Hydra

by Matt Wesolowski

A recent development surrounding the Hooded Man comes from accounts by those who claim to have performed the ritual. There are sprawling subreddits claiming that the hooded man has introduced himself to his passengers, referring to himself as ‘father’. Speculation abounds online about this entity being some sort of demon, or archangel – perhaps Lucifer himself, or Haniel – an angel from Jewish lore. There are accounts of those who have felt a sense of loss in the presence of the hooded man. There are also those who proclaim to have found some sort of solace in their ‘father’ entity when speaking to it, feeling mesmerised, hypnotised or soothed by his presence. There are also numerous accounts of ‘shadows’ following people back into this world – sightings of figures, spectres at the corner of the vision. As I’ve said before, much is made of the dangers of the Hooded Man Ritual.

  For what it’s worth, I’m agnostic about all this. Discussions surrounding the ‘father’ entity have only sprung up in the last few months. Anthony himself has never heard of this aspect of the game, which goes to show that these games have a certain fluidity to them; they are internet creatures that are ever changing, morphing and shifting – the folktales and songs of an older, oral tradition now told and sung by people online.

  What also strikes me, though, is the sincerity with which people speak of their experiences of these ‘games’ and their outcomes. There are heartfelt, well-written accounts of those that have performed these rituals. And, as I have said several times the Hooded Man comes with by far the most warnings.

  The same warnings that concern inviting the black-eyed kids into your home.

  —Was it the danger presented by the Hooded Man Ritual that scared you at that point?

  —Yes and no. I sort-of did, sort-of didn’t believe in it. But I’d spent loads of time online reading about it. It was fresh in my imagination. I guess I hadn’t had time to look at it rationally.

  —So what happened next?

  —This was when it became my fault, all of it. You see, a part of me wanted the game to be real and a part of me knew that it wasn’t. And I wanted to go to the party with Alice but I also had this brain wave, this stupid ruse. I thought that, if it worked, I would get the best of both worlds … excuse the pun.

  —Go on…

  —So I made up this lie. I told the others that my parents just texted, that they needed me to come back and do something. Kyle comes over to me and he’s all concerned about how I’m going to get to the party. He seemed like he genuinely wanted me to be there. He kept saying, ‘Everyone wants you to come, Anth…’ And I didn’t even stop and wonder why he was suddenly so desperate for my company. He writes down the address on the back of my hand and a taxi phone number and tells me to book one as soon as I get back. I tell him that’s not going to happen, that I can’t just book a taxi – the staff on reception are going to notice a teenager heading out at midnight. What if they called my parents? I also felt a bit of relief because there was still that part of me that remembered them calling me ‘Empty’. What if that happened in front of Alice? How would I get away? What if my parents woke up and couldn’t find me? But Kyle was, like, insisting. So I said, yeah, OK. I’d find some way.

  —How did it go down? The ritual, in the end? I’m assuming you performed it.

  —Man, I remember coming back to the hotel, out of breath and sweating. Lucky I’d put on so much deodorant for the party. I was a bit giddy and excited so I went and splashed cold water on my face in the toilets. I took a few deep breaths and then went down to the games room to see if Arla was there. She was there with that other girl, and when she turned around and saw me, I saw this unbridled happiness on her face. In that moment she was beautiful, you know?

  So we start talking about the ritual – the rules – and Arla turns to that other girl and asks her if she’s coming along with us. I remember wanting to scream, What? What are you doing? This is our thing! I didn’t even know who this other girl was, she just sort of followed us about. Another little lost soul. I remember willing the girl to say no, and when she shrugged, I started telling Arla about the rules again. The girl just flounced off, barged right past us and I remember having a really horrible thought – I remember hoping she’d just fuck off; that she’d huff off outside and run into Kyle and Jack and Greg. She was welcome to them.

  Just to note, I explained to Anthony, after this interview, Angel’s side of this particular event.

