The Haunting of Bloodmoon House

by Jeff DeGordick

  Jess picked up the flashlight and shone it on the object in her hand.

  It was a human skull. Unmistakable.

  Jess dropped it in horror. She got to her feet and suddenly realized how large the clearing they were in actually was. She swept her flashlight across the area and saw uncountable mounds of dirt where the earth looked like it had been dug up and refilled, a catalogue of bones jutting out of them.

  The three of them gasped in unison.

  They had unwittingly stumbled upon a mass human grave.

  Getaway

  It was freezing, like a cold front had swept into the area, and the rain started coming down like nails. But the woods were peaceful. High up in a tree, an owl shuffled along a branch and nestled against the tall trunk underneath a crop of leaves to shield itself from the downpour. Down below, a frog hopped through the softening dirt. It made its way around a rock then stopped in front of one of Buddy's paw prints in the dirt. The frog's vocal sac under its chin swelled and deflated, and it stared into the distance .

  Then it suddenly hopped out of the way as Tyler's foot crashed into the dirt, erasing the paw print as the rest of his body flew by. He ran as fast as he could, not even thinking about slowing down until he got back to his truck. He held the gun across his chest, ready to shoot anything that jumped out at them in the night. Ashley was by his side, moving as fast as she could and holding the flashlight to light their path.

  Jess lagged behind, having gotten a slow start to flee. At first, Tyler had to drag her away from the burial site because she still didn't want to give up looking for her dog. But the stomach-churning sight of the terrible secret they'd stumbled upon was enough to convince her that it was too dangerous to stay; they had to leave, and then they had to call the police and get them up to the house.

  So Jess fled, but the guilt of abandoning her dog crushed her. She felt like a horrible person, but she knew she wouldn't be gone for long; as soon as they could get to safety and get the police up here, she would be back, and maybe they could even help search for Buddy with her.

  Tyler zipped through the trees, leading the way and trying to remember the direction they had come from. It was hard to tell in the dark and the rain, and all the trees quickly blended together into one identical mass. But he relied on his instincts, and soon he saw the house in the distance.

  "There!" he yelled, and the two girls looked on and spotted the house as well. It looked like a distant nightmare standing in the darkness, and one they were all thankful they didn't have to visit again.

  They made their way toward the front where Tyler's truck would be waiting for them—their oasis in the desert; their blissful means of escape—and they kept in the woods as they skirted around, not wanting to go near the house. When they got to the side of the property, they saw Tyler's truck.

  Tyler felt a sense of joy as soon as his eyes fell upon it, and he knew they would soon be free of this nightmare.

  But as they exited the woods and their feet clawed up the gravel under them, Tyler skidded to a stop, his eyes widening in horror.

  All four tires of his truck were deflated. Tyler went up to the closest one and inspected the damage. It looked like someone had dragged a large knife through it, slashing the rubber. He stood up and backed away. "No, no, no..."

  He frantically looked around them and grabbed the flashlight from Ashley, sweeping the beam into the darkest parts of the forest. He tried to say something, tried to even form a thought, but this new turn of events had been so demoralizing that he was rendered dumbfounded.

  "What are we going to do?" Ashley cried in dismay.

  "Get in!" Tyler said. "It'll still drive!"

  The girls ran around to the passenger side and the three of them shifted into the truck, slamming the doors shut as Tyler shoved the keys in the ignition. He cranked the key and the engine started to turn over, but it wouldn't catch. Tyler turned it again, but the engine just screeched. Something popped suddenly and white smoke billowed out from under the hood.

  "No!" Tyler yelled, slamming his palm on the steering wheel.

  Jess and Ashley were terrified. "Why didn't it start? What's wrong?" Jess asked.

  But the answer was all too obvious to Tyler; someone had sabotaged his truck. Someone didn't want them to leave. The dark history of Bloodmoon House began to come into full view, and Tyler feared they would soon be another statistic of the unusually large number of missing persons in the area. Despite what was going on in that house, it wasn't a ghost that buried all of those bodies.

