A Dark Collection: 12 Scary Stories

by Lukens, Mark

  Cheryl nodded. She looked out the side window and watched as Nick and Austin came out of the gas station building. But instead of coming back to the van, they walked across the dusty parking lot to the six room motel a hundred yards away.

  “Shit,” Cheryl whispered as she watched them walk away.

  Hannah looked out the window and lunged for the door. She opened it and spilled out onto the cracked concrete that they were parked on, her legs felt a little weak, but she was regaining her strength quickly. Cheryl followed her out of the van.

  They caught up to Nick and Austin in front of the motel.

  “Come on, guys,” Hannah said, and she even managed a smile. “We should get back in the van. I’m fine now.”

  Nick stared at her like she was a lunatic. “You were freaking out a few minutes ago.”

  “I know,” she smiled. “I’m sorry. It’s this … this condition I have. It’s nothing to worry about. Come on, let’s get back on the road.”

  Nick looked at the motel. “We will. I just want to get some directions back to the county road.”

  “We’ll find it on our own!” Hannah snapped at him.

  Nick looked back at Hannah, never expecting an outburst like that from her. He turned back to the motel, dead-set on getting directions.

  “We can’t be here!” Hannah shouted in the hot air.

  Again, Nick and the others stared at her.

  “The reason I blacked out … I can see things. Visions.”

  They stared at her.

  “What, like a psychic?” Nick asked.

  “Yeah, sort of,” Hannah said and she explained quickly. “But I can’t control it. Every once in a while I see something bad, and today … this was the worst ever. We’re in danger here.”

  “What kind of danger?” Nick asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “What did you see in this vision of yours?”

  “Come on, dude,” Austin warned.

  “No, man, I don’t believe in that kind of shit.” He looked at Hannah, waiting for her answer.

  “I didn’t really see anything. It’s more like I felt something. A sense of evil and darkness. Like a blanket smothering me.” Hannah felt a little embarrassed trying to explain her feelings, but whatever it took to get them back in the van was fine with her.

  “She’s telling the truth,” Cheryl said. “I’ve seen it happen before. She never wanted anyone to know about it because she was afraid they would make fun of her.” She stared at Nick. “Kind of like you’re doing right now.”

  Nick was about to respond, but they were all startled by a voice from the motel.

  They all turned and saw an old woman in the doorway of the last room with the number six over it.

  “Why don’t you all come inside?” the old woman said and smiled at them. She barely had any teeth left and her face was a roadmap of wrinkles. Her white hair was pulled back in a loose bun and she wore old, faded clothes over her skeleton-thin body.

  “Who are you?” Nick asked.

  “My name’s Gail. Come on inside and get out of that hot sun. I’ve got your rooms ready.”

  None of them moved.

  “We need some directions back to the county road,” Nick finally said.

  The old woman nodded like she already knew that, and she never stopped smiling. She stood in the doorway, stooped over and she gestured at them to come inside the motel room. Then she slipped inside the dark room without another word.

  “She’s got our rooms ready?” Cheryl said. “What the hell’s she talking about?”

  “She’s just a crazy old coot,” Nick said. “But maybe she knows someone who can help us.”

  Nick took a step towards the motel room, but Hannah grabbed his arm, her fingers sinking into his flesh. She stared at him with fierce eyes. “Don’t go in there,” she whispered.

  He yanked his arm away from Hannah’s grasp and looked at Austin. “You better check your woman, dude.”

  Nick stomped off towards the room.

  Austin looked at Hannah. “I need to go back him up.”

  Hannah didn’t say anything—she knew she wasn’t going to talk Austin out of it.

  Cheryl and Hannah followed Austin. Hannah knew they were in danger, but she figured it was probably a bad idea for them to split up right now.

  They entered the motel room and it seemed like other countless old motel rooms with cheap and heavy furniture. But this room was dark and dusty, the heavy drapes pulled shut. An ancient TV sat on the dresser with a mirror behind it.

  “How do you like the room?” Gail asked them, still smiling. “Two of you can take this one, or the next one. Or all of you can take one room each. They’re all available right now.”

  Austin didn’t answer the woman. He turned on the TV but it didn’t work.

  “The TV doesn’t work, I’m afraid,” the old woman said. “The electricity is out right now.”

  Nick stared at Gail. “What do you mean the electricity is out? You don’t have any electric here? No air conditioning? No lights?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Gail said and her smile faltered.

  “When is it going to be fixed?” Cheryl asked.

  “Can’t say. It’s been out for a long while now.” She smiled again like a thought had suddenly occurred to her. “And there will be no charge for the rooms because of the electricity. And I’ve got some food and water in the office if you want it.”

  “We’ve got food and water in our van,” Nick said, his voice growing cold. “We just need directions back to the county road. If you can’t tell us, then find someone who can.”

  The old woman nodded, still smiling, but she didn’t say anything.

  “What is this place?” Austin asked. “Is this some kind of town? Do you have any gas out there in those pumps?”

  Gail shook her head no. “No electricity to pump the gas. Besides, we haven’t had a gas delivery in quite some time.”

