by Jim Goforth
Instead Tim just slapped him on the shoulder.
"See? You're in for a good night bro. It's a good thing we're doing here. All we have to do is find a babe for Lee and things are sweet. I'm sure there's a chick amongst that lot for him. Maybe Raven hey?"
"I don't think so!" Lee exclaimed. "Hell no."
"Maybe a good fuck would lighten that bitch’s disposition a bit." Tim said. "Lee you could be the guy to completely overhaul Raven's outlook."
"I'm not the guy." Lee asserted and then silence descended temporarily on the threesome as they wandered out of a dense thicket and began to approach the hill.
When they reached the base of it they halted, gazing up at it.
It was more of a mountain, crowded by stands of trees and thick clusters of bush, the top of it where the alleged abode of the Plebs resided not visible to them.
"This the hill?" Corey queried obtusely.
"I don't see any other hills dumbass."
"Well like I said, I wasn't paying attention."
"Well pay attention now."
"Fuck it, let's do it," Tim decided. "The sooner we close this deal the sooner I'm riding Blaise doggystyle."
"After you then, Snoop Dogg."
"Right. Lee, you got the green?"
"Yep."
"Let's go."
Tim restarted the procession, clambering the hill, striding through knee high grass.
"Hey dickhead," Corey called. "There's a path to your left. Why don't you use that?"
Tim looked with a surprised expression to his left and saw his friend was indeed correct.
It wasn't much of a path, more of a rough trail blazed through the grass and around trees by foot traffic, but it was probably easier than wading through the scrub.
"And that is why you're here Corey, to do the thinking for me."
"Glad somebody is," Corey muttered as he and Lee trudged up onto the path, pausing to wait for Tim as he struggled, cursing through the grass.
CHAPTER 9
The pale globe of the moon was resting in the sky virtually right above the hill on which they stood so it afforded them plenty of illumination, and not yet requiring the assistance of the flashlight Corey stowed that item away in a pocket of his borrowed jeans.
"Fucking bull at a gate aren’tcha Timbo," Lee joked. "Straight up the hillside, never mind the path three feet away."
"Fuck off," Tim shot back, giving his friend a playful club in the back of the skull. "I woulda found it eventually. Not even much of a path anyway."
They set off again, trailing single file along the beaten down grass track, a meandering path which twisted and turned around trees.
The moonlight cast bizarre elongated shadows from the various trees dotting the hillside and the breeze which had beset them at the bridge crossing was in evidence again, flattening the grass and snatching at their clothing.
Presently Corey acknowledged that the track they were following up wound around the hill and now they were on the other side from where they started.
"There it is!" Lee exclaimed and pointed to emphasise his remark.
Gazing up the hill at the alleged Pleb residence gave Corey an instant case of the creeps.
There wasn't much to see of it yet due to the fact that it was mostly shrouded by tall trees and intense shrubbery, but what he could see of it didn't look very friendly or welcoming at all.
It was an absolute monstrosity of a place, hunkering down like some ugly giant beast in the woods of the hill top, all wooden and metal its facade.
A massive badly rusting wrought iron fence seemed to completely surround it, or at least Corey guessed it did; he could only see part of the front.
What he could see hanging all over the rusty spikes of the fence was disturbing enough.
There were unidentified animal corpses impaled upon several spikes while dead birds, wings spread as if still in flight, stretched from post to post.
Rounded white objects which looked for all the world to Corey's horrified eyes like human skulls also decorated the fence, some of them lying at the base of it as if they'd fallen from their positions and never been replaced.
Material, dirty and decaying hung upon spikes waving relentlessly in the breeze like flags, or better yet warning signals indicating that intruders best keep away.
The chunky paralyzing ice ball of dread ballooned suddenly up in Corey's stomach and he clenched his hatchet in hands which were abruptly clammy with perspiration.
"Oh shit," he said.
"I'm not liking this," Lee decided.
"Come on pussies," Tim chided. "What else are these hicks gonna decorate their house with? If they can't afford pot I'm guessing they can't afford paint and wall paper."
"You first then champ." Corey told him.
"Fuck. I'll tell you this for free Corey; if you get to fuck Destiny tonight it's gonna be a hell of a miracle because you've got no balls and your dick is as soft as a marshmallow."
"It's Desiree." Corey corrected.
"Who fucking cares? Either way you've still got no balls."
"I got balls, I just have a brain too. And my brain's telling me that this here is a very fucked up situation."
"My brain is tellin' me that there's pussy waiting for me once we get this shit over and done with."
"That's your dick telling you that," said Corey.
"Same thing for him isn't it?" Lee put in and the comment induced laughter in all three of the lads.
Corey's laugh though was nervous and shaky, a sound bordering on hysteria.
He didn't really feel like laughing and he sure as hell didn't feel like wandering up to this freaky Addams family house to trade marijuana for a pair of women.
What he felt like doing was turning tail and running for dear life, running the fuck out of these woods, out of this whole night.
Two things stilled his feet, kept them hesitantly trudging towards that abomination abode and its gruesome fence decorations.