  "What do we do?!" Ashley cried.

  "I'm thinking!" Tyler snapped. Anger and fear swirled around him into a miserable concoction, and he struggled to work through his fear just enough to get a clear thought through his head.

  "Call the police!" Ashley cried.

  Tyler pulled out his phone, and he flew into a rage all over again when he remembered that his battery had run out.

  "Jess?" Ashley pleaded.

  Jess pulled out her cell phone and the screen came on. The three of them gasped in excitement, but Jess saw that she only had two percent of her battery remaining. Whatever she did, she would only have one shot at it. She quickly dialed 911 with numb fingers, then she held her phone up to her ear with a trembling arm.

  She waited for someone to answer the call, but nothing happened. Jess held the phone out at arm's length to see what the problem was, and then she realized that the signal had cut out. Then as her heart thumped in her chest, she saw the number displaying her battery's charge tick down to one percent.

  "What happened?" Tyler asked.

  Jess ignored him. She punched the number into her phone again as soon as a bar of signal popped back up, and she held the phone to her ear. A voice answered, asking what the emergency was. But before they could finish their sentence, the call cut out. Jess looked at the phone and saw that the signal was gone again. Her eyes flicked over to the one percent in the corner of the screen, then she dialed 911 into her phone one more time. As soon as she did, her flickering signal cut out again and she was left with no service.

  "It's not working! I don't have any signal!" she said frantically.

  Tyler looked around. "The path leading to the house went uphill. That means we can push the truck down!"

  Ashley's eyes lit up. "What do you mean?"

  "If I throw the truck into neutral, we can push it until the ground starts to slope down. After that, we can all get in and I can steer the truck back down to the road! Once we get there, we'll probably have to run for help, but at least we'll be away from the house."

  Jess looked down at her phone, mostly tuning out what Tyler said. Her eyes were glued to the one in the corner, as if she looked away, the phone would suddenly shut off. Then a distant memory cut through the noise in her brain and she suddenly perked up. She dug her hand in her pocket and pulled out a card, holding it up next to the phone. It was the business card that Simon, the supposed ghost hunter, had given her. She flipped it over to the back for the number he'd scrawled there, and in a last-ditch effort, she punched the number into her phone, seeing that she had a bar of signal.

  She held the phone up to her ear and waited on pins and needles as she heard the call ring through.

  A voice answered on the other end. "Hello?"

  Jess's heart jumped at the sound of his clear voice, and she began to unload into the phone. "We need your help! You gave us your card at the diner! We're up at the house! We're in trouble! Call the police and send help!"

  Jess paused for a moment and listened, and her heart sank when she heard only silence. She thought the call had cut out, but then she heard his garbled voice. She tried to make out what he was saying, but static filled the line.

  "What?" she said loudly into the phone's microphone. She listened, but his voice was breaking up badly. "We need help!" she reiterated. "Send the police, please!"

  Then the line went dead.

  Jess pulled the phone up to dial his number again, but she only saw
a black screen. The battery was dead. She held the power button with her thumb, shaking it in anger, but her luck had run out. She prayed and hoped that her message got through to Simon, but that awful feeling swirling around in the pit of her stomach told her that it didn't and they were on their own.

  "Did you get through to him?" Ashley asked. "Is he sending the cops?"

  "No..." Jess said miserably.

  The two of them painfully lamented their plight, but Tyler cut through the pity and grabbed Jess's arm. "Come on, we gotta push!" He opened his door and hopped out of the truck. The girls moped and languidly followed out the passenger side.

  Tyler reached into the cab and shifted the truck into neutral, then he directed the girls to the grill at the front. He held the rifle, looking around in the darkness. "We have to get out of here fast," he said to Jess as she pressed her hands against the truck next to him. "I think whoever killed your uncle was waiting for us tonight. We're definitely not alone."