  —So that was another thing that was my fault. Maybe if I’d been kinder, more inclusive, more accepting. Maybe none of this would have happened?

  —Maybe? Maybe not. I think, in this case, the wheels were already in motion. I doubt there was much you could have done to stop it.

  —Yeah, you can’t change the past. That’s what therapy’s taught me – rumination on the past is only productive if you are seeking ways to make things right. By talking to you, I believe I’m doing something.

  —I do too. Now, the ritual…

  —Yeah. So we sneaked out of our rooms and met by the lift. Even though it was before midnight, it felt so surreal in that hotel. Everything was quiet and still. You could hear TVs burbling from behind people’s doors, people snoring. We nearly fell at the very first hurdle as well, because when we got down to reception, the receptionist gave us a look. ‘Everything OK, you two?’ she said and I swear I nearly puked all over myself. I managed to squeak out something and there was a moment when I was sure she was about to ask us what room we were in.

  ‘My brother and I can’t sleep,’ Arla said to her. ‘Mam and Dad said we could come down to sit in the drawing room, so long as we didn’t mess about.’

  It was brilliant. The receptionist just smiled and nodded us on.

  The second hurdle was the room itself. It was huge, with great big lamps and a pretend fireplace. There was chess and draughts and stuff down there, as well as this old black rotary phone – either an antique or an ornament I guess. Because it was so hot, the curtains were open and you could see the night sky outside. If there’d been anyone there, they’d almost certainly have asked what we were doing, but most of the guests were families so by then everyone was in bed.

  That old phone was in the corner so we walked over, dead quiet. Arla got out the chess set and I remember giggling, maybe she didn’t want to do it after all. She told me it was in case anyone came in. It was cover. I had the rope and a lighter I’d nicked off Jack in my pocket and I was getting them out and tying the rope to the phone’s handset when I remembered the taxi.

  —The taxi?

  —Yeah. To get back to the party. I told you, Kyle gave me the address. So I picked up the handset of that old black phone to call one but there was no dial tone. It was just for show. A little hole opened inside me then as I had no idea how I was going to see Alice. That was when I realised I had no choice but to tell Arla about the party. She and Alice shared a mobile – this old Nokia thing. The only way I was going to get a taxi was if we rang one from that. We couldn’t ask reception. The thing was the taxi number Kyle gave me didn’t work. And neither of us knew any other numbers. In the end we sat and hoped that Alice or one of the others would ring Arla’s phone. Someone did, I don’t know who it was but they told us someone would come to pick us up.

  By then though it was nearly midnight and we didn’t have time to perform the cleansing ritual.

  —Cleansing ritual?

  —Yeah. You have to do it before the Hooded Man.

  —Why?

  —The Hooded Man is dangerous. If it works, you’re actually going to another place. Using sage or salt stops certain things from coming back with you. It’s important.

  We couldn’t burn sage in the living room but I’d sneaked a few packets of salt from breakfast and we were supposed to spread it around the drawing-room door. But there wasn’t time. We just had to start.

  So we turned off the lights and sat there in the dark looking at the clock on Arla’s phone. When midnight hit, we sat opposite each other on those big, soft chairs, on either side of
that phone with all the chess pieces laid out and counted to thirteen. Then we just looked at that antique rotary telephone. I swear to you, even now, there was something in the air, some charge. I remember the windows behind us, all the hotel gardens were lit with these soft lights, hedges and walls and stuff. I remember having this horrible sensation that there was something out there. Something looking in. I almost couldn’t look. Arla must have felt it too because she pulled the curtains closed. Then we counted to thirteen, and began the ritual. First, we dialled that number. It seemed to take ages and the clicking and whirring of that phone seemed deafening. The handset was still on the hook. I could feel myself sweating and I knew, I just knew, that if that curtain opened, that something outside would be right there pressed up against the glass, staring in.

