This is me figuring out some Gallows Creek world building, trying to get Henry’s vibes right, putting my two cents in on what would happen to Henry semi realistically as well with horror movie logic, etc..kinda not proofread lmfao
May become a series cuz I fuck with this tbh, also making fanart soon, doing some research n stuff to figure out how I think the characters would look like (ik we got photos but it’s more so my HCs of them ig lmfao)
Killer Frequency Spoilers!!
The Night He Came Home.
(Henry Barrow x GN!Reader)
🦷 Canon Typical Violence.
(1/?) Ao3 Link
Masterlist.
🔪🎶🔪🎶
Finger tips smeared blood along your jaw, you wanted to flinch away at the contact but you stayed deadly still out of fear. You were too tired to flee even if you wanted to run until you couldn’t anymore. A serial killer was on top of you, donning a blood splattered, mostly white mask so pale it made even the moon envious, he stared down at you with black voids for eyes with black locks adorning his head, framing his mask like a black halo.
He was so close, you could smell the stench of blood rolling off of him alongside musk, your nose twitching at the overwhelming stench that reek from him.
You weren’t unaware of who this was..
This was the infamous Henry Barrow, the Whistling Man.
The Whistling Slaughters of 1987, many lives were taken that night and many had been saved from the clutches of death because of Peggy Weaver and Forrest Nash, two employees of the 189.16 KFAM station who had handled the 911 calls that night. It’s been a couple of years since the murder spree.
You were fortunate enough to have been out of town at the time, as you were visiting your grandparents in Henderson to help them out with moving things around their house. At the time, you were living with your parents in Gallows Creek, staying with them to be able to save up enough money to get your own place in town. Thankful that your parents were safe when you came back the next day, finding out that your parents could’ve been potentially murdered was not something you’d want to find after coming home from a nice, lovely visit from your grandparents’ place.
The mood in Gallows Creek had reasonably dampened after that night because of the truth being revealed about a past incident that had been covered up and the brutal killings, in the recent years, however, things had slowly become lighter as time passed. The lives lost weren’t forgotten, they were remembered and even had a plaque made in honor of them that you frequently see having fresh flowers placed there.
Not all deaths from that night were honored though.
Marie Campbell, the mastermind behind the duo of the Whistling Men, was reported over the radio in real time to have disappeared after running away from the police, later on in the night she had jumped off Whistling Point, the same place where her boyfriend died all those years ago, to escape police custody.
They had never found her body even years later, it was presumed that she was most likely dead due to the height of the drop.
It was somewhat poetic in a way..dying the same way and place as your lover had, you wondered if they did find her body would they bury her alongside George? Although her actions were wrong and she had taken lives, the “prank” had led to a horrible tragedy and ripped two families apart. The Barrow family and the Campbell family, both torn from a loss of their children but in two different ways. Marie was clearly heartbroken, she had no one to turn to for help and had to handle raising their baby alone.
Would it be considered cruel if they buried her all alone or would it be fine since she had killed people?
Besides that..
This meant that Henry Barrow, the unknown son of George Barrow and Marie Campbell, was all alone. Henry had gotten arrested after trying to flee from the radio station once the police arrived, he was overpowered by the amount of police and was put into police custody after being checked into the hospital for the bullet wounds he got from that night.
You heard it truly baffled many authorities and doctors that there was zero record of him in the databases, doctors had to be careful to make sure he wasn’t allergic to any medication given to him while in recovery. After the hospital declared him good to go, he was swiftly taken to the police station. His finger prints were taken, his photograph taken as well and all that he had on his body was bagged for evidence, it was said that his criminal record was the first ever evidence of his very existence.
Henry’s criminal record was deemed his birth certificate.
Alongside that sad truth, there was so much legal trouble that came after his arrest, authorities of all kinds had discourse over where he shall be placed due to if he was considered completely insane or was mentally stable enough to handle a trial in court.
There were whispers of him never speaking during the whole ordeal, not even when a lawyer came in to speak with him about the trial. Hell, even a well known psychiatrist that came into town just to take a shot at getting him to talk couldn’t crack him open.
It was decided that he was deemed mentally unstable to be around others and too unstable to enter society, this decision was made due to the facts that his upbringing was almost entirely cratered to be an obedient killing machine and his complete hermit behavior that was exhibited since capture was deemed socially unfit. It was made a point that he may not have even been entirely aware of his actions because of his mother making it quite clear that she trained him since he was young, that sort of upbringing can easily have one’s rights and wrongs manipulated to fit the benefiter’s desires.
There were lots of arguments and agreements over his mental state and behavior, if he was aware or not and so forth..in the end, instead of being placed in a prison, he would be placed in a psychiatric facility.
