Blood in the Woods

by J. P. Willie

  “Kiss me,” she breathed.

  “Okay.” I licked my lips and hoped that she wouldn’t notice that I was nervous, and conjured up the intestinal fortitude to lean in for the kiss. As I did so, a frantic splashing in the distance broke my concentration. I heard Jack scream loudly at the top of his lungs and I opened my eyes and let go of Angela, focusing my attention on Jack and Krystle, who were running towards us with panic etched upon their faces.

  “Run goddamn it! Run!” Jack yelled.

  Krystle looked absolutely terrified, and I could see that she was crying.

  “Jody, what’s going on?” Angela asked me, her face filled with dread.

  “Run, Jody! It’s him! It’s him!” Jack cried out.

  I turned to Angela. “Don’t ask, just run – now!”

  Angela didn’t say another word; she just took off running full-speed. I stood my ground and waited for Krystle and Jack to get closer. My body was pumping with adrenaline as I watched them draw nearer, and I finally saw whom they were running from.

  Of course, I recognized him instantly. It was our old friend with the harelip – the same man we’d hoped was dead or locked up. He was running on the edge of the bank, trying to catch up to Jack, and I saw that he had something clenched tight in his hand.

  My body went into autopilot as Krystle ran past me, her sobs louder than the splashes she made. I turned and began running, with Jack closely on my heels, sending fat splashes of cool water against the back of my legs and spine. I heard a shout of anger from our pursuer and I knew he was getting frustrated.

  “You gotta run, Krystle!” I yelled as I caught up with her.

  “I can’t go... any... faster,” Krystle panted, tears flowing down her cheeks.

  “Take my hand!”

  Krystle did so, and once I had a strong grip on her, I pulled her along with me. The poor girl was terrified and out of breath, and I wasn’t going to let that maniac get his hands on her; but Krystle really was going to have to push it.

  Fifty yards later, my arms were fatigued from pulling Krystle through the water, and I felt like I was dragging a dead body. No matter how hard I tried, we just weren’t moving fast enough. Suddenly, I felt Krystle speed up, and when I looked back, Jack was pushing her. His hands were placed in the middle of her back, shoving just enough to give Krystle the extra boost her weary legs needed. And like that, we all ran through the creek, panting and gasping for air and hoping against hope that we would make it out of there safely.

  The sound of our pursuer could still be heard from behind us, and when, reluctantly, I glanced back, I saw that the hare-lip guy was now in the creek. He was gaining on us, and I saw clearly that the thing in his hand was a large knife.

  As we ran, we bounced back and forth between the bank and the creek. When we knew deep water was approaching, we would run onto the bank. There, I swung my free arm from side to side to knock the low hanging branches and bushes out of my way. Ahead, I saw Angela jump from out of the wood line into the creek, making her way over to where Jack and I had entered what seemed like a lifetime ago. I tugged hard on Krystle’s hand as she slowed down again; I didn’t know how far back the man was and really didn’t want to.

  As we came out of a small of patch woods alongside the bank, Angela was already up top with her dog, slumped over him and desperately out of breath. Then I remembered about the deep spot that Jack and I had jumped into, and I bore left.

  “Hurry! He’s right behind ya’ll!” Angela yelled at us from above.

  Our bodies sunk to waist level in the murky water and it felt like I had cement shoes on, but nonetheless, we safely made it to the other side and were finally able to stand up and make our way up the bank. Shadow was up top, barking furiously, and Angela was hanging a helpful hand down the side of the hill for us to grab. We threw Krystle into the side of the muddy incline and she crawled her way up the hill, with much encouragement. “Come on, Krystle, you gotta hurry!” Angela cried.

  “I’m – trying,” Krystle whined.

  I heard a splash come from behind me and I turned to see the harelip man standing where we’d emerged from the wood line. He was holding his beloved knife to his side and breathing like a steamroller. Just like the previous time our paths had crossed, the guy wore all black clothes, and I’m positive his shirt said MEGADETH on it. He placed one hand on top of his knee and bent over to get air, and I turned back around and saw that Krystle was almost to the top of the bank.

