Children are our future.
At least that's what we're led to believe, but sometimes the hope and aspirations we
instill in our youth are snuffed out by an internal darkness that can only be described
as evil.
While some can't even comprehend the concept of killing another, history shows that sometimes
even a child's mind can become fractured and dangerous.
Do the following three stories prove that children are capable of killing or are they
fictional tales of crimes that never took place?
Well, it's up to you to figure it out…
The line that divides the factual from the unreal has long since blurred, the tales we
once thought fantastical now implanted as truth.
To decipher verity from the imagined, you must break from the ordinary and consider
a universe where the outlandish prevails.
Can you expand your mind to see beyond our perceived reality?
Can you decide what's fact or fiction?
Teenagers these days are angsty, filled with anger, and sometimes even fueled by rage.
Brandon Haim experienced what happens when those common traits are combined with depression
and trauma, leading to a strange night that he'll never forget.
Story # 1: A Killer Party As Haim let his sentencing sink in, he thought
back to the day that wound up costing him the rest of his years.
It was three years prior and he can still remember the thoughts that ran through his
head as he paced his room, the stinging in his shoulder throbbing through his arm.
It wasn't the first time his father was rough with him, but on that day, Brandon wanted
to make sure it was the last.
The hammer was easy to find and his father was exactly where he suspected: glued to the
television, unaware of anything around him.
His mother was due home any moment, so he planned to make it quick.
As the noise of whatever mid-day program filled the living room, Brandon brought the hammer
down on his father.
In the haste of his swing, the metal missed its intended target, instead, grazing Jerry
Haim's ear before landing on his shoulder.
Brandon cursed his aim, but before he could re-position his swing, his father was on top
of him.
The teenager's world turned red with rage and the minutes that followed were a blur.
He remembered hearing his mother's cries as she rushed in to separate the two, but
he couldn't let her stop him.
Credits rolled on the television and Brandon found himself standing over his parents, blood
pooling around their lifeless bodies.
Instantly, he felt free and could think of only one way to celebrate.
A quick phone call to his friends was all it took for the house party to be organized
and in the hours leading up to it, the young Haim cleaned up his mess.
With no time to dispose of his parents' bodies, the bodies were moved to their bedroom
and with just enough time left, Brandon readied himself for the casual soiree.
Friends started to gather at the Haim residence and their host was there to greet them in
a most hospitable way.
He had not a care as the night went on, but there was an itch that no amount of socializing
or alcohol could scratch.
That's when he made his biggest mistake.
The judge's words droned on, admonishing the now-20-year-old murderer as he delivered
the life sentence.
Brandon sat there and felt a pang of regret, not for killing his parents, but for being
careless enough to tell a friend of the devilish deeds he performed just hours before the house
party.
Teenagers are unpredictable, that's true, but would one be so careless as to host a
party while his parent's bodies lay mere feet away?
Could Brandon have been that thorough with his cleanup that there wouldn't be a speck
of blood for any party-goers to see?
Maybe everyone was too preoccupied with friends and loud music to notice anything out of the
ordinary.
We'd love to hear what you think, so let us know in the comments, but before we reveal
whether Brandon's story was real or not, we'd like to take you to a small snowy town
to introduce you to Tiffany Tomlin and Susan Wallace, two girls brought together under
unfortunate circumstances.
As the two grew to know one another, it's clear that their relationship will never last,
especially as one of them holds a deadly secret.
Story # 2: The Twisted Child When Tiffany came to live with Susan, their
relationship started off surprisingly well.
Welcoming her 10-year-old cousin into her home, 12-year-old Susan did what she could
to make Tiffany comfortable.
Weeks prior, Tiffany suffered the loss of her father, a freak accident that was still
a very fresh open wound in the young girl's heart.
Susan avoided the subject and instead welcomed Tiffany into her world without hesitation,
but as their relationship budded, Tiffany started to see something about Susan that
unsettled her.
She was obsessed with death.
Susan contemplated it, wondered how her parents would eventually be taken from her, and she
somehow found a way to sneak it into just about every conversation.
Tiffany soon found that Susan didn't just think about death, she took part in it.
Like Tiffany, the Wallaces were still grieving over the loss of their adolescent son, Caleb.
Tammy Wallace, Susan's mother, left the four-year-old only for a minute and it seemed
impossible that, in that time, he had slipped under the shallow water and drowned.
She ran the scenario through her head time and time again, each time landing on it being
a freak accident.
As Tiffany grew closer to Susan, the older girl grew bolder, eventually showing off the
tugboat that Caleb had in the tub with him the night he drowned.
It was a missing link that the Wallaces could never find after his death.
Eventually, Tiffany grew uneasy with Susan's talk of death and the possession of her dead
brother's toy.
While Susan slept one night, she brought the boat to Tammy and talked about her darker
thoughts.
Tammy feared the worst, but couldn't fathom that her daughter had played a part in Caleb's
death.
Under the guise of helping her cope with her brother's death, Tammy had Susan speak with
a psychologist.
During one session, the truth slipped, a small nugget of information that put Susan in the
bathroom with her brother as water filled his lungs.
