Chapter Four
“Now you owe me a favor,” Kevin said.
“What?” I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. I felt the bile rise in my stomach as I looked down at the decapitated body of my dead mother. “What have you done?”
“I’ve set you free, William. Please don’t try to tell me that you haven’t thought of killing that crazy cunt a few thousand times.” Kevin said and rubbed his hands together as if he were washing them. The blood disappeared from his skin, and I began to think of running. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I think it’s pretty obvious what I am capable of, and while I’ve done you a favor to earn your trust, I’m not above inflicting a little pain as incentive,” he said and retook his seat at my computer.
“What do you want?” I asked. I no longer felt dead inside, and I wasn’t cocksure that my life couldn’t get any worse either.
“Ah, glad we’re finally getting down to the nitty-gritty,” Kevin said and shook my mouse to wake up my PC. “I’ve got a job for you. It’s one that you can’t refuse.”
Over the next half hour, Kevin showed me a Craigslist ad for a cabin that I was to rent. Then, he went to the Hartland Middle School website and showed me the pictures of three boys who I was to kill. Evan Little, Lyle Johnson, and Chris Harding all had to die, and in that particular order too.
“You want me to rent a cabin and murder three kids.”
“Ah, you’re a quick study.”
“Let’s say that I did agree to go along with this scheme. How am I supposed to rent the cabin? I don’t have that kind of money laying around.”
“But, William, you do. You see, your mother does occasionally win at bingo. More so lately because I’ve helped things along. She just doesn’t tell you. If she did, you’d stop handing over most of your paycheck to her. So, she stashes the money. I happen to know where that stash is.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s clear something else up too, William. You still seem to think that you have a choice in this matter. You have no idea what I will do to you and everyone you care about if you don’t do what I say.”
“That’s where you’ve gone astray. I don’t care about anyone,” I said with a dismissive shrug.
Kevin turned back to the computer and pulled up Facebook. He typed something else in and brought up Carrie’s profile. “Billy the Kid, I will skin her alive and make her march around the tree in her backyard with one end of her intestines nailed to the bark. Then, I will defile her dying body in every orifice while her little sister watches.”
“Where is the bingo money hidden?”
Chapter Five
Evan Little
“I said get me a Pepsi,” Evan barked at his mother. “I didn’t say I wanted a fucking Coke. God, Mom, you are such a bitch sometimes.”
The other boys snickered at this, and Linda Little walked back into the house with her head hung low. She wished she could find the strength to discipline Evan, but she didn’t have it.
It was her fault that he acted that way. Evan was only speaking to her the way that he’d seen his father talk to his mother a thousand times before. She was the one who stood back while Evan Sr. took the belt to his son. It had been her job to protect him, and she’d done nothing. Her father had always said she was weak and stupid, and Linda guessed that it was true.
Evan had been such a sweet boy too. He’d pick her flowers and help her bake. That all changed the day that Evan Sr. came home from work early and found them in the kitchen making cookies.
He’d beat the boy until he was black and blue for being a “pussy”. Linda guessed that even if she found a way to escape her husband, it was too late for her son. There was something dark and twisted about the boy.
The truth was that she had become as afraid of him as she was of his father. That fear was quickly turning to contempt, no matter how hard she tried to stop it.
Linda wanted to feel bad for her son, but some of the things he’d been in trouble for lately made it hard to feel empathy. Not to mention that Evan Sr. had become afraid of his son as well, so he took his anger at the situation out on Linda.
She began to cry softly when the realization hit that her only hope was to escape them both. The opportunity was just days away, and Linda knew that it was now or never.
Evan and his friends were going on a camping trip with Evan Sr. Her husband had choked the boy out when he’d said that he didn’t want to go, and that settled the matter. They would be gone all weekend, and she could get away. By the time her husband got back and realized what she had done, Linda would be so far away that neither of them would ever find her. She’d make a new life without her abusive husband and psychotic son.
Outside in the barn, Evan, Lyle, Chris, and a younger boy named Hunter were gathered around a pile of old magazines and rags. Evan had a box of matches in his hand.
“Won’t your mom get mad?” Hunter asked.
“Naw. She’s going to have to go to the store to get Pepsi. I told her Saturday before she went to the grocery store that I wanted Coke, so there’s no Pepsi in the house. She’ll be gone for a while,” Evan said and struck a match.
“I wish my mom was that nice to me. She almost never lets me have Pepsi,” Hunter said.
“That’s because you’re a retard,” Evan said and threw the match onto the pile of magazines and rags.
What Hunter hadn’t noticed was that Lyle and Chris had moved behind him. The bigger boys were waiting for the signal from their leader.
Once the fire was roaring, Evan gave his friends the thumbs-up. He waited on the other side of the fire to ensure that the smaller boy couldn’t escape the flames right away.
The only thing that saved little Hunter Murdock was that he tripped over Lyle’s foot and stumbled to the side. For a second, the little boy thought it was a mistake or a goof, but his instincts kicked in when Lyle grabbed for his shirt.
“Get back here you little fucker,” Lyle called, but he only managed to grab a small bit of Hunter’s shirt.
