by Lissa Kasey
Was someone else out there hurt? Had they taken another member of the group? Technically everyone had plans that would take them away from our get togethers. I might have been the first, creating the shop and a new life, but Jonah had the show, Nicole and Julie their own shop, Chad and MaryAnn, his non-profit, and Freya expansion into traveling. I wondered vaguely about Melissa. If she’d done all this to get rid of Byrony who always put her down, or maybe because she hadn’t felt like she was part of the group. Or was it someone we didn’t even know?
The scream echoed again, ahead and to the right, up higher than where I knelt. I closed my eyes and let my hearing trace the sound, the way it bounced and traveled. I’d spent a couple years studying sounds in the dark. There was someone out there. Messing with me? Trying to make me afraid with screams in the night? Hadn’t Detective Manning said something about Joe shooting Byrony by accident because something scared him? Were they trying to scare me?
I thought back to who I might have told in the group that I heard things since my return. Had I confided that in anyone? Freya, maybe. But if I had, it had been years ago. If Alex hadn’t heard the noise himself, I’d have never told him. He didn’t need the torment any more than I did, and I really hated when people looked at me like I was crazy.
Another sound rose up from the darkness. Some sort of mess of birds or apes. If I hadn’t been hearing something stalking me at night for the past two years, it might have frightened me. But this noise was too faded, and distant, almost like a recording. The breeze felt almost icy against my bare arms, a fast cooling of the sweat of fear. I’d survived staring into the face of more than one monster. This seemed more like a show, and not a good one.
Someone was fucking with me. And it wasn’t cool.
I snarled at the darkness and got to my feet, kicking the box over. The lid popped off and out rolled a handgun. I didn’t know anything about guns. Had never held one in my life. Never even cosplayed with one. This one looked small and relatively new. Alex probably would have known the make, model, and caliber of bullets.
I didn’t even try to pick it up. A gun was of no use to me. Even if there was some sort of monster in the dark, I was not going to run after it, shooting. I was more likely to shoot myself by accident with a gun, than any attacker. Again I was reminded of Joe and Byrony, frightened by something. The ‘Rake’ even, if I went by what they’d been searching for. I was pretty sure whatever was out here wasn’t a mythical creature created on reddit.
A note had been taped to the lid of the box. It read: Save yourself.
From what?
The scream echoed again, closer this time, followed by a replay of those odd recorded noises. Did that normally fool people? Maybe those who’d never heard what I had.
For a moment I wondered if Alex actually heard the same thing I did. It wasn’t like I could record it and play it for him. Had tried that a dozen times or so to prove to the police I wasn’t nuts. But whatever was making a fuss out in the woods right now was neither mythical beast, or my demon.
I glared into the darkness and hit the light on my phone, holding it up to illuminate as much as it could reach. New phones had flashlights with intense power. When we’d gone in before we left home to get Alex’s new phone, I had upgraded mine as well. The one-click on the phone face blasted a flood stream of brightness into the woods. The glow stretched several meters.
It was then I saw a glimpse of movement. Something slim and willowy creeping through the brush. For a few seconds it seemed to turn my way and reflect the light.
My brain processed what I was seeing with a quick warning of apprehension as it reminded me of something similar to the ‘Rake’ pictures posted online. Thin with long wispy arms and an almost alien-like head, and iridescent eyes. It had an odd half-hop of a gait, paused as though it were waiting for me, and then turned, scampering off into the brush. If I hadn’t known what might be hiding out there, I might have actually been scared. It looked pretty legit.
Before the most recent events, even after I’d been taken and returned, I’d never been a big believer in random paranormal monsters. Knowing the little about the Rake’s history, I had to say it was one of the least believable stories I’d ever heard. I’d probably get on board the Bigfoot train before the Rake. And there was no skunk smell, that thing had looked hairless, not like a giant man-ape. In fact, the reflective sheen of the creature’s ‘skin’ almost appeared like some of the more luminescent fabrics I’d seen at the convention these past few days rather than anything possible in nature. Animals, in general, had evolved to hunt and hide. Reflective skin would make it really hard to hide, especially for something supposedly as elusive as the Rake.
