She twisted her neck to find a snake sitting on her shoulder. She screamed and jolted backward, almost launching herself over the rail and into the water. Bridgette crashed onto the deck. She smacked the snake off with the back of her hand and it hissed as it sailed through the air. It landed on the deck next to her and began its winding, seductive path for her again. When her initial horror waned just long enough for her to look up, she saw that the deck of the boat was filled with at least a dozen snakes, all squirming around and hissing. Bridgette screamed again and shrunk into the corner.
Trevor had come out of the cabin to see what the commotion was, and he and Dawson stood there staring in shock. Their jaws hung open as they watched the snakes slither in the pale moonlight, some of them lazily making their way toward Bridgette's crumpled figure.
"Babe, hold still!" Dawson yelled. He looked around for something to knock the snakes away from her, but the only thing on the deck was the pile of diving gear sitting in the corner.
Bridgette screamed as one of them slithered onto her shin. Its tongue flicked out of its mouth and its dull black eyes stared at her. The feel of its wet scales on her flesh made her body convulse in disgust. "Get them off!" she yelled.
In desperation, Dawson lunged forward and began grabbing at the snakes by hand. He clenched his teeth and awaited a bite as he plucked one up from the deck of the boat and whipped it into the dark water. The snake hissed as it flew, and some of the others started to turn around toward him. He kicked some out of the way, hopping over others to get closer to Bridgette. One lunged and sank its teeth into the deck, narrowly missing his foot as he pulled it away.
More snakes slithered on Bridgette, and the one that had first crawled on her leg was now past her hip and wriggling up her torso. She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her chin to her chest, trying to occlude her throat as a target. A whimper escaped her lips. The snake stared into her eyes, its tongue flicking in and out hypnotically, almost like it was trying to charm her.
Through the fear, something came to her. Something long and poking into her leg in her pocket. Something Boomer had given her.
Like she was dying of thirst and reaching for water, Bridgette stuffed a shaky hand in her pocket and pulled out the snake charm. The thin silver rod felt cold in her fingers. The feel of the dried snakeskin tied around it made her want to gag, but she clutched it hard.
The snake hissed, on her chest now.
Bridgette held up the charm between her face and the reptile. The snake hissed suddenly like it was in pain. It opened its mouth wide and venom dripped from its fangs. And then it turned and slithered off her. All of the snakes on the deck backed away, suddenly losing their appetites. Almost as if one overarching mind was directing them, the legless beasts slithered in an orderly line toward the diving gear piled in the corner next to Bridgette. They climbed up it and jettisoned themselves off the boat, creating a series of small splashes that faded away in the distance as the boat trudged along.
Bridgette blankly stared at the corner where they'd all disappeared and then looked at the snake charm in her hand. She slowly turned it over and beheld it as if it were the most magnificent, most valuable and most magical object human eyes had ever lain upon.
"What the hell just happened?" Trevor asked, still standing in the doorway to the cabin. "What is that thing?"
Bridgette was stunned into silence at first, but she soon found the motor functions of her mouth. "Boomer gave it to me."
"Who?"
"Th-the guy we saw next to the store," she stuttered. "Remember?"
"He never gave you anything," Dawson cut in. His eyes darted back and forth as his mind searched his memories. Then his gaze darted up to Bridgette. "Wait, is that where you went earlier today?" Anger rose in his voice.
But she was too physically and emotionally exhausted to engage him. She slipped the strange charm back in her pocket, then she reached for the rail on the gunwale and tried to pull herself up.
Trevor stepped forward, seeing that her arms and legs were like jelly after her fright, but Dawson cut him off, turning his head and hissing not unlike the snakes that were just on board. Dawson bent over and picked his girlfriend up, dropping his angry tack from a moment ago. He held her by the shoulders and asked her if she was okay and she nodded silently, still looking like she was dazed.
Dawson glanced past her shoulder at Trevor. "Get us out of here, and step on it."
