PillowFace

by Kristopher Rufty

  And, for a moment, Carp wished he could join them.

  (II)

  “The real Jason Voorhees, not the one from the remake, could kick Pumpkinhead’s ass.” Ethan said this, looking back at Joel and Paul from the front of the line.

  They marched single file through a tapered section on the trail. A chorus of birds chirped all around them, an airplane hummed in the sky. The trees were much heavier and thicker in the grove to their left, mostly pine, but there were others scattered through. To their right was George Sifford’s old meadow, once inhabited with cattle, it had long been deserted since George filed bankruptcy. The boys enjoyed having the woods all to themselves, and being able to play in the pasture, but Joel found himself from time to time missing the cows. Sometimes, when he was bored, he and Rusky would come out here and watch them graze. It was relaxing and he’d conjure up great story ideas for his monsters.

  “Bullshit,” Paul disagreed. “Pumpkinhead is a powerful demon; Jason is just a momma’s boy that don’t know how to die.”

  “Then how can Pumpkinhead kill him?” asked Ethan.

  “Easily. Rip him apart.”

  “Yeah, right. Jason will go back together, just like the werewolf in Monster Squad.”

  “Whatever! He’s never done that before in any movie.” Paul’s voice was becoming squeakier, girl-like.

  “Well,” said Ethan, thinking about it. “You’re right, but he could just find another body like in Goes to Hell.”

  Paul pointed at him. “You said we couldn’t count that one as part of the series.”

  “I didn’t say that, Joel did.”

  Joel heard his name mentioned and focused on their argument more intently. His mind was still drifting to the pasture, and memories of him and Rusky. “Said what?”

  “That we couldn’t count Jason goes to Hell as part of the series.”

  “That’s right, and Jason X, either.”

  “Whatever.” Paul shook his head, chuckling.

  “Well, give us your opinion,” said Ethan. “Who’d win in a fight? Pumpkinhead or Jason Voorhees?”

  “The original Jason Voorhees,” added Paul for fairness.

  “Yeah.”

  Good question. Joel thought about it as they approached the opening fork in the trail. They spread out with Joel in the middle, Paul on his right and Ethan on his left. Joel hated walking in the middle; he preferred one of the edges so he could stare into the woods without having to look past one of his friends to do it.

  “Well?” asked Ethan.

  “I’m going to say that’s not a fair fight.”

  The guys hollered and laughed. Paul said, “And, why the hell not?”

  “Because, the only way of stopping Pumpkinhead is if he completes what he’s been summoned to do, and if he’d been summoned to fight Jason, another deathless creature, then no one would win. It’d be like when Grey Hulk fought the Green Hulk.”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t count,” said Ethan. “That only happened in David Banner’s mind.”

  “Bruce Banner’s mind,” corrected Joel. “David was his name on the TV show. Anyway, I think they’d get tired of fighting and just go their separate ways.”

  “Or, team up?” asked Paul.

  “Maybe.”

  They grew silent for a minute. Then Ethan added, “That’d be a kickass team, if you think about it.”

  They all agreed on that one.

  Then they heard Clay Ray’s voice behind them say, “You faggots sure do talk about the dumbest shit.”

  All of them jumped, but only Paul let out a small squeal as they turned around. Clay Ray was stepping out of the woods to their left. Asshole must have been following us, thought Joel. But, he wondered, as Clay Ray walked over to them with a wicked grin on his face, why would he have done that?

  “Hey, Ray,” said Paul, as if they were old friends.

  “Shut up, tubby.” He had an unlit cigarette between his lips. It bounced as he talked. “What are you three fuckle-heads doing out here?”

  “Going to Blue Waves pool,” answered Ethan.

  “Oh, really?” Ray didn’t sound like he truly cared.

  “Yeah,” said Paul.

  Joel studied Ray’s movements nervously. He knew this couldn’t be good. Ray wouldn’t have stopped them unless he wanted trouble. He was never one to hassle Ethan, and very rarely did Paul suffer his abuse. For reasons Joel never understood, he only inflicted his torture upon him. This time was different, however, all their other run-ins had happened in public or at Tonya’s, never had Joel been so unfortunate to encounter him in the seclusion of the woods, and this deep out, too. There would be no one within miles that could hear what happened.

