He knew she was talking about what he’d found out from Rob but didn’t know how she knew he’d told Jim anything. Then again they had been best friends so of course Rob had told him stuff. Jim had promised not to tell anyone but after thinking about it for a minute he decided that the two women could be trusted with the secrets. Besides they weren’t about to go running out the door shouting his information to the world. Grandma seemed to know everything that happened in town anyways and Jill wasn’t going to tell anyone so he figured Rob was safe.
After coming to his decision he began relating to them all the things Rob had told him especially how the tree near Tommy looked like it’d been cut and about the goat hair. He tried to add the goat hair bit as an afterthought but wasn’t too convincing. If he thought about that part too much he would start thinking those crazy thoughts again. He definitely didn’t want that to happen. Not having been stopped he quickly moved on to the part about the tracks that were found in the area and how they couldn’t figure out where they’d come from. He didn’t mention any of his suspicions but when he was done the room had gone quiet while everyone thought about what they’d heard could mean.
Grandma sat across from him looking thoughtful. While he’d been speaking he noticed her getting more and more upset so he’d ended his tale as quickly as possible but probably not fast enough. Some of the things he’d said must’ve been known to her but a lot of it was almost certainly new. Grandma slowly closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath. Jim thought he heard it rattling in her lungs but hoped he was mistaken. He was just nervous. He didn’t like where the conversation had ended up and hoped it would move on to something more pleasant soon. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen.
“One of my poor boys is dead and that creature from those damn woods is responsible,” Grandam whispered. “We thought it was gone. But no! Oh no! It always comes back.” She looked as if she’d aged ten years in the last few minutes. Her shoulders slumped more than they had when he’d arrived and her eyes had lost a little of that sparkle they’d previously had. Jim looked at Jill trying to find some explanation for what Grandma had just said but if anything she looked as if she were more baffled than he was.
“You,” she said looking at Jim, “are too young to know what I’m talking about and you,” she said turning to Jill, “didn’t even grow up in this cursed town so have never even heard about the damned things I’m about which I’m going to speak.” She paused to gather her thoughts. Jill looked at her worriedly before looking at Jim hoping he might know what was going on. Not having any answers for her he just shrugged his shoulders and waited. Grandma drew a shaky breath and began speaking.
“Once a long time ago this town was a very sad and dark place. It started out nice enough. When the town was new, everyone lent a hand to help each other get on their feet. For the first few months it wasn’t actually that bad of a place to be. But eventually that changed. Things started going wrong. The town itself was, by this time, quickly filling up with houses and people, so some of the folks recently arrived from other places began venturing out into the surrounding woods looking to make a place for themselves. Others went to explore, but a lot were searching for just the right spot to build their new houses and begin their new lives. Unfortunately for most that wasn’t meant to be. Those that chose to live away from town usually were rarely ever seen again.”
“Oh sure, every once in a while one or two would come stumbling from the woods but something wasn’t quite right with them. Something had gone wrong in their heads and they quickly either wandered off again or killed themselves. Some of the towns’ people tried to talk to them and find out what had gone wrong but only got strange tales for their troubles. Those that returned told of strange creatures and strange places the quiet people of the town couldn’t begin to understand.”
“They spoke of things that were quite literally beyond their belief. Mostly, the stories they told went something along the lines of having lost their way in the woods but not being too worried about it at first. They continued by saying that as they walked they could swear they heard whispers and things moving through the woods around them. They never saw what made the noises but they knew something was there. The feeling of being watched never left them. Eventually the whispering would get louder and they would begin to think they could almost understand what was being said. At first it sounded like someone was calling them. The voices sounded almost familiar to them. The people, now beginning to get scared, would start running towards what they thought was safety but they never found anyone. They would no sooner get to the place where they were sure the voices were coming from than it would suddenly start from a totally different direction. This would go on and on until they could run no farther. Then it would suddenly stop. They would collapse from exhaustion but just as they were about to fall asleep the voices would start again. Urging them to stand and look for help again. Promising they weren’t far and were almost out of the woods. If they were lucky they might suddenly find themselves out of the woods with the whispers now turned to laughter at their backs. If they weren’t lucky, well you can probably figure out that part.”
Grandma stopped at this point to take a drink of her now cold coffee. Jim had been so memorized he hadn’t even seen it sitting on the table in front of her. Thinking Jill must’ve brought it over he looked at her only to find her face full of disbelief. She probably thought her grandmother had finally gone off the deep end. Thoughts of old folks homes were most likely passing through her head right at this moment. He was just about to trying to get her attention when Grandma took up her story again.
