Out There: A Rural Horror Story

by Cademon Bishop

  Instead of a fight, he was left with radio static and the shimmering wonder of a rural night sky. Is this it? Harvey thought. He swiveled out of the leather seat and brought the map to the cars overhead light. I’m right here… I’m exactly here. He traced his finger along the road’s bend behind him. He was in the center of the red circle on the map, yet there were no streetlights, no porch light left on, not a single silhouette on the moonlit hills. Just as Donald said, the town vanished. Where the hell is this place?

  He ignited the engine again, driving one last stretch before finally calling quits. The radio flickered in and out of connection. The crackling hush of wind in the trees added to his feeling of being watched, as if someone hid between the brush, following him. Something tapped against his windshield. A raindrop trickled down.

  “Of course it’s goddamn raining,” he let out a sigh as he rolled the windows up. The rain picked up. Harvey turned on the windshield wipers—which didn’t provide much help. A sheet of rain masked the islands of forest and the sea of hills. The car persevered through the downpour. A bullet in the rain. Pools of rain jerked the tires, hampering his speed. The storm grew, encasing him in a blinding wash of rain.

  He kept his will high and hand tight on the wavering wheel. Sweeping cascades of rain smothered his windshield. The radio hushed into thick blips of static, “Come on!” he struck the radio set. The neon blue dashboard clock flickered a dozen different times. The radio blared two seconds of guitar, then returned to white noise. The digital clock flashed off a blur of numbers. His nerves urged him to grab a cigarette. Not now! Dumbass. He needed to calm down.

  He weaved an arm back, trying to remember where he had tossed the carton. The radio suddenly screamed four songs simultaneously, causing his arm to twitch on the wheel, weaving the BMW to the left. Jolting back into his seat, he regained control of the car. Harveys eyelids locked onto something in front of him, his head shook, his breath stopped.

  A car’s taillights gleamed a vivid red down the road—hurtling towards him.

  The taillights belted to the left, then swung into the off lane. Harvey dodged to the right; his car spun like a top across the wet pavement. His bag and suitcase flung to the left door.

  The truck in front of him tumbled on its side towards the ditch. In the rear-view mirror, Harvey saw the cigarette carton taunt him as it clung on the back window. On the BMW’s last rotation, it hovered a half foot off its side before landing back on the pavement. The car and Harvey froze, his fingernails digging into the steering wheel. Amidst the stillness of rain, he felt his heartbeat in dull rhythmic thrusts. He patted himself. He wasn’t dealt a scratch. His headlights beamed bar-like shadows in the thin wooded hills beside the road. He focused on something out in the woods.

  Something was out there.

  Beyond the rain’s rhythmic ripples on his windshield, a pair white eyes hovered in the woods. It was too dark and too tall to be a deer. Harvey flipped the tab near the wheel to turn on his brights. He jumped as the thing bolted, at the light. For a second, he swore he saw it—Something too deformed bear. He brushed it off and checked his dashboard.

  11:32. The clock’s blue glow worked fine. He tested the engine by reversing and then inching forward. The BMW cruised as smooth as ever. He drove forward to check on the other car, yet a white light in the distance else caught his eye. A building, a beacon of hope, a structure he swore to hell wasn’t there before.

  Harvey paused, looking at the car turned over the ditch, then back to the building. He drove forward, trying to ignore the white glare of the truck’s headlights on the side of the road. As he moved towards the building, he noticed a green road sign.

  JOSELEAN SPRINGS, Population: 9,965

  Chapter 3

  Side C, Track 3

  Do Tell

  Record date: September 6th, 1977 6:48pm

  “I’m sure you got things you wish you could escape from. Dreams you just can never beat down, I wanted to be a farmer, ya know. I wanted to be anything but the caretaker for this godforsaken town. That was the hardest lesson I think I ever did learn in life: don’t go chasin’ after dead dreams.”

  Side A, Track 3

  When It Rains

  The scars on Lara's back stung as she peeled herself off her trucks seat. She planned on reading a bit before work. Instead, she fell asleep at the first page. Her stomach intruded into her throat as she left her truck. Lara forgot that her mom had cut her lunch and short. A rectangular cherry red sign stretched across the top of the stout building. Written across it in white cursive were the words: “Walling’s Convenience Store”.

