Shadow Man (Part 4)

“You believe me, now?” Jesse refused to take his eyes off of the large shadow creature.

            “Yup,” Olivia responded, her voice coming out higher pitched than it usually was.

            Jesse turned to his brother, “Not. A fucking. Word about this to Mom and Dad.”

            Izzy nodded his head, still looking shocked. He was initially going to run downstairs to tell someone, but Jesse made him rethink that idea. No one would believe a large shadow…thing was looking in through his older brother’s window. He’d sound like a little kid making up stories during playtime. On top of that, when Jesse told Izzy not to tell their parents, he looked a bit angry. The last time Izzy made Jesse mad, he cried himself to sleep two nights in a row because Jesse had convinced him he was adopted.

            “Okay, but Mom said we need to go downstairs…” Izzy said quietly, Olivia walking passed him to the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

            “Alright, then,” Jesse said calmly. “You go downstairs. I’ll wait for Olivia, we’ll be down in a minute. And remember: don’t tell anybody what you just saw.”
            Izzy looked back at the window and began to panic all over again. When Jesse saw the look on his face he turned to face the window, himself.

“What?” He asked.

The shadow man was gone. Jesse and Izzy shared looks of concern.

 “Where did it go?” Izzy started to shake the way he did when he got nervous.

“I don’t know. I kind of just does that sometimes.”

The younger boy stood quietly, taking in the new information, but having trouble processing it. “I’m…gonna go downstairs, now. I think it’d be best to be around more people.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot Mom invited a crap-ton of people.” Jesse sighed at the thought of having to socialize with his extended family. He didn’t like most of them. He didn’t even care much for his parents. If he didn’t have Izzy and Olivia, Jesse would have been sure he was a sociopath.

“Well, not a crap-ton. Only Aunt Isabella, and Minzy are downstairs, and…” Izzy trailed off.

For just a moment, Jesse remembered his younger cousin, Minzy, and how she didn’t look like either of her parents. But he sensed Izzy’s awkwardness, and stared at him, waiting for him to finish the sentence. When Izzy showed no signs of talking, Jesse responded with, “And, who else?”

“U-uncle Nick.” Izzy was beginning to lose his composure. It had been a long time since he gotten over his stutter, that Jesse’s heart broke realizing how scared his little brother was.

Jesse crosses the room toward Izzy. “Why don’t you hang out in your room for a while. You’ve already seen them, so I’ll just tell them you’re not feeling alright, and that you’re gonna take a nap.

Nodding, Izzy thanked his older brother, and walked back into his room. When he closed the door, Olivia opened the bathroom door with a blank stare on her face.

“You alright?” Jesse asked his friend. She had become a little pale.

“Yeah. Um, I’m gonna go home, if that’s alright.”

“Sure. Sorry you had to see that.”
            “Nah, it’s fine. Let me know if anything happens.”

Jesse nodded his head, hoping the shadow man didn’t follow her home. “Will do.” He smiled in an attempt to convince his best friend that things would be alright. Olivia smiled back at him, walked down the stairs with a cheery “Good bye!” to Jesse’s family as she left.

‘My turn, I guess,’ Jesse thought to himself as he descended the stairs and turned into the living room.

“It’s about time!” Jesse’s mother chastised him for taking so long to come down to greet his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin. “You almost missed your chance to see your baby cousin!”

Inwardly, Jesse chuckled. ‘She’s 4 months old. I’m sure she’ll be okay if I don’t say hi.’

“Sorry. Izzy was feeling kinda sick, so I told him to go to his room.”

“Really?” Jesse’s Dad asked. He was always the most concerned when it came to the kids being sick. “What’s wrong?”

“He just had a headache and was feeling nauseous. He’ll probably be fine, though.”

By this point, Jesse had become very used to paying attention to things in his peripheral vision. Because of this, he felt a nervous anger rise in him when he saw his Uncle Nick’s smirk stretch across his “annoying face”, as Izzy like to call it. ‘You always liked the young ones, didn’t you, pervy bastard?’ he laughed silently as he sat down on the couch furthest away from his Uncle.

“I’ll go check on him,” Jesse’s father placed his can of Coors Lite on the coffee table and stood up.

“Don’t worry about it,” Nick offered. “I’ll go see if he’s alright, and then I’ll be heading out. I’ve gotta get to work early, tomorrow.”

The Pits (Part 6)

Max rushed through the woods, feeling his heart beating so hard his eardrums echoed in response. He had left the path a while back, thinking he was going the wrong way. Hopefully deviating from the posted trail would ironically provide a better route to safety. But for now, he would just keep running. The last time he stopped to breathe he heard the rustling of leaves and branches behind him. Not sure if it was the wind or the cultists, he went back to running.

            It wasn’t the parking lot, much less his car, but Max finally came upon a place where he might find help. He ran into a clearing that surrounded a two-story house that had a large pile of chopped wood along its right side. Max looked around as he walked toward the house. There were holes in the ground that he didn’t bother looking in. Areas of the land that had been recently covered, and a backhoe left next to one of the large holes.

            This place didn’t make him feel wanted. In Max’s opinion, this was the house of someone who didn’t want to be found. Old, and rickety, as if someone had abandoned it. It looked like someone had built the house themselves one hundred years ago. The windows upstairs were dirty, and boarded up, but surprisingly nothing was actually falling apart. Someone had been maintaining the house. Someone had to live here.

