Something Old (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  Tom reached the pack and pulled on the attached rope until he freed it from its sandy and watery grave. Looking around, he found a close enough pine. He tied the mountaineering rope to the tree. He knotted the rest every few feet as he walked towards the quicksand. Once he was certain he had enough rope, he tied it around himself. He took off his shoes, gun, and before he tossed his tri-com and radio, he contacted both Ryan and Ted.

  “I’m heading in to pull Ethan Aldridge out of quicksand. I don’t have time to converse or wait for help, over.” He dropped the devices and started walking.

  “Murphy…” Mia started to say after hearing Tom’s transmission.

  He moved south quickly before she could finish asking. Mia was left with the three French men who quickly closed the distance between her and them.

  Ted wished Tom luck, and if there was any left, he wished some for himself. He had located his teenager. Blair Summerfield was unconscious, lying on the ground inside a crude stone circle. A large creature of seven feet or so made of wood was in the process of carrying a large rock. It placed it at Blair’s feet. The creature then returned to the woods, bringing back with it another stone, this time placing it on Blair’s outstretched hand. It didn’t take long for Ted to come up with the creature’s intent and calculate how long it would take her to crush Blair to death with the heavy stones. He walked back and pulled out his phone and silently texted Mia.

  “Fiancé,” Mia said picking up the vibrating phone, pushing away the hands that wanted to assist her. She scanned the message and gulped. Her mind raced. She took off running south, hoping to reach Ted before he followed through with his plan. The three spirits followed her like baby quails.

  Tom moved quickly to Ethan, but the boy sunk again, and all but his right hand was under the sand. Tom reached the hand and yanked it upward. He felt his shoulder pull uncomfortably, but he continued to pull upwards until Ethan’s mouth cleared the sand. Ethan spat and breathed in lungfuls of air before speaking, “Talk about in the nick of time.”

  “We’re not out of the woods yet, kid,” Tom warned. “Climb on my back and hold on,” he instructed.

  Tom began moving towards safety, well aware that Ethan’s extra weight was pushing him down fast. He pulled himself forward grabbing each knot with his slippery, sandy hands. It was exhausting, but he continued well after the wet sand closed over his head.

  Ethan moved quickly off Tom’s back wrapping his arm around the taught line. He reached down and found the back of the deputy’s neck and pulled Tom’s head to the surface. Tom still had hold of the line and pulled himself forward, aware that Ethan was no longer with him. “Tie the rope around you!” he said, reaching for the slack that accumulated behind them.

  Ethan did so and continued to pull himself forward. He turned to Tom, and he was gone.

  Tom’s flashlight shone like a beacon, guiding Murphy to the edge of the sand pit. One man was still fighting the sand. Murphy pulled him out of the moving sand and tossed him on the solid ground. The teenager coughed out sand as he pulled on the rope, trying to bring Tom to the surface.

  Murphy followed the rope, found Tom and took his still body to shore.

  The rescued boy didn’t question what was happening but knelt over the fallen deputy to see what he could do to revive him. He felt Tom’s neck and found no pulse. Ethan opened Tom’s mouth and dug out sand before he began CPR.

  Murphy reached inside of Tom Braverman and squeezed his heart as he had Mia’s a year ago at the bottom of the well. He repeated this until he felt the stubborn organ start to work on its own. He then pulled the frantic teen away from Tom.

  “Alive,” Murphy managed to vocalize through the veil of the ether.

  Ethan raised his hands and said, “Thank you, thank you, I don’t know what you are but thank you! There is a boy lost in these woods, Rory. Find him, save him,” he pleaded.

  “Found. Safe,” Murphy told him.

  Tom coughed and moaned as he fought his way awake. He opened his eyes to see a steely-eyed man dressed in old work clothes, wearing a hat that had seen better years with his hand on the back of the sobbing kid. “Murphy, am I dead?” he asked.

  Murphy turned and looked at the deputy and shook his head.

  “Where are the others?” Tom asked, trying to get up.

