It started during the night. Around three I think.
An inscrutable sound at first, one that my tired mind failed to make sense of. Something faint but shrill. Sporadic. Something that I was sure I didn’t like hearing.
Sitting up in the bed, I looked over at Elise, her skin smooth under the moonlight, sleeping calm, soundlessly. Even if the source of the noise had been right downstairs, it would’ve taken a while for her to stir. Fortunate for her. At any given moment my own slumber was dangling by a thread, susceptible to termination at the slightest creak. I suppose it works out well for the both of us.
Moving slowly and quietly, I slipped out the bed and made my way downstairs. Then I opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch, straining my ears, listening intently.
Silence. Maybe in my groggy state, I’d just been hearing things. It wouldn’t have been the first time.
Knowing that I wasn’t going back to sleep any time soon, I grabbed a beer from the fridge and decided to sit for a while. The air was cool, windless, and just barely warm enough for me to be comfortable in my t shirt and boxers. The moon seemed to cast a deep, blue glow over the grass and dirt, before being smothered by the darkness of the woods beyond. It had become oddly quiet.
Serene. If I had to use a word to describe it.
We’d arrived yesterday for our annual excursion in the woods. The cabin actually used to belong to my brother, Kevin, who’d essentially given it away to me some years ago, citing some strange neighbours that were weirding him out at the time.
I guess they moved out. Because during the weeks we’ve spent here, we don’t see anybody at all until we make a drive out to the mountains or the lake. I know there’s some cabins not too far away from us, but from what I can tell, they’re vacant.
I finished my beer and prepared to make my way back up to the bedroom when I heard it again. That shrill, uncomfortable sound.
I sat back down and listened hard. Again it came sporadically. Sometimes it’d last for ten, maybe fifteen seconds continuously. Sometimes it’d come in shorter bursts.
Crying, I realized. And if it wasn’t that, then I didn’t know what it could’ve been.
I listened for a long time and eventually concluded that it had to be coming from the woods and at that point, a bad idea popped into my head. If Kevin wasn’t yanking my chain about those neighbours then perhaps there was cause for concern here.
I went back inside the cabin, put on some sweatpants and a jacket, and tucked my pistol away in them. Just in case. I looked at Elise one last time before heading out.
The woods were cold, still. Eerie. At times I could catch clouds of my breath swirling in the beam of my flashlight. Was this a bad idea? Likely it was. But at the same time, there was something exciting about it. The adrenaline slowly building as the sound got louder. Besides, I felt safe enough. I’m no marksman but I can still shoot.
A few minutes later and the sound became unmistakable. That’s when I froze up, feeling the cold sweat prickling my skin and my breaths heavy against the night air.
I shook my head, mumbling to myself “what the fuck?”
It was a baby. A baby crying. And it sounded muffled.
I walked slowly forward. Soon I found myself standing over a spot haphazardly piled with dirt. And the crying was loud as ever. I looked carefully around me before I started digging, trying hard not to think too deeply about what I was doing or what I was hearing. I read somewhere it was best to let the shock come to you in gradual waves.
That strategy worked up until I saw its face and that’s when I had to choke back a breath. It was so small, its minute features twisted into a grimace in the sparse moonlight. I took a deep breath and dug the rest of it out. For a while I just stared at it and not knowing what else to do, I carried it back to the cabin, doing whatever I could to try and soothe it during the walk.
Elise woke up some minutes later after it wouldn’t stop crying. When she came down I didn’t even notice her. All I could do was continue staring. Pale and tiny. Specks of wet dirt still clinging to its skin even though I’d tried to wipe it all away.
“Anthony, what the hell?” was the first thing she said.
I explained it to her. At first I could tell that she didn’t believe me, but then I guess she realized that there would’ve been no reason for me to lie to her. Not about something like this.
Immediately we drew it a bath and that’s when I got a good look at its eyes. I’d never seen anything like them before. Its irises were a deep red-orange. Like lava. It even had small streaks and spots of black throughout.