  I was shaking, I remember. Arla was holding the black cord and the phone dangled from it like the broken wing of a bird. We dialled the next number two, five, five, one … I can’t even say it … and the air became even more charged – it was like the room was getting bigger, smaller. I could hear my heart throbbing in my head. Arla laid the handset back on the table and looked at me.

  We counted to thirteen together, my words came out in little terrified breaths then Arla looked at me.

  ‘Your turn,’ she said.

  I remember bending my head down towards that handset. The earpiece looked like the eye of a squid glaring back at me. I bent over without touching it and I whispered into it.

  ‘Hello, I need a cab please.’

  I was shaking, I was shaking so hard that when I began to untie the cord from the handset I dropped it and it clattered on the table, knocking the chess pieces over. I remember Arla nearly screamed and we sat with our hands over our mouths for ages, praying that no one had heard us. I put the cord back in my pocket – we’d have to burn it when we got to the party; we couldn’t do it there in the drawing room.

  ‘We have to open the curtains,’ Arla said, and we both looked at each other. Neither of us wanted to say but I knew she was thinking the same as me.

  What if there was something there?

  —And was there?

  —I remember when that car pulled up outside the hotel, man, I nearly shat myself. I was so scared, but I was laughing, giggling – almost delirious, you know? Arla though, she got suddenly really serious. She was adamant it was the taxi from the game; that it had to be. I remember pulling back the curtain, looking out the window and the relief when it was just a hatchback, an Astra I think. I remember turning to Arla and she looked crushed. I got the feeling she’d been waiting for this her whole life. She almost dragged me outside into the car park, head down. It was still really warm, really still – you could hear the sea whispering and everything smelled green, tropical. It felt like something out of a dream.

  —The car…

  —It was just sitting there and we were hiding behind the palm trees outside the hotel. Then the doors opened. I can’t remember if it was relief or disappointment that filled me.

  —Who was it?

  —Kyle and some older guy.

  —So what did you do when you saw them?

  —I could have stayed hidden and then sneaked back in with Arla – she had realised by now that this wasn’t the Hooded Man, that the ritual hadn’t worked … After all, we hadn’t done it properly – we hadn’t attached the second cord. To be honest, I felt like I was in way over my head.

  —You mean in the ritual? Or was it the sight of Kyle and the older guy that made you feel that way?

  —Both equally. I just wanted to go back upstairs and see my mum and dad. I just wanted to run away from it all, like a coward. A wuss. But then someone else got out the passenger door and all my brain and heart turned to mush. All the game stuff just vanished.

  —I’m guessing it was Alice?

  —It was and she was standing there, framed by the car headlamps, a half-empty bottle of Coke dangling from one hand. I was a moth to a flame, I could just feel myself being drawn to her. Arla was straight over, snatching at the bottle and chugging loads of it at once. I saw the older guy raise his eyebrows and look at Kyle. Kyle made some gesture and the older guy, he just sort of shrugged and nodded at us to get in. Arla and me, we got in the back with Kyle, and Alice got in the front with the guy and we were away.

  —Did it not seem odd that they had come back to get you at the precise time when the car was supposed to show up for the Hooded Man Ritual?

  —It should have done I guess; it should have raised so many red flags, but in that car, with that bottle being passed about, and cigarettes and the music blasting, the car racing through these empty, winding roads – all the worry, all the doubt just evaporated.

  —You had that feeling of acceptance again?

  —Totally.

  —How was Arla on that trip?

  —Just the same as the rest of us; drinking, smoking, laughing, singing along. She had this fury to her, though – this anger. I never even gave that a second thought. I was just glad – glad that we were having fun, that no one was calling me ‘Empty’. That I’d been accepted back into the fold.

  It’s hard to be sure about the facts around this part of the story. It is entirely possible that the arrival of the car at that precise time was a freak coincidence. But there’s also the possibility it was coordinated by Alice and Kyle – some kind of conspiracy. Also, I recall Angel’s words from the previous episode:

  ‘This sounds just so stupid but I just started telling them about Arla and Anthony and the stupid baby games they were playing. They were all laughing and it felt good, man. Like, it was suddenly funny; like, it felt OK again.’