            Max reached the front door, but before knocking on the door he turned back towards the woods. The cultists that had followed him were standing at the edge of the clearing, staring at him. ‘Take a step closer and I’ll knock and unleash whatever hell this has instore on all of us,’ Max thought, hoping they wouldn’t call his silent bluff. He took a step backwards, closer to the door. The cultists ran.

            This solidified Max’s fear about being at that house. There was something wrong here if they wouldn’t come near it. ‘Maybe the people that live here belong to a different cult, and they have problems with each other.’ But even he believed such an idea was stupid.

            Knocking on the door was the scariest thing Max had done until that point of his life. He felt like running. But there was no way he’d make it anywhere safe if he had to run through the woods. Worse still was the thought that he might come across Gio in a worse condition than when he had saw the other boy last. No one answered the door, so Max knocked again, a little bit harder, but hopefully, not hard enough to piss of anyone that lived inside.

            The door opened.

            He was raised to be polite—or, at least, he was when he turned ten years old and moved in with his father. Max was not about to just walk into someone else’s house. However, he did open it a little more with another knock.

            “Hello?” He called. “Is…anyone home?”

            Max’s voice lowered to a whimper at the end of the sentence. As much as he, and his friends, needed help, he prayed that he never had to find out. Though, he decided to weigh his options.

            Go inside, and probably be murdered for trespassing.

            Close the door, wait on the porch, and hope the owner came back soon.

            Or, take his chances in the woods, again.

            “What if they didn’t know I was in there?” He wasn’t really considering it at the time but hearing himself say it out lout made him think that might not be a bad idea. But the did try to talk himself out of it. “If this were a horror movie, I’d be yelling at me for thinking this was a good idea.”

            Max looked around the property again, then back at the cultists who were hiding behind foliage at the tree line, watching. He sighed, “I don’t think I have a choice.” He took a few steps into the house, once again looked at his stalkers, then closed the door. Max turned around, looking at the back door, which was visible from the front door, and had to clap his hands over his mouth to keep from screaming. One of the cultists was standing at the back door, his face only an inch or two away from the glass, not moving. This wouldn’t be a great time to wet himself, not that there was a good time that he could think of. Max forced tried to force himself to calm down but was having trouble doing so.

            He saw something move in the corner of his left eye, and slowly turned his head to face the wall in the next room. There were four cultists standing closely to the two windows, looking in just as the first one was. For once, Max noticed that they were all wearing different masks. They were definitely similar; however, each had different shapes and symbols stitched into them. They looked like transmutation circles that Max had seen in a book about alchemy, once.

            They all stood still for a few minutes; their constant staring making Max tear up, knowing what they wanted of him. Then, suddenly, they just left. And quickly. The darted off into the trees again. And Max didn’t have a good feeling about that.

            It was time to move.

What Happened on Mom's Birthday (2/3)

Eva and Natasha looked behind them at the front door. The opaque window had been broken, and an arm surrounded by the sleeve of a black winter coat was swinging back and forth. It seemed to be reaching for the door knob, but the window was much too high were them to reach. Natasha screamed, and ran up the stairs to their parent’s room. Eva, now very unstable, wobbled over to the front door, and locked the deadbolt as her sister forgot to when she came home. Eva sat with her back against the door and tried to catch her breath. Things seemed to be going too fast, and her vision was unfocused.

She had a clear view to the back door, where the first person in black was standing. With the drugs and booze in her system she could see two of everything. Which made watching the person raise a rock and smash the sliding glass door to millions of pieces much more frightening. As the glass rained down on the hardwood floor, Eva screamed for Natasha to hurry up, but there was no response.

“Natasha?! They’re in the house!”

‘Wait, why am I scared?’ Eva asked herself. ‘I wanted to die. And I’ll probably be unconscious in a few minutes.’

“Natasha?” Eva tried to force herself to sound calmer. “I love you, and I’m really going to me being your sister.”

Tears began to roll down her cheeks again as she realized what she had just said. It seemed to solidify that, regardless of how it happens, she was going to die today.

“When you get the chance, get out of the house and run to the neighbor’s, okay? They’ll be able to help. And call Mom and Dad. Don’t let them walk into this mess. Not on Mom’s birthday…”

Eva looked up the stairs, slowly turning her head, and ignoring everything else around her. She didn’t even notice most of it. The person at the front door was gone, but their ring had fallen on her and bounced off. The side door in the kitchen was now open, and a shorter person was walking slowly towards her. The person at the back door was almost in front of her. And there were lights shining into the house flashing red and blue. None of that mattered.

At the top of the stairs, slowly walking down, was Natasha. Only, all her clothes were entirely black, and her face was distorted, apart from Eva’s already slightly impaired vision. In fact, Eva could only tell that it was her sister because of her distinctive hair style, similar to Rihanna, circa 2008.

