Shadow Man (Part 5)

‘Holy shit! Why don’t you just go home and leave my brother alone?’ Jesse stared at his Uncle as the large man stood and walked over to the stairs. Certain steps creaked, as they were made of wood, so he could keep tabs on Uncle Nick’s progress toward Izzy’s room.

Normally, Jesse was rather good at bullshitting—coming up with excuses was often an easy thing for him. But at that moment, the paralyzing shock he felt was keeping him from thinking about anything.

As they say, anything that can go badly will. Jesse saw a small black object in his peripheral vision, and instinctively turned to look at it. He followed what looked like a small cat making a beeline to the kitchen, disappearing beyond the door frame. Immediately after, the hulking shadow figure that had been causing Jesse so much stress since he left the hospital took a wobbling step into the living room, moving its’ head from left to right and back again as if surveying the room. Jesse wanted to scream but was a bit more concerned that everyone else seemed so calm. ‘How do you not see that?’ Jesse yelled inside his own mind.

Minzy began to cry snapping Jesse out of his trance. ‘Babies really can see things adults can’t,’ he thought. ‘Fuck off, shadow man. I’m busy.’

“Hey, Dad? Can I talk to you about something?” Jesse asked.

“Sure, bud! What’s going on?”

Jesse did his best to appear shy. “Um…In private?”

Jesse’s parents gave each other a look as if to say “Oh, shit…”

“You boys go and discuss your ‘man’ problems, while Isabella and I catch up some more,” Jesse’s mom said, shooing father and son away.

Jesse grabbed his father’s hand and led him upstairs to the teenager’s bedroom but left the door open so any noises from Izzy’s room could be heard.

“What’s up?” Jesse’s dad asked as he sat down on his son’s bed.

“Well, it’s about Izzy. He wanted to ask you, but he was embarrassed, so he asked me. But I don’t actually know what to do in this situation, so I was planning on asking you later when everyone went home, but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen anytime soon,” Jesse spat the words out quickly, while pacing back and forth. He had never taking acting classes, so Jesse only hoped he was coming off and awkward, or nervous.

“Now, you boys know that you can come to me with whatever problems you’re having.”

“I know…” Jesse mumbled looking at the floor. ‘Please don’t look at the desk lamp’ he thought. Honestly, his second biggest concern was getting in trouble for breaking it. ‘Focus, Jesse…’

“What if, hypothetically…”

“A hypothetical situation that you’ve already told me was about Izzy?”

Jesse’s eyes darted around the room for a second realizing what he said and thinking about what to say next. “Yeah. Okay, so there’s this guy that…kinda creeps him out. Has been for a long time. But there’s no way to get away from him. And…nobody would believe us if we told them what he used to—”

“Is it Nick?” Jesse’s father wore a stern, borderline angry face.

For the second time in less than twenty minutes Jesse was stunned into silence. He wasn’t sure if he made it obvious or not, but now that he had the chance to confess something that had been bothering him since he was in elementary school he couldn’t bring himself to say it. But, in this case, Jesse’s silence spoke volumes.

Jesse’s dad got up from the bed and stomped down the hallway. Seconds later, there was a bang when he kicked in youngest son’s door open to see Izzy in bed, wiping something from his lower lip, and Uncle Nick standing over his nephew.

“Get the fuck out of my house,” Jesse’s father spoke quietly, seething. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he never liked Nick, and finally had a reason to kick him out.

“What—” Nick started to speak, but the tone in which his brother-in-law spoke and the look on his face let him know he didn’t want to accidentally escalate things. After all, Nick was one of the few people to see his brother-in-law angry. He might as well be the grim reaper.

“Okay, man. Just making sure Izzy was alright,” Nick said raising his hands as a sign that he meant no harm. “I’m leaving, alright?”

Jesse’s father followed Nick to the front door, slamming in Nick’s face when he tried to say goodbye. Meanwhile, Jesse thought he should have a talk with his little brother.

“You alright?” Jesse asked.

“I’m fine.” Izzy definitely didn’t sound fine. He turned away from his brother, pulling the comforter up over his head. Jesse walked over and sat down on the bed next to his brother and put his hand on Izzy’s shoulder above the cocoon of blankets that Izzy wrapped himself with. A muffled sound came from the inside of the cocoon. “I don’t wanna talk about it. Not yet.”

“I gotcha, bro. But you know Dad’s gonna want to talk about…everything, now.”

“I know.”

“I’ll tell him you’re not up to talk about it just yet. But if you do wanna talk, I’m here for you.”

“Okay.”

Jesse walked towards the door of his brother’s room, but Izzy stopped him before he could leave. “Thanks, bro…”

“No problem, Izzy.”

Upon closing the bedroom door, Jesse looked down the hallway toward the top of the stairs to see the Shadow Man standing there quietly.

“I was wondering where you went.”

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.” 

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!”

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.