Channels: A Collection, page 5
That’s what he kept telling himself as he made his way back to the cabin. ‘It has to be from the rain.’ By the time he was back inside, it had become his mantra. He was sure he was on the verge of a mental break. He could just picture himself sitting on the floor, repeating those words over and over again.
It’s just stress. From the divorce… from life. I need to focus on getting my shit together. If I can’t pull it together before Trey gets here, then I need to just leave. I can’t let him see me like this.
He focused on