“Okay,” Tony said. “Good luck guys.”
13
Jeremy awoke from a nightmare he couldn’t remember. Then there were rough hands shaking him, “Wake up, wake up!”
No, not rough, he realized, as he came to; just insistent. They and the voice belonged to his sister Rebecca.
“Becky?” Jeremy said. “Whatya want?”
“It’s one o’clock. Mom says you should get up and eat something.”
“One o’clock, really?”
Rebecca nodded gravely. That made Jeremy laugh. It was a good thing she did wake him up. He was supposed to be meeting Tony in two hours.
“So, what are we having?”
She shrugged. “Brunch?”
“Leftover breakfast?”
"Yep,” she nodded. “Hey! Come see my room!”
She grabbed his arm and yanked him in that direction.
“Whoa, hey! I’m not fully awake yet!”
He stepped into her room, which looked exactly the same to him. Plastered wall to ceiling with posters of one particular person.
“What am I looking at?”
“Here!” Rebecca pointed, as if he were the dumbest guy in the world. “I got a new poster!”
“Greeeeatt, another Kirk Cameron poster.” Becky had a huge crush on him ever since Growing Pains came on the air in the fall, which anyone could gather from all the posters and issues of Tiger Beat and Seventeen with his mug on it. Well, at least it was Kirk Cameron, and not Captain Kirk from Star Trek. That would have been really scary.
“Okay, can we go down and eat now?” Jeremy said. “I’m actually hungry.”
“Well, duh. You’ve been asleep for like ten hours,” Rebecca said, rolling her eyes.
“All right, wise guy, you’re coming with me!” He grabbed her and picked her up, lugging her under one arm down the stairs. She screamed, and laughed, and giggled.
“Jeremy!” his mother called. “What are you doing to your sister?”
“Nothing ma, just playing around!”
“Well, don’t be too rough.”
“No, ma!” It was Jeremy’s turn to roll his eyes.
“So, how was your night?” she asked, when he got downstairs and released Rebecca.
“Great!” Jeremy feigned excitement, trying to remember how much fun it was before all the killing. “Oh, bacon and scrambled eggs, yum!”
“Well, eat up,” Roberta said, “and when you’re done, could you take out the recycling? Your father forgot to before he left for work.”
“Sure.” He didn’t expect another surprise when he did. Jeremy wasn’t exactly sure why he was drawn to the milk carton at first, but then he saw the picture of the missing girl up close, and knew. His face went pale as he held it in his hands.
“Oh my God,” he said.
14
“Should we call the others here?” Myron said.
“No,” Tony said quickly. “The five of us are fine.”
“Wait a minute,” Staci jumped in. “Why not? They’re the ones that got a close look at those things.”
“I think we should just get started,” Tony implored.
“Jeremy, why are you holding a carton of milk?” Johnny said.
“I thought you guys needed to see this,” Jeremy said, although he was hesitant in showing them.
“No way!” Johnny said.
“That’s the girl we saw in the woods,” Jeremy confirmed. “I
found it this morning.”
“Her name’s Betty Leesburg,” Tony said. “So maybe she was just lost in the woods that day.”
“Wouldn’t someone have found her by now,” Staci said. “And she didn’t act like she was lost. She knew well enough to tell us to get out of there before she disappeared.”
“There is something else,” Myron said. He spread out the morning paper on the coffee table. “The murders at the Rock Spot last night, those were not the only ones.”
“More Dragons,” Johnny said, “That’s the old abandoned warehouse where they always meet.”
“Wait a minute, are you guys saying these murders are from the same creatures, last night and this morning?”
“Same MO,” Myron said, “Eating portions of their victims.”
Staci cringed. “What about the little girl in the woods? I mean, does it have something to do with this? Why is she missing?”
“Maybe,” Tony said.
“What if,” Jeremy wondered, “those things came from the woods? Maybe that’s what the little girl was warning us about.”
