by Jim Ody
“So why don’t you then?” Max said as if it was a simple task.
“Mother. She wouldn’t hear of it,” he glanced up and caught the look between Brett and Max. “What?”
Brett grinned. “Sorry mate, but your mother? That’s what’s stopping you?”
Keith slowly shook his head. They didn’t know her. They’d not been brought up and spanked the way he had. Locked away in the far cabin for hours on end.
“You don’t know Mother,” was all he said.
Nat then spoke up, shifting her weight slightly, and resting herself on her arm rather than totally on top of Adam. “Are they connected? You’ve still not told us what you think?”
“What do I think,” Keith said tapping a finger on his lips. “Yes, I think they’re connected. Someone local. Someone with a lot of anger… I don’t know though.”
“It’s some story though! Or a collection of stories!” Brett said. He then took a last swig of his beer and held it aloft like a prize. “Who wants another? Keith?”
Keith nodded. He was always happy to drink another man’s beer. He was also happy to kiss another man’s woman, but in all honesty that had not happened too many times.
Brett handed over another beer to Keith, Adam and Max. He looked at the girls but they were still nursing theirs.
“Okay,” Brett said. “Let me tell you a story now. This one was also about a house in the woods, but not around here. It was in a place called Huntswood in Devon. It was owned by a murderer, but it wasn’t until he was in prison that funny things began to happen. People started to disappear.”
Keith was hooked on the story about corruption and a house the locals pretended never existed. The name rang a bell but these were details he’d not heard of before.
Then Max came out with a story about the lads from university, it involved locking a lecturer in a cupboard for ten hours.
The empty bottles were chucked onto the ground throughout the stories, the bottle tops littered around in the trodden grass. The fire had fresh wood on it before things began to get weird.
Keith wasn’t sure what to do. It felt like the natural time for him to call it a night and walk back. Mother would be wondering where he was. If he was lucky, he might be able to find a lost drunken lass looking for company. It had happened before.
“I suppose, I’d better leave you to it,” he said getting up. He hoped the girl Jenny might ask him to stay. Or better still walk her back to her cabin.
“Thanks for the stories!” Max said. Jenny threw him a smile before turning away. Brett held a hand up but he was already hugging the feisty blonde. The other two were locked at the lips.
“Okay, well maybe I’ll see you tomorrow!”
Off he went, again feeling like he was on the outside.
Little Miss Evil
Chapter 33 - Jenny
T he stories had been scary. Jenny knew that was the whole point of campfire tales. She even knew that the stories were more than likely fabricated, or completely made up. How could a town, and the police keep a bunch of murders under wraps? It didn’t work like that. This wasn’t some small town in a backwater American county. It was bigger than the police. Hospitals, undertakers, relatives, and all the connected services, not to mention the local media who would have a field day. There was no way they’d be hiding gruesome murders in unpopular parts of the paper. They were businesses who were driven by sales and advertising. Murders would spike sales figures; it didn’t make commercial sense to bury the data and shrug their shoulders.
“Wow! I’m tired,” Brett said suddenly, bringing her out of her reverie. “You going to tuck me in?” the words were not aimed at her, but of course at Meg.
“Can’t you tuck yourself in,” she teased.
“I could, but it wouldn’t be as much fun,” he grinned back.
“Okay, I suppose I could,” finally she’d melted towards him. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the late hour, or maybe even the length of time they’d now been together.
“Wonderful!” he said standing up.
Meg looked over at Jenny and Nat. “You two okay with that?”
Nat stopped kissing long enough to nod, and say, “Go have fun girl!” before she was again applying mouth-to-mouth to Adam.
Jenny thought it was sweet that she’d asked, even if she’d have gone whatever. To see her now walking off hand in hand with Brett was nice.
Adam and Nat came up for breath. “You want to make a move too,” she said to him.
“My cabin or yours?” he said, although he still didn’t have the confidence of Brett.
“It seems like they might need some privacy, how about you come back to ours?” Nat looked over at Jenny. “You mind?”
Jenny shook her head, but this now made things really awkward. Both cabins were taken up and she was left with Max.
“No,” she said and began to pick up all of the bottles. She was the responsible one of her friends. In more ways than one.
With arms around themselves, Adam and Nat struggled to walk properly, they were that close.
“Just us then,” Max said. “I’ll get the bottle tops.”
“Thanks.”
It was definitely strange. Not only because the two of them were alone together, but after the stories the woods seemed dark. Very dark. And yet, she felt eyes were on her. You couldn’t dismiss evil in the world, and what if they were in a place that attracted it?
“What do you make of the stories?” she asked him, getting the last of the bottles into the box.
He walked up and dropped the metal tops in the box too. The sound seemed loud in the stillness around them.
“I dunno,” he began, and grabbed the box from her. “I can’t make out whether he’s good at marketing with these made up stories, or whether he’s just a sad lonely guy, you know?”
She did, and had thought similarly. “I hate to say it, but I think he just wants to impress everyone. Maybe he wants to also add a bit of mystery, but… I dunno.”