  Ashley squeaked and spun around, wildly shining her flashlight on every corner of the woods surrounding them. She expected to see a gleaming set of eyes lurking under a dark bush, but with the teeming rain, it was difficult to see anything.

  And behind them, looming over them like a dark obelisk, Bloodmoon House stood solemnly and watched.

  Tyler peeked around the truck at the narrow path through the trees that they had come up through. "Okay, we just gotta push it right there where the ground starts to tilt down!" he cried. "One, two, three... push!"

  The three of them leaned against the truck, digging their feet into the gravel and shoving with all their might. The rain made the loose gravel slick and it was hard to keep from slipping. When one of them did, they scrambled back up to the truck and wedged against it, using all their strength to try to move the heavy vehicle.

  At first it didn't seem like they were making any progress, but soon they felt the wheels roll. They moved slowly, picking up a little momentum at a time.

  "Keep going!" Tyler strained, his face turning red.

  When the wheels hit the start of the downward grade, Tyler rushed around to the cab and cranked the wheel, guiding it toward the break in the trees. The truck slowed down and he rejoined the girls at the front, adding his strength to the effort. It gained speed again, and soon the ground sloped enough for it to start rolling on its own.

  "Keep pushing!" Tyler instructed as he ran around and hopped into the driver's seat.

  Jess's arms were killing her, and she didn't know if she could push much more. But she felt the truck pick up speed, and she knew soon they would be free of this mess.

  Tyler carefully turned the wheel, and when he was sure that they were on enough of a downward slope, he yelled for the girls to get in.

  Jess and Ashley scrambled over to the passenger's side and Ashley dove in first, Jess coming in behind her and slamming the door shut.

  Tyler looked out the rear window and struggled to find the path through the darkness and the rain. "Someone turn on a flashlight!" he cried.

  Jess rolled down her window. Just before she leaned out, she stole one last glance at the ominous house slowly shrinking away from them. It looked every bit as evil as the night she came here with her uncle, and if she had more opportunity and presence of mind, she would spit on its very doorstep. She leaned out the window and twisted herself around, flicking on her flashlight and pointing it at the narrow path behind the truck.

  The vehicle sped up, and Tyler eased his foot onto the brake, slowing them as he carefully guided the truck around each bend and corner.

  The rain came down harder than ever and battered against the rear window looking out over the bed of the truck, completely washing away Tyler's visibility. He rolled down his window and stuck his head out. The truck rounded a bend, then they were on a long stretch of steep driveway. Tyler held his foot on the brake, moving them down gently.

  Then the brake turned to Jell-O and his foot pressed it to the floor. He looked down and tried to slow the truck, but the brake gave no resistance anymore. He frantically jammed his foot up and down on it, but the pedal remained pressed against the floor.

  Someone had cut the brakes.

  The pickup truck sped down the steep straightaway, and Tyler had no way to slow it down. They reached the end of it and the path curved around a slight bend. Tyler shifted the steering wheel and took the bend, but the front end whipped around, coming out of the turn harshly.

  "What's going on?!" Ashley said.

  "The brakes don't work!" Tyler shouted.

  Jess faintly heard his words through the open window as the rain battered her face, and her whole body went numb. She watched the trees barrel toward them at increasing speed as Tyler began to lose control. Jess shrunk back into the truck, still trying to hold the flashlight behind them, but it was no use.

  Tyler cried in fear and he struggled to gain hold of the truck as another bend approached. The chassis began to spin out, and before any of them could even let out a single prayer, Tyler took the bend too hard and the truck lost control, drifting straight for a tree.

  Jess watched in horror as the passenger-side of the truck where she sat rushed to meet the tree at lightning speed.

  And then her consciousness was crushed into blackness.

  The Creeping Shadow

  Jess found herself in an abyss. The blackness was unending, and it penetrated her body, like every molecule of her being was given over to it. She opened her mouth to breathe, but she couldn't. Her lungs cried out for air, but there was no air. It was like she was in the vacuum of space, and a rush of blackness climbed into her with every attempted breath, choking her from the inside. She spun her arms around. They hurt. Her whole body hurt, and she didn't know why.