For a while after we thought about what to do. We had no baby food in the cabin, and we both didn’t have the faintest clue how to begin to take care of it. Given the fact that it had been buried in cold, wet dirt for who knows how long meant it was probably sick as well. At the very least, it had stopped crying. Though I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
There was a rest stop that was about a fifteen-minute drive away. We decided to do the only thing that made sense. We’d drive it over there and then call the police. The reception wasn’t good out here.
We made it not even a mile from the driveway before something caught my eye. One of the surrounding cabins we thought had been empty had its lights on. I pulled over to the side of the dirt road. Now we had another decision to make.
I was in favor of talking to them. Elise was adamantly against it.
“If they’re the ones who did this, do we really want to confront them?” she asked. It was a good point. But I wasn’t convinced just yet.
I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead into the steering wheel, trying to think. Then Elise started tapping on my shoulder.
“Anthony…” she hissed quietly. “Someone’s coming towards us.”
I raised my head and looked over at the cabin, indeed seeing a shadow coming down from the lawn, clearly headed our way. I cursed under my breath.
“Hide the baby,” I whispered to her.
She looked at me for a second and then nodded, placing it on her lap and covering it up with a blanket we had in the back seat. I turned the lights off and prayed it wouldn’t start crying again.
Soon a man came into view. Appearance-wise, there seemed to be no red flags. He had glasses, wore a dress shirt and khakis, was well-built and seemed reasonably clean-cut overall. Though the darkness did make it hard for me to gauge his expression.
I rolled down the window slightly.
“Hey there,” he said. “Can I help you with something? Are ya’ll in trouble?”
I swallowed and committed myself to the lie.
“Thanks, but we’re fine,” I said. “We’re on our way to get some groceries. Just putting the address into the GPS.” I held out my phone for him to see.
The man nodded and I think his expression changed.
“So no trouble at all?” he asked.
“No trouble.”
For a while he stood silent and still, as if trying to scrutinize every word I had just said. Then he raised his arm to scratch his neck and that’s when I saw the dirt on his sleeve.
“Well, if there’s no trouble then I’ll let ya’ll go.”
He made what I think was a smile and then shuffled off into the gloom. Not in the direction of the cabin. But the woods on the other side.
I cursed again and drove off.
By the time the rest stop came into view, I couldn’t stop my arms from shaking. Our signal had come back a while ago, but I still felt safer stopping where there might be people around.
I parked in front of the gas station and stood outside with a cigarette while Elise mad the call inside the car. A few minutes later, she opened the door.
“They’re coming,” she said, visibly relieved.
“Did you tell them about the guy?”
She nodded. I took a deep drag and then tossed the butt into the garbage. What the hell had we just stumbled upon? I thought about and decided that I’d really rather not know.
We were sitting in the car for about five minutes when I saw lights approaching from down the road, down the way we’d come. Maybe they were police. Maybe they weren’t. I wasn’t going to take the risk. I told Elise to take the baby into the diner next to the gas station while I remained in the car.
It was a good call. Because they sure as hell weren’t the cops. The vehicle pulled up right beside me in the empty lot, a familiar face staring right at me through an open window. Glasses. There was somebody else in the car with him, wearing what I could only describe as some sort of cloak, his face obscured by the hood.
The man opened the door and began rapping on my window. Once again I rolled it down just a sliver.
“Yeah?”
“Where is it?” he said, still trying to appear amicable but clearly doing his best to suppress a scowl.
I shook my head. “I don’t know what-“
“Where the hell is it?” he said, cutting me off.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Any friendliness in his expression was no more.
The man closed his eyes, breathed deeply. Then he stared down at his watch. “Is it with your wife?”
I didn’t answer.
“If so, then she’s in danger.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Go check on your wife. Then you’ll see what I’m talking about.”
I shook my head, grabbed the gun. “Alright, get the fuck back,” I stammered out, before shoving past him and towards the diner.
The man rolled his eyes, put his hands up and backed off. Inside the place was more emptiness and quiet. Not even a waitress. I gripped the gun tight.
“Elise?” I shouted.
Silence.
“Elise?”
More silence. With panic overtaking me, I ran forward and nearly tripped over something. A pair of legs. Slowly I turned my head to see the rest of the body.
“Fuck.”