  Lara opened the front doors and snuck through an aisle. The metal shelves were stocked well, however, with sufficient supply and dead demand, some items remained there for almost ten years.

  She grazed a finger across the layer of dust on a knife box from the 60s. Stains lurked in the carpet behind the cash register like an abstract seek-and-find book. A fluorescent light flickered through the fruit section as she crept around it. Lara spotted the bright red clock on the bone white wall.

  20 minutes late. Not bad.

  She dashed past her manager’s office. ‘Clem H Dunham’, Lara eyed the name engraved in a wooden slit panel. She lurked into the cashier’s post and knocked the bourbon glass tip jar. Change sputtered in onto the wooden counter. A hand full of nickels and dimes made a hissing spin on the white tiles. Lara gritted her teeth and looked back towards Clem’s office.

  “Were ya sick or somethin’ yesterday?” Clem called, hands crossed as she leaned on the doorway.

  “Somethin’,” Lara replied.

  “Huh!” Clem’s ancient face wrinkled.

  “Yeah uh… I forgot. I’ll start writin’ things down from here on out.”

  “Good.” Clem cocked her gaze away from at Lara. “You know I could just go on and fire you, could I?” She wobbled over to the counter, bending over to pick up the change. Clem managed to lower a good foot before she finally let out pain clenched hiss. She swayed her other arm on the counter and pushed herself upright. “Mhh, hmm... I could.” Her face unfurled as she raised her nose. “Maybe if you took some pace around here. You’d come to realize that mhh hmm, but ain’t got nobody applyin’. Your ass is out the second someone fills out a sheet.” Clem passed a playful squint at Lara. “Ya too good of a little shit to just throw away. Just tell me before you go on runnin’ off.”

  “Sure thing.” Lara said. She turned around to take stock of cigarettes and eyed a bright orange raincoat tucked into a cubby behind the counter. “Hey Clem?”

  “Yes?!” Clem stopped mid-hike to her office.

  “What was it like before the rain?”

  Clem trudged back to the counter, “Life was much more eventful, I’ll tell ya that much, mhh hmm. People actually came to this dump. Now they ain’t got a need to buy so much shit. I got regulars and shipments still flow in, so this place ain’t changed much. Everyone’s moods were a helluvalot better when they actually could drive out of town.”

  Lara opened her mouth, only syllable slithered out. Her eyebrows sunk. “Shipments? How does anyone deliver over here?”

  “Don’t go around spoutin’ this cause’ I keep it as a business secret. But, about sometime around midnight, a grand silver semi-truck hitches around town and drops off boxes. A year after the rain fell, me and a few others got a paper from this place called Red Acres askin’ what we need.” Clem eyed the clock on the far wall.

  “Hold up, so when does this truck swing by?” Lara asked.

  “Tomorrow night now that I’m thinkin’ about it. I get a box the first Monday of every month.”

  Lara dropped a package of cigarettes in a box, then turned towards Clem, “When was the last time you saw it?”

  “A night shift in December. I was hangin’ up Christmas decorations when I saw it out that there windah’ It was like a yellow-eyed giant swingin’ around that turn. Walked, as fast as I could to see who was drivin’ it. And wouldn’t you k
now, I just barely missed him. All I caught was a gleam of his body.” Clem grinned and rose her eyebrows at Lara. “Good lookin’ too, bulky body, thick beard. I saw him from behind as he closed his door and I-” Clem’s gaze glided back at the clock. “Awe shoot I uhh… I’m sorry I really gotta be headin’ out.”

  “Clockin’ out early?” Lara said, crossing her arms.

  “Gotta family thing, you take care.” Clem snatched the orange raincoat from the cubby, then returned to her office.

  “Hey! Hold up, is it gonna start rainin’ tonight?” Lara asked. Her heart sank a little in her chest. She forgot to pack her jacket.

  “Nah darlin’ just for an hour, it’ll all probably be done by the time you clock out.” Clem wobbled into her office doorway. Lara bent over and took a glance at the side of the cardboard cigarette box. Written like a killer’s calling card, in brick red sharp letters, were the words ‘Red Acres Inc’.

