by Tobias Wade
“Yo, Keith you all right?” I looked up to see Don’s silhouette looking down. “Tanner, get—Tanner?” He moved away from the hole.
“What’s going on?” A scream ripped through the woods and echoed through the tunnel. I shivered as if the sound itself held a chill. Something else moved in the tunnels now, a distant thump and catching sound. “Don, get the fuck back here.”
“Something took Tanner.” He said as he reappeared, his face turning from side to side. “I don’t know what it was… he was here and now—“
“I don’t care if it was fucking Santa. Get me out of here.”
“Shit—How?”
“Find a goddamn log or something.” I called and pressed myself against the tunnel wall. Something wet and sticky bled through my jacket and I stepped away and looked at it. The walls themselves were covered in slime and it was starting to burn my skin. I tore off my jacket and shirt in a hurry, tossing them into the tunnel. It still burned but not nearly as bad.
“Don—Don, how we doing on that log? Keep talking so I know you’re out there.” I called and felt air move around me, as if something large was very close.
“There ain’t nothing here, Keith. Fuck, I can go get help.”
“I won’t be here when you get back. Stick your gun down here, might be enough to grab onto. Unload the fucker first.” A few moments passed and then he reappeared at the top of the hole. He stuck the gun down and I grabbed the two barrels as movement in the shadows caught my attention.
There was a white mask just at the edge of the sunlight. In the next moment I felt a quick, sharp pain rush across my leg as Don pulled and I climbed. In seconds I was back in the brush of the woods, panting and staring up at a blue sky.
“Holy shit.” Don said and I looked down, between me and him was torn pants and a leg that looked like someone had taken a very large knife to it. Blood gushed down my leg and into the grass. I didn’t feel any pain, which I figured was a bad thing. “What the hell is going on?”
“Get me up, we need to go.”
“What about Joe and Tanner?”
“Fuck both of them. Hurry and help me up.” He did so and then reloaded his gun. We started out of the woods, me limping and being held up by Don. Behind us came a low rumble, as if something was running across stone or other hard ground. I didn’t dare look, but Don did and he stumbled. He fired once behind us and practically dragged me the rest of the way out of the woods.
We landed in the grass behind the cabin. Don got up, leaving me there, and ran off toward the main road. I cursed him as I struggled to my feet.
“Keith?” Elise called from the deck. “I heard gunshots, what the hell was that guy doing—“ She gasped and rushed down the wooded steps on the side. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Help me get in the car.”
“But—“
“Please… we can’t stay here.” She stared at me, eyes wide and searching and then nodded. We made it to the car, and she drove us away from the cabin. We passed something on the road as we headed down… something that looked like yellow vomit and a shotgun.
We never went back for our stuff. We never leave the city now and I still have nightmares of that mask—of those Birch faces as Don called them.
Crosses in the Field
“Jesus Saves.” Going through most country areas of Pennsylvania it’s likely you’ll see at least one of these signs and they are almost always accompanied by a cross. Some are more elaborate, large steel crosses painted in red, blue, and yellow, while others are two planks nailed together on a tree in haste. They always bought up the same question in me when I saw them… why?
I get that people are religious and want to share the word of God with everyone they can, but they always seem so out of place, especially the larger crosses. You have to wonder what kind of person would take the time to haul and put in place these crosses in the middle of nowhere. It just seemed like a lot of work to write “Jesus Saves” on a plank of wood in a place like this.
As with many things in life, it should have been left as a curiosity. It was late fall, the point of the year when all but the most stubborn leaves littered the ground. I was in my teens and bored out of my mind, whiling away a Saturday afternoon in my room playing some console game. I was also a bit annoyed because my best friend was stuck going to some recital for his sister, so there wasn’t much to do.
Luckily, my cousin came over and saved me from my boredom. She only lived a few miles away and my mom and hers saw each other at least once a month since my cousin’s dad had died. It really tore up their family and while my cousin tried to hide her pain, I could see she still wasn’t over it.
She knocked on my door a little after two in the afternoon.
“What?” I called lazily and didn’t even bother to turn to the door as it opened.
“Why are you in here? It’s a crazy nice day outside,” she said as she flopped on my bed. “You better not tell me you’ve been inside all day, Kevin.”
“If I was? It’s not a big deal, Ashley,” I said, putting the same accusing tone to her name as she did. I paused the game and looked back to her. “Besides, if it’s so great outside why did you come over?”
She shrugged and picked up a book from my nightstand. She started to page through it and lost my place. I glared at her but she didn’t notice.
“What? Can’t I want to come see my favorite cousin? Besides, with Cassie camping with her family there isn’t anyone to really hang out with.”
“Cassie went camping?” I asked with a bit too much surprise in my voice, which she picked up on. She tossed the book aside and sat up. She narrowed her eyes at me with a sly smile.
“Yes, why so interested in what my friend is up to?” I turned back to the TV and tried to ignore her. She threw her arms around my neck and pulled me back. “Are you into her? I knew you had a thing for her.”
I tried to shrug her off but she just tightened her hold. “Leave me alone.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. I can set you up with her.”