“Wait a sec,” Johnny said. “I just remembered something. Amarillo Street, that’s where we were, intersected by Sao Paulo.”
“Yeah, at the Rock Spot, so?” Tony asked.
“The old house that was deserted for years before they tore it down, they built the club there a few months back,” Johnny said. “Anyone remember what was behind that?”
“Sao Paulo Street, again,” Myron said.
“Right, it continues. And the street comes to a dead end. No one ever went down that end of the street.”
“Oh,” Staci said, “oh,” suddenly realizing.
“Yes, that dead end was right at the beginning of the woods,” Myron said.
“Except the other side of town,” Johnny confirmed. “We went in through the east entry, so this would be the west side. The entrance from there was all just overgrown brush. I think it’s fenced now too. Something that can leap hundreds of feet in the air, or fly,
could get over that without sweating a single drop.”
“Nothing to see it coming, until it was too late,” Tony said.
“Right, behind the Rock Spot is poor town. Nothing but run down shacks, if anyone still lives there. They were at the perfect angle to sneak in unnoticed, onto the roof of the Rock Spot, from the back. The music and the sound of all the people must have attracted them.”
Staci appeared troubled. “It’s a good thing we didn’t leave right away like I said, or we wouldn’t have been around to save the others.”
“We might have been victims ourselves,” Myron added, although that had already been implied.
“How did you know?” Jeremy asked.
“I told you guys. I have this thing about danger, when something really bad is about to happen, I sense it. Though it doesn’t seem to work all the time. It’s been getting stronger over the past few months. Maybe it’s those creatures.”
“Has anyone else been experiencing strange extrasensory powers?” Myron said.
“I read your mind in the club!” Jeremy exclaimed.
“Yes, you did,” Myron said, “Scared the bejesus out of me.”
“I’ve been doing that lately- picking up people’s thoughts. Just little snippets here and there. I thought it was my imagination at first. That maybe I was going crazy, but I think I just confirmed it.”
“Yep,” Johnny said, “You’re crazy.”
Jeremy smiled, although it was an awkward one. “I was never able to pick up actual words, but actions, intent. I mean, like before someone did something I could almost see them doing it, but it was just a feeling.”
“You mean, before someone hit you, you would know that they were going to take a swing?” Myron asked.
“Yeah, something like that,” Jeremy said. “It would have been handy if it had been working when the Dragons first attacked me.”
“I don’t think we have to worry about them anymore,” Staci said, almost sadly. “Whatever was left of them has splintered off, either killed or separated from the main group.”
John looked worried for a moment. “Do you think they’re targeting Dragons for some reason? I mean, it kind of looks that way, being only five of us left and all.”
Myron counted in his head. “Five? You, Julia, Pete, Mary… Who am I missing?”
“Carl,” Tony said.
“Right,” Myron said. “Who could forget Carl?”
“You just did,” Johnny said. “Got Tony’s window busted out and ev
erything.”
“What happened to him anyway?” Tony said.
“Beats me. He got away yesterday, and he definitely wasn’t at the club last night.”
“So now that the Dragons aren’t a threat, what’s the agenda?” Staci said.
“I don’t know that there is one,” Tony replied.
“Then what the hell are we doing here?” Johnny said.
“Trying to establish camaraderie; explain the unexplainable; make sense of things... Maybe the question is what are you doing here?”
“Ouch Myron, that hurt.” Johnny was joking, but Myron could sense he was actually a little hurt.
“I am sorry Johnny. I did not mean that. I am scared out of my mind.”
“I think we all are,” Staci said, briefly holding Myron’s hand.
“So what have we got?” Tony said. “A bunch of demon-things killing a motorcycle gang, three people with ESP, and a girl who’s possibly a ghost showing up on a milk carton. Does any of this make sense to anyone? Tie together somehow?”
“None of it makes sense to me,” Staci said.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Johnny said.
