by mike Evans
Joyce said, “Fuck looking for a weapon stupid, we need to get her out of here, and we need to do it now! Would you look at her!”
Jason had looked at Shelli and hated himself for saying it. “I don’t think that she’s going to be able to run, Joyce.”
“Then we don’t fucking run, Jason!”
“Whoever the fuck did that to her isn’t right in the head. What I mean is, it’d be smart if we got the fuck out of dodge.”
“Well, we are getting the fuck out of dodge with my best friend, you assclown. I know that you don’t think that I’m going to leave her behind!”
“I don’t know what you think you’re going to do, but if you took a good look at her, then you’d notice she’s already dead. He or she, or whatever the fuck did that, is coming for us. They want us to go slow or something. We need to leave.”
“I’m not leaving. I can’t.”
“You can and you fucking will! She’s got no color. She left my best friend, it’d seem, in the fucking woods.”
Shelli was shaking her head no. Joyce put a blanket around her trying to comfort and calm her down so they could leave. “I need to pull this stick from your mouth.”
Shelli looked over her shoulder, seeing the man standing there still. She put her shoulder into Joyce, grunting in pain as she pushed her away. Her voice was muffled. “Go, go, now!”
Joyce shook her head. “We aren’t leaving you, honey. It’s the three of us, or none of us.”
A whistling came, just barely able to be heard over her screaming as she tried to tell her friend what she needed to do, and that they were going to save her. Jason heard it and yelled, “What the fuck was that noise?”
Fresh blood came from Shelli’s mouth. It was hard to tell it was new until they saw it was dark, and that there was a lot more coming out than before. She buckled from pain and the blanket fell from her shoulders and down to her sides, but it stopped halfway at her waist. Joyce reached to help her put it back on her shoulders, but realized that she had not kept her hands around it—she had none to clutch it with. A single triangle-shaped, broad head—which glistened even with the blood on it—reflected the sun’s light from where it protruded from Shelli’s stomach, dripping fresh blood into the leaves below. When she looked up at Shelli, the light looked as if it was fading from her eyes. She touched the broad head, still unsure that she could believe it was there, when a second came whistling through the air and appeared out of nowhere.
Joyce jumped back a foot when the broad head appeared from nowhere inches from her face, only a second before Shelli lost her balance and fell on her face. Her legs shook one more time before falling and not moving again. Jason ran to the edge of the hill past Joyce, who was becoming hysterical, pounding the grass next to Joyce’s head. Jason looked over the hill, seeing Matt in his rain slicker with the hood up. He was waving slowly and pulling out a third arrow. Jason did not wait for him to pull the string back. He took off, pulling Joyce by the hand. “We need to leave, now!”
“But what about-”
“She can get buried regardless of whether it's now or later! We aren’t going to be able to do anything for her right now. She’s gone, you’re still alive, if you want to stay that way—which I sure as fuck do—we need to go, and do it now. I’m fucking leaving! That guy's a fucking sadistic psycho! He was waving to me.”
Joyce got behind a tree before looking at the bottom of the hill, but looked even more confused when she turned around. “He’s not there. There’s no one there, Jason, where did he go?”
“He was just there a minute ago, with a big ass fucking bow and arrow, and he was waving at me.”
“So if he isn’t there, which way do you want to go?” Joyce asked.
“Let's go back towards the car.”
“And what good is that going to do?”
“We can drive away from this fucking sick place and never come back. Or better yet, we can go find a cop, and let them know that they need to let someone come in here and deal with this guy.”
“Drive away is a good idea, but you didn’t drive.”
“Right, but I-” Jason stopped mid sentence. “Tim, fucking Feely, you know he kept the keys in his pocket! He never leaves them in the car, not one fucking day since I’ve ever known him. Son of a bitch, damn it!”
“So you came to the same conclusion that I did, Jason? What in the hell are we going to do about this?”
Jason ran around, looking for a weapon of any kind, and picked a large and thick branch. “Okay.”
“Okay, what? You have a stick! Didn’t you say that he looks like he has a bow? From the look of her arms, he has something else real fucking sharp.”
Jason looked at the stick, tossing it to the side. “We need to run. Come on. Or stay, but I’m leaving. All you are doing is giving that guy the time that he needs to do whatever it is he’s planning.”
Joyce nodded slowly. “Okay genius, which way?”
“I don’t know, I think we need to go back that way.”
“What do you mean you don't know?”
“Tim’s the survivor man, I’m the one that likes to go out and smoke his pot with him when he does it. He’s the one who knows how to get back when we go out in the middle of fucking nowhere,” Jason said.
“You’re useless.”
A branch snapped behind them and the two turned to see Matt standing on the opposite end. When he looked up, they both saw the smile on his face. Jason said, “Just run, Joyce. Don’t stop, no matter what you do. Just fucking run!” Jason didn’t wait for her to answer; he sprinted straight for Matt.
