Blood and Other Matter

by Kaitlin Bevis

  Derrick nodded thoughtfully. “There’s a few good areas for a bonfire nearby. And they’d need a place to park . . .” He set off in the direction of one of our old trails. “Were you anywhere near Kinlock Falls?”

  I shook my head, following after him. Please don’t let us find anything. I desperately wanted this whole thing to just be a stupid prank. I won’t even be mad, I swear.

  The forest looked far too peaceful to be the backdrop for my blood-soaked baggage. It needed shadows, lone wolf calls, maybe a hooting owl or two. Instead, sunlight filtered from the trees, bathing us in warmth. A cool breeze stirred my hair, carrying the sounds of birds and the rush of waterfalls and streams.

  I froze just as we entered the tree line. “Have we thought this through? I mean maybe wandering around the haunted forest featured in my very last memory before I showed up on your porch covered in blood is a bad idea.”

  Derrick raised an eyebrow. “You think the ghost of Aunt Jenny’s gonna get us?”

  “No, but . . . even ignoring the supernatural vibes, what if I escaped from a serial killer or something, and he—he bumps into us while we’re out here? What if—?”

  “Why’s your hypothetical serial killer gotta be a he, huh?”

  I didn’t rise to the bait. “We’ve ruled out car wreck along the way. Which means in the super unlikely scenario that this isn’t a prank taken way too far, something actually happened. And we keep plunging into places with this—” I hooked my fingers into air quotes. “—‘Well, it happened last night, so whatever caused it must be gone’ mentality. But what if it’s not? Do we really want to find that out after we’ve hiked away from your car into a forest made famous by a woman who turned people’s skulls into soap dishes?”

  Derrick put his hands in his pockets. After a long moment, he cleared his throat. “Okay, yeah. Now that you mention it, maybe this is a bad idea.”

  “Thank you.” I turned toward the safety of the car, thinking through our next move. Was it even worth it to check in with Josh, or should we just go straight to Derrick’s mom now that I wasn’t spouting off incriminating creepy stuff? She didn’t have to know Derrick had helped me. I could just tell her I woke up in that weird dress without any memory of last night. It was almost the truth. Let Josh deal with the fallout if it was a prank.

  “Tess.” Derrick grabbed my arm before I could step out of the tree line. “Did you hear that?”

  I looked toward the car and saw a flash of movement.

  “Yeah,” a voice murmured. “I found a car here . . .”

  Derrick swore, grabbed my hand, and pulled me off the trail into the woods.

  I moved through the underbrush as quietly as I could, but every leaf I stepped on seemed to crackle like thunder. Derrick wasn’t doing much better. He must have snapped every branch on the forest floor.

  I craned my neck behind me, looking for any sign we’d been spotted. Nothing. “I think it’s—”

  Derrick yelped. I whipped around, foot plunging through a thick cornice of leaves disguising the slope of a steep hill. For one dizzying moment, I could feel myself falling before the ground slid up to meet me with a smack. I rolled down the hill, tumbling up and over Derrick in a tangle of limbs, rocks, and branches.

  “Oof!” My gut slammed into a rock hard enough to knock the wind out of me. Panic flooded my brain while my lungs fought to remember how to inflate. Momentum propelled me over the rock, friction burning my arms as I slid across damp leaves and into Derrick.

  I blinked dirt out of my eyes as the hill came into focus. We’d left an indentation in a thick carpet of foliage as we’d tumbled down. Note to self: Next time you go tearing through the woods, watch where you’re going.

  Derrick’s knee dug in my back. Unable to make words just yet, I patted him in apology as I tried to shift off of him. He felt wrong. All rigid angles, and too cold.

  “Der?” I managed to wheeze, alarm shoving me into motion. I jerked into a sitting position, struggling to twist around.

  “Ow,” Derrick grunted from somewhere way to my left. “I’m okay. You?”

  Somewhere to my left? Then who was—Heart freezing in my chest, I forced myself to look.

