The Trip

by Aaron Niz

  Down the hall I hear someone say, “Answer me or I’ll pop your fucking eyeball.” A strangled, beaten voice moans something unintelligible in return.

  Randall manages to light his cigarette. I notice his hands are trembling. “Me and Tyler cracked one dude in the head and he went out cold. He’s back here now, getting worked over.”

  “Why are they torturing him?”

  Randall shrugs. “Everyone’s gone nuts, I guess.”

  “And who killed the girl?”

  “Who do you think?”

  “Reyes.”

  “Bingo.” Randall points at me, laughs hollowly and blows out a long plume of smoke.

  “I’m going to go see what’s happening in there,” I say, trying to sound more confident than I feel. “We can’t just torture people. Don’t they understand that?” Randall coughs. His eyes are haunted, with dark hollows under them. “Good luck trying to convince them. If you’re not careful you might be next in line.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  “I wasn’t making a joke.”

  I move out of the bedroom and start down the hallway. My heart’s beating rapidly. I don’t want to even look at what they’ve done to their “prisoner” but I need to try and stop them from killing him.

  But the scene is even worse than I’d imagined.

  They’ve got a man tied up on the ground, just a few feet away from Eli’s dead body. He’s an average looking guy, with long dark hair that’s gnarled and tangled and sticky with blood. His face is a mask of bruises and cuts, making it almost impossible to see what he actually looks like. The bridge of his nose is sickeningly twisted and smashed, as if someone literally dropped an anvil on it. He’s been stripped down to his underwear and clearly beaten within an inch of his life.

  The brothers are in various places around the room. Hetridge and Reyes are standing over the prisoner, while Tyler and Stutty are sitting on the couch. The same couch behind which Stutty had once hidden.

  For a moment I wonder if the brothers found him or if he came out on his own.

  Tyler notices me, shakes his head. Stutty doesn’t even acknowledge my existence.

  “Come to join the party?” Tyler says.

  “I came to see what all the screaming was about.” Hetridge glances up at me. “Fuck off, Gabe.”

  The man on the floor doesn’t even stir. He’s been cut, slashed, burned, and punched. The fact that he seems to be alive, as far as I can tell, is something of a miracle.

  “You guys planning on killing him?” I ask.

  “Yeah, just like he helped kill Diggler, and Eugene, and Vinnie, and Jared and DeSantos. Those are our brothers, Gabe. And we fought to protect them…and you.”

  “I’m thankful for that.”

  Tyler snorts. “Could have fooled me.”

  “Whatever you think this guy might have done, you can’t just murder him in cold blood.”

  “Can’t we?” Hetridge says. “Nobody’s going to know about it. That is, unless someone rats us out.” He stares at me with a strange look that makes my stomach do a slow flip.

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “Of course not.” He grins. Reyes looks at me with a sly smirk, his hunting knife hanging loosely in one hand.

  Good to see he’s got his knife back, I think, disgusted.

  Without warning Reyes kneels down and takes the point of his knife and uses it to pierce the cheek of the man lying on the floor. His eyes roll back in his head and a spray of blood splatters out like some ghastly movie special effect. Except it’s not a movie, it’s real.

  “Oh, fuck!” I yell. Then, before I even know what’s happening, I’ve vomited.

  It’s not much. It looks like someone dumped a quarter can of chunky noodle soup on the floor at my feet.

  The brothers are laughing now. Hetridge actually slaps his knee. “Gabe, you goddamn pussy. Why don’t you just run back upstairs and let the grownups get back to work?”

  “Listen,” I say, wiping my mouth. “Please don’t kill him. We need to stop now before this gets any worse. At some point the cops are going to get involved. One way or another we’re going to have to tell them what went on here. How are we going to explain the shape this guy’s body is in? It’s obvious he’s been tortured.” This seems to stump them momentarily.

  Hetridge looks down at the man on the floor. Then, without warning, Reyes swings the knife again, slicing in an arc. The man’s cheek completely opens up, exposing gums and teeth.