Lying there was what I assumed to be the waitress, her torso eviscerated. Her face, untouched though drenched in blood was contorted into something hellish, eyes wide and mouth twisted and agape. I swallowed the bile coming up my throat and stumbled around, my desperation mounting.
Eventually I looked over at the bathroom door and saw it stained with a bloody handprint. Trying to reel in my nerves, I scrambled over and walked slowly in. More emptiness at first, though I could hear some faint whimpering coming from one of the stalls.
“Elise?” I whispered.
“Anthony?”
She opened the door, stepping out cautiously. Her hands were covered in blood.
“Are you alright?”
With shell-shocked eyes, she gave a slight nod.
A sigh of relief. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
The two of us tip-toed back into the dining area where we were greeted by glasses and the cloak, the latter standing behind the former by the entrance.
“Great job,” glasses said. “Really, fantastic job.”
“Keep it down!” I whispered, though it came out louder than I’d hoped.
He flashed a grim smile. “You don’t think she already knows where you are?”
I just stared at him, unblinking, until a noise stirred me out of it. Sounded like pots falling onto the ground.
The man laughed. “What a mess. Guess I can’t be too mad, though. It’s good at luring people in.”
Then he took a deep breath. “I recommend you two leave and let us take care of this.”
Fine with me. Grabbing Elise by the hand, I led her out of there. By now the police had arrived, soaking the lot with red and blue. Two cars sat there. A bit overkill for what we had originally called for, but in an area like this, I supposed they had nothing better to do.
Two cops got out of each, one stocky, one lanky, both laser-eyed on Elise’s bloodied hands and clothes. The stocky one grabbed his pistol and soon I realized I was still holding mine.
I set it down slowly and then held up my hands. They just looked at me, evidently awaiting some explanation that I could not provide. I closed my eyes, tried stuttering some sentences together that may as well have been gibberish.
Sensing the terror in my expression, the cop lowered his weapon and approached me curiously.
“Sir? Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“Where did the blood come from?”
I shook my head again. The cop’s eyes wandered over to the diner.
“I wouldn’t go in there,” I choked out.
The cop stared. “Why not.”
“I wouldn’t go in.”
The cop looked back at his partner and gave him a nod. Then he headed for the door, and I found myself devoid of anything left to say.
The lanky one looked at me. “Walk towards me. Slowly now. We’ll figure this out.”
I exhaled and shuffled forward a few steps before gunshots filled the air. The cop cursed, looked between us and the diner before drawing his pistol and running in, all while yelling for us to stay put. I looked at Elise, who hadn’t said anything the entire time, her expression now blank, her skin paler than I’d ever seen it before. I picked the pistol back up, walked her over to the car and planted her in the passenger’s seat before getting in and putting the key in the ignition and my foot on the brakes, ready to peel it out of there at any given moment.
But not yet. I had a hunch that we were better off knowing what was going to happen here.
So I waited.
More gunshots. Some shouts. At one point, some unearthly screech. I could feel my foot slowly easing up on the brakes, but I forced myself to remain steadfast.
A few minutes later, something came crashing out through the wall, spraying bricks and dust.
Something large.
I could only really get glimpses of it at first, but I could make out two figures, clearly struggling against each other. One of them appeared to be the cloaked man. Whatever the other thing was, I couldn’t tell you. Close to seven feet tall, wielding bony and lanky limbs, clammy grey skin, dark wet hair flowing down its slender waist, clawed hands the size of bowling balls. I looked on and saw flashes of its face, those familiar red irises now contained within horrible, bulging eyes. A long, serpent-like tongue hung out of its cavernous mouth, whipping itself in rapid bursts at the cloak who parried them feverishly with what appeared to be some giant, medieval Knight’s sword.
God they were fast as well.
Eventually the cloak caught the creature’s tongue with one of his gloves and then brought the sword down on it with his other, splitting it in two. The creature reeled away but he pushed forward, driving the blade through its throat before chopping through one side of its neck.
It made a horrible croaking as it fell, its body sprawled into bloody, bony mass on the pavement.
Watching the inexplicable sequence play out had put me into a near-trance. Then I felt the vehicle shift down and suddenly the cloak was sitting in my back seat. I looked at him through my rear-view, his face pale, bony, blood-stained, expressionless, the sword laid flat on his lap. He raised his head to look back at me and I saw that his lips were stitched together with metal.