Max grinned. “When he started talking about his mother, he was so serious! He might be some Norman Bates type of guy. I wonder if anyone has ever seen his mother?”
“Wouldn’t that be strange!”
They turned and began to walk back. Jenny couldn’t help but feel on edge. She really wanted the hustle and bustle of the populated area again.
She suddenly whipped her head around as she saw something in her peripheral vision.
“You okay?” Max said.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s nothing. I thought I saw something. I suppose Keith’s story got to me more than I realised! It’s stupid, isn’t it?”
Max shifted the weight of the box slightly, the glass clanged. “Not at all. It’s dark, and our minds like to play tricks on us.”
“What are we going to do now? Both of our cabins seemed to be occupied.”
Max didn’t say anything for a while. “I dunno. You wanna go an’ get ice-cream, or something. You know, as friends, or whatever. We’re both at a loose end.”
“Sure,” she said with a chuckle. He seemed like an alright guy, and she got the impression he was used to this.
“I’m not gay,” he suddenly said.
“O-kay,” she responded. It was a strange thing to come out with.
“I mean, no offence but I’m not interested in you, but I’m just saying, it’s not ‘cause I’m gay. The guys like to tease me ‘cause I’m not all over girls like them.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t mind if you are gay. And I’m not offended that you’re not interested in me.”
“Sorry, I was starting to babble!” he said, and they both grinned.
Up ahead the glow omitted shadows towards them, and stood still in the dark was a figure. As they got closer he stepped out.
It was Marshall.
“Hey Jenny,” he said. “Can we talk?”
Jenny was suddenly feeling all kinds of things. It was really hard to process it all. She needed to just go back to her cabin a
nd lie down in the dark to take it all in.
“I don’t know, Marshall. What else is there to say?”
Marshall was looking at Max like he was going to punch him. To his credit, and despite his size, Max looked like he couldn’t care less.
“I just wanted to say sorry. You know, this wasn’t how I expected things to turn out.”
“Look, maybe we can talk tomorrow… I just sort of need to think things through tonight. It’s late.”
“I get it,” he said looking at Max. “You and him, right?”
“It doesn’t matter, Marshall. You messed things up… Who knows what could’ve been…?” She instantly regretted saying that as she had no idea what could’ve been. She was channelling her inner Meg.
Marshall grumbled something under his breath and stormed off past them. Jenny turned and saw him swallowed up by the night.
“Who was that?” Max said as they saw a few people mingling around outside. Most looked a lot worse for wear than they had an hour earlier.
“Just a guy,” she replied not wanting to get into it all.
Inside, they made it into the fast-food section just as a lad was about to put the closed sign up.
“Are we too late to get some ice-cream?” Max asked hopefully.
The lad clearly didn’t want the heavy burden of responsibility and turned towards a middle-aged guy who nodded an authoritative approval.
“Is it okay?” the lad said in a northern accent. He clearly wasn’t taking the head movement as a final answer.
“Yes, Trev, it is fine.”
The lad was frowning, as he replied, “Only, it’s now like past eleven.”
“Not when they got here it wasn’t,” the Supervisor responded a little more sternly.
“Yeah, but it is now,” Trevor countered. Jenny was unsure whether the lad was generally confused with the process, or whether he was looking to just mess about.
“Trev, just serve them their ice-cream or else it will be morning and we’ll be opening up again!” The guy tried to laugh it off and turn around to continue with cleaning the huge stainless steel machine.
“I would have to take a really long time, for that to happen,” Trev laughed. “Each serving takes approximately 5 minutes to make, so that would mean by opening time tomorrow I would make one-hundred and thirty-two servings of ice-cream!” He turned towards Max. “I take it you don’t want one-hundred and thirty-two servings of ice-cream?”
Wordlessly, and with utter astonishment, Max slowly shook his head.
“Haha! Good! How many do you want?”
Max looked at Jenny, and back at Trev. “Two would be fine.”
“Kevin!” Trevor said, turning around to the other guy. “They only want two, that’s one-hundred and thirty servings less.”
“Just make these nice people their ice-cream, Trev. Then you can go home. Okay?”
Trev nodded, and then suddenly his face dropped. “Oh no,” he said.
“What?” Max and Kevin said in unison.
“I’ve got it wrong. It would be five minutes per individual serving. That takes into consideration the transaction period for payment, but for a bulk order, there would only be the single transaction, so technically depending on the different flavours, and having to swish the scoop, I would think each serving would be more like two minutes. So it would actually take three-hundred and thirty servings until opening time tomorrow!”
“O-kay,” Jenny said, more by way of something to say. She just wanted the ice-cream now, and so far, there was no sign of any serving.
Max then chimed up. “I’d actually say three-hundred and twenty-seven.”
Trev just stared at him for a good five seconds. He swallowed and said, “I’m sorry?”
Jenny noticed Kevin stop what he was doing and looked suddenly worried. He’d even start to slowly shake his head. Max must’ve noticed it too, as he was now waving it away. “No, no. Three-hundred and thirty is probably closer.”
