by Jim Ody
When they got there, they noticed that the door was slightly open.
“I’m pretty sure I closed it,” Will muttered to himself. Fiona looked slightly concerned. They went inside anyway, and as far as they could tell everything was intact.
Fiona sat down on the sofa, in an instant a look of melancholy washed over her.
“We’ve got some big decisions ahead of us,” she said looking at her phone again. She hadn’t turned it on, but it was symbolic nevertheless.
Will stood where he was. It was awkward. A dance he refused to join in with. A conversation he didn’t want to be a part of.
He let out a sigh. “We said we wouldn’t talk about it?”
Still focused on her phone, she nodded. “I know… but how long can we ignore it?”
“These are big things in our lives,” he said. “If the court case goes ahead…” And the funny thing was, the court case was not the thing that bothered him the most.
And then something flashed out the corner of Will’s eye, and ran out the door.
“What the f-” he took off.
“Will?”
“There’s someone here!” he shouted and ran out the house.
He caught sight of a small blonde-haired girl disappearing through the trees and down the lane. He gave chase.
Then he found himself on a winding path, the sort that walkers love. On the one side it was made up of plants and trees, and on the other side there were breaks that gave an amazing view.
The girl had disappeared into thin air.
He stepped into the clearing, and a house quickly came into view.
It was a large square structure with a wraparound porch. There were windows in the roof that suggested a third floor. An amazing structure on the hill, that quite possibly had a view of the large lake below.
Will slowed his pace, and realised just how far he’d run. He saw a lady laid out on a chair, and instantly felt stupid. Before he could backtrack, she held up a hand. He raised his in return and walked over unsure what he was going to say. Probably an apology about trespassing, he thought.
“Where’s the fire?” she grinned at him. She was middle-aged, sat in a vest top and shorts. She wore a large sunhat and dark glasses but from what Will could tell, she was very attractive, in a homely-sort-of-way. Perhaps it was the waft of perfume, but there was something elegant and expensive about her.
“I apologise if I scared you,” Will began, but struggled to get out the rest of the words. She looked far from scared.
“No need to apologise,” she grinned understanding his discomfort.
“I just…”
Then a large guy walked out. “I thought I heard voices,” he said, and trotted on over. Will was no expert but the guy was handsome. All square jawed, stubble and perfectly cut hair. He had a strong physique, and annoyingly blue eyes. Will could see there was a slight belly there, but it was hardly fat.
“This handsome young man came running out of the bushes like some hero!”
Will was struggling with words.
“Really? The world can always do with more heroes!” He held out a hand. “I’m Carl,” he said, and this is Matilda.”
“I’m Will… Look, I’m sorry,” Will said finally finding his tongue. “We’re staying just down the road. Uh, there was a child in our house… she seemed to be heading down here.”
Matilda and Carl looked at each other, silently acknowledging something.
Carl then nodded, and pointed at one of the chairs. “Take a seat, Will.”
Will was about to mention Fiona, but he was too scared the words would come out as a whine.
“You’re not the first,” Matilda said. “Don’t worry!”
Carl patted his wife on her shoulder. “She’s right. Look Will, don’t take this the wrong way, mate, but that girl you saw? She doesn’t exist.”
Will frowned. “I know what I saw?” He felt angry. It was almost like he was being called a liar.
Carl held up his hands. “Whoa, don’t take what I’m saying the wrong way, mate. I know what you think you saw. We had a guy come here last week saying the same thing!”
Matilda giggled. “Except he was screaming!” she tapped Will on the arm. “I shouldn’t laugh. The poor guy was scared out of his mind!”
“Really?” Both Carl and Matilda nodded.
“So-” Will began.
“Who is she?” Carl continued.
“The little girl?” Matilda finished.
Will nodded. “Nobody knows. She just turned up one day.” But there was something in the way that Carl wouldn’t look at him, that suggested this to be a lie.