  It didn’t have a head. He didn’t have a head! A silent scream tore from my throat as I scrambled away from the shredded torso. Someone grabbed my shoulders, and this time my lungs inflated enough for me to vocalize the full range of my terror for all of two seconds before a hand clamped over my mouth.

  Chapter 8: Derrick

  Friday, September 9th

  I CLAPPED A HAND over Tess’s mouth and yanked her to her feet, pulling us both away from the corpse. The ground rose behind us, inclining into the hill we’d tumbled down. “Shh, shh, shh,” I hissed, wincing when her teeth bit into my skin. “Tess! It’s me. It’s okay!”

  “It is not okay!” She spun around, her eyes glittering wildly as she took in the rest of the landscape. There were more bodies, at least a dozen, strewn across the foliage in bits and pieces. An arm dangled from a nearby oak tree, beckoning us closer.

  “There’s nothing okay about this.” She turned away, arms clamped around her stomach, breathing hard.

  I knelt to look at the body Tess slid into, more than a little impressed with how I was handling this. Calm, cool, and collected. I’d never had reason to consider how I might react when confronted with a mutilated corpse before, but I was doing pretty good.

  The torso ended abruptly in a bloodied stump. It wore a senior t-shirt with the Willow County Cougars graphic Tess designed for our class. The same shirt I’d put her in last night. Did I get that back after she changed?

  I gave a sharp jerk of my head to focus my wandering mind back to the body. The fabric and the skin beneath the shirt were shredded. I tilted my head and clawed my fingers for comparison. The cuts were a bit closer set.

  “What are you doing?” Tess hissed.

  I didn’t answer. Animal, right? This has to be an animal kill. Comparing the gouges to my own hand would be all well and good if I were familiar with the paw sizes of the local wildlife. But I wasn’t. Something had been working at the extremities of the corpse, but that could have occurred postmortem.

  The air didn’t smell like I expected. Instead of the dank, rotting smell like the blood-covered dress, the corpses emitted a scent more like the sweet smell of decayed leaves. Only stronger. Like peeling a damp log from moist ground on a humid day. Weird. With this much carnage, I’d expected a scent more vile.

  But this was an old forest. The tall, thick trees shaded the ground with a canopy of coolness, and the true heat of the day was hours off. Tess’s dress had still been wet when I stuffed it into the grocery bag. There was no fresh air to carry off the odor, no ground below to soak up the excess moisture. Environment would make a difference in the decomposition process.

  “Derrick?”

  I stared at the exposed muscle in the body’s abdomen. At least I thought it was muscle. The white shiny patch glistening through the deep red could be fat. “I think I might be a sociopath.”

  “What?” Tess’s voice took on a hysterical edge, like she couldn’t choose between laughter and tears.

  “I mean, I should feel something, right? Not feeling anything indicates some kind of psychosis or—”

  “I don’t give a damn about your mental state right now, Derrick!” Tess’s shriek exploded through the forest. “They’re dead! They were here last night having fun, and now they’re in pieces! That’s Liam!” She pointed at the head rolled up against a rock. “And Noah and Logan and, oh my God! They’re dead.” Tess gave a sharp gasp and looked up at me with damp eyes. “We don’t know what did this. It could still be here. We need to run!”

  “Freeze!” a voice called.

  Tess screamed and jumped almost a foot off the ground.

  No one act
ually says freeze, I thought, but then I recognized the voice. Angelo Simmons. One of the newer guys, fresh from academy.

  “Derrick? Tess?” His shaking hand dropped from his gun when he moved past a cluster of trees, his footsteps heavy on the ground as he approached. “Are you okay?” He rushed over to us then seemed to realize we weren’t torn to pieces or otherwise injured. “What are you two doing here?”

  I couldn’t take my eyes off the corpse near my feet. Instead, I pointed at the body. “There’s a guy there. See?” Surely he didn’t, or he wouldn’t be asking such stupid questions. Our presence was hardly the most pressing mystery in this forest.

