A Place So Wicked

by Patrick Reuman

  She smiled as he came back down but continued talking to the room of people. “We’ve lived across the street pretty much my whole life,” she explained. “I was born at Mercy, the hospital at the other end of town.”

  “It must suck, though, being stuck here. You going to move away as soon as you can?” Robbie asked.

  “Not really. This town just keeps getting better. It just seems to grow and grow.”

  Robbie shook his head, seemingly perplexed. Paisley was still eating but looking up whenever somebody spoke. Trevor was facing the complete opposite direction, not taking any part in the talks.

  “You ready?” Toby asked, eager to get away before parents did what parents did and embarrassed him.

  She said yes and then thanked Toby’s mother for allowing her inside. When his mother opened the door, the other kid was still standing right where he had been, not having moved any closer to the house. Relief showed on the boy’s face as Addy walked out the door, trailed by Toby. He waved goodbye to his mother as she closed the door.

  “Hey,” Toby said, greeting the boy with an extended arm. “I’m Toby. It’s nice to meet you.”

  The boy looked at Toby’s hand like he had just watched Toby pick his nose with those very same fingers. Then he glanced at Addy, and his whole demeanor changed. He smiled, though Toby didn’t believe for a moment it was real, and reached for Toby’s hand. They shook, and the boy finally spoke.

  “My name’s Robert. I live on the next road over, Cherry Hill.”

  Toby nodded like he was familiar with the road, but he wasn’t. He was just relieved the kid wasn’t taking swings at him. They started up the road, walking at first in silence, Addy next to him and Robert next to her, until Addy broke it.

  Addy laughed and whispered loudly. “The house with the crappy Steelers flag out front.”

  “Oh, nice,” Toby said.

  “Yeah. I suppose you probably haven’t done much exploring yet,” she said.

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “We’re taking you to Monkey Hill.” She smiled, knowing he had no idea what or where that was. “It’s not actually a hill at all. Nor are there monkeys.” She laughed. “It’s just a long trail that goes all the way across most of the town. It does end on a small hill, though.”

  “All right,” Toby said. Honestly, he wasn’t a big fan of the idea, going off into town not knowing where he was going, but he wasn’t about to tell Addy that and look like a loser.

  She was walking a little ahead of him but turned around with a mischievous grin on her face. “There’s an urban legend, about the hill.”

  For the duration of their trip to the trail, which only took maybe fifteen minutes since the trail extended, just as she had said, across most of the town, she told him the story, the urban legend. She told him all about how this guy had apparently followed his ex up to the trail, back when the trail wasn’t grown over and you could still fit a car down it, and stalked her and the guy she was with. The girl and her male suiter pulled off the trail, the story went, parking the car between a couple trees, and found their way into the backseat. They undressed and were kissing each other, feeling each other’s nearly naked bodies, when the ex-boyfriend appeared.

  Toby was pulled into the story, staring straight ahead, his mind envisioning a trail, the car, and the two clueless lovers in the backseat. She said he pulled the door open and started hacking the two of them up with an axe, which mysteriously changed to a machete part way through the hacking scene. When he was done brutalizing them, after they had been reduced to nothing but a pile of meat chunks, the legend said, was when the trail gained its name. The killer took some of the blood from the girl’s wounds and painted their faces, the only parts of them left recognizable, to look like monkeys.

  Addy laughed. “But I’m not sure if that is really where the name came from. Now that I’m thinking about it, how does one paint someone to look like a monkey?”

  Toby laughed as well, relieved that an ounce of humor was added to the story. They had reached the entrance to the trail, or one of many entrances, Addy said. They stood at the path’s dark mouth, the trees on both sides of the trail arching upward and linking at the top like a tunnel, in a way that seemed to block out most of the light that would attempt to enter Monkey Hill.

  Toby asked as they walked where the trail came from, if it used to be a road or something. She agreed that it definitely seemed like it may have been a road at one point, especially if the story was true and the killer found the lovers in a car, but conceded that she wasn’t really sure.

  The further along they got, the denser the woods on both sides became. At times, he even lost sight of the houses beyond the foliage, and it felt like he was truly walking down a woodland trail, digging further away from civilization. He felt like he was walking through an underground tunnel lined with vines, decades after the world had already come to its untimely end.

  Addy asked Toby about his life and how they ended up in Black Falls. He told her about how his dad had gotten a new, better job, and so they moved. He told her all about Paisley and Trevor and even Robbie and how his uncle was going to be staying with them for a while. All that time, Robert hardly said a word. The boy trailed behind them most of the time, making Toby a little nervous but not enough to care. Most of the time, he forgot the strange kid was even back there.

  Once Toby finished telling her about himself, she told him a bit about her. That only took a few minutes, though, because there apparently wasn’t a whole lot to tell. Like she had said back at Toby’s house, she had lived there in Black Falls her entire life. She went to school there, dated boys there, and figured she would probably end up living there the rest of her life until she eventually died there at Mercy hospital. From what Toby could tell, she could hardly imagine a life outside of Black Falls. The way she spoke about it, this town was the greatest place in the world and provided anything a person could want.

