Jenny had always been around the wrong crowd. Throughout her adolescence she had been drawn to trouble makers like a moth to the flame. She didn’t know why this was so, nor either did she care. She was content with the unpredictability of it all. Jenny could have been a good girl and hung out with all the boring guys, but where was the fun in that? She liked being with the mischievous ones because there was always a rush.
Jenny felt the beer beginning to get the best of her motor functions. The beer warmed her stomach in this otherwise freezing night. She lied on top of the dirt staring up at the bright full moon. She had never gazed into the moon as she did in that moment. Her body relaxed as she stretched out her arms and breathed in the cold air. Cathy sat down right next to Jenny and handed her another beer. As she took the poison from Cathy, she felt how smooth Cathy’s hand was. Jenny lifted her eyes to meet Cathy’s and was lost by how beautiful Cathy looked in the moonlight. Somehow, in this moonlight Jenny could still make out the green of Cathy’s eyes. The way they were lit mesmerized Jenny. Jenny and Cathy had known each other since the seventh grade. Together they started this game of going from one rush to the next.
The girls consumed more beer and lay together bathed in the moonlight. They have never been in such a place that wasn’t surrounded by buildings. In this sacred place they were away from the ruckus of urban life. There were no cars speeding by, people cursing, radios turned up too loud, or anything of that matter. Trees, silence, and darkness were all that surrounded them. Off in the distance they heard Alan and Chad coming back from their trek around the woods. It was these two delinquents who had brought the girls to this place of black silence.
Alan approached and asked, “How can you two just hang out like that? Doesn’t this place creep you out at all?”
“This place is nice,” responded a lightheaded Cathy.
“You really think so? I’ve had the creeps since we first got here. This place is way too quiet,” replied Alan. Alan and his friend Chad were just some of the local hoodlums the girls had met at continuation school. They were not the best looking or most athletic, but they knew how to have a good time. These were the kind of boys the girls were attracted to. These were the kind of guys that would make nothing of their lives, but as long as they were young they would know how to live.
“How did you know of this place, Alan?” asked Jenny as she sat up leaning on Cathy.
“Chad’s the one who told me about this place,” responded Alan as he cracked open another beer and poured it down his throat.
“Then how did you hear of this place?” Jenny asked the quieter of two. Chad opened a beer and sat down beside the girls. He took a gulp and stared off into the endless echoes of trees.
“To tell you the truth, I heard about this place from a ghost story,” Chad murmured. Jenny no longer felt the warmth of the alcohol; instead she felt the chill of the air.
“A few of my friends had told me that one night they were just driving around looking for a place to drink. One of them had heard of this place from his friend, you know, this empty forest in the middle of the city. So they came here and sat in the bed of the truck, drinking, you know.”
Due to their mild intoxication, the story was very vivid in their imaginations. It was like they were reliving the tale that was being told. Chad’s words made Cathy and Jenny began to clench each other. It then felt like there were thousands of eyes in the forest just staring at them. Eyes that were so vicious that they could skin the girls with just their stares. They heard little whispers off in the distance but they could not determine whether it was just paranoia or something unseen. The little sounds of creeks off in the distance were loud to their alert ears. This place that they had once thought so beautiful, had transformed into a place of absolute fear.
“And then one of the guys could swear that he had heard something. So he sat up and looked around. But he didn’t see anything. Confused but buzzed, he lied back down and started drinking. A little moment later, he thought he had heard something again. He sat back up and looked around again. Still nothing. This time, the other guy, who was also in the bed thought he heard something too. So both freaked out and got back inside the truck.” The girls were so immersed with Chad’s tale that they did not acknowledge Alan slipping away into the darkness. Alan wandered off back to the road where he had left his truck. He opened the cold metal door and began to shuffle for something hidden underneath his seat. The little dome light of the truck glowed like a beacon in the immense blackness of this dead place. He laughed as he grabbed a white sheet from beneath his seat. He couldn’t wait to see the expression on their faces as he stared satisfied at the cloak.
