Hawk Hallow

by J. D. Oliva

  "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step inside the legendary, revolutionary, and certainly never ordinary, Haunted Hallow!" Roscoe bellowed.

  The crowd cheered as the man in the blood-stained clergy robes raised his arms, mocking Christ with his pose. He eyed up a group of third graders dressed as their favorite Justice Leaguer and lowered to one knee. Leaning in face to face with a pint-sized Batman, he sneered.

  "Come, my babies! Come embrace your darkest fears inside these horrific chambers of doom!"

  The little Batman was far from a brave avenger of the night. Roscoe watched the boy quiver and saw a small tear start to trickle down his face. Roscoe shot the boy a smile and a wink. He got the reaction he wanted. The boy was terrified before even entering the Hallow. Besides, it wasn't like Roscoe, or the family, were going to feed on children. They weren't filling and covering them up was far too much work. When a child goes missing, people immediately take notice. Their worst fears start to materialize and folks immediately spring into action. But when a teenager disappears, people are much less inclined to think about it. Teenagers are moody and are known to disappear for a few days.

  It being Halloween, Roscoe figured he'd have a nice twenty-four-hour window before anyone really questioned what happened to these teenagers. By then, the family would be halfway to Albuquerque, on to their next site to set their next trap. But so long as they were still in Hawk Hallow, Roscoe continued to embrace his new role: carnival barker.

  "Step through the halls of the Haunted Hallow. It's an experience you won't have time to forget!"

  XXXII

  "This is disgusting!"

  Abi sneered as she tried to hold back the stomach bile forcing its way up her throat. While most rooms in the Hallow were dark or moody, this room was blindingly bright. White tiles covered the floor and walls, overhead lamps bounced piercing, bright light throughout the room. The abundance of white made sure everyone inside could see the fresh blood splattered against the tile and the rows of dead pigs hanging from the ceiling, dangling from sharp metal hooks.

  "It's a meat locker," Cody said. "It's always been a meat locker. When my uncle died and gave us this old slaughterhouse, my dad was walking through here and was so grossed out here that he decided to build the Haunted Hallow. He didn't wanna change this room."

  Abi looked at the chunks of severed pig remains hanging before her and tried not to be sick.

  "He could have at least cleaned it up since then," she said.

  "It's not real. It's foam rubber covered in corn syrup and food coloring," Cody said.

  Nick poked at a hunk of pig torso hanging in front of him with his finger. This didn't feel like foam rubber.

  "I don't think so, dude," he said.

  "You can't have people walking around a real slaughterhouse. It's illegal. I think," Cody said, now starting to question it himself. "There's an emergency exit at the other end of the room. We just gotta get out of here before my brother and the idiots find us."

  "Why the rush? This place is awesome," Nick said.

  "Bunch of nasty looking pigs hanging around, you must feel right at home," Abi said.

  Nick opened his mouth but couldn't find the right words.

  "Shut up," was the best he could do.

  "Good one," she said.

  Cody chuckled. Seeing Nick at a loss for words was always entertaining, but what he didn't notice was the set of human legs dangling behind him. Abi did.

  "Shit."

  "What?" Cody asked.

  Abi and Nick both covered their mouths and backed up until they were against the wall.

  "What?" Cody asked again.

  Abi put her finger to her lips and motioned to shush. She pointed behind Cody, who had seen enough cartoons to know that nothing good was behind him. Still, he followed suit, turning around as slow as possible and finding a set of legs swaying back and forth. He craned his neck a little higher and found the rest of the person. Tyler Tomczak was hanging high above with two large metal hooks tucked underneath his armpits. Other than his eyes being closed, nothing seemed out of sorts, but something was up.

  Cody backed away from Tyler and rejoined the others.

  "What's he doing?" Cody whispered.

  "He's trying to pull one over on us," Nick said.

  "I don't think so, Nick," Abi responded.

  "Not this time, Tyler," Nick said as he creeped away from the group.