It was her small hand that held him underwater so, as she put it, she could "see what death
looked like."
Interlude 2: Is such a young mind capable of killing in
such a horrific way - or did we conjure up this story just to mess with your head?
We want to hear what you think, but while you plan your response, consider a few things.
Did no one question where Caleb's toy tugboat went, or were they too distracted by his passing
to even consider it?
Would someone as young as Tiffany even notice Susan's macabre thoughts or did her father's
death mature her?
Before we get to the reveal, there's one last story of murderous children and this
one's frightening.
Children can be influenced, but what if the figure directing them to kill is a fictitious
character?
Freddy Hadley and Tate Chetucci seemed like regular children, but their imaginary friend
ensured they'd be remembered as anything... but "normal."
Story # 3: For the Love of Slender At first, Tate was confused by Freddy's
proposal.
He had heard of Slender Man before, but only as an internet character, and yet here his
best friend was talking as if he really existed.
He was enthusiastic about the tall faceless man in a suit, filled Tate in on all the hidden
details he discovered while browsing the internet, and eventually grew ecstatic when he got to
what he considered "the best part."
"He wants to help kids.
There's this…" he paused, searching for the right word, "… this castle in
the forests that he lives in.
If we do what he says, he'll let us live with him and we won't ever have to worry
about anything."
Tate considered what he was being told and though deep down he knew it to be too fantastical,
Freddy had never steered him in the wrong direction.
Maybe there was a place they could escape to, somewhere away from their stifling parents
and school bullies and pushy teachers.
Tate was on board and with the one question he had for Freddy, he spiraled down a rabbit
hole of madness that would forever ruin his life.
"What do we have to do?"
Tate asked hesitantly, cautious about what this mysterious figure required of his subjects.
"Kill."
Freddy was cold when he said it, uncaring and already determined to enjoy his life in
the castle in the woods.
When he saw Tate's horrified reaction, Freddy continued with the hard sell, reminding his
friend of the time his parents sold his Nintendo DS because of his bad grades.
He brought up Tate's soft spot, a girl that had completely embarrassed him by rather loudly
rejecting him at a school dance.
It finally hit Tate what Freddy was doing – Slender Man was a vessel for the two to
grow stronger and agreeing to kill for him was more symbolic than an act they'd actually
carry out.
He held onto that belief until the following weekend when the two were enjoying themselves
at the nearby park.
It was quiet, save for a group of girls about two years younger.
When Freddy noticed them, he silently nudged Tate and produced a knife he had hidden in
his shoe.
Tate continued to follow him, knowing they were just going to scare the girls off; but
when Freddy charged the group and tackled one girl to the ground, something felt incredibly
wrong.
"Hold her down, Tate!"
Freddy called out, and while the girl's friends yelled and cried, Tate got lost in
the confusion and held her arms down.
The first spot of blood hit his wrist and soaked into his sleeve as Freddy plunged the
knife into the girl's chest over and over again.
Even seven years later, Tate can still hear her choking on her own blood.
Despite countless hours of mandatory therapy and years of listening to the stories of other
prisoners, nothing can ever drown the noise out.
Interlude 3: Kids are impressionable, and the internet
can be a deep web of deception and misinformation, but can those two things come together and
cause a twelve-year-old to murder?
Is it possible that Tate and Freddy committed an atrocious act on their own will and tried
to use a fictitious character as an alibi?
Let us know what you think about this story in the comments.
Are you ready to find out if you can decipher between fact or fiction?
Let's look back at tonight's three stories and find out which were born from reality
and which were fabrications of the imagination.
Let's think back to Brandon Haim, the boy who allegedly killed his parents and immediately
threw a house party at the crime scene.
Do you think this story actually happened?
If you said yes… then it's possible you've heard of Fort Pierce, Florida teenager Tyler
Hadley, who inspired the story of Haim.
In July of 2011, Hadley murdered his parents with a hammer and, later that evening, invited
friends over for a party.
After bragging to a friend about the murder, Hadley was arrested and sentenced to life
in prison.
He's been known to sign autographs as "Hammer Boy" and claims that he talks with the devil.
Can you go two for two and correctly determine if Susan Wallace really did kill her four-year-old
brother, Caleb?
If you said it was true, sorry to say you killed your winning streak.
Not only is it a fake story, perceptive individuals may sense the inspiration from the 1993 thriller
starring Macaulay Culkin, The Good Son.
If our third story about Tate, Freddy, and Slender Man didn't have you fearing the
susceptible and twisted minds of children, that's okay, because it wasn't real.
At least not entirely.
The story mimics the real-life case of 12-year-old Payton Leutner, who's friends, Morgan Geyser
and Anissa Weier, attempted to murder her in order to live with Slender Man.
Payton, however, survived the attack, despite being stabbed 19 times.
How well did you in tonight's video?
Did you look past the deception of our world and define the oft-blurred line that struggles
to separate lies from the truth?
Let us all know in the comment section below and should you find the urge to test your
perceptions again, be sure to subscribe and join us next time when we ask you to decide
what's fact... or fiction.
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