The Answers Are In The Forest

by Katie Kaleski

  “Ready?” I asked.

  He pressed his lips tightly together and had his eyebrows raised high on his forehead.

  “I think it would be a good time for you to let out a nice, deep breath,” I said, trying to keep us both calm.

  Rusck nodded but didn’t let out any breath. I rubbed his back like you would do to a baby, and he slowly exhaled.

  “Can you do this?”

  He nodded.

  “Sure?”

  He nodded again.

  “Okay, I’ll go first.” I took in a breath through my nose, slowly letting it out through my mouth, and tried to focus on the task at hand, continuing forward into the hall. I motioned over my shoulder to Rusck, and we slinked down the hallway together. With goosebumps crawling up my arms, I slowly turned the doorknob to the basement door. The inky blackness greeted us. I took a step down, picking up the flashlight. Rusck stood behind me with his bat raised, the beam of the flashlight acting as our guide as we made our way down. Once at the bottom, I saw the shadows. The sight of the two of them almost took my breath away. I expected the other shadow to be that of maybe a nine-year-old boy, but he appeared to be well into his teens.

  Two decrepit rabbits sat at the bases of the shadows, the shadows behind them on a diagonal, running partially across the floor then bending up the sides of the sheet-covered boxes. The scent that filled the basement was horrendous, roadkill on a hot summer day. They cocked their heads and twitched their little rotting noses. I walked toward them and squatted. Rusck still stood at the bottom of the steps. The bat hung at his side. I motioned him over with my head, but he didn’t budge. Standing, I went and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the rabbits. He hesitantly followed me. I squatted back down. Rusck chose to stay standing.

  Chapter Eleven

  Donna spoke first. A gross gurgling ut ut sound sputtered out before any words. “Gabrielle,” she finally sang.

  I licked my lips and let out a deep breath before I responded. “Hi, Donna. Is this your friend, Kevin?”

  “Sure is.”

  “I brought a friend too. This is Rusck.” I looked over my shoulder at Rusck, and he stood frozen behind me. It was like he couldn’t process the scene before him. His mouth was partially hanging open, and he slowly shook his head back and forth.

  “It can’t be. It can’t be,” he mumbled softly. He dropped the bat and started to walk backward. “But, but…” He began to take in deep breaths but wasn’t letting any of them back out.

  “Is he okay?” Donna asked.

  The other rabbit, Kevin, stood up on his back legs. Rusck started making a deep wheezing noise.

  I got to my feet and put my hands on his shoulders. “It’s okay,” I said. He looked at me with wide eyes and gasped for breath. “Rusck, Rusck, you need to breathe. Can you do that?”

  He did a kind of head-nod-shake thing. I wasn’t sure if it signified yes or no. I wasn’t sure he knew either.

  “Sit down,” I said.

  He listened and sat on the basement floor.

  “Now put your head between your knees.” I wasn’t sure if that actually helped, but you heard people say it all the time on TV, so I figured it was worth a shot. If anything, it’d at least distract him.

  Rusck pulled up his knees and stuck his head between them, wrapping his hands around his neck, gasping for air. I rubbed his back and kissed the top of his head. The rabbits crept forward in their mechanically stiff gait, cracking their necks from side to side.

  “He’ll be okay, you guys,” I told the rabbits. Any fear I had previously felt was replaced with concern for Rusck. I was genuinely afraid he was going to pass out. After a bit, his breathing got under control, and he started talking to himself under his breath with his head still between his knees.

  “Rusck, Rusck, look at me.”

  He unclasped his hands, placing them on top of mine, and looked at me.

  “There really is something to the rabbits. Your brother was right.”

  Rusck started breathing in short, rapid breaths. He nodded.

  “Okay, just breathe, but you need to take long, slow, deep breaths.”

  He nodded again, taking in a deep breath.

  “Now let it out.”

  He did.

  “Now again.”

  He took a couple of more deep breaths and finally seemed to calm down some, but he gripped my hands for dear life.

  “See these two rabbits? That’s Donna and Kevin.”

