Blood in the Woods

by J. P. Willie

  The elevator stopped, the doors opened up and we jetted out, leaving the man bleeding and on his knees inside. We didn’t look back once, we just hauled ass out the main entrance of the mall and didn’t stop until we were in the middle of the well-lit parking lot.

  “Is – he behind – us?” Jack gasped, out of breath.

  “No. I think I busted – him up – pretty good back there,” Justin said as he took in big gulps of air. “Thank God – I took those Karate classes.”

  We stood there in the parking lot, caught our breath and decided to go wait across the street at the Taco Bell for Justin’s dad. We had only been at the mall for thirty minutes, but it was thirty minutes that we would certainly never forget.

  We crossed the street; I slung open the door to Taco Bell and made a beeline for one of the empty booths. I walked over, planted my ass on the cushioned seat and waited for my friends to do the same. Once they were all seated, Jack began to tear up.

  “You alright, Jack?” I was genuinely concerned, my blood brother rarely cried.

  “I couldn’t breathe, Jody,” Jack told me, “I couldn’t breathe when he was choking me. I thought I was going to die.”

  “Well you didn’t,” Justin said, firmly. “You made it out okay. We’re all okay now.”

  “Why did this happen?” Jack asked, placing his hand on his forehead.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because we popped off to him,” I offered.

  “I don’t think that’s why; I think he was just some Looney Toon, probably on drugs or something and decided it would be fun to bully us around a little,” Justin said.

  “A little...?” I said dramatically. “He tried to kill us, Justin!”

  “Enough,” Jack said quietly. “Can we please stop talking about it now? We don’t know why he did it, but it happened. And now it’s over. I just want to go home.”

  We fell quiet, realizing how serious the situation had been. We had escaped a mad man and lived to tell the tale; and it was one that we were going to keep between ourselves.

  “Should we tell our parents?” Justin asked.

  “No,” I replied, knowing what the immediate reaction from Momma would be. “Jack?”

  “No. We can’t tell them anything. If we do, they’ll freak, then we’ll never be able to go anywhere by ourselves again. Ya’ll know I’m telling the truth.”

  “I know,” Justin agreed.

  “You’re right – we won’t say a word.”

  I stood up from the table, stretched and walked up to the front counter.

  “Where you going, Jody?” Jack asked me.

  I didn’t respond, I just kept on walking, pretending that I hadn’t heard him.

  “Welcome to Taco Bell, how can I help you?”

  “Do you have a pen and piece of paper?” I asked.

  “Sure, hold on,” said the employee.

  After a minute or so, he came back with the pen and paper I’d asked for. I looked around and noticed that we were the only ones in the place, so I asked the question that had been burning inside of me since that day in the woods. I grabbed the pen and drew the circle with the upside-down star in the middle of it.

  “What does this symbol mean?” I asked the guy.

  “Ummm – are your parents with you?” he asked.

  “No, they’re not. Can you please tell me what this means?”

  The employee let out a deep sigh and looked over at his co-workers who were joking on the food line, throwing lettuce and cheese at each other. The cashier leaned over the counter. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re serious?”

  “Yes. Please,” I pleaded. “Please, tell me what this symbol means.”

  “It’s a pentagram,” he said, softly.

  “A pentagram?”

  “Yep.”

  “What does it mean, though? I couldn’t care less what it’s called.”

  “Listen,” the cashier told me, “I don’t want to scare you, kid, but people who are into witchcraft and Satanism use it. They wear it on their clothes, draw it on their belongings and so on and so forth. It’s a way they express their religion, like good Christian folk use the cross. Although, some just do it ‘cause they like the attention it brings them.”

  “What’s Satanism?” I asked, a tad perplexed at the information.

  “It’s people who worship the devil, but not like you may think; if I explain it to you, you’d only get confused – but I guess I can try.”

  He took the paper from me and turned it upside down.

  “You see how the tip of the star is pointing up?” he said.

  “Yes.” I nodded.

