 by Edmund Brown.

Interesting, but I don't know what it has to do with Miguel or what happened to him.

I really wished he was here right now, he'd know what to do.

I jumped when I heard a knock at the door.

"Leni, it's me Lincoln. Can I come in?" Lincoln said from the other side of the door.

I opened the door for him.

"A letter came for you in the mail today." Lincoln said. "I think it's from your co-worker, Miguel."

At first, I was confused, until I realized he would have sent it before he died, and it just reached me now.

I held the envelope, starring at it for a few moments.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Lincoln asked.

"What? Oh yeah I..." I said. What was in this envelope might just be the last thing Miguel ever says to anyone, ever.

"Are you guys like, flirting or something?" Lincoln asked.

"What? No, he and I are just friends." I said. "Besides, he doesn't even swing that way."

"I thought as much." Lincoln said. "Hey, is something wrong with you Leni? You seem off."

"Uh... no." I said.

"Leni, you're my sister and I've known you my entire life." Lincoln said. "I can tell when something's wrong with you. What really happened today?"

"Uh... I'll tell you when you're older." I said.

Lincoln stepped into my room and closed the door behind him. "I won't tell anyone else. Did you get fired again?"

"No of course not." I said. "It's just..." I looked down at the envolope in my hand. "Miguel's gone."

"Did he move?" Lincoln asked.

"No he uh..." I might as well just come out with it. "He's dead."

Lincoln's eyes grew wide with shock. "He... what happened."

"He... he's gone, it doesn't matter how, just that he's gone." I said.

"So... that letter..." Lincoln said. "It's the words of a dead man."

Those words coming out of his mouth, they filled me with both sorrow and anger. But I didn't say anything.

Lincoln's never annoyed me before, but this wasn't something to take lightly. Still I knew he didn't mean anything by it, and it would be unfair to scold him.

I carefully opened the letter, to read the last words of my departed friend.

"Dearest Leni,

I have Prayed for you.

He spoke your name."

"That's it?" Lincoln said.

I looked at the letter front and back. That's all he wrote.

"That's it." I repeated.

No answers or reasons. Nothing. Just this short sentence. This wasn't fair, how could he do this? How could he leave like this? How could he leave behind so little? Why would he do this to me?

No Leni, I thought, I can't make this about me. I can't imagine what Miguel was going through. I just... I wish he would have talked to me, to anyone.

"Who's he?" Lincoln asked.

"What?"

"The note," Lincoln said. "It said he spoke your name."
"I don't know." I said. I looked back at my computer. "I... think it might have something to do with rakes."

"Rakes?" Lincoln asked.

"Yeah, Fionna said that Miguel was talking to her about rakes for some reason." I said. "Maybe it's like, the ghost of the guy who invented rakes or something. I like, just found out who that was. It was something Brown. Cleaveland Brown?"

"Leni, Cleaveland Brown is a character from Family Guy." Lincoln said. "You're thinking Edmund Brown, and I doubt he has anything to do with this. We should look at more corporeal angles first."

"Core whatty what?" I asked.

"Corporeal." Lincoln said. "It means physical and not spiritual."

"Oh." I said. "Then maybe it's someone who works at the local rake store."

"We don't have any stores in town that specializes in rakes." Lincoln said. "But maybe we can find some answers at Home Depot."

...

Lincoln and I headed to the local Home Depot. Not sure what we would find. But I knew this would be the start of a big journey, and the answers were out there, somewhere.

...

Lincoln and I arrived at Home Depot.

"Alright, where to now?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, like, probably the garden section." I suggested.

We made our way to the garden section. I found a young man who worked at the store. I asked if he usually works in this specific department, and he did.

I showed him a picture of Miguel on my phone and asked if he's ever seen him before. He said no and looked at me like I was being weird.

I continued to ask more employees if they've been talking to Miguel. Most haven't seen him.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, Miguel wasn't the type of guy to get his hands dirty. I can't imagine him being a regular at a hardware store.

But what was the connection with his death and rakes? And why did he send me that note? Who spoke my name?

"So do you think one of these guys was stalking Miguel?" Lincoln asked.

"Maybe." I scratched my head. "Like, it would make sense if that's why he was talking to Fiona about rakes before he died. If someone in a garden department was harassing him or something."

"Maybe it's not someone selling rakes, but someone with a rake." Lincoln suggested.

"The park!" I said. "Miguel loved doing yoga in the park. Maybe he had a confrontation with a groundskeeper or something."

So we headed to the park. It was cold as it was the end of September, so I wore my pink hoodie. And Lincoln had on a cute orange sweater.

More importantly though we brought along a pair of binoculars to see if we could find anyone suspicious in the park.

I still didn't know what I was looking for, but I had a feeling I'd know it when I see it.

