“Glowing green eyes appear in your sight
Seemingly cutting through the pitch black of night
Running through the woods on foot
Crashing through the twisted root
The moon appears above giving you paths
As you try to escape your soon to be bloodbath
Stars shine down like dead faces watching over
Scrambling past the groves of poison clover
Breathing shallowly as the eyes become closer
Figures appear from behind your cover
Swiftly re-lighting your doubt
As the moonshine blacks out
Death is swift for this one
As the green eyes appear at the front of your vision”
As Jeremiah finishes his story we all laugh nervously at the legend surrounding our town. We sit around a campfire in the middle of September, holding our companions close while our friends do their best to frighten each other. As we go to move on to the next story we see eyes appear from behind Jeremiah, eyes with a radioactive green glow. Before we know it Jeremiah screams as a figure launches from the forest and tackles him off of his lawn chair. We all rush to help when we realize the blood-curdling screaming had turned to hysterical laughter.
The Halloween mask was then lifted up to reveal our other friend who supposedly was not able to make it to the campfire tonight. Her name was Christian, we had become close after that last month and a half of school. She has just moved here from New Jersey, but we all felt like we’d known her forever. Along with the new addition of Christian there were seven of us now sitting around the campfire.
There was Jeremiah who had just finished the last of our spooky stories. Next were Rachel and Vic cuddled up together while sharing a fluffy blue blanket, then we have Denzel who was trying his hardest to scroll through his phone nonchalantly to show he was not in fact a wimp, and after him we had Nova who was eating up all of our panic and matching it with her own. Lastly, was me sitting across the fire from Jeremiah, laughing my ass off as he combed pieces of leaves out of his hair.
Christian was sitting in front of the fire now putting her hands near the flame to warm them from the September chill. She continued to giggle at her attack on Jeremiah as we all shook our nerves off. By the end of the night we were all in pleasant moods after the last week of constant classes and homework.
On Monday we returned to classes rejuvenated and ready for the week ahead. I met up with Vic and Denzel in the gym who greeted me with quick hellos before turning back to their phone screens.
“Rude,” I say as I grab their phones out of their hands and stick my tongue out, “ I know you two are the most chivalrous, but come on I want more attention than that.”
“Not right now Autumn there are more important things than your attention-hog-tendencies.”
“Oh, like what?”
“Valerie Clideson was found murdered last night, you are not the center of attention right now!” Vic snaps and I freeze. It’s uncommon that he ever yells, but by the way he tries to snatch his phone back is reason enough for me to believe him.
“What?” I say breathless.
“Yeah, murdered, stabbed in the back of the head, then cut open with her face carved off. She was found on her parents' doorstep apparently. The police are about to give their report so we’re trying to find out about it.”
I swiftly give the boys their phones back and squeeze in between them with morbid fascination as the chief of police starts to give his testimony about our classmate. I don’t understand why anyone would hurt Valerie. She was one of the sweetest, prettiest girls I had ever known. She would never harm a fly, and I would know I had once watched her trap one in a cup then let it outside at a sleepover. The policeman continued his report talking about the facts of the case, then they told the viewers about the note. She was left on the doorstep with a note that said, ‘Sorry just wanted to try on that beautiful face, but then I figured you’d want it back.’ That alone sent shivers down my spine, then I heard humming form behind me as fingers wrapped around my waist and I let out a yelp of fear.
“Jeeze, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you Autumn.” Christian laughed as she gave me a good morning hug. I shrugged her off as I realized I was in fact not the only one who had not been informed about the newest murder in our town. Maybe that’s why we were all curious about this gruesome tragedy, it had happened a month before to a fellow senior.
His name was Jasper. He had near the exact same fate as Valerie, except he was found out on the football field behind the school. The whole town had been on edge since then and this would not help anyone's nerves. It was honestly a miracle our parents had even let us out to the bonfire last weekend after the rumors of the figure with the vintage steampunk mask. What had happened to our small town?
. . .
Over the next week the whole school was off, including our group of friends. Everyone did their best to be brave through all of the terrible happenings around town. No one tried harder to mask their worry than Christian. No matter what she just continued to throw herself into our studies. She had always been a good student, always curious and asking questions in all classes of the day. Always bringing up facts about Davinci’s painting advancements, facts about what would happen when you dissect a frog in biology, quoting famous books about workings of the world, and hitting perfect pitches in choir. She continued to work through all the bad and rub off on our friend group.