The person in front of Eva stopped down, much faster than they could walk, and placed his hand under her chin. They lifted her chin up to make her face them, and Eva finally realized. It was her father. But, as soon as she reached that realization, her father had thrust is index finger into her mouth, as far back as he could, only pulling his finger out when the alcohol and remnants of the Vicodin that she took earlier forced their way back up.  Heaving several times, she realized Natasha was holding her phone and the half-empty bottle of Vicodin. Eva had forgotten to put it back in the medicine cabinet. But she did remember to read to bottle, and forcing someone to vomit was not how you’re supposed to handle an overdose.

Despite her father’s efforts, Eva fell unconscious against the door.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Don’t forget to lock the door, Tasha,” said Bernice, looking back at her daughter.

“I’m not going to forget,” Natasha sighed. “And I won’t let Benji stay up too late.”

“Okay,” Bernice smiled. “I wasn’t going to ask you to do that, but he does stay up too late some nights.”

“He’s a teenage boy, Mom. That’s kind of their thing.”

“It’s those damned videogames,” Marcus mumbled as he put his jacket on. “I wish he’d do something more productive, one of these days.”

“He works a lot on being more creative,” Natasha offered.

“Videogames can’t help with that, can they?” Marcus asked.

“I’m not sure, but he draws a lot. He’s pretty good, too. Maybe you should check them out?”

Marcus considered this silently, with a growing smirk on his face at the thought that his son might be doing something useful in secret. “Maybe. When he opens the door to his room.”

Eva laughed at that as she walked down the stairs. “Are you guys leaving, already?

“There’s my other favorite daughter!” Marcus said Kissing Eva on the forehead and giving her a bearhug.

“If we don’t go now, we probably never will. But we’ll be back in a few hours.” Bernice said.

“Where are we going, again?” Marcus asked for the third time that day, and got the same answer.

“Don’t worry about it,” Bernice giggled. “Where’s Benji?”

“He’s taking a nap,” Eva replied. “He was…up all night,”

“Videogames?” Marcus raised an eyebrow.

“No, Dad! He said he was making something. For your birthday.” The inflection at the end of Natasha’s sentence indicating that Marcus should know better.

“Oh, well, as long as he’s doing something good with his time. Maybe he’ll work for Disney, or something.”

“Probably, not,” Eva laughed. “His work is more realistic. They look more like he took pictures with a camera, and less like he drew them.”

“Is that so? Maybe I’ll have to ask to see them when we get back from our date,” Marcus made a sad attempt to wiggle his eyebrows at his wife.

“Stop, Marcus. We’re already married. You don’t have to try to be funny,” laughed Bernice.

“You laughed, though. So, it worked.”

Shadow Man (Part 3)

The sound of the doorbell ringing sounded throughout the house, and Jesse sat up on his bed groaning. He hated that his parents invited so many people over to him now that he was back from the hospital. ‘Hopefully, not too many people are coming. All the really needed was a call from my parents that I’m not dead,’ he thought to himself.

Jesse looked up to see his younger brother standing at the top of the stairs, in front of Jesse’s open door. Izzy turned and looked at Jesse, “I don’t have to go down there, too, do I?”

“Boys! Come down, already!” their father’s voice came from downstairs.

“That answer you question?” Jesse asked, chuckling a bit at the timing.

“Yeah, yeah…”

To his surprise, the first person there was his friend, Olivia. She said a quick hello to Jesse’s parents, and turned to go up the stairs to Jesse’s room.

“Hey!” Jesse said happy to his best friend after his two weeks away.

Olivia nearly tackled Jesse when she ran over to hug him tightly. “You really are back!”

“Um, yeah. Didn’t my mom tell you?”

She did, but, I mean, you got hit by a car. A CAR!”

“Yeah, Liv. I was there,” Jesse laughed, grabbing Olivia’s hand. “Come on! I’ve got something to tell you!”

Jesse glanced up at his dad who was wiggling his eyebrows at his son, insinuating a romantic relationship between the two teenagers. Jesse glared at his dad before turning around and walking up the stairs. When he and Olivia got half-way up, they heard Jesse’s dad yell, “Use protection!”

“What?” Olivia was flustered. But not as much as Jesse whose face was almost the same color red as the shirt he was wearing.

“Don’t listen to him. He’s on drugs, or something,” he said trying to diffuse the situation. It didn’t help that they could hear Izzy laughing from downstairs.

The two entered Jesse’s room, and Olivia sat down on the bed, crossing her legs in front of her. Jesse closed the door behind him as quietly as possible. He didn’t want his mother yelling at him for closing the door with a girl in his room. Again.

“So…” Olivia started. “What’s so important that you couldn’t tell me over the phone, and you have to close your door like you broke into your own house?”

Jesse chuckled a bit, looking at the floor. He had only recently realized that he felt as if he was going crazy because of the shadows he’d been seeing.

“Maybe they shouldn’t have let me out of the hospital,” he said slowly.

“Why not? Are you still in pain, or something?” Olivia began to feel a sense of panic.

“No. I’m…seeing shadows, everywhere. Most of the time, they’re just in the corner of my eye, and they disappear when I try to look at them.”

“Yeah, they’re shadow figures,” Olivia stated as if everyone should know that fact.

“What? So, you’ve seen them, too?”

“Nope. But they’re scientifically proven to be caused by blind spots in the back of people’ eyes.”
            “Do they ever show up in front of you?”

“No, that’s pretty much impossible. Why?”