  Hear us scream…

  “So, you three fags are just walking through these woods to go to the pool, huh?” He lighted the cigarette. “I don’t buy it. Why would you choose to walk all that way when you could have one of your parents take you instead?”

  None of them answered.

  “Oh, wait,” said Ray. “That’s right, not all of you have parents.”

  Joel knew he shouldn’t let Ray’s insults bother him, but they did. He couldn’t help it. A burning rage was ignited inside of him. He felt the heat moving from his gut, up his back, and over his neck. He became light-headed as his vision blurred.

  “That’s not cool,” said Ethan.

  Ray glanced at him, “Shut up before I start on you. I’ve never had a problem with you except that you hang out with dumbasses like these two, so don’t do anything to change that.”

  Ethan nodded, and Joel found himself losing respect for Ethan thanks to his spinelessness.

  Clay Ray turned back to Joel. “Aw, did my comment about Mommy and Daddy hurt your wittle feelwings?”

  Joel’s hands, hanging by his sides, clenched into fists. “If I had parents like yours I’d rather them be dead.”

  Paul gasped an exaggerated sigh of dread. One that said: Damn it Joel, why’d you say that?

  Ray’s mouth twitched as he exhaled a patch of smoke. “Nice. It’s about time you said something. I’ve been getting tired of beating on someone that doesn’t fight back. You’re making it fun again.”

  “Fuck you.” Joel could faintly hear himself through the bubbles in his ears telling himself to stop while he still had teeth in his mouth. But, the lack of sleep, sudden loss of a friend, then the quick gaining of a new one, and also the kiss he’d received from Carlee, had changed him. In this small group of people, he felt the oldest and most mature of them all. He was worried about what Clay Ray might do to him, but he wasn’t scared.

  Instead of pounding him, Clay Ray only cocked his head back and bellowed a laugh that puffed out clots of smoke like a dying exhaust pipe. He looked at Joel. “That’s good.” He wiped a tear with his index finger and flicked it. “Now, are you speaking like this to me at your own will or because of your friend?”

  Joel’s suit of bravery began to shrink tight against his body. “What?” he asked, his voice betraying him and going shaky.

  Ethan straightened his shoulders. “You told me to stay out of it.”

  “I’m not talking about you, asshole,” said Ray. He nodded toward Joel. “He knows who I’m talking about.”

  How? How could he know? “I don’t…”

  “Here’s the part where he tries to lie his way out of it. Just like all those times when he tries lying his way out of an ass kicking.”

  Ethan and Paul were confused. Ray could obviously read it by their expressions. “Oh? He hasn’t let you in on his little secret?”

  “What’s he talking about, Joel?” asked Paul, accusing him with his eyes, a shrewd look on his face.

  “Nothing,” muttered Joel.

  Ray walked over to Joel. He stood maybe two feet from him. “I saw you.”

  Joel’s skin went cold and crawly.

  “This morning, walking back to your house. I was hiding in my car right off the curve.”

  Behind the field. We walked r
ight by him.

  “I was waiting for Tonya to come home. She’s missing, but you probably already know that.”

  “Missing?” asked Ethan. “Since when?”

  “Since yesterday,” said Ray. “Now, shut up!”

  “I didn’t,” Joel tried to say, but Ray grabbed his shirt and jerked him over, close enough to smell his aftershave, and the stale odor of cigarette smoke on his breath.

  “What did you do to her?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Liar,” he shook him. Joel’s head wobbled insecurely like an infant’s. “Tell me! Who was that guy that was with you? The one in the mask!?! Why were you carrying a shovel and covered in dirt?”

  Paul and Ethan didn’t do or say anything. Only watched and presumably wondered themselves just what the hell Ray was talking about.

  Joel kicked at Ray, aiming for his nuts, but pegged him in the thigh. He let go of him and called out. Joel turned around, and had run just a few feet before Ray tackled him from behind. Joel landed hard on his chest, blasting the air from his lungs. The bubbles in his ears popped and started ringing. With tears in eyes, everything looked as if he was viewing it through the bottom of a drinking glass.