“When inside the truck, the sounds that they heard suddenly became voices. The voices were very faint and muffled. They had to roll down the windows and listen carefully to make out what the voices said. The frail but numerous voices were telling them to join them, or something like that. The guys were all scared and stuff in the truck when they realized the voices were coming from underneath the truck. So they drove up a little and looked out the window. And what they saw was that they were on top of two wooden doors that were flat on the ground. They both sat there zoning at the doors trying to make sense of it all. Then there were huge bangs from coming from beneath the doors, like there was something, or some things trying to get out. From underneath the door they could hear howling and screaming and crying. They couldn’t tell what or how many voices were underneath the wooden doors, but whatever they were, there were a lot of them and they only sounded remotely human. They got all freaked out and drove outta there. But as they drove off, one of the guys looked into the rear view mirror. And what he saw in the reflection were what looked to be human figures, all wrapped up in white sheets, with eye holes cut out staring at them from the forest as they drove off.
Chad’s tale sent a chill down Jenny’s spine. The story was so familiar, but in her mildly tipsy state she could not remember why. She squinted as she focused her memory although her memory was never that great to begin with. Suddenly she knew where these two imbeciles had taken them. She was sitting in what the local kids had dubbed Sierra de los Muertos. She too had heard stories about the unexplainable occurrences that had happened in this dark decadence. She had heard stories of people driving in to never return. “Cathy, do you realize where we are?”
“No. Where are we?”
“These idiots took us to Sierra de los Muertos.”
“So what?”
“Don’t you remember the stories about this place?”
“Yeah, but they’re just stories. Remember when we played that stupid Bloody Mary game and nothing happened?”
Jenny then noticed that there were only three of them. She looked around and saw only trees. Trees with darkness, trees with silence, but only trees nonetheless.
“Where is Alan?” Jenny’s voice trembled.
“He was just here.” All three of them looked around calling out for Alan. Their voices drifted into the dark quiet of the abyss. Cathy then froze in place and squeezed Chad and Jenny’s arms.
“Oh my god.”
Jenny saw the horror on Cathy’s face and follow her line of vision. There before them was what appeared to be a human figure bounded in a white sheet. It was way too dark for them to make out the visage of the face underneath the cloth. Jenny felt her consciousness and sanity waning.
After a moment of complete paralysis Chad began laughing hysterically. The girls looked upon the mad hyena with question in their eyes. Chad fell onto his knees and rolled on the dirt hugging his stomach. Jenny thought that Chad’s feeble mind had snapped. Cathy couldn’t take the fright anymore and began to cry. She hid her porcelain face into her hands.
“I can’t believe you guys fell for it! You should have seen the look on your faces!” Chad yelled in between laughs.
“You jerk!” Cathy screamed as she whacked her delicate hands on Chad’s laughing abdomen. Chad grabbed onto Cathy and rolled her onto the ground smothering her tear drenched face with kisses. Cathy let up and giggled along with the jerk. Relief liberated Jenny’s nerves. Her nerves had truly gotten the best of her. She cursed herself for being so gullible.
Chad made his way back to his feet still laughing. The draped figure quietly paced its way behind Chad. Chad turned to it and said, “Dude. You can take that stupid thing off now, buddy. We got them good.”
Chad could not see the eyes under the cut out holes but could feel them burning on him. He felt that the eyes were so hot that they could have melted a hole right through his body. Chad’s smiling face turned into a confused expression.
“Alan?”
As that last word escaped his lips a hatchet forced its way into his skull. The melon split in two as the jaws remained flapping trying to let out a final scream. None ever came.
The girls watched in absolute terror as the clothed demon chopped away at Chad’s twitching carcass. The strong thrusts of the hatchet sprayed hot blood onto their faces. Cathy screamed at the top of her lungs. Jenny immediately took Cathy by the wrist and dragged her screaming away from the frenzied beast. Jenny ran through the maze of trees desperately trying to remember the way back to the road.
“He’s chasing after us!” Cathy screamed. Jenny looked behind and saw the hungry hatchet giving chase. But as Jenny’s attention was diverted her foot was snagged and she fell forward. Cathy also fell on top of her panicking. Jenny looked down at her feet to find whatever took hold of her foot. There she saw what was left of Alan. Alan was half the man he used to be. Cathy looked too and began screaming even more franticly than before. Her panic made it impossible for the girls to find their footing. Jenny’s eyes were looking past Cathy’s head at the apathetic sky. Then the beast came into vision.
“Run, Cathy, he’s right behind you!” Jenny pleaded.
With a single stroke it was too late. Cathy’s body went completely limp and pinned Jenny underneath. Jenny could feel the pressure pulsating through Cathy’s body as the beast chopped away at it. Jenny’s mind could no longer handle the horror so everything slowly drifted into utter blackness.