Jesse stared Olivia in her hazel eye, waiting for her to understand. He imagined the words to describe his situation in his head, and telepathically sending them to his best friend.

“You can see them…in front of you?” Liv said as if saying it too loudly would cause the world to collapse in on itself. And for Jesse, maybe it already had.

“Just twice. The second time, it knocked over my lamp,” he said pointing at the desk lamp lying on its’ side amidst a puddle of broken glass from the lightbulb. Jesse still hadn’t cleaned it up. Part of him was too afraid to go near it, thinking something invisible might pick it up and throw it into his face. But he also wanted proof, no matter how admittedly weak that proof was.

Olivia looked over to the lamp, and back at Jesse. “Are you sure you didn’t just bump into it?”

            “I’m sure, Liv,” tears began to pool in his eyes, and form trails down his cheeks. “You see why I don’t wanna tell anyone else?”
            “Yeah, I do. But, I don’t think you need to go back to the hospital. You’ve been through a traumatic incident. Just give yourself time to…I don’t know, get used to being home?”

            “I’m sorry I told you,” Jesse said, whipping the tears away. “I should’ve known nobody would be leave me.”

            “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but…” Olivia paused to think of something to say. “Yeah, actually, I don’t believe you.”

            Jesse felt a little shocked but tried not let her know that.

            “You’ve never lied to me, and I don’t think you’d start now. And if you were lying, I’m sure you say something that’s actually believable.”

            Olivia began to pace back and forth, thinking. She only stopped when she had come to a conclusion. “You may not be lying.”

            After what she had just tole him, Jesse was even more shocked to hear her say that.

            “I mean, there are reasons that people can see things that other people can’t. Maybe it’s a supernatural thing. Or, maybe getting hit by a car caused some type of mental illness.”

            Jesse didn’t like that idea. “I got hit by a car and now I’m crazy? Great.”

            “Mental illness and being crazy aren’t the same thing. Read a book.”

            “It’s right there,” Jesse pointed towards his window, behind Olivia. Not taking it too seriously, she turned to face the window. There it was, just outside the window. It looked like it was grabbing onto the frame of the window on the outside, looking in. Just as featureless as the other shadows. Or maybe this was the same one.

            “I have to pee,” Olivia said, not entirely sure if she was surprised or scared.

            The shadow person moved its head presumably in her direction when the door to Jesse’s bedroom opened.

            “Hey, guys. Mom said w—what the actual fuck is that?

The Pits (Part 5)

More than caught up. Max did a complete three-hundred sixty degree turn to see that he and Simon were surrounded. By this time, Simon was beginning to hyperventilate, but forced himself to slow his breathing. ‘At least Gio got away,’ said Max in his head. Although, he’d much have preferred to have escaped as well. He put his back to Simon’s. The last thing he wanted was for one of them to grab him, even though it was likely to happen anyway. Being back-to-back with Simon was like being backed against a door with another killer on the other side. In other words: not much help.

“What do you guys want?” Simon asked, shocking everyone including himself. Just a minute ago, he was having trouble breathing correctly.

“We want you,” said one of the other cultists with a very feminine, but firm voice.

At the same time, all of the cultists pointed at Simon and Max, repeating the words “We want you”, although they were out of sync. Their voice started low, but grew louder and louder making Max somehow feel as if walls were closing in on him. It didn’t take long before Max couldn’t take it anymore.

“SHUT UP!” he yelled before grabbing Simon’s trembling arm and attempting to run through the circle of people towards the part of the trail that turned left at the fork. He barreled through the two people who had tried to create a wall by standing side-by-side. Simon wasn’t as lucky. The same people grabbed him by the arm that Max wasn’t holding onto, and pulled him away from Max.

Simon’s arm slipped out of Max’s hand, and before he could go back and reach for Simon one of the bigger people in the group picked his friend up and threw him over his shoulder.

“If you want your friend, you’ll come with us,” the big one murmured in the deepest voice Max had ever heard. They stood there staring at Max to see what he would do.

“Run!” Simon yelled to Max. “It’ll be harder for them to catch you now!”

“Bu—”

“Fucking GO!”

For once, Simon was the scariest person around, yelling in a way that Max had only heard once before. Flashbacks of his parent’s worst fight resulting in his father finally leaving them for good played throughout his brain before One of the cultists took a step forward to reach out for Max, who took a quick step back.

“Sorry, Simon…” he said as he turned and ran down the path. ‘I guess I can leave my best friend. Must not be as good a person as I thought I was.’

“Why would you tell him to leave you?” the leader of the cult asked while watching Max run downhill and out of sight.

“No sense us both getting caught,” Simon quietly answered. “Besides, I was keeping something from him, too. So, I guess he and I are even.”

“And what would that be?” The leader turned to face Simon as he lay draped across the large man’s shoulder.

‘I wanted to die, anyway,’ Simon thought returning the leader’s gaze. “Don’t worry about it.”

“It seems to me as if you have a death wish. Most people in your situation would be kicking, screaming, and begging for their friends’ help.”

“I take it you’ve done this before,” Simon said trying to sound as defiant as his friends had earlier in the evening.

“Yes. To everyone here. And it was done to me, as well. I needed to be shown the righteous path.”
            “Great…”

“I would like to show you the same, if you would allow me. We can mentor you and show you how to live a better life.” The cult leader held his hand out toward Simon as if to shake his hand.