  "What are you doing?" Cody whispered.

  Nick ignored his friend's warning, as he slowly slinked around the room, trying move away from what he thought was Tyler's line of sight. Once he was sure that he couldn't be seen, Nick crept up on those dangling legs and very gently took hold of Tyler's jeans. He remembered that pantsing given to him in the hallways last year. He remembered hearing the kids chant "tightie whities" during gym class. Nick was going to return the favor.

  "Wait a sec--" Abi tried to stop him, but it was too late.

  Nick grabbed hold of those pant legs and pulled as hard as he could. The pants came down and so did the entire lower half of Tyler Tomczak's body. Less than a second later so did everything that was supposed to be kept inside Tyler's abdomen and chest. Blood and innards spilled out onto the floor and Nick looked down at his blood stained arms and backed up. Tyler's torso was still swaying back and forth between the hooks.

  "Holy shit, you killed him!" Abi cried out.

  "Nu-uh!Nu-uh, no I didn't!" Was all Nick could say.

  Abi screamed, and Cody covered her mouth. She pointed up to the lights. In unison the boys all looked up and there were Mike Shonan, Kevin Giantolli, and Johnny Parkin. Their bodies strung up in the rafters between those harsh burning lights, way higher than anyone should have looked.

  "Cody, please tell me this was another one of your dad's tricks," Abi asked, already knowing the answer.

  Cody just shook his head as he frantically scanned the rafters, looking for something else. His eyes moved back and forth hoping with each turn of his head that what he was looking for would suddenly materialize.

  Nick banged on the emergency exit door that Cody talked about, only to find it too, sealed off with another padlock and rust-covered chain. He pulled on the handle again and again, hoping in vain to pull off some amazing feat of strength. But nothing happened. They were trapped.

  "We are dead! We are freaking dead!" Nick screamed, no longer caring if anyone heard him.

  "Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Sam'i Allahu liman hamidah, Rabbana wa lakal hamd," Abi dropped to her knees and started praying.

  Cody kept scanning the rafters, looking to confirm his fear.

  "Where's Connor?" Cody asked under his breath.

  "What?" Nick responded.

  "He's not here," Cody's trembling voice said to himself.

  Cody focused back on the moment and grabbed Abi by the shoulder, pulling her up to her feet. He then walked over to Nick, who was still banging on the door.

  "Stop it," he said.

  Nick ignored him and kept banging on the door, hoping to draw someone's attention.

  "I said, stop it!"

  Cody slapped Nick across the face. It worked, Nick stopped panicking.

  "You've gotta keep it together," Cody said.

  "Keep it together? I just ripped Tyler Tomczak's legs off! I literally can't keep it together!"

  "Freaking out and screaming is just letting whoever did this know where we are," Cody said calmly.

  "We have to stay calm and find the real exit. It's gonna be the only one open. We can do this and we can stay out of whoever's doing this' way. We just gotta keep calm and stay quiet."

  "All right, I'm calm. Let's just get outta here," Nick said between deep breaths.

  "Not yet," Cody added.

  "What do you mean, not yet?!?!" Nick screamed again.

  "Shhh!" Cody said, again trying to calm Nick down. "We've gotta find my brother first."

  XXXIII

  "Trick or treat!"

  Leah Burk opened the door and foun
d four adorable first graders dressed like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Each held out plastic bags, awaiting their candy.

  "Hey, guys! Don't you look cute!" She said as she passed out peanut butter cups.

  "Thank you, Mrs. Burk," the heroes-in-the-half-shell said in unison.

  In a rush, they ran off her porch and toward the next house.

  "Happy Halloween," she said closing the door behind.

  Halloween was always a fun time around the house. While Mike spent each October 31st at the Hallow, it was her job to take the boys trick-or-treating. When they were too old to be trick-or-treating with Mom, it was her job to man the door, which was far and away the most important position to hold. She was not only keeper of the goods, but she was also in charge of making sure the house befell no tricks. Having never spent a November 1st cleaning up eggs and toilet paper meant she served the job well.