The news of his placement not being behind bars had rattled the town, there were protests and uproar about this decision. Those who had a loved one lost that night were angry that he wouldn’t be rotting away in a prison cell, some understood that it was a strange situation that wouldn’t end the way that they may not want…either way but the decision was final.
There were still some who disagreed with the decision but it quieted down as time moved on, Henry was placed in a psychiatric facility quite far from Gallows Creek which made a sense of ease go over the town and the psychiatrist that had visited Henry became his primary psychiatrist at the facility from what you had heard..
It was 4 years after he managed to escape from the psychiatric facility, it struck utter fear into the town with everyone looking over their shoulders, everyone paranoid about if he would return to seek revenge not only for his father but now for his mother too..but days turned into weeks, months and then years of nothing happening. There were some stupid pranks made by teens that thought it was funny to mess with the town, but besides that there were no incidents that connected to Henry Barrow.
The police couldn’t find him, even though they had searched high and low in the surrounding areas of the facility and Gallows Creek.
Curfews had taken place since then so no one could stay out too long at night for safety alongside with police patrolling around Gallows Creek, but with no unusual activity and the safety measures taken place the people of Gallows Creek had settled down after. The belief that he had died out in the wilderness after his escape prospered until it was just told as if it were a 100% fact.
During that time you had moved out of your parents’ place and into your own place in town, it’s a nice home that was nestled between two other houses on Myers Lane. Your move wasn’t very far really, your parents lived just across town on Axe-Down Lane, a bit of forestry separating them from the Mac’s Diner you guys would go to for breakfast whenever your dad burnt breakfast.
You were quite proud of yourself for finally having a place to call your own, but now that pride you had was wiped from the face of the earth and replaced with massive amounts of regret for not taking up your concerned grandparents’ offer of moving in with them after the killings.
You really wish you took up their offer because you had a dead pizza delivery guy on your floor and a serial killer touching your face with his bloody fingers.
You had to stop yourself from gagging as the memory of the corpse on the ground flashed in your head, guts spewed out and his poor face slashed open by a knife. You close your eyes, feeling his fingers rise further up from your jaw and continue to trace each curve of your face with blood being left behind where he touched you.
Surrounding you both was a mess, blood splattered all over the floor and wall, your flower filled vase was shattered, broken lamp pieces coated in blood…all the signs that there was a fight for survival.
Earlier you had opened your front door, ready to pay for the Ponty’s pizza that you ordered over the phone after finishing putting away the last remaining belongings of yours from the moving boxes that you had been procrastinating on going through.
All you wanted was to treat yourself to a cheesy early dinner while you watched whatever program was on that evening.
As you handed the money over, the delivery boy gave you a voice cracked ‘Thank you’ and before you both knew it, the moment your hand touched his, the whistling began.
But the delivery guy and you noticed the whistling a second too late.
You were first to notice the large dark figure quickly striding up towards you both, the white mask standing out from his all dark clothes. You let out a startled yelp, the delivery boy quickly spun around to see what made you scared, once his eyes landed on the masked figure, he let out a shriek, “HOLY FUCKING SHIT!” dropping the pizza on your patio in his panic.
You snatched his arm and pulled him towards your door and tried to shut the door after the delivery guy scrambled inside and stood behind you, but the figure's large body slammed into the door before you could fully shut it.
The force of the door swinging back open knocked you backwards, colliding with the fearful guy behind you and led to you both tumbling to the floor and you landing on top of him, leading to both of you being disoriented alongside frantic to get up from the ground. The Whistling Man stood there in the doorway with his shadow swallowing you both whole, his fists were clenched and shaking, like pure anger was surging through him just at the sight of you two being so close in proximity.
You both scrambled to get up from the ground after getting away from one another, The Whistling Man stalked into your home quickly and slammed the door shut behind him, a noticeable ’click!’ reached your ears meaning the door was locked.
Your ankle was snatched right before you were able to get up from the ground, making you fall back on your back again which knocked the air out of you due to the harsh landing. Your pained wheeze was cut short by the loud cry that ripped from your throat as you’re dragged towards the looming killer, you attempt to break free by kicking with all your might whilst trying to yank yourself free from his grasp. “Let go!” You screeched.
The teen was able to get up from the ground and more fear spilled into your body when he left your sight, making you think he had fucking left you here. Dread pooled through your entire body as you get yanked further towards the deranged man.
“Eat this, bitch!”
A lamp comes into view, the teen quickly slamming the lamp from the side table beside your couch onto the assailant’s head. The lamp shattered upon impact, relief flooded your system, fucking overjoyed that he didn’t leave you for dead.
The Whistling Man let you go, snarling in anger at the attack which gave you enough time to get to your feet and put distance between you two, you grabbed the teen’s wrist to try and escape to the back door.
