Come Get Me

by Michael Hunter

  “God damn it! Now what am I supposed to do!” she wailed. Turning her back on him she started crying. He could care less. He hoped she stayed that way the rest of the night. At least by then he’d be free. Unfortunately after only a few seconds she turned back around. Tears were still running down her face but she seemed to be done crying. “Well,” she sneered, “I guess it’s back to Plan A.”

  She quickly turned around and walked into another room. He continued struggling with the ropes but couldn’t help but listen to what she was doing. It sounded like hurricane Maria had come to town. Things were being thrown all over the place. He heard things hitting the walls, scraping across the floor and one thing even went flying from the door only to land a few feet from where he was on the floor. He hoped it was something he could use but it was only an old stack of magazines. He didn’t know what she was looking for but it probably wasn’t going to be good for him. At the same time he got loose of the last knot all noise stopped in the other room. He started to stand up but heard Maria coming back his way. He quickly sat back down hiding his hands. He still needed to get Jill before he could leave. Now that he was free he could probably over power her and everything would be alright. But he had to use his element of surprise. He couldn’t give her a chance to run. It had to be quick.

  Maria slowly walked into the room holding something behind her back. He couldn’t see what it was but it looked bulky.

  “You know how I made it look like Tommy and Rob had been killed by the Goatman?” she began. He just looked at her. Staying silent was still the safest route. He didn’t want to provoke her any more than necessary. He knew it didn’t really matter anymore since he was free but Jill wasn’t. Maria could probably kill her before he could reach her so he had to keep her attention on him. “Well, you and Jill are going to get to join them and I’m going to do it the same way I did your friends. You get to be another victim of the Goatman!” she squealed as she moved the object she was holding from behind her back. In her hand was an axe. Not just a little hatchet type of thing but one of the big ones. Just the thing you average monster would use to dismember his victims.

  “The Goatman has just been such a busy little killer hasn’t he?” she asked merrily as she stepped towards Jill raising the axe. Jim knew it was now or never. He dove towards her and hit her just as the axe was starting its downward swing.

  The impact drove most of the air from his body. The landing wasn’t much help either. He hadn’t got up this morning planning on fighting a crazy woman with an axe but if he was going to save Jill he had no choice. They tumbled across the floor as they landed and Jim managed to knock the axe from her hands almost loping his arm off in the process. It didn’t cut him but he did take a solid hit to his shoulder which made his whole arm go numb. Things were just not going in his favor today. He knew his chances of defending himself and Jill had just gone down quite a bit but Pete was still out there somewhere, hopefully alive, and hopefully looking for help. Things weren’t looking good for the home team.

  As they both struggle to get a hold on the other Maria surprised him by landing a glancing blow to his crotch. He, just like every other man when hit in that area, instantly lost all control of himself. He tried to hold on to her but the pain was so intense she was able to wriggle free. During the scuffle he found out another thing that wasn’t going to make this escape very easy. She was a lot stronger than he’d thought. He also found out just how useless his arm really was. Every time he tried to move it pain shot from his head to his toes. Between that and his crotch he had no choice but to release her. He didn’t want her getting away but he couldn’t stop her.

  Once she was free she quickly jumped up and began looking for the axe. Luckily she had totally lost track of where it’d flown when he’d knocked it away. It wasn’t much but at least it was something. While she looked it gave him time to recover. Jim was in an extreme amount of pain but he was slowly trying to make his way to his feet. He only made it as far as his knees before his head began swimming. As if things weren’t bad enough his stomach decided to rebel and emptied itself all over the floor. He was on his one good hand and knees stomach still heaving when he was violently kicked in his ribs. As he tumbled across the floor he rightly guessed Maria had given up her attempts to find the axe. Instead she’d decided to use his ribs to practice kicking field goals. When she kicked him again he tried to roll with it but wasn’t quick enough. Once upon a time someone had told him that if you rolled with a kick it wouldn’t hurt as much. If he made it out of this alive he swore he’d find that person and kick them then ask how it felt. He had rolled with the kick but still felt like he had caught every last bit of it.

  “Damn, I’m glad I never dated you,” she yelled as she readied for another shot. “If I’d known it was this easy to kick your ass I would’ve definitely found someone else.” She emphasized her last statement with another hard kick to his ribs. Jim was sure he felt something crack on this one. He instantly started coughing and quickly regretted it. He watched as spit dribbled from his mouth and puddle on the floor. To his horror he could see there was just a little bit of blood mixed with it. She’d probably punctured something he probably would’ve rather not have punctured. He’d already been having trouble breathing but now every time he tried to take even a little breath it felt like his chest was in a vice. The great thing about this was that it made him cough which made him hurt all the more. His vision was starting to dim and knew that wasn’t a good sign. Struggling to remain conscious but losing the battle he tried getting back to at least his hands and knees. It didn’t work very well.

