Halloween Tales 2018

Posted on by willtoquill

We present, for your enjoyment, four tales of the macabre.  Sit back, and try to relax as we take you on a roller coaster ride of the unsettling and terrifying.

Tale number one explores the consequences of letting the head-less rule the heart.

Even During a Pre-Dawn Walk, I still Fear the Call Coming From Inside the House

by Jonathan Goetz
I reversed course back down the trail when I saw the neon glow radiating from his headless chest. The silhouette sharpened as his black duster distributed hues of red and purple lights from the ankles, sleeves and collar. But I became transfixed, frozen in my confused backward shuffle. Arrhythmic beats resonated in my eyes and ears – thump, thump, thump-thump, thump– perfectly synced with the steadily approaching neon pulse.
Surprisingly, my own pulse kept a slow pace. Maybe my instincts were letting me down. I
certainly thought my eyes were playing tricks as I realized this chest – now within arms reach –was cracked wide open, exposing the elaborate and iridescent machinery that was the human heart.
I reflexively reached out my left hand to gently cradle the undulating neon valves and ventricles, letting them slide through my fingers. There was blood, of course. But it was not mine. And my hands stayed clean.
His hand pointed to a spot in the right atrium. I touched it lightly with my index finger, and a paralyzing anxiety coursed through my veins. While my pulse doubled, my breathing became shallow, and my vision dimmed. I would never leave my mark on the world. My miraculous and brief time was quickly running out. And I wasted it all.
He then pointed to the left atrium. I pressed it and immediately ground my teeth. There was nothing I could do to change the direction of the wind, the intensity of the rain or the bite of the cold. There should be something I could do, I argued. But there is not.
Thump, thump, thump-thump, thump. My own pulse now matched his.
Finally, he pointed to the aorta. My finger slipped along the neon to the spot, and I understood what it meant to be despised. To be the one who says the wrong thing. To be unreliable. I was the one to be avoided.
He shoved me to the ground and my pulse retreated. Again, not the instinctual response I
would’ve hoped for in my waning moments. But this was it. This was my time.
He buttoned up his jacket, knelt at my side, and took three deep headless breaths. His lungs pushed his neon heart – still shining through the duster – against my face. Then his chest began to laugh. A laugh that told me how the brain is mischievous, always tricking an over-eager and self-sacrificing heart. Asking it to hold burdens just for a moment, only to never take them back.
Yes, I should be frightened. But not because of the innumerably headless figures lurking in the shadows. Rather, because burdens of the brain contained as fear in the heart can short circuit the whole damn system. And, hell, it’s not just me. I live in an endless sea of galaxies overflowing with fear. A fear composed of completely meaningless constructions that we much too often prioritize over the pumping of our very own blood.

Tale number two is a cautionary tale, suggesting the avoidance of a certain color of contact lenses

FLOATERS

By Bonnie Brunner

Mona rocked in her chair waiting for her grandson to return home. She glanced at the photo of him on the side table with her one good eye. Ethan gazed back with the same emerald green eyes as hers. Theirs are a rare color, especially with the dark ring around the edges.

She startled when the door opened, she must have dozed off.

“What did the doctor say?” she asked.

“That I might have a weakening retina,” Ethan answered.

“Did she say what to do about it?”

“Yeah…we should keep an “eye” on it. I don’t like her humor.” he replied.

“Will you make your old Grammy some tea?”

“Sure,” he put the kettle on and sat on the couch.

“What’s the matter Ethan? Have you a chill? You’re shivering.”

“YOU CAN’T HAVE THEM!” he shouted.

“Heavens! Can’t have what?” Mona quivered.

My eyes, he thought.

 “Nothing, sorry Grammy,” he said.

Ethan sees black webbed figures out of the corner of his eye. He is never alone. The eye doctor calls them floaters, and says the flashing lights in his peripheral vision could be the sign of a weakening retina. He has not told the doctor about the cold breath he feels on his neck with every flash of light, or that these “floaters” have voices. Voices that demand he give up his eyes.

“You haven’t been yourself for months. You really need to see more than an eye doctor.” She offered.

“I’ll think about it. I’m going to go lay down.”

As Ethan walked to his room, there was a flash and he felt the cold breath again.  They were following him. He was terrified to turn around.  The whistling of the kettle alerted Ethan he has forgotten his Grammy’s tea. He closes his eyes and turns around. When he opens them he sees an empty hallway. In the kitchen he opens the drawer for a spoon.   There is something shining gold where only silver should be. It has a scoop for a head and fingers sculpted around the long handle. In the center of the scoop is painted an eye. 

Ethan jumps back and knocks over the sugar bowl.

“ETHAN? Everything alright in there?” asks Grammy

She hobbles to the kitchen and tells Ethan to go lay down.  When he gets to his room the spoon is sitting on his bed and the voice again demands he give up his eyes. Ethan shrinks into a corner of his room on the floor with his eyes closed and his hands over his ears whimpering.