They stared at him, hoping he wasn’t going to say what they thought he would.
“We start with the girl… Betty. We have to go back into the woods.”
IV
1
“Remind me again why we are doing this?” Myron asked.
“Because Johnny thought it was a good idea,” Tony answered him.
They stood in front of the Rock Spot, this time in the daylight. It was three days later.
“As much as I hate the idea of going back to school tomorrow, I’d really like to stay alive,” Jeremy said.
“Look,” Johnny said, “I’m doing this for you guys as much as me. You want to find out about your weird powers, I want to find out why these things are killing off Dragons.”
“What about me?” Tony said. “I’m not a Dragon, or have special powers. Why am I going?”
Johnny looked amused. He started imitating Tony’s accent. “I don’ know,” he said. “Cause you’re a fuckin’ idiot.”
For a moment they all forgot how scared they were, laughing their heads off.
“Well, I’m going to go,” Johnny said.
“You can drop the accent now,” Tony said.
“Why, it’s fun?” he said. “Okay,” he sighed.
John Winter made his way along the side of the building. The back way was blocked by a wooden fence, which he jumped.
“Myron, come on!” he called back. “It’s safe, no cars or anything!” Myron jumped it, holding his glasses along the way.
Staci was behind Myron. She looked back.
“We’ll boost you up,” Tony said.
“Right,” Jeremy obliged.
Normally, Staci would do something like this herself if she were in gym shorts and sneakers, but in this winter gear…
“Okay,” she said. They each hoisted her up and over by one of her feet. “Great, thanks guys.”
“Welcome to the club,” Johnny said on the other side.
“You want to go next, or me?” Tony asked.
“I’ll go last,” Jeremy said.
Tony was almost over when someone from the other end of the building yelled, “Hey! What are you kids doing there?!”
“Oh shit!” Jeremy said, “Go, Tony, go!”
Jeremy scurried over quickly behind him. The man who’d yelled at them didn’t follow.
“Um, Johnny,” Jeremy said, “You do realize we’re in someone’s backyard?”
“Yep. You guys wouldn’t have come over if I had told, would ya?”
“Is there a way out of here before we get caught?” Tony said.
“Over there,” Myron pointed. There was another narrow passageway along the side of the weather beaten house, its blue paint peeling at their touch to reveal the damp rotted wood beneath.
“Hope nobody’s home,” Staci said.
They shuffled along the passageway, hearing the faint metallic clank of spoons against bowls. Jeremy saw a skinny black boy eating what looked like soup through the partially open window. A beefy, older black lady came walking toward the window.
“Quick, duck!” Jeremy said. They passed her, crouched down underneath the windowsill, unseen. She opened the window another crack.
“Did you hear something?” they heard her say.
“Nah-uh,” the boy responded.
They couldn’t help the titters of nervous laughter that briefly escaped them. They made it around to the front of the house.
“Great idea Johnny,” Myron whispered. Two blocks down they could make out the woods behind the fence with the sign reading DEAD END.
“Can we cross before they decide to check out the front door?” Jeremy said. They did, bisecting Clarita Street.
Myron said, “Has anyone noticed all the streets have Spanish names on this side of town?”
“Yeah, that’s a little weird,” Tony said. “Maybe it used to be a Spanish neighborhood.”
“I guess we have to jump this fence too,” Jeremy said, when they got to the DEAD END sign.
“Guess so,” Tony said.
“I don’t think we have to gentleman,” Johnny said, pointing toward some hedges that had overgrown the left side of the fence. There were ragged edges on that fence, poking out from behind the foliage. Johnny pushed them back to reveal someone had cut through the fence, most likely with wire cutters. There was a circular hole large enough for someone to walk through if they put one leg in first, then the other, and ducked their head down as they went in. He went through first, and the others followed.
“This place still gives me the creeps.” Myron said.