The Whistling Man was faster and far stronger though.
He snatched the back of the young man’s shirt and yanked him back so violently he was ripped from your grasp and had no time to attempt at grabbing him again, “Let go of me!” The teenager screeched at the man. The two quickly found themselves on the ground, tussling and throwing punches and jabs. You gotta admit, the kid was putting up a good fight.
You bolted to grab anything you could use as a weapon like the kid had done earlier with the lamp but as your hands found the sturdy flower vase your mother had gifted you as a little gift for your newly bought home, an ear piercing screech filled the air.
Your eyes snapped back at the two tussling men, the killer had quickly brandished a knife and had viscously jabbed it into the boy’s stomach once he finally got the upper hand and got on top of the delivery guy. Your stomach dropped at the sight of him getting gutted like a goddamn pig. Alongside the knife ripping the fabric, the blood that began spewing out soaked the Ponty’s pizza uniform that he wore.
Bile rises in your throat, almost vomiting your guts out onto the floor but you didn’t want to just stand there and do nothing, you had to save the poor kid.
You lifted the vase and tried to slam the vase down onto the killer’s head with all your might but the killer yanked the knife from the boy’s slashed open belly and swiped at your thigh with the blood-covered blade. Leading to your skin being sliced open, a deep wound instantly spewing blood down your leg.
You cried out in pain and lurch backwards causing you to drop the vase, it shatters upon contact with the ground which ruined your plan of using it to harm the Whistling Man. In that moment, the killer abandoned the bleeding boy and grabbed your lower calf in a tight grip to yank you forward towards him resulting in you falling backwards and hitting the back of your head on the hard floor.
The Whistling Man quickly got off the dying delivery guy and climbed on top of you before you could even attempt to get up, he stuck the knife into the ground to the side so he could wrap both of his blood soaked hands around your throat.
A growl escaped from his throat, low and chilling. You tried to take a gulp of air before his fingers could restrict airflow, he then started to choke you making you let out gurgled choked cries, you clawed with all your might at his wrists to try and get him to loosen his grip but your fingers kept making contact with the leather gloves and his coat sleeves.
You attempted to kick your feet like you had earlier to try and land somewhere to give you any kind of an opening to escape but the way he knelt on top of you limited your legs movements, his grip on your throat getting tighter.
Tears rolled down your cheeks and your vision was getting blurrier and blurrier, you let go of one of his wrists and reached upwards to claw at his mask but your strength had grown quite weak. Your attempts at clawing were more like you were trying to crease him, unnoticeably it made him shudder at the touch with a quiet, shaky breath escaping him too.
Your eyes were fluttering shut as your hand that was near his mask went slightly limp and fell to the ground and the other that had a once tight grip on his wrist loosened until you couldn’t hold on anymore, no longer having the strength to hold up your arm nor try to pull at his wrist.
When it almost became too dark to see the mask of the man who was about to kill you, the restriction around your throat had disappeared suddenly allowing you to gasp for air, gulping down air greedily to be able to fill your lungs with much needed oxygen.
Your vision returns slowly but surely, the killer had gotten off of you before grabbing his knife while you tried to regain the strength that was drained from you. You see his blurry figure go back to the kid who had tried to scoot away while the killer was distracted with almost choking you to death. You coughed hard as you tried to breathe, throat aching painfully as you did.
You could hear the boy's faint pleas for his life but the sound of slicing flesh and gurgled wails silenced those pleas until there were no more.
The grotesque noises overwhelm your ears, you snap your eyes shut immediately after glancing over at what was being done to the guy. Not wanting to witness the horrors being done to that poor kid anymore.
Your heart was pounding, your ears were ringing and the throbbing pain on the back of your head was becoming more noticeable as time passed.
‘I don’t want to die..’
You had thought which led to fresh tears rolling down your cheeks while the adrenaline faded allowing pain from your current injuries finally settle in. You let out a sob of dread at the thought of dying in your newly bought home, you wanted to make memories here like you had in your childhood home, like you had at your grandparents’ home..you just wanted your own little place where you can be joined by your loved ones.
‘Maybe I could survive this if I can just..’
Opening your eyes and using all of your strength to sit up slowly so you could try to crawl towards the front door, it was fucking ballsy considering he was close to it but if you were able to get to it without being noticed, unlock it and use the power of wanting to survive this shit to get you on your fucking feet and bolt to one of your neighbors for help. You may be able to survive this.
Your eyes land on the Whistling Man, who was still distracted with his brutal attack on the dead delivery guy, still stabbing and tearing into his corpse viscously like the guy had personally offended him somehow. The sight was sickening, the delivery guy’s fucking eye was even hanging out of the socket.