The blackness was disturbed by the slight sounds of dripping water. The sound was so subtle, but for some unknown reason, it echoed immensely. There was also a very sour smell present. It was like the smell of cheese that had gone bad and cooked in the sun for days. When Jenny came back to she found herself lying on a hard, cold, concrete floor. The room was lit by a single candle that was going to die out at any moment. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the light but it was still difficult to make anything out. She rationalized that she was in some kind of concrete room. This was her stone coffin. She then heard echoes and whispers all around her.
She couldn’t understand anything. Her senses must have been betraying her because nothing was making sense. Her body had numbed from the cold from her stone coffin. She crawled around searching with her hands for an exit of any kind. Her fingertips found something cold and very wet. When she got closer to the object her eyes adjusted to what was there. She had found the remaining pieces of Cathy. She could not tell if her imagination was making up for her lack of vision, or whether what she was seeing was real. Her eyes then forced themselves to focus even more. She then made out the mutilated bodies of dozens sharing the floor with her. Their grimaces were frozen from the moment they had died. Many lied their with eyes and mouths wide open still trying to let out words like: no, why, and god.
She tried to cry but no tears ever came. Laying in the fetal position her eyes fixed themselves at the candle. She lied there and watched in complete silence as it slowly burned out. Then there was only black.
David had always been the instigator. His previous obsessions had led the trio of thrillseekers to long spend nights at houses rumored to be haunted. At those venues, they would let paranoia seep in and get the best of them for the hours they stayed. Everyone needs a good scare now and then. What harm can it be as long as no one was harmed, right? That was their reasoning, and this logic is what kept them coming back for more. But eventually haunted houses no longer gave them the rush they needed. They’ve never seen any specters or apparitions at any of their nightcaps. They’ve only seen shadows of their subconscious projecting images of their own inner darkness, and they knew it.
David had always been the one who found the locations for them to scout. He would listen to stories from other troublemakers as to where their next adventure would lead them. This time, David did not have to seek those unmerited resources. This time, the newspaper was his source of scare. Jose and Tyrone had rushed over to David’s apartment as soon they got his call.
“Where’s the fire, man? Why did you want us to come over so badly?” Tyrone asked.
David sat with his nose buried in a newspaper. “Check out the first page.” David tossed the newspaper to Tyrone.
Jose and Tyrone scanned the pulp paper page. The article was about a group of missing teenagers. Their last whereabouts was the local trouble spot, the infamous Sierra de los Muertos. The hairs on Jose’s neck began to rise. All three of them have heard numerous stories of the fabled Sierra de los Muertos. They had never considered going there because it wasn’t just rumored to be haunted, it also was rumored be a death trap.
“You got to be kidding, man. We can’t go there, we’ll get killed.” Tyrone pleaded.
“I’ll bring my gun. We’ll be fine.” David explained to his less courageous friend.
“I don’t know, David. I’ve heard some awful things about that place. I heard KKK members used to hang people over there.” Jose added.
“We’ll be fine. You guys were the ones saying that haunted houses are lame. You were the ones that said they’re weren’t scary. Now here’s a chance to get the real scare of our lives.” David sounded almost Hitler-like as he spoke.
“Look at the front page, David. These people are missing to this very day. I don’t know if that’s the kind of scare I’m really into.” Tyrone replied to the little dictator.
“I’m with Tyrone on this one, David. He has a point.” Jose seconded.
David turned his back towards the two. He paced his way towards the window. He stared out into the baby blue cloudless sky. He stared off into the horizon, at the mysteries he would never discover, to the questions he would never have answered. He had always lived in Southern California; all he ever knew was Southern California. And for numerous reasons, he knew he could never leave Southern California. His life, like so many others, was just a repetitious cycle until death claimed its prize. But unlike so many others, he was aware of the game.
“Fine. We’ll have it your way. We’ll just keep on doing what we were doing before. Or why even do that anymore? Why don’t we just be like everyone else and just live like worker bees ‘til we die?”
Jose and Tyrone were now being swayed. They have been David’s friends since childhood. They knew how trapped he felt. They too shared the same feeling of being stuck in lives they’ve never asked for. That’s why the boys started this game of scare. They wanted something different. They didn’t want to go clubbing, street racing, or bar hopping like everyone else. They wanted to do something that would require courage, as well as a touch of insanity. They wanted to stand out from the flock. They wanted to prove to the world that they weren’t just any worker bees swarming in the hive of life.
