Stephen King's Box

by Claudio Hernández

  22

  Just as quickly he had designed two wooden claws, which he already used on Joe’s nape, James Paterson had that same time to hide the body after he first decided to hide himself. He was crazy but he wasn’t stupid. He wanted to play a little bit more and for that he had to make sure no one else knew what had happened. Joe ended up in the basement.

  And of course, he didn’t clean up the blood. He wasn’t that smart.

  23

  Samantha got up and went to the entrance door, just like her boyfriend Joe did before. She moved her leg carefully not to step onto nobody and walked towards outside barefooted and sweating.

  ‘Joe?’ her voice sounded worried with the hope that Joe answered. But no one did and a long and deep silence surrounded her.

  He was outside, behind a fence. He was only a few steps from her and despite his huge size, she didn’t see him. He was well hidden and from his right claw a few drops of blood were still there.

  Samantha walked a few more steps and a blow of fresh air hit the neck and chest. She felt relief for a moment, but something even more cold and thick moved under her feet. She stood up immediately thinking she had stepped in some spit or something like that. Her gestures transformed into a grimace. She would throw up all the alcohol she had ingested just of thinking on what she had stepped onto.

  But it wasn’t a spit what was on the ground.

  24

  The crazy man was watching her under the grey moon light. He ducked a little without making any noise. The idiot was sweating profusely under the plastic trench coat. Who would have thought of wearing a trench coat on summer? Only James Paterson would.

  25

  She stepped back and the ground was dry and warm again. Under the moon light she could see a big dark spot as well as some little dots and a large zig zag falling down the stairway. She squatted slowly and thought for a moment that would be a huge dog’s piss. She touched the spot with her finger tips. It was thick and liquid at the same time. It wasn’t a spit. Her mind cringed unconsciously while everyone inside continued to sleep and snore.

  26

  The fence surrounded Value Street, without number and the boards which ended on point, were also old and were worn out by the sun, the rain and the wind. But that night, there weren’t any of those three things. The crazy man moved a few meters behind the fence, ducking, dragging his feet without making any noise. The blood had dried from his wooden claws. But soon, they would be covered in blood again. Much more blood.

  27

  It was sticky and it slipped from Samantha’s fingertips. It had a strong smell of copper. Her heart started racing. She could imagine what it was. Now, she sweated profusely. That smell could only mean one disgusting thing.

  ‘Blood,’ she whispered.

  The crazy man lifted his head and his long red hair casted a shadow on the fence, which Samantha noticed immediately. Her eyes opened wide and her heart beat so hard that it was about to pop out of her chest. The crazy man stood up and she saw how big he was. She wanted to scream but no sound came out of her mouth. She went mute out of terror. Why would she be so afraid? Because of everything. The blood, a figure rising like a crooked building. Samantha’s feet started to shake. Would she run inside the house and wake up everybody else? Would she run out of there like hell? Without moving her lips and her throat so dry because of the fear, she could move her feet, and she moved out, towards campus. Maybe someone would be there, like a security guard. It was all an assumption but her legs started to run and her red hair moved everywhere. She could only run and run.

  And the crazy man was behind her.

  28

  Denny woke up too. His mouth was dry and he had taken off his shirt. Actually, he wore nothing but his briefs. For some reason, while he was still awake, he took of his pants unconsciously. But that was it. Now, he was in his briefs. He felt around him with one hand and it landed on a boob. It was Sue’s. He could tell it was hers even in the dark. He had spent too much time touching those firm tits, hard and big, with the pointiest nipples in the world, like if they were always cold. But they were warm, they were always warm. He smiled and noticed his head hurt. He lifted his left hand and massaged his temple. The pain eased a little and he found his pants with his right hand. His fingers had bumped into the buckle of his belt. While Sue and everyone else slept quietly unknowing of what was happening outside, Denny put on his pants. He also felt like taking a piss and wondered if there would be an old, broken sink. He only needed to empty his bladder.