“There will only be slight discomfort,” the voice said nurturingly for the thousandth time…with its cold breath on Ethan’s neck.

Ethan opens his eyes. This time he sees an Ocularian on his bed holding the golden spoon with dagger long fingernails. Its face is covered with black shiny feathers and its beak peers out of a grungy hood.   Eyeballs are hanging from the cloak’s sleeves, bobbing into each other as they dangled from their optic nerves.

He grabbed the spoon from the claw and slipped it under his eyelid.

The Ocularian arrived through the window of the Tower of Rituals. It floated across the room to the sorcerer Veteris, who sat in the marble tub. As the Ocularian detached the last of Ethan’s eyes from his cloak sleeve, the eyeball bounced among the 99 other green eyes surrounding Veteris’s naked body, all turned in different directions as if avoiding the view. One by one the hideous squelching of an eyeball was heard as he rubbed the aqueous fluid all over his wrinkled loose skin.  Soon his youthful appearance would return.

Ethan sat blind, wrapped in cold wet sheets in a ceramic tub in the asylum. Mona looked upon him with  a tear falling from her one good eye.

 

If that wasn’t terrif-eye-ing enough for you, then tale number three is certain to leave you paralyzed with fear as it reminds us to never underestimate a kitten in the dark.

Just A Matter Of Time

By John White

I have learned to enjoy getting up well before sunrise and taking a daily walk, especially on crisp, autumn mornings. I have several routes that I like to take, but there is one in particular that is my favorite. Streetlights line the majority of the sidewalks in the neighborhood, but my preferred route is the one where the least amount of light is to be found. On one unusually brisk October morning I donned my jacket, stocking cap, and gloves and made off into the thick fog which made everything around me take on an otherworldly presence. I found myself walking at a quicker pace than usual on
that morning as the chill was permeating my jacket. I was in the last half-mile of the walk when something out of the ordinary disrupted the otherwise uneventful trek.
A rare working streetlight cast its glare into the front yards of two adjacent houses and created an even darker shadow in the space between them. I’m not one prone to being skittish, but between the fog and the spirit of the Halloween season my imagination was perhaps working overtime. As I was passing the aforementioned spot I detected a movement in my peripheral vision. Something was rushing toward me out of the dark! I turned to face my assailant and assumed a crouching position to defend myself. Emerging from the enveloping gloom was an ominous figure! The figure… of… a …
cat. I breathed a sigh of relief and bent over to pet the far-from-threatening feline. The cat purred contentedly and rubbed against me as it wound its way between my legs. I bid the kitten farewell and resumed my walk. When I returned home I recalled my tale of the ferocious beast to my wife and we had a good laugh as we prepared breakfast and finished readying ourselves to head to work.
The next morning as I was tying my walking shoes and slipping on my apparel, I found myself reflecting on whether I would encounter the cat again. On returning home without another chance meeting with the creature, I realized I had a faint feeling of disappointment. I was amused that I would have developed a tinge of fondness for something that had initially struck me with such terror.
On the third morning I reluctantly arose from bed, feeling a bit woozy after overindulging in spirits of the bourbon variety. I begrudgingly bundled myself up and trudged off into the overcast morning. A light rain had fallen a few hours earlier giving the air an extra layer of chilliness. The dampness just added to my miserable state, and I was glad that I didn’t cross paths with anyone else out for a walk. As I rounded the corner before the streetlight lit area I felt a blast of arctic air, slicing through my
clothing like a frigid knife. I shivered and then gazed up the street ahead of me. There was something on the sidewalk in the harsh glare of the streetlight. It was the cat, leaping into the air as if trying to catch something I couldn’t see. A smile broke out on my until-then dour face and I felt my hangover-induced cloud lift a bit.
At that moment the calico quit its playing and turned to watch me. Instead of rushing up for affection as it had on the morning two days previous, it sat down and just stared in my direction in an unnerving manner. Feeling disconcerted, I stopped dead in my tracks. I felt a chill run up my spine. Was it the wind or was it the predatory stare I envisioned the cat to have? I decided my dulled brain and the inclement weather were causing me to imagine things and I started forward again, whispering quietly, “Here kitty, kitty, kitty”.
First standing, and then stretching out its lithe frame, it proceeded to stride toward me in an excruciatingly slow manner. As the distance closed I observed the cloying fog thicken around us and again I stopped moving forward and then took a step backward. “Nice kitty, kitty, kitty.” I nervously murmured, “Good kitty, kitty, kitty”. Suddenly the ground beneath me felt unsteady, and I experienced the sensation of an electrical charge pulse through me. My vision went black for a moment and when I regained my sight, well, I’m not sure I really saw what I perceived, but I guarantee you this mental picture will frighten me for the rest of my life.
The brilliance of the streetlight seemed to dim and then the thing before me rose upon two feet and its body expanded to a massive size. With a low growl, it rushed toward me at such an accelerated rate there was nothing I could do. As the entity hit me, I didn’t feel bodily impact as I had expected, but more of being encompassed by it. My vision went blurry, my consciousness slipped, and I must have crumpled, inert to the ground.
After an indeterminate amount of time, I felt myself come back to consciousness. I lay still for a moment, letting the feeling of vertigo dissipate. There was a high pitched ringing in my ears, made more obvious by the stillness all around me, and accompanied by a dull throbbing in my temples. As I slowly opened my eyes, I sensed haziness in my vision, like a thin layer of gauze had been draped across my face. I sat up slowly and tried to comprehend what had just happened to me. I blinked my eyes a few times to rid the hazy vision, and then groaned heavily as I rose slowly to my feet. I wobbled unsteadily and then, putting one foot in front of the other, continued the daunting task of
making it back to my home.