Then by the next week we had all come back to school sad, but calm. All of us thinking nothing could ever happen to us, we weren’t that unlucky. Vic, Christian and I were sitting in our science class when we first found out what had happened. Chrsitian was whizzing through questions at a mile a minute answering, with seemingly no hesitation, which part of the body did what, what that part looked like, and where it was located. Vic and I sat watching with amazement as our brilliant friend hummed her little tune and finished all twenty questions in less than five minutes. I was doing my best to follow along with Christian as she explained all of her answers to me, while Vic was furiously texting Rachel asking why she wasn’t at school today. They had been dating since Freshman year, so it was no wonder he was worried. They always texted back and forth when one of them was sick, making jokes about how the other was stuck at school and the other got to stay at home and watch cartoons. Christian was just explaining to me as to why she knew that a human’s highest blood flow was in the kidneys when Vic screamed and dropped his phone. Everyone in class immediately turned towards him to see his ghostly white face stare at his fallen phone. Our teacher, Ms. Trenidy, hustled over to see what was wrong, but the only thing Vic did was continue to stare at his phone. Ms. Trenidy walked over to the phone and picked it up slowly. She turned it over in her hand to stare at the unlocked screen, let out a gasp, promptly called the school office, and left with Vic in tow. From where I was spying I saw a picture of Rachel’s face flopped over a glowing green-eyed, steampunk mask. Half an hour later students were let out of school with the strict rule to not leave their homes. We were back at school on Thursday, her funeral was held the next Tuesday- closed casket.
Weeks passed by and more and more sightings had been reported about a figure walking around the woods late at night. Those brave enough to go out had sent final messages about the figure being a young woman strolling through the forest humming a tune, wearing a short vintage dress, a pair of balck flared gloves, and a black, rubber knee-length apron. That’s how they got the first blurry image of who was thought to be the mad murderer. Once that image was sent though, the sender was never seen again, or at least not alive. Four more bodies were found just like the others, faces carved off, chests torn open in wide x’s. Displaying organs that had been cut up, removed, twisted, fused, and picked apart. Organs stretched out around the outside of the body like a belt, foreign objects stuffed into the throat, hearts carved onto the skull where skin used to be.
Then as soon as it started it seemed to stop. No bodies had been discovered for nearly a month, and no students had gone missing. The figure hadn’t been seen either. The town had finally deemed it safe to leave homes at night, with very much caution. That week everyone in highschool was impatiently awaiting the weekend so they could go do something crazy while it was seemingly safe. Wednesday morning Christian came into the commons area humming her familiar tune as she sat beside me at our table. The six of us all stared at each other, each wondering what we should do this weekend, or if we should even do anything. Christian broke the silence eagerly, suggesting to go to an old haunted house a few miles out of town. All of us looked at each other worriedly thinking if what we really needed right now was more horror. Christian saw our looks of worry and simply said,
“ Wouldn’t it be more fun to be scared of some old kook's fake legend than a mad scientist? Don’t you guys want to have another adventure after this month of constant organ eating worry?” she tilted her head to the side staring into each of our faces trying to convince us. “Besides we’ll be together, so nothing bad can happen, we’ll take my nice car, buy snacks, get gas, drive out around nine, and be back before eleven-thirty. Come-on~ it will be a blast! And if the boys are scared of being wimps we have three strong independent women to protect them!”
By Friday morning we had all agreed to go and that we would meet Saturday night instead of Friday, because Nova had a dance competition and Jeremiah had a sports evening of some kind. So Saturday evening when we all happily climbed into Christian’s car we were excited for the evening ahead. Christian hummed happily as we drove around town before starting our official adventure. It was drizzling out, and the forecast told us it wouldn’t storm until around 10:30, so tonight would have the perfect atmosphere to explore eerie old lodges. We were all excited to try and put some of the torture from the last month behind us. As we drove we snacked on Pringles, gummy worms, and other various heart-attack inducing food while we played car games. We asked each other questions about homework, new influencers we enjoyed, and anything in between.
At some point Denzel asked Christian about the legend of the house we were going to. She responded nonchalantly that a group of old geezers were rumored to have been killed there, but then the old house was torn down and remade into a small lodge. The problem was though, that whoever stayed there heard wailing, coughing, scratching, stumbling, and many other types of weird noises. All of which led to whoever stayed to promptly leave in the middle of the night, as they drove their cars of scared tourists down the long fenced driveway. Once Christian was done with her story Jeremiah made a joke of not having to worry about blood stains or spiderwebs if tourists still used the lodge. This made Denzel laugh, slowing his nervous shivering from the front seat. Well, at least one of us wasn’t stubborn enough to hide their fear.