  “C’mon! Do something, you frickin wimp!” she taunted him. “Don’t just lay there!” she yelled landing a nice kick to his head. Jim saw her, as if through some type of fog, throw her hands up in disgust and retreat to the room she’d got the axe from. Through the ever-thickening fog that was covering his eyes he wondered what she was waiting for. He was lying defenseless. She could kill him whenever she wanted and yet she held off. He felt half dead anyways. He'd probably thank her at this point if she did kill him he was in so much pain. Then again there was Jill to think about. She was still here too. Looking at her he was ashamed to feel slightly jealous. At least she didn’t know what was happening. She’d pretty much been drugged up throughout this whole ordeal and would probably end up never waking again.

  “Jim!” he heard someone whisper. For the first few seconds after hearing his name he thought he was dreaming. Just moving his head made his vision dim but he did it anyways so that he might see who was calling him. Maybe it was somebody from the other side come to help him on his way. He didn’t immediately see anyone but wasn’t too surprised. His vision was getting blacker around the edges at an alarming rate. Moving his head hadn’t helped much. Luckily after a few seconds of thinking he was passing out he was able to see a little better. Unfortunately that didn’t help. He still didn’t see anything.

  “Jim over here!” called the whisper again. “It’s me Pete!”

  Jim knew he was fading and the voice he heard actually was from the other side. He’d seen Pete shot in the back. That must be why it was him. When Jim had thought of death before he never thought he’d be greeted by Pete when it happened. He was almost disappointed. At least someone was there though and he guessed that was all that mattered. Looking around he was still unable to see where Pete was but moving around caused him to realize something. He wasn’t actually dead. If he could still feel pain then he was still alive. If he was still alive then he was still in danger. Wanting to slap himself for almost giving up he forced his eyes to focus and found Pete’s head sticking up above the window he’d jumped out of a few minutes before.

  “Jim, wake up damn it! I need some help here,” Pete whispered a little louder. Once he saw Jim was looking in his direction he began talking again. Jim couldn’t hear most of it since his hearing had decided to rebel but he did hear Pete tell him he just needed to hold on for a little longer. He said the Goatm
an was almost there and that all he had to do was wait a little longer.

  Great, Jim thought, the Goatman was almost there. Maybe he could talk him into putting him out of his misery since no one else seemed to want to. For someone who said she wanted him dead Maria was sure taking her time. But hey at least the Goatman was on his way. Yup, Pete was still crazy. Leave it to him to think some mythological creature was on the way. Forget all about going for actual living, breathing help. Not that it mattered much anyways since, if the thing was real, it wanted to kill him almost as much as Maria did if not more. Jim was still slowly processing everything when he was startled and almost smacked his head on the floor as shots split the night and pieces of wood started flying from the window frame where Pete’s head was.

  “Damn he’s a fast little bugger!” Maria exclaimed. “Think I got him that time though. If not oh well.” She turned her attention back to Jim and smiled.

  “I’ll just deal with him after you and I are finished.”

  Jim’s concentration was lost as a result of the gunfire but he still tried to focus his eyes enough so that he only saw one Maria instead of three. One was bad enough, but three was enough that he almost asked for the gun to kill himself for her. It was too much trouble trying to see her so he just closed his eyes and rested his head on the floor. It was making his head hurt worse anyways. He figured he might as well be as comfortable as possible if these were going to be the last few moments of his life. He didn’t like giving up but there was nothing he could do. There wasn’t much he could do with one arm and no weapon. Maybe if the army or something came in right now they might live but as it stood now he could barely move his head without passing out much less fight for his life. Maria held all the cards. Opening his eyes he looked her way to see what she was doing and was saddened to see tow of her standing across the room from him. Gun in one hand, gasoline can in the other. Not a good mix. She saw the direction of his gaze and smiled. “Don’t worry; it’s still the axe for you and the tart. I can’t use the gun on you. It wouldn’t fit the story. Remember? The Goatman carries an axe not a gun, silly.”

  Nonchalantly tossing the gun over her shoulder she slowly sauntered over to Jill. Staring at Jim she slowly began spilling the contents of the can around Jill’s feet. The smell of gasoline slowly reached his nose making him sneeze. This just added more agony to his already tortured body. He was clear headed enough to wonder how the whole house wasn’t an inferno by now. Between the two of them rolling around a little while ago to the gasoline it was a wonder they weren’t toast by now.

  Squinting he saw the interior actually did look a little darker than he remembered. He assumed the darkness was a result of his head injuries but that apparently wasn’t the case. Adjusting his head he saw most of the candles that had been lit the last time he’d seen them were now scattered, smoking as they died. Maria must’ve taken advantage of the time he’d been unconscious to extinguish most of them so she could draw out her little plan as long as possible.

  In his mind he still struggled to regain enough of his senses to mount some kind of resistance; he couldn’t let it end this way, but his body wouldn’t obey him either. He was still having a lot of trouble breathing and his arm was still dead. His hands and knees were the farthest he’d been able to make it since his pummeling had begun. He didn’t know what to do. If there were ever any option he hadn’t seen them. Now all he had to pin his hopes on was a creature that didn’t exist. Oh yeah, said creature wanted to kill him so there went that idea.