  “Derrick and I were hiking.” Tess pressed against me so tight, I felt her body trembling. “We fell down the hill up there.” She pulled away to point. “What happened?”

  “The coroner will confirm cause of death.” His shaking voice undermined the authority of the rote response. “I’m gonna radio for the sheriff, okay? You two hang tight. Try not to disturb the scene. We’ll get ya all sorted.”

  Tess ducked her head. “I threw up.”

  “You’re not the only one, darlin’.” The deputy kept his gaze on us as he spoke into his radio. A muffled voice replied through static so thick, the words sounded like gibberish to me, but the deputy nodded. “Got it. I’ll bring ’em along.”

  He motioned for me to follow him. I knew Tess trailed behind us. But only in a vague way, like my awareness was being sieved through a coffee filter. The details were all there, but they lacked any sense of urgency. So I wasn’t aware she’d stopped walking until the deputy glanced back and started in surprise.

  “Where’d she go?” he demanded.

  I blinked at him.

  He swore and backtracked until we found Tess frozen, her face drained of color.

  “Yeah . . .” the deputy said, clearing his throat as he eyed the body parts littering the ground. “There’s a reason I didn’t take you this way.”

  But Tess wasn’t staring at the body parts. I followed her gaze to a scorched section of leaves.

  “That’s probably where they had the bonfire.” I pushed her shoulder. “Remember anything?”

  “What?” She jerked toward me. “No. I just . . . something . . .” Tess shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she told the deputy. “I don’t know why I wandered off.”

  “It’s okay.” Simmons gave her a warm smile. “This isn’t something you’re supposed to know how to deal with. Come on.” He led us to a body-free clearing that contained what looked like every marked car and ambulance in the state. Urgent radio chatter filled the air. Deputies, park rangers, and men in green uniforms I didn’t recognize rushed in and out of the clearing in a state of organized chaos, talking on radios, consulting maps, and erecting barriers.

  Mom stood in the center of it all, tension radiating off her tall frame. When she noticed us, she waved us toward her, pausing to speak to a woman in one of the unfamiliar uniforms. “We found more bodies. Simmons will take you to them.”

  “More?” Tess demanded, coming to a stop in front of my mom’s squad car.

  Mom’s dark eyes flickered over me then she patted my shoulder, and deeming me useless for the moment, turned her attention to Tess. “What are you two doing here?”

  Tess shrank in on herself at my mother’s tone. “I asked Derrick to bring me.”

  “Why?”

  I jumped in. “She couldn’t remember what happened last night. We thought it would jog her memory.”

  Mom’s eyebrows shot up. “Tess, honey, are you trying to tell me you were you here last night? I thought only football players were at this thing.”

  “Josh invited Tess to go with him,” I explained. “Is he . . .”

  “Josh Worthington?” Mom clarified, consulting her clipboard. “We haven’t found him . . .” She left the yet unspoken. “Did he drive you home?”

  “I don’t know.” Tess tucked her hair behind her ears. She glanced at me, waiting to see if I said anything else before continuing. “I know Josh picked me up last night. We got dinner before coming up here. But then the next thing I knew, I was waking up at home this morning. And everything in-between—” She made a whooshing motion over her head “—gone.”

  Good, she’d left out the dress. There’d be no way to explain waking up in that and not making 911 your first call.

  “Okay, honey, we’re going to get you over to Medical in just a minute, but—

  “Medical?” Tess demanded.

  “Then I’ll need to get a statement from you, and your mother should be present for that. I’ll give her a call.”

  Oh, that wasn’t going to go well. I exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Tess, her mother’s accusation echoing in my mind.

  “In the meantime,” Mom rubbed her temples, “you being here means we might have more than these last few football players unaccounted for, so any information you can give me about who else was here last night, where you last saw them, or anything else you think might help us locate them would be appreciated. We’ve had parents calling all morning saying their kids never came home last night. It’s only a matter of time before they show up here with the press. So if there are any confused teenagers wandering around in shock, they need to be located.”