“Others,” she began again, “told terrible stories of monstrous creatures that would chase them night and day until they thought they wouldn’t be able to take another step. Just as they were sure they were dead and had no choice but to collapse the sounds of pursuit would stop. Chest heaving, legs aching they would finally get up the nerve to turn and look for their pursuers only to find the forest behind them empty. No beast with thousands of teeth waiting, no shrouded figure with raised scythe. Just empty woods with bird chirping at them from the trees. Thinking their ordeal at an end they would soon find themselves fast asleep with thoughts of how silly they were for thinking something was chasing them dancing in their head. But then it would start again.”
“If that weren’t enough, there were a very few others who said they actually saw the creature that chased them. But like I said there were very few of these. It probably would’ve been better if there were none. The lost ones that claimed to have actually seen the creatures were the worst off. They were the ones who usually didn’t live long after their escapes. They were never extremely clear about what exactly happened but most spoke of how the creature would only come at the end of one of the chases when there was no possibility that its prey could move another inch.”
“Then it would appear, lumbering through the woods carrying a crude ax or some other type of weapon braying its horrible call. The focus of its fury would have no choice but to sit and wait for the death the creature promised by it’s approach. It would stand over them, looking down upon them with horrible leaf green eyes until they either passed out from fright or closed their eyes to wait for the end. They would stay this way, sure they could feel the beast breath on their face, smelling it’s earthy, wet stink thinking about what was about to happen. But nothing did. When they either woke or opened their eyes the thing would be gone. They said things of this type would go on for days. There was no hope of fighting back. The creature seemed to inspire weakness in them. Once brave men became babes in its presence. Then for no reason they could figure out, they would be running from one of the beasts and would suddenly find themselves back where they had started, on the edge of the woods. Alone. No creature chasing them. Nothing but the chirping birds and themselves. Thinking themselves crazy they would slowly make their ways back to town. They would be found talking to themselves about creatures that didn’t exist and these fri
ghtening stories would then be passed to the rest of town making many a brave men crowd around a fire at night. None ever returned to the woods. Most eventually wandered off. Those that didn’t, as I said, killed themselves.”
“Now I see the by the looks on your faces you think I left something out. You’re probably wondering why nobody went and hunted these beasts down. Well, some did. Some went out to see if they could find anything. Most returned empty handed. At least those that returned. Some never did. It was almost as if the things in the woods knew that if they took too many or were caught themselves then more people would come invading there woods. After a time of searching and finding nothing fewer and fewer people went looking. Everyone stayed to the known roads and pretty much left the woods alone. The ones that did venture in never went out of sight of the road they’d left. Over time people stopped disappearing and it was eventually forgotten. A few brave souls began building houses closer to the woods. They lit fires at night to keep whatever might be lurking at bay. When nothing happened and the terrible events of the past faded to just a memory more and more people started building near the woods. People who just couldn’t live with the past moved away but most ended up staying. They’d traveled far and weren’t going to give up their new home. Where would they go? Everything they had was here.” Grandma stopped speaking to take a small sip of her coffee. The face she made indicated what she thought of it. She got up and went to the sink as she continued her story.
“All this happened a few months before my mother was born.” she said. Pausing to look at Jill, she said, “Your great, great grandfather was one of the people that went looking and never came back. He was young back then. Just married and with a little one and another on the way. He wasn’t about to back down and give up his home. So off he went one day never to return.” Almost as if caught in a memory she stopped speaking and just stared off into nothing. Jim was about to ask how she knew all this but she beat him to it. “The stories of what happened were passed down. They became things of legend. Urban myths if you will. But these legends, these myths, were based in fact not fiction.”
“Mothers used the tales to frighten children,” she said with a sad smile. “They scared them, myself included, by telling them that if they weren’t good or if they didn’t listen and do their chores, then the Goatman would come and take them away to the woods. If the parent was especially cruel or the child especially bad they would tell how he’d hang them by their toenails or strip the skin off their back and eat it right in front of them. The description of the terrible things that would be done was enough to make the kids lay awake in their beds for a week. Needless to say most kids in town were well behaved. Then again there were a few that weren’t but they never ended up staying around long.
As far as we know the beast never came out of the woods but children still disappeared once in a while. No smart parent would allow their kids to go anywhere near the forest alone. My mother didn’t need to use things like that to get me to listen. We’d already lost our grandfather. That was enough. Now after all these years the damn thing should be dead but from what I’m hearing it sounds like its back. I knew this day would come and prayed that it never would. Some damn idiot must’ve called it.”