  I turn my head and try not to throw up again. Try not to picture that cheek flap hanging open like an animal carcass that’s been butchered.

  “Maybe Gabe’s got a point,” Tyler says from his seat on the couch. He sounds relaxed, as if we’re only discussing whether or not our fraternity should get involved in Greek Week on campus, rather than the very real possibility that we’re all going to prison for a long, long time.

  It’s as if Reyes hasn’t just cut a man’s face wide open for no reason. We’re just having a good old-fashioned fraternity strategy debate. Soring through the pro’s and cons like the old days.

  I try one last time to restore sanity to this insane situation. “It’s one thing to kill someone in self-defense and another to torture someone like this.” Reyes is staring down at the man on the floor. “Self-defense?” he laughs.

  Suddenly Reyes kicks him in the ribs. Then he kicks him in the face again and again.

  I look away, but only after I’ve seen teeth flying across the room and part of the man’s jaw cave in.

  “How’s that for self-defense Gabe? You going to tell on us? Or are you going to go hide in the kitchen again? Why don’t you see if you can find a better hiding place this time.”

  I finally look up to find the others staring at me. No one has moved yet but I have this unmistakable sense that they view me as the new enemy. They’ve decided that I’m the one who will expose them to the authorities. I’m the weak link in the group.

  And with so many already dead, what’s one more body to add to the mix?

  “Whatever,” I shrug. I try to make my voice take on the bored tone that the others seem to have cultivated. “I don’t really give a shit what you all do to be honest.” I can feel my whole body shaking, my nerve endings jumping and jiving in the presence of danger unlike anything I’ve encountered in my life. An instinctual, primitive part of me knows that I am just hair away from being attacked and torn to pieces by my former friends.

  But they haven’t moved to action yet. No, they’re just watching me with that strange, curious intensity. Their faces are unrecognizable.

  Hetridge’s face looks narrow and shadowy. Tyler’s mouth has a strange grin and his eyes are too wide, he’s blinking rapidly.

  Just pretend that you’ve given up caring, I tell myself. Don’t let them sense even a shred of fear. Don’t give them any reason to do what they might be thinking of doing.

  At this point, it’s only going to take one tiny mistake.

  One wrong word, one wrong look and I’ll have Reyes’s hunting knife in my chest.

  I let my shoulders sag and I turn and leave the basement without looking back. I hope against hope that they’re not coming after me just yet. All I need is a minute to get outside and make a run for it. That’s all I need.

  Slowly, I walk up the stairs. Any moment I’m going to hear them coming for me.

  Please, I pray. Please, just give me one minute.

  Upstairs, I find Neil standing there, watching me with terror in his eyes. “What’s going on?” he says, his voice choked with tension.

  “We’ve got to leave,” I hiss, trying to be quiet but still convey the point. I reach the top of the stairs and glance back. Still no one there. “Right now,” I say in his ear, so he can hear. “We have to get out of here right fucking now. Reyes just killed someone downstairs.”

  “It’s still dark,” he protests.

  “I don’t care anymore.” I start for the back deck and the stairs. “You coming or
not?” I say, turning around one last time.

  Neil shakes his head.

  “You should come, dude. It’s gone bad.”

  Suddenly, I hear a voice from downstairs. “Yo, Gabe! Come back down here man!”

  It’s Tyler. He sounds almost friendly. My mouth goes dry instantly, and my throat tightens. He’s trying to sound casual but I sense instantly that he’s putting on an act.

  “Just a second!” I yell back.

  “We need to ask you a question,” his voice echoes up the stairs. “It’s no big deal, dude.”

  Is it me or does his voice sound a little closer now? He’s at the foot of the stairs, I bet. Maybe with the others right behind him.

  If I make a run for it now, are any of them fast enough to catch me?

  My heart is pounding so hard that I can see my chest moving through my shirt.

