Now, I don’t know what you would’ve done in a scenario like this, but I kind of just froze. I’m not sure how long it lasted. Could’ve been a minute. Maybe ten. At one point, the bus stopped moving and I could see the driver putting on his own mask.
Not an ideal situation, to say the least.
After working up some courage, I decided to make a break for it. I bolted up and dashed down the aisle. Not really sure what I was expecting there. That nobody was going to try and stop me? One of the masked individuals that had gotten on was a large, burly guy. He grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back before I could escape the bus.
His fingers dug into my flesh as he centered me towards him.
“Are you going to come back?” He asked, in a disturbing, monotonous tone. I didn’t answer. Instead, I shrugged away from his grip and ran off. He definitely let it happen. If he’d actually been trying to keep me in place, there’s no way I would’ve budged.
Thankfully, nobody followed me off. Instead, they just sat there, watching me as the bus drove away. Things had gone from annoying to downright horrifying. I didn’t get it. What the hell did they want from me? It clearly wasn’t money. They would’ve just held me there. My mind kept going back to the idea that this was all a prank. As absurd as that was, it still made the most sense. If that was the case… then I was beyond pissed at Shawn. This was not something that I needed right now.
I decided to walk to the diner. Thankfully, I wasn’t accosted by any more people in masks on the way.
I expected to enter the place and find a full camera crew waiting for me, and I was ready to chew them all out. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, I found Shawn sitting at a table alone.
Oh, I thought. I guess the grand reveal will come later.
I stormed over to his table and sat down, nearly fuming.
“What the hell is going on man? What the fuck is this?”
He looked up at me and smiled. A face I hadn’t seen in some time. I don’t know if it was just me, but it looked as if he’d aged about 20 years.
“Nice to see you too, David. Been a while.”
“You know, a normal friend would just stop by for drinks or something. But I guess I shouldn’t have expected that from you, you fucking psycho.”
I stopped myself from saying anything more.
“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
Shawn chuckled. “C’mon David. We never do this soppy bullshit. If I were you, I would’ve thought I jumped off the deep end as well.”
Before I go any further, I need to tell you about the last time I actually saw Shawn. It wasn’t exactly our best interaction. We were sitting in the same diner, and I stormed out on him after calling him crazy and other related synonyms. But I had a reason to do so. He’d been weird ever since high school had begun. He started talking to me less and less, and it peaked during the last few weeks of grade 11, where we never even exchanged a word. Then, he spent the entire 12th grade being home-schooled. I mean, I had no idea what the hell was going on with him. Whenever I’d go over to his house, his parents would just smile at me and say he was busy. All the damn time. Busy with what? I always thought that they looked nervous when they said it as well.
There was also a rumor floating around. Something about the cops finding him in the woods. I’m fuzzy on the details. I mean, it’s not like him or his parents would ever talk about it. In the summer before college started, they just moved away entirely. I don’t know where to. I thought that was going to be the last time that I’d ever see him.
Clearly, I was wrong.
Out of the blue one day, he called me over to the diner. I’d just finished my first semester of college on a high note, so I was feeling pretty good. It was made even better by the fact that my old friend had finally reached out to me. I was excited. Excited to know what had been going on with my best friend all these years. I wanted to know that things would be alright, and that everything would revert back to being normal with him, just like the old days. I wanted an explanation.
But I didn’t like the one that I got. It was like the plot of some bad horror movie. I don’t remember what he said verbatim, but there was something about a cult that both him and I had apparently encountered in the woods once. He tried so hard to convince me that it was all true, but I wasn’t having it. Eventually, I just stormed out. I mean, I don’t recall anything like that ever happening. Even now, it doesn’t ring a bell.
But I will admit… things are starting to get pretty weird.
“Do you believe me now?” He asked.
“About what?” I responded, knowing exactly about what.
“The cult,” he said. “The followers of the masked God.”
I scoffed. “Jesus Christ, Shawn. This shit again?”
“I understand why you thought I was crazy before, but c’mon. You’re still denying it now? After everything you’ve seen?”
“So you wanted me to see that guy in our tree-house? What is he, an actor? Just like the rest of these masked assholes?”
Shawn sighed. “And you think I’m the delusional one.”
I wanted to slam the table when he said that, but I calmed myself down.
“Ok,” I said. “Sure. It’s weird. All of it is. But there’s gotta be a better explanation than a goddamn cult.”
He just gave me a look of disbelief.
“Good grief, Dave. It sounds like you’re in fucking denial here. Why do you think I’m here? And where do you think I’ve been?”
I paused. It was a good question. One that I somehow hadn’t bothered to ask.
“I don’t know,” I said. “What are you doing here?”
“I came back to save your ass. Like I said, this isn’t something we can run away from.”
“What do you-“
“Let me explain, alright? Do you remember the last time we actually went up into that tree-house?”
I began opening my mouth, but quickly realized that the words weren’t there. My mind was blank. I began recalling my childhood. All the time that I’d spent with Shawn. It was fairly clear, up until the summer before high school. I remembered what happened at the beginning. The camping trip where we both got drunk and our parents kicked our asses. Watching the dark knight in theaters. Meeting my ex-girlfriend Lindsey for the first time.
But… that was all in July. I couldn’t remember anything past that. What the hell had happened in August?
Shawn grinned at my likely confused expression.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” he said. “The fact that you can’t remember what happened that summer.”
“Is it though? It’s not like I remember everything that’s ever happened to me.”
“That’s true,” he continued. “Maybe that summer was so insignificant that nothing worth remembering happened at all.”
He paused, looking me straight in the eye.
“But you know that’s not true.”
Another pause. I wasn’t really liking where this conversation was headed.
“So what happened?” I finally responded. “And lemme guess, it has something to do with this masked cult.”
He sighed, almost sounding relieved.
“Glad we’re finally getting on the same page. What do you think?”
“I’m not sure what to think at this point.”
I could see his eyes wander over to somewhere behind me.
“Well make up your mind later. Looks like they’ve gotten more widespread since the last time I was here.”
I turned around, seeing that the waitress was standing absolutely still just a few feet away, holding an empty tray. And of course, she was wearing a mask.
The idea of the whole thing being a prank was becoming less and less likely.
I sighed. “I should’ve moved out of this fucking town.”
“Yeah. Probably,” Shawn said, nodding. “Looks like I’m not getting my coffee either.”
He unzipped his jacket, revealing a pistol on his belt.
“Are you serious right now?” I said upon seeing it. Kind of an unexpected sight.
“Of course I’m serious,” he said. “This nightmare has been going on for too long. It’s time to end it.”
---
Credits
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