Just then, from along the road that led to the house, a teenage boy walked in his own world. At first, he ignored them. His head was down, and his hands buried in his pockets.
“Marshall?” Matilda called. “Marshall!”
The lad turned slowly, and without a change in expression wandered over.
Matilda turned back to Will, “This is our son, Marshall. He’s back from university for the summer. Sometimes he’s known to have enthusiasm!” she laughed at her own joke.
“Those girls tiring you out?” Carl winked, but Marshall showed no acknowledgment of the comment.
“Will here, saw the little girl,” Matilda said, and Will thought it sounded like she was taunting him. Marshall looked up at him, and then looked away.
“Gotta do stuff,” the lad mumbled and walked off.
“Oh, to be young again!” Carl said loudly, part in jest to Will, and part so as Marshall could hear.
“I better get back to Fiona,” Will said ringing his hands together nervously. “She’ll be wondering where I’ve got to!”
Matilda nodded, and glanced down at his left hand. “Yes, you don’t want to keep your wife waiting.”
“It was nice to meet you, though,” Will said shaking their hands.
“You too!” Carl said raising a hand like he was an old friend.
“You should come around for a meal one night?” Matilda called.
“Okay!” Will called back, but inside he wasn’t sure. They were nice enough, but strangely perfect. Apart from the son. He probably set cats on fire and still wet the bed.
He looked ahead and saw Fiona. She looked relieved and broke into a jog.
“There you are!” she said. “I thought you’d been abducted, or something!”
He grinned at that. “I’m a grown man, and this is hardly Beirut!”
“So are you going to tell me why you ran out of the house or am I going to have to tie you up and beat it out of you?”
“Well…”
“Seriously.”
“I saw a little blonde girl. She ran out of the house and along this trail. Oh, and I met our neighbours back down there,” he turned and pointed behind him. “They were nice enough – in fact invited us to dinner one night – but anyway, it seems other people have seen this girl too.”
“Who is she? Where does she live?”
“Nobody knows.”
She frowned at him. “Did they say she was a ghost?”
“No. Well, not in as many words, but I did think that’s what they were implying.”
She took his hand. “Well, you’d better come back and have a nice massage to relax you then, huh?”
“Oh, yes!” he grinned. “Most definitely!”
Little Miss Evil
Chapter 4 - Jenny
T he three girls stood with their back to the Mini, and looked at the small log cabins that headed out into the woods.
“How many people have died here?” Meg said with a face that looked disgusted.
“Seriously,” Jenny said shaking her head and standing forward. “What were you expecting?”
“If I hear a chainsaw, then I’m driving out of here – even if you’re not with me!”
There were a couple of dozen cabins each off slightly away from the others, and surrounded by tall trees. Next to them was a hut, half the size of one of the cabins wit
h Reception on the side. In the distance they saw a huge building.
Jenny pulled out a map of the place. “Look, up there is the food hall-” she looked up at her friends. “They have a bar there too.” That finally put a smile on their faces. “Off in the distance is a trail-” Then like a guide she pointed out to the large lake, with the wooden jetty. “There is the lake where there’s fishing, swimming, boats to hire… It’s all here!”
Meg and Nat looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Meg said sarcastically, “Wow! Brown Owl, this will be sooo much fun!”
“It’s all here!” Nat mimicked. “The perfect recipe for a slasher movie!”
“Whoa, whoa!” Meg then said, suddenly distracted. “Men!”
They looked over and saw three lads. One had no shirt on and had his skinny chest on show, another had a vest with large muscular arms, and with them was a tall but chubby lad with a huge shock of curly hair.
The lads noticed them immediately and locked in on them like they were prey. Their walks were suddenly cocky, full of muscle tensing and posturing, whilst trying to remain natural.
“Welcome to paradise, ladies!” The shirtless wonder said. “I’m Brett, and I’ll be your tour guide today!”
Meg stepped forward, the way she always did, and said, “Paradise? I thought this place was called Tall Trees? Or is that huge sign there wrong?”