A shudder ran through your body as you slowly rolled over so you were now laying on your stomach, you bit your lip hard to keep in your pained whines as the gash in your leg burned fiercely, you could feel the sticky warm blood pour from it.
Your floors are covered in blood, when you survive this..fuck- if you survive this..you’re gonna tear out the damn floors if you can’t somehow get the blood out.
Slowly, you began to crawl as quietly as you could to not alert the mad man, aiming to try and get out of his field of vision by getting behind him. Cringing with each stinging pain that flared up in your body, it was so hard to keep the noises that threatened to escape you with each movement you made down. The ringing in your ears and the pounding of your heartbeat alongside it was muffling any other noise as you lessen the distance between you and the door, the waning distance caused your small hope of survival to grow as you got closer to the door.
You managed to get onto your hands and knees so you could be tall enough to reach the door knob, with a shaky hand you took hold of the lock and slowly twisted it to quietly unlock it whilst you slowly got to your feet to get ready to bolt. Growing anxiety made your body tremble but a new wave of adrenaline washed over you as the hope of escaping became more and more of a reality.
‘click!’
The silence was so loud after you unlocked the front door, quickly turning the doorknob to get the door open as fast as possible while the sound of shifting fabric and hurried footsteps reached your ears. You threw open the door and booked it but blood caked, strong arms wrapped around your waist and yanked you backwards, you let out a blood curling scream as you quick and thrashed as hard as you could as you got dragged back inside.
“HELP! HELP ME PLEASE!” You screamed as loud as you could, a loud grunt escaping the killer that held you tight as your thrashing caused some difficulty. He lifted you enough to where your feet weren’t even close to touching the ground, making you realize the tall height he had.
He slammed the door shut and you let out a heartbroken wail, your freedom being locked away behind the door once again.
Henry Barrow throws you to the ground, you cry out in pain as you land on your wounded thigh when you hit the floor. You just lay there and weep, body trembling with each broken sob, you didn't bother to get up and didn’t bother to fight him as he got on top of you and turned you on your back.
Eyes oh so glassy and full of tears, you watched him as he cocked his head slowly to the side, heavy breathing escaping him from all that had happened. His entire front was covered in blood, his mask having splatters of blood ruining the pale white and blood was dribbling down his cheek like he was crying blood.
Some of the droplets landed on your face, making you flinch each time. A noise of some kind escaped his throat, sounding like a hum of sorts. One of his hands reached towards your face, bloody fingers grazing the droplet on your flesh which led to him smearing the blood along your skin.
That’s how you ended up with the deranged serial killer on top of you, touching your face in a way that made you think he was trying to memorize each curve. You hoped, fuck you absolutely hoped that the screams from earlier and your scream when you were outside for a few seconds was enough, you didn’t want your poor parents to find out that their kid died..oh god the poor parents of the delivery kid…
“Please…” you whimper out, “Please, Henry..don’t kill me..” your throat hurts so bad, raw from the screaming,crying and surely bruised from being choked hard earlier. You shut your eyes, continuing to cry as you plead one last time for your life.
There was a quiet sigh after a moment of silence.
Before anything else could happen. Police sirens could be heard, your eyes snapped open and looked at the window near your front door as flashing red and blue lights peaked through the window and a croaked cry of joy escaped your throat at the sight, not caring about the killer on top of you anymore. Henry sneered at the sight of the cops, muttering a curse before getting off of you.
There was shouting outside, too muffled for you to hear until they were shouting right outside your door.
“This is the Gallows Creek Police! Open up!”
Henry seemed to hesitate for a second, looking at the door then back at you, he made his decision with whatever he was thinking and quickly booked it to the back entrance of your house to escape police custody like he had done many years ago.
The door slams open, armed officers having their pistols raised make their way inside, your vision begins to get blurry again. You were too tired to get up, too tired to shed anymore tears as you just laid there on the bloody ground.
You try to fight the heaviness of your eyelids to stop them from closing, knowing that with how hard you hit your head that you may not wake up later. You croak out a quiet “help..”, but the police took notice of the sight of you before hearing your pathetically quiet plea for help. Quickly, an office came to your side while the other two scoped out the place to make sure the coast was clear.
Your vision grew darker as you heard muffled voices all around you, the cop beside you being the most clear out of them all, “it’s alright, I got you, my name is Officer Martinaz, you’re safe now..”.
With that, your eyes finally closed as you muttered out incoherent words as you barely clung to consciousness, you were so fucking tired.
And hungry..man you were still hungry..
🔪🎶🔪🎶
Thank you for reading!!!!
Gotta admit, the pacing is a bit off but I have family over, college assignments to do and a headache atm but I pushed through so I could finally get one of the 6 Wips I got of him done lmfaoooo
Anyways..Hope you enjoyed!