Constantly looking around me in an anxious fashion I hobbled forward in the darkness. I underwent a feeling of both relief and trepidation at seeing another light post before me. I gasped and glanced quickly behind me as I discerned movement, but to my relief it was merely my shadow cast by the light in front of me. As I approached the light, my shadow pulled even with me and then past me as I went by the post. After a few more steps I realized that the shadow wasn’t becoming paler, but conversely darkening. Abruptly, the shadow turned toward me and lunged. I cried out and fell backward from the apparition. I grimaced in pain as my elbow had scraped the concrete sidewalk, I
concluded with a quick glance about me that I was alone. “Merely a figment of your imagination”, I chided myself. With a sigh, I once again stood waveringly and then proceeded forward with uneasy steps.
Then I heard it, a low growl from behind me. I attempted to quicken my pace, but I felt like the sidewalk was growing uneven, maybe even shifting beneath my feet. Again a growl, low and menacing. Looking back over my shoulder I caught my left foot on a lip of the irregular sidewalk and pitched forward scraping my right knee. The lacerations brought tears to my eyes, but I forced myself back up and stumbled on. The throbbing behind my eyes intensified and I grew extremely dizzy. I careened from side to side with each step. I was only a couple of blocks from the house, but it seemed like miles.
I heard a skittering noise in the low branches of the trees directly above my head. What was that!? I dreaded the thought of something leaping upon me, attacking me, scratching me, biting me! My nerves were wound so tightly I could scarcely draw but the shallowest of breathes. Now I wished for someone else to be out, jogging, walking their dog, anything, but the world seemed deserted other than that which was stalking me. There was an opening in the tree line as I reached the corner of a street running perpendicular to the one I was on and I lurched across the intersection. I observed that the noises had ceased. I was unsure if the fact I hadn’t heard the growls for a short time was a good sign or not. With every ounce of energy that I could muster, I urged myself to hasten my step. The unnerving sounds of scurrying returned as I continued beneath a thick canopy of trees on the other side of cross street. “How have you shadowed me without the trees!?”, I screamed in my head. My resolve remained undeterred as I knew I was getting close to the end of my street. I was certain something flew by my head, almost hitting my right ear. I moaned with dread and almost lost my footing. “Please, oh, please, just let me make it to the house”, I pleaded, “just a little farther”. I howled as something struck me in the middle of my back. Again, near misses! I faltered for a moment, but maintained my footing. “Just a little farther”, I whispered.
As I arrived at the end of my block, the tree line, again, cleared and I sighed with relief that perhaps whatever had been threatening me would leave me alone. As I rounded the corner it dawned on me the house that should have been on the corner wasn’t there. An empty lot greeted my incredulous stare. I intoned, “No! No! No! This can’t be!” Though I couldn’t see very far up the street, I proceeded to shuffle in a dazed manner up the sidewalk. I felt the fog closing in on me again and the pounding in my head almost caused me to black out. It seemed like I was treading underwater as the resistance
to my forward movement was immense. After what seemed like eternity I lumbered up to my front door.
I turned the knob of the door and fell into the entryway, calling out, “Help! I need help!” I was greeted with silence. It was pitch black in the house and I knew that I had turned on the kitchen lights when I made the coffee before I had left. “Hello?” I yelled into the darkness with no acknowledgement. I crawled back to the front door and pushed it shut. I sat there for a moment and then reached up to the light switch and flipped it on but nothing happened. I toggled it a few times with the same result. “Great”, I muttered, “the power must have gone off”. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom I slowly came to the realization that things in the house were very wrong. All the furniture appeared to be gone and the walls were in a state of decay. “How can this be?” I deplored the empty house and I suppose I was relieved to not receive a reply. Balancing myself with my hand on the wall, I boosted myself to my feet. I shuffled into what was once the kitchen where a pot of coffee should have been awaiting me, but there was nothing. All the appliances were missing and the cabinets were bare. The only thing there to catch my eye in the unlit room was what looked like dark stains on the floor. I shook my head in disbelief and rubbed my eyes. “How can this be?” I said again, all the more emphatically. This
time I was greeted by a forboding growl emitting from the basement and the sound of thousands of things scampering in the attic. As suddenly as the sounds had started, they stopped. I stepped back until I came into contact with the wall and then slid down until I was seated on the floor. I closed my eyes and tried to attune my hearing to my surroundings through the continuous ringing in my ears.
I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting here, and though I can’t hear them right now, I know that for some reason they are still coming. It’s just a matter of time. I hear it stirring now in the basement. It’s mounting the stairs and it is coming for me. The cacophony in the attic has resumed again too.
Click-click-click-click-click   Click-click-click-click-click     Click-click-click-click-click
Their rhythmic cadence is making me quake. I don’t know what it all means! I have to get out of here!  I…I can’t just sit here and let them take me. The door…I have to make it to the door. Come on, you can do it! I can hear it at the top of the stairs now…just a few more steps…    it’s    coming    for    me    it’s …..
                         I can make it!
                                                           Nooooo! I….
I awoke just now to find I am still alive. I’m stretched out the entryway, fingertips almost touching the door. I think I will try the light switch again. The lights work now! “Hello!?” “Hello!?” No one is answering me. The room is furnished now too! Maybe I can make it back to the kitchen and brew some coffee to help clear my mind. Yes! That’s what I’ll do.
Wait…what was that noise?
And finally, our last tale reminds us to pick up our trash, but please don’t pick up what is not yours.