Hunter managed to pull himself free and ran from the barn. He pumped his legs and ran like his life depended on it. It probably had. The three older boys weren’t going to chase him. They hated exercise of any kind, but if Hunter had hesitated, he might have been their first real victim.
The boy burst through his front door and ran to his room. He did the only thing a little boy knew to do and hid under his covers.
Chapter Six
I pulled up in front of the address the guy on Craigslist had given me. I couldn’t see Kevin in the car with me, but I could feel him sitting in the back seat directly behind me.
The weird thing was that once I knew he was there, it occurred to me that he’d been there for a while. His presence had crept up on me, and that was most likely why I hadn’t completely lost my mind when he’d shown up in my bedroom. We were old friends by then.
I got out of the car and walked to the front door of the trailer that belonged to the address. It probably would have been a less stressful situation had it been located in a trailer park, but instead, it sat alone at the end of a gravel road.
Without Kevin, I never would have knocked on the door. The place looked skeevy as fuck. I began to wonder if the dude had a cabin at all or if he just lured people here to violate or murder them.
Go on.
I heard Kevin’s voice in my head. Great, I thought, I’m hearing voices.
Shut up and open the door.
Not wanting to get into a fight with the voice in my head, I raised my hand to knock. The man who answered the door was exactly what I expected.
He hadn’t even bothered to put on pants. I guess I should have been glad that he at least had boxer shorts on before answering. His t-shirt had seen better days. It was one of those you get from a package at a discount store. He’d long since abandoned washing it. The stains were a disgusting kaleidoscope of putrid color.
The smell coming off of him was something that turned my stomach enough to make
me take a step back. I didn’t think it could get much worse until he opened his mouth. The stench that emanated from between his black teeth was almost otherworldly.
“You here ‘bout the cabin?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m William Curtis. We spoke on the phone.” I felt myself instinctively trying to back away, but there was a phantom hand on my back holding me in place.
“Did ya bring the deposit?” he asked as I tried to rack my brain for his name. I was almost certain he’d told me, but I couldn’t remember.
“Yeah, I hope cash is alright. I want to keep this all as quiet as possible. No questions.”
I’m not entirely sure how to describe the expression that came over his face. It was something evil, gleeful, and predatory all at the same time. It was the kind of look I’d only ever seen in movies.
At that point, I was pretty sure the guy didn’t even have a cabin. I’d been tricked into coming here, and the dirtbag in front of me was about to go full Deliverance.
“Step into my office,” he said and beckoned me in with a sweep of his dirty hand.
Chapter Seven
Lyle Johnson
The afternoon sun beat down on Lyle Johnson, but he would not give up. Evan had told him not to come back without a cat, so Lyle was determined to catch one.
Lyle never stuck around to see what Evan did with the animals, but he’d seen the aftermath once. He figured it would have made him more upset than it did. Lyle expected it to make him sick.
The only thing it had done was make him curious. The curiosity wriggled underneath his skin like a bug was stuck there. It made him buzz like he was high, and yet he always left.
He thought the first time, back when he still couldn’t imagine hurting an animal, that Evan would call him a pussy for bailing, but doing his work alone seemed to suit Evan just fine.
Lyle was aware that Evan was using him, but that was okay. Lyle was using Evan too. At first, he’d just been lonely and desperate. No one at school liked Lyle. Up until the incident, he’d been smart, gotten good grades, and kept to himself.
The night of the incident had changed everything. After that night, Lyle had been more interested in what Evan did with the stray pets he collected. He’d only liked setting the fires before that.
Lyle blamed himself for what had happened to his sister. He hadn’t believed the things she’d said about her boyfriend, Johnny. Lyle had liked Johnny a great deal. He relished the attention the older boy paid him when he was at the Johnson house visiting with Whitney.
So, when Whitney had tearfully told the family that she had to break up with Johnny because he hurt her, Lyle had become furious. He’d called her a whore before stomping off to his room to listen to death metal and take his frustrations out on the internet.
Johnny called the house hundreds of times over the next few days. When he wasn’t calling, Lyle would see him standing outside on the sidewalk, but their parents had forbidden Whitney from going out to talk to him.
Lyle’s dad had pulled him aside to talk to him about how there were things Lyle wouldn’t understand about relationships until he was older. He said that Johnny was an abuser and that what he was doing wasn’t romantic. Johnny was stalking Whitney.
It was hard for Lyle to comprehend. Johnny was such a cool guy, and he was one of the most popular guys at the high school. Why would he need to stalk anybody? Johnny could have had any girl he wanted as far as Lyle was concerned.
Then there was that small part of Lyle that he never told anybody about. That was the part that wished that Johnny had loved him the way he loved Whitney. He felt disgusting and wrong for wanting a boy that way, but he couldn’t deny it.
Nobody knew, but Lyle had thought about telling Johnny a hundred times. He figured the older boy didn’t feel the same way, but Lyle just knew that Johnny would accept it. He would have told him that it was okay and that they were still friends. It wouldn’t have had to be a terrible secret that made it hard for Lyle to sleep at night anymore.