  Then he felt the kick. The impact pushed Haley’s breakfast up instantly.

  “Last chance,” said Ray. “You’re a dipshit, and I don’t want to kill you, but I will. I sooo fucking will if you don’t tell me what the hell happened to Tonya.”

  Joel coughed and spat some blood into the dirt, crying. His sobs rained tears on the loose soil, turning it to mud. Then, as if answering his distress call, another sound reverberated through the glade.

  A chainsaw?!?

  It erupted adjacent to them with such explosive force that the ground trembled. He quickly realized that it wasn’t the ground shaking, but Ray’s body quivering against him. The bulge of Ray’s penis on the nape of his neck retracted as if pulling itself inward. Then he felt a warm sensation drizzling over him.

  Ray was pissing his pants.

  Paul and Ethan watched in disarray, mouths agape.

  Pillowface seemed to appear out of nowhere, the chainsaw wielded high above his head, his body thrusting side to side as he revved the motor. Lines of exhaust hurled out from the saw’s yellow frame, spreading them in a layer of gas-fumed fog. Joel had never been happier to see anyone in all his life, yet at the same time he was terrified of what would happen next.

  Ray stood up on wobbly legs. He waved the knife at the burlap wearing man. “It’s you…You’re the one, aren’t you?! You killed Tonya!” Blind fear that Ray had probably confused for confidence grew inside of him like an inflating balloon. He flicked his wrist at Pillowface, brandishing the blade, but the massive hulk of a man didn’t even flinch. He stood his ground, which seemed to amuse Ray rather than frighten him. Laughing like a woodchuck on helium, he leapt over Joel’s fallen shape, landing in front of his adversary. “You think you scare me with that thing? You’re wrong! Dead wrong!”

  Scared enough that you pissed yourself, Joel thought.

  He lunged. Again, Pillowface didn’t move, which allowed Ray to plant the blade to the hilt below his sternum. As if this had no effect on him, he swung the saw, but Ray dodged it and landed a punch on the cheek of the mask. Pillowface swayed, but his feet remained firmly rooted to the ground. Tucked over, arms bent and fists clenched, Ray danced like a man in the ring. He leaned into Pillowface, pounding him with a rapid series of rights and lefts to his midsection. Joel swore he heard his friend call out in pain over the roar of the saw.

  He dropped the massive machine two inches from Joel’s rounded eyes.

  Shit, he has a high tolerance for pain, but he’s not inhuman. And, Ray’s hitting him where he was already wounded!

  Pillowface doubled over, both arms hugging his abdomen. A wet spot was quickly spreading across the dark shirt. He’s bleeding! Laughing again, Ray threw his leg up, kneeing him in the chin. Joel’s fear for Ray’s life was swapping for Pillowface’s. He’d thought this would have ended by now, with Ray’s bloodied body left to dispose of. He pushed himself up on his hands as if about to perform push-ups, flinging his soaked bangs out of his eyes.

  Ray was spinning circles with his arms held high, laughing, twirling, looking merry and maniacally satisfied. Pillowface needed help. Joel figured he might just be able to take Ray by surprise. He rose to a squat, his knees popping, and grabbed the saw. He tried to stand up, but it was nearly impossible with the chainsaw’s added weight. Joel could have been trying to lift a car. He gritted his teeth, and strained with his back to heft it up.

  Finally, he did.

  Wobbling, he staggered toward the two men.

  As Ray pulled an arm back, setting Pillowface up for another blow, he looked at Joel. “Say bye-bye to…” was all he got out before noticing what was about to happen.

  Joel revved, charged.

  Ray sidestepped the spinning chain, narrowly avoiding a split torso. His body evaded the attack completely, but sadly, his long hair did not. The blade seized up his lengthy mane in one quick swoop, jerking his head back. His locks tangled in the chain, choking the engine, and killing it. Joel dropped the saw and Ray went down with it. When the put-put-put of the saw was gone, all Joel could hear was a droning buzz in his ears.