“What do you mean called it?” Jim asked with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
“Well from everything I heard as a child, the actual reason that all the bad things really stopped was because of an old woman who lived nearby. Actually now that I think of it I think she lived in the woods themselves. Everybody thought she was a witch or something. Who else could live where she did and survive? Anyways, the story goes that at some point, for some reason she put a curse on the creature that was taking our people. Nothing I heard was really clear on why just that she did. After that things calmed down. People stopped disappearing and things returned to normal. A while later, after a particularly bad storm, someone went looking for the old woman and found her cottage empty. The person that went looking saw a message scratched in the wood of the door that said the beast that was terrorizing the town was gone and would only come again if somebody called it. There was this stupid little rhyme that could return it to our world where it could once again terrorize the town. All I really know is that the disappearances stopped. For all we know the witch was the one causing everything and the creature was just trying to save us. Nobody knows for sure except for sure. The only thing we know are the stories of those it chased. Unfortunately my grandfather was one of the last few people that disappeared before the old woman put and end to it. I know that creature was the one responsible and now it’s back.”
“Yeah but Grandma, you said it was somehow responsible for Tommy’s death,” Jill said. “What did you mean?”
Grandma looked at them for a moment then focused on Jim as if she knew something she couldn’t possibly know. “Do you know if Tommy ever tried looking for or maybe even calling for the Goatman?”
He could hear his hear thumping so loudly in his head he was surprised the two women didn’t notice it. As he looked at them parts of his dream drifted back to him. He heard four adolescent voices calling out as one asking the creature to appear. He saw the beast parting the shadows, coming towards them, answering their call. He saw the axe as it was raised in the air ready to speed its way to his death. He heard the whistle as it sliced the air and jumped as it hit its destination. But that was only a dream he thought coming back to himself. None of it had happened. Jim thought better of telling them anything about it for obvious reasons. He knew he and his friends were responsible for its return. Instead of answering her question he tried to deflect it.
“Grandma it was just some goat hair,” he said. “I admit it’s strange that it’s there but that’s all it was.” He hoped changing the subject to something based in the real world and not in myth would defuse the tension he felt building. He didn’t trust himself to start talking about the things Grandma had brought up. He believed that she believed everything she’d said but she couldn’t be right. There were no such things as bogeymen much less Goatmen.
“The Goatman’s just a legend,” he said having a hard time convincing himself much less them. “I’m not saying that stuff didn’t happen but it was a long time ago. This is now. People don’t just walk off into the woods and disappear anymore. We were all told the stories about the Goatman growing up but that’s all they were. Stories. None of us believed it. It’s just a legend. How could it have killed Tommy?” He felt like a shit saying all this stuff especially since he didn’t believe it but he couldn’t tell them that he and his friends were the ones who called the creature back from where ever it had been. He really wanted to believe what he was saying but he couldn’t. He just had to hope that Jill and her grandmother did.
“It’s not just a legend!” Grandma yelled ruining that thought.
Her anger surprised him so much he was at a loss for what to say. One minute Grandma’d sat across from him seemingly silently resigned the next she was about coming over the table yelling at him. He hadn’t been out to upset her but apparently he had. He could understand why she was upset and wished he could tell her he believed everything she said one hundred percent but he also had to try to keep things real. If he sat here and agreed with her that some mythical beast was responsible for his friends’ death, Jill might as well call the funny farm for both of them. Grandma’s outward appearance visibly shrank as Jim watched her prepare for what she would say next. Her momentary outburst seemed to have depleted what little energy she had.
“I’m tired,” she said rising slowly from the chair. “I’m tired and I’m going to bed. All this useless talk of the old days has worn me out. Especially since it’s fallen on deaf ears. But don’t forget what I said Jim. All legends are somehow, someway, somewhere rooted in fact.” With that she turned and wafted out of the kitchen like a ghost.
Sitting there for a few minutes, neither knew what to say. After the conversation with Grandma it seemed a mutual agreement that neither
of them felt much like going out. Jill was the first to break the spell and busied herself making coffee while Jim made his way out to the porch and took a seat. It was a lot darker than when he’d first arrived. They’d spent longer talking to than he thought they would.
The night seemed much colder now than before. He didn’t know if it was just because of the season or because of all he’d heard. Sitting there he realized something else. The night was quiet. There seemed to be no sounds. Nothing like what he was used to. There were no sirens sounding in the distance, no screaming and yelling coming from the apartments around him and no sounds coming from the mouth of the teenage gang bangers that seemed to come out like a flock of locusts after the sun went down. He’d forgotten how nice his home town was. He could get used to a place like this.
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