The Pits (part 2)

The three turned to head back down the trails. They had made it to the park furthest from where they parked their car, and it would be a long walk back in the dark. The trails on which they were walking—and had walked several times before—connected three parks, and seemed more windy and complicated to navigate at night than they did during the day. Many parts of the trails went in circles, while the rest snaked their way through the dense forest, with only the main trail being paved.

            Max wasn’t very good with silence. It always made him feel awkward, but he didn’t have anything to say at the moment, and apparently neither did Gio or Simon. However, there were things that he wanted to say to both of his friends since they would be going off to start their lives in a few weeks. But Simon and Gio saw him as the strong one in the group. Maybe not physically, but emotionally and psychologically. And Max worried that they wouldn’t see him the same way if he mentioned how much they meant to him, and how much he’d miss them. Or in the very least, he didn’t want to make Simon cry.

            Lost in thought, he didn’t notice that Simon had stopped, and Max walked into Simon’s back.

            “What?” Max asked? “Why’d you stop walking?”

            “You guys are probably gonna hate me for pointing it out, but…” Simon pointed down the hill to a group of people standing in a circle, all an arm’s length apart, around a small fire. They were wearing all black: Hoodies, pants, gloves, boots, and some were even wearing ski masks. One of the people was walking clockwise around the circle of people pouring a small amount of liquid on their heads, but Simon couldn’t tell what it was as they were too far away. Another person, also clad all in black, was walking counterclockwise sprinkling everyone with what looked like salt where the other person was pouring the liquid.

            Gio looked at Max with a look of concern. And Gio’s never concerned. They weren’t sure what the should do, but Gio was the more street smart of the three. He put a finger up to his lips to signal that Max should stay quiet. Max nodded, and went to whisper in Simon’s hear not to make any noise. He looked into Max’s eye with even more fear than he’d shown when Gio was still beating him up. He looked like he was about to cry, and Max couldn’t help but feel bad for him.

            “Crap…” Gio mumbled under his breath. And nearly a second later, a large branch from a tree behind them fell onto the trail making a louder noise than he would have liked. He, Simon, and Max turned to look at the fallen branch that startled them so much they instinctively crouched a bit. When they returned their attention to the people below them they were startled a bit more when they realized they were all looking up at them. They had all completely stopped moving; frozen like mannequins.

            Simon nearly screamed out loud. When he looked back at them, he realized that the people who weren’t wearing masks didn’t seem to have faces. Well, sort of. They had faces, but they were distorted; fuzzy and slightly warped. Looking at them caused a chill to go down his spine that continued through his arms and legs. While blinking the tears away, Simon noticed their faces had suddenly returned to normal, and entertained the idea that he was just so scared that he’d hallucinated.

            The stalemate was broken by one of the men in the circle who took off his ski mask. “You don’t have to be afraid of us,” he offered.

            “We’re not,” Gio said lowering his already deep voice. His face displayed a look of indifference, but the pounding in his chest threatened to destroy his “tough guy” façade.

            The man smiled and pointed to Simon, “He sure seems afraid to me.”

            Max nudged Simon, who blushed a deep red and thanked every god he could think of that they weren’t closer to the fire where they’d see the embarrassment on his face. But that same thought confused him.

            “How can you see us? It’s dark up here, and…the fire…your eyes…” Simon stammered.

            “We see everything, my child,” the man smiled again, and this time, so did the rest of his group.

            Max had had enough, “No one calls random people they’ve never met before ‘my child.’ Let’s go, guys.” That last part, he whispered to his friends. These people were the stuff of nightmares, and Max had enough of those already. More would just be overkill. 

The Pits (part 1)

“I’m just saying, going to college and getting a degree doesn’t mean you’ll be that much better off than someone else,” said Max stepping over a fallen tree branch.

He had been discussing the pros and cons with Simon the entire time they had been walking the trails in a place called “The Pits”, while Giovanni followed behind them, eyes glued to his phone.

“Well, yeah,” started Simon. “But it does mean that you’ll be more likely to get better jobs. And the more degrees you have, the more you get paid. Relative to other people with the same job, anyway.”