The Float Trip

By Beth Edgar

“Hey Kareth!”  Michelle whispered from inside her sleeping bag.

“What?”  Kareth whispered back.

“What if every time we have a close call, we actually don’t make it out alive in one plane of existence, but in another we survive and continue on?”

Kareth gave a heavy sigh, “I don’t need you to bore me to sleep.   If you‘re going to wake me up, let it at least be about a ghost or Sasquatch.”  With that, Kareth rolled over on her side so that her back was to Michelle.

“HOW CAN THIS POSSIBLY BORE YOU?”   Michelle loudly whispered.    “Remember that car that almost hit you the other day? What if it really did hit you and in that plane I am mourning your death?  KARETH!  YOU ARE DEAD!”

“And you are ridiculous.”  Kareth replied back.  “Now go to sleep!”

The next morning the girls exited their tent and met up with their friends to prepare for their two day float down the river.

“Hope you all ain’t  ‘fraid of snakes.   This here is the dog days of summer and them snakes have gone blind and they are agitated and cantankerous.  Them ol’ snakes are just waiting for you ta try to cross their path on that river.  And when you do…, they’ll be coming to meet ya.”   Jason said with an exaggerated Ozark twang.

“Jason, quit scaring everyone!”  Kareth said as she punched him in the arm.

“Ouch!”  exclaimed Jason.  I’m just repeating what my granny told me!”

Kareth rolled her eyes.  “OK!  Who’s ready to float?!”   Eight eager arms went up.  Jason was still feigning pain and refused to raise his arm.

“Jason, would you and Chris grab the cooler please?” asked Kareth.  “The rest of us will pick up the tents.  Let’s head out!”   With that, the group walked down the path towards the main office of the campground.

It was a beautiful, toasty, late August morning.  The sky was a vibrant blue with the occasional small puff of a cloud lazing across it.   The summer had proved to be a wet one, so there was ample water for the late August float and the kids were excited about doing their longest float of the season.

 As they came to the top of the hill, a big yellow school bus parked to the left of the office came into view.  Kareth spotted a guy holding a clipboard and walked up to him.  “Hi.  I’m Kareth Olsen and we have a reservation for five canoes.” she said.    He looked briefly at Kareth and then down to his clipboard.

Without looking up he said,  “I’m Andy.  Yep, gotcha right here.   Two day float.  Why don’t you all get your stuff loaded onto the bus.  We are waiting on a few more groups.    Once they arrive, we will take you on up to the put in. “ 

Kareth walked back to the group and relayed the information.  They piled their gear on the bus and took their seats.  

 “Guys!  This is going to be incredible!”  said Robbie.  “I hear there is a place along the way where we can do some diving.”

“Son, you don’t need to do diving to submerge yourself in water.  Once we are out on that river, The River Monster is going to keep you thoroughly soaked!”  Chris teased as he patted his super soaker water gun.

“I’d be worried, Chris, if I didn’t already know that you couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.” Robbie teased back.

“Oooooh. The war is on!!” said Jason.