  “That’s the symbol for Witchcraft. Pagans and Wiccans use this symbol. Now,” he turned the paper upside down again, “you see how the tip of the star is pointing to the bottom of the circle?”

  “Yeah.”

  “This is the symbol that Satanists and devil worshippers use.”

  “Devil worshippers?” I asked him, nervously.

  “Don’t get me started on those guys. They have the worse bad reputation for picking up the troubled seeds around here.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Well, I’m a Satanist,” he said quietly with a nervous glance over his shoulder. “I hear things within our congregation.”

  My skin turned cold and my stomach felt sick; I felt puke rush up into my throat, but I held it back. I couldn’t believe that this man was a Satanist. He looked just like a regular person to me; clean cut, well groomed, you name it. I guess the word Satan just scared the hell out of me.

  “You okay bud? Don’t be scared. I’m not going to hurt ya. Here, you want some water?”

  I shook my head no, swallowed the puke that was threatening to escape from my throat and decided to ask him another question, “Do you guys – hurt kids?”

  “No way!” he exclaimed. “Who told you that?”

  “No one, sir. That’s just what I thought.”

  Justin and Jack walked up behind me and joined in on the conversation. They had been standing behind, eavesdropping to the conversation and I hadn’t even realized it.

  “The reason he, I mean, we think that, sir, is because in the mall, a guy wearing a shirt with that symbol on it tried to hurt us,” Justin explained, his voice still a little shaky.

  “What? Are you kids okay?”

  “We’re okay,” Jack assured him.

  “Listen guys,” the employee said, leaning even further over the counter, “there are some crazy people in this world, from all different types of religions and faiths. And whenever you see this pentagram – either on TV or in the newspapers – it’s never about something good. You need to be careful around here, guys. Stay away from strangers, and always stick together when you’re out and about. Got it?” he asked.

  We all nodded our heads in agreement.

  “You want me to call the police for you?”

  “No sir!” we said in unison.

  “Okay then – here,” he slammed down three large plastic cups on the counter. “Get yourselves something to drink, and don’t forget what I’ve said.”

  We all nodded our heads and wandered over to the drink machine to fill up our cups. My nerves had dissipated and I felt as if I could finally put something in my stomach without the fear of it coming back up again. I moved over to Jack and wrapped my arm around him. “You okay, man? You’re not mad at me, are you?”

  “A little bit. I just can’t believe you kept a secret from me. You know I never would’ve told anyone,” Jack said.

  “I know, Jack, but Momma put the fear of God in me. She told me if I said anything to anyone she’d beat the shit out of me.”

  “I know what you mean. Your mom’s ass whippings are pretty brutal,” Jack replied with a grin.

  “I know. Tell that to my ass sometime,” I joked.

  “Thanks, but no thanks,” Jack giggled.

  “I promise I’ll tell you everything once I get ba
ck from the bathroom.”

  “You gotta pee or something?”

  “No. I just still taste that crazy guy’s blood in my mouth from when I bit him,” I explained.

  “Yeah, you really should go to the bathroom and wash your mouth out,” Jack suggested. “You don’t want to get AIDS or something from him.”

  “Good idea.”

  Upon my return from the bathroom, Justin and I spent the remainder of our time in Taco Bell getting Jack caught up on all the details. By the time we were finished, we had to head out to wait for Justin’s dad in the parking lot. We got up, threw our trash away and exited the building, leaving behind what had happened to us at the mall in the trash as well.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  SCOTT

  “Way to go, Scott! Way to fucking go!” Rebecca yelled as she turned out of the mall parking lot onto the main road that ran through the middle of Hammond.

  “Stop yelling, goddamn it,” Scott fired back, “I know I fucked up. You don’t have to keep reminding me!”

  “Yes I do, you piece of shit! Your little fiasco with the kids is not going to go over very well with Mitch. He’s going to blow a gasket when he finds out what you did. Do you realize, Scott, that if I hadn’t been there, you’d probably be sitting in the back of a squad car right now?”