  “Okay,” Rusck whispered.

  Kevin took a step toward us. He opened his mouth, which made a horrific cracking sound, and then a long gurgle rolled out, followed by him hacking up something that looked like sewage waste. “We need your help.”

  “Okay,” I said. The stench and appearance of the mucousy black glob that lay on the floor in front of the rabbit made me have to swallow down some vomit that rose in the back of my throat.

  “Listen, we can’t go off to wherever we’re supposed to go until we get closure or some crap like that.”

  “Closure?”

  “Yes, closure. Do you not know what that is?”

  “Listen, rabbit,” I said, “if you want our help, you better be nice.”

  Kevin cracked his neck. “Listen, Gabby,” he said in a clipped tone, “you wouldn’t be in the best mood either if you were murdered twenty years ago when you were only fifteen.”

  “Okay, I’m sorry.”

  Kevin made a huffing noise.

  “I’m nice even though somebody killed me,” Donna pointed out with her mouth moving out of sync with what she said.

  “Yes, you are,” I said, assuring the little rabbit. “Now, about this whole being killed thing?”

  “In several days, it will be exactly two decades for me,” Kevin said.

  “What exactly happened? Why are you all here?”

  “Okay, this is what I know,” Kevin said. “We’re, like, unsettled spirits or whatever. Well, that’s my theory, and we somehow came together in the woods behind this house. None of us remember much about how exactly or when we first met, but we all have something in common.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “We were all murdered on October twenty-third. That’s one of the things we all remember, for some reason, and we have this concept of time evolving around that date, like we know it’s coming.”

  I gulped as my arms formed their little bumps and the hair stood on end. “That’s so close.”

  “Exactly,” Kevin said.

  “But do you think it might happen again?”

  “Probably, but it’s pretty sporadic. It’s every so many years, like Donna was killed about sixty years ago, but somehow we can feel it coming again.”

  “Oh my god, you’ve been wandering the woods since then?”

  Donna twitched her ears. “Maybe. I usually don’t even know what day it is.”

  “That’s the thing. It’s like the only concept of time we have is how long ago we were killed, and as I said, when that date is coming, otherwise all days and time blend into one. It seems just like yesterday we met the other boy here.”

  “Boy?” I asked, even though I knew exactly which boy he spoke of.

  Rusck scooted in closer. “That was my brother, Creed. Did he meet the two of you?”

  “Yeah, and also Jacob.”

  “What happened when he was here? Somebody tortured him, tried to kill him,” Rusck said.

  “Well,” Kevin said, “he got caught.”

  “But why was he here in the first place?” Rusck asked, sounding like he truly wanted a definite answer.

  “He probably brought him here,” Kevin said.

  “He?” Rusck asked, running his hand through his hair.

  “The guy, or person, who killed us. It was probably time for him to kill again.”

  “He was going to kill him?” Rusck said in a whisper.

  “At first, no. He had another kid with him for that, but your brother, Creed, wouldn’t stop struggling. He tried to help
Timothy. Get them both out. But then the person kept beating your brother, slammed his head into the ground. Creed stopped moving, and they took Timothy and left Creed there to die, but we helped get him out of the house once they were gone. But at least he didn’t get slaughtered.”

  “Slaughtered?” I asked because Kevin’s phrasing was pretty intense.

  “I was slaughtered, hacked to pieces.”

  “Oh my god,” I said.

  “Yeah, it was pretty severe. Donna here was hunted and drowned.”

  “What?” I said.

  “It’s true,” Donna said in a sad, soft gurgling voice. “He let me go in the woods and started chasing me, and then I fell in a big hole, and he filled it up with water.”

  “That’s horrible. I think I fell into that same hole.”

  “Well, you’re awfully lucky he didn’t find and kill you,” Kevin said, craning his neck to the side with a crunching sound.

  “Okay, so he might kill again, and you were killed twenty years ago and Donna sixty. What about the rest?”