“Yeah, I’m feeling some seriously bad ju ju,” Jeremy said. “And I don’t think I need Staci’s spidey sense for that.”
“My what?” Staci said.
“Spiderman,” Myron said. “That is what he uses to sense danger. Everyone knows that.”
Jeremy smiled.
“Oh,” Staci said.
“Can we talk about Spiderman later and move a little quicker, before someone sees us from the street?” Johnny said. “We definitely ain’t superheroes.”
“Aw, now why’d you have to go and say a thing like that?” Tony said.
As they went through the dense growth of trees, the play of light and shadow at times framed the scene like a chiaroscuro painting. This time of year there was more light than shadow, as many leaves had fallen off the trees, leaving red, orange, brown, and gold remnants to crunch under their feet.
“This is not so bad,” Staci said, “Kind of peaceful.”
Several birds agreed, but still she shivered, and not from the cold. The wind whipped through the trees and sent the leaves on the ground upward, dancing in the air. For what seemed like several miles they walked, the trees getting denser until they had to walk single file, weaving a path through the woods, before they started to get clearer. They came to an open field with sparse trees. Myron had just rounded a bend when Johnny slapped him backward roughly, open handed against his chest.
“Owww, what the…?”
“Whoa, watch out boy,” Johnny said. “Sheesh, you almost fell right in!”
The rest came up alongside them and looked down. It was right there in front of them. Myron’s jaw dropped open. “The pit!”
2
“Wow!” Jeremy said. It was massive. Before them the earth laid open, a crater at least twenty feet long on all sides. The edges were ragged, eroded rock and dirt. They bent and looked over the lip. All they could make out was black at the bottom.
“In theory there is no such thing as a bottomless pit,” Myron said. “You’d have to reach the Earth’s core or else come out the other side of the planet, but this, my God!”
“Yeah,” Tony said, dumbfounded.
“Throw something down,” Jeremy said, looking at Johnny.
“No, I don’t feel like it.” Johnny wal
ked off.
“What’s the matter with him?” Staci said, concerned.
“I don’t know,” Tony said. “Hey Johnny, wait up!”
He was shaking.
“What’s wrong man?” Tony asked.
“God, I thought I’d be okay, you know,” Johnny said. “Once I reached it, no big deal.” He put his hands over his face, buried his head in his palms. John Winter was sobbing.
“Johnny?” Staci put her hand on his shoulder. “Johnny, what is it?” They’d never seen him like this before.
“Talk to us man,” Jeremy said, “We’re your friends.” They
nodded, gathering around him. Johnny lifted his face to them. There
was such an expression of anguish there, and something else. Guilt,
Myron knew. The pain and remorse, and guilt were coming off him in waves.
“This is where it happened,” Johnny said, “The accident.”
“Accident?” Tony said.
“Oh no,” Staci said, “That boy. The story is true.”
“Yes,” Johnny said. “I killed him. I didn’t mean to, but I did. He was just a little kid, maybe eleven or twelve. I…” He broke up again.
“Go on Johnny,” Tony said. “Take your time. We’re listening. It’s okay.”
“No,” John said. “Nothing has been okay since that day.”
3
Ramsey Tysor was a grade A student. Never missed a day of class; never was disruptive. In fact, he stayed after school to help teachers, and do extra credit assignments; not that he needed them. This was one of those days.
He was the last to exit Mercy Falls Elementary, looking a little like a Harvard professor in his V-neck sweater, pressed slacks, and perfectly combed hair. He was the apple of every teacher’s eye; and the perfect target.
They were waiting for him this particular day. They’d seen him before, and made fun of him from afar, but this late afternoon around four p.m. he was completely, and utterly alone. All the other kids had left school, and the moms who came to pick up their kids had long since come and went. The fathers and mothers who had to work were still at their jobs, and this is why Ramsey walked home, just like any other day. The streets were barren but for this lone kid.
The Pit in the Woods: A Mercy Falls Mythos Page 20
