by Nathan Jay
"Bullshit," Ben mumbled. As he continued looking into the forest, something flew past the circular window and disappeared into the woods.
"Probably a bird or a bat," he whispered. Suddenly fear crept into his thoughts. There was another story he'd heard about Jupiter Point – one much scarier than the others. This particular event wasn't based on rumor at all because he'd seen the report himself on the evening news. Two teenagers claimed to have witnessed a supernatural incident at Jupiter Park. One night after sneaking out, the girl and boy claimed to had seen a group of women attacking an alcoholic in the middle of the woods. A tribe of women bashing an old drunk in the woods late at night was weird enough, but what made the story exceptionally scary was the fact that the teenagers said they saw the women throw the man on the ground and eat him. Not traditional ghost sightings, but real-life cannibalism. Afraid of being caught, the teenagers held their positions in hiding. With hands covering their mouths, they watched in horror as the women bit into the man's face and swallowed his flesh like hungry animals. The women ate everything; intestines, legs, and eyeballs were licked clean of blood and digested. The man's meat was chewed and consumed by the cannibalistic women as if he was prey, and they were a pack of hungry dogs.
After the interview aired, tons of curious teens descended on Jupiter Point, determined to find the man's remains. Nobody had believed the two teenagers, and everybody wanted to prove they were full of shit. The news reporters and most of the townspeople were about to chalk the whole thing up as a stupid hoax when the most surprising thing happened: searchers found the remains of the man - with teeth marks on his bones! The authorities were alerted, and the story went from Grade A Bullshit to Truly Horrific Murder Story in a matter of minutes. For weeks everyone searched for the group of cannibals in earnest. But after delivering no results, the authorities decided that the alcoholic man had gotten attacked by wolves and closed the case. But the story never really died in most people's minds. And so, Jupiter Point became even more mysterious.
"Forget this. I need to take a leak," Ben said as he grabbed his crotch. As he turned away from the window to walk to the bathroom, something moved in his peripheral. Ben turned back to the window and looked out into the forest again. That's when he saw him.
"No way!" Ben whispered.
It was the man from his nightmares! Ben watched in horror as the man walked amongst the trees, a strange emerald green light encircling him; he was wearing the same brimmed hat and trench coat he'd worn in his dreams. The more Ben stared at the man, the more frightened he became. Who was the strange man, and why was the stranger roaming around Jupiter Point late at night? Why was he in his dreams? Ben didn't notice, but his hands had begun to shake. There was something sinister about the man's presence that he just couldn't understand. Seeing the man in the flesh for the first time made Ben feel like a fawn caught in the sights of a lion; he was aware of the man's power without actually witnessing it.
The way the man moved through the forest was weird. The fireflies that lit the forest converged on the stranger and surrounded him as though they were a part of his coat. Although he was walking through thick bushes and numerous trees, nothing seemed to touch the strange man. His broad shoulders didn't brush against a single shrub or branch; he seemed to float through the forest. Ben felt cold shivers trickling down his spine. The man moved like a ghost.
Soon Ben started questioning himself.
"Is this the same guy? Is it him?"
Suddenly the man stopped walking. Ben quickly moved away from the window and plastered himself against the wall beside it. The man stared directly at the trailer as if he knew who was watching him from inside. Ben's heart was pounding. He was afraid to take a glimpse out into the darkness. There was no way the man knew who he was, yet he didn't want to risk it. His pregnant girlfriend was in no condition to try to escape.
Ben stayed plastered against the wall for a full thirty minutes. He listened for sounds, but there were none. No strange lights were shining through the window of the trailer. Finally satisfied that the man had gone, Ben relaxed and breathed deeply.
He walked to the bathroom to relieve himself and returned to the bedroom after a few minutes. After sitting on the edge of the bed and removing his shoes, Ben wondered if he should take another look out the window.
"Better safe than sorry," he whispered. Vanessa couldn't handle any surprises in her state. Ben stood up and walked to the window.
"It was probably just my imagination," he whispered. As soon as he put his face to the window to look out, his heart almost stopped. Two giant green eyes were staring at him from right outside the window! Ben was so afraid he couldn't say anything. He could only stare back at the glowing emerald eyes fixed on him. The eyes held Ben frozen like two alien magnets attached to his soul. He wanted to look at the man's face, but his eyes seemed so big that he could see nothing else. Suddenly there was a flash of light, and Ben covered his eyes. When he looked out of the window again, the man was gone.
Ben stood at the window, looking out into the forest for an hour. After seeing the man in his dreams outside the window, he didn't know how to process things. Was he hallucinating? Maybe the man was a manifestation of his stressful predicament. Perhaps he was just stressed from all that had happened in the last few days. When Ben had found a way to convince himself of hallucinations brought on by fatigue, his mind flashed back to what he had seen. He knew the man wasn't something his mind had created. The stranger was real. Ben could feel his presence before he appeared at the trailer. The stranger's existence was something Ben couldn't explain away.