“Smart-arse, huh? I like that!” He grinned and turned to his mates for validation. They laughed back.
“I’m Brett,” he added. “And this is Adam, and the guy with the hair is Max.”
“Mad Max!” Adam said under his breath. The boys were peacocking.
“And you’re looking for your shirt, are you Brett?” Jenny and Nat stifled giggles.
“Naked in nature,” Brett said quickly. “I’m being at one with it!”
“But not totally committing,” she added straight-faced. “You still have your shorts on. And your socks.”
Brett looked down at himself like he couldn’t remember what he was wearing. “You want me to remove them?” he asked, although he looked like he’d met his match.
“Whoa, whoa, now hold it right, mister!” she grinned. “I’ve just met you. I’m not ready to see all of you just yet!” she wiggled her little finger, which only made his mates laugh louder.
“She’s got you sussed, Brett!” Adam goaded.
“Well, whatever,” Brett said doing his best to save face. “We’re off for a swim in the lake. Why don’t you girls join us, huh?”
Meg turned to Nat and Jenny. Nat was grinning enthusiastically, and Jenny looked like she might throw up.
“Maybe we will,” she said in a non-committal tone. “Maybe we won’t.”
Brett shrugged and walked off, but Adam, looking past Meg and directly at Nat, said, “It might be nice.” blushed a little and walked off. Max just nodded at no one in particular.
“Well, well, well!” Meg said, and joined Nat in a little dance that had them both squealing.
“Let’s check our cabin out,” Jenny said trying to get them to focus again.
“Great idea. We can get our swimming stuff on!” Nat added.
“Or off!” Meg winked.
“Do you think Adam was looking at me?” Nat added.
“Yep!” Meg said. “And Brett is already wanting me, I can tell!”
“He looked annoyed with you,” Jenny said confused. This mating lark was hard. Too many mixed signals.
“Oh, little Jenny Wren, she has so much to learn!”
“What?”
Meg then said, “Max is probably the brooding type. He’s probably got a big-”
“MEG!” Jenny slapped her arm. “He’s not even… I dunno.”
Nat rolled her eyes. “Who cares? We have fun, we get drunk, you fool around. You don’t have to marry him!”
Jenny busied herself with the bags. “I dunno… we’ve just met them and now you want to swim almost naked with them!”
Nat turned to Meg, “Ooh, yeah. Skinny dipping! I like your style Jen!”
Jenny almost dropped her bag. “I’m not going skinny dipping!”
Meg grabbed her bag up, and said, “Okay, normal swimming it is. Come on!”
The Reception area consisted of a large hut with a bored guy sat at a desk. He was thinning on top even though he was probably only in his twenties. He’d made no attempt to cut the sides of his hair. It was brushed back and made him look a lot older.
“Hello!” he said suddenly coming to life when he saw the three girls. “Welcome to Tall Trees Campsite. How can I help!”
“We have a cabin booked in the name of Jenny Donnelly. For three.”
“Okay-dokey!” he winked and looked at his laptop. He hit the keys a couple of times, scrolled down and then said, “Here we go!”
He went through a few security questions, doing his best to joke throughout. The quips were obvious and came across as a bit awkward.
“You girls like dancing?” he said looking at them all like an adult offering sweets to a child.
The girls looked at each other. Then Nat said, “Sure do! Especially slow and close so I can feel all of a man’s body next to mine.”
He went red and snorted. “Well, we have music in the main hall from 8pm.”
Meg decided to join in. “Do you go along? Show off your moves?”
He nodded enthusiastically, gulped and physically changed as if getting himself under control. “Sometimes, I do.”
“I bet you’ve broken some hearts!” Nat winked, shaking her breasts. He snorted again.
“I dunno about that,” he said looking back at the laptop screen. He then reached under the desk and pulled out a set of keys.