Just then several more floaters entered the bus followed by Andy.  Andy stood at the front facing the groups and began talking.  “OK, guys, the water is at a fairly good level, so you shouldn’t have any issues bottoming out.  The group doing the two day float will be put in first.   The rest of you stay on the bus and we will take you to your canoes after we drop them off.  Remember, glass containers are prohibited.  Make sure you clean up after yourself and don’t go on any private land.  We’ve had some issues with the local landowners because floaters have not respected their property.  Please bear in mind that you will get limited, or no cell phone service out here, so stay safe.”   Andy sat down, started up the bus, put it in gear and headed down the dirt road.

After a forty minute bumpy ride, they finally made it to the put-in point.  “OK.  Let’s get everything unloaded.” Andy said to Kareth’s group.   He hopped outside and towards the back of the bus.  Kareth’s group collected their stuff and followed him out.   “Your five canoes are straight ahead.” He said pointing with his pen towards the red canoes on the far right of the embankment.     There is a pole marked with our logo. That’s where you’ll take-out in a couple days.   Make sure you’re careful with your campfire and stay off of private land.”

“Do you have any recommendations for campsites?”  asked Amanda.

“You’ll want to stop and set up camp before it gets dark.  About eight miles in there is a pretty good area for camping.   It’s right past a big bluff. “Andy lifted his baseball cap, wiped his brow, looked at Kareth and said “You all have fun!”.   He turned and headed back to the bus.

The kids raced to their canoes.

Amanda and Robbie were in the first canoe, Alex and Marty in the second, Jason and Chris in the third, Kareth and Michelle in the fourth and Lisa and Becca in the last.

This part of the river was wide and waist deep.  There was little wind and Kareth marveled at how clear the water was below the canoe, but with the reflection of the sun ahead, it resembled a mirror.  She smiled to herself as she thought about the canoe silently skimming over glass.   It was at that moment, as she raised her head from looking at the bottom of the river that she was shot in the middle of her forehead with a blast of the cool river water from “The River Monster” a.k.a.  Chris’s super soaker.   “That’s it!  You die!!” said Kareth as she plunged her super soaker into the river, pulled it out and aimed at Chris.  Although Chris was frantically yelling at Jason to get a move on, it was too late and Kareth’s deadly aim soaked Chris from stem to stern.  Everyone howled with laughter as Chris gave Kareth a grimace and shook his fist at her.

“Just you wait little missy!  When you are least expecting it!  POW!!”   teased Chris as he raised his super soaker from the water and shot it into the air.

They paddled on for a few hours and decided to rest when they saw a gravel bar large enough to accommodate all five canoes.   “C’mon girls! Let’s go wading!” said Becca as she headed towards the river waving them to follow her.   All the girls complied.   The water was cold enough that it made the girls squeal as they stepped in, but before too long they were laughing and splashing about.  

“Look how the little minnows come up and nibble on you!”  exclaimed Lisa.   The girls looked down and noticed that there were, in fact, little minnows darting up and nibbling at their skin.  “It tickles!” she laughed.

“Amanda had wandered a little farther towards the other bank.   She looked down and noticed a pale yellow oblong stone sparkling at her feet.  She reached down through the glassy water and picked it up.   It looked as if it were man-made.  It had six parallel sides that formed a soft dome on top.  At the bottom was some sort of black glittery rock.  “Hey guys!  Look what I found!”  Amanda said as she raised her hand above her head to show off her prize.    Everyone slogged over to look at the strange rock.  

“I think that’s calcite”, said Robbie.  “We can get someone to make a necklace out of it for you if you would like.”

Amanda looked up at him with a big grin on her face.  “I would LOVE that!!!” 

“Ain’t supposed to remove things from the forest and rivers.”  Jason broke in. “The little people don’t like their belongins stolen.”   He finished and flashed a grin at Kareth.

“And I suppose that is also something your granny told you?”  Kareth sighed.

“Why, matter of fact, young lady, my granny did tell me that.  You ain’t calling my granny a liar are you?”  Jason slowly loaded his super soaker and pointed it towards Kareth.

“Jason!  So help me if you…”  Jason didn’t give it a second thought as he laughed maniacally and pulled the barrel of the super soaker.   It was bedlam for the next several minutes as various water fights took place.

“Whoa!!” 

“What?” asked Marty, his face quickly changing from laughter to solemnity.

“It felt like something big just brushed by my leg.”  Alex replied.

“Time to get going anyway.”   Chris said as he ignored Alex’s comment and headed back towards the canoes.

Alex looked around himself into the water, but there wasn’t a sign of even a minnow.  He shrugged and followed Marty back towards the canoes.

After a few more hours of canoeing the group passed some tall bluffs.  Kareth looked up to see turkey vultures sitting on the rock bluffs.   She couldn’t help but shudder as she thought they were sitting there waiting for death.  “Not today.” Kareth said under her breath.  

“Hey guys!  Let’s stop here!”  Robbie said as they paddled the canoe over to the bank.   The water was deeper here and there was a rope swing hanging over the water.   Everyone pulled their canoes up and headed for the base of the tree.  There were wooden planks nailed into the back side of the tree.  Chris was the first to climb up.