  But it wasn’t like that. Not really.

  29

  Samantha ran terrified and the hooded figure was following her. She could do nothing more than gasp. For some strange reason, she wasn’t screaming despite the fact that her life was in danger. While she was running, she turned her head around to measure the distance between her and the crazy man. And she saw some weird things in his hands. They were like knives but they didn’t shine under the moon light, so she knew they weren’t metal. Anyway, she had to continue running. The distance between them was growing shorter. Her gasps sounded like sharp blades cutting her throat. Her eyes started crying. Her heart raced under her chest and she could almost feel it explode inside.

  He was following her. The crazy man was only three feet away from her...

  30

  Denny grabbed his flashlight and climbed slowly the dusty and old stairs. Some of the boards were broken and he knew that the staircase could break any moment. So, he paid attention where he put his feet. The boards cracked under his weight. Finally, he reached the top floor. The walls were horribly painted with bottle paint. Not a single graffiti person had bothered to do something good. There were only some scrawl and rude phrases. The flashlight could read every single one of them. None was strange to him. There weren’t any funny names. He walked carefully through the hallway and he found the bathroom on the first door on the right. Obviously, it was a mess. There was dust and dried leaves from several past falls that had entered through the window, which was broken.

  He directed the flashlight to the toilet seat, which didn’t have a cover, and saw a huge black, dried shit. Someone must have been there recently, he thought. He wasn’t happy to pee on the shit but he had to. His flashlight illuminated the ceiling, because he had put it inside his pocket, and he started to pee. A strong and loud stream started to wet the shit, meanwhile, something really terrible was happening outside.

  He peed until the last drop.

  31

  She felt a sharp pain in her back and a loud noise when her t-shirt was being ripped open. The blood splashed the ground and she continued to run despite all of that. He had hit her with his wooden claws. Sharp like a three point stake. The wound in her back made three irregular cuts. The blood ran out of her body along with the sweat. Samantha felt some kind of chill and warm when the blood ran down her back. She got more scared and that made her lose strength to run. She was slowing down and he was behind her, with his claws extended.

  32

  ‘Get up!’ screamed Denny out loud. ‘Is this the great party we were supposed to have?’

  Christian woke up first. Everyone was lying around still drunk.

  ‘Fuck. What’s going on?’

  ‘Well, this is boring,’ interrupted Denny.

  Sue woke up too when she heard the voices, with her eyes closed as if she had overslept. She stretched out and lifted her arms.

  ‘We got so wasted,’ smiled and said Christian at the same time he stood up. Every bone in his body cracked but it didn’t hurt. He neither did some kind or gesture or complaint.

  Nicole switched position and continued asleep.

  ‘The legend doesn’t exist, does it?’ asked Christian standing next to Denny. The light of the flashlight hit him in the face and Christian backed up rising his hands.

  ‘Fuck! Get that off my face!’

  ‘Let’s start the fire again,’ said Denny pointing his flashlight towards the fireplace.

  ‘Bu
t it’s so freaking hot,’ said Christian who was wearing no shirt and was sweating profusely.

  ‘It’s not because of the cold, you idiot. It’s about the light,’ said Denny calmly and added: ‘Or do you have any candles?’

  Christian shrugged.

  On the floor, Nicole kept moving in her sleep. Her eye were still closed.

  Outside, things weren’t any better.

  33

  Samantha lost her balance and fell on her face on the grass. The crazy man fell on top of her with his claws extended. She screamed under his weight. She wanted to fight, but she couldn’t move. Her chin was sunk on the grass and that man had sit on her ass. And, at the same time, he had raised his right arm showing his claws in the moon light.

  34

  They started the fire again. Nicole had woken up and helped with the fire. Sue had moved to a side and san on a dark blanket, next to all of them. Then, the fire started dancing and the light was faint, but it was enough to see each other at the dace even though everyone looked extremely pink. And the shadows were visible on the ceiling and walls. Sue turned in her flashlight and Christian did the same with his. Now, there were three strong beams of light helping illuminate the room and soon, they noticed something or someone missing.