  Kevin filled us in with all the horrid details, at least what he could come up with. “After Donna, there was Jacob. He was killed by multiple stab wounds. Later was Liesel. She was decapitated by a chainsaw, and Sophie got shot to death with a shotgun.” He couldn’t recall how many years ago the others were killed, just himself and Donna.

  “Oh my god, so if the guy who killed you is still alive, it could happen again in a few days, because maybe it’s like a pattern. Every so many years in between. But do Creed and Timothy fit in there somehow?”

  “Like I said,” Kevin said, reminding me, “we don’t have the best concept of time.”

  “Maybe we should keep an eye on Creed, though. What if the guy comes back?” I asked. “What if he knows Creed is still alive?”

  Rusck sat straight up. “I have to go check on him.”

  “Maybe Creed wasn’t what he was looking for, or he threw the numbers off.”

  “But he tried to kill him.”

  “It sounds like it was just out of rage, not pre-meditated like the others.”

  Rusck sucked on his lip and nodded. “I just want him to be okay.”

  “We’re going to figure this out and make sure he stays safe.”

  Rusck took in a deep breath and let it out.

  “But I do have one more question for you guys. Why the rabbits? Donna said to ask you, Kevin.”

  “It seems we need a vessel to give us a voice because when we’re not in a body, we’re just a conglomeration of energy in the form of what we looked like before we died, and since there’s usually an available dead rabbit or two lying around, it’s what we use.”

  “Can you occupy living things too, or do they have to be dead?”

  Kevin twitched his nose, and Donna looked at the ground.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “Um, it seems that occupying the body of a living being is really tricky. To get Creed out of the house, that’s what Jacob did, but we haven’t seen Jacob since. He might be stuck,” Kevin said.

  “Stuck?” I asked.

  “Yeah, we think he’s still with Creed,” Kevin started.

  “What?” Rusck said. “There’s no way in hell. No, no, no.”

  “Yes, we believe Jacob is trapped in your brother.”

  My mouth just about hit the floor. “Creed is possessed?”

  “You might call it that,” Kevin slowly said.

  Rusck stood and started pacing, his arms wrapped around himself. “No, no, no,” he murmured, shaking his head. “No!”

  “This is insane. How can that happen?” I asked.

  “We tried to call him out, but when Jacob took control of Creed’s body and got him out of the house, it was like he went dormant or something,” Kevin said, trailing off.

  “What the fuck?” Rusck shouted.

  “Rusck,” I said, getting up. I wasn’t too sure what to say. I was pretty much at a loss for words. I grabbed his hands. He drew down his eyebrows, looked at me, and pulled his hands away.

  “I, uh, um, uh,” he stammered, looking at me with his eyes wide.

  I stepped toward him, not knowing what to do, so I wrapped my arms around him and held him in a hug. Rusck didn’t respond at first. I could feel his heart beating rapidly through his shirt. He kept licking his lips and shaking his head. It was like he was trying to say something, but nothing would come out. I held him tighter, and he stuck his chin on my head and peered over me at the wall. He left his arms at his sides but leaned into me for support. Then we heard cracking twigs outside.

  Chapter Twelve

  Rusck stood straight, and I dropped my hands. We looked at each other for answers. The cracking of twigs grew louder, and then we heard a metallic scraping sound, like someone dragged a shovel.

  My hand shot up, grasping Rusck’s arm. I swallowed down my heart that tried to escape up my throat. “Somebody’s outside,” I whispered, stating the obvious. I looked at the rabbits; they both sat back on their haunches. I tried to make my mind believe they were the steps of one of the other children, but this time I knew it was actually a full-grown, living adult.

  Rusck didn’t say anything. He had his head slightly tipped and bit the end of his tongue.

  I shook Rusck’s shoulder. It was my turn to freak out. “What if it’s the killer? What if he came back? It’s almost the same date. The same date!”

  “Wait here,” Rusck told me.

  “No way in hell am I waiting here, or are you going out there.”

  Rusck shushed me and crept across the basement as if his movement inside would tip off whoever was outside. He went and grabbed his bat then went to the stairs.