Trevor gave a slow nod and returned to the helm. He eased the throttle forward and they crawled along a little quicker.
As the minutes ticked on, the temperature of the air began to drop. None of them noticed at first, but before long, their teeth were chattering.
"Why's it so cold?" Bridgette asked in Dawson's embrace.
"I don't know," Dawson said, rubbing her arms. "What's going on, Trevor?"
"Just hold on, okay?" Trevor said from the cabin. There was fear in his voice.
A dull thump reverberated through the hull of the boat, the sound of it just audible above the surface of the water. It sounded like they hit something.
"What was that?" Dawson asked.
Trevor didn't respond.
Another thump, and then another.
Trevor leaned forward in his chair, peering through the windshield at the water ahead. It was hard to see from the angle and distance he was at, but his eyes widened a bit and goose bumps broke out over his skin.
"What is it?" Dawson asked again. He let Bridgette go and stepped to the side of the boat to take a look.
Trevor blinked his eyes rapidly. He wondered if he was really seeing what he thought he saw. In the water, a crowd of bodies floated facedown like sea mines. The boat pushed them out of the way, and that sickening thump echoed each time. Trevor's lip trembled. Every time one hit the boat, he jumped in his seat. His skin went white and his hands felt cold on the wheel.
"I don't see anything!" Dawson exclaimed. He looked down at the water and saw some ripples, but he couldn't tell what made them.
"I think... I think there's people in the water," Trevor sputtered, his voice just above a whisper.
Bridgette leaned over the other side of the boat, starting to come out of her daze. She felt like she was floating in some bad dream. Ripples broke out on the surface in front of her, followed by the murky red eyes of an alligator.
She stumbled backward with a gasp and Dawson ran over to her. When he saw the gator, he pulled her away from the side of the boat and stuffed her in the cabin. He jogged around the deck, looking at the water on each side, and saw more red shining eyes break the surface.
"Oh shit," Dawson said. "We've got alligators in the water. A lot of them."
"What?" Trevor said, confused. "But I thought I saw..." He leaned forward and peered through the windshield, but now it was hard to make out the shapes in the dark waters.
"Come on, buddy, get us out of here!" Dawson yelled.
Trevor swallowed and pushed the throttle forward, gliding the boat through a narrow mouth into a large pond.
Bridgette leaned on the back of his chair and stared out the windshield. "What's that?" she asked.
A white mist hung over the water ahead. It was thick and tall like a puffy cloud and the boat's headlights glared off of it, blinding them. The bow of the boat broke the whiteness and the mist brushed up to their sides. The air became even colder and all three of them huddled inside the cabin now, practically holding onto each other.
Trevor slowed the boat down. He stood up and almost pressed his forehead to the glass. "I can't see a damn thing."
The sounds of the bugs and the animals surrounding them had warped somehow once they came into the mist. The distant hooting of an owl became more hypnotic, more malevolent. It seemed to echo from every direction around them at varying distances, giving the illusion that they were in an auditory hall of mirrors. But as they stared out the windows of the cabin and over the mist, they could see nothing but darkness. Stars dotted the night sky, but they seemed
to lose their luster.
Something streaked behind the trees next to them.
Their heads turned in unison. "Tell me I'm not the only one who saw that," Bridgette said.
More movement on the other side of them, and their eyes darted over to it.
"What is that?" Trevor said, trying to hide how much his body was shaking.
Dawson bit his lip to keep himself from saying something crazy.
All three of them got the distinct feeling that they weren't alone, and they weren't talking about animals. The temperature dropped lower, making the three of them shiver violently.
A scratching sound came from the back of the boat almost like metal grinding against the fiberglass frame. Dawson and Bridgette looked behind them, but they couldn't see anything. They heard the scratching metal again, and it reminded Bridgette of a pirate scratching its hook against the boat as it tried to climb up onto the deck.
Lost in the mist, the boat brushed across an embankment under the water and the whole thing shook, making them stagger across the cabin.