I narrowed my eyes in the distance, listening for the sounds again. Someone in costume. Did they have Alex? They better hope he was okay because if they had hurt him, I’d teach them what the darkness was. They had no idea what followed me, that black-eyed child, and the monsters that tormented my home at night, maybe even that death collage of souls I’d run into on the road. Were they all tied to me? Maybe. I’d be happy to share it with whoever was playing games with me right now.
I gripped my stick and raced into the woods after it, phone held up more like a lightsaber, spearing the darkness with a brutal intensity. Lukas said I wasn’t a hero, even if I cosplayed one sometimes. But I was done being the coward, the puppet, and the sidekick. Someone was messing with me, possibly hurt Alex, and I was about to break someone’s kneecaps.
The scream, half strangled, came from my left, and I shifted my run in that direction. Man, I needed more exercise than sewing, city tours, and vigorous sex with Alex. My legs felt like jelly, or maybe that was still because I’d had vigorous sex with Alex. I certainly wouldn’t be putting the kibosh on that any time soon. As long as I got him back. My lungs worked harder than I could recall in a long time, but I kept up, the tip of my light still illuminating the creature’s back.
My heart pounded hard. It was running now. All out. Twisting and turning like it had been in these woods a hundred times. And maybe it had. I wondered if this was another spot filled with the bodies of missing cosplayers. Was it some sort of game, scare them to death? Or into an accident that left them dying? Or did they straight up kill them when they ran out of energy or something? What was the point of giving me a gun? Were they suicidal? If I knew how to use it and had been willing, I’d have shot them by now. Though I suspected the stuff they showed on TV about people hitting what they aimed at while both parties were running, was probably a stretch of the truth.
The uneven terrain gave me nightmare ideas that I was half tripping over unmarked graves, even while I was gaining on it. It didn’t run like an animal anymore. It ran like a person, arms and legs flailing, while I was catching up. I might have been short and on the small side for a guy, but I had speed.
Had to lower my phone to pump my arms a little harder. I stretched out, using the stick for added length to jab at the creature, hitting it once in the shoulder. It stumbled a little, but not enough to let me catch it, and then again in the lower back. This time I hit it hard enough to send it into a spin.
It clipped a tree and tumbled down a small hill with a very human “Oof!”
I should have thought a little more about racing after it, as I leapt down the small hill, expecting more ground, but encountering more of a narrow ravine, with a bigger drop than planned, and a thin strip of water. Only my trusty stick kept me from completely breaking an ankle or falling on my face into the stream. The creature rolled and landed half in the water, and I was on it, stick to its neck, realizing I’d dropped my phone when I hit it.
Fuck!
The small bits of moonlight filtering through the heavy foliage, revealed little. All I knew, from touching it, holding it down, even as it kicked and struggled with me, by the shape of their body, was that it was female. My heart flipped over. Freya?
My gut still wanted so badly for it not to be her.
I couldn’t reach
for the hood and partial mask, not while holding her down. Instead I shifted my weight, flipping her, sitting on top of her, and pressing her face into the water until she sputtered and shrieked at me, trying to buck me off. That voice I recognized, and it stunned me long enough that she succeeded in shoving me to the side and rolling away. Water dripping from her face, washing away some make-up, mask askew, but leaving the reflective contacts. Her bodysuit cleverly made with dark edges to make her appear thinner, emaciated, and pale.
“Great costume, MaryAnn,” I said. “But I’m kind of lost on the entire point of all this,” I told her. “Is this some sort of game? I have to say I’m not amused.”
“This isn’t a game,” she snarled.
“Does Freya know what you’re doing?”
She shrieked. “You have no right to even say her name!” She lunged at me, not hitting me but grabbing the stick and shoving me backward hard. I landed half in the small stream with a splash, but managed to catch the stick. She dragged me back out without trying as she tried to take it back. “It was supposed to be that worthless boyfriend of yours! Not you.”