“Throw me that rope!”   He said reaching out his hand while still clinging to the tree with the other.

Marty threw the rope up to Chris.    He gave a whoop and released himself from the tree and over the river where he dropped with a loud splash into the water below.    He bobbled up to the surface and threw the rope back to Jason who was standing on the bank.   Jason scaled the tree and took his turn at the rope swing.  “Hey guys!  What’s that up there?”  Michelle pointed to a large rock outcrop.   Halfway up was what appeared to be a cave.

Everyone joined Michelle to see what she had found.  “It looks like a cave to me.”  said Marty.   “Let’s go have a look.”   They left the swing behind and followed Marty up the hill and towards the cave.

“Yeah, I don’t know if I’m going to try to crawl up there.”  said Becca.  

“I’m with Becca.  I’ll wait down here if you all are planning on climbing up there.  Remember what the guy said about getting on private property.”   Lisa warned.

There was a moment’s hesitation, but it quickly became clear that the cave was going to be explored.  “It will be alright guys.   It’s not like we are going to damage anything and we haven’t seen anyone around all day.”  Robbie said as he looked at each one of them and then turned and started climbing.  

One by one all of them, except for Becca and Lisa, climbed up to the mouth of the cave.  They were surprised that the cave entrance opened to a very large room.   Since none of them had flashlights with them, they were forced to only explore the areas of the big room that the sun managed to illuminate, but they could see there were openings on either side of the big room that led further back.

“Man!  This is really cool!” said Alex. 

“I love the acoustics!” Jason said loudly just to hear the echo.

“Guys, should we head back?  There isn’t much more exploring we can do without a flashlight and we need to make it a few more miles before we set up camp.”  Kareth said.

Everyone agreed and headed out of the cave.

“Ouch!” Exclaimed Kareth as she slid down the rocky hill.

“You OK?”   Michelle called down to her.

“Yeah, just scratched my leg up a bit…hello?  What do we have here?” As Kareth slid down the rocky incline, she had dislodged some of the rocks. Laying at her feet was an arrowhead.  “Oh guys!  This is too cool!  You won’t believe what I just found!”  Everyone stopped to marvel at the small arrowhead.

“Are you going to keep it?”  asked Marty.

“You bet I am!”  Kareth excitedly replied.   They headed back towards the canoes.

“So”…began Michelle.  “Do you think that when you slid down the hill that a different you died and this you continued on in a different life?”

“Oh come on now!  Are you really going to start in with that again?”   Kareth laughed as she shook her head at Michelle.

“It’s not such a silly idea!” protested Michelle. “Maybe that arrowhead you found caused that very same arrowhead to be lost in another earlier plane of existence.”

“Girl, you need to be writing some Sci-Fi stories.”  Kareth kidded.

As they pushed their canoes back out onto the lake, Robbie let out a “WHOOP” followed by a loud splash.  He stood up gasping “GUYS!  SOMETHING HIT MY LEG!!!!”

“Oh come on, Robbie!   You’re going to scare everyone.  It was probably just some driftwood.  Just get in your canoe, son!”  yelled Jason.

“I am being dead serious!”  Robbie started to protest but was stopped by Marty and Jason urging him to get in the canoe again.

The group canoed on in silence.  There was a tension in the air and an unspoken immediacy about getting to the campsite.

Finally the campsite was in view.   There was a large gravel bar and behind that the woods.  They all pulled their canoes up on the gravel bar and began setting up tents.   “Let’s head out to look for some firewood.”  said Kareth.

Michelle and Kareth headed off together.  The woods were dense and there were ample fallen branches that could be used for the fire.   Kareth reached down to pick up a piece of wood and in her peripheral vision, she thought she saw a dark shadow move quickly through the trees.   She jerked up and looked around, but nothing was there.  “What?  Did you see something?”  asked Michelle.

“Nah.  I think it was a head rush from standing up so quickly.”   Kareth laughed.  They both jumped and jerked around to what sounded like someone smacking something against a tree.   They turned and looked at each other.  “C’mon.”  Kareth nodded towards camp where the sound appeared to be emanating.   They arrived at the campsite just in time to see Jason, who was holding a thick tree branch, proceed to smack it against a large tree.

“What are you doing?!!!”  Kareth was agitated.

“Talking to the Yeti, Kareth.  Talking to the Yeti.”  Jason replied without looking at her and hitting the wood against the tree again.

“Kareth, you did say you wanted to talk about Yeti.” Michelle snickered.

“I said I would rather talk about Yeti than your multiple death scenes that I seem to be involved in”   Kareth coolly replied.

Kareth dumped her load of firewood and stomped over to the tent.

“Did you girls see Amanda and Alex or Lisa and Bec?”  Robbie asked.