Ben laid down in the bed next to Vanessa. After five minutes, he got up and walked to look out the window. Nothing was there. Satisfied, he went back to bed. After kissing Vanessa on her soft cheek and listening to the soft purr of her sleeping, he closed his eyes. After a few moments, he hopped out of bed again to stare out the window. What was the man doing here? Why was he walking into the forest? Was this the rumored strange man in the Jupiter Point stories he'd heard?
After wearing his mind thin with suppositions, Ben laid down beside Vanessa and watched the rays of the sunrise crawl through the trailer. He hadn't slept at all. Soon it would be time for him and Vanessa to begin their escape in earnest. Just as Vanessa woke to go to the bathroom, Ben dosed off to sleep.
Chapter 19: The Soul of Benjamin Pt.9
As the bus drove down the road, Vanessa and Ben barely spoke to one another. They were both in shock. Neither of them had seen a check so massive - $1.2 million. That's how much the lottery officials had given them after taxes.
The lottery officials had looked at the couple oddly when they collected their winnings. When presented with a check that size, most people would've been jumping up and down, screaming from excitement. Instead, Ben and Vanessa were quiet and reserved. There were no smiles or celebration. Instead, they kept looking around. They asked peculiar questions like,
"Can we avoid taking photos?"
"How quickly can we get the check?"
"Would there be any way one of you could drop us at the nearest bus station?"
Those kinds of questions worried the lottery officials, so they thoroughly checked Ben's identification and background. After delaying the couple for 4 hours, they could find no reason to deny payment, thus giving them the funds. The two had taken a taxi to their bank and immediately made a deposit. Although he could've withdrawn funds, Ben had decided to put it all in Vanessa's bank account. He informed Vanessa that they would only use her debit card. He wanted there to be a record of all the places they spent money – or the places a gunman forced them to spend the money.
Now the two were on a Greyhound bus headed to Vanessa's mother's house in upstate New York.
"How are you feeling?" asked Ben. Vanessa laid her head on his shoulder.
"Tired, I guess. I don't understand why you couldn't leave me waiting in the trailer while you came here alone."
"You know why," Ben lied. "I didn't
want to take the risk that Norman would show up while I was gone."
But the truth was he was afraid of what he'd seen the previous night in the back of the trailer. He didn't tell Vanessa what he'd seen because he didn't want to make their situation any more stressful than it already was. He wasn't even sure about what he'd seen. Maybe he'd been sleepwalking or something.
Vanessa pressed her face into Ben's shirt.
"Well, it's over now. Time for a new life," she purred as she closed her eyes.
"Yeah, baby. A new life. For the three of us," replied Ben. But he knew the journey wasn't over. There would be no way Norman would allow them to ride away into the sunset with that amount of cash. Ben needed to prepare for Norman's attack. He knew it was coming.
Chapter 20: The Soul of Benjamin Pt.10
"Baby…baby."
Vanessa gently shook Ben until he began to stir.
"The bus is stopping."
Ben wiped his eyes and looked out the window.
"We made it already? That was fast."
Suddenly, the voice of the driver yelled on the intercom.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your driver speaking. Unfortunately, we have to reroute due to a breakdown with one of our sister vehicles. As soon as we pick up these ten passengers, we'll be on our way."
Ben slammed his head against the seat in frustration.
"So much for getting out of here without a hitch."
The driver continued to speak on the intercom.
"As we pull into the parking lot just ahead, feel free to exit the vehicle to stretch your legs. There's not a lot to be seen here at Jupiter Point during the night, but take in the fresh air. We should be ready in 30 minutes or so."
Ben's eyes widened.
"Jupiter Point?!" he yelled. He quickly snatched open the curtained window and looked out into the darkness. How could this be? They'd been driving for a full 2 hours!
"I don't understand. How could we be back here?" asked Vanessa.
Both Ben and Vanessa were flummoxed. Suddenly Ben stood in the aisle and looked out the driver's window. As the bus pulled into the large parking lot, he could see another Greyhound bus parked with flashing lights. A group of men stood in front of the bus.
"We've got to get off this bus," Ben whispered as he pulled Vanessa from her seat. Sensing her boyfriend's fear, Vanessa quickly stood.
"Is he out there?"
"I didn't see him, but there's a group of guys standing in front of that bus."
"Wait. It couldn't be Norman. What are the odds of his bus breaking down and having our bus reroute to pick him up? And how would he even be looking for us on this bus? How could he know that?"
"I know. Pretty close to impossible."
"I think we should stay here. At least we'd be surrounded by witnesses."
Ben shook his head in disagreement.
"Witnesses won't matter. He's not going to be alone."
"What do you mean?"
Vanessa grabbed Ben's arm.
"There's something you're not telling me."
Ben pulled on Vanessa's hand as he moved through the crowd toward the front of the bus. He didn't know how to answer his girlfriend. What was Ben going to say that Ben and Norman were robbing homes together? That he'd witnessed Norman kill someone and that he knew Norman had possibly killed a second person? That Ben had seen a supernatural man in his dreams appear in the forest behind their trailer? Was he going to tell his pregnant girlfriend how he felt the dream man and Norman shared some type of weird connection? That they both were coming after them? The whole thing sounded crazy to him, and he was the one thinking it!