Simon stared at the hand in front of him for a second before glaring at the leader.

“I’d rather die.”

The leader lowered his hand, and began walking away. “Gabriel?”

“Yes, Father?” the large man carrying Simon turned to face the leader as he walked away. The man apparently known as Father stopped suddenly, and without turning around, spoke.

“Give him what he wants.”

Father continued to walk back into the woods with a small group of other members of the cult. The other cultists continued after Max, leaving Gabriel alone with Simon.

“Well, come on th—” Before Simon could finish his sentence, Gabriel grabbed Simon by the legs, reared up, flinging Simon over and face-first into the ground. Simon was now blinded with dirt—not that he could see much before this incident—and refused to open his

eyes to face his murderer. He felt Gabriel stomp of his stomach a few times, then felt the large man’s breath against his face.

            “Too bad I have ta kill ya,” he began. “Your kinda cute.”

            Simon could barely cough out a response before Gabriel rolled him over and slammed his face into the rock next to Simon’s head.

            Once…Twice…

            Gabriel then picked up the rock and bashed it against Simon’s major joints, breaking several bones in the process. Simon didn’t feel all of the pain that was being inflicted as he passed out when Gabriel broke his right arm. And soon after, he slowly stopped breathing.

            Gabriel giggled. “When you’re dead, you’ll be a pretty present for Father. Maybe he’ll hang ya up like he did the last guy and I’ll get ta see ya some more.” 

New Schedule for Uploads!

Hey, Everyone!

Having deadlines makes me more likely to post on my Blog, so from now on there will be a new post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each of those days will be dedicated to a different story.

Mondays: The Pits, Wednesdays: Shadow Figures, Fridays: What Happened on Mom's Birthday. When a story is finished I'll start posting a different story on one of those days.

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog! I'll try to stay as consistent as possible. If you want to stay updated, you can flow me on my blog, or on my twitter, the link for which is at the end of this update.

--GhostWriter

Link to my Twitter:
www.twitter.com/SeeYouInHell7

What Happened on Mom's Birthday (1/3)

Eva held the bottle of Vicodin in her hand, weighing her options. She could not take the pills, and pretend everything was okay like she had been for the past few years. Or, she could take them, and get on with it. The thing about committing suicide is that when you’ve decided death is the best way out it’s hard to change your mind. She opened the bottle of her mother’s medicine.

            “I’m sorry, Mom,” she whispered. “Hopefully, you’ll forgive me.”

            Eva poured a handful of pills into her hand and stuffed them in her mouth. Taking several hard gulps with a glass of water she thought ‘This is how they do it, right? At least in the movies. Maybe I should have taken them one by one?’

            “That should be enough. Well, more than enough.”

            Closing the medicine cabinet, Eva looked into the mirror noticing the puffy, red areas around her eyes. Obvious evidence that she’d been crying. She Splashed cold water onto her face a few times trying to decrease the swelling. If anyone asked, she would just say she had allergies. That sounded stupid, even to Eva, but who cared? She wouldn’t have to keep up the charade for too long.

            ‘Now for part two…’

            There was a knock at the door, and then the doorbell rung throughout the house. It had to be her sister Natasha. ‘Impatient as ever,’ Eva thought as the doorbell rang again before she could even make it down the hallway.

            “It’s about time!” Natasha said excitedly. “We have to set up for the party!”

            Looking around the house, Natasha noticed that there were no decorations, no cake, and something seemed wrong with Eva.

            “Well, it’s not like setting up for a party will take too much time, if it’s the both of us,” Natasha smiled brightly.

            Eva was suddenly reminded of a song by her favorite band, Paramore:

                        ‘If I smile with my teeth, I’ll bet they believe me

                        If I smile with my teeth, I think I believe me’

            She thought it was amazing how they can make an album that seemed mostly about depression sound so upbeat. But maybe that was the point.

            “What’s wrong with your eyes, Hun?” Natasha asked reaching up to touch her sisters still slightly puffy eyes. Eva swatted her sister’s hand away saying “I think it’s just allergies. They’ve been like this all day.”

            “You’ve never had allergies, but if you say so,” Natasha watched as Eva walked over the wine cabinet and poured herself a glass. “You’ve never been much of a wine drinker, either.”

            “Maybe I want to take a break from appletini’s…?” Eva said with a hint of annoyance.

            “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re moving kind of slow, today.”

            “Yeah, I’m fine. I just took some allergy medicine. Maybe they’re making me a little drowsy.”

            “Should you be drinking after taking them?” Natasha asked suddenly feeling alarmed at her sister’s lack of concern.

            “I’ll be fine,” Eva smiled for the first time that day. ‘Vicodin and alcohol are normally a bad match, but I’m not planning on not waking up.’

            Natasha was almost positive that something was wrong, but didn’t want to push the issue and make it worse. She’d done that in the past with other people who ended up not talking to her for days at a time. “Okay. Well, I’m going to start on the cake. D’you think you’re alert enough to put up—”

            “Yeah, I got it.”

            Natasha rolled her eyes as she turned away from Eva. “Thanks…” She decided to bring up her sister’s strange attitude up with their father when she got home. ‘No sense in making their mother worry on her birthday.’