Jose hesitated what he felt inside, and then he accepted it, and said, “I’m in.”
Tyrone then stepped up to the plate, “Yeah, I’m in too.”
With his face turned away from the easily manipulated fools, David cracked a smirk. David had always been the instigator.
The long winding road ahead of them was as dark as death. Their Japanese compact car could barely drive along the narrow path. The light of the moon was shielded by the tall trees with their long skinny branches reaching over the sky like witches’ fingers. The cold air stung their lungs as they breathed in heavy gasps due to their uneasiness. The young men could not differentiate if the terrain they drove on was scathed, or whether it was just the rapid thumps of their hearts. They could only see what was in front of their headlights; everything that followed was drowned in black and silence.
Each man had brought his own weapon. They each had brought a form of protection that they had put their faith in. Jose always kept his Louisville-slugger in his car. Tyrone brought a military knife his father had given him. David had brought his .357 magnum, one that had seen some drive-by shootings in its younger days, but that was in the past. Weapons like David’s were easy to come by in the area. For a under a hundred dollars fee one could purchase a gun that had already tasted blood. They relied on their weapons like Chinese monks relied on little mirrors to protect them from the unseen.
The further they drove the more the stories echoed in their minds. They have heard numerous tales of this decedent place. They have heard of the endless darkness in the maze of woods. They heard about others who came seeking thrills but were never seen again. They heard stories of the undead terrorizing unsuspecting joy riders. They have heard of an underground church with a cult waiting for curious adventurers to journey into their forbidden land. All of these tales ricocheted in their minds as they drove deeper into the dark.
As they drove along the endless road David recognized where they were. He took out the article from his pocket and turned on the dome light to read it. There was a picture of where the missing teens’ truck was found off the road. The instigator was the first to break the silence. “Let’s get out of the car and see if we can find any traces of the missing kids. The newspaper said that there last whereabouts was a little open field off the road somewhere.” David unbuckled his seatbelt and turned towards the other two. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
Jose’s voice trembled as he replied, “Why should we do that? We’ve been here for five minutes and I’m already more scared than I’ve ever been in my entire life.”
Tyrone leaned towards David from the back seat. “Yeah, man. There’s something wrong with this place. I’ve never been so scared in my life. This place is rotten or something.”
David had felt the same aura the others were speaking of. He too felt the paralyzing fear that was carried in the air. His skin had turned to goose bumps the moment they entered the forbidden. His hairs were standing on end as though they wanted to leap from his body. He was definitely scared. But the more horrified he was the more enticed he became. The fear had made him feel alive. The fear somehow set him free from his trapped existence. Adrenaline had become David’s heroin, and like any other junkie, he wanted more.
“Pull over, Jose.”
“What for?”
“I’m gonna go check it out by myself then.”
Tyrone stepped in, “Hell no, you’re not.”
“Yes I am,” David showed his teeth as he spoke.
“Yeah, man. I’m not pulling over,” Jose shook his head.
“Fine. We’re going slow enough I’ll just jump out,” David threatened. Jose and Tyrone did not buy his bluff. So David opened the door and leaned a little out of it. The car came to a complete halt. As soon as it stopped David stepped out of the car and turned to his startled friends. “See you sissies in fifteen minutes.”
“Dude, you are not going out there all by yourself. There could be psychos running around out there,” Tyrone pleaded.
“I’ll be fine. I have my strap with me. If anyone comes out at me I’ll blow his head off,” David contested. He turned his back towards the car and started walking towards the woods very slowly, eyeing the car from over his shoulder. He walked and waited for his friends to follow. The two in the car watched him head off in front of the headlights.
Jose turned towards Tyrone and said, “Let’s go after him. We can’t let him go by himself. We’ll go to wherever the newspaper said the kids’ last traces were. Then we’ll head on back.” Tyrone nodded and they stepped out of the car. Jose yelled, “Wait up! We’re coming with you!”
Tyrone and David were walking towards each other in the light. Jose turned off the engine as well as the lights. Everything went completely black. All three of them stood frozen in place. Everything that surrounding them was as dark as the insides of a demon’s stomach. Tyrone’s heart skipped a beat. David felt his bowels wanting to give. Jose waved his hand right in front of his face and saw only black. Jose panicked as his hands shook to turn back on the headlights. When the lights reemerged, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Jose shivered as he went to the trunk to get the flashlights. Their adventure had officially begun.