At ten before nine we were driving down the long fenced-off driveway that led to the lodge. Each of us bouncing with nerves and excitement to get out of the car and explore. Once we parked we each slowly got out and stretched while staring at the mysterious house. After a few minutes of staring we all slowly walked up the front steps, and for some unknown reason knocked on the door. Of course, no one answered, but at least we were being courteous to the ghosts that apparently lived inside.
We walked in cautiously as Christian felt around for the light switch, she joyously shouted ‘found it!’, and we all heard a click before the floors moved and our group was shifted in all different directions. The next thing I knew I was on the ground next to Nova as swirls of dust danced around us. Nova called out asking if everyone was all right, and we soon found that our group had been split up into three small gangs. The first one was Nova, Vic, and I, the second was just Jeremiah, and the final was Christian and Denzel. So much for not splitting up in the creepy old lodge. I grabbed my phone out and turned the flashlight on scanning the room around me. Apparently, the housekeeper of the lodge only knows how to clean the upper floors, not the basement. We all decided to go on our own little ways and meet back up near the entrance in two hours. Our gang slowly made their way through the basement jumping at the smallest of noises hoping to all things good there was nothing dead down here. Vic stayed behind us guarding our moves with his tall stature. When Nova and I stopped half an hour later we realized he was gone. How had we missed that?? We started to yell, and frantically search for the tall boy. Looking through rooms we had previously been to chicken to peer into to find our missing friend. Nova called out after a few minutes of searching, “VIC! This better not be a joke or I swear! I’ll beat the ever-loving crap out of you myself!” That’s when we heard a door close behind us and swift running up the stairs.
“VIC, YOU LITTLE FU-” Nova screamed as she threw open the door and ran after the steps. Before she could go up though she tripped over an object that had been thrown on the ground. We looked down to see a single flared black glove, we looked at eachother, thinking of the figure. Previous plans thrown aside we tried to text our friends about our discovery. There was no signal anywhere in the basement. Maybe we were wrong and just paranoid about the horrific figure being trapped in the house with us. We ran upstairs extra careful to look around every corner. Once upstairs we yelled out waiting to hear a response from one of our other friends, someone should be able to hear us now, so when we yelled out and heard nothing we each gave each other a look of terror. We stopped yelling as we searched through the house looking for our fellow friends. No noises were heard other than the occasional creaking floorboard and whistle of wind from outside. The storm had gotten heavier and sounds of thunder and hard-hitting rain eventually drowned out any alarming noises from within the house. We reached the second floor and continued our search there, both of us hoping we wouldn’t have to continue into the attic. Nova opened the first door on her right and gasped. A terrible, pungent scent hit our noses and we both gagged. Nova looked back into the room frantically turning her phone light on and scanning the room. The windowless room had walls painted a deep gray with two sets of old shackles on each. The smell had become unbearable by this point, but we ignored it and continued on our frantic search, closing the door behind us. We heard a noise near the end of the hallway and went to investigate. We were met with a bolted, iron door with a rectangular window set in the right side of it. We watched as a figure appeared within the room, wearing a knee-length white dress, black rubber apron, a green-eyed steampunk mask, and one flared rubber glove. Neither of us knew what to do. Should we run out to not get murdered or find our other friends? What was the smart thing to do? We needed to find Christian she had the car keys, and what about Jeremiah he was walking around on his own, where was Vic, could he be in on this? Too many questions flowed through my mind and I got lost in a rabbit-hole of panic before I was suddenly brought back by a jab to my ribcage. Nova’s eyes were the size of saucers as she stared into the dimly lit room. Then the lights turned on and three figures appeared within the room. Only two were moving.
The masked girl walked over to two steel lab tables as they moved up to a higher level. Strapped to one was a lifeless, motionless Jeremiah, the other had Vic strapped down with chains, with duct tape covering his mouth. He was frantically looking around squirming to get free of his metal restraints. The figure was humming a familiar tune as Vic started to panic more and more. The song became louder and Nova and I stood watching with morbid fascination. I was trying to figure out where I’d heard the tune before, it was familiar and sweet.
It hit me, this was Christian’s song, but instead of just a mild mumble the tune was accompanied with words. The figure was Christian.
She stepped out of view for a moment and came back with a syringe of murky black liquid.
“What did you do to Denzel!?” Vic yelled “Where is he? What did you do? Don’t come near me! I said DON’T COME NEAR ME!”
“He’s fine, calm down.” She cooed, “He’s in the holding cell, he’ll have his turn later.” Christain held Vic’s head still and inserted the syringe into his skull. Vic strived and struggled to break free of his captor before going completely still. The words of the song become louder than ever.
“Running through the darkness” Vic’s toe was broken into odd angles.