  “Or visitors, apparently,” Nick said under his breath. He looked at the others, his eyes saying: this old woman is crazy.

  “She doesn’t know how to get back out to the road,” Hannah said. “Let’s just drive back the way we came.”

  “We only have half a tank of gas, Hannah,” Nick said. “We can’t go driving around the desert without knowing where we are.” He looked back at Gail. “Do you have a map?”

  “No,” she said, still smiling.

  “Is there someone else here who could help us?” Austin asked, using his most polite voice.

  The old woman frowned and looked sad suddenly as she shook her head no. “There’s no one who can help you now.”

  “What?” Nick said, taking a step closer to the old woman.

  “Come on,” Hannah said and moved towards the door that was ajar, the bright light of the sun shining through the crack in the door.

  Gail looked right at Hannah as she stood by the doorway, and the smile was back on Gail’s wrinkled face again. “But everything’s okay now. I’ve been waiting for you to come here, girl. I’ve seen it in my dreams.”

  Austin moved over to Hannah like he was protecting her from this frail, old woman, his eyes on Gail the whole time. “Come on, guys, this woman’s crazy.”

  They hurried outside and they took a few steps back towards the gas station and then they all froze.

  “You didn’t open the hood of the van, did you?” Cheryl asked Nick.

  Nick stared at their van and saw that the hood was up. “No,” he answered and then ran the hundred yards across the hard-packed dirt to the van.

  Austin, Hannah, and Cheryl caught up with him.

  Nick stared down at the engine like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Somebody ripped out the plug wires.”

  “Plug wires?” Cheryl asked.

  “The spark plug wires,” Nick snapped. “We can’t drive anywhere without the plug wires.”

  They all looked around, but they didn’t see anyone.

  “That old lady,” Nick said. “She was dist
racting us so someone could steal the wires.”

  Nick ran back to motel room six and burst inside the room. The old woman was gone. Nick checked the bathroom, the closet—but she wasn’t there.

  “What the fuck?” Nick said.

  “I told you,” Hannah said. “There’s something wrong with this place.”

  Nick stared at her with fury in his eyes, like he was going to say something, but he didn’t.

  They searched each motel room, and then finally the motel office. The old lady wasn’t anywhere in the motel.

  “Shit,” Nick said when they all stepped back out into the dusty parking lot. They walked back through the hot air to the van. At least the awning provided some relief from the relentless sun.

  Austin rushed over to the sagging wood fence behind the gas station building. He climbed a few crates next to the fence and peeked over the top of the fence. The other three followed him and watched as he stepped back down off the crates.

  “What is it?” Nick said.

  “All kinds of cars and trucks,” Austin said.

  Nick jumped up onto the crates for a look.

  “Old ones that look rusted out, but some newer ones too.”

  “Could we get plug wires from those cars?” Cheryl asked Nick.

  Nick shook his head no and got back down. “I don’t think so.”

  They all walked back to the van and opened the back doors. They grabbed bottles of water from the cooler and drank them down.

  “What now?” Cheryl asked.

  “I’m going to find out who took our wires,” Nick said as he stared at the first of the buildings that looked like houses in the desert beyond the motel and gas station.

  After walking across the rugged terrain, they reached the first house where two old men sat on the back porch in the shade playing cards.

  “Hey!” Nick called out before they even got to the back porch. “Someone stole the plug wires out of my van and I want them back!”

  The two old men looked up from their card game, but they didn’t say anything. One of the men had bandages tied around one of his legs from his knee down to his ankle. The bandages looked old and had dark stains on them that could’ve been blood; he kept his leg stretched out like he was favoring it.

  Nick stood in the sand, his hands on his hips as he stared at the two old men. “I just want them back, that’s all. If you know anything, now’s your chance to tell me.”

  The two men stared at them like they hadn’t seen strangers in a long time.

  “I don’t want to have to get the police involved,” Nick added.

  “Aint no police here,” one of the old men said, the one with the injured leg.

  “Sheriff died a few years back,” the other man offered.

  “Then I’ll go to the next town and get the police,” Nick said.

  “There aint no next town,” the first old man snapped. He glanced out at the endless desert all around them.

  “And he won’t let you leave now,” the other old man said, and then he got a quick warning look from his card-playing partner.

  “Who won’t let us leave?” Cheryl asked. Hannah could hear the anger in her voice, but she could feel the fear coming from her.

  “He wants you at the church service tonight,” the first old man said. “You need to be there. Everyone has to be there.”

  “I’m not going to a fucking church!” Nick yelled, his voice carrying across the hot, still air. He took a step towards the old men.

  Austin held Nick back from them.

  “What kind of place is this?” Austin asked them as he pushed Nick back a little more—he wasn’t going to let him beat up two elderly men.

  “We’re all brothers and sisters here,” the second old man said and tried a smile, but the smile seemed like a foreign thing to him, like he hadn’t smiled in a long time.

  “Is this some kind of commune?” Cheryl asked.

  It’s a bad place, Hannah thought, that’s what it is. She glanced back at the motel a quarter mile away shimmering in the heat and she was suddenly sure that someone was watching them. The old woman from the motel? Maybe. But it was more than that, it seemed like they were being watched from every building in this town.