  Back to Anthony.

  —So we seem to be driving for ages and that feeling of elation began to dim. It began to feel wrong to be there, we were too young. We were in way over our heads and we knew it. We weren’t like Kyle and the others. I was terrified my parents were going to find out, but all I could think about was seeing Alice again. And I remember saying stuff, making jokes, my confidence swelled by the booze. I remember Alice laughing and I just felt that rush again and that was stronger than the doubt so I just kept drinking that fear away.

  We got there about 12.30. The house was in the middle of what looked like a cornfield, all this grass stuff round it. At first glance you would say it was a barn rather than a house. But we could see flashing lights in the windows and hear the sound of music.

  When we got out of the car I remember being much more drunk than I thought I was. Arla and I had been necking the vodka so everything was fuzzy, like a dream. Everyone’s voices sort of floated around me and I remember suddenly worrying again about my parents, that I hadn’t even left them a note. What if they sent the police to look for me, got the party shut down, and it was my fault? I remember panicking and saying something to Kyle, something babyish about what would happen if he got caught? He put his arm round me and just sort of led me on, through that field of corn or whatever. He said his dad didn’t know he was out either and he didn’t care, that his dad would bail us out if we got in trouble. He was laughing and I was too. Alice was ahead of us. I remember her turning around and just being filled with this sense of … I mean it was just stupid teenage puppy love – drunken foolishness – but it felt so good then; right at that moment I was in love with her.

  —Where was Arla at this point?

  —You see, this is where it gets hazy. And I feel terrible. Just so guilty. And I want to stop now – everything inside me is telling me to stop talking to you – questioning why, why am I telling you all this? Then I remember that it’s for her.

  —Alice?

  —No. It’s for Arla. It’s for what happened to her.

  —What happened to Arla, Anthony?

  —We’d been separated. Arla was behind me with Jack and Greg, I could hear them laughing and I knew the tone of it – I knew that something wasn’t right. Arla was too loud – she was shouting and slurred. Every time I heard her voice I felt this sense of responsi
bility for her. I’d dragged her there. She didn’t know Kyle or Jack or anyone. And yeah, her sister was there too, but Alice wasn’t even interested, she was off.

  —What happened when you got to the house?

  —This is where things get really blurry. The alcohol was really starting to have an effect now and there was this music coming from the place. It was deafening: dumf-dumf-dumf – this bass blasting out. Inside it was huge; there was a hay-store or something – like, a mezzanine with a ladder. It was full of people and there were these flashing lights. Everyone was dancing. I’ll be honest, I was really scared, I didn’t like it at all. But Kyle and the rest of them were all jostling me along and passing cans of beer around, cigarettes. They started dancing and I just sort of got caught up in things … got carried away…

  —And Arla?

  —It must have been about an hour in when I thought of her again. How horrible is that? And this is not an excuse, far from it, but Alice was dancing with me. Once you got used to the blasting music, it was kind of … you got lost in it a bit. And, like I say, Alice was there and we were dancing. You know, I didn’t even think of Arla. How awful is that? I’m … I’m so ashamed of myself…

  Anthony sits and stares for a long time, lost in memory. He cries silently, tears sliding slowly down his cheeks. I find it hard to feel anything but sorry for him. Perhaps there’ll be some who won’t. There’ll be some people who think that Anthony is, if not completely, then significantly culpable for what happened to Arla Macleod that night, and therefore, in some way culpable for what happened in November 2014. All I know is that right now I feel sorry for a man who is clearly full of regret for something that happened a long time ago.

  —I did see Arla, yes. I saw her briefly. She was dancing with Kyle and Jack and Greg. She was out of it and they kept looking at each other and laughing. They were pushing her about, but sort of sneakily, pretending not to, you know? They were catching her as she staggered and I could see their hands all over her. It was horrible and I couldn’t turn away.