One was the threat of getting his features badly rearranged by Tim's granite fists.
The other and probably the most dominating motivation was of course constant thoughts of Desiree, and her promise to 'thank him later' for this foolhardy mission.
Still, it was one thing to be loaded with bravado with Desiree's mouth on his, her breasts crushed against his chest and the heat of her groin burning against his.
It was an entirely different scenario to actually be standing outside the appalling gates of what looked like Hell's own hovel, trying to muster up all that bravado which came so easy in Desiree's arms.
If it hadn't been for the presence of Tim and his face damaging fists Corey might have been entertaining thoughts about trying to forget Desiree altogether and simply abandoning the whole thing.
However he now knew he couldn't forget Desiree no matter what kind of hell house stood before him.
The brunette babe with the soulful eyes was now deeply embedded in his mind, tangled inextricably around all corners of his brain.
He knew if he bailed out, regardless of Tim's threats of violence he'd die with Desiree tormenting his mind.
Warily the three moved through the grass, closer and closer to the rust ridden fence and it's horrible adornments.
Once at the fence they saw that a huge, equally rusty chain and padlock kept the entry gate secure, and just as Corey had assumed the fence did seem to circumnavigate the whole property.
"Shit, how do we get in? I don't fancy standing out here yelling out to them." Lee said.
Tim was examining one of the white skull objects, the expression on his face revealing his consternation when he realised the item was indeed a skull, whether human or not yet to be determined.
"These things ARE skulls," he said in a hushed voice. "And I don't think they belong to animals."
"Fuck Tim, you're the brave one; you're not supposed to freak out."
"I'm not freaking out; I'm just making an observation." Tim said, attempting to instill calm in the g
roup. "Just saying they don't look like animal skulls. Maybe they aren't real anyway."
"They look real."
"Fuck it. Don't worry about it. Let's just worry about how to get in without having to climb the fence." Tim decided. "Let's walk around the perimeter of the fence and see if there's a way."
"Okay boss."
The threesome began to move very hesitantly along the fenced border, ducking under low hanging branches and trampling through knee high grass.
The place definitely hadn't seen a lawnmower, an edge trimmer or even an old fashioned grass sickle for a long period of time.
Weeds choked the entire area, tangling in knots of vegetation around the rusted spikes of the fence; they even poked up through the empty eye sockets of a long fallen skull half hidden on the ground.
Lee uttered a strangled expression of disgust as he accidentally stubbed the weed infested skull with the toe of his shoe, punting the ghastly item a short distance along the ground.
"Screw this place," he declared. "Freakin' house of horrors."
There was no entry to be found anywhere along the side they were walking; the fence was old and badly rusted, but it was still strong and held firm even when Tim grasped two bars and shook it defiantly.
The best result he achieved in doing this was causing the murky coloured material flags to bluster and wave with a little more vigour, and the various corpses to tremble with motion.
"Shit, don't do that, idiot!" Corey said, alarmed.
Around the back of the fence their luck changed.
Here the fence was more corroded than anywhere else, some fence spikes so badly bent out of shape they looked as though a bulldozer had been driven into them, and a little gate about half the size as the rest of the fence gaped wide open, hanging loosely on only one hinge.
"Jackpot," Tim announced quietly. "Here's where we go in boys."
"After you," Lee said politely and with a derisive snort Tim pushed past him and in through the gate.
The others followed him into a back yard which was essentially a junk heap.
Just to their right alongside the fence was an untidy woodpile with sections of kindling and broken pieces of trash wood next to a giant tree stump with a big rusty axe wedged in it.
The top of the stump was literally covered with a dark substance Corey didn't want to examine too closely, thankful the moonlight only showed things in grey hues so his suspicions on the substance which also coated the blade of the axe wouldn't be confirmed.
Clothing was strewn everywhere as were more animal and bird corpses, rotting and filling the air with a pervading death stench.
Haphazard sections of corrugated iron, rusted chains, discarded tools, even pieces of old railway sleeps battled for ground space along with great quantities of bones, feathers, black plastic and corroding pieces of hessian.
Amongst the debris Corey observed what looked to be an ancient metal trap, its rusty jaws closed tightly on a decaying boot and he shuddered as he gave it a wide berth.
There was barely any spare ground on which to walk so the threesome picked their way very carefully through the trash as best they could.
Picturing the vast quantities of vermin which must reside in this backyard tragedy didn't help Corey's demeanour any.
It was too easy to imagine tripping over some piece of dangerous junk, falling headlong into the whole mess and being beset by hordes of hungry rats and scuttling cockroaches.
"Watch your step," he whispered unnecessarily to his cohorts. "There's bear traps and shit in here."
"Bear traps," snorted Tim incredulously until Corey pointed out another metal trap, this one with its toothy jaws gaping wide in the fashion of a great white shark.
"There's no bears around here," Lee said, surprised. "Not unless there's a zoo."
"What would they want to trap then?" Tim wondered, though the look on Corey's face indicated that it didn't bear thinking about, not considering the last trap he'd seen contained a boot which probably belonged to a human foot.