  Addy finally came to a stop. They were deep into Monkey Hill, having walked for quite a bit longer than it had taken them to arrive at the trail in the first place. Toby stopped behind Addy and Robert stopped behind him, just as silently as he had been that whole way. It was dark there, a shadowy abyss that felt completely removed from the rest of the world, perhaps even an entirely different world altogether, as if they had entered a portal at some point and came out in a foreign land.

  He looked at Addy, who was already staring at him, that smile back on her face, the same one she had been wearing when telling him the trail’s creepy origin story. She turned her head and looked off into the woods. His gaze followed hers. That’s when he spotted it, an old, rusted-out car, sitting off in the woods, completely overtaken by the foliage that engulfed it on all sides. It was barely more than a metal frame now, an outline of a car, a memory from a time long forgotten, to most, but not to Addy. That didn’t stop him from imagining two chopped-up corpses in the back seat, their heads removed and painted like monkeys.

  He saw where the tires were sunken into the dirt from years of rain and the weight of the car. It had to be at least six inches deep. If they hadn’t stopped, Toby doubted he would have even noticed the artifact hidden among the trees.

  He swallowed hard and then looked back at Addy, who still wore that smile that suddenly seemed more sinister than beautiful. He heard Robert moving behind him and turned to face him, but the boy didn’t seem to be moving much, let alone toward him, which was what he had feared.

  As soon as he turned back around to face Addy, she moved in on him. She was fast, too fast for Toby to even react. She grabbed him, pulled him up against her, and locked her lips against his, her tongue grazing his lips before moving into his mouth.

  14

  Paisley tapped her knuckles on Trevor’s door three times. She waited for nearly a minute, but there still was no response. She was almost certain Trevor was in there, though. She was bored and wanted to go do something, and she wanted her brother to join her. She felt like the two of them h
ad hardly spent any time together since arriving at the new house, and she didn’t like it.

  She sighed. “Trevor, I know you’re in there.”

  After that girl and Toby had left, Trevor finished picking at his food and headed straight back upstairs, right back to where he seemed to always be now, his bedroom. She knocked again, this time harder.

  A muffled groan issued from the other side. She took that as a greeting and pushed the door open. Trevor was laying there, the blanket up to his neck, staring across the room at the wall. But his eyes were blank like he wasn’t actually looking at the wall, but instead, just looking into nothingness.

  She sat down beside him. The bed sank just a little with her weight. She placed her hand on him and patted softly.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” he mumbled. “I’m fine.”

  He looked…grey. She just stared at him for a moment, wondering what to say or do. She didn’t like seeing him this way. He wasn’t coughing or sneezing, which should have been a good thing, except then what else was making him sick? If he was sick, like sick-sick, then he would be coughing or something like that.

  “What’s—what’s wrong?” she asked. “Please tell me, Trev.”

  “I just…feel horrible,” he said, just barely over a whisper. “Like…every inch of me is sick. I feel tired, and exhausted, and just…crappy.”

  “How is your stomach?” she asked.

  “My stomach, my head, my arms, my legs, my feet, everything hurts.” He looked up at Paisley, seeing the concern in her eyes. “But I think I’m starting to feel a little bit better. I probably just need a little more rest.”

  Paisley wasn’t buying it. What he had been doing, which was lying in bed, clearly wasn’t working. She wanted to grab his arm and force him outside, away from here, out into some fresh air. She knew that didn’t pass as a medical treatment, but she just wanted to do something. She wanted to help. She felt a tear building up in the creases of her eyes and rubbed them away with the base of her hand.

  “I don’t suppose you want to take a walk with me,” she whispered, now as quiet as he had been. “Maybe it would be good for you.”

  He pulled the blanket even further up and mumbled, “No,” before rolling over to face the other wall.

  “Well, let me know as soon as you feel up to it and we’ll go do something,” she said, even though she didn’t think he was paying much attention anymore.

  She stood and exited the room, closing the door softly behind her. In the hall, she froze a moment, staring at the door across from her, the one that led to the attic, her mind recalling the sound she heard the night before. Toby hadn’t answered them when they asked how long he had been up there—not really. Maybe it was him going up there last night that she heard. The thought seemed logical enough and comforted her just a little.

  She just needed to clear her head. She used to take walks in her old town, often with the company of one of her friends. She hadn’t settled in enough here to get around to things like that. But it was exactly what she needed right then. Even as she walked down the stairs, heading toward the front door, she imagined the cool breeze running through her hair, tossing it around, and the calming sound of it wisping by.

  She closed the door quietly, not really wanting anybody to bother her or ask her where she was going. She wasn’t even sure yet where she headed or where she would end up. Hell, she hadn’t even been past their road yet.

  Her first decision was right or left. She looked both ways, the breeze she so awaited already grazing her skin. Left was the direction they had come from when arriving in town, so she figured the right would have more to see.