“She’s single?”
Ashley shrugged. “She might be… she might not be. I’ll see what I can do.” She dropped back down on the bed. “I’m bored.”
“Join the club.”
“I wouldn’t join any club that had you in it.”
“You’re such a bitch to me,” I said and then cursed as I died in the game.
“Only ‘cause we’re family. Where are all your little buddies?”
“Why, want me to set you up with one of them?” I laughed when she kicked the back of my chair.
“No, but you said you guys were building a fort up in the woods. I wanna see it.”
I shook my head. “We haven’t got much done on it, it’s just a bunch of sticks and rotting logs right now.”
“So?” She stood up and moved in front of the TV. “I’m not sitting here watching you suck at a video game all afternoon. Let’s go see it.”
I sighed. There was never any arguing with her and if we didn’t go she’d make my day hell just because. I saved and turned off the game.
“Fine, but it’s like fifteen minutes to get there through the field.”
“I’m game, let’s go.”
We told our moms that we were going for a walk and left out the back door. Our backyard butted up against a cornfield, and beyond that was a forest. My friends and I were always in the trees, playing games and building stuff. Our newest project was a large fort that we were trying to get done for the summer so we could hang out and drink far from any parents.
Ashley and I walked across the leftover roots of corn stalks and did our best not to break our ankles as we went. She stopped as I turned toward the edge of the field to head to our fort.
“What’s that?” she asked and pointed toward the highway that ran alongside the field.
I looked over and saw what she was pointing at. There were three crosses in front of a circle o
f brush and trees. They looked like they were made of steel tubes and each was a different color. They hadn’t been there the day before and I told Ashley the same.
“There’s no way someone put those things up that quickly.”
I shrugged. “Maybe the farmer did it, he’s a big church goer. Come on, you want to see the fort or not?”
She took a few steps toward the crosses and turned back to me. “Let’s go check them out.”
“They’re just crosses, what is there to check out?”
She started to walk away. “I dunno, but I see these things all over the place, I bet it has a ‘Jesus Saves’ sign on it.”
“How much does he save?” I said with a smile.
“Don’t be dumb.”
“You’re no fun.” I followed her over to the crosses. They were even larger up close and seemed to tower over everything. They drew long shadows over us and I felt a shiver rush up my spine. Beyond them the thicket laid shadow so dark that I couldn’t see anything beyond the first few trees. But I could hear movement and I stopped Ashley from getting closer.
It sounded like birds were fluttering around inside the cropping of trees. Ashley and I took a step back as the sound grew with each passing second. Then, it stopped, and the sound of small things thumping to the ground reached us.
“What the hell is that?” Ashley asked and she grabbed hold of my arm as if she was worried I’d run off without her. I couldn’t say that she was wrong. Everything in me said to run, but I stayed. I waited.
Branches cracked and snapped slowly. Something came toward the edge, closer to where Ashley and I stood.
“Kevin…”
“Shush,” I said and moved back a step. The snapping stopped and Ashley’s nails dug into my arm. I looked over to see that her eyes were so wide that they looked like they’d pop out any moment. I followed her gaze to the tree line and felt my heart skip. There was a face of sticks in the shadows between the trees.
“Dad…?” Ashley asked and made a step forward. “Is it really you?”
“I’ve been waiting for you…” a voice said from the face, but nothing moved. “You’ve taken so long to find me that I had almost given up hope.”
“But… you died, dad. I saw you…”
“And now I’m back. Didn’t you read the sign? Jesus saves, sweetheart.”
“Ash, stop.” I reached out to grab her arm but she swatted my hand away. “It’s just a bunch of branches.”
“It’s not,” she said and turned to me, tears were making wet trails down her cheeks. “It’s him.”
“Yes, it’s me. I need your help, sweetheart. You need to get me out of here before something terrible happens.” She continued toward the edge of the trees. She walked between the steel crosses and paused there. Branch-like vines slithered from the trees and slowly made their way toward her, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was too focused on the face of sticks.
I finally found the strength to move and ran to her. The vines reared back and then shot forward with such speed that I could barely see them move. I reached Ashley just as they hit; one pierced her shoulder and I felt another rake across my back.
The voice cursed at me as I pulled Ashley back. I laid her down and broke off the piece of vine that was trying to pull her back in. It said some of the vilest things I had ever heard in my life, but I ignored it and focused on my cousin.
“Are you all right?” I asked and she just looked at me listlessly. I put pressure on the hole in her shoulder, but there was so much blood. I removed my jacket and pushed it against the wound, and she didn’t even flinch. She looked out of it, as if her mind was somewhere else entirely.
“Ash, come on, we need to get you help.”
“Leave me.”
“Ash—“
“Leave me, my dad is here.”
I moved so that she had to look at me. “Your dad is dead, Ash. I’m sorry, but he is and that thing in the trees is not your dad.”
“You don’t know that—“
“Ooh, is that Kevin?” I froze at the sound of the voice and slowly turned to look back to the trees. Another face had appeared, this one far more human-like and one I knew well: it was Cassie. “Ashley didn’t tell me she’d be bringing you. I hope she didn’t tell you anything I said about you.”