  “Yes, yes, yes! I know, I know, so could you please shut the fuck up?!”

  “Don’t you tell me to shut the fuck up! You’re out of control, Scott. We should have never taken you in with us!” Rebecca slammed on the brakes, throwing them both forwards. “You’re too much of a liability – you stay jacked up on cocaine all the time, you don’t listen to Mitch, you’re sloppy with your work and you’re going to get us caught!” Rebecca screamed at the guy, jerking the wheel to the right to avoid a head-on collision from the opposite lane.

  “Watch your driving, for fucks sake!” Scott yelled, pulling the lower part of his shirt up to his sore nose to stem the bleeding.

  “Now those kids are going to go to the cops to give them a description of you – and then we’re all fucked! You hear me? Fucked!”

  “Shut up! You’ve said this all before, Rebecca, and I’m tired of hearing it.”

  “I’m tired of having to repeat myself to you. Why don’t you ever listen, Scott? If you did, you wouldn’t get into half the shit you do.”

  “I didn’t mean to do that to those kids, okay! I just overreacted a tad and took things a little too far. But they shouldn’t have popped off at the mouth to me. That little blonde-haired bastard was the one I wanted the most – for mouthing off to –twice,” Scott growled, his voice partially muffled by the firm grasp he had on his nostrils.

  “It doesn’t matter if they popped off to you; that’s what kids do. But if you hadn’t been jacked up on Coke, you probably wouldn’t have reacted the way you did. You could’ve just ignored them and walked away, Scott, but you didn’t. We’ve already shook em’ up enough, and they haven’t been snooping around either – but you have, haven’t you, Scott? Do you remember, or were you too fucked up at the time?

  “Yeah, I remember. What’s the big deal?

  “The big deal, Scott, is that we told you not to go back to their homes, but you did anyway. Why can’t you just stay away? You always do what Scott wants to do, but this time, you got your ass kicked by the same group of middle school boys that you keep trying to terrorize.” At this, Rebecca gave a snort of derision; Scott really was a complete asshole when he was high.

  “You fucking bitch! Don’t you fucking talk to me like that,” Scott screamed. He reached down into his coat pocket and pulled out a knife. He lunged towards Rebecca. He brought the knife up to her throat and began poking it at her smooth, flawless skin and said, “You see bitch, if I wanted to, I could have killed them right then and there, just like I could kill you – right here, right now!”

  “Put the knife down, Scott. I can’t drive with that fucking thing in my throat.” Rebecca said firmly. She remained sitting perfectly straight, hands at ten and two, the only hint of nervousness the beads of sweat forming on her brow.

  “I’ll take the knife away after you say I could have killed them, right then and right there.” Scott’s eyes were bloodshot and wide; the blood on his face was now dried and formed a long red line from his left nostril, all the way down to his chin, “Say it, you fuck!”

  “Okay, okay! You could have killed them, Scott! Right then and there!”

  “Thank you,” Scott said. He withdrew the knife from Rebecca’s throat and placed it back in his jacket pocket.

  “You crazy son-of-a-bitch, wait till I tell Mitch what you just did to me! He’s going to kill you for this!”

  “No, he’s not,” Scott said. He threw his body back into the seat and stared out the window. “And you know why?” Scott asked, his eyes half rolled into the back of his head. He un-zipped his pants and pulled out his penis; stroking the limp thing up and down with one hand. “’Cause you’re gonna give me some of that good ol’ wet pussy of yours. Ain’t that right, baby?”

  “Fuck you, Scott. Fuck you!” Rebecca spat.

  “I’m just playing with you, baby,” Scott joked and placed his member back into his pants, zipping them up quickly. “Please don’t tell Mitch, please! I don’t have anywhere else to go. I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry,” Scott cried.

  Rebecca looked at the man with a tiny amount of sympathy in her eyes. What he said was true; when they’d taken him into their group, Scott was a lost soul. He was living the sad life of drug addiction and isolation, but with them, he had a clear purpose; to fulfill the Devil’s work.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t tell Mitch you fucked up again, but that’s as long as we don’t see a sketch of you on the news tonight. If we do, I’m telling him everything.”

