“GODDAMN! This freak sure is something!”
The man with the shotgun seemed to be having a little too much fun. He’d “killed” Mr. Blank 3 more times. However… it was becoming more of a close call with every encounter.
“Who is this guy?” I called out to Sven.
“Uh… Jimmy. An old friend.”
“I hunt weird shit for sport!” Jimmy said, in the midst of reloading his shotgun, a ferocious gaze on his face. “But don’t boil me down to just that! I like a lot of stuff!”
What kind of stuff? I thought to myself. Well, I guess it didn’t really matter. I came to a realization. Mr. Blank had his hands full with Jimmy, which meant I had a chance. I bolted up and began running.
Call it a selfish move. I hardly cared at that point.
Shotgun blasts rocked the space around me as I ran, following the obscure tree carvings towards an unknown destination. I couldn’t tell you what I was expecting to find. I didn’t even know if there was going to be anything waiting for me at all.
Nevertheless, I ran. And I never considered stopping.
The whole journey took me a lot longer than I thought. I’d gotten deep into the forest before the carvings had disappeared altogether.
This is it, I thought, feverishly looking around for something. But what the hell was I looking for? After a while of searching, I finally spotted a clue.
Another carving. Not on a tree this time. It was on a large rock, right beside what appeared to be a small opening leading to a cave within. Not ominous in the slightest.
Jeez, am I really gonna in there? I thought to myself. By all accounts, nothing would lead a rational person to enter such a space.
Nevertheless, I was far from rational at that point. I’d also stopped hearing the shotgun blasts a while ago. That could only mean that Mr. Blank was about to be on my ass once again.
I took a deep breath and stepped forward, into whatever the hell was awaiting me in the darkness. The “cave” itself (If you want to call it that. It was more comparable to a large hole in a rock), was larger on the inside than it looked on the outside. But not drastically. It was still relatively tight as I traversed into it. For the first few seconds, I could make out nothing but darkness. But it didn’t take too long to find what I’d unknowingly been searching for this whole time.
There was a light ahead. Like one derived from a small flame. And… it was moving. Somebody (or something?) was holding it up. Making out any details from the angle and distance I was standing at wasn’t quite possible, so I was forced to move forward if I wanted any answers.
“So you’ve come for me, huh?”
It wasn’t the kind of voice that I’d expected. Not low, guttural, or menacing in the slightest. Whoever was speaking sounded meek. Terrified. On the verge of tears.
But first impressions can deceive. I stayed on my toes, preparing myself for anything. From everything I’d experienced so far… anything was certainly possible.
“What do you mean?” I asked in a low voice, as to not trigger any sudden aggression.
“How did you find me?” the man asked. “Oh,” he paused. “The carvings. Led you right to me, I suppose.”
The man turned, his face partially illuminated by a large candle he was holding dangerously close to his skin. I could hardly make out any distinguishable features. His hair was long and scraggly. Facial hair appeared to be untrimmed. Tired eyes. Things that aren’t terribly rare these days.
But what I did find interesting… was his shirt. Black and maroon. A white nametag. Read “Collin”. It was all familiar. He had to be an employee for somewhere I’d been before. But where?
“I guess that’s what I wanted, though,” he said, his voice getting shaky. “To finally pay for what I’ve done.”
“What are you talking about? What have you-“ I stopped my question partway through, due to a sudden, jarring. realization.
So that’s where I recognized the uniform from.
The theater. The one where this shitshow had all started. I recalled the details that of the investigation.
A new employee… joined not too long ago… now missing…
It was him, wasn’t it?
“You fucking bastard.”
I could hardly control the words as they came out of my mouth. By all accounts, this guy was the reason Lacey went missing. It took everything out of me to not strangle him right then and there.
Those urges were pushed even further when he chuckled.
“I see,” he said. “You’re not the police. Just someone looking for vengeance. That’s not so good for me. But I suppose it’s what I deserve.”
He sighed, putting the candle down at his feet, illuminating a pile of empty soda cans and cellophane wrappers behind him.
“Go ahead," he said. I won’t fight back.”
I took about half a minute to calm myself down. It didn’t quite work. I was still seething, my fists shaking like hell. If I were Mike, this guy’s face would’ve been reduced to mush already.
Luckily for him, I wasn’t Mike. I suppose it was lucky for me as well. Beyond anything, I needed answers. I took a deep breath, unclenching my fists and forcing my emotions to the curb. At least, I tried.