  Through a haze of pain he watched Maria as she danced around the room dumping gas here and there like it was water instead of a flammable liquid. While most of the candles were out he knew some were still burning otherwise they wouldn’t be able to see. It wouldn’t take much for a small flame to become a big one. Especially in an old place like this. It would go up like it was made of paper.

  She made it most of the way around the room when she suddenly stopped and tossed the can to the ground. Bending over she shifted some boards and papers out of her way, let out a small squeal of delight and stood up.

  “Looky what I’ve found Jimmy!” she shrieked happily.

  Shit, Jim thought, she found the damn axe. Why couldn’t Pete have made himself useful and grabbed the damn thing before he left. At least then he would have been of some help instead of running around spouting stuff about the Goatman. He really did sound like some kind of freak when he did crap like that.

  “So, which one of you do you think I should kill first?” Maria asked no one in particular. “Maybe I should do the Eany, Meany, Miney, Moe thing. That always works in the movies. Then again I could do the Rock, Paper, Scissors stuff but that’s no fun alone.”

  She stood thoughtfully for a minute.

  “Oh! I know! We can draw straws!” she said jumping up and down. “Wait a minute. Jilly isn’t awake enough for that. This is really a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be.” She stood undecided for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and walking towards Jim.

  “Well,” she began sounding somewhat sad, “since Jill won’t be awake for a while I suppose you and I will just have to have our fun first. Nothing that will kill you or anything like that. We have to wait until I kill Jill for that. Who knows, maybe if we’re lucky your yelling and screaming will help wake her up, then I can have some fun with her while you watch. You have to watch you know.” Pausing again with a finger to her lips, “No, I think we’ll just make sure you’re in a lot of pain first. The fun stuff will come later.” She took a step closer fingering the blade of the axe, “Let’s see, where should we…” she was abruptly cut off as a tremor shook the floor. Jim could almost swear he heard a ringing sound accompany it but he guessed that was probably just from his injuries.

  Dust sifted down from settling around them in a cloud. Jim could hear groans of protest sounding from the upper floor of the house. Maybe someone was looking down on him. If he was lucky the house might come crashing down around them. If he was really lucky it would just fall on Maria, killing her allowing him and Jill to make their escape.

  “What the hell was that?” Maria yelped.

  Almost as if it had been waiting for some signal the tremor rocked the house again. Pieces of plaster fell from the walls this time. Jim’s hopes rose as he thought about something falling on Maria. He also heard the ringing sound again. It sounded vaguely familiar but he couldn’t remember from where

  Maria looked unsure of what to do. Obviously what was happening wasn’t part of her grand plan. She looked around the room like a deer caught in headlights. Her eyes were wide and darting all over the place trying to find the source of the miniature quakes. He’d actually like to know himself.

  Glancing at the front entrance to see if maybe Pete was there causing this he saw nothing. He briefly entertained the possibility that Pete might’ve been able to reach someone and they come to the rescue like the proverbial cavalry. Apparently that wasn’t the case. There was some other explanation for what was going on. He just didn’t think he would be around to find out what it was. His vision was blurring quite a bit around the edges. If it wasn’t for the situation it might’ve been kinda interesting but as it was it was just a bad sign of things to come. Looking at Maria he could barely make her out. Between the drifting dirt and dust and his failing eyes she looked more like a ghost than an actual human being.

  Jim knew the combination of all his injuries were finally taking there toll on his mind. His body was telling him it was time to shut down for a while and relax. But he couldn’t. There was still a crazy woman with an axe he had to find some way to deal with so he willed his addled mind back to the brink of consciousness. He probably wouldn’t be able to talk her out of killing them but he could try. At the very least he would face his death awake just like his friends had.

  “Come on,” he croaked, “this place is getting ready to fall down around our ears. Let’s go. We won’t tell anyone what happened. We’ll all just go our own
ways.”

  “You won’t tell anyone?” she repeated. “What do you think I am? My name isn’t Johnny. I’m not some puppy dog following someone around so close that if they stopped his head would go up their butt. Give me a little more credit than that.”

  “You’re right,” he said gritting his teeth, “obviously something isn’t going according to your plan. Maybe you should just get out of here and leave us. That would work wouldn’t it? Nobody would find us for days. We might even be dead by then.” He couldn’t believe he was saying crap like this but he didn’t really have any choice. A bum arm and a rattled head weren’t the best things to have when trying to negotiate for your life. He was about to say more when the house suddenly shook again worse than either of the previous two times. Things fell from the roof, boards splintered in the walls, a crash sounded from another room then everything stopped. Nothing broke the silence but the echo of the metal on metal sound he kept hearing. It still sounded familiar to him. Almost like something from a dream he’d once had but he couldn’t remember what it was about.