I yanked at the stick, trying to wrestle it from her as she didn’t appear to be otherwise armed, but she’d given me a gun. “Why Alex?” I demanded.
“He took you from the group. You hurt Freya because of him. She was so excited to be a part of your return.” She pulled at the stick hard. I let it go at the last second and she fell backward from her own momentum. I leapt for the stick, sweeping it up and jumping away.
“What’s the point of all this? Kill Alex and then what? I come back to the group? Didn’t seem to work for any of the others you killed,” I said, keeping a good distance and trying to find my phone. It must have landed face down since that stupid flashlight thing was hard to turn off. Or it had landed in the water.
“I haven’t killed anyone,” MaryAnn defended. “They all saved themselves from their worst fears.”
“How’s that?” I jabbed the stick at her when she started to get up. She crawled backward a little, struggling in the mud for traction.
“Freya told me all about your boyfriend’s issues. How he was in a mental ward before. Would have been easy for him to just end it.”
My gut turned cold. “You wanted him to kill himself?”
“It was the easiest way to get rid of him. You don’t need him. You had us.”
Wow, crazyville. “What about Chad? I thought you had a thing with him?”
She laughed and it sounded more than a little unhinged as she got to her feet. I held out the stick to keep her away. I wondered if my phone was up on the top of the ravine? It was probably only two meters or so of a steep incline. “Chad’s sweet. Would do anything I asked him to. Except apparently bring Alex to me.”
Was that where Alex was? Chad had him? “Everyone is leaving the group, why are you focused on me and Alex?”
“You hurt Freya. Byrony hurt Freya. Everyone treats her like crap when she does so much for us. Everyone needs to be punished.”
“And the other missing cosplayers? Did they hurt Freya too?”
“Yes,” MaryAnn hissed. “She gave you everything, made you a star, and you abandoned her. Now she’s having a hard time keeping followers and product deals because of her age, and you could have helped!” She bent slowly, keeping back, but pulled a hunting knife from her boot. “She even made you that costume for your debut. And you rejected it.”
“Does Freya know you’re doing all this? That you punish people who hurt her?” I backed away. There was no way I was getting up that ravine without her stabbing me in the back, and the narrow bank of the stream didn’t give me much space to move. I suspected we’d landed more in some sort of bog runoff to the nearby lake. It would be a good place to hide a body. The only way out was past her. And I wasn’t exactly trained in combat.
“She doesn’t need to know.”
“But Freya’s going off to travel too. Leaving you behind, what will you do?”
“I’ve got her tied up with contracts to the same fabric line I’m in. They wanted her anyway. We’ll be together all the time.”
So she’d been manipulating us all. “The gun was stupid,” I told her. “I don’t know how to use one.” She came closer, and I jabbed the stick at her, making her step back. She limped a little, and I wondered if she’d hurt her leg in the fall. That could be to my advantage.
“Didn’t seem to matter to anyone before.”
“Americans are obsessed with guns. But I’m not American,” I reminded her.
“You going to try some kung fu shit on me?” She taunted.
“That’s a racist stereotype. I’m Japanese and Irish. And even if I were Chinese, not many of them know kung fu.”
“Whatever.” She stalked at me, grabbing for the stick, knife held up like one of those slasher movies. It wasn’t really a good way to hold a knife in general, not enough force behind it. So when she grabbed the stick and tried to slash me, I shoved the stick hard, and kicked out toward that limping leg. Must have landed enough of a blow to hurt because she screamed and collapsed inward a little, as if to protect her core.
I used those few seconds to roll around her, drop the stick and run. The narrow stretch of ravine lasted a couple more meters before spitting me out on the side of the lake. I could see the swimming area in the distance, with the lifeguard tower and parking lot. Of course, the fact that they were empty and in the wrong direction didn’t exactly help. Without my phone I would be forced to run forever, and my energy wouldn’t hold out that long. The area surrounding Sam Houston National Park wasn’t butted up against housing, or even small businesses like gas stations. In the middle of the night, there was no one. I thought hard about what options I might have.