  This year was different. With all the changes the family had gone through, she expected a rough Halloween, but things were stranger than she expected. She thought unloading the Hallow would make things simpler, and sure they were fifteen thousand dollars richer, but it wasn't making it any easier. The boys weren't speaking to each other, and her job at the hospital was up in the air. Maybe it was time to leave Hawk Hallow? She still had family in Illinois, maybe that was the best plan. Connor and Cody weren't going to like it, but with the kids Connor was hanging around lately, that was probably a better move. Cody's friends were all nice kids, but he was so moody lately. She wondered if maybe he was turning into a bad influence on them. The more she thought about it, the more she was certain that going to stay with Yay and Taa--Cambodian for Grandma and Grandpa-- for a while was the smart thing to do.

  DING DONG

  The doorbell rang, and Leah grabbed the bowl of candy. She opened the door and to her surprise, found a stocky, bald man. There was something familiar about him. Once the foul stench of B.O. hit her nose, she remembered their confrontation at Starbucks last month.

  "Trick-or-treat, Ms. Burk," Blake said.

  "Mr. Blake. I'm sorry, but I think you're a little too old for trick-or-treating," she said.

  “Ms. Burk, I'm not here for jokes. You've made a grave mistake, and you need to come with me."

  "I don't think so," Leah said.

  She tried to slam the door shut, but Blake stuck his foot into the jam. He pushed his face into the opening and tried to force his way through the entry.

  "You don't understand, Ms. Burk!"

  "Get off my property or I'm going to call the police!"

  "I don't think so."

  Leah looked down and found the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun peeking through.

  "Open the door," Blake said.

  Leah stepped back and let the noxious-smelling man into her home. It was going to take weeks to wash the smell out of the place.

  "The man you sold the Haunted Hallow to, Roscoe Slater, is a very dangerous individual."

  Leah quietly took a seat on her couch, never breaking eye contact with Blake.

  "I remember you said that before," she said.

  "You don't understand, Mrs. Burk, your children may already be dead."

  "What!"

  Leah sprung up and was face to face with him. The smell almost knocked her back down.

  "Like I said, you need to come with me. But I fear we may already be too late."

  Leah had a terrible feeling about following him, but what choice did she have? There was a good chance that he was going to kill her if she followed him, but there was probably a better chance that he was going to kill her if she didn't follow him. She couldn’t see herself coming out ahead in either scenario. The thought of the boys coming home and finding her body sprawled out on the floor was something she couldn't handle.

  "Okay, where are we going?”

  XXXIV

  Cody led his friends through the vortex. They weren't as impressed with the spiraling lights as they might have been a few minutes earlier. They stopped in a hallway between rooms while Nick raised his phone above his head.

  "Nothing. I can't get a freaking signal anywhere!"

  "Will you be quiet?!"

  Abi raised her voice as high she could while keeping a whisper.

  "Mi-mi-mi-mi," Nick whispered back.

  "Knock it off. Abi's right, we have to stay quiet or else they're gonna find us," Cody said.

  Abi heard it first. It started out with a small gasp. A wheezing sound seemed to come over each of their shoulders. Cody looked to his left expecting to see someone behind him, but there was nothing. Just the four of them. But the wheezing continued, growing more rapid and intense. They started moving in small circles trying to find the wheeze, which was drawing closer with every belated breath. Then it stopped.

  Silence.

  "Hehehe."

  They turned back toward the vortex and found a single figure standing inside. A body cloaked in black. Its face covered by an expressionless, white mask. Light shined off the tip of a butcher knife it pulled out from its cloak and held high over its head. The wheezing started again as it pointed the weapon toward Abi.

  "Hehehehe...."