  “Mia!” Murphy exclaimed and disappeared.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  “Excuse me, tree spirit,” Ted said as he walked out of the woods. “I mean you no harm,” he said in a soft calm voice.

  The entity moved quickly and stood between Ted and the boy on the ground. Ted could see the constant movement of wood and vine as the creature changed to produce facial features. It opened lids made of long dead rose leaves to expose two green orbs made of pure energy.

  “My name is Theodore Martin, not that this makes a difference to you. I’ve been asked to take that boy away from here where he can no longer do any harm.”

  The creature made a snarling noise and opened a mouth full of thorny teeth.

  “Stay away from him, you bitch!” Mia screamed, launching herself at the entity, pushing Ted away at the same time.

  Ted watched as Mia and the creature rolled to the forest floor. Mia got up first, and as she faced off with the towering entity, she called to Ted, “Get the kid out of here!”

  Mia pulled out her shotgun and warned, “I don’t want to hurt you, but I can, and I will. We saved your child. Rory is safe. Let us take these boys out of here. They are stupid and don’t understand the beauty of the forest.” Mia doubted the creature understood. She could now see that it was feral, guided by instinct and not intellect. She watched Ted behind the creature removing the restraining stones that held the teen’s body down. She had to buy him some time.

  The creature lowered itself to all fours to look Mia in the eye. Mia, to her credit, didn’t flinch when it reached out a thorn-covered hand towards her face.

  Mia swallowed hard as the hand opened and the thorns grew into long sharp-tipped fingers. The creature growled and the fingers began to close around Mia’s skull.

  CRACK!

  Murphy sliced off the creature’s arm. The wood crumbled away from Mia. She clicked off the safety and fired a round of rock salt into the center of the entity. The creature rolled backwards. Murphy stood between Mia and the dangerous entity while she reloaded.

  “We don’t want to kill it,” Mia instructed. “We just want to contain it until Ted can get the boy to safety.”

  “Pruning,” Murphy said and raised his axe. He swung hard, cutting off the other arm-like appendage. He jumped as the creature kicked out a leg. Its eyes glowed. Out of the stub of its arm a new hand formed out of the twisted wood and reached towards Murphy. He could feel his energy start to leave his body.

  Ted had the teenager slung over his shoulder and was moving quickly away.

  Blair woke up and managed a hoarse, “Water.”

  Ted stopped, easing the boy to the ground and pulled out a bottle from his pack.

  “No not me, you idiot, the monster. Water harms it.”

  Ted ran back to the clearing, opening the bottle. He hopped over the stones. He flung the contents of the bottle towards the back of the thing. It wasn’t enough to harm it, but it got its attention.

  “Water! Water hurts it!” Ted screamed. He turned and ran as the entity snarled, and started moving his way.

  Mia dropped her gun and dug into her pack. She only had two pints of water, but she would make them count. She tossed one to the weakened Murphy for protection. She charged the entity, jumping, on its back. Mia shrieked as the thorns adorning the spine of the creature dug into her midsection. Mia opened the bottle, and as the creature twisted its head around to face her, Mia directed the opened bottle over one of the green orbs, squeezed the water out before dropping off the creature.

  Murphy followed, sending his pint of water into the surprised open maw of thorns.

  “To the stream!” Ted ordered, tossing an inactive energ
on cube to Mia. “I’ll get the kid.”

  Mia activated the cube and stood between Murphy and the creature until he had drained it. “Help Ted! Get to the stream!” Mia ordered. She took a moment and watched the entity curl into a ball and burrow into the ground.

  “You can come out now,” she called to the spineless ghosts who hovered at the edge of the clearing. “I don’t know how Napoleon managed with … Ah, nevermind, you don’t understand.”

  Mia felt the ground vibrate slightly. She took off running, fearing that their actions didn’t defeat Ma Nature in the slightest. She feared they had only angered a very powerful, dangerous entity.

  Ryan, Chambers, Monroe and his boys moved quickly through the forest, following directions given to them from the teen who was caring for Tom. He had identified himself as Ethan before babbling something about ghosts and quicksand.