  Neil looks down the stairs once and then back to me. The color drains instantly from his face. “Gabe. Gabe. I can see them. They’re coming up.” I start to back away, my feet heavy, like they’ve been weighted down with lead.

  “Tell them whatever they want to hear,” I say to him.

  “Gabe, you coming down or what?” Tyler’s disembodied voice floats up the stairs, sounding louder and that much closer. In a few more seconds this charade is going to end and the brothers are going to charge up the stairs and really come for me.

  Right now they’re still trying to pretend, trying to lure me back downstairs.

  But once they realize I’m not coming, the pretense will give way and I’ll be running for my life.

  I just need to stall them a few more seconds, to give me enough time to get the hell out of the cabin and into the woods where I can disappear from view.

  “I’ll be there in one minute,” I yell, projecting my voice as much as possible.

  “I’m just going to take a quick leak!”

  And then I take four or five big steps backward, my butt colliding with the door behind me. I spin, wrench the door open, and run outside to the deck. I start down the wooden steps and it dawns on me that if they have anyone standing watch by the sliding glass door, they’re going to see me trying to escape.

  I can only hope they aren’t organized. I hurriedly glance over my shoulder, and nobody’s exited the cabin yet to give chase.

  I make it down the steps, my breath already coming in little panicked gasps.

  The night air is cold but I barely even feel it, and even though it’s pitch black outside I can see everything with utter clarity. The frost bitten ground beneath my feet, the tall standing trees circling the back yard and driveway, the silent cars.

  I make a beeline for the woods now. If someone is watching me run, I’ll find out soon enough.

  And then I hear it. The sliding door whisking open behind me.

  “Hey!” the voice calls. “Gabe, what are you doing man?” It’s Stutty. I can hear the fear and confusion in his voice and I turn around, still jogging backwards. Stutty stands in the doorway to the downstairs, his large, stumpy body silhouetted in the light of the basement. “Why are you taking off?” I keep back peddling. “Tell them if they come after me, I’ll fucking kill someone.”

  And then I’m running full speed into the woods.

  As I burst into the forest, branches scratch across my face. I feel pine needles, the smell in my nose, and I hear voices echoing into the night.

  “Where’d he go?”

  “He just ran into the woods.”

  “I think I see him!”

  “He said he’d kill you if you try to go after him.” A chorus of voices seeming to argue. They fall away as I run further into the woods.

  “Gabe, you going to be a tough guy now?” Someone screams.

  The darkness of the woods enfolds me.

  A moment later I see a flashlight beam bouncing through the nearby trees.

  Holy shit. Holy shit. They’re chasing me down. They’re actually chasing me down and they seem to know where I am.

  I’m already gasping for air and my legs are feeling weak. I spin in a circle, trying to get my bearings. I can barely make out the cabin through the trees. I can still see a small twinkle of a light, probably from the window into the kitchen, and the roof peeking through the tree line.

  I start running again, hunched over, trying to make myself smaller.

  Moments later I come to the clearing.

  There’s a smoldering fire pit, and a tent. And next to it, the bodies of four people.

  “Jesus fucking Christ.” I instinctively put the back of my hand to my mouth.

  I recognize Natasha, but just barely. She’s been stabbed multiple times in the face. One eye is just a gash, an uneven black hole. Her mouth is open in a silent scream, neck at a strange and impossible angle. She has another stab wound in the opposite cheek, caving in part of her skull.

  One eye stares at me sightlessly.

  Next to her, the other two bodies are similarly ravaged.

  And then there’s Vinnie. He lies on his back, looking somehow peaceful, almost as if he’s sleeping and needs to be shaken awake.

  In the soft light of the moon filtering into the clearing, the scene is a grisly tableau, something out of a big Hollywood film set, directed by a madman.

  I hear voices again and it seems the brothers are heading in this direction.

  Flashlight beams sweep the trees, and brothers call back and forth to one another.

  They’re setting about their search in a deliberate fashion, with more organization then I’d have given them credit for.

  I need to get far, far away from here.