  I’ve been waiting for you to come here, girl. The old woman’s words echoed in Hannah’s mind.

  “Everyone in this place is crazy,” Nick spat out. “We don’t want to be here. We want our van fixed, and then we want to get back on the road.”

  The old men just stared at Nick like he was slow and didn’t understand what they had just told him.

  Austin guided Nick away from the old men, and they walked to other houses and beat on the doors, but no one would answer their door. A woman who looked like she was in her mid-thirties peeked out the window of her house, but she wouldn’t come to the door. She had a white bandage wrapped around the side of her head, covering part of her face. She just stared at them with one frightened eye and closed her drapes.

  Nick yelled at the woman that they needed help and beat on her window, but she wouldn’t answer.

  “What the hell’s wrong with these people?” Nick yelled.

  They walked past the last house and trekked up the gravelly path that led up to the white church that looked like the only place in this village that was maintained in any way. It seemed clean and bright compared to the other buildings, but the closer they got to it they could see that the white paint was cracking and dust and dirt stained one side of the building.

  They walked up to the double doors of the church that had been painted a bright red some time ago, but it was fading now. They tried to open the doors but they were locked.

  “I thought church doors were always supposed to be open,” Nick said as he exhaled a breath into the hot air.

  “I think that’s Catholic churches,” Cheryl said.

  Nick shrugged like he didn’t really care. He walked all the way around the church but he didn’t see anyone. He called out, but no one answered. He stared at the rocky hills in the distance that were dotted with brush that looked like black dots from here. Above them the light blue sky seemed to stretch out forever.

  “What do we do now?” Austin asked.

  “I don’t know,” Cheryl said as she waved at her face with her hand. “But it’s hot and I’m getting thirsty again.”

  They walked back to the gas station to their van, deciding along the way that they would sleep in their van and lock the doors if they had to.

  “What’s up with these people and their bandages?” Cheryl asked as they walked. Their shoes scuffed the dirt and rocks and sounded loud in the desert silence.

  No one answered.

  “You think they have some kind of disease here?” Cheryl asked and looked to Hannah for help, like Hannah might have the answer—like she might know the answer.

  Nick stopped in his tracks as he stared at the gas station. “What the fuck?”

  Their van was gone.

  Nick ran to where their van had been parked, right next to the ancient gas pump. He swung a fist at the air and screamed in frustration. “All of our food and drinks were in there! Our clothes! Our money! Everything!”

  Gail, the old woman from the motel, approached them from the corner of the gas station building where she’d been watching them from the shadows.

  “They took your van,” she said.

  Nick tried to run at the old woman, but Cheryl and Austin held him back.

  “I want it back,” Nick told Gail through clenched teeth. “I want it running and I want it parked right where it was. I want to get out of this crazy fucking place.”

  Gail shook her head no. “Once you’re here, you can’t leave. A lot of us have stumbled onto this place. I think I came here five years ago, but I really can’t remember anymore.”

  “What are you talking about?” Austin asked him.

  “You can’t leave. He won’t let you. People have tried before. But they’re always brought back … and then they’re punishe
d.”

  “Punished?” Cheryl said.

  Gail glanced around like she was afraid people might be watching her. “Yeah. One man ran and he was brought back before him at the church service. And he folded the man up on himself.”

  “What do you mean?” Hannah asked, but she thought she might understand.

  “I … I don’t know. It was like he was crushed. He can do anything he wants to with his mind. He can make people do anything he wants them to. You can’t get away. You have to learn the rules here and follow them. You don’t want to be punished.”

  “Who is this person?”

  “He calls himself Pastor. He says that the power of God flows through him.” She shrugged her bony shoulders. “Maybe He does, I don’t know, but the Pastor is God in this place now.”

  “This is some crazy bullshit,” Nick said. “Are all of you are crazy?”

  “Maybe now we are,” Gail said. “This place makes you go crazy. You get to where you can’t stand it anymore. You get to where you’d rather be dead than live another day here.”

  “I don’t understand this,” Cheryl said. “How do you guys live here? What about food and water? Medicine? Supplies?”

  Gail shook her head like she wasn’t sure if she should say anymore, but then she stared at them like she’d come to a decision.

  “We grow some food here,” Gail finally said. “We all take our turns tending to the crops. You’ll learn that. There’s a well here for water. And he brings meat out of the desert for us.”

  “What do you mean he brings it out of the desert?”

  “He can control animals just like he can control people.”

  “I don’t believe a word of this shit,” Nick said.

  “You have to believe,” Gail said with more force than they expected. “There’s a service at the church soon. He wants all of you there to welcome you to our family. When you hear the bells ring, you have to hurry up to the church.” Gail nodded at the motel. “You can wait in the motel over there. I brought you some food and water—from my own stash.” She smiled at them.

  “We’ll be there at the church,” Nick said. “I want to see this Pastor dude, and then I’m going to tell him I want my van back.”

  Gail stared at Nick like that wouldn’t be a good idea.