Matt smiled, he was going to take his time with this one, and he’d catch the woman, who was more than lost, later. He thought of his dad, suddenly feeling almost guilty about this, and the stress he’d bring upon his home.
Jason lunged, leaping straight into Matt, taking the two of them back a foot. Matt looked at the woman and said, “When I’m done with him, I’m going to eat your heart. I’ve always wanted to, but never taken the time to do it. You should run, it’ll let you live longer,” Matt looked down at Jason, who was coming to the same train of thought that Matt was: what was his follow up plan to what he was doing?
Jason screamed, “I’m going to fucking kill you. You mother fucker, you’re dead.”
Matt took hold of his shirt until it felt like it was going to rip off. He brought his arm up once in a fist and brought it down into his spine, knocking the air out of him. Jason wheezed, and Matt put his hand around his throat, holding tight and bringing him up until Jason’s feet were dangling off the ground. “What was your next move?”
“This is when I start kicking your ass, damn it.”
Jason started kicking at Matt, who decided this one might need to be quicker, due to the annoyance that he was causing him. He hadn’t chased someone through the woods in months, and it was something he quite frankly missed.
Matt squeezed as Jason fought to get his hand to release. Jason watched the lights begin to grow dim. Matt smiled, watching that look start to go into his face. He dropped him, letting Jason collapse to the ground, making a wheezing noise and coughing while trying his best to gasp for air. He stayed there not getting up.
Matt said, “You weren’t very much fun. At least your friends were tough. I guess you’re the limp dick of the crowd? Is that it? Are you the limp dick?”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Hey, there’s a bit of spirit! Now say, I’m going to fucking kill you, and then make it good and call me a psycho or ask what’s wrong with me. It’d be really original.” Jason looked up to say something and Matt said, “You can’t die looking that normal, it’d be a waste of a good kill.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It means that I’m going to make it hurt—a lot.”
Jason tried punching him in the groin, but Matt pushed his arm away with his knee. “You didn’t just try to punch me in the balls, did you? I can make whatever your worst nightmare is come true
. I don’t think you were the brightest one of the four, huh?”
Matt stepped forward, almost having to crouch to do it, and put a knee directly into Jason’s face. Matt’s knee crushed his jaw, sending his lower teeth through his tongue and into his gums above, crushing his upper front teeth. Blood and shattered teeth poured from his mouth. Jason tried to cover his mouth, but Matt brought the knife across his hands slicing deep into each of them. He waved a finger back and forth. “I need to see how close we are.”
Jason tried to hold his hands in a way that didn’t hurt, but couldn’t figure out a way to sit and not be in pain. All he could do was scream. When Jason looked up to see a smiling Matt looking down, he decided that it was now time to run. Joyce had had plenty of time to get moving wherever the fuck she thought was a safe direction to run in.
He got up, walking backwards before turning around to sprint. He tried to hold his hands against his shirt, but the tops of hands being cut made that very difficult. He was trying to breathe as he ran, but the blood and mucus coming from his nose and throat was making that awkward as well.
Matt nocked an arrow, smiling, watching him run. He was not above chasing, but he wanted this one dead. He drew back the bow, trying to figure out which spot on the man’s body would be the most pleasing. The fact that he’d just tried to punch him in the cock not more than a minute ago had also been quite rude. Matt smiled devilishly as he lowered the bow and let the string go, leaving his fingers at his cheek, reinforcing the feeling that he could be accurate enough to only need one shot.
The arrow whistled through the air and Jason felt an explosion of pain like one he’d never experienced before in his life, putting his mouth and hands to shame. He fell hard, making the pain that much more intense. He tried to sit up, but couldn’t, and was only able to raise his head the slightest bit. When he looked up, he saw not one, but two horrible things. The first was blurry because of the tears in his eyes, but could tell that The Stranger was walking towards him quickly, already getting another arrow onto his bowstring. The second and he wasn’t sure his mind could handle it, was an arrow protruding from his genitals. He had been kicked in the groin more than once and knew that feeling, and could only compare this to that. But in this case, he was sure one of the arrows had got through one of his lower region’s twins. He tried to get up, but the pain through his backside was almost as bad. The day began to spin in front of him and before he knew it, The Stranger was in front of him, gripping the arrow and yanking it the rest of the way through, leaving the spines of the arrow’s knocking end somewhere between his front and backside.
Matt held up the arrow, showing the bloody testicle to him, causing Jason to immediately lose what he had in his stomach. He reached down, gripping himself, trying to find some sort of way to hold himself that would lessen the pain. The feelings he was having were only comparable to torture.
Matt leaned in close, watching his eyes. “Do you wish to die yet?”
“Go fuck yourself,” was Jason’s only reply.
Matt gripped the man’s pants, tearing them open, and found it difficult to get a hand on his pride and joy. Jason screamed, “Don’t fucking touch me!” as he punched at Matt’s hand.