  Then her movements became slower, more difficult. She couldn't understand why at first, but then the sound of her own movements drifted up to her ears in a muted and warped echo. She was underwater. She was drowning, and as she opened her mouth again, gallons of the murky black liquid poured down her throat and suffocated her. Her chest heaved and she knew this would be the end if she couldn't get a breath. She struggled and struggled, and then her head finally broke the surface.

  Jess pulled her face up from the waterlogged mud with a loud gasp. Her lungs were on fire, but as soon as oxygen flowed into them, they began to settle. She couldn't see; thick mud crusted her eyes. She dragged a hand to her face and wiped them, then she rolled onto her back. The rain came down on her face, and she realized that she was in the woods. She shivered, and she tried to remember what had happened to her.

  But it felt like she lost the memory somewhere in that murky blackness. Jess remembered something about a crash, but she couldn't recall for the life of her the details.

  Her whole body screamed at her as she threw herself onto her hands and knees. Her head throbbed madly and something warm ran down her forehead. She pressed a couple of fingers to it and held it in front of her eyes, feeling something wet and sticky coating them, but it was too dark to see what the substance was. Jess groaned and pressed her hand into the mud, pushing herself up to her feet. Her legs were shaky, but she took a slow step, her knee almost buckling. But she held it together and stumbled in a pointless direction. She couldn't even think straight yet, her head still shaken up like a snow globe.

  Coldness wrapped itself around her like a cruel blanket. Her bottom lip was so numb that she wasn't even aware that she was biting it to the point of bleeding. Her clothes were soaked and tattered, and she struggled to walk due to the numbness and shock invading her body.

  "Tyler..." escaped her lips. She didn't know why she said it; in that moment, she didn't even know who Tyler was. But she felt a yearning all the same in her heart. It was a way out of the blackness, but she couldn't find it.

  Then Jess stopped. None of her five physical senses could perceive it, but she knew that something was behind her. A shadow was stalking her through the woods.

  Her heartbeat quickened and she tried to
run forward. Her legs were clumsy and slow, but she gained some momentum. She felt the shadow clinging to her like it wanted to suck the life out of her. She ran harder, her legs already fatigued. The shadow followed, pursuing its prey.

  And then Jess knew: this was the presence that had killed her uncle all those years ago; the very thing that brutally cut the life out of him in the woods. But she couldn't tell if it was man or spirit, and she didn't dare look behind her. She knew if she did, the shadow would catch up to her and consume her.

  "Tyler!" Jess cried in a whisper.

  She tripped over a rock and sank to her knees. Using her tired hands to claw through the mud, she dragged herself until she could get her footing. The sound of the falling rain disoriented her and masked the dark presence's movement. She glanced to the side. Her vision was blurred from the ordeal that she still couldn't remember.

  Then her shoulder struck something hard and she bounced off and fell onto her back. She stared up at the tall pine tree that crumpled her, and it felt like she ran into a brick wall. She wheezed and turned over onto all fours, determined not to give up. If she gave up, if she rested for even one second, she would be done.

  Salty tears ran down her face as she broke into a run. Her foot caught something again and she stumbled, running into another tree. But she pushed herself off of it and kept going. The ground beneath her feet started to climb up into a steep bank, and she fought against it as hard as she could. Her legs were screaming out in a fiery blaze, but she wouldn't give up.

  The shadow swelled behind her. It was gaining in size and consuming the whole forest as it moved.

  Jess struggled, her gait slowing. Her ankles were killing her and her legs were too fatigued to go on. The upward bank seemed endless, and finally she just couldn't do it anymore. Her wobbly legs carried her to the side and she held onto a tree for support. Then, pushing herself past it, her legs gave out completely and she collapsed onto her face.