  35

  The three claws stuck in Samantha’s back who screamed due to the extreme pain. She felt her blood on her skin, sliding down, warm as well as her sweat. She tried to turn around but couldn’t. He held her tight with his left hand and all of his weight on her ass. And of course, there was no one around campus and now, the nameless house was way off for someone to hear her scream.

  36

  ‘Where are Joe and Samantha?’ asked Sue opening her eyes.

  Denny shrugged.

  ‘Maybe they’re fucking like champs somewhere,’ said Christian with a little smile in his sweaty face.

  ‘Sure,’ said Nicole. ‘Like if you were watching them.’

  ‘They left their flashlights here,’ marked Denny pointing where they were an hour earlier. There were two flashlights in the sleeping bag.

  ‘There’s no fun in fucking in the dark,’ said Christian. ‘It’s not great.’

  And they noticed something else.

  37

  The crazy man turned her around with his huge arms and she screamed terribly scared, with tremendous wounds in her back and her neck. Now, she was facing him and the hood of the trench coat covering his face hadn’t moved an inch, despite all the movement. The crazy man took off what was left of her t-shirt and uncovered two perfect breasts that fell to each side because of their weight. Her nipples were flat and that turned him on exceedingly. He almost had an erection. But what really turned him on was the blood and watch it fall slowly on her delicate skin.

  She saw nothing but the claws one more time, and then, everything went cloudy and the moon light turned red. She felt a strong pain in her face and neck and she felt the blood coming out of her with strength. He had cut her jugular and her eyes opened like two red streetlights. She stopped fighting and screaming. The noises she made now were like little howls. The warm blood covered the grass and everything was over in an instant.

  38

  ‘What the... fuck?’ Denny’s flashlight pointed a wall and a window, right where he had read “Never write my name”. Now, it read a new word: “NONAMEMAN”.

  ‘Fuck,’ said Christian who saw the wall too. Two beams of light illuminated the new word that was on the wall along with some other writing. It was all red.

  ‘That wasn’t there before,’ explained Denny, trying to figure out what was that red writing.

  ‘No, man. I didn’t see that before. Not even the other phrases. You were the one who found them,’ Christian pointed his flashlight to Denny’s chest. ‘Are you sure that wasn’t there before? Do you know what that means?’

  ‘Right. Explain yourself,’ said Sue. ‘Explain that to all of us.’

  Denny directed his flashlight to the wall that led to the staircase and observed that it was written there again. But in this case, the writing wasn’t red.

  ‘It’s the legend,’ said Denny without being sure. ‘I saw all the inscriptions except this one when I laid down the first time. But not these ones. These are new,’ he said pointing to the last phrase.

  Nicole moved her head and with her flashlight, she found another inscription. The same word. Everyone saw it.

  ‘Fuck, just like the legend,’ gasped Christian with a huge smile in his face. ‘Finally, we’ll know if it’s true. It says that it has no name, but, what?’

  ‘The house,’ interrupted Denny.

  ‘It says a man, there,’ clarified Nicole without upsetting.

  ‘Well, yes. It looks like it is a man. Everything is related to a man,’ said Christian sweating profusely from his forehead.

  ‘The legend of the man with a jacket,’ was all Denny could say, focusing his attention to the phrases and letters, especially the first one. Some of the writing was in red, like if someone had injured his fingers when he wrote it and the blood got stuck in there.

  ‘Yeah, right,’ admitted Christian lowering his flashlight.

  Denny started walking slowly in the room, on top of the blankets and then on the carpet, getting closer to the wall. His legs were shaking before everyone’s gaze.

  ‘What are these red marks?’ he asked himself out loud.

  ‘Red?’ asked Nicole.