  “The only person I remember being here is Josh,” Tess said apologetically. “I don’t even remember getting out of the car. Just Josh driving me here.”

  Mom’s brow furrowed in concern, but I knew she couldn’t press more until Tess’s mom got here. She let out a long breath. “Okay. Well, let’s get you taken care of, then.” She steered Tess to an EMT waiting at the nearest ambulance.

  “That’s really not necessary,” Tess objected. “I’m fine. See.” She spread her arms, indicating that she wasn’t a corpse that had been torn to pieces.

  Mom’s voice went firm. “You just told me you’re missing a chunk of time. Now while that could mean trauma—” she waved her hand around the clearing, “—and the obvious cause, it could also mean you suffered a head injury or something drug-related.”

  Tess drew back, offended. “I don’t do drugs.”

  Mom let out a long breath, searching for words.

  “She doesn’t mean willingly,” I provided. “Or even knowingly.”

  “Derrick.” Mom shot me a death glare, then turned her attention to Tess, who’d turned ashen with fear. “Honey, I’m just saying there’s a lot we should rule out.”

  Tess swallowed hard but didn’t offer any further arguments as Mom introduced her to the EMT.

  “Look into the light, please?” The EMT shined a penlight in Tess’s eyes.

  A loud crackle of static broke through everyone’s radio. “. . . survivors . . . cabin . . . medical stand by for . . .”

  A flurry of activity from the EMTs accompanied the announcement. Moments later, a group of deputies strode into the clearing, followed by a small group of football players. Josh Worthington led the pack, looking every bit as numb and shocked as I felt. His jersey was streaked with blood.

  Tess, perched in the ambulance beside me, whispered their names like a prayer. “Chris, Isaac, Finn, Harrison, Ryan, Aaron, Matt, Josh.” She glanced at the EMT. “There’s more, right? They can’t be the only ones who made it.”

  The EMT, a man with greying hair and thick glasses, gave Tess a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “When I first got here, we weren’t sure they’d find a single survivor. Look at how much can change in just a few minutes.” He jotted something down on his clipboard. “Your vitals look good. We’ll get you to the hospital in no time.”

  “Hospital?” Tess’s eyes widened. “But you just said I’m fine.”

  “Tess,” I interrupted, exasperated. “You don’t remember the last twelve hours. They’re gonna wanna do more than check your blood pressure.”

 
“He’s right,” the EMT confirmed. “Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you.”

  When the ambulances took away Tess and the football players, I withdrew my keys from my pocket with the intention of finding my car, but my mom caught my arm before I could leave the clearing.

  “You’re not driving. I’ll send a uniform to take your car home.”

  “But Tess—”

  “Is going to be fine.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I don’t have time to drop you off at home, so you can hang out at the station until I’m done getting statements. Go wait in my car.”

  I nodded numbly and went to the car to wait while Mom spoke with over a dozen different people. Minutes ticked by before she returned.

  “Geeze, hon, you could have turned the air on.” She turned the key she’d left dangling in the ignition and pulled out of the dirt lot. After several long silent miles went by, she glanced at me, worry brimming in her dark eyes. “I know what you saw must make you feel—”

  “I feel fine,” I assured her.

  She hesitated. “Okay.”

  When she dropped me off at the station, I planted myself in front of her computer. By the time she returned, I’d created a smart mailbox for the case number assigned to the slaughter and tricked the system into forwarding copies of the emails to me. Right now, all the evidence pointed to an animal attack.

  I remembered the maniac gleam in Tess’s eyes last night and shivered. We were dealing with something much, much worse than Smokey the Bear. And I wasn’t going to rest until I figured out what.

  Chapter 9: Chris

  Monday, September 12th

  FOUR DAYS AFTER the “animal attack” at the bonfire, Chris Hendrix, star running back for the Willow County Cougars, trudged into his house, shivering as rainwater wicked off his hoodie. He flicked on the light, but the room remained dark as pitch. Chris flipped the switch a few more times to no avail.