“No.  Didn’t even hear them.”  Answered Michelle.

“They’re probably just exploring the area.”   Chris replied.

“Could be.  I think I might head out a-ways and look for them.  You know, make sure everything is OK.” 

“Sure, man.  Hold on a sec and I’ll go with you.  Here.” Chris threw a flashlight to Robbie and then snagged another for himself and he and Robbie headed off into the woods.  

The crickets and tree frogs were beginning to gear up for their nighttime chorus and a whippoorwill calling in the night could be heard in the distance.  Its song quickening as darkness set in.   Mingled with the night noises were the calls of Chris and Robbie that got fainter as they headed deeper into the woods and then silence.

Michelle and Jason had the fire crackling and everyone was gathered around it, except for those still in the woods and Kareth who was still sulking in the tent.

“C’mon, Kareth!  Come join the fun!”   said Marty.   Kareth obliged and headed over to the others.

“Guys, do you think we should look for the others?”  Kareth questioned.

“Yeah, I’m starting to get a little worried.”  agreed Jason.

“Should we all go?” asked Michelle.

“Why don’t you and Marty stay here and Jason and I will go look for them.”  Just then Jason’s cell phone rang.   It was Robbie.

“Gu..shad…….alive…….can’t find………..ge……he…now…!!!!!”   were the clipped words coming from a frantic sounding Robbie.

“Robbie!   Please repeat what you said!  Robbie!!!  You are cutting out!!!”  Jason screamed back, but there was silence.  The call had dropped.

Jason looked wild-eyed at the others and then marched over to the camping supplies and grabbed a camping axe.   “You girls stay here…”

Before he could finish Kareth jumped in.  “Oh no!   I AM going!  This trip was my idea and I AM going to help look for them!”
Jason sized her up for a moment and handed her the camping axe.  He stepped over to his tent and returned with a hunting knife.   “Alright, K, let’s go find our friends.”

Kareth looked at Michelle, “You and Marty need to stay here in case the others show up.  Marty… maybe bang on the tree like Jason did if anyone shows up? Yeah?”

“Great idea!”   Marty replied.   With that, Jason and Kareth headed off into the woods.

There was no talk between the two.  They would wind their way through the trees and then stop and listen for sounds.  They were greeted time and time again with nothing but the tree frogs and crickets.

“Wait a sec!”  Kareth whispered to Jason.

“What?” Jason asked

“Silence.”   replied Kareth.   “Not even a cricket.”   They stood completely still, back to back, trying to see into the darkness of the woods.

“What’s that?!”   Jason pointed his flashlight to the right.

“I didn’t see any…”

“There!”  This time Jason pointed the flashlight to the left.  Kareth turned towards Jason to try to glimpse what he was seeing.    There it was; a dark shape moving quickly between the trees and then its course changed and it headed straight towards them.

“Run!”   Jason yelled as he turned and pushed Kareth to run in the opposite direction of the dark shadow.  They ran stumbling through the leaves and fallen branches until they came to a rock outcropping.  “Turn off your light!!”  Jason whispered loudly to Kareth as they ran behind the rock and stood with their backs plastered against it.  Both tried to stifle their heavy breathing and make as little noise as they could.  The minutes ticked by and they saw, nor heard anything.  

Kareth looked at Jason and noticed the light from the half-moon glinting off the knife that Jason was fidgeting nervously with in his hand.    Kareth was beating herself up, because she had lost the axe in the leaves during a stumble in their flight. “Do you think it’s gone?”

Jason looked down at her.  “I don’t know.  I don’t hear anything.  I don’t see anything, but what was it?!”  He whispered back.

“It…it was a shadow thing.  It…it…I don’t know.   Do you think it did something to the others?”

“I just don’t know, K” 

There was a large guttural growl and something on top of the rock grabbed Jason and pulled him up.   Kareth screamed in horror as she looked up in time to see Jason’s knife fall from his hand and stab into the ground at her feet.   Kareth grabbed his knife and ran.   She could hear knocking in the distance and ran towards it knowing that it would lead towards camp where Michelle and Marty were banging on the trees.   Scratched by brambles and tripped by roots, Kareth continued running towards the knocking.  No looking back!   As her feet began slipping in the loose gravel, much like they did earlier that morning, she came to the realization that the terrain had changed.    “But the knocking?”  She screamed in her mind, “I was running towards the kno…”.  

Kareth stopped.   With her hand shaking uncontrollably with fear she slowly raised the flashlight up towards the rocky incline and turned it on.   Yes, there was the cave.   “If I can make it to the cave, I can hide in the shadows!”   She turned off the flashlight and tried to quickly and quietly scale the hill to the cave opening.   “Almost there!” she thought to herself as she reached up to the ledge with her left hand and found a foot hold for her right foot and pulled herself up to the cave opening.   Kareth ran towards the back of the cave where, earlier that day, she had seen an opening leading farther back into the earth.    In complete darkness, Kareth crawled on her hands and knees through the shrinking passageway until she hit a slope that sent her sliding down and into a stream that flowed through the cave.