Trees surrounded everywhere. The trees were old and dry. They bore the scent of old death. David walked in front with his flashlight guiding. Tyrone and Jose followed behind him, grasping their weapons in one hand and flashlights in the other. The only noise they heard were the sounds of their steps on the desiccated earth.
Jose kept looking behind constantly because he could have sworn he heard whispers of the night calling out to him. He told himself the sirens were only coming from his own insecurities and paranoia, but there was no way for him to be sure. He had heard similar voices in the haunted houses they have romped, but never this loud, and never this clear. He thought to himself maybe the whispers were some kind of defense mechanism within his psyche telling him to turn around. If his theory was so, then why weren’t the others hearing the same voices? They too shared the same primal instinct of fear didn’t they?
Tyrone noticed Jose looking back and felt relieved. He thought he was the only one who was seeing strange sights. When he would look down to the ground, the texture of the dirt would form into faces of abomination. He would then blink and they would disappear. But the longer he would stare the more the faces would reveal themselves to him. There were hidden faces everywhere. The surface of the trees would form together like wrinkles and reveal their masks of mayhem. Tyrone could only look at his friends. Their bodies had no evil figures to hide.
It was getting colder by the minute. They could see their breathe swim before their faces. The mist of their exhalations would appear and disperse like ghosts. David was too busy looking for his prize to notice the shift in temperature. David was so high on the fear that he ignored his mind’s warning signs. He did not see or hear anything strange. His only focus was to find where the suspected atrocity had occurred.
Tyrone thought about how this quest had seemed like an eternity. They had completely lost track of time. Tyrone looked down on his watch and felt his heart wanting to jump out of his chest. “Dude! We’ve been walking for over an hour already!”
“You’re tripping, it’s only been like fifteen minutes,” David shrugged.
“Fifteen minutes? More like fifteen years. I can’t wait to get out of this hellhole,” Jose added.
“I’m for real, man! Look at my watch! We left the car at around ten! It’s eleven o’ eight right now!”
“Let me see that!” David walked over and grabbed Tyrone’s wrist. He shined the flashlight at the imitation Rolex. His eyes widened as he realized that Tyrone had been telling the truth. Where had all the time gone? Each person experienced the duration differently like they were in some kind of forest of lost time. “Oh shoot. You aren’t tripping. We’ve really been out here for over an hour.”
“See I told you, man.” Tyrone added insult to injury.
“We’ve been out here forever! I say we start heading back to the car!” Jose’s fear was apparent.
“No. We can’t go back. We haven’t seen the location yet.” David spat as he spoke.
“I’m with Jose, man. We gotta go back. The longer we stay out hear the more lost we’ll become.” Tyrone stressed.
Fury overtook David. He wanted to pull his gun out of his pants and shoot both of the cowards right then and there. He felt his hand sliding towards his weapon when reason got the best of him. He knew Tyrone was right. They had not found his prize but at the rate they were going, they probably never would. The location was not supposed to be far from the road, but somehow they’ve trekked in the wrong direction. Maybe the woods were playing tricks on them. He would have to regroup and convince them to go again another night. It would be easy for him; they were easily manipulated sheep anyway. “You guys are right. We’ve been here forever. Let’s head back to the car.”
“Man, I thought I had to carry you back to the car over my shoulder kicking and screaming,” Tyrone said in his relief.
The trip back towards the car seemed to last even longer. David led the way as usual. It was even colder now, and worse, it was windy too. The wind was so loud that it drowned out the whispers that called out to Jose. Tyrone had to constantly squint and blink his eyes to keep the dust from being blown into them. He did not see any more hidden faces. The wind had made sure that their natural defenses have been neutralized.
David had known for some time that they should have reached the road already. He felt the panic in his stomach. He felt the vomit wanting to reach the back of his throat. He didn’t want the others to know that he had gotten them lost. He just kept on walking hoping that the road would miraculously appear in front of him.
Both Tyrone and Jose knew that they were completely lost. They have been keeping track of time on the way back. They knew that they have been walking for hours and found no road. Jose was very frustrated, but he didn’t want to say anything because he didn’t know the way back either. They just followed their leader with blind faith. They were mice in a maze of darkness.
The wind finally died down. It was as though the wind was satisfied with its duty and no longer needed to blow. The woods were once again quiet. Jose then thought he heard a faint cry in the distance. He ignored it because he thought it was just his imagination again. But then it got louder. Jose stopped and turned to the direction the cry was coming from. The other two stopped and stared at him.