  It unleashed an unholy screech and then sprinted toward them, extending the blade toward Abi. The group dispersed, taking off in different directions. Abi broke left trying to outpace her attacker, while Nick hobbled his way to the right. They were all randomly bouncing about the room trying to keep their distance from the killer. Except for Cody, he just stood there staring at the maniac as it tried to catch Abi.

  Cody gritted his teeth and cried out, "Where is my brother?"

  It didn't break stride, so Cody lowered his shoulder and attacked. Just like he once did on the fields at Hawk Hallow Middle School, Cody drove his weight straight into its solar plexus. The assailant let loose a high pitch scream. Cody mounted its chest and threw his fist straight onto the expressionless face.

  "Get him!" Nick yelled as he and Abi both jumped on top of the laid out predator.

  "Tell me what you did to my brother," Cody said between body blows.

  "Get off me, you little psychopath!" it said in a very feminine voice.

  Cody tore the mask off and found a slightly overweight girl, who was just a few years older than them. It was Katie Murray, a girl that lived three houses down from Nick. They immediately dismounted and stood at attention.

  Katie slowly pulled herself back up to her feet. Obviously in a lot of pain, she wiped the tears from her eyes and yelled,

  "I haven't seen your stupid brother! I'm gonna go find Mr. Slater and--sniff--he's gonna throw your sorry butts out of here. Freaking jerk-offs."

  She kept sobbing as she limped back through the vortex. Cody and Nick both hung their heads in shame.

  "Sorry, Katie!" Abi shouted.

  "I think I accidentally elbowed her in the boob," Nick whispered.

  "Gross," Abi said in disgust.

  Cody shook his head. He didn't care that he just tackled and attacked an innocent girl. Instead, he fumed.

  "Do you know what this means?"

  "Yeah, I just got to first base with a high school chick," Nick said.

  "And you wonder why no girls talk to you," Abi said. "Grow up."

  "No. It means the people working for the Hallow have no idea what happened to Tyler and them. We're stuck in here with a real serial killer and a bunch of dorks just pretending."

  "Unfortunately, there's only one way we're going to know the difference," Abi said.

  XXXV

  Leah Burk calmly unlocked the doors of her 2015 Lincoln Town & Country rental van. Blake, the sawed-off shotgun hidden inside his wrinkled trench coat, opened the passenger door and took a seat. Leah turned the ignition and slowly pulled out of her driveway. She wanted to freak out, but couldn't. With everything the family had been through this year, her eating the barrel of a shotgun wasn't a step in the right direction. She just needed to keep calm and see this thing through.

  "Why are you driving a rental car?"
Blake asked, looking out the back window.

  "We got into a car accident last month. We're still waiting for the insurance check."

  "Accident…?”

  Blake nodded. Leah remembered the old cartoons with the thought balloon showing the hamster in the wheel. His stench was nearly unbearable. Trapped in such a tight space, there wasn't much she could do. She tried breathing through her mouth to give her nose a break.

  "Where are we going, Mr. Blake?" She asked, sounding like she had a cold.

  "The Haunted Hallow. Hopefully, we can stop him before he kills anyone else."

  Blake placed the shotgun directly between them, he gazed out the window with that thousand-yard stare. It uncomfortably reminded her of the same stare Cody started developing. Blake never looked over at Leah. He kept his focus down the road, barely moving at all.

  "What did you mean when you said, my children were in danger? That's not something you tell a mother without an explanation," she said slowly.

  Leah tried to get him to open up a little, but not too much. It wasn't like she wanted to know anything about this man. She just wanted to know whatever he knew about her children.

  "I've spent the last forty years following the Slaters all over this country. I've watched them tear through jerk-water towns like this hundreds of times."

  He didn't answer her question. Maybe he didn't know anything and lied to get her to follow him. But why?

  "And you haven't called the police because?"

  "Be serious, lady. Cops have better things to do than die," Blake said.

  "I don't even know what that means."

  "The Slaters, they're not human. We think they're some kind of military experiments cooked up by the Government during Vietnam, under the command of Colonel Roscoe Slater," Blake said.