Until the incident, Lyle blamed Whitney for those sleepless nights. He had honestly believed she’d taken away the one person who would have understood what he was going through.
A few weeks after the breakup, Lyle and Whitney’s parents felt safe enough to go out to dinner and leave the kids alone.
“You can’t live under lock and key forever,” Whitney said when her mother was worried about leaving them. “Besides, Johnny has a new girlfriend at school. I’m sure it’s fine. Why would he come back when he’s dating Heather?”
They decided to go on their dinner date, but only to a nearby neighborhood restaurant. Lyle’s dad had told the neighbor they were going out and to call the police if she saw anything suspicious. Mrs. Cranson, the lady next door, knew what had gone on and promised to keep an eye out for the kids.
What nobody had counted on was that Johnny dating Heather was a ruse. He’d just used her to make it look like he’d moved on. Johnny had been biding his time.
Lyle didn’t understand any of that. When Johnny had shown up at their patio door a short while after Lyle’s parents left with a huge bouquet of flowers for Whitney, Lyle really believed he was sincere. He also couldn’t help but imagine how happy he would be if the flowers were for him.
“I’m really sorry,” Johnny had said. “I know that I can make Whitney see how much I love her if I could just talk to her for a few minutes. We’re buddies, right? You believe me. Lyle, you know that I would never hurt anyone that I love.”
Lyle had believed him, and so he let him in. What happened next was so fast that it felt like a dream. Once the door was closed, Johnny knocked Lyle to the ground and duct taped his hands behind his back. Lyle had been so focused on the flowers that he hadn’t seen the role of tape in Johnny’s other hand.
He duct taped his feet too and then dragged him to the sofa. Next, Johnny went upstairs. Lyle heard the scuffle and a minute later, Johnny dragged Whitney down the stairs and into the living room by the hair. He taped her up and threw her on the floor.
Johnny punched and kicked Whitney until she stopped fighting back. Lyle wasn’t sure if his sister was dead or just unconscious. Johnny went into the kitchen and returned with their biggest kitchen knife.
Something inside of Lyle broke as he watched Johnny cut his sister’s head off with that kitchen knife. He became something else that day. The trauma had forever altered his brain.
That change was what Evan had picked up on. Now, Lyle was Evan’s best soldier. At least, that’s what he told himself as he caught Mrs. Cranson’s cat. He stuffed Pepper into a pillowcase and began the walk to Evan’s barn.
Chapter Eight
I’d like to say that I was shocked by the state of the trailer, but I wasn’t in the least. The sting of ammonia burned my nostrils, and the air felt thick and hard to breath.
There were crushed beer cans lining the floor. Even more cans lined every surface from the coffee table to the kitchen counters.
“How old are you?” the man asked as he walked to the fridge and pulled out a can of beer.
I could see the inside of the refrigerator from the living room. The only thing it contained was beer and a bottle of mustard. The bottle of mustard must have been ancient. The branding was something I recognized from twenty years ago.
“What difference does that make?” I asked, more defensively than I’d meant.
“Well, you have to be eighteen to sign a lease. You look real young,” he said in a way that made my skin crawl.
“I’m well over eighteen,” I said in response.
“You sure do look young,” the man said and his tongue darted out of his mouth to lick his cracked lips.
“I have the money. Do you have that lease for me to sign?” I wanted out of there as soon as possible.
“Don’t be in such a hurry, baby,” the man said in a low voice. He popped his beer open and took a step toward me. “I don’t just rent my cabin to anyone. We have to be friends first. Do you want to be good
friends, baby?”
“No, man. I just want to rent the cabin in the Craigslist ad. If that’s not going to happen, then I’m out of here,” I said.
“Oh, you’re not going anywhere.” He took a step toward the door and cut me off from the exit. “You aren’t leaving until we are far better acquainted.”
You’re going to have to kill him.
I heard Kevin’s voice in my head, and I knew I’d been set up. The man in front of me was a predator that used Craigslist to lure victims out to his shitty trailer in the middle of nowhere. For a moment, I chastised myself for being stupid enough to fall for it, but then I remembered it was Kevin who’d sent me there. I wondered if there even was a cabin and what this guy did if a family showed up.
Most people aren’t stupid enough to get out of the car once they see the place. And yes, Billy the Kid, there is really a cabin. You’re going to have to kill old Floyd here to get the keys.
“Floyd. That’s your name,” I said to the perv blocking my way out.
“Just drop your pants. Let’s do this the easy way. It hurts less when you do it the easy way,” Floyd said.
That’s when I saw it. Next to me on a stained end table, hidden under a bunch of crushed beer cans, was a huge hunting knife. I doubted that Floyd even remembered it was there.
Chapter Nine
Chris Harding
Chris made his way down the stairs as quietly as he could. As he’d expected, his mother and her drug-dealing pimp were passed out on the couch. He moved as quietly as a mouse to the kitchen. Waking them would mean he wouldn’t get breakfast before school.
The thought of having to go another day without food made him want to hurt somebody. He hadn’t even asked her to fill out the free lunch form for school. He’d done it all himself, but the dumb whore had found it and thrown it in the trash.
Dark Ends: A Horror Collection Page 12