  By then, Denny was already in front of the word “NONAMEMAN”, touching it with his fingers, especially the red parts. In the wood, the marks looked like deep carvings. And then, he remembered those two words he saw when he was little in his bedroom window. Would that have anything to do with it? He doubted that, but an intern voice told him it did. He observed the red marks, which shone even more under the flashlight. It looked like paint. No. it seemed like dried blood and he discovered something else. One of the marks was still fresh. He touched it with his finger tips and smelled it. There it was, the smell of copper. It was blood. But there was something else. Something no one else noticed until he turned around to say he had found blood.

  And Sue hadn’t spoken in all this time, like if she simply wasn’t there.

  39

  Crazy James Paterson returned to the house with the trench coat covered in blood. The drops fell to the grass. Then, when he got close to the house, the drops fell to the asphalt. And he returned to the start.

  40

  It was like suddenly, their minds were lucid again. And they noticed that something was missing, something everyone noticed when they first entered the house.

  The scarecrow wearing the plastic, bronze trench coat.

  ‘What the fuck?’ said Christian when he noticed the scarecrow was lying on the floor, broken, without shape and without the trench coat.

  ‘Was that you?’ asked Denny turning his eyes to the pieces of the scarecrow which held another secret.

  ‘Are you crazy?

  Denny observed the pieces weren’t made of straw, but of roots of a complex set of lines tangled forming the different parts of the scarecrow or maybe, a man? His eyes opened wide.

  ‘Did you noticed what the scarecrow really is made of?’ asked to everybody in the middle of all the flashlights, waiting for someone to answer.

  ‘They look like branches. Or maybe roots,’ explained Christian.

  ‘Exactly,’ said Denny pointing his flashlight at the head of the scarecrow. It didn’t have eyes or anything like it.

  ‘Of course, this isn’t a barn, you guys,’ explained Nicole while she got up to stand next to the scarecrow.

  ‘And who the hell thought of doing it with roots? Where did they come from?’ those were the questions Christian did directing his flashlight to every wall. NONAMEMAN was written in every single one and he added: ‘Maybe some punks. Young kids doing weird stuff. Pointless things.’

  Nicole nodded behind him.

  ‘We have to find Joe and Samantha,’ said Denny.

  ‘And cat
ch them in the act?’ mocked Christian. ‘They must be having a great time while we are here worrying about pointless things.

  Nicole nodded again.

  ‘We better look for them around the house,’ suggested Denny looking him in the eye. ‘Let’s split up and look in different places, to finish quicker. And then, let’s get out of here. There’s no point in being here anymore.’

  And Nicole nodded a third time.

  Sue continued shocked but aware.

  41

  With the help of their flashlights and the moon light, Denny, Christian, Sue and Nicole split up to find Joe and Samantha. The crazy man found an opportunity to enter the house again, thinking about his next victim.

  42

  NONAMEMAN.

  Denny’s fingers touched that word. Now, it was written in the bathroom where he had taken a piss before. And he could swear that it wasn’t there before. Or maybe, he didn’t noticed it. Now, that didn’t matter.

  NONAMEMAN.

  43

  Sue was distracted walking with her flashlight. She was the one who was always talking, and now, she hadn’t said a single word. She had agreed to search in a part of the house without Denny by her side. Her long and perfect legs were shaking.

  The crazy man was near her, but she wasn’t the next one.

  44

  Christian was in one of the upstairs’ bedrooms, next to room where Sue was and suddenly, he heard a hit. Unmistakably, it could have been Sue and that why he continued his search without asking. He thought it was absurd to scream their names even though it wasn’t such a bad idea either. Maybe, everything will be over sooner. So, he decided to do it.

  ‘Joe! Are you here?’

  He wasn’t there, of course. But the crazy man was behind him.

  45

  ‘Don’t scream so loud!’ said Sue out loud from the room next door. Her flashlight continued to light the walls and floor. She thought they might have fallen sleep on the floor after making love. It was absurd. And she continued with her search.