  “Oh, thank you, baby. Thank you,” Scott whined.

  “Shut up, and stop calling me baby.” Rebecca focused on the road, looking straight ahead and contemplating what to do next. “I’ve got to tell Mitch that we have to lay low for a bit. After this, it’d be best if we hid our faces for a while. Shit got a little too out of hand in the mall.”

  “We couldn’t have gotten a kid tonight anyway. The arcade was too crowded. Too many sets of eyes, maybe next time we’ll get one,” Scott told her.

  “Next time isn’t good enough, Scott. We needed one tonight, and Mitch was very specific about what he wanted,” Rebecca stated and turned left onto West University.

  “I know what he wanted, but there weren’t any boys in there that young. We should’ve gone back to the place we were at last week. Now that was the hotspot. And boy, you remember how sweet that little pussy was?” Scott squealed as he tapped Rebecca on the shoulder and punched the roof of the van in excitement. “Makes my teeth hurt just thinking about how good that twat was.”

  “It was sweet, wasn’t it?” Rebecca said and she shot a sinful grin at Scott.

  “Hell yeah, but let’s not talk about it right now, alright? It gets my dick all hard every time we bring it up.”

  The conversation stopped there as Rebecca thought of what she was going to say when she got home to Mitch. Scott was beginning to come down off his high, and was slowly passing out in the passenger seat. Rebecca reached over to him and gave him a good shake. “Stop dozing off, Scott. We’re almost back to the house.”

  Scott jolted awake and began moving around restlessly in his seat. “Can we please stop and pick up some more Coke? I can’t keep my fucking eyes open anymore.”

  “No, goddamn it,” Rebecca snarled. “Now listen up. Wipe the fucking blood off your face and let me do the talking when we get inside. Understand?” Rebecca asked, but Scott was already fast asleep.

  They continued to drive for another ten minutes or so, then Rebecca flicked the right turn signal up turning onto Leslie Drive, a street that was less than four miles away from Rhine Road.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  THE NAIL INCIDENT: 1991

  Two months passed, and the i
ncident at the mall eventually faded away from our conversation, dwindling from our thoughts like the leaves falling from the trees.

  Fall was coming; the days began to get shorter, the nights longer, and my entire front yard was covered with pinecones and pine needles, along with myriad other leaves that had escaped the clutches of the surrounding trees. The sweet smell of honeysuckle was replaced by the aroma of seasoned oak that carried itself on the crisp wind; fragrances of autumn that invaded every corner of my world. And it didn’t matter if you were in a car, or even inside your house, those scents always crept through the smallest crack and up into your nose.

  Every time I took a step, leaves crunched under my feet to make any attempt of a stealthy approach on Jack – or anybody else – near impossible. Then there was the blue October sky in all its glory and in my opinion, it looks completely different than any other month’s sky. It almost had a different feel to it; like it was enchanted or something; to this day, fall and October are my favorite times of the year.

  Not only was I excited about the change of season, I also had my eleventh birthday on the thirtieth of the month, along with my favorite holiday the day after: Halloween. It was the only holiday in the world that expected kids to do bad things, and believe me, Jack and I didn’t intend to disappoint.

  Justin had quit hanging out with us after the mall incident, and started hanging out with Chase Newman a whole lot more. Every time Jack and I saw Justin, he pretended to be too cool to talk to us, and went back to hanging out with his new best friend. In the end Jack and I said screw it, realizing that two wheels are as good as three, and paid no attention to him. I didn’t blame Justin for not wanting to hang out with us anymore; it seemed like every time we were together, something horrible happened.

  Anyways, Jack and I had taken a good hiatus after my eleventh birthday. Of course we had done some bad shit on Halloween, but that really didn’t count, it was a given. We were never too bad around Thanksgiving time, though, but that was only because we had too many family members running around all over the place and it was easier to get caught.