“Pleading with the moon above” Jeremiah’s hand was swiftly cut off, and she examined the movement of each finger.
“Hoping whole-heartly, I won’t find you~” Vic’s head was pulled back so she could examine the structure of his face.
“ Hunting down the place you hide, finding you in the shadows” Christian grabbed a scalpel from the tray in between the two tables. She quickly worked Jeremiah’s shirt off as she sang. She went between both of them finiicking with a purple marker. Marking here and there along the bodies, figuring where to cut first. Then once she was satisfied she started.
“Open your secrets to my my dear, open your secrets to me” She made a small incision over Jeremiah’s left shoulder, then once she was happy with the placement dragged the scalpel down to his right hip. It was like watching a very putrid version of cutting wrapping paper. When your scissors glide effortlessly through the thin, decorative material. She then made another incision from his right shoulder to left hip. She took the bloody knife and used it to start cutting skin from tissue. Muscle memories caused the tissue to squirm and constrict when it was cut off. Blood was dripping everywhere onto the table, the floor, and Chrisitan’s already stained dress.
“Open your mind, open your veins, open your secrets to me my dear~ la dada da dada da” She continued to cut and pick at both of their bodies. Taking our organs to cut them open, stuffing them with foreign objects, filling them with unknown chemicals, squishing them around in her palms, seeing how they reacted to ice water, burning them, and much more. It was horrific and neither me nor Nova seemed able to move.
“A strange fascination, a curious fixation, ginormous obsession, but- hey! I’m answering questions, I’m finding solutions, figuring paths in the darkness of minds- knowing the ways of the world.'' She half-hazardly stitched the bodies back-up, not caring if the organs were in the right place, back in the bodies, or if they were even in the right body. Then finally once they were sewn up looking like modern day Frankensteins she grabbed for a new scalpel.
“So open your secrets my dear, open them to me, open them to meeee...” She finished singing finally, her song dying off as she took her clean tool, started on Vic’s forehead, and started to slice around his forehead, trailing around the temple, down the cheek, and over the jaw-line. Until his face looked like it was a mask laying over his head and not the sweet boy I’d seen everyday since the third grade. She then started to pull at the top of the face and slowly separated the skin from bone.
I looked away, unable to watch any longer. How long had it been since we’d started watching the grand finale of all horror shows? Minutes, hours, the whole night? I couldn’t tell. I went to grab Nova’s arm, and due to the shock she let out a small gasp before realizing it was me. But, that was our fatal mistake, Christian looked up at the small noise and we locked eyes. I grabbed Nova’s arm and ran. We were unsteady, frightened, and chillingly surprised as we stumbled through the alien territory of the lodge. We scrambled down both flights of stairs as fast as we could, not looking back as we burst out the front doors.
We stood for a split second as the doors closed, breathing in the stormy air, and doing our best to not cry. I made a move to the car before Nova grabbed my arm.
“Autumn, we can’t leave, what about Denzel?... What about the car?” She trailed off as she looked towards the silver minivan parked near the lodge entrance.
I then realized the flaw of our plans tonight. Christian had driven us, she had the keys, and there was no way in heaven she would give us her keys. Besides, even if we didn’t drive it would take forever to run down the driveway in the pouring rain. Even longer if we were stupid enough to run back ina dn find Denzel, and that was if he was even still...alive.
“Doesn’t matter, we need to go, run, something! We need to get far enough out to have service so we can call the cops or something!” I yanked Nova down the stairs to hide under the porch so we could figure what to do. Seconds after we were hunkered down, I heard the front doors open.
“Now where did my friends go? I sure hope they didn’t get scared off, that won’t do!” She let out a laugh as she started to sing.
“Pleading with the moon, that I won’t… find… you…” It stopped. I held my breath waiting for the sounds of doors to open and footsteps to fade. Once I heard both I yanked Nova out from the porch with me so we could make our great escape. It hurt to leave Denzel, but we had to inform the authorities! Before we made a full four steps though we heard a small psychotic laugh.
“I got you~” Christian whispered in our ears before I felt a sharp pain in my back. I watched Nova fall to the ground beside me. I was held up for a moment as Christian lifted her mask over her head. “Please Autumn, tell me your secrets, I’d love to know more about you, my, dearest, friend~” I dropped to the ground. I felt a prick on the side of my body before blacking out. The last thing I heard was the familiar hum of the masked figure.
Well, that wasn't my preferred word-vomit, but it's a story I wrote for my writing class that I quite enjoyed! It's different from my general style, but I think it turned out very nice! Anywho I hope you enjoyed it if you stuck around, and as always have a MAGICAL rest of your day!
~Ms. Magic~
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.