"Keep it steady!" Dawson said, his voice saturated with fear.
"I'm trying!" Trevor said, and he perched up over his seat, desperately trying to see through the mist.
The scratching sound continued behind them, and Bridgette glanced back, thinking that she saw something silver glint in the moonlight, just coming over the edge. She began to walk out onto the deck, mesmerized by the sight.
"Baby, no!" Dawson shouted, seeing her. He ran out and pulled her back.
"Guys, I think I see something!" Trevor called.
There was a golden light ahead somewhere over the mist, and it wasn't the reflection of the headlights. The small light bobbed gently from side to side.
"What is that?" Bridgette asked.
Trevor slowed the boat even more as they approached it. When the mist broke in front of it, they saw an arm coming out of the white, holding a lantern. The arm waved left and right like it was trying to signal them. When the boat pulled up next to it, Boomer stepped onto the edge of the shore, his eyes wide and yellow in the light.
"Get out of there!" Boomer croaked at them. His voice sounded warped in the mist. "Come on now, follow me. There's no time to waste!"
Pow Wow
"What about the boat?" Trevor demanded.
"Leave it," Boomer said.
"I can't just leave it!"
"Come on," Bridgette said, yanking on his arm, "we've got to get out of here!" She climbed onto the shore next to Dawson and Boomer as the cold mist crawled up the sides of the boat.
He let out a loud sigh, then said, "Fine." He took the line coiled up on the deck then tossed it onto the bank. He hopped out and secured it to a tree, then he hurried back inside and shut the engine off, slipping the keys into his pocket and joining the others. "But how am I going to find it again?"
"You dummy," Boomer said, "we're right behind ol' Jasper."
Trevor looked up the hill next to them and saw the edge of the museum's roof. He spun and realized the tree he just tied the boat to was the one he had picked when they first got there. "What the?" he said.
"Sounds like you three been going 'round in circles all night," Boomer suggested. "But come now, it's getting dangerous in these parts." He guided them along a narrow path skirting the bayou. His gait was slow and uneven, and he used a cane to walk. Bridgette was surprised he made it out here by himself, but he looked like he was used to managing on his own. "It's not safe for you youngins to be out at a time like this. A place like this."
"And what do you know about it, old man?" Trevor asked.
"Trev!" Bridgette said, jabbing him in the ribs.
Boomer was silent as they walked past a line of willows. They came to a point where the trail forked, one of the paths going straight ahead along the bank and curving out of sight, and the other stretching up steeply toward the mansion. Boomer stopped and faced them. "Well, this is where we part ways. I hope for good."
The others looked at him like they didn't quite understand.
"That path there leads back up to Jasper," Boomer said, pointing up the steep and winding trail. He hiked his thumb over his shoulder. "This one here leads back across the river where I make my homestead. If yous got any smarts rattling 'round in your heads, you get in whatever vehicle you drove here in and go back along your way." He looked over the bayou at the thick mist fading in the distance where they left the boat. "She's been quiet for a while, but it looks like ol' Jasper is waking up."
"What the hell does that mean?" Trevor asked.
"You know what it means," Boomer said. "I can see it in your eyes."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Trevor said. He got the sentence out without his voice cracking. "We're going back up there and we're staying," he said decisively. "And don't you dare rat us out, old man!" He raised a fist at Boomer to scare him, but Boomer stood resolute, a foot shorter than him, his old, tired brown eyes staring at the young man.
"Trevor!" Bridgette cried. "Knock it off!"
Trevor held his fierce gaze on Boomer a moment longer before turning and heading up the trail by himself. He whacked his knuckles on a tree next to him then jogged up the rest of the path.
"Come on, honey, let's go," Dawson said, tugging at her hand.
Boomer stood watching them, and Bridgette's eyes locked with his.
"Nothing but trouble up there," Boomer said. "You'll see."
