The Pit in the Woods: A Mercy Falls Mythos

by Nathaniel Reed

  “Really, you two, aren’t you too old for this?”

  They looked up at the voice, although Jeremy already knew who it was.

  “Hi again,” Staci said. “You mind if I join you guys?”

  Jeremy pointed. Tony didn’t fail to notice his hand was shaking slightly. He wondered if Staci noticed. “Aren’t you sitting with those girls?”

  “Oh them, yeah. But you’re much better company.”

  Tony tipped Jeremy a wink, making sure Staci didn’t see. Jeremy made a quit it face.

  “Okay,” he said. “Um, Tony, this is Staci. Staci, Tony.”

  “Yeah, I know who you are.” She shook his hand, trying not to think of the blood, and the knife. She sat down next to Jeremy, facing Tony. “So, you two are good friends, I guess.”

  Tony replied, “The best.”

  11

  Max got up. He put his hand to his nose and it came away bloody.

  “You bitch! You bloodied my nose!”

  She was up already; ready to kick him in his nuts if he tried anything else.

  “Farris,” Max called to her surprise. “Go and teach this bitch the value of respect.”

  Before she could react Farris launched himself at her and

  grabbed both her arms. Jesus, he’s strong.

  “In the other room please,” Max said. “We’ve got more business to discuss.”

  “Let go of me!” Julia screamed. He took her into another room, a former office, and locked the door.

  Farris pinned her on the rusty, dented steel desk. She struggled against him, tried to bring her knee up, but he blocked her intent. He turned her over so her face hit the desk, holding her arms behind her back. Pain sliced through both arms as he twisted them back, and she cried out. He yanked off her jacket.

  Julia’s mind grew guarded against the unreality of what she knew was going to happen to her.

  Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my …

  He said, “I’ve been waiting for this Julia.”

  …God! He’s going to…

  12

  “You eating in the lunchroom?” Johnny asked him.

  “Yes,” Myron said. “Where else?”

  “You know, you’ve got a smart mouth on you kid. I thought maybe you’d wanna go outside.”

  “Sorry. No. I always eat inside.”

  “All right. I’ll eat with you inside, this time. But aren’t you worried they’ll be there?”

  “Oh, you mean Max and the others. No, I saw them leave early this morning. They are cutting.”

  “Watching out for yourself there. That’s good.”

  “We are kind of late though,” Myron said. “Most of the food is probably gone.”

  Johnny rolled his eyes and adopted a goofy grin. “Aw shucks, I guess we’d better hurry then.”

  13

  …rape me!! He’s going to rape me!!

  Farris pulled off her bikini top, turning her over again to see.

  Her nipples were pink and pointy. They excited him. He put his mouth

  on one and tasted it.

  Julia hated herself because as much as she loathed this creature, as much as she struggled to break free, she felt her nipples harden under his hot breath. His tongue circled them, saliva dripping down the slopes of her breasts, and she hated him.

  He began to pull down her skirt. She renewed the struggle in full force. Max’s voice drifted in from the door. “We are destined for greatness!”

  She kicked out at him, managing to break free long enough to hit him on the thigh, several inches shy of her intended target. He winced, and shrugged it off; holding her down more roughly than before, if that was even possible. Jack Farris continued his torment.

  14

  “Isn’t that Johnny, the guy who helped you?” Staci said, addressing Tony.

  Tony looked over to where she’d indicated and three tables down, sure enough; there was John Winter with some other kid, taking seats at an otherwise empty table.

  “Yeah,” Tony said, not sure what she was expecting of him.

  “I think she thinks you should thank him,” Jeremy said. He mouthed the words again, realizing he’d created a minor tongue twister.

  “Well, I’m not sure I was thinking that exactly, but it’s not such a bad idea you know,” Staci said.

  “I wonder who that is with him,” Jeremy said.

  “Myron Powers,” Tony replied.

  “You know him?”

  “Not really. He’s in my English class.”

  Jeremy nodded. “So are you going to?”

  “What?” Tony said.

  “Thank him.”

  “Really that wasn’t why I mentioned him,” Staci jumped in. “It’s really his business if he wants to or not.” She paused, adding demurely, “Although maybe he should.”

  “All right! All right already!” Tony exclaimed. “Jeeze, I’ll go!”

  15

  Carl was getting really uneasy. Julia had mouthed off and he’d blown his top, and now Max had Farris doing his dirty work on her.

  “No! Stop! Please don’t!” Julia screamed inside the office room. Max stopped speaking. He looked toward the closed door, then back toward the others, and smiled.

  “Well, no point in trying to talk now. We’ll just wait until they’re through.”

  Everyone looked at him with a certain amount of disgust. The cries became sobs, and the sobs became a pathetic whine. “Please. Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.” Until finally it was just a whisper, “Don’t.”

  16

  Johnny looked up at the same time Myron did, looking up at Tony quizzically.

  “Um,” Tony said. “Johnny. I wanted to thank you… for the other day.”

  “No problem man,” Johnny said.

  “I think he means you are welcome,” Myron said. “He is not too adept in the vocabulary department.”

  Tony looked at him strangely.