“Why?”
“Why, what? Three-Twenty-Seven?”
Trev was sweating, and suddenly had a tick. “Yes,” he said very slowly.
“I just figured, you know, thirty an hour, but you’ve been talking for a minute or so, Add that to the five minutes and you get six, so probably only twenty-seven for one of the hours, right?”
Trev grabbed the pot with the long-handled spoons and pushed them off the counter. “Ahhhh! What do you know!” he then screamed, began to wave his hands in the air and ran off out the back.
Kevin looked split between whether to go after him or make the ice-cream. He glanced at where Trev had disappeared to, and then walked over to Jenny and Max.
“I’m really sorry about that,” he said apologetically. “He’s… he’s not normally like that. He’s quite particular with some things, it’s nothing personal.”
“That’s fine,” Max said. “I’m sorry I upset him.”
“You’re good with numbers.”
“I’m doing Statistics and Precalculus at university… look, I wasn’t trying to be smart…”
Kevin waved it off. “Don’t be silly,” he said. “What flavours do you want? They’re on the house by the way.”
“Wow, thanks,” said Jenny. “I’ll take double-choc-chip.”
“Make that two!” Max grinned.
“That would increase the amount then!” Kevin laughed trying to make light of it.
Max shrugged. “Not really. In fact, I was being very lax in my calculations. Statistically, the amount per hour would reduce as the hours passed which would probably reduce it by about eight; but then if a single person was doing it, then that person would need at least one toilet break, and two further breaks, say that reduces it by a further hour and a half, then you’re talking more like two-hundred-and-sixty-nine.”
“Wow!” Jenny said. “You really are good with numbers.”
Kevin grinned and added the squirty cream on top, and then shook a shower of chocolate bits over the lot.
“Well, no matter how many, here are the last two of the evening!”
“Thank you!” Jenny said grabbing hers.
“Yes, thanks. And sorry again.”
“Don’t mention it!”
They walked out of the large room and outside to the tables they were earlier.
“So, you’re a genius, then?” Jenny said as they got to the table.
Max placed his tub of ice-cream down and shook his head. “I don’t know about that. I think it’s just the way I look at things. It’s about applying values to things and then using logic to calculate statistical outcomes.”
“You’re losing me,” she laughed.
“Sorry,” he said, only for the first time, Jenny saw a vulnerable side to him. It was as if his real talent was the thing that embarrassed him the most.
“Don’t be sorry, be proud of it.”
From there they slowly opened up to each other. Thrown together by default, and discovering they came from completely different backgrounds, that suddenly didn’t matter. They were just two people with nowhere to go.
Jenny was surprised at how easy it was. The next time she glanced at her watch it was getting closer to midnight.
“You think they’ve finished yet?” Jenny said, and for the first time felt a little embarrassed.
“Who knows.”
They slowly made their way back towards the cabins. Max headed off towards the lad’s cabin.
“Thanks for staying with me,” he said before waving goodbye.”
“We stayed with each other,” she pointed out.
“See you tomorrow!”
Jenny walked a couple of rows, then headed towards the cabin. She wasn’t sure whether to slip in quietly, or to make a noise so they knew she was there. In the end, she did neither and walked naturally in.
She couldn’t help it. She glanced over at Nat’s bed, and saw the mound big enough for two. The covers were pulled over them, but the bulk was moving slowly.
Jenny looked away
, and then without removing her clothing, slipped underneath the top blanket and turned her back from the other two.
Despite the strange bed and surroundings, Jenny fell quickly into a deep sleep. One that was full of nightmares fuelled by the campfire stories.
Soon it would be morning…
Little Miss Evil
Chapter 34 - Marshall
T he dark woods pulled him in. Marshall reached into his pocket and pulled out the pills.
Her pills. The ones that had started it all. Her name was printed on the bottle. The danger was all too evident.
He clicked the lid open and shook a couple out into his mouth and dry-swallowed them one by one.
His mind had grown foggy. Everything that had happened to him were now invisible hands moving his body and typing out the thoughts in his head. Strings above him moved his legs as he left the world behind him. He was no longer in control.
He should’ve known it was only a matter of time before the police wanted to speak to him. The text from his mother weighed heavy on his mind. The world was closing in on him, and there was nowhere else to hide.
He’d passed the campfire that was still smoking with glowing embers. Another party he’d not been invited to.
He was lost. In some ways that had always been the case; until he found the excitement at uni. Now that place was no longer an option. His normal life would soon disappear.
He stumbled. The tablets were kicking in.
The house appeared in front of him. Dark and abandoned, but a place of solace anyway.
His dad’s house, where he’d welcomed baby Keith into the world.
He crawled under the fence and into the garden. A large lawn that once was well-maintained now was a perfect representation of his family. It was disjoined, forgotten and left to die alone.
A cherub statue stood alone, its right arm held out where water once came from the pot he was holding. At the base, a weed had already begun to circle around the stone child like a predator, making it look even more eerie.