Sputtering and coughing, Kareth crawled out of the water onto the muddy bank.  She felt around for her flashlight, but realized that it had fallen into the water in her slide.   “C’mon! C’mon!”  she frantically whispered as she felt around in the dark water for the flashlight, while tears of fear and desperation streamed down her dirty face.   “There!  There it is!”   Kareth felt the metallic round tube and wrapper her fingers around it and yanked it out of the water.    She slowly stood up and turned from the stream and pressed the button on the flashlight.   The light flickered so she hit the flashlight with her other hand and a steady beam illuminated the cavern.  There!  She saw it!  A shadow darted behind a rock!   Kareth stifled a scream, quickly panned the flashlight across the room and then turned it off and made her way in the darkness across the room.    She found the far wall and felt along it until she came to an opening and tucked herself inside of it.    There was no light in the cave and Kareth imagined the only sound was that of her own heart rapidly thumping.  SPLASH!!!!  From the area Kareth had just vacated.  SPLASH!! SPLASH!!!!!!   Muffled sounds of what sounded like humans trying to scream and guttural growls and dragging.  “Dragging of what?!   BODIES!!!”  thought Kareth.

She waited until the dragging faded and then climbed out of her hiding spot.   Kareth pointed her flash light towards the dragging and briefly turned it on.  There was another passage.  She gingerly felt her way down the passage and noticed that there was a golden glow coming from up ahead.   Closer, closer she moved until she could see the opening to a larger room.  In the middle was a fire with a spit over it and tied up against the wall were her friends.   “Are they alive?!!!” 

From the corner of the room she noticed a blurred shape move swiftly over to Amanda.  It was as if it was moving between dimensions as it became a solid form as it stood next to her and lifted her head.  Amanda was in shock, but appeared to be alive.    The creature was small and humanoid in appearance.   Kareth’s eyes widened as she remembered Jason’s story about the little people.   Her thoughts were interrupted by a whooshing noise coming through the tunnel behind her.  It was too late for her to move.  She was shoved from behind and went sprawling across the cavern floor.   She turned over to see a little person standing over her, looking down with menacing eyes and a pointy toothed smile.  “Wait!   Wait!   I know what you want!!!!”  Kareth struggled to her feet and reached in her pocket for the arrowhead.   She pulled it out and presented it in an open shaky hand.    The little person reached for the arrowhead with grimy sharp claws, all the while not taking its eyes off of Kareth.  It snatched the arrowhead from her hand and she felt a rush of wind as it faded and seemed to disappear.    Kareth looked over towards her friends and the growing number of little people materializing around them. 

“WAIT!!!   WE WILL GIVE YOU BACK WHAT WE FOUND!!”   Kareth desperately cried as she limped towards her friends.   “PLEASE!  PLEASE let us go!”   The little people moved aside and Kareth headed towards Amanda.   “Amanda!   Give me the stone!”   Amanda gazed up at Kareth with glazed eyes.   Kareth bent down and went through Amanda’s pockets until she found the stone.   “Here!” She held out the stone to the nearest little person.   They grabbed it and disappeared.   “That’s it.  That’s all we have. Please let us go.” Kareth pleaded.   She was met with cold black stares. 

Kareth looked around wildly at the group.  “Does anyone have anything else!!?”   They all just stared in numb terror at her.  

She turned to see one of the creatures tying Becca to a long pole.  Another joined and they each took an end and headed over to the fire.   They were going to roast her alive.

“NO!!!!”  Kareth screamed!!   She looked frantically at her group.  “WHO HAS SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO THE LITTLE PEOPLE?!!!!!  Kareth screamed.     As if waking up from a dream Robbie began trying to talk through his gag.  Kareth ran over to him and put her hands in Robbie’s pocket and pulled out a round stone with a runic symbol on it.   “HERE!!!!!!!” she said holding the stone above her head.   “HERE!!!!!!!  This is what you want!!  Please let her….”   She never knew what hit her from behind.

The next morning the kids all woke up in their tents.   None of them could account for the missing time from the previous night.  None of them wanted to talk about the horrible nightmare they had.  “If it’s all the same to you guys”, said Jason, “I’d like to just get on the river and home.”   Everyone nodded in agreement.

There was a mist over the river as they set out on their float.   Several hours later as Andy was standing by the take out point he watched as five empty canoes came into view.   “Hey!  Would you all help me grab these canoes?!”   He shouted to the nearby campers.    As he headed for the last canoe, he grabbed an oar and thrust it in and out of the water behind the canoe as if whipping something out of the way.    “Damn snakes.”  He said.  

Thank you for joining us…

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