  “He’s an intellectual,” Johnny said, as if that explained everything. “And I know what that meant butt wipe,” he told Myron.

  Myron grinned and introduced himself.

  “Anyway, have a seat if you want,” Johnny said.

  “Um, I’m over there with some friends,” Tony pointed.

  “Bring ’em along. Two’s company, five’s a party.”

  17

  She was led out of the room, Farris yanking her by the arm, and she looked nothing like her former self.

  Julia was bleeding from her nose and mouth. Her left eye was swollen. The leather jacket she wore was draped over her shoulders at an angle, the bikini top underneath revealing one of her breasts, red and indented with teeth marks. Her skirt was torn in several places, and partially pulled down showing the top of her pubic thatch. She was crying, her black mascara running down her face in two straight lines, as if her face had been cut open. It was not only her body that seemed battered and broken. And it was awful to see her changed this way, in what amounted to a matter of minutes.

  Maxwell, however, smiled with approval. “See, this is what happens when you speak against me. I suggest anyone else that disagrees with me leave now. And don’t come back.”

  Everyone stared. It was on all their faces. Is he for real? A few looked back as they began to walk off, making sure he was serious.

  “Go!” Max shouted, impatient.

  Lou, Mike, William, and Pete left. Soon after so did Mary. Others stood or sat unsure. Of course they all wondered if this would really be it. If Max was truly through with them.

  “Well, anyone else?”

  Carl felt himself rise. Max shot a look at him he didn’t like at all, and sat back down.

  “Okay then,” Max said, “Farris. Try and clean Julia up a bit before we send her on her way.”

  He nodded, but the moment Julia saw him coming toward her again, her eyes opened with awareness. As he reached for her she pushed him away.

  “Get the fuck away from me!” she screamed. It seemed she still had some fire left in her. She walked off, shaki
ng her head in disbelief, and the vacant look returned to her eyes.

  18

  After a round of introductions they sat, and a hush fell over them all. They saw quickly that none of them had a thing to say. Johnny didn’t seem to care. He merely stared at them all like he was waiting for someone to take the floor at a business meeting, and wow them all with his or her new brilliant idea. Jeremy began to fidget around with his uneaten sandwich and finally decided to take a bite, cheese or not. Staci opened her mouth to say something, and shut it again. She looked up like she was thinking of a better way to start off. Tony’s eyes darted from one to the other, hoping someone would break the ice, while Myron looked at everyone and everything except who and what was at his own table.

  Finally, it was Johnny who spoke. “Somebody start the party.

  Man, break out the chips and dip. Or the chains and whips if we have

  to.”

  That got them all rolling. Tony mentioned something about a New Year’s Eve party, and before they all knew it they were talking. It was as if some veil had lifted and they’d been friends all their life.

  The bell rang and they went back to their classes, each of them aware this wouldn’t be the last time they would all be together.

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAOS IN THE WOODS

  (1985)

  1

  The Pizza Palace was a 50s style restaurant, and boy was it jumping like one. It was one of the primo teen hangouts, and there weren’t many in the small town of Mercy Falls. Good Golly Miss Molly blared from the jukebox, and the kids danced wildly, guys swinging their girls every which way. You could say there was a small swing revival in this town, particularly this spot, in 1985 before the big swing craze hit nationwide in the ’90s.

  Tony and Jeremy were seated at the counter on bar stools watching this with big grins on their faces. They ordered two pizza slices each and some classic chocolate malts. Anything that stopped being mass produced since the 50s inadvertently got the label “classic.” Except for Classic Coke, which got this label because the New Shittier Coke flopped. Jeremy hadn’t failed to notice the “New” sign in the window that read: Help Wanted. He asked the guy behind the bar about it.

  “I was wondering if you have any openings.”

  “Damn straight kid!” the man exclaimed. “Do you see all these people?”

  Jeremy nodded. Of course he did.

  “Do you know what kind of mess they make? I could use someone to clean up after them. If I weren’t so busy making pizzas we wouldn’t have to stay so late cleaning up after you kids.”

  Although he tried to sound angry, his voice carried with it a certain tone of nostalgia that made him sound endearing instead. A kind of boys will be boys attitude; except this was kids will be kids.

  “So what’s your name?” he asked.

  “Jeremy.”

  “Mike,” the man said, shaking his hand. “We’ve got three guys making pizzas. Me, Robert, and Nick. But I’m the only one who stays late to clean up. They’ve got wives and kids to go home to. I don’t, so I stay. I could use some help. You interested?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “That’s what I like. Enthusiasm. You’re hired.”

  Jeremy was confused. “Just like that. No interview?”

  “That was it kid.”

  “Thanks mister.”

  “Mike, please, call me Mike.”

  “Mike, right.”

  “Can you work New Year’s Eve?”

  Tony cut in. “Jeremy, no, the…”

  “I know,” Jeremy said, “The party.”

  They were going to the new club that opened up, The Rock Spot, for New Year’s Eve.

  “Hey look kid,” Mike said. “If you’ve got other plans…”

  “No,” Jeremy said. “I’ll work.”

  What are you doing? he heard Tony say.