Matt brought back a fist that Jason wasn’t expecting and punched him square in the face. Jason’s head went back and when he came back up, he saw that Matt was already bringing a razor-sharp knife up and taking away what was left of his manhood. Jason screamed out until his voice went away. He could feel the blood between his legs, soaking through quickly to the rest of what he was wearing. The feeling sent icy chills down his back, and he went into an instant cold sweat.
When he tried to get a second breath to scream, that was when Matt shoved what he’d removed into his mouth. He didn’t think that the man’s eyes could grow any larger, but they did. When Jason tried to spit out what he was choking on, knowing exactly what it was, Matt held his mouth shut. He waved the arrow that was still wet with his blood and rammed it under his chin, stopping short of the brain so as not to kill him. Jason’s member made it impossible to breathe, and the fact that he knew what was in his mouth made his stomach turn violently. He started to vomit, and with nowhere for it to go, it started to leak out the sides of his mouth until his chest stopped moving. Matt dipped a finger in his blood, drawing a smiley on his forehead and brushing his hair so that it was neat and not in the way.
He bent down, taking Jason’s neck in his hands and spun it until he heard it crack. The last thing he wanted today was a miracle. He slid the knife from his jaw and slid it back into his sheath, then walked over to where Joyce’s tracks were. He never ran with knives; the fact that there’d be little help for him if he fell in the woods carrying such a large knife was not something he missed. The last thing he wanted to do was have to deal with being wounded. He’d done that enough in the last months, and staying mended was something that he was passionate about.
***
Joyce sprinted through the woods, doing the best that she could. She was far from being in good shape and her stamina ran out after only a few minutes. She took a knee, listening and trying to hear if there was anyone coming after her. The papers she’d seen and the countless special reports of the killer in Missouri and then the killer of California kept flashing before her eyes. She told her friends time and time again that she never wanted anything to do with going into the woods again, and now where the fuck was she? In the fucking woods.
She let her guard down a little about going when the promise of vacation had come up, coupled with the fact that they’d heard nothing of The Stranger in a few months. Tim had been adamant that he wasn’t stupid, and if there was still someone out killing people that he sure as shit wouldn’t still be so in love with his hobby of going out hiking. When she’d looked into it further, she’d realized that he was telling the truth, and there had been no reports. Even the sickos walking in the woods to mess with people had given up after the first two had been shot by hunters and a park ranger. The jokes and admiration for The Stranger had quickly worn off.
She sat for a moment longer, trying to find the strength to go on. She vowed to do yoga twice a day, seven days a week going forward. She’d heard Jason scream more than once, but never like this.
A blood curdling scream came through the trees and clutched onto her like nails on a chalkboard, making their way down her back. She bit on her knuckle, drawing blood, doing anything she could to not scream back that she loved him and she would save him. She knew that she was as good as dead if she went back towards the killer.
The more she looked around, the more she realized that she had absolutely no idea where she was going to escape to. She began to cry, sitting up on her knees. The tears rolled down her cheeks and she cried so hard that she was lucky she was able to mute herself. She was confident that there probably wasn’t going to be an escape, but she would prolong her own death for as long as possible. She wasn’t ready to give up and sure as shit would not sit still for this psycho that would probably try to eat her, or do God knows what with her corpse when she was dead and cold.
When Joyce could tell she would not scream aloud, she got off the ground and began running again. She just knew that if she wasn’t running towards the screams that she would have a better chance at not seeing anyone out to kill her. She stopped, listening again, but only heard the thud, thud of her heart—which felt like it was trying to come out of her ears. She was actually very thankful they had not gotten high before all of this started. The idea of running through the woods was beyond what she thought she could handle, as she was pretty sure she was not far from losing her own mind right now.
Joyce couldn’t help but think that everyone that she cared about in the world was being plucked from her one by one. The vision of Jason running for the man to save her and of Shelli running up the hill with no arms left her deeply worried of what he would do to her.
Twigs snapped in front of her and she snagged a branch, turning in a circle, even more
worried than before. She was wondering if she had run in a circle and ended up back where she had started. She had never been someone with a good sense of direction, but this was most unlike her. She tried to take a deep breath, but the cracking of the branches grew nearer by the second and she couldn’t hear anything but the beating of her heart in her chest.
She tried to look around the massive trees, but the sound seemed like it was coming from every direction. When it sounded so close it could touch her, she screamed, running forward with her stick. She stopped when she saw an older man walking, using a hiking stick. He smiled nervously, unsure how to take her when she had a snarl on her face that only a mother could love.
Paul held up his free hand, smiling again and taking a few steps back. “Are you okay, ma’am?”
Joyce, who wasn’t sure how to react to a question like that, felt like it couldn’t have been more loaded. Paul smiled uneasily when she screamed to him the answer. “Fuck no! No, no, no, I am not okay. I’m ready to piss myself. I don’t know what in the fuck is going on here. We came out and decided to walk, nothing else! My dumbass friend wanted to go hiking today while we are on vacation.”