“What’s up, man? Why’d you stop walking?” Tyrone asked.
“Do you hear that?”
“No. I don’t hear anything.”
“Just listen.”
David took this moment to sit and rest. He watched as the others stood and listened to the darkness. He then heard the whimpering too. All three heard the cry and stared off into its direction.
“What is it?” Tyrone asked.
“Sounds like a person.” David answered.
“We should check it out. Maybe they’ll know how to get back to the road from here.” Jose reasoned.
They walked off into the direction of the cries. They could tell they were getting closer because the cries were getting louder. Jose led them through the trees towards the despair. While getting closer to the source of the agony, Tyrone had envisioned the worst. He pictured them walking into a trap set by the ghosts of the woods. He imagined all three of them being torn apart by living trees. His body didn’t want to walk forward but he did not want to be left behind, alone in the dark.
There before them was a patch of moonlight. There was a small area where the long fingers of the trees did not block the illumination. In the middle of the patch sat a figure on a stone. They stood there in silence and watched as the figure bent over and wept. Jose stepped towards the figure without fear as the other two followed cautiously. The moonlight revealed the figure to be a girl. She was in her teens. She held herself in a crunched over position crying. Her clothes have been torn and there were bruises and scrapes all over her petit figure.
Jose walked over to her and asked, “What happened?” She removed her hands from her face and looked up at him. She had been beaten recently. She had a black eye, a split lip, and scratches all over her face. But despite all the injuries, she was the most beautiful girl Jose had ever seen. If love at first sight did exist then Jose would be its witness. “What happened to you?”
The girl did not speak and who could blame her? After what she had been through, one would be amazed if she ever spoke again. She lunged at Jose and exploded with tears.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. Did someone do this to you?”
She dug her head into his chest as she nodded. Jose felt his heart melt. Jose felt all the compassion and sympathy he was capable of circulate within him. He was brought to tears.
David immediately knew where they were as soon as he saw the girl. They were at his prize. This was the place they had given up looking for. David felt the joy erupt in his heart. This night wasn’t a total waste after all. David whispered to Tyrone, “This is the spot we were looking for.”
“Duh. I can figure that out on my own.”
“This girl must have been kidnapped or something.”
“Yeah, I know, man.”
“What the hell is she still doing here? The rescue crew must have missed her, but that was a few days ago.”
“Yeah, man. This is a really bad situation.”
Jose held the girl in his arms like she was the treasure he had searched his whole entire life for. “We gotta help her, guys.”
David had already been satisfied. In this one night he had gotten enough scare to last him a lifetime. He had seen what he came to see and now he wanted nothing more than the comfort of his bed. “Ask her if she knows the way back to the road, Jose.”
Jose turned his head towards her ear. He spoke lightly as he would if he were speaking to child who had just awoke. “Do you know how to get back to the road?”
The girl turned her tear drenched face upwards. The moonlight reflecting in her eyes was mesmerizing. Even in the low illumination Jose could still make out her crystal blue eyes. They were hypnotic and deep as the seas. They seemed to have touched his soul. The smell of her hair aroused him. Her skin at his fingertips was silk smooth and feather soft. She nodded her delicate head.
She wore Jose’s jacket as she led him by the wrist. The path that they walked in was as quiet as a cemetery. The thought that if she knew where the road was the whole time, why didn’t she run to the road to look for help baffled David. David began internally reasoning the situation. Maybe she had just gotten free of her captives and ran back to the moonlight hoping to find friends. David began wondering about the whereabouts and the identities of her captives. Were they just another bunch of troublemakers who were just visiting or were they some unseen band of raiders who lived in the canyon? And if they did reside in the forbidden territory, why haven’t they encountered them yet? Many questions spiraled through David’s mind as he followed the way.
Too entranced by his train of thought, David tripped over something and fell forward. He landed on all fours dropping both his flashlight and his gun. All of the others were startled by the surprise of David’s falling. David was on all fours bent over whatever block of wood that had caught his feet. He made his way back onto his feet and began dusting himself off.