“You… you’re responsible for this, aren’t you? You screened that goddamn film.”
I could see the man’s silhouette nod. I gulped down my anger.
“What the hell are you doing out here?”
The man drooped his head. “I can’t go back into town. I’m not a strong enough man to face what I’ve done.”
A moment of silence followed. I could see him shaking ever so slightly. His breathing gradually became rapid and uneven, like he was forcing down tears.
“A man?” I said. “Is that what you are? After doing what you did, I’m not so sure.”
“That’s the part you don’t understand,” he finally said. “He’ll force you to do things you never could’ve fathomed doing before. All without laying a single finger on you.”
I scoffed. “What? You scared of monsters under the bed? Yeah, he did that shit to me as well. But I didn’t crack from it. Didn’t have to take 12 people down with me, either.”
“Monsters…” the man muttered. “Yeah, turning into monsters is one of his tricks. But nowhere near the worst one.”
I could feel the anger coming back. “Look, if you couldn’t handle it, maybe you should’ve just-“
I stopped myself from finishing the sentence. It was something I really didn’t want to say, even given the circumstances.
“Just taken my own life, right?” he responded. “Yeah. I guess I’d agree. I suppose it all started with me.”
“I wasn’t-“ I began, now at a sudden loss for words. I tried recomposing myself. Freaking out wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
“What did you mean when you said that turning into monsters wasn’t his worst trick?” I asked.
“I meant what I said. He goes by trial and error. Turns into the things he thinks will evoke the most fear out of us. Horror movie villains, monsters from folklore, those are good options. The simplest ones as well. But that won’t work on everybody. It didn’t work on me.”
I raised an eyebrow in the darkness. “What?”
“When he can’t scare you by using such direct tactics… he tries harder. Digs deeper into the recesses of your mind. What would petrify you the most. Things that would drive you to the darkest corner of your own soul. You’ll start to feel mad, just short of being catatonic. Cognizant enough to carry out his orders, but too constrained by visceral fear to do anything else. You’ll feel nothing but emptiness. A cold void where your heart once was. Hopes, desires, any kind of positive emotion, completely gone. You’ll feel… blank.”
He paused again.
“I may not be the strongest but… I don’t think even the strongest could cope with that.”
It took me a minute to think about what he’d just said. If he was right then… well that was bad news.”
My anger suddenly took a backseat to apprehension.
“He’s chasing you right now, isn’t he?” Collin asked. “Mr. Blank will probably kill me once he catches up. He has no use for me anymore, after all.”
He paused again, lighting a cigarette this time. It was frightening how devoid of emotion his tone was.
“But… I can’t say that I would mind that,” he took a long drag. “I’m truly sorry for any grief I may have caused you. But there’s nothing I can do anymore. Nothing we can do.”
I didn’t want to accept it.
“Nothing, like… we can’t find a way to beat him somehow? Can’t find a way to get those missing people back?!”
He took another drag. “Unfortunately-“
“What in the hell are you doing hiding in a cave?”
He was cut off by a familiar Southern accent. I turned around, seeing Jimmy and Sven standing at the mouth of the cave.
“Sven told me to follow these witch drawings and they led me to a yellow-bellied coward. The hell you running away from the fight for?” Jimmy said, clearly upset that I’d gone ahead without him. I also noticed that his shotgun was over his shoulder, and not in his hands.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked. “He’s gonna-“
“That weird son of a bitch ain’t gonna do shit,” Jimmy responded. “He disappeared some time ago. Lost count of how many times I killed him. How many of my precious bullets I wasted on him. Goddamn it.”
“Disappeared?” I asked, perplexed.
“Yeah,” Sven spoke up. “It’s been about 8 minutes. Unless it’s planning a surprise attack… looks like it’s gone for now. Who the hell is that behind you?”
I turned around, seeing Collin now standing up, which startled me a bit.
“What do you mean it’s gone?” He said, sounding shocked at the prospect.
“The hell do you think we mean? It up and disappeared. Vamoosed. Maybe it got tired from being slaughtered, who on God’s green Earth knows?”
Collin stepped forward, moving more into the daylight. As expected… he looked like hell. Smelled like it too. I could see Jimmy and Sven physically react to his appearance.
However… his eyes were different than I would’ve imagined. Not so hopeless, like his words. In fact… they were brimming with determination.
He grinned at me, if only slightly.
“We have a chance here. But we have to move quick.”
---
Credits
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