  All the houses on her road seemed so quiet and lifeless. Nobody was outside, no kids playing in yards, or even cars in driveways. But it was early in the day still so maybe everybody was still at work. That didn’t account for the lack of kids, though. It was a beautiful day outside. She couldn’t imagine kids voluntarily staying inside.

  A car passed by ahead, eclipsing the mouth of the road as it zipped by. It was a refreshing change from the ghost town she felt like she was walking through. Immediately, just up the road a way, on the other side of the street, she saw two kids playing in a front yard behind a short metal fence. The ends of her lips crooked up in a smile. The two looked almost the same size, maybe even the same age, reminding her of her and her twin brother.

  She continued mostly in a straight line, not wanting to make turns, getting herself lost, especially since she hadn’t told anybody where she was going. That was, until she saw a playground just down the road on a street that extended off from the other side of the road she was currently on. With a quick glance in both directions, she darted across the street. The park lay at the base of a large field. Off in the distance, she saw the signs of a long-forgotten baseball field, the lines where the runners would sprint from one base to the next, mostly covered in overgrown grass. Only because of the light reflecting slightly off the old rubber, she could see one of the bases, the home base, she thought, at the far end of the diamond.

  Unlike the relatively lively road she had just split off from, this one, unfortunately, looked rather deserted. She saw a faded, maroon merry-go-round at the nearest end of the playground. Not far from it was a seesaw with one end of it up high, the other touching the ground. She wondered again where all the kids were. The place was entirely deserted. It was saddening.

  She heard a light screech, that of metal rubbing against metal. It pulled her attention to the opposite end of the playground where a kid sat on a swing, unnoticed by her until now. He wasn’t swinging. Instead, he just sat there, staring down at the mulch that covered the ground of the playground.

  As she walked toward him, eager to communicate with another kid, he didn’t look up. She was pretty sure he hadn’t noticed her yet, just as she hadn’t noticed him.

  “Hey,” she said.

  His head jerked up as she came to a stop maybe ten feet from him. He looked surprised, like he had been sleeping and she woke him or maybe she was the first other human he had ever seen in his life.

  “You there?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Yeah! Sorry, I just—”

  She smiled and took a couple more steps toward him. “Sorry if I startled you.”

  His hair was dark, almost black, and he wore jeans and a blue T-shirt with some image on it that she didn’t recognize. “No, you’re fine,” he said, but he didn’t stand up to greet her. “Just not used to seeing other kids at this playground.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Too close,” he said.

  “To what?” She had kept walking close to him until she was only a few feet away.

  His eyebrow lifted, then he looked to each side of himself as if to check if anybody was watching them. “I don’t recognize you.”

  “Yeah, I’m new to town,” Paisley said. “Just moved in a day ago.”

  He stood, suddenly, startling her. He took a step away from her and looked around again, as if he were unsure of himself being there or was expecting the police to raid the playground. It made her look around as well. She did a full spin, not seeing anybody. “Are you expecting someone?”

  He shook his head quickly. “No. Nobody.”

  “Ooooooookay.” She walked right past him, causing him to practically jump out of the way, and took a seat at the swing next to his.

  She pushed off the ground, launching herself into a mild swing. The swing’s metal joints groaned in rhythm. Clouds moved in overheard, seeming to come out of nowhere. She watched the boy as he stood there, still unsure of something.

  “Are you going to sit back down?” she asked.

  He nodded his head and returned to his swing. He didn’t push off the ground, though, choosing instead to just sit there, waving slowly as if a breeze was pushing him. She noticed him stealing quick glances at her like he wanted to stare at her, but he was afraid to or didn’t want to be rude. She wondered if there was something on her face. Or
maybe he just thought she was pretty. She didn’t think she was pretty, not really. She tried not to blush at the thought.

  “You okay?” she finally asked after a couple minutes.

  As soon as the words came out, she thought she sounded silly. There didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with him. The question could even be seen as rude. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up. He was just acting…strange.

  “Yeah.” He stopped his swing completely and looked at her. “Which house did you move into?”

  “One on Ripley. I think it’s twelve or thirteen.”

  He just stared at her. She couldn’t help but smile an awkward smile. She looked away from him, hoping he would do the same. When she looked back, he was staring off into the distance. His curly black hair shifted in the sudden breeze that came in with the clouds.

  “Where do you live?” she asked.

  He pointed off in the distance, across the field to where some houses stood, their backs to Paisley and the kid. “Fawn Avenue.”

  She just nodded, not having much to say about the road he lived on. “What’s your name?”

  She thought she felt a cold speck land on her arm. She looked to the sky, the dark clouds shrouding them in shadow. It didn’t look like it was raining yet, but she bet it was coming.

  “Eli,” he said, barely above a whisper.

  “Well, Eli, you always act this way when you meet new people?”

  Minutes went by, and he never answered. She looked down at the grass as it swayed gently. She bet the color of this grass was real, unlike at her house. She stopped the swing. Reaching down, she plucked a few blades. The color remained, green, and alive, as she rubbed her fingers against them. She parted her fingers, allowing the grass to fall, catch in the breeze, and blow off to her left. She smiled.