Max rolled his eyes. “More likely? That’s all?”

“Um, yes?” replied Simon.

“I don’t like putting work into something that might result in me not getting what I want,” said Max. “Besides, I don’t even know what I wanna do with my life.”

“You have, like, four years to figure that out, man,” said Giovanni finally participating in the conversation. “In the meantime, do either one of you guys wanna answer my question?”

Simon stopped walking and turned around to face Giovanni. “What question? Gio, you haven’t said anything since we picked you up!”

“You two seemed so busy freaking out about your futures that asking why they call this place the Pits seemed random.”

Max chuckled to himself, “When has being random ever bothered you? That’s pretty much your thing.”

“Questions usually require answers,” Gio said furrowing his brow. “For once, I couldn’t find the answer on Google, because apparently nobody cares about parks, and by extension the miles of trails in the woods behind them.”

“I’m guessing it has to do with all of the pits and the dried-up river bed that make walking out here dangerous if you’re not paying attention,” Simon said cynically. “Or maybe it’s because of the cave on the other side of the woods. There’s literally a bunch of pits near the entrance, so getting in is a bitch.”

Gio and Max stood staring shocked at their friend.

“What?” Simon asked. “What’re you looking at? Did I spill mustard on my shirt again?”

“First of all, learn to eat a hotdog,” Gio said.

“Second,” started Max. “Aww! Our little Simon’s all grown up, now! Seriously, who knew there were any curse words in your vocabulary.”

Both Max and Giovanni couldn’t help but laugh at that. Simon had always been the good kid; always nice to everyone, and a perfect teacher’s pet. And Gio was the polar opposite. He met Simon in fifth grade, and decided he didn’t like Simon when the teacher began asking why Gio couldn’t act like Simon. One could say they had a love hate relationship. They hated each other, but Giovanni loved to torture Simon.

 Fortunately for Simon, the bullying came to an end two years later when they were forced to do a group project about dwarf planets in the solar system with Max, who had just moved to their school. Simon got his lowest grade ever, and eighty-nine, Gio got his highest grade ever, and Max found two new friends. Which was one more than he’d had at his last school, since most people didn’t like that most of his jokes were based on sarcasm at the expense of others.

            “Don’t patronize me…” Simon mumbled. “Just because you’ve never heard me say those kinds of things doesn’t mean I can’t.”

            “True, but…” Gio began to say, before trailing off. He was staring past Simon into the trees.

            Max couldn’t see what Gio was looking at. The sun was beginning to set, and with the thick canopy of trees covering the trail—and Max’s less than perfect vision—he couldn’t see much if it was too far away. “Gio, what are you staring at?”

            “Jeogi namja-nun namudul-ae il-eo seoseo…” Gio answered in Korean, as he did when he was confused, or angry.

            “What?” Max asked looking at his friend, feeling an unusual amount of concern. He had never heard Gio say something like that in the five years they had known each other.

            “He’s speaking Korean,” Simon told Max. “It’s his native language.”

            “Okay, but what—”

            “I don’t know. I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Simon turned his attention back to Gio, “Also, don’t call me when you’re drunk anymore. I felt bad that your dog pissed on your laptop, but I didn’t know what you wanted me to do about it, so I went back to sleep.”

            Max raised an eyebrow at Simon’s statement. “But he doesn’t have a dog.”

            “So, what? He just pissed on his own laptop?” Simon asked incredulously.

            He looked at Gio, then back to Max realizing that it was entirely possible as Gio was definitely wasted the night before. “Oh, my God, he pissed on his laptop. Exactly how drunk were you last night?!”

            “Very, but in my defense, the pain meds I found in my mom’s medicine cabinet probably didn’t help.” Gio looked away from the trees.

            “You need to go to rehab…” Max mumbled.

            “I was kidding! Chill out, bro. Hey, you guys ready to head back? It’s getting kinda dark out.”

            “Yeah, the last time I was here at night, I almost got attacked by deer. I don’t think I’m about that life.” Gio laughed at Max’s comment. The thought of him getting chased by a deer was funnier than it probably should’ve been.