  “Go, Jack,” I said.

  “Are you sure?” Jack asked.

  “Yes, now, go.” I yelled, and I pushed Jack toward the hill.

  Jack began crawling up the steep incline, and I faced our enemy. He was walking slowly in our direction and watching Jack make his way upwards. And then he spoke, “No matter where you run, I’ll catch you.” He brought the knife up from his side. “No matter where you hide, I’ll find you.” He then pointed his knife directly at me, his eyes crazed. “And when that day comes, boy, I’ll kill you. And who knows, today might just be the day.”

  I was in a trance. I felt as if the man’s menacing words had been injected directly into my bloodstream to leave me paralyzed. I simply couldn’t move, I couldn’t think and I felt warm piss running down my legs. I’d never been more terrified in my short life, and I just wanted to cry; I didn’t understand why the ugly man wanted to kill me – I was just a kid!

  “Let’s go, Jody, get your ass up here!” Jack yelled.

  I snapped from my daze at the sound of Jack’s voice, and the man walked slowly forward, like a lion cornering its prey.

  “Please, Jody, hurry!” Angela cried.

  I looked one last time into the black-clad man’s maniacal eyes and made my dash up the bank, hoping I would get away.

  The man sprinted after me.

  “Oh my God, Jody, he’s coming,” Krystle screamed.

  “Faster, faster!” Jack yelled.

  I dug my fingers and toes deep into the muddy earth as I made my way up, the sound of movement coming up behind me, closer, then closer still...

  There came an almighty splash.

  I dared to twist my head around, and saw that our would be killer had fallen into the deep part of the creek. He splashed around furiously, still maintaining his focus on me and, cursing up a storm. I returned to climbing my way up the bank, and when I neared the top, Jack extended a hand down to me. I hauled myself up several more feet and finally grabbed hold of Jack.

  “Lift your legs, lift your legs!” Jack yelled into my face.

  I turned my head to the side and looked down just in time to see the man bringing the knife down toward my legs. I bent them up quickly, trying to bring my heels into my buttocks, but I just wasn’t quick enough. The knife sliced through the side of my foot like butter, and I felt a wet burning sensation there.

  “Pull me up!” I screamed.

  Jack yanked with all his might and I felt myself moving up the incline as roots and sticks dug hard into my heaving chest. Once I was a few pulls higher, I brought my feet back into the muddy side of the slope and gave myself a big kick off and finally I had made it to the top. Not without injury, though, my heel was peeled open, raw and bleeding profusely.

  Shadow was barking like Cujo, warning off the hare-lipped lunatic that had chased us, and as I laid flat on the solid ground, trying to catch my breath and ignore the dull throbbing in my slashed foot, I thought that it was the most glorious sound in the world.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Krystle sounded angry.

  “Get up, Jody. We gotta go – we’re not out of here yet,” Jack added.

  I nodded and tried to stand up, but the man grabbed me by my bloody foot and I fell forward onto my stomach.

  “Help me!” I cried out, and my three friends jumped to my aid.

  Krystle and Angela grabbed under my arms, and Jack went to work punching at the man’s hand, even though the blows he took from Jack didn’t seem to faze him at all, and he pulled me back down over
the edge. I kicked out violently with my free leg to get the guy to let me go, but it simply wasn’t working – hare lip man had a death grip on me.

  But then, like a knight in shining armor, Shadow jumped in and chomped down hard on the man’s arm, shaking his head as if he were worrying a rabbit. The scream my assailant let loose was one of shock and extreme pain as the dog’s canines sank into the soft flesh of his wrist, and he released my foot.