  Rain tapped against the roof of Walling’s Convenience Store, reverberating a soft static roar inside. Lara stared outside through the tall front window. The rain didn’t die down in an hour; the storm roared on for five hours. In the soot-black night, she watched the streetlamps bright white light dance in the parking lots puddles. The red glow from the front sign illuminated the tufts of grass and cracks on the sidewalk.

  It was at the point in Lara’s work where she had nothing to do but pray that some lone drunken wanderer would waltz in and give her a crumb of enjoyment and prayed to anything for the rain to die down. Walling's didn't sell jackets.

  Lara snuck one of Clem’s raunchy novels she left on her desk, turned on the office radio, and made herself a dinner of an apple and Ale-8. She turned the pages of I’d Gun Nobody Down, some western romance about a boy named Billy Joe.

  Lara slid the book down the counter and pondered at the clock. Clem’s gone to some family thing... so the odds are probably jack shit zero of her wanderin’ back. Lara tossed her trash and began to close the place.

  The place became a hollow shell of itself as she turned off the pale fluorescent bars lights out one by one. Lara stood in front of the window and gazed towards the street.

  Out past the shrouded green hut of Ray’s baits and ammo, a person limped. She could make only a shadow from the salt white light of streetlamps as they hobbled. The person shuffled out from under the light and faded into the dark. It’s just a person, she thought, maybe they're drunk, maybe they're lost. Despite breaking it down, she still felt a tinge of irrational fear. Its walk was inhuman, and it seemed to have no definable clothes, its eyes-. Lara swore she saw that person’s, or rather, that thing’s eyes glowing.

  Lara locked the front door, and her worries. If some creep’s out there to kill me nows good as a time as ever. She walked to put the book back but halted mid-step. It felt as if the air around became dense for a second.

  A knock from the back window made her jolt. Lara flung the book and fled behind one of the aisles. Jesus Christ, calm down, she thought to herself, It’s just Clem. Lara got a quick glance out the window, then ducked right back down.

  The person was far too tall and thin to be Clem.

  Lara turned to her left and remembered the cooking utensils that hung on metal bars at the far end of the aisle. Crawling on the glossy tile floor with shivering hands, she crept towards the cutlery. She reached out for a pale-yellow knife box, yanking it back and forth along its hook.

  When Lara finally got it off the rod, it slipped out of her hands. The knife slid out of the box and landed in front of her with a rattling clank. She grabbed the knife’s wooden handle and held it close to her chest, taking in a deep breath. She slowly stood, clinging tighter and tighter to the blade, but was forced back into a crouch as she heard a second and more defined knock. Spying down a row of canned food, she saw the legs and torso of a dark figure blocking the red glow.

  It sulked right where she once stood.

  Its pitch-black body faded into the dark of night. The person pressed its head against the glass.

  Beneath the rain, Lara heard her heartbeat, nearly ringing in her ear. She squinted and watched the shadow step back. Its body became more defined as it stepped under the red glow of the front sign.

  Its midnight black skin hung tight and slick against its slender frame. The rain pored over it, and yet it stood unharmed. Water trickled across the tips of its glossy fingers. The rain only affects humans, yet this person stood in the downpour—like an animal.

  Peering up, Lara saw its head. There were no definable traits in the red glow, only a slick void where its face should have been. Two Pearl white eyes flicked open on the shadow face, like the lights turning on in an abandoned building, revealing the forgotten chambers within.

  It watched at her.

  Lara hit her head against metal as she scurried against the aisle. The thing knocked on the door once more. Lara booked it into the stockroom, then ran to the back exit and bolted its lock shut. Running past the three shelves in the minuscule stage room, she rummaged for a trash bag and planned her escape into the rain.

  With the black trash bag wrapped around her as makeshift poncho, she cracked the door to the store. Peeking through the slit, she saw that the rows of food were clear, and the window was empty. Lara stepped through the doorway with the knife clung as a shield. She couldn’t hear anything other than the hush of rain. As soon as she reached the front counter, she clung to the yellow rotary phone and dialed Dian’s number.

  “Come on.” Lara whispered. The phone droned on as she watched the rain drizzle out the front window.