Then I looked at Elise, who I could only describe as being catatonic by that point. The cloak pushed against the back of my seat and pointed towards the steering wheel. Seconds later I was driving, and it seemed rather obvious where he wanted me to go.
I parked in front of the cabin, and the cloak got out first. He rapped against my window, gesturing for me to do the same. I breathed deeply, stepped out and went to grab Elise. The cloak grabbed my shoulder before I could and wagged his finger at me.
I shook my head. “Well, I’m not fucking leaving her here.”
He just stared at me. Then at her. Then he started heading for the cabin. I picked her up and followed him inside, carefully placing her down on the couch. By now her skin was the grey of wet concrete, her eyes blinking erratically. I stared at her in disbelief. I stared for a long time.
At some point, the cloak snapped me out of it by tapping the sword on the floor. I looked up and saw him leering over me and only then could I grasp just how large this guy was. He stood six-five, maybe six-six, his shoulders broad, his chest protruding and blocky. Underneath his eyes were tattoos of strange symbols.
I swallowed. “We need to help her,” I said.
I think he tried to smile at me. It looked forced. Unnatural.
He then walked towards the back of the room and used the sword to cut through a large lock that had been protecting an inconspicuous wooden chest in the corner. One slight swing and it split in two, old metal dropping in pieces to the ground. He lifted the chest open with the tip of the blade and then bent down and grabbed something and pulled it out and tossed it to me.
A machine gun. Looked like an Uzi.
More disbelief. As I stared at the weapon, the cloak had gone and discarded his sword for another, a smaller blade that he kept in a scabbard at his side. In his arms he held a large assault rifle.
“What the hell is this?” I asked.
The cloak set his rifle down and picked up a notebook on the table in front of him and wrote something down.
He held it up to me.
The words “WE KILL IT” were scrawled messily across the page.
“Kill what?” I asked.
The cloak just stared at me, apparently perplexed by my question.
I shook my head. “But I thought you already killed it?”
The cloak sighed, picked the notebook back up.
This time he wrote “5 LIVES”.
“You mean we have to kill that thing 4 more times?”
The cloak smiled again, nodded.
I tossed the weapon on the floor. “You kill that thing,” I said. “I’m taking my wife and I’m getting the fuck out of here.”
I suppose that was a bit overzealous of me. I tried stepping past the guy but found a pipe-like arm blocking any forward motion. He looked down at me and shook his head. He shoved me back, not a big movement on his part, but I just about went flying.
Picking the notebook back up, he wrote something else.
“YOU DUG IT UP,” it said. “NOW YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE”
I couldn’t believe this. I looked at Elise again and saw that she had begun to blink slower.
“I need to help her,” I said.
The cloak went back to writing.
“SHE HAS BEEN CURSED. ONLY WAY TO HELP IS TO KILL IT.”
“Fuck off,” I spat. “You’re lying.”
The cloak stared at me. This time he wrote “DO YOU WANT TO HELP HER?”
A rock and a hard place. On one hand I was almost certain this guy was bullshitting me. I mean, who the hell was he? What even was he?
On the other hand, I wasn’t sure how much I was willing to risk on the off chance he wasn’t.
The cloak wrote something else.
“IT WILL FOLLOW YOU BOTH UNTIL YOU’RE DEAD.”
I sighed. “You should have started with that.”
I carried Elise up to one of the bedrooms while the cloak did his thing downstairs. “Preparations” in his own words. As I closed and locked the door behind me, I had to reconcile to myself how wrong this all felt. Like being lost in the woods in the dark only to be offered a way out by somebody who had no business being there to begin with.
Do you trust and follow him? I suppose it depends on what you have on the line.
Back downstairs I sunk into the couch and ran my fingers across the Uzi’s hard, cold plastic. I’ve had experience shooting. A lot of experience in fact. But the cloak couldn’t have known this. Is he really trying to help me? His expression gives nothing away and I can tell he avoids looking at me.
I don’t know how long we’ve been waiting but we can hear her now.
She’s close.
---
Credits
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