  Finally free, I scrambled to my feet and limped over to Jack. Shadow was still viciously mauling the man’s wrist, and blood poured out of the ragged tear in the flesh, pooling thickly onto the ground. Snarling, Shadow pulled back on the guy’s wrist like he was playing with a chew toy, and then the man’s torso shot up over the edge of the hill. He swung the muddy knife into the side of Shadow’s neck, sending blood squirting out like a punctured water balloon. Shadow let out a loud yelp, released his bite and collapsed to the ground.

  “Shadow!” Angela screamed.

  “Run!” Jack cried, grabbing Krystle by the hand to drag her along with him.

  “You can’t worry about him now, just go!” I told Angela.

  We all ran into the woods, hoping we would make it out alive. Jack had Krystle by the hand most the way and I was running next to Angela. The open wound in the side of my foot was slowing me down, but I still managed to move at a good speed. We eventually came out onto Rhine Road, breathing like Olympic track runners after the four-hundred-yard relay race. A car was making its way around the bend, and the elderly gentleman inside it gave us a wave. Not one of us returned it. Everything that just happened to us was something you’d expect to see in a horror movie, only it was real, and we had survived.

  ***

  “What the fuck happened back there, Jack?” I asked as all four of us sat beneath a huge pine tree across the street from the woods.

  The traffic on Rhine Road was moderate at the moment, so the best place for us to figure things out was in plain sight. I didn’t think that hare lip guy would be stupid enough to attack us in broad daylight alongside the busy road – he’d made the mistake of trying to get to us at the busy mall and that had failed spectacularly.

  “Me and Krystle were around the corner of the creek and we saw two people dragging something through the woods down to the creek. We tried hiding behind one of the oaks alongside the bank, but they heard us – and you know what happened next.”

  “What were they dragging?” Angela asked, she was still real shaken up, her eyes red from crying.

  “It looked like a black body bag to me,” Jack told us. “I’m not a hundred percent sure, though.”

  Krystle agreed with my friend. “It was damned sure big enough to be a body bag.”

  “You gotta be shitting me,” I muttered. “You guys seriously think they were dragging a dead body to the creek?”

  “I think so,” Jack said, he looked drained.

  “Why else would that guy have tried to kill us?” Krystle asked. “People don’t try to kill you if you spot them taking out the trash.”

  “We dealt with this guy a long time ago,” Jack confessed. “We were in the Hammond Mall and he attacked us for no reason. And now, he pops up in the middle of the woods. It’s fucking weird. I don’t understand it.”

  “I think we stumbled upon something we weren’t supposed to see today,” Angela whispered, drawing out attention.

  Silence fell as we watched Angela wipe tears from her face, and we all knew it was true.

  “Did you get a good look at the other person?” I asked Krystle and Jack.

  “It was a girl,” Jack told us.

  “A girl?” I replied. “Well, did you recognize her?”

  “Not at all. I didn’t even see her face, just the back of her head,” Jack answered.

  “Are we going to go call the police now?” Angela sounded impatient.

  “I don’t know,” I told her, looking around at everyone’s faces. “Maybe we shouldn’t say anything.”

  “What?” Angela spat. “You don’t want to call the police after some manic tried to kill us all? Are you crazy?”

  “I think it will only make more trouble for us if we do,” I explained. “Jesus guys, if what ya’ll are saying is true, then that means we are probably witnesses to a murder. Don’t you think if they found out we called the cops, they’d hunt us all down and kill us for sure? We might have made it away this time, but what about the next time? We need to lay low and not tell a soul.”

  “That guy tried to kill us, Jody,” Krystle said. “He murdered Shadow, and got a piece of you in the process.”

  I looked down at the cruel gash in my foot; it was still bleeding.

  “This is bad,” Jack said, his eyes serious. “And I’m pretty sure they’ll know where we live, so maybe we should call the police this time.”

  “What do you think, Angela?” I asked.

  “That man killed Shadow,” Angela said and began to cry again. “We need him to be caught and put in jail, so yes, we need to call the police. I don’t care if there was a body in that bag or not, we have to do something about this.”

  Krystle scooted up next to Angela and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

  “Krystle?” I crossed my fingers, hoping that she would be the one to agree with me.