  Click. “Hello?” Dian answered.

  “Dian, it’s Lara! I know this is out of the blue, but can I stay at your house or somethin’?” Lara watched the storefront as she spoke.

  “Uh… sure thing, where were you yesterday?”

  “I don’t think I have much time; I’ll get there in like fifteen minutes just…” A faint knock shot from the stockroom door. Lara let go of the phone and bolted out the front counter. Another knock rang. She almost slipped on the glossy white tile as she hurried towards the red glow of the front sign. A third knock echoed from the back as she broke out.

  Rain rumbled against Lara's makeshift hood. Drops stung her lower calves as she picked up her feet. Her hand shuddered as it grasped the truck’s burning, wet door handle. She threw the door open and tossed herself in the front seat.

  Lara glanced back at the store as she started the truck. The stockroom door was halfway open. She shivered and felt a sudden urge to throw up. A pair of glowing white eyes hid within the darkness beyond that half open door.

  Dian lived in a cabin on the back hills of Joselean Springs. Lara’s tires tossed the gravel in her driveway.

  “Dian!” Lara called as she knocked on the door “Dia—”

  Dian cracked the door open. “SHHH... dumbass. You know my dad’s asleep.” Dian’s stern expression cracked to a smirk. “Didn’t know Wallin’s started sellin’ clothes.” Dian’s grin faded as she saw tears hidden behind Lara’s eyes. “Jesus, are you okay?”

  “Can we talk or somethin’, today’s been shit and I… I just need you.”

  “We have to be quiet.” Dian said. Lara’s heart jumped the second she heard the soft patter of rain jitter off a tree branch. She looked out towards the woods shrouding Dian’s house, swearing that shadow would lunge towards her at any minute. Dian placed a hand on Lara’s arm. “Lara, what happened.”

  “Can we just please talk in the car?” Lara’s expression was cold. Dian nodded and grabbed two raincoats. She draped the Indigo coat over Lara’s shoulders as she closed the door. Lara started the car and slid the raincoat hood off her head.

  Dian kept her hood on, her afro inflated the hood like a yellow balloon. The truck jostled as they drove up the muddy terrain towards the road. Dian patted Lara’s shoulder. Lara could feel her muscles tightening in slow, sharp patterns.

  Dain sighed. “So wha-”

  “Johnathan’s dead.” Lara’s finger
nails dug graves into the steering wheel.

  “Oh, I’m sorry-” Dian’s eyes flushed with grief and confusion.

  “The rain got him.” She lowered her pressure on the gas. “I saw his goddamn body break like that barn your dad had. He shut inside of himself, leaving only the foundation. I can’t get over how he stared at me, his face wasting in the rain. I saw bits of his cheekbone washed in red, and those blue eyes… Asking me why, why?” Tears rushed down her face, her hand shook violently. She stopped the car a few feet in front of an intersection. A sign reading: ‘highway next right’ glinted in the blinking glow of the broken stoplight. “Why did I leave him there?!”

  Dian grabbed Lara, pressing her head near her neck. Lara’s tears made small tics against her raincoat before finally falling down on top of Dian's hands. “Shh, shh, shh.” Dian brushed back Lara’s brown hair. Lara clung onto Dian, her hands crinkling and folding Dian’s jacket. The broken intersection flicked a warbling cherry red light through the rain-washed windshield. “Hey, hey, hey…” Lara sobbed into Dian's arms for an immeasurable amount of time.

  “We need to get out.” Lara collected herself and looked out into the expanse of trees. “This is gonna sound crazy, but I think there’s somethin’ out there, surchin’ for me.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know!” Lara exclaimed. “I saw this person at work, if I can even call it a person. It was just a shadow. It stood in the rain and looked at me with these bright white eyes.”

  “Why do you think it’s following you, it coulda been just some hobo caught in the dark.”

  “Ah yes, the hobo with the glowin’ eyes, no face.” Lara paused, catching her breath. “Also, mom kicked me out, so in total today has been outright shit!”

  Dian’s mouth would open only for the words to retreat. “I’m so... so sorry this has all happened to you, you can stay over at my house as long as you need.” Dian raised a hand back to Lara’s shoulder.