Lincoln and I sat in a bench in the middle of the park watching the people go about their day. I scanned the horizon with my binoculars. The park was surrounded by a thick forest. If I've learned anything from the few Horror movies, I actually had the stomach to watch, it's that anything could be hiding in the woods.

"You should be a little more discreet with those." Lincoln said. "People are going to think you're being a creep."

"Well someone here was apparently being a real creep to poor Miguel." I reminded him. "And they scared him enough that he'd... Well whoever was stalking him is clearly after me next."

I saw a man raking leaves far in the distance. He looked like he was the park's groundskeeper.

"I see someone in the distance with a rake." I said. "Might be our guy."

"Uh Leni." Lincoln said.

The man seemed harmless, just some old groundskeeper trying to make a living. I don't like to assume the worst of people. But a groundskeeper would be the perfect cover to stalk someone.

"Uh Leni." Lincoln repeated.

The man was probably a good 10 yards away. Or something like that. I'm not good with numbers but he was really far, like at the other end of the park. Yet despite the distance he noticed me.

He turned his head to look right at me.

"Uh Leni." Lincoln said a third time.

"Hold on he's coming this way." I said as the mysterious man made his way toward us.

"Leni, you're holding the binoculars the wrong way." Lincoln said.

"Oh." I lowered the binoculars to see that the man wasn't on the other end of the park, rather he was standing right in front of us.

"You need something, miss?" The man grumbled. I could tell he was annoyed.

I felt my cheeks getting warm with embarrassment.

"Uh... You wouldn't happen to know my friend Miguel would you?" I blushed.

"No," The man grumbled. "And I have a lot of work to do, so leave me alone."

"Sorry." I said.

I let out a sigh as the man went back to his work.

I wanted to find answers but all I did was bother an innocent old man. Good thing I didn't want to be a detective when I got older, I'd be terrible at it.

Then I saw movement in the forest. I pulled up my binoculars again, this time holding them the right way.

I just saw it for a second. Something moving in the trees.

It looked almost like... a bald naked man running through the forest. But I only saw it for a fraction of a second. Could have been like a deer or something. Or an orangutang, do orangutangs live in Michigan?

I told Lincoln what I saw, then headed in the direction of the creature in the woods.

Lincoln tugged at my sleave.

"Uh... do you really think it's a good idea to go after a mysterious naked man that may have been tormenting your now dead best friend?" Lincoln asked.

"Naked man!" The groundskeeper said, turning his attention back to us. "Kid, I don't mean to pry but, if someone's crazy enough to be running around nude in this weather, it's best to steer clear of 'em."

"Well I don't know that it was a man." I said. "I just saw him for like a second. Maybe it was just an orangutang."

"Orangutangs don't live in Michigan." The Groundskeeper said.

"They don't?" I scratched my head.

The groundskeeper just rolled his eyes and got back to work.

...

I was at Miguel's funeral. I had on a black dress and black mascara that ran down my face from my tears.

It was a nice ceremony, but I still didn't feel any closure.

Afterward I caught up with Miguel's boyfriend Felix.

I told him I was sorry for his loss. We talked a bit about Miguel, how much he meant to each of us.

"Did he say anything to you before... before he died." I asked.

"I don't know he..." Felix said. "He seemed very paranoid these last few months. Like someone was watching him."

"Fiona said he was talking about a rake?" I said. "Did you guys have a fight about gardening or something?"

"No," Felix laughed. "Nothing like that. The rake was..." Felix got serious again. "Well... I'm not really sure what it was. He just... he said something was fallowing him, haunting him. He called it The Rake."

"Wait, The Rake?" I said.

Then it hit me.

It's not a rake, it's THE Rake. I'd been looking at this wrong. I was looking for a rake, or rakes. But if Miguel felt the need to use the word "the" then this was no ordinary rake.

Could it be a specific rake? What was so special about this rake that tortured poor Miguel so much? Was it some sort of robot made entirely out of rakes?

If so, we could probably use him in our front lawn.

I looked up and Felix was gone.

...

That night I went to bed more confused than before.

What did this all mean? What was Miguel trying to tell me? Who spoke my name? What did this person want with me? And what is this whole thing about a rake anyway?

My older sister Lori was in college, so my room felt very empty. It was so lonely sometimes. The only one to keep me company in this big room was a mannequin I named Tonya.

Though sometimes it was nice to have some time to myself.

I said goodnight to Tonya, turned off the lights and laid down in my bed.

I had strapped on my blindfold and closed my eyes. After I'm not sure how long I started to fall asleep.

But then, just as I was about to slip into unconsciousness, I heard it.

A voice, a soft quiet voice, yet also an angry voice. A voice that hissed out from the darkness that seemed to somehow be calm and angry at the same time.

I didn't think it was Lincoln or one of my sisters, I didn't recognize the voice.

I'm not even sure if it sounded human.

It was just one word, one word that cut through the darkness like a sharp dagger.

"LENI!"