Mikel turned back to the cabin. There was a sense of something wrong; he could feel it in his bones. It gnawed at him like a rat feverishly chewed through a rotting piece of flesh. That pool of liquid had everything to do with it. There was a definite feeling of unease in the air, as if the woods themselves were trying to reach out and pull him into their dense, impenetrable darkness.
Mikel wasn’t used to feeling like this. He had gotten over those childhood fears of the unknown creeping up on him years ago. Now, he relied on his senses to know what dangers were lurking nearby. He didn’t have the mental space to allow fear to creep in. Until now.
Icy fingers slid down his scalp, raising the hairs on his neck. His pace quickened. There was something…else here. Something beyond what they were expecting. Before now, there were rednecks. There were werewolves and crazed people. Now, all his senses were screaming at him to run, to run now, and not to look back because something terrible, horrible, and unimaginably…dark was there, and it was somehow all around him.
Muscles screamed to run, tightening and preparing for flight, the fight simply disappearing; not a remote option. As the woods widened away from the lane and the lawn surrounded him, Mikel realized he had been holding his breath. The only sounds had been his boots on the gravel. He exhaled slowly and drew a deep breath, then bent and placed his hands on his knees. The feeling was still strong, though he no longer felt surrounded. He felt like whatever it was still watched from the woods behind him. The fear was so raw, so intense, so foreign to him that he let go a gush of vomit that inundated the gravel in front of him, splashing his boots and pant legs with smatterings of bile and coffee.
He wiped his mouth with his shirtsleeve, jogged the remainder of the lane to the cabin, and almost threw the front door open. As he reached for the handle, the door swung open, and a concerned Becka stood before him, taking his arm in hers, and led him into the grand room.
#
Julie was uncooperative. No matter what tactic Polly and Stevie attempted, they couldn’t get her to join in. The duo was trying everything they could to get her out of her own head and join them for a game of Texas Hold ‘Em. She wasn’t having it.
Julie stood up and expressed her complete disinterest in anything unrelated to leaving the cabin and finding Byron, but with far more venom and colorful language, then headed up the stairs toward her room.
Polly called out to her and apologized for being overbearing. Julie’s door slammed shut. Stevie and Polly looked at each other with a mixture of guilt and confusion. Jesse came into the room, drawn by the sound of the slammed door.
“Everything okay in here?”
“We just pissed off Julie. She slammed her door.” A chided-sounding Stevie responded.
“She’s having a rough morning. Byron hasn’t come back from his walk, and between us, I sort of doubt he will. The way he was reacting this morning, he sounded over this. She didn’t take it too well.”
“Poor dear. That explains a lot. We were hounding the shit out of her to play a stupid game when we should have been wrapping her in a blanket, letting her cry.” Polly was ashamed of her lack of awareness of Julie. She should have picked up on the cues. Sure, she hadn’t spent a lot of time socializing over the last 15 years, but being able to pick up on emotional cues had always come easily to her. Now, she felt like one of her best skills was failing her, and at the worst time. She needed to help out any way she could, and if that meant keeping her new friends from having emotional breakdowns, then god damn it, that’s what she would do.
“Let’s give her a little while to calm down. Sounds like Mikel’s back. Seth and I were just getting another pot of coffee ready for whenever our drunken host woke up. He’s bound to have a nasty one when he does.” Stevie laughed at Jesse’s description of Sal.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Mikel came walking in with Becka, Seth following close behind.
“We need to take care of Nick. He can’t be left outside like that any longer. I’ll prep a burial spot, and then, if you’d like to join me for a few words, we can give him a proper farewell.” The words were cold. The feeling had left him back in the woods. Whatever that…thing (or things) was, it had drained his usual exuberance and replaced it with…what, what was left? Was there anything beyond the dark thing in the woods? That hellish creation far beyond description? Why should he even try to bring back anything more than what he now knew to be the truth? That they were all well and truly screwed, that it had everything to do with SOMETHING HERE IT’S SOMETHING HERE, WITHIN THESE WALLS IT WANTS SOMETHING HERE, but what and why and why was he so freaking cold?
Mikel didn’t wait for a response, instead walking out the back door and heading for the gardener’s shed. He fetched a shovel and went to a knoll overlooking the lake and forest that wasn’t too obtrusive to the surrounding area and began digging. A few moments later, another shovel blade joined his. Followed by another and another. Polly stood behind them with water should anyone need it. The four made short work of the grave, digging in the soft earth silently, creating a rectangle about four feet deep and just over six feet long. It was as wide as it was deep, which allowed access for multiple people in the hole at once.
After the hole was dug, the group moved down to the lake. Each member took hold of Nick, and they lifted in unison. Even as they carried Nick to his permanent resting ground, the silence remained. Once there, they laid his body next to the hole as Mikel, Seth, and Jesse climbed down. Polly and Stevie assisted as everyone lowered the body to the bottom of the grave. The three stepped out of the grave when Mikel finally broke the silence.
“Thank you, everyone, for helping. Jesse and I have known Nick for years. He’s always been a stand-up guy, though sometimes could be a real asshat. Like the time he filled my boots with about three cups of fire ants while we were waiting for further orders on a mission. We were just laying around all day for weeks, and it got very boring. Those ants hurt, man. I have scars from that shit.”
“Another time, I got caught up trying to get out of a house that was collapsing, long story, and as the living room beams came down on me, he came back inside, lifted them off me, and dragged me outside, all with four bullets lodged in his right shoulder.”
Mikel wiped a tear from his cheek. Jesse put a hand on his shoulder and took over.
“Nick gave us our favorite wedding gift (sorry, everyone). We once were in a small village in the middle of nowhere, having been dropped from a plane in the middle of the night. Like, we literally had no clue what country we were in, let alone what continent. The village was inhabited by three adults and at least 30 children. Some sort of rebel group had been there recently and had killed everyone over ten years old. The three adults were in the forest hunting at the time. Two very old women and a man with one arm. The children were starving, ages ranging between nine and maybe two months old.”
“We stayed with them for a few weeks, knowing the rebel group would be back and that they were the target. Sure enough, they show up, we take them out, and that night we find ourselves freaking tranquilized and airlifted out. There is no closure on the kids or anything. It was heart-wrenching. Skip to six months later at our wedding.”
“Nick gave us an envelope to open later. When we did, it was several photos. He had tracked down that village, gotten in touch with some people he knew, and had the inhabitants rescued and relocated to another country where they were being treated and taken care of, and the children were being adopted by caring families with ties to their native lands. He knew how hard that trip had been on Mikel and me and had done everything he could to help those poor children. I actually felt terrible that I hadn’t done more to rescue them myself, but I couldn’t find the village. That was Nick in a nutshell. He was a wonderful human, and he will be desperately missed. We love you, Nick.”
Jesse was openly crying. Mikel took a handful of dirt and sprinkled it on Nick, followed by Jesse and then the rest of the group. Seth volunteered to bury the remains.
#
Sal stumbled out of his room, the world spinning slightly out of focus. He felt like a Harley was revving in his skull. Two steps into the hall, he turned abruptly and bolted for his bathroom. After a good, solid vomit session, he washed up and headed downstairs.
The mood in the house was grim. He wasn’t anticipating that. His head was still hosting a chainsaw juggling convention, and he was in desperate need of some Alka Seltzer, but first, he wanted to know what was up. He headed into the living room. Moments later, he wished he hadn’t gotten out of bed at all.