  They caught sight of Ethan waving Tom’s light, pointing at the open space between them. “Careful, quicksand, go around the clearing,” he warned.

  Ryan bent over Tom.

  “He passed out after being revived. He wasn’t breathing and his heart stopped,” Ethan explained.

  “CPR?”

  “Sort of,” Ethan croaked, not wanting to take credit for snatching Tom from death’s door, nor wanting to appear to be a raving lunatic by explaining what actually happened.

  “Let’s get you out of here. Can you walk?”

  “Yes, sir,” Ethan said getting to his feet. He wavered a bit from exhaustion. Chambers took his arm to steady him.

  Monroe’s boys positioned themselves to pick up the unconscious deputy.

  “Careful, he may have some broken ribs,” Ryan warned. “I broke two ribs the first time I gave CPR in Nam, son,” directing a wink to Ethan. “Doesn’t matter, ribs will heal. Death, however, is permanent.”

  Ethan nodded.

  A crash of thunder was heard overhead. “We better get moving, I think our cold front has arrived.”

  Mia looked as the woods lit up as another lightning strike snaked across the sky. She felt a plow wind work its way through the trees. “Come on rain!” she coaxed.

  Murphy looked over at her oddly.

  “Rain is made of water and…”

  He nodded in realization.

  They had caught up to Ted, and the teenager who introduced himself as Blair. Blair was battered and bruised but still managed to hang on to an air of arrogance that turned Mia off. Fact was, she was more than turned off by the kid. She was repulsed by him. “He’s the evil in the woods,” she hissed at Murphy.

  The ground trembled again. Mia hoped it was from a lightning strike but knew otherwise.

  “Ted, watch your step,” Mia warned. “I think she’s traveling underground.”

  Blair stopped and turned. “She? You call that monster she?”

  “It’s female, and it’s mad. I suggest you keep moving,” Mia said passing the boy, putting a protective hand on Ted.

  Blair followed the couple asking, “Tell me, how did you come up with the sex of that thorny thing? I saw no gender markings.”

  “I don’t have time to debate you, Blair,” Mia said. “If we want to make it out of here alive, I suggest you shut your mouth and put all your energy into increasing your speed.”

  Rain started to fall. Heavy drops made it past the tree canopy and hit the ground hard. Soon a deluge of water made moving difficult, the water moistening the clay underfoot. Mia slipped and was saved from falling by Ted’s steadying hand.

  The trio of trappers started speaking excitedly.

  “There they go again, speaking the French,” Mia complained.

  “What are they saying?” Ted asked, not being able to see or hear the spectral trio.

  “One guy said something like, ‘Nous devrions les avertir que le temps peut changer.’”

  Ted turned around and asked rapidly something in French, repeating it in English for Mia. “What about the weather?”

  “Excuse me, but what are the two of you babbling about?” Blair asked intrigued. He had no idea what the little blonde was up to. “She said we should give them a warning about the weather. As you can see, it’s raining. Who the hell are they? I fear your bit of fluff is off her rocker, Ted old man.”

  The trappers shouted words out, trying desperately to cross the time and language barrier. Mia repeated the one word the three could agree on, “Entonnoir.”

  “Funnel? The weather brings out funnels, like tornadoes?” Ted questioned. “Tornade,” he said pointing to the sky making a whirling motion.

  One of the trappers shook his head and stomped on the ground. “Terre. Terre entonnoir.”

  “No, terre entonnoir,” Mia repeated.

  “Ground Funnel,” Blair said bored. “Ted, is this really the best time for you to be teaching French? I’m cold and wet, and I have things to do.”

  Ted ignored Blair as the realization hit him. The three French trappers were warning them that the heavy rain would cause funnels in the ground, aka sinkholes. “Sinkholes happen when it rains.”

  The words no sooner came out of his mouth when the ground dropped off in front of them. Ted and Mia managed to backpedal out of danger. Blair wasn’t so lucky.

  Murphy entered the swirling pit of mud, foliage and rainwater. He caught sight of an outstretched hand and pulled with all his might. He couldn’t budge him. A shrill whistle from Mia alerted him to her presence as Ted lowered her into the pit. Mia half walked, half jumped her way down the walls of the developing sinkhole.