  Now on the ground, Ray was still trying to escape. He’d managed to get into a crawling position before the dead-load of the chainsaw had tugged his scalp. Ray was in tears, and screaming with each effort he made to untangle himself from the saw. Seeing him like that, Joel felt a stir of pity, but not enough for it to matter. He sort of enjoyed seeing the guy who’d tormented him for the past two years at his feet for once, crying.

  “Huh-help me!”

  Ethan was on his feet, Paul only his knees. Both of them watched Ray, only flicking their eyes back to Joel every so often. Pillowface, bowed over, yanked Ray’s knife from his midsection. A trail of blood followed the blade.

  Then he threw an arm around Joel.

  “You all right?” Joel asked, getting a nod for an answer. He took the knife from him and retracted the blade.

  Another bout of silence fell on them as Ray continued to sob. Ethan was the first one to break it by saying, “We can’t just leave him here.”

  Paul made a face. “Says who?” His nose had stopped bleeding, but now he had two drying tracks of red cascading to his top lip.

  “That’s fucked up and you know it.”

  “He had a knife. He was going to kill us.”

  “No, he was…” Ethan shut up then.

  Joel shot him a look. “What were you going to say? That he was just going to kill me? You did a whole helluva lot to prevent that didn’t you?”

  “He told me to stay out of it, so I did. Fuck you man, I was scared!” He took a deep, shaky breath. “Was he right about Tonya? Did you do something to her?”

  “What does it matter now, anyway?” asked Joel.

  “Just cut my hair,” said Ray from below. “I don’t care; just cut it so I can go.”

  Ethan threw his hands about madly, his eyes misting over. “Come on man, I just want to go home! Let him go, then I can go, okay?”

  Joel shook his head.

  “Please?” It was Ethan who now sobbed. “I don’t want any part of this. I just want to go home, please Joel. I just want to go home.”

  Joel looked down at Ray. He lay on his stomach, his right arm reaching over his shoulder and pawing madly at his hair. The saw sat on the ground diagonally from his ear, stretching his scalp out so much that it looked like a small, pitched tent on top of his head.

  Wincing, Joel felt a stinging pain in his gut just looking at it.

  “Who is that guy?” asked Paul, speaking to Joel as if they were the only two there.

  Joel answered him just the same, “I don’t know his real name, but he goes by Pillowface.”

  Paul nodded, as if knowing. Now, he spoke to Pillowface. “Thank you.”

  If Pillowface heard him, he ga
ve no indication of it.

  “What do we do now?” asked Paul, groaning as he stood up. “Our trip to Blue Waves just went to shit.”

  Their plans had gone so far to shit they were swimming in it.

  “I won’t say anything,” cried Ray. “I swear!”

  “Me neither,” said Ethan. “Please Joel, I just want to go home and watch TV, maybe play some checkers on the computer. You know I won’t rat you out.”

  “For what? For standing up for myself?!!”

  “You’re right,” he said. “You had to, that’s what we’ll say. You had to!” Ethan slapped Paul on the shoulder, trying to get him to chime in. Instead, he shook his head, and walked away from Ethan, leaving him alone on the other side of Ray.

  “Does anyone know you’re out here?” Paul asked Joel.

  Joel thought about it. “No. Haley doesn’t know, that’s for sure.”

  “My Mom wasn’t at home for me to tell her I was coming out here today.” He looked back at Ethan, “Did you tell your parents we were going to the pool?”

  Eyes fixed on Ray, he said, “No, I told them I was going to your house.”

  “Perfect. We could just leave, and not worry about a thing.” He slapped his hands together. “Right?”

  It bothered Joel how quickly Paul had come up with this solution. Also, it worried him how much fun he seemed to be having. He’d often wondered if Paul had been slowly losing his mind since his dad left. Now, he was damn near convinced he had lost it completely. “I don’t know. It could work.”

  “I won’t tell…” Ray repeated.

  Over eager to please them, Ethan said, “Yeah, it would work for sure. We can walk back through the woods, taking the longer way back to Joel’s.”

  “What for?” asked Paul.

  “So, we won’t run into anyone. There won’t be any trace of us out here.”