“You alright, David?” Tyrone asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I tripped over a log or something.” David was still dusting himself off when he felt the wetness on his clothes. It must have been the condensation from the log he had thought. Tyrone froze as he shone his light at David. David saw the expression on Tyrone’s face and looked down at his body. He was covered in crimson. David immediately knew what he had tripped over but did not want to accept it. Tyrone manned up the courage to work the light down to David’s feet. The beating in their hearts rose with every inch the light came closer to whatever it was at David’s feet. When the light finally found its target, David’s mind almost snapped like the delicate twig it was. There before him lay the mutilated torso of someone who had come looking for adventure as they have.
Jose put the girl’s face into his chest. He didn’t want her to see the corpse in fear that she would recognize it as someone she once knew. Tyrone bent over and vomited; never in his twenty-odd years of life had he ever been this close to the macabre. The closest he had ever been was through watching horror movies and visiting haunted houses. But they have never seen anything quite like this at any haunted house they ever visited. The sight of the carcass made him sick, but something inside of him wanted him to look. It must have been a few days old he thought. He looked at the killing blows it endured and wondered what kind of weapon could have caused the damage. The blows apparently didn’t just stab the flesh, but split it.
David realized that they were in danger and tapped at his waist looking for his gun. Whoever or whatever did this could be close. David’s hand did not find his gun and he realized that he must have dropped it when he fell. His eyes went straight to his flashlight on the ground. He did not see his gun anywhere near it. His eyes followed the light to where it was pointing. The light led his vision to what seemed to be a human foot standing ten feet away from them. His eyes began tracing upwards from the foot to look at its master. There stood a fully cloaked visage of a man. The cloaked form wore a white blood stained draping from head to toe. The blood had dried and coagulated into brown. There were eyeholes cut out, although it was too dark for David to see its eyes, David could feel them upon him, hungry for blood. The shape stood there with its arms to its sides. Its right hand wielded a rusty hatchet. David’s bladder gave way.
Jose and Tyrone turned to see what kept David’s paralyzed gaze. There they saw the messenger of death that had came for them. At that moment they truly understood what fear really was. They finally understood how every experience they ever had in their lives that they thought was fear, was but a drop in the ocean of horror they truly understood now. Another predator leaped out from the trees behind Jose and split his cranium with a hatchet. Blood and grey matter splattered on the face of the girl. Jose’s body went into massive convulsions as the assailant mounted on top chopping it into ribbons of red.
Tyrone rushed to the girl as David grabbed his flashlight and looked for his weapon. Tyrone dropped his flashlight as he took the girl under his arm and drew up his knife with his other arm. The girl led Tyrone away by the arm as he held up his knife at the attackers. David crawled on all fours desperately looking for his gun. More and more of them came out from the woods. They paid David no attention and circled around Tyrone and the girl.
The girl broke free from Tyrone’s protective grip and ran away completely ignored by the monsters of the woods. Tyrone’s eyes desperately tried to seek what direction she ran to. One of them came at Tyrone at the corner of his eye but it was too quick to maneuver. With one swipe of its hatchet Tyrone’s right arm separated from him. The arm dropped to the dirt twitching and releasing the knife. Tyrone writhed in agony and fell to his knees. He grabbed onto his pulsating stump as he watched them circle in slowly. He knew that this was his end. He closed his tear-filled eyes tightly and prayed. He prayed for God to take him away to safety. He prayed that this was all a nightmare and he would wake up soaked in his own urine safe in his bed.
They circled around Tyrone wrapping him up with barbed wire. The wire kissed his skin. Pain, fear, and dread were his only realities now. No matter of prayer or dreaming could take his focus away from the agony and terror that was upon him. Death had come for him.
Tyrone fell onto his face completely wrapped up. As he landed the barbs went deeper into him. His torturers dragged him by his legs into the center of them. They all wanted their crack at him. They stood around him rubbing the hatches in anticipation. All of the hatchets rose in sequence, then the beasts let out a cry that was far from human. Tyrone screamed his last as they all swooped towards him at once. The rusted hatchets began chopping away at the screaming log of flesh.
Splinters invaded David’s hands as he scrambled on the ground looking for his gun. He heard Tyrone’s screams diminishing in the distance. He knew when they were satisfied with Tyrone they would come looking for him. He knew this was all his fault. He could not resist the power that this canyon had. The moment they drove into its borders, David became infatuated with the fear that was in its very being. It made complete sense to him why this place would carry such innate fear. The fear that was in the air was like the last print of the victims that had died here. The terror they experienced before begin hacked like raw timber was so immense that it did not go away even after their demise. Instead it lingered in the air with a life of itself, warning all others who stepped into its dominion.