  “Is he alive?” she asked.

  Murphy nodded.

  “Keep holding on to him. Let me see if I can shift some of this,” Mia said, tugging on a few broken tree limbs. She managed to shift enough detritus for Murphy to be able to raise the unconscious teen out of the pit. Mia tugged on the rope, signaling Ted to pull her up and out of the hole.

  She had barely cleared the edge when the ground shuddered again. Mia didn’t think, she just ran towards Ted. The two of them dragged Blair backwards, raging a war against the hungry earth, and what stimulated it.

  Murphy, depleted of energy from the rescue, followed along with the trappers, helpless to aid the young couple.

  Young trees toppled in as the hole expanded. Giant pines fell as the ground was eaten away from their hundred-year-old roots.

  “Tom, if you can hear us, we’re retreating from a monster of a sinkhole heading south,” Ted yelled into his tri-com link.

  Tom didn’t hear, but Ryan who had ahold of his equipment did. “This is Ryan. Can you give me a landmark?”

  “Sheriff, they’re disappearing as fast as I can identify them. We’re approaching a rise of… Mia says they’re elms. I’m not sure we can carry this kid up the steep cliff side before the ground disappears under us.”

  “On our way. Monroe, you heard the boy, do you know the area?” Ryan asked.

  “Fifty yards that way.” He pointed.

  “Chambers, leave Tom to the Monroes. We’ve got to get to them pronto.”

  The young deputy who had done a lot of growing up in the last twenty-four hours nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  The two men ran in the direction Ed gave them, praying they’d get there in time.

  Blair woke up and twisted violently, releasing his body from Ted’s and Mia’s tired grasp. “What the fuck is going on here!” he screamed.

  “Sinkhole. Can you walk? We’ve got to make high ground,” Mia explained as the ground shuddered again.

  Blair managed to get to his feet just as the ground fell under him. This time, however, Mia was able to grab hold of his hand.

  Blair grasped Mia’s arm with his other hand while searching for a foothold.

  Ted opened his pack and activated an energon cube, shouting Murphy’s name as he dropped it on the ground. He grabbed ahold of Mia’s legs to secure her.

  Murphy moved towards the cube and no sooner connected his axe to the slot when the ground fell away and with it the cube. He watched in horror as the cube
slid down, becoming part of the eddy of soil, sand and rock.

  Blair lunged with all his might and climbed over Mia. In his haste to get away from the sinkhole, he pushed too hard against the human ladder, causing Ted to lose his grip on Mia. She fell. Mia managed to twist her body so she landed feet first, sliding towards the churning hole in the earth.

  An explosion of light caused by the cube momentarily blinded Murphy. He fought through the disrupted ether to find Mia. He was too weak to move her, but he would be with her regardless.

  “Whatcha doing?” Mia said as she watched him try to touch her. “We’re both too tired, Murph. I guess I’ll see you on the other side,” she said. “Take care of Ted for me.”

  “Fight,” he ordered.

  “I’m trying,” she said, rolling out of the way of a large bolder dislodged from the hillside. She was still trying to claw her way out of the hole when the ground once again fell away, swallowing her.

  Ted stared into the darkness. He could no more see the bottom nor hear Mia. All that greeted his ears was the sound of twisted wood and running water.

  “Get away from the edge, you moron. She’s gone,” Blair said, leaning on a tree. “Come on, we’ve still got this hill to climb.”

  Ted looked over at the teenager and bunched his fists. “You had no problem climbing over us to get out, you can manage that hill on your own,” he snapped.

  “Serve yourself. Die with your true love. Me, I’m craving a nice cold beer. Adios, or should I say Bonsoir.”

  Ted ignored him and continued to peer into the darkness, praying for help.

  Thorns bit into Mia’s flesh again. She tried to move away from the pain that had ahold of her in the darkness but found she could not. Was this hell? Why had she not passed over? “Fuck this. I wasn’t even given a chance.”