It wasn’t long till fate trapped me. I ran. I hid. I did everything I could till I was eighteen. Au revoir hometown, hello college. I went as far away as possible. Not because my family was awful, they were generally decent people. They just wouldn’t listen. Part of me thinks that they willingly plugged their ears to ignore my screams. Screams that came from nightmares, and sometimes not.
I had escaped all that, leaving myself empty of fear. Fear it fed on. Fear I fed on. Now, like an 80’s horror flick, I’m back where it all began. Fuck. Well, what did I expect? I was the last one left. If it didn’t get us back then, it got us years later, one by one.
Perhaps I should give you some background: 1991. The year I turned ten. It was September when I blew out candles, received gifts, and ate cake till I threw up. Turning ten was like turning 16. Now that I was in the double digits I was allowed to do things I could not before. Namely, play in the town woods with my friends. Of course I felt like a bad ass, leaving a few friends from my fourth grade class behind to play with the older kids, the “tweens”. We would climb trees, skip rocks into the small stream, and hit each other with sticks.
There were five of us when it came. We were playing freeze tag, and because I was the fastest, I almost tagged everyone. It was Dylan against me, and Dylan was too far away to take the risk of un-freezing our friends. John Stevens, frozen in place, was the closest to it when it came. We all became frozen when serpentine horn-like arms snaked around his small body and almost gently impaled him on a newly naked tree branch.
Luke Taylor was next, and as soon as it was picked up in the same fashion as John, Dylan, Matt and I bolted. We ran as fast as we could, clearing the forest and running back to Dylan’s house. We clung to his father in desperation, none of us believing what we wanted to spill from our mouths. We stood there exhausted and scared and mute until Matt broke the silence.
“It has them.” He whispered through sobs. “It killed them.”
Dylan’s father, baffled by our uncharacteristic actions, asked Matt to continue. He stood there dumb founded, his body near shaking. He turned to me and asked for me to continue Matt’s story.
“We were playing. Just freeze tag. And John and Luke were frozen as me and Dylan were running and…,” My voice started to trail off. “This thing came. It came and it killed John, and then it killed Luke. All we could do was run.”
Dylan’s dad was incredulous of course, and decided to check it out. We begged him not to, and through our hollering he decided to call the police to investigate the woods.
It was all over the news after that. Most blamed it on a serial killer. The police said that the monster was a way for our “little hysterical minds” to cope. All three of us knew this was bullshit. It was just a way for them to not face the truth behind the situation, especially since there wasn’t any way for a serial killer to impale John and Luke’s bodies on to the top branches without a ladder.
We buried it in the back of our mind after that. Dylan and I remained best friends, but Matt decided to distance himself from, well, everybody. 4 years later he was found dead. The night terrors were too much for him, and he killed himself. At least that’s what the police report said.
Dylan and I also had the nightmares. Most of the time we had the same one, watching ourselves sleep as a tall, thin, oddly-shapen thing comes in our bedroom. Of course we woke up in time to not see anything so horrible. We were never comfortable sleeping. Not till we left for college.
We decided to go as far away as possible. Living in the middle of Pennsylvania, we decided to journey west. Both Dylan and I were accepted to University of Puget Sound, a small liberal arts school in Tacoma, WA. Our nightmares stopped, and we began to live our lives fully. I was never much of a partier, but attended the same parties as Dylan when asked. He was known for getting shit-faced since the first semester we attended, yet still maintained a 3.5 GPA. We were settling in quite nicely in our new surroundings. It wasn’t until junior year everything fucked up.
Dylan got more wasted than I had ever seen him. I opted to drive him home because I didn’t drink that much. As we were driving down a heavily wooded part of town, Dylan demanded we stop. I assumed he needed to throw up, or piss, or both. Instead he walked straight into the forest. I didn’t think twice about it until he was screaming “Hey!” to the dark nothings.
“What the fuck are you doing, ass hat?” I asked him angrily.
“What do you think I’m doing, dick…scarf?” Dylan replied. “Do you even know what day it is? It’s September 26th. 7 days after your birthday.”
“Your point?” I asked, getting nervous by the minute.
“It’s the anniversary of John and Luke’s death. I’m going to try to see if that spider man will come and try to get me too.” He said to me. “Hey Daddy long legs, what are you going to do? Fist me with a tentacle? Come and fuck with me I dare you!” Dylan was ever the belligerent drunk.
“Dylan, this isn’t funny. Come on, man, come back to the car.” I tried persuading him. No use.
“Come on you fucker!” Dylan screamed. “I’ll give you 20 dollars if you show yourself right now.”
I was about to make an attempt at persuading him again, but I was distracted by the fast crackle of leaves coming near us.
“Oh fuck.” Dylan screamed and ran like a girl, only to be tackled down to the leaf and dirt covered ground.
“Come down, you dumb ass.” I retorted. The offender had been a chocolate lab, now panting and nuzzling Dylan’s face.
‘Just a dog.” Dylan muttered. He pet the pup and got up from the ground and proceeded to brush himself off. “What was I thinking? Fucking stupid.” He slurred. We started walking back almost immediately.
“Do you hear that?” Dylan stuttered.
“It’s just a dog, Dylan. Cool it.”
“Yeah you’re ri-“He cut off. I looked at him, curious as to why he didn’t finish his sentence.
“It’s okay to say it, Dylan. Repeat after me. ‘You’re right.’” I joked. It was only then did I notice his eyes. Wider and more crazed then ever. I turned to see what he was staring at.
It was a sight I long forgotten, but could never forget once I saw it again. There it stood, black suit, pale skin, and tall. So tall it was unrealistic. Like a child draws their father and mother comparative to themselves. We tried to bolt from it again, but stood still, like dummies frozen until their human master’s moved them where they needed to be. As soon as one of the tentacles snapped out and ringed Dylan’s neck, I was startled. Like being woken up. My body jolted back to life, and fight or flight kicked in. I decided I would not lose my last childhood friend to this. I tried pushing the thin thing away from my friend, but it did not move, didn’t even hit me back. It just focused on killing my friend.
As soon as Dylan’s body went limp, I ran. I got in my car without looking back, and found the police station. I told them the whole thing, yet again, they were incredulous. They asked me how much I had been drinking. They asked me if I was on narcotics. Anything to avoid the fact that a dead body laid in the middle of the woods. I was a suspect for a while, but for sudden reasons, they dropped charges. I dropped out of college, and lived out of a van for a year, going from job to job, avoiding real life, and forests, for as long as possible.
Soon, I became too broke to live in a van. I called my mom to ask for some help, but all she sent me was a ticket. A ticket back to Pennsylvania, and apparently a job there at my father’s office, if I cleaned up. At first I avoided it, but soon became desperate. I moved back in late August. I cleaned up like my mother asked, and started working at my father’s office, and started functioning normal again.
Now the nightmares are back. I stay in my bedroom, but my dream is becoming real. I can see his shadow outside my window. About time, old friend.
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By sydneeisanelf @ MONOLITH
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