            It had been a few minutes and Eva was feeling really tired. ‘Must be working,’ She thought as she hung up the string of letter that spelled out Happy Birthday. ‘I should have done this the first time.’

            As Eva was unsteadily attempting to pin the Happy Birthday sign on the wall, she noticed that someone was in their back yard. Thinking it was one of the neighbor’s kids trying to retrieve their football—for the twenty-seventh time that week—she was shocked to see an adult standing there, so still.

            Staring at her.

            The combination of the drugs and alcohol must have been really kicking in now. Eva was unable to recognize any distinguishing features about the person. They seemed to be wearing all-black winter clothing, which would make sense as it was snowing outside. However, Eva was unable to see their face properly. All she could see was a blur. But then she realized, the person’s face was the only thing that was blurry. The rest of them—their clothes, even the small logo on their hat—was still clearly visible. And they looked familiar.

            “Hey, Tasha!” Eva tried to sound nonchalant about this bizarre person on the other side of the window. “When are Mom and Dad getting home?”

            “They should be here in about thirty minutes with Benji. Why?”

            “Just wanted to know if I was making good time.”

            Natasha walked into the living room, wiping her hands with a paper towel. “The ‘Happy’ side is lower than the ‘Birthday’ side. Could you…who is that?”

            “You see them, too?”

            “Yeah, it’s pretty obvious that they’re there when they wear all black in the snow.” Natasha’s temper was beginning to rise faster than the temperature in the oven. Not being one to mess with, she went to the back door and opened it wide, yelling “I don’t care who you are, if you don’t leave, I’m getting my dad’s shotgun! I’ll call the police when you’re dead!”

            Normally, that would scare people away. Really, Natasha’s yelling could have caused most people to grow a tail and run away with it between their legs. But not this time. They start slowly walking towards the door, one step at a time, as if they were only now learning how to walk.

            Natasha closed the door and locked it, “I’m going upstairs to get Dad’s gun! I need you to make sure all of the doors and windows ar—”

            CRASH

Shadow Man (Part 2)

The moment he got home, Jesse ran upstairs into his bedroom. It was great to be back. He couldn’t wait to sleep in his own bed again. But it was only a little after 10 o’clock am, and he wasn’t tired. ‘First thing’s first,’ Jesse looked at the label on the bottle of meds he was given. He made a mental note to look up information about Lortab some other time, and put it in the bottom drawer of his desk. The drawer where he put things he didn’t want his parents to know he had.

 He then picked up his cell phone off of his desk and checked the messages, inwardly thanking his mother for plugging it into its charger while he was away. Thirty-two texts, nine missed calls, and over fifty emails. All of the calls were from his parents when they heard about the accident he was involved in. Despite calling so many times, they only left three messages. No doubt because they already knew what happened and were calling to see if Jesse would even answer.

Most of the texts Jesse hat received were from his friend, Olivia. Seventeen of those messages were from her. The rest were from Jesse’s other friends, his younger brother, and s few relatives who had heard that he was in the hospitals several days after the fact. Jesse sighed.

“At least they didn’t leave messages. I’ll just send a group text to my friends, then text Olivia back. Everyone else is gonna be hear, later, anyways.”

As he typed a message into the box at the bottom of the screen for his friends to see Jesse felt a presence behind him. It felt similar to the feeling people get when they’re being watched. Except it was accompanied with a feeling that someone—or something—was reaching out to touch him. Jesse didn’t want to turn around. He wasn’t afraid, but felt that he didn’t want to see what was behind him. For the first time in his life, he felt like something dark was following him. ‘I hope a serial killer didn’t sneak into our house. I just got out of the hospital!’ Jesse thought as he forced himself to turn around.

“Why did I turn around?”

Jesse found himself staring at a tall, black shadow. It was shaped like a man, and seemed to exist entirely on its own. It wasn’t cast across the floor and walls like any other shadow. It stood in front of Jesse silently staring. It had no eyes, but Jesse could feel its gaze looking him over.

And then it was gone. The whole experience lasted no longer than four seconds. It didn’t fade out, or dissipate the way a cloud of smoke would, which is what Jesse was hoping for. It was just gone.

“Should I not have turned the hallway light on?”

Jesse looked through the door to his room, slightly to the left. His brother, Israel, stood leaning against the door frame with one of those sarcastically concerned expressions that he was known for. ‘So, that’s what happened…’ Jesse realized he’d been saved by his little brother. ‘I didn’t even notice the lights change.’

“Nah, it’s fine. Why?” Jesse asked as he sent the message on his phone.

“You looked like the light from the hallway bothered you. Did those doctors turn you into a vampire, or something?”

“I bet you wish they did.”

“Yeah, kinda. It would be cool to have a vampire for a brother. You’d be so much cooler than you are now,” chuckled Israel.

“Yup…” Jesse quickly searched for Olivia’s contact in his phone, sending her a quick message that he was home, and asking if she could come over to his house.

Israel saw the serious look on his older brother’s face, and, this time, was legitimately concerned. “You know I was just joking, right?”

“I know, Izzy. You’re never serious about anything,” Jesse said as he tossed his phone onto his bed behind him.

Izzy looked down to the floor feeling badly for annoying Jesse. “Sorry…”

Jessi sighed, again. “Come here, bud.”