“What the hell are you?”
“Someone who can bring you all the pleasures this world has to offer.” She licked her lips and then grinned. “Why don’t you come over here so I can show you?”
“You’re not human,” I said and turned to Ashley. She was staring at me. “It’s not human. What do you see next to your dad?”
She sat up and looked to the trees and then at the crosses. “It’s a wooden face made of sticks.”
“It looks like Cassie to me.”
Ashley gave me a disbelieving look. “There’s no way—“
“Oh, stop talking to her and come have some fun with me in these trees. The darkness is just the right place for us to explore each other,” the head said.
“We need to get you to a doctor and get away from here.”
“A doctor? We could play doctor if you want, Kevin. Come on. Let the girl see her dad a bit longer and we can do what everyone our age is doing anyway.”
“Why don’t you come to me?” I said and looked back to the trees. The way it talked pissed me off, but Cassie just smiled.
“Remove the crosses and I will gladly do so.”
“You’re stuck there,” I said and grinned. Cassie did the same.
“For now, but we know you now. We know both of you. At some point these crosses will come down and we will find you and we will feast on you.” Cassie started to laugh and so did the wooden face beside her.
“Why is he laughing like that? He never laughed like that…” Ashley said, her eyes locked on the wooden face. “This doesn’t make any sense.”
“No, it doesn’t. What the hell do you want from us?”
“Freedom. Let us free and we shall leave you alone.”
I looked at the crosses in front of the trees. I looked at the sign that stated that Jesus Saves and I felt a heavy weight in my chest. I turned back to Ashley. She sat staring at the faces and I knew if we stayed she would try to go see her dad again.
I picked up Ashley and stumbled away from the trees. She put up a small fight, but the pain of her shoulder was enough that she stopped after a few yards. I wanted to put as much distance between me and that wooden face as I could.
It took a lot to explain what happened to Ash and I don’t think my aunt bought much of our story, but after that moment things were back to normal.
Then Ashley went missing. She went for a walk one day after school and then just never came back. We all looked for her along with the police, but we didn’t find a trace of her. I knew where she went, but it took a long time to work up the courage to go and see.
Her face appeared between the trees when I was a few yards away, then more of her appeared until she stood behind the bars of the crosses, vines holding her up.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, knowing I wouldn’t get a real answer. Ashley was gone.
“To see my father. You should come too, I can see all my dead family here and our grandparents say hi.”
I nodded with a small chuckle and bit back the tears that threatened to overwhelm me. She should have never gone back. I took a few steps to her, wanting so much to bring her into a hug, but knew that it wouldn’t change a thing. I stopped and reached into my pocket.
“You shouldn’t have taken Ashley from us,” I said and took out a lighter. It took a few flicks for it to light. “We already lost too much.”
“Cute lighter, Kevin. Come on, we haven’t lost anything, you can come and see. Everyone is inside.” She moved back and reached into the thicket where she pushed back branches to show a golden light that bled from the depths.
&n
bsp; “No, thanks for the offer.” I reached down and tore a handful of dried grass that grew up around the crosses. I crushed it together and then lit it. The flames burn brightly, the grass curling as it turned black. I dropped it to the rest of the dry glass and watched it catch. The flames traveled toward the thicket and slowly began to burn into the wood.
Ashley just stood and watched, a small smile on her lips. “You think it’s so simple…” I said nothing as she turned her gaze to me. “We’ll still be here, even if you burn down everything. We’ll be here, waiting until we are free again.”
“Maybe, but at least you won’t trap anyone else for a while.”
“Don’t be so sure,” she said and grinned. She turned and walked into the thicket and disappeared into the trees. I stood and watched the smoke travel up toward the sky as the fire started to crackle and the golden light was replaced with an orange glow. I looked at the crosses and understood then what they were for.
They were a fence, a gate of some sort. I still don’t know who put them there, but whoever they were they did the world a service…but just how many places are like that thicket in the field?
I Remember Fireflies
I remember fireflies. I remember humid heat that made it impossible to sweat. I remember small ponds and freezing water.
I don’t remember how my best friend died.
At thirteen I already had my personality pretty well set. I was a rebel without a cause, a pain in the ass girl who ran her mouth and thought she knew far more than all those around her. In some ways I did, but that didn’t make me very popular among the other girls in my neighborhood.
I didn’t care, most of them would rather sit inside reading glamour magazines and spreading nasty rumors anyway. I much preferred getting dirty and exploring.
Luckily, I found a like-minded, if a bit quiet, friend in Scott Mowbray. He was the typical nerd back then, liked his Gameboy more than talking to other people. Which meant most people ignored him or beat him up. He took it in stride but I knew it bothered him.
It didn’t help that he was pale and skinny and wore glasses with such strong lenses that his eyes looked comically huge at certain angles. But he was cool, he wasn’t afraid to try anything when we explored. He would go through streams first, test vines for swinging, and jump off ledges without a second thought.