David could hear footsteps coming in his direction. He looked up behind him and saw one of the axe-murderers, completely drenched in blood, coming for the final kill. David panicked and shuffled at the dirt as fast as he could. With every heart beat, with every gasp of breath, death was a step closer to ending both. The assailant was almost upon him.
David then realized if the gun had fallen out when he fell, there was a possibility that it could be next to the torso that had tripped him. David reasoned he could have tipped it under the torso with his foot when he stood himself back up. David shined the light at the torso and saw no gun. He had to take a chance. If he just sat there and waited he would eventually become another torso for future adventurers to trip on. The torso laid right between David and the hungry hatchet. David leapt at the torso and shuffled under it for his gun. Plump maggots spilled onto David’s hands. In his mind’s eye he envisioned the torso grabbing on to him, laughing at him as the hatchet cleaved into his skull.
The blood soaked cloak was before him now with its right arm raised into the air. As the arm swooped downwards David found his magnum, raised it and pulled the trigger. The beast’s chest exploded as it fell backwards. David stood up on both feet trembling, grasping his weapon and looking down on his kill.
There was no time to savor the kill. The scream of the gun had made the others aware of his presence. There were three times more of them than the number of bullets left in his gun. He knew he couldn’t kill them all. On the other side of them he could see the girl. She just watched him as she stood next to a tree. She was his only chance of survival. She knew the way back to the road. If they made it back to road, they could find the car, and be free of this death trap once and for all.
The only way to make it to the girl was through the hatchet wielders. David mustered up his courage as he charged at them letting off some shots as he ran. Three of them that were in front fell backwards into the throng. David used this to his advantage by charging through them. Their hatchets just barely missed him and caught onto others as he forced his way through. David turned around and shot more as he ran to the girl.
“Lead me to the road! We gotta get outta here!” David yelled.
The girl nodded her head and took him by the arm. They ran through the dark woods with the assailants behind them. They could not see any path in front, only endless stretches of dead trees. They ran so hard that their calves were on fire and their breaths dried their throats. David turned around and saw a beast chasing in front of the others. He quickly aimed and shot. The body fell face forward making some of the others fall with it. This had bought some time.
The girl stopped then running and tugged onto David’s arm at another open field of moonlight. David couldn’t see any road in sight.
“Where’s the road?” David asked in between gasps.
The girl pointed downwards onto the dirt. There were two wooden doors on top of the ground. David rationalized to the best of his potential at the moment. “This door must lead to the road right?”
The girl nodded her head, opened the doors and scrambled her way in. David turned to see if they had any followers and stumbled down the stairs backwards. As soon as he got all the way in he bolted the doors shut. This would buy him some more time to make his escape.
Hatchets began chopping at the doors from the outside. One made it through the wood and split David’s already bloody hand in two. He let out a cry and squeezed the remains of his left hand. David turned around to face the girl and froze in place. If there was any urine left in his bladder it would be trickling down his pant legs again. There he stood in what looked like an underground altar. There was no escape tunnel; there were only four concrete walls that surrounded him. There before him, dozens of mutilated rotting corpses scattered the floors. There was a hand drawn pentagram inked in blood on the farthest wall. Unholy scriptures were written in human blood all over this cement coffin. The girl stood in front of David with no expression. Her eyes were just as hungry as the beasts outside.
David didn’t know what to do or what to think. It was only a matter of minutes before the furious hatchets would make it through the doors and claim him to be one of the many that showered the room. Suddenly the mutilated bodies began to rise. The ones that had legs stood straight up, while the ones that didn’t crawled and dragged their entrails behind them. This did not make any sense. David thought he was going mad. They all came up behind the girl and gazed into David’s fright. The girl took steps backwards to join her kin.
David finally realized the truth. When Jose and Tyrone were murdered, they were being led by the girl. She purposely walked them into the range of the hatchets. The predators outside ignored her the whole time because there was no point in them re-killing someone they have already killed. She had been one of the dead this whole entire time. Now David was trapped inside the underground church with the dead, while death was on the other side of the doors trying to make its way in. This was way too much for his mind to bear so he put his magnum in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Click.
He must have used up all of his bullets while fleeing in the woods. The congregation of rotting flesh was before him. Their arms were wide open accepting him as their brother. Soon he would too join the same misery of their deaths. Why else would the girl have led others to join the same fate? After all, doesn’t misery love company?