Izzy walked over to his older brother, who pulled him into a long hug.

“What’s wrong, Izzy?”

“Mom and Dad made it sound like you might…not be coming back,” Izzy began to tear up. “I mean, you were kinda mean sometimes, but I didn’t want you to…” The younger boy trailed off.

“Die?” Jesse was surprised. Sure, they were bothers, but they had never been close. So, Izzy’s reaction to his return from the hospital caught him by surprise.

Izzy let out a small whine, “Yeah,” before sobbing into the crook of Jesse’s neck.

“Dude, calm down! I’m not gonna die, alright? Everything’s fine now,”

The two ended their hug, and Izzy took a couple steps back.

“Now, go clean yourself up. We’ve got people coming over in a little bit. Can’t fucking wait,” Jess added that last par under his breath.

“I’m going, I’m going.”

As Israel left the room, Jesse realized that same uncomfortable feeling he’d had earlier was back. Although, this time, it felt a bit stronger than last time. Jesse saw a dark object in his peripheral vision, and quickly turned his head to the right just in time to see the same large shadow man flash in front of him swing its arm and knock over the lamp from his desk.

A few seconds later, Izzy popped his head back into his brother’s room, still wiping away tears, asking, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Jesse said catching the breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I’m good, bro.”

The Pits (Part 4)

Max had never been through this particular side trail before, and wasn’t sure which way to go when he and Simon reached a fork in the path. Where had Gio gone? Max couldn’t blame him for not wanting the stop for Simon, but why would he lead them down this trail when Gio knew he was the only one of the three who had used it before. There was no time to stop and think about which way they should go. It wasn’t like Max was going to stop if he didn’t need to. For a moment he considered going one direction and letting Simon go the other. That way at least one of them would survive. But Simon probably wouldn’t make it far, even if he was going the right way.

            ‘No, we’re going together,’ Max thought. ‘But where the hell do we go?’

            Before he could come up with an answer, Max heard a loud thud behind him, and a second later, Simon screaming out in pain in a way Max had never heard come from a person before. Max stopped and turned around expecting to see Simon’s ankle had been sprained. If only that was the case. Simon was on the ground, writhing in pain in the dirt, bleeding profusely from his leg, right above his knee.

            It was another arrow.

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Max. He figured the cultists must be close if they were able to hit Simon with an arrow. There would be no way Simon could run with an arrow in his leg. However, if he took the arrow out, which he knew from watching hospital shows he probably shouldn’t do, Simon would at least have a chance. Sure he’d be bleeding everywhere, leaving a trail, but they were never trying to be stealthy.

“Hold still,” Max said as he knelt down, feeling a familiar aching twinge from when something similar happened to him.

He reached out to the arrow head and began to twist it counterclockwise. This arrow was the type that could be changed from a safety arrow to a hunting arrow by changing the head. Max unscrewed the sharp, bladed arrow head, and removed it.

“What are you doing?” Simon asked frantically through clenched teeth.

“Something you’re totally gonna hate me for,” answered Max.

“What?”

Max sighed, “You can’t run with an arrow in your leg. It’ll just make the wound worse, probably. But, if I take it out, you will be able to run. It’s gonna hurt, but not as much as it would with an arrow stuck in your leg.”

“No!” Simon began to resist. The idea of having the arrow pulled out of his leg was almost as scary as knowing he’d been shot with one.

“Look at me, Simon,” Max looked Simon in the eyes, trying to stay calm as possible. “I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t necessary.”

“O-okay…” Simon knew he was right. If he didn’t want to die this would be his only chance.

“Take a deep breath,” Max whispered. “And try not to yell too much.”

“Why? They already know where we are.”

“I know. I just don’t wanna feel bad for this.”

Simon rolled his eyes, then immediately shut them as tight as he could when he felt the intense pain shooting up and down his leg.

“Sorry…” said Max.

“Hurry up!”

With that, Max slid the arrow all the way out of the hole it had made in Simon’s leg. He then took the folded bandana off his wrist and tied it tightly around the wound.

“You never told me why you always where that around your wrist,” Simon mentioned.

“Across for attention, down or results…” Max muttered.

“…What?”

“How about this, I’ll tell you everything I’ve been keeping from you and Gio when we get out of here. Deal?”

“Deal,” Simon said doing his best to stand up. ‘Just ignore the pain, Simon. Don’t let it bother you.’

Simon took a couple of steps to acclimate himself to the pain he’d be dealing with when the thought occurred to him. “Wait, what have you been keeping from us?”

“Not the time, Simon. Besides, it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“Then why haven’t you told us about…whatever it is?”
            Max looked at the ground, then up and Simon, who he could barely see now that the sun was fully set. “It’s just…embarrassing.”

“What’s embarrassing?” asked an oddly familiar voice.

Simon and Max looked around. Although it was dark, and they couldn’t see much of anything, they already knew what was going on.

The cultists had caught up to them.

The Pits (part 3)

“Who said you could leave?” the man asked calmly. Though his voice thundered through the trees and startled the boys who were now looking for the fastest way out of the forest.

            Simon flinched and attempted to look away. Max and Gio stared down at the group who were likely angry that their cult’s ritual had been interrupted. It didn’t help that this pause was being dragged on by the man who acted as if he was the leader.