Dawson yanked on her arm and before she could sort her thoughts, they were halfway up the hill. Daybreak came when they crested it, and the morning light spilled over the front grounds and the parking lot. The three of them took a moment to rest their tired legs and lungs as they watched the bay's calm water glimmer in the light, then they headed for the tall doors of the mansion.
Trevor pushed them open and the three of them walked into the cool interior. Trevor shut the doors, and a few moments later footsteps clapped somewhere in the distance.
Billy hurried into the entrance hall, his face flushed. "They're back!" he called over his shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Trevor asked.
"I think we gotta get out of here, man," Billy said. Janet and Karen came into the hall behind him. They shared his worried look.
"I was going to say the same thing," Dawson stated. "Now that the sun's up, I think it's as good a time as any."
"Thank God!" Karen said. "I'm not staying here another damn minute!"
Trevor wheeled around on all of them. He took a few steps back. His face was wrenched into a grimace. "Are you guys serious right now?" he asked.
The others blinked at him dumbly.
"No way," he said. "No damn way! There's no way we're leaving now. We came here for a reason!"
"But Trevor," Bridgette started.
"Do you know what's out there?!" he snapped, almost spitting the words in her face as he pointed toward the bay. "Rich! Don't you get it? Think what that would be like!"
Billy rested his hand on Trevor's shoulder from behind. "Trevor," he said softly.
Trevor spun around. "What?" he demanded.
"There's something you got to see before you make any commitments."
The six of them made their way to the second floor and Billy led them into the bedroom that he and Karen had taken for the previous two nights. The message 'GET OUT' was still written on the wall in drying blood. Billy had been inspecting it all morning. There was no mistaking it.
"And that window was open," he said, pointing it out. "That's what woke me up in the night, I think. I went to get a glass of water, and when I came back, I found this written on the wall."
Trevor held a hand to his chin and took the words in silently, carefully.
"And when I went to the kitchen to get some water, there was... something... following me. I thought I was hearing things at first, but I saw the footprints in the hall, wet on the floor like someone came in from the rain. Except it wasn't raining."
Bridgette remembered waking up in the nigh
t and seeing the shadowy figure at the end of the hallway. "I saw something last night, too. Before Trevor woke me up to go looking for the treasure... I heard something outside my door, like someone was walking. I got up to look and saw a person standing at the end of the hallway." Bridgette stepped out of the room and pointed to the bedroom with the lock on the door and the bloody scratches on the other side. "They were standing right there. A girl, I think. I remember it now. For a while I thought I just dreamt it, but now I'm sure it wasn't a dream!"
"Something's definitely going on here, Trev," Billy said.
Trevor drummed his fingers against his lip. He gazed at the bloody message written on the wall, then at the window. The others waited silently for him to say something. His eyes flicked left and right, deep in thought, and then he turned to the others. "It was that old man," he said at last.
"Who?" Janet asked.
"The old fart that lives next to the store. We saw him not even an hour ago. He tried to convince us to leave this place. He's the one who did all this."
Billy's face scrunched like his mind rejected the idea, but he had nothing to counter with.
"He wants to scare us," Trevor said. "So he came in here when we were sleeping and wrote that on the wall. He probably cut up some poor pig to do it. He opened the window... make it look like someone climbed in. It's simple. That old man's got a problem with us, or this place, I don't know. But if he keeps it up, he's really going to have a problem," he said, clenching his hand.
"But the footprints," Billy protested. "I saw them. They were wet on the floor."
"Think about it," Trevor replied. "He wants to scare us so bad that we leave. And you were pretty spooked, right?"
"Yeah... but—"
"But nothin'. He wanted to get your heart all worked up. You're already delirious and half-asleep in the night, so now what if he makes you think someone's after you?" Trevor's eyes went wide for effect. "Like the ghost of an old pirate, come up from his watery grave to gut you with his sword and take your soul..." he said dramatically, raising his hands and wiggling his fingers.
The Box Set of Hauntings and Horrors Page 45