After the bus parked, the doors swung open, and the line of people began to exit. When Vanessa and Ben stood, he pulled her around the front to the side, not visible to the waiting bus. As the rest of the riders exited the bus, he and Vanessa walked quickly towards the forest.
"Why are we going into the forest?" asked Vanessa as she cuffed her stomach with one hand.
"We've got to get out of Jupiter Point."
"But why not wait for the bus to load? It's the simplest and safest way for us to leave."
Ben ignored Vanessa's question and pressed forward towards the edge of the forest. As the two were about to enter the woods, Ben looked back over his shoulder.
"Oh my God!" he whispered.
Standing at the entrance to their bus was Norman. As he climbed the bus stairs, a man behind him tapped Norman on the shoulder and pointed in Ben and Vanessa's direction. After seeing the two standing at the edge of the forest, Norman jumped off the stairs. He yelled into the bus, and two more men came out.
"Ben! That's him! But how?" asked Vanessa.
"Let's go!" Ben responded as he pulled his girlfriend into the woods. As the two disappeared into the dark forest, the group of four men gave chase.
Chapter 21: The Soul of Benjamin Pt.11
Ben used his body as a shield for Vanessa. He protected her against all of the briars and bushes that impeded their path. Their descent into the darkness of Jupiter Point was one filled with fear. They could hear the constant snapping of shrubs and tree branches from the men chasing them through the forest. The occasional expletive would betray the group's exact location and allowed Ben and Vanessa to adjust their speed as they pushed deeper into the woods. From Ben's calculation, they were extending the distance between the pursuers and themselves. But Ben was starting to worry. Not only were they in the same forest, he'd seen the strange man, but Vanessa also couldn't continue pushing through the woods at this speed. The walking was admittedly bad for the baby and could cause her to miscarry.
Finally, Ben stopped beside a large tree to catch his breath.
"I…need…to…sit down," panted Vanessa. Ben grabbed her arm and carefully lowered her to the ground.
"I…can’t…keep this up. Where are we going?"
"Back to the trailer."
"What?! But…"
"If we can make it there without Norman seeing us, that'll buy us a little time. He doesn't know the location of our trailer. That will give you some time to rest while I go out to find a car."
"Which way is the…trailer? Do you know how to get there?"
"No. But it shouldn't be too difficult. We're walking downhill now. The trailer park is at the bottom of the hill."
Vanessa started crying.
"Come on, baby. Only a little further to go," whispered Ben. The two rose to their feet and continued descending into the blackness of the forest. Ben winced as he heard Vanessa's breathing become more labored with each step. He knew she wouldn't be able to go much further.
Suddenly he stopped.
"What is it? Why are we stopping again?" asked Vanessa. Ben stared in amazement. On the ground was a florescent green trail of mist that curled through the weeds and into the forest. Ben tried to shield his discovery from his girlfriend, but she pushed him aside.
"What is it?" she asked as she stared at the mist. "Is it chemical?"
"I don't know, but I think it leads to the trailer park."
"How do you know?"
"I don't. But if we don't try it, I'm afraid we'll get lost in this mess."
Gingerly, Ben pulled Vanessa onto the glowing path. As the two continued on the trail, he couldn't help but be worried about what was waiting at the end of the road; the mist was the same color as the man's eyes he'd seen peering into their trailer. There was no way the glowing mist was a coincidence.
As they walked along the glowing trail, Ben noticed that Vanessa's breathing had ceased. Amazingly, she seemed to be walking faster than him. She brushed aside tree limbs and bushes as though she knew where she was going.
"Come on, Ben. Hurry up," she commanded. Soon, their suffering positions reversed; he was breathing hard and gasping for air while she pulled at his arm like he was a 4-year-old child. Soon she stopped cuffing her belly. Twenty minutes later, Ben walked out of the forest drenched in sweat, while Vanessa stomped ahead towards the end of the green trail.
They were at the trailer park. She turned to look at Ben.
"Can you hear them behind us?"
The two listened silently. No sounds were coming from the trees.
"I think we lost them," said Ben. They both looked at the ground and watched as the green mist slowly disappeared. Vanessa looked into Ben's eyes.
"You think this was a coincidence?"
"No."
"God?"
"Maybe. Let's go to the trailer. I don't feel safe being out here."
Ben and Vanessa cut across the back of the trailer home until they reached their unit. After watching the road for a few minutes, they entered and went straight to the bedroom.
"Don't turn on the lights," Ben instructed. "They might see us."
Vanessa sat on the edge of the bed and attempted to swing her feet up. After seeing her struggle for a few seconds, Ben bent over and lifted her legs onto the lumpy mattress. He kissed her gently on the lips and lowered her head on the pillow.
"We should be okay here for a few hours. Try to get some sleep, okay, baby?" he said.
Vanessa smiled and closed her eyes. Within a few seconds, she was sleeping soundly. Ben walked over to the small window and made sure the curtain blocked all view into the trailer. After watching Vanessa sleep for a few minutes, he walked into the living room and sat down. There would be no sleeping for him. He was sure he'd have visitors in a few hours.
Chapter 22: The Soul of Benjamin Pt.12
Vanessa sat up in bed and watched as Ben peeked out the bedroom window.
"Is it…"
Ben raised one finger.