The Pits (12/12)

For the first time in several months, Max felt his life was getting back to normal. If you can call it that. He was going through a major transition in his life; starting college and moving out of his mother’s house. Max decided to go to a school that was two states away from home. After the events that occurred months ago that resulted in the deaths of his two closest friends and having to go to their funerals, he felt like he wouldn’t be able to move on if he stayed too close to home. A university in Michigan sounded nice. Far enough away that he could leave his past behind, but close enough to home that he could visit on longer breaks.

The new college student was more excited to leave home than he felt he should be. But, that was okay. He had always felt like he was in the way; a nuisance to his parents. This way, he wouldn’t be in their way and wouldn’t suffer the consequences for it. Who was Max kidding? He hadn’t had to deal with any of that since he was sixteen. Still, he’d never been able to get used to things being normal. Now was a good opportunity to finally feel like his life meant something.

Max and his new roommate, Ethan, had hit it off immediately upon meeting each other. The two young men found themselves in a new environment, completely alone despite being surrounded by people for most of the day. They decided to explore the campus, looking for the locations of all of their classes so that neither of them would get lost on the first day.

Ethan was a Biology major, which Max—a Chemistry major—thought was cool. He figured they could help each other since they had some of the same classes together. It would be like when he asked Simon for help back in…Max shook his head to make himself stop thinking about his friends. They were gone, and he wanted to move on, which Max found a more difficult task than forgetting people used to be.

“You alright?” Ethan asked? He’d seen Max shake his head, but a bit confused because he hadn’t asked a question.

“Huh? Yeah! I’m fine,” Max replied. “Just realized what homesickness was.”

“Yeah…I know what you mean,” Ethan said offering a small smile. “I’ve never been away from home until last night. I could barely sleep.”

“You’ve at least slept over at your friends’ houses, right?”

Ethan shook his head, “Nope. I was homeschooled, and most of the kids in my neighborhood were either a lot older or a lot younger than me. Didn’t have many friends.”

“That sucks…” Max thought for a second that maybe it was for the best. Ethan never had friends to lose in the first place. “On the bright side, you never had to leave any friends behind. That sucks, too.”

“I’ll bet,” Ethan nodded. “I’m guessing…you’ve had to do that a lot?”

“With a couple friends, recently. And all of my family accept my mom.”

“Damn…” Ethan felt bad knowing his new best friend’s life must have been more tragic than his own. However, it gave Ethan an idea. “Well, we’re nowhere near home, so we should just start over here!”

Max chuckled at how suddenly Ethan’s happiness could manifest itself. “Sure!”

The two friends were walking down a hallway that supposed to lead to a game room. Max forgot what it was called—something related to the school mascot—that was at the end of the hallway. All of the lights were out, so Ethan suggested they go downstairs to get some food from one of the many restaurants that operated on-campus. As they turned around, Max was instantly on edge, something he hadn’t felt since his escape from the Pits. Something about the janitor that was moping an area near to the intersecting hallway put Max off.

‘Where’d he come from?’

An image of Simon yelling at Max to run flashed in his mind, and he instinctively grabbed Ethan’s hand. Ethan looked at Max’s hand grasping his, thinking Max’s life had been rougher than he’d thought. To reassure Max, Ethan reciprocated, holding onto Max hand. After all, his parents had always told him to help other people when given the opportunity.

As they walked, Max could feel his heart beat faster. By the time the two were close to the janitor, he was feeling chills running down his spine almost as fast as Max wanted to run from the man cleaning the floor. The janitor’s hat concealed his face, and his coveralls covering nearly everything else. Max was afraid the janitor was lash out at him and his new friend as they walked by, but he didn’t. Max felt his heart rate decrease and he began to relax when Ethan whispered, “I thought the janitors wore jeans and a polo shirt with the school colors on it…”

Max’s heart rate increased again, and he almost ran away, with Ethan in tow, when he noticed that Ethan wasn’t walking anymore. He turned to see what was wrong with Ethan to see blood dripping from the other young man’s neck. It started at a trickle at first, but Ethan’s head began to tilt back tearing more of the skin as it did so. In seconds, the front of Ethan’s body was covered in thick, shiny, crimson blood, and he collapsed backwards onto the floor where the janitor had been mopping.

“Damn kids. I just cleaned the floor,” said a raspy, familiar voice.

Max looked up in horror, still holding onto Ethan’s hand. The Janitor took off his hat with the same hand he was holding his knife in.

“You’re shitting me…” Max muttered. He looked into the eyes of the old man who murdered his friend, Gio, and several cultists.

“I told you, if I could still see you when I finished killin’ them cult bastards, I’d be commin’ for ya,” The old man growled. “When I was done countin’, you were hangin’ upside down from a tree.”

“B-but…I wasn’t…I mean…” Max stammered. He didn’t know what to say, but that wasn’t stopping him from trying to talk.

The old man put his hat back on, raising his knife to Max’s throat. “Should’ve just dies with your friends.”