A scream rent the silent night, a high pitched bloodcurdling howl of sheer terror.
The trio of intrepid explorers froze rigid, the hairs on the back of Corey's neck standing straight up, icy fingers of fear tickling his spine, the ball of ice swelling painfully in his gut.
"Oh fuck," Lee whimpered pointing towards the house, for that is where the desperate terrified scream had issued from.
Right then and there Corey made the snap decision that he was just going to have to get used to the fact that he was never going to see Desiree ever again.
Because without her presence around to ignite and spur on his bravado he felt just like a cowardly kitten, that horrifying scream instilling great trepidation in him.
What he wanted to do was get his white butt right out of here. He voiced that to his dumbstruck companions.
"Let's get the fuck out of here. Right now!"
"Sshh!" Tim cuffed him across the back of the head, pointing with a finger down towards the creepy house.
Following the trajectory of the finger Corey saw that though most of the windows in the abode were boarded up or in some other way devoid of visibility into the house, one of them was not completely covered.
A board had come away and fallen off this window, leaving a gap approximately two or more inches wide which someone could certainly spy into the house from outside.
"What about it?" Asked Corey, not quite following Tim's plans.
"We're going down there to get a look inside.” Tim said firmly.
"I don't fucking want to. I don't wanna see anything."
"Come on pussy, we're just going for a look." Tim snarled and without hesitation continued to navigate through the junk riddled haphazard death trap that was the massive back yard.
"Fuck this." Corey moaned, but it was a lament said mostly to himself. Tim was too far away to hear; moving purposefully towards that section of window and head down, watching intently where he placed his feet, Lee was in a fearful world of his own.
Corey tried to think of Desiree, to picture her goddess face, to relive those beautiful moments in the clothing shed, but it was so hard to think of anything comforting with that terrible scream ringing in his ears still.
Even without the addition of that scream walking through this nightmare junkyard was bad enough, envisioning the swarms of creatures which probably resided in it, thinking about a boot caught in a trap.
Before he realised it he and Lee were caught up with Tim, probably not paying enough attention to their surrounds they were both lucky not to have suffered any mishaps along the way.
"What..." Lee started to speak, but Tim clapped a hand over his mouth.
"Quiet." he ordered and as he did another scream rang out, a terrified emission of noise, the proximity of it so close that it virtually deafened all three of them, lambasting their ears with its intense pitch.
Corey literally jumped in fright, clumsily managing to keep a sweaty grip on his hatchet rather than dropping it on his feet and slicing off a couple of toes.
Luckily Tim still had his big hand firmly clamped over Lee's mouth for the expression upon Lee's face indicated that he might have screamed too.
Tim craned his neck, pressing his face to the gap left by the fallen board.
The way he instantly recoiled chilled Corey's blood to the point where it felt as if his veins were choked up by ice.
"Shit!" Moaned Tim. "They set us up, those bitches set us up!"
"What is it?" Queried Lee, his mouth finally free to speak.
Corey didn't want to know, he didn't want to look, but morbidly he felt compelled to and as Tim reeled away from the gap in the boards Corey stooped down and gazed in.
Immediately he wished he hadn't.
The space left in the window by the displaced wooden plank didn't quite allow him to see the entire interior of the room, but even so he saw enough.
The room was clearly the room where the terrified screams emanated from becaus
e two of the occupants were certainly under very obvious duress.
What Corey could see was an apparently small and dimly lit area, comprehensively cluttered with all manner of junk and frightening looking implements.
Big fat misshapen black candles placed haphazardly around the room were the only source of illumination available in the zone, their burning wicks creating long dancing flames, throwing off acrid black smoke and casting lengthy constantly moving shadows.
In the very centre of the room stood a towering rack type thing, shaped like an old stand alone school blackboard, the very top from which steel manacles hung down.
These iron handcuff items, one pair hanging down either side of the rack, were each attached to a pair of wrists.
The wrists belonged to two very terrified and very naked women, suspended by the manacles with their backs to the blackboard planes of the rack; their bare feet dangling inches from the wooden slats of the floor.
While Corey could really only see one of the women entirely he could see enough of the other to see that her head was slumped down against her chest, no movement happening bar an occasional shaking of her body created by motion on behalf of the other girl.
The one Corey could see clearly was instigating the motion of the rack and her still partner by desperately yanking at her manacles, flinging her body from side to side.
Her eyes were wide with abject terror, but a fiery will for survival burned in them as well as she strained against her hanging restraints.
As Corey gazed in stupefied horror, two things which caught his attention intensified the chilled blood sensation he was feeling.
One, the abundance of naked flesh on display was far from arousing or titillating considering that the majority of it belonging to the girl he could see plainly was dripping with blood.
Lacerations, cuts and slashes made by some sharp instrument of torture crisscrossed and decorated the woman’s torso, even down her thighs and minor marks on her face.
As if that wasn't abhorrent enough, gazing upon the poor brave lass and her multiple marks of torment the other thing about the scenario which ran Corey's blood ice cold was what lay on the floor underneath her struggling form.