            Gio scanned the area, only moving his eyes. He didn’t want to make it obvious that he was trying to find an escape route. His eyes stopped suddenly on a small path that, unlike the trail he and his friends were standing on, was unpaved. It was covered by a thicker canopy of trees than the main trail had. Giovanni followed it his eyes to see where it went. Although, he was sure he already knew, and didn’t like the feeling in his stomach that came with knowing. The smaller trail seemed to have a steep decline and curved to the right behind a few larger trees. The other end wasn’t visible from his vantage point, but he knew where it led. Straight to where the cultists were standing.

            “We’re gonna have to make a run for it,” Gio whispered to Max and Simon. “There’s a trail like, ten feet ahead, that we’re gonna have to run past. Which means they don’t have far to go to catch up to us.”

            “Got it,” Max whispered back.

            “Um…guys?” Simon whimpered while taking a step back.

            “Max and Gio looked to Simon, expecting him to continue talking. When they saw the terrified look on his face they looked in the direction that Sion was facing. There were silhouettes of people just behind the tree line seemingly hiding behind almost every tree. Max couldn’t stand it anymore. He hated that a simple walk in an area that he and his friends had frequented since they were kids was suddenly becoming their worst nightmare. It was time to go.

            “Go, go, GO!” Max yelled to his friends. “Don’t look back!”

            The three friends took off running back down the main trail, towards the area they had come from not too long ago. Max decided that the people who were now chasing them could not run forever. All he had to do was outrun them. When they got closer to his car he would ready his keys, unlock the car as they were running towards it, and then lock it when they got in, so they could drive off. And preferably, never come back to the Pits again.

            “Shit!” Simon yelled.

            “What?” Gio said back, refusing to turn to look at Simon.

            “One of my contacts fell out!”

            “The other one didn’t, though. So, keep moving!” Max chimed in. There was no way he was going to get slaughtered because of a lost contact lens.

            Max suddenly had a thought. Simon was never a very fast runner. If he had been, he would have had fewer encounters with Gio back when they hated each other that resulted in Simon crying to his parents. ‘What if he can’t make it to the car? What if they catch him? Can I really live with myself if I leave him behind?’ Max thought to himself. If he was being honest, he was always closer to Simon than Gio, but Max had already escaped one horrible situation with his mom’s ex-boyfriend, and he really didn’t want to have to go through something like that again.

            “Max! Shortcut or nah?!” yelled Gio sounding frustrated. Max began to wonder how long his friend had been talking to him as he looked towards the unpaved side trail that Gio was talking about. It bypassed a lot of the main trail, but still led towards the parking lot where they had left their car. However, it was narrow, and some of the trees and bushes in that area were overgrown. The obstacles the trail provided weren’t exactly needed, especially in this situation, but it was a faster route.

            “Yeah, take the shortcut!” said Max. He didn’t really have to Gio and Simon were already headed that direction anyway, veering off the main path.

            ‘I hope I don’t regret this…” Max glanced back to see where the cultists were. He could see a small group of them leaving the pack of wolves that called themselves human, and dashing through the woods. ‘They’re trying to flank us.’

            “Don’t slow down!” he yelled to his friends. “Looks like they found their own shortcut.”

            Upon hearing this horrible news, Simon began sobbing. His other contact lens had fallen out, and without them he could barely see where he was going. Through his tears he attempted to focus on Gio’s back. The anime character on the back of Gio’s shirt was about the only thing that Simon could make out at this point. ‘If I make it out of this alive, I’ll be an even bigger fan of the show than Gio!’

            They three boys had only made it about half way back to the park when Max realized something: It was quiet. Up until this point he could hear the cultists crushing dead leaves under their feet and yelling to each other every now and then to let the others know where Gio was leading his friends. Now, the only noise was coming from Gio, Max, and Simon who was still crying. Just as Simon realized that it sounded as if the people hunting them ha left them alone he slowed to a stop. Gio didn’t stop, but Simon didn’t care. As far as he knew it was over.

            “Why did you stop?!” Max asked Simon.

            “I can’t hear them anymore,” Simon replied. “I think they’ve stopped chasing us.”

            “Or, more likely, that’s what they want us to think, and this is a trap.”

            “I don’t think so. My hearing’s a lot better then my eyesight. I can hear things from a further distance than a lot of other people.”

            “Oh, so you’re bragging now? Not the time, dude.”

            “No, I’m not bra—” Simon interrupted himself. He turned around to see the shape of an animal. “What’s that?”

            “It’s a deer. And it looks like it’s wondering why we stopped running,” Max was getting annoyed.

            The deer abruptly reared up on its hind legs as if something had spooked it. But before it’s front legs could touch the ground again it let out a suppressed squeal. Blood began to leak out of it’s left eye socket, where only seconds ago an eyeball resided. There was an arrow protruding from the newly vacated socket, and from the back of its head. The deer collapsed to the ground.

            “We shouldn’t have stopped running…” Max mumbled to himself. “Let’s go!”

            “Yeah,” Simon agreed turning to run behind Max. Simon wasn’t entirely sure what he’d just seen, but it did not look good. “I’m sorry, Max…” Simon said tearing up again.

            “It’s fine. Just keep moving!”