Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper

## Vick Matheson

**“***I hate it here, behind these locked doors and barred windows. No doorbells to ding or to dong. I'm coming home. Soon. I can promise you that. She's calling to me every night. I can't sleep until I return. You never believed me, and I don't expect you to now. I almost hope for your sake that you have moved on from that awful house. I've heard I have a little brother now. I can't wait to bash his brains in.***”**
— **Vick in a letter to his father**

**Vick Matheson**, more commonly known as the **Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper**, is the primary antagonist in *Ding Dong Dead*.

## Description

### Appearance

Vick is a Caucasian adult man of unspecified height and weight. During his murderous rampage, he wears a denim jacket, white t-shirt, black pants, shoes, gloves, and wears a white ski mask with the eyes and mouth darkened out with a marker. His weapon of choice is a hammer.

### Personality

Vick is a murderous psychopath devoid of empathy, fueled by the desire to kill by a mysterious voice he hears in his head. He appears to have a pathological obsession with ding-dong ditching.

### History

Vick Matheson was the eldest son of Kenneth Matheson and an unnamed woman. Vick was known throughout his suburban neighborhood off the boulevard as a prolific prankster, specifically ding-dong ditching. At some point, Vick began to complain of a voice he heard in his head, which his father dismissed as nonsense.

On Halloween night in 1974, while still a young child, Vick killed five people in a horrific act of torture and murder that took place in the attic of his family's home, having torn most of the victims open from sternum to groin before bludgeoning them to death. For his collective crimes, he became known as the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper. Despite some people not believing that young Vick could have done such a thing, he was found guilty of his crimes and sent to the State Asylum. During his time at the Asylum, he was observed by his therapist Dr. Pleasant in an attempt to understand him and to find a cure for his mental condition. But soon it became apparent to Dr. Pleasant that Vick is pure evil and that there is no cure for him. At some point, Vick sends a letter to his father vowing that he will return home at the command of the voice in his head, telling him that he recently found out about the existence of his younger brother Rex and savors the idea of "bashing his brains in".

## *Ding Dong Dead*

10 years later, on Halloween night in 1984, during the ten-year anniversary of the "Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper murders", a riot broke out at the State Asylum and Vick managed to escape. In light of this, Dr. Pleasant headed to his old neighborhood to warn its residents of the danger coming their way, including the player. From here on out, windows appear to unlock by themselves, and graffiti depicting a mysterious face with the word "void" appears on an upstairs wall, but the player assumes it was Rex's doing. Eventually, Vick breaks into the home in active search of victims.

### Ending 1

Vick wounds the player and kills Hip G, Hilary, and Rex before escaping. The epilogue reveals that Vick has not been caught and is presumed to be on the loose to continue ding dong ditching and ripping lives.

### Ending 2

Vick is killed by the player, who murdered Hip G, Hilary, and Timmy in advance, in what the player describes as preventing Vick from "reaping [his] glory". After the player is shot by Dr. Pleasant and wakes up in the morgue, Vick's body can be seen on the slab next to him. Like Vick, the player is committed to the State Asylum for his murders and it is implied that with Vick's death, the voice saw it fit to haunt the player instead and mold him into a killer like it had with Vick before.

### Ending 3

Vick attacks the player and Rex but is shot by Dr. Pleasant. After the player returns home and takes some pills he got from the doctor, Vick's mutilated corpse appears to the player as a hallucination. It is again implied that Vick's death has caused the voice in his head to move on to the player, though this time, the player actively resists, dooming both to permanent confinement at the State Asylum.

## Victims

* 5 unnamed people (mentioned)
* Rex (determinant)
* Hip G (determinant)
* Hilary (determinant)
* Player (attempted)

## Trivia

* Vick Matheson backstory and appearance are an homage to Michael Myers from the *Halloween* franchise.