  “Hey, you’ll be out by eleven. All the other kids will be leaving too. You’ll still be in time to make your party before the New Year. Besides,” he said confidentially, “I think I’m supposed to have you out before that ’cause of some stupid labor laws, but I’m paying you in cash, not checks… you understand?”

  Jeremy did.

  “So shhh.” He put a finger to his lips and smiled.

  “Tony?” Jeremy said, in a sense asking for permission.

  “Sure,” Tony said. “I’ll pick you up at eleven. I guess that’ll be all right.”

  2

  “Come in,” he said.

  “Hi.” It was Rebecca at his door.

  “Hey sis, what’s up?” Jeremy said, sitting up in his bed.

  “Nothing,” she sighed. “Just wanted to talk.”

  “Sit down.” She sat on the bed beside him. “What is it?”

  “Well, you see…” She paused. Obviously it was something she was afraid to talk about, but Jeremy knew she would. Whenever she had a problem she didn’t go to Mom or Dad, she came to him. He looked at her, concerned. His little sis had long strands of brown hair that framed big black inquisitive eyes, a button nose and a pout.

  “Come on,” he prodded her. “Spit it out. I want to know about anything bothering my little sis.”

  “Well, you see,” she began again. “There’s this boy…”

  “A boy, already?”

  “No silly, not that. Well, you see, he’s bothering me all the time, calling me names. Pulling my hair.”

  “Does he like you?”

  “No, why do you say that?”

  “I don’t know,” Jeremy said. “It’s just that boys that age act different when they like a girl. Are you the only girl he bothers?”

  “Yeah. I haven’t seen him bother anyone else. I think he hates me.”

  Jeremy laughed at that. “I don’t think anyone could hate you Becky pie.”

  “So you think he likes me?” she said, clearly puzzled.

  “Maybe.”

  “So you think I should find out?”

  “Sure, but don’t ask him straight out.”

  She looked at him as if to say how else would I find out?

  “The next time he calls you something, do something he doesn’t expect.” Inspiration struck him. “Like kiss him on the cheek.”

  “Yuck!”

  “Trust me. You see, if you kiss him on the cheek, and he goes yuck, like you just did, then he doesn’t like you. If he blushes, turns, or runs away, or he can’t think of anything to say, then he likes you. Got it?”

  “Yeah, but do I have to kiss him?”

  “Only if you want to find out.”

  “I’ll think about it. Thanks Jeremy.”

  “No sweat. Come back and tell me what happens.”

  “Okay.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.” She blew him a good night kiss.

  “Love you.”

  “Love jutoo,” she said.

  “Good night.”

  3

  It was the last day of school before Christmas vacation. And they all just let out of their last classes. So it was with a certain amount of excitement they ran down the school steps.

  4

  “Well guys, this is it,” Max said as they watched from the bushes across the street. “There go the little twerps now, coming down the stairs. All five of them. Don’t really care much about the girl, except maybe sticking it to her afterward, hard so she’s squealing.” He demonstrated his moves, and his fuck-face, which really wasn’t much different than his kill-face. “Can’t wait to wipe those stupid little smiles off their faces.”

  “Yeah,” Phil laughed. Jake joined him, and soon the others did as well. All but Carl Napier.

  “Let’s wait ’til they’re away from the school. We don’t want to get caught starting anything around here.”

  Funny he never thought of that before, Carl thought.

  “Let’s follow them around for a while until we find a good spot to take ’em.”

  5

  “You guys ever go in there?” Johnny asked.r />
  “No, not really,” Myron said. “My mom never let me.” The others looked at him strangely, and realized how childish that sounded, but he was only fourteen- the youngest of them.

  “In where?” Tony asked.

  “There,” Johnny pointed.

  It was a fenced off area with a locked gate. The hedges had overgrown many parts of the fence, and it looked like a wall of bushes. On the gate, almost illegible through the creepers, large black letters against a white sign proclaimed: JEREMIAH’S WOODS. Beneath that: NO ONE ADMITTED TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.

  “Jeremy,” Staci remarked, “That’s short for Jeremiah isn’t it? You own it?”

  He smiled.

  “Rumor has it there is a big crater there,” Myron said.

  “Crater?” Jeremy said.

  “Well, actually more of a pit. They say it was caused by a UFO crash landing.”

  “C’mon, get real,” Tony said.

  “That is what they say anyway. There is another theory.”

  “What?” Jeremy asked.

  “Some say there was a cult that practiced satanic rites, held unholy meetings at night. They say this cult summoned a demon and it ripped its way out of hell, and it is still stalking the earth today.”

  Staci shuddered.

  “Oh please, that’s bullshit,” Johnny protested.

  “Is there a pit though?” Jeremy inquired.

  “Yeah,” Johnny said, although he got kind of quiet.

  “You saw it?”

  “Yeah, I’ve snuck in a couple of times when I cut school. No big deal.”

  “What’s it like?” Jeremy asked excitedly.

  “Big, really deep. You can’t even see the bottom. I threw a rock down there and I never heard it land.”

  “Shit, that sounds like a big deal to me,” Jeremy said. He wasn’t sure why Johnny was trying to downplay it, but later on he’d notice that Johnny was really good at understating things.