Jenny felt really uncomfortable. They were teasing him, and as far as she could tell, nothing good could ever come of it. This was how horror movies started. If nothing else they were all memorable to him now.
“Here you go. Number twenty-five!” He winked again. “It’s actually my lucky number!”
Meg grinned and nudged Nat. “That’s the number of men you’ve slept with, isn’t it?”
She shrugged. “Well, the number I lost count at anyway!”
Jenny knew Nat had only slept with the one guy. “Thank you,” she said, grabbing the keys.
“You want directions?” The guy called after them.
“We’ll find it!” Jenny called back.
Off they went with Nat and Meg giggling together.
“He totally wants to bang you,” Meg said to Nat.
“Who can blame him!” she laughed back.
They followed the signs along the main pathway, then branched off to find their cabin sat back slightly behind the others.
“Here we are!”
“Nicely away from the others so the axe-murders can slice us up before anyone knows!” Meg said half joking.
“Happy thoughts, Meggy!”
Jenny opened up the door. They slowly walked in.
It was quite small with one set of bunk beds, two single beds, a sofa, and a kitchen area.
“There’s no television,” Meg complained.
“Who cares,” Nat said. “There’s WI-FI. You can watch whatever on our phone.”
Meg was already getting changed. Stripping down without a care. Nat rummaged around in one of her bags and pulled out a small bikini.
Jenny stood in horror. “Are we actually going to meet them?”
Meg nodded as she stepped into her two-piece. “Too right, we are!”
Nat was fighting with her ample boobs, as she stuffed them into a bikini top that looked too small for her. Then as she pulled on the bottoms, Jenny realised they were cut like a thong.
“You getting changed, Jen, or you thinking about making out with us?” Meg teased.
Jenny felt herself go red. She just wasn’t used to being around other girls getting naked so quickly. She always hated getting changed in PE at school. Her tactic was always to keep her head down and get it over with as quickly as possible
. If she didn’t look at other people, then maybe they wouldn’t look at her either.
“No, of course not!”
“What? You don’t find me sexy?” Nat said wobbling her breasts.
“I do!” Meg said, and grabbed them quickly. They both were then in fits of giggles, especially when they saw Jenny’s shocked face.
“We’re kidding, Jen. Come on lighten up. This is meant to be fun!”
Jenny knew they were messing with her, but she was really self-conscious.
Which was why she went off to the bathroom to change. She was suddenly really nervous at being around three guys and her friends wearing nothing but a small tight swimming suits.
A few minutes later she came out wearing her black plain one-piece.
“Jesus,” Meg said, and Jenny looked mortified.
Nat held up her hands. “She doesn’t mean you. It’s that swimming costume. You’re not a sixty-year-old, so why are you dressing like one?”
Jenny looked at herself. “What? I could never wear what you two are wearing?”
Meg shook her head. “Girl, you’ve so much to learn… again! You have a great figure, with beautiful long blonde hair. You start wearing sexy beach wear, and you’ll have your choice of guys to share your bed with you!”
“But… I…” Nat cut her off with a finger on her lips.
“Nah, nah, nah! I don’t want to hear it. You just need a little confidence, right Meg?”
“Exactly!”
“What the…” Nat said as they saw Jenny slip on a T-shirt and shorts.
“What? It’s a little walk. I don’t want to be flashing myself in front of everyone, do I?”
Meg sighed and grabbed her towel. “Come on girls!”
And off they went to find the three guys they’d barely spoken to before.
“Let the fun begin!” Meg whooped.
Little Miss Evil
Chapter 5 - Marshall
H e was laid down on his bed staring at the posters on his wall. The ones that had been there since before he went to university.
That was a lifetime ago.
The bands stared back at him with steely gazes. Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic at The Disco! & Set It Off. Emo rock proclaiming the struggles of love and relationships. Musicians forced to do promo photoshoots when all they wanted to do was indulge in their rock’n’roll lifestyles. At least that’s what Marshall thought.