  “We should call the cops, Jody.”

  “Fine,” I said. I stood up, wincing at the sharp pain that shot through my foot. “But I don’t want to bring you two into this any more than you already are,” I said to the girls. “I need both of you to try to forget about what just happened; I know it’s hard, but you have to do it. Ya’ll better get to working up a good story before y’all head back home, too. Your parents are going to know that something’s wrong, so you’d better be ready to do the best lying of your lives.”

  “I know it’s hard, Angela.” Jack reached over and tapped Angela on the foot. “I’ve lost a dog too, but it will get better, and the pain will eventually fade – but you need to say that Shadow got hit by a car or something. I know it sounds like an asshole thing for me to say right now, but it’s all I got. You got to have a good story.”

  “I’ll do the story telling,” Krystle assured, squeezing Angela tighter. “You guys just make sure you call the police so they can catch that sick bastard.”

  “You got it,” I said, giving off a convincing smile. “Now head home and never tell a soul about this.”

  Krystle and Angela nodded. Even though I was being harsh with them, they knew I was doing my best to protect them. They both stood up and said their goodbyes.

  “You might want to go to the hospital and get that looked at,” Krystle pointed down to my foot. “And remember to thank God that you’re alive.”

  “I will.”

  The girls left and Jack and I waited until they were a good ways down the street before we made our way back home. As we walked, every sound, from the buzzing of a bee, to the growl of a passing car made us jump. I thought that we weren’t being followed, but I couldn’t be positive. We remained silent awhile, but then, I began to cry.

  “Just what the hell is going on around here?” I sobbed, hopping on my good foot as the wounded one left a trail of blood on the road. “I could have died, Jack. That son-of-a-bitch would’ve killed me if the dog hadn’t taken him.”

  “I know, but he didn’t,” Jack placated.

  “I’m scared, man.”

  “I am too.”

  An awkward silence fell between us as tears trickled down my cheeks. I thought back to our pursuer’s face, that mask of pure hatred and rage; it made my stomach turn and my head throb.

  “Do you think he was one of the ones that killed Scarlet?” I asked, wiping the tears from my eyes as I fought to get my emotions back under control.

  “Yeah, I do,” Jack told me. He lifted his head up to face the sky, trying to fight back his own tears. “And that’s how come I said they know where we live.”

  “You think he’ll come for us?”

  “Him
and anyone else he wants to bring along,” Jack sounded scared.

  “Jesus Christ, what are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know, but you were right, we’re not calling the cops.”

  “Huh? I thought you wanted to call them,” I was shocked – I hadn’t expected Jack to go along with my suggestion.

  “I only said it ‘cause the girls were around, but you’re right. We can’t say a word. That would only make things worse. If those people think we called the police, it’ll only get them more pissed off at us.”

  “You really think so?”

  “It doesn’t matter if we call the cops, Jody. Angela was right; we witnessed something today that we shouldn’t have. The police can’t help us now. Whoever those people are, they’re going to come for us. And when they do, I hope there’s a telephone close by, or somebody that can help us. That’s the only way the police are going to catch them.”

  “You think this is going to turn out badly?”

  “Yeah, I do,” Jack told me and stared off into the distance. “It’s been a long time coming, and what happened today just put the icing on the cake.”

  Jack spoke to me as if he was an adult, all full of wisdom and understanding, yet he was merely a kid who stood only half an inch shorter than myself.

  “This is too much, Jack. I can’t deal with this shit; maybe we should call the cops?” I felt weak in the knees; all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep.

  “Listen to me, Jody,” Jack was angry. He placed his hand in the middle of my chest and stopped me dead in my tracks. “Did you not hear anything I just said? The cops can’t do shit for us, they wouldn’t even know where to start.”

  “We’ll tell them about the body. They can start there,” I suggested. The reality of it all was setting in and I knew we were in over our heads.

  “If it was a body, do you really think it’s still there now?” Jack asked me, his face returning to its normal color.