If I followed the road out from the beach would it lead to a main road? Somewhere I could flag down help?
MaryAnn came after me, no longer as quiet as she’d been the first time. I’d obviously done some damage. The sound of her barreling through the trees let me know that she was moving slower and breathing hard. I actually curved around the edge of trees, racing for the beach as though it were humanity. Running on sand is not as glamorous as they make it look in movies. It was awkward, a stumbling gait as the sand gave beneath my feet. I had almost made it to the parking lot when something dark appeared, looming before me.
I slid to a stop, almost landing on my knees as my balance vanished. My gut felt like it had taken a sucker punch, and I gasped for air.
Death. It writhed before me. The same broken/mixed face monster I’d met on the road that day. Huge. Like it was more than three meters tall and two wide, the darkness of stitched together faces whipped around it like tentacles covered in screaming mouths. I fell backward, too close to really move around it and hearing MaryAnn still coming. I glanced back to see her only four or five meters away. Too close. Did she see it? She didn’t stop.
She came at me with the knife again, face contorted in rage. I scrambled around, crab walking backward, away from the darkness, but not fast enough to really get away from her. She hit the black mass full force, smashing into it, and for a moment I thought it would actually slow her down. Instead it seemed to burst apart like smoke, covering her in darkness for a few seconds before she leapt free of it, flying at me with the knife.
“Freeze!” Someone shouted. Lights suddenly blazed, and I couldn’t see anything. Not the darkness or MaryAnn.
MaryAnn screamed in rage. I blinked away tears at the brightness, barely able to see her standing illuminated with her back to the lake, the dark monster Alex thought was Death, dancing behind her like some mythical Cthulhu of nightmares.
The next few seconds transpired so fast it all happened in the time it took me to suck in a breath. She raised the knife to lunge at me, but someone smashed into her from the left, at the same time I heard the movement of cloth and click of weapons.
Alex was suddenly there, wrestling the knife out of her hand kicking it away. I worried for a moment abo
ut the police, as it had been their light that brightened the beach to near daytime levels. Would they shoot him? Except Manning was there, rolling MaryAnn over and handcuffing her. Reading her her rights. Another officer picked up the knife with gloved hands and put it in a bag.
I reached for Alex, wondered for a few seconds if he was a figment of my imagination. Maybe I had died. Fuck.
He rolled over, keeping his distance from the Death thing, which still stood there, and came to me. His hands were all over me. “Are you okay? Fuck. I thought we were going to be too late. Did she hurt you?”
That last bit of ice on my heart shattered and I grabbed him hard, wrapping my arms around him, like somehow I could meld with him and keep him there forever. “Where the fuck were you?” I demanded.
“Long story,” Alex grumbled. “I’ll explain in a bit.” He eyed the Death thing warily. “Once we’re off this beach.”
MaryAnn fought the police, using her weight to try to throw them off balance, while they treated her with kid gloves. She got away for a second, and my breath caught, fearing she’d come at me even though she was unarmed, but she ran toward the water instead. She had reached the water and was wading in before the police dragged her back.
Alex wrapped his arms around me and breathed for a minute while they dragged her toward the distant parking lot full of cars. One of the cops appeared near us and held out a phone. My phone.
“Thank you!” I told him, reaching for it. “I dropped it.”
“We were tracking you,” Alex said. “For once my brother’s paranoia pays off.” He helped me to my feet and guided me slowly away from the beach. The Death thing still waited there, though it was fading. And it was odd how the police who moved around seemed to naturally avoid it like they could see it, but I was pretty sure none of them could.
“You’re freezing,” Alex said, rubbing my arms.
“I’ll have one of my guys give you both a ride back to your car,” Manning said. “And if you’re willing, Mr. Richards. I’d like a statement from you.”