  But at this point, if I move too fast they’re going to hear me crashing through the woods. It will only become easier to follow me.

  On the other hand, if I just stand still, they’re going to keep searching and eventually someone’s bound to stumble upon me.

  “I think he got away,” someone calls out from just a few feet away.

  My breath catches in my throat and I sink to a kneeling position.

  “No he didn’t.”

  The two voices grow louder as the two brothers enter the clearing. I slowly scoot around the tent so that I have a barrier between them and myself. I don’t think they heard me since they were making so much noise themselves.

  Please. Please. I close my eyes and pray. Maybe I’ve exhausted my prayers over the last couple of hours. Maybe whatever deity or dark god watches over this planet has had its fill of my crying and whining for mercy.

  It might just be that I need to take matters into my own hands for once.

  Either way, I stay as quiet and still as possible behind the tent.

  “Look at this fucking mess,” one of them says. It’s Tyler. I’d know his voice anywhere, even if I can’t see him.

  “Shit, I really did a number on that broad’s face,” the other brother responds.

  That must be Reyes. I can almost picture him smiling at his grisly handiwork.

  “She deserved it.”

  “I should have made her blow me first.”

  There’s silence for a moment and the sound of sticks and leaves being crushed underfoot as they move around the site.

  My belly churns and my balls feel like they’ve drawn up into little nubs. I actually have the sensation of needing desperately to crap. Whenever I’ve heard about people shitting themselves in a car accident it always sounded ridiculous to me. But now here I am, being hunted, my life hanging in the balance, and more than anything I just want to find a bathroom where I can let my bowels loose.

  There’s shouting again in the distance.

  “You hear that?” Reyes asks.

  “Sounds like maybe they found him,” Tyler says.

  “Should we go see what it is?”

  “You check it out. I’m going to check inside the tent just to make sure he’s not hiding again like he did in the cabin.”

  “Okay.” Reyes runs off. Chillingly, he buzzes right past me, not five feet from where I’m hidin
g, as he tries to find the source of the shouting.

  If he looked to his left he would have spotted me.

  I’d be a dead man. Instead I’m squatting here, my legs trembling, holding my breath, while Tyler unzips the tent and moves inside.

  Maybe the gods are listening.

  I begin creeping away from the tent, trying to stay quiet so he doesn’t hear me rustling nearby. A few more steps and I’ll be free again. And if I can just get a few minutes more between me and them, they’ll never be able to find me out here.

  But I don’t get that far. Near the edge of the clearing I step on a fallen branch and it makes a loud snapping sound.

  “Hello?” Tyler calls from inside the tent. “Who is that?” I hear him rustling and making his way out, and I freeze, crouching down, hoping he’ll think the noise he heard was just an animal or something.

  His flashlight beam shines out and bounces around the clearing. For a brief space of time, it seems that he’s going to give up and assume it was nothing. But then the light swings around again and hits me full on.

  “Gabe,” he says. And then I turn and start to run as fast as my legs will carry me.

  I crash through the brush and a branch whips against my cheek so hard that it draws blood. I don’t care. I don’t feel it.

  “Gabe! I see you, motherfucker!” I hear Tyler screech from behind me. He’s giving chase.

  I glance back like a runner trying to win the marathon, coming down the home stretch, and my eyes are temporarily blinded by the flashlight beam as he tracks me through the forest.

  I pump my legs harder, but I’m getting tired. A minute passes, then two. I turn and he’s gaining on me. The flashlight beam is a bright beacon moving towards me. I realize, with desperate hunted weariness, that Tyler’s faster than me. Even in high school he was a far better athlete, he ran track and played running back for the football team.

  They were a shitty team, but still. He’s faster than I am.

  And the fear has sapped my energy and will to run.

  It’s time to face the music. One thing I do know is that whatever I do next, it’s going to be decisive. If I give him time to yell for help, brothers will join in the hunt and my life will be over. They’re going to kill me out here—I know it as much as I know anything.