  “Rusck,” I hissed in a loud whisper.

  He held his finger up to his lips and started up the stairs, looking at me and the rabbits over his shoulder.

  “Wait,” I called softly.

  Opening the basement door, he disappeared into the hall. I bit my lip and bounced on my toes. My heart beat about five hundred miles an hour, and my hands shook, and for a second I felt a bit lightheaded, but I gathered myself and ran across the basement, bounding up the stairs into the hall—just in time to catch Rusck slipping out the front door with his bat drawn up, ready to swing if needed.

  He looked over his shoulder at me and waved his finger, saying, “Stay,” between his teeth.

  I shook my head and followed him. Rusck went out the door with me right behind him. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I carefully closed the door. We tiptoed across the front lawn, and Rusck peered his head around the corner of the house. He shook it, which I took as him not seeing anyone. The two of us stayed close to the house and walked alongside it. Rusck gripped the bat in one hand and held out his arm to the side. He didn’t have to worry about keeping me back because I had no plans to run ahead of him. My breath hung in the cold night air, and the only sound we heard was the grass crunching under our feet.

  I looked all around as we made our way to the back of the house, expecting somebody to spring out of hiding at any moment, but I didn’t have to wait because once we got to the back, we saw the somebody in question. Rusck glanced at me with his mouth hanging open.

  Across the yard, almost at the gate, was a person wearing a raincoat with the hood pulled up, dragging a shovel behind them and carrying what looked like a duffel bag under the other arm. Whoever it was sensed us, turned around partially, and stopped for a second to take us in. From where we were, I couldn’t see the eyes, but somehow, I could feel them pierce me, staring hard through the black ski mask that covered their face.

  Rusck took off running across the yard, and I chased after him. I was a good runner, but Rusck, being a good deal taller than me, was across the back yard in about four strides. The person with the shovel leaped over the gate and took off into the forest. Rusck followed suit, running after the mystery figure. I gulped and followed Rusck. I got to the gate, placed my hands on top, swung my legs up to my side, flew over the fence, an
d much to my surprise, gracefully landed on my feet. Clouds covered the moon, so I squinted as I ran into the blackness. The faint outline of Rusck ran ahead of me, and the mystery figure disappeared into the night. Cautiously running forward, I caught up to Rusck but only because he stumbled backward, spun, and fell to his knees. From what I could tell, the two of us were alone. Rusck put a hand on his chest, grimaced, and gasped for breath.

  I dropped down on my knees next to Rusck with my stomach doing flips and a tightness in my chest. “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?” I asked, bombarding him with questions.

  He shook his head in his indecisive manner and bent forward, placing his forehead on his knees and taking deep breaths. I rubbed his back because I wasn’t exactly sure what was wrong. He kept taking these deep, awful-sounding breaths. I didn’t know if he was hurt or was having another panic attack.

  “We should get you inside,” I said, tapping his elbow to see if he would get up. Instead, he sat up and looked at me.

  “They hit me with a fricking rock.”

  “What?” I asked, even though I clearly heard him.

  “It might have been a chunk of cement, but yeah, they stopped, looked at me, and then threw it, like they had it waiting in their jacket pocket or something. It was fricking big,” Rusck said with a wince.

  I scooped an arm around his waist and helped him stand. “Are you gonna be okay?”

  “Yeah, that took me by surprise. If anything, I was expecting to be hit with a shovel, not a rock.”

  “Let’s go inside,” I said, leading Rusck out of the woods back toward my house. As we walked, so many questions flew through my head. Who in the hell did we just chase after? Were they connected to the murdered children? What were the duffel bag and shovel for?

  We made our way back inside. “My turn to patch you up,” I said morosely, leading him to the bathroom.

  “Crap,” Rusck muttered as I flipped on the bathroom light.

  “What?”

  “The bat, I forgot it in the woods.”

  “We’ll go back for it when it’s light out.”

  Rusck nodded.

  “Now, take off your shirt,” I said, noting the place where he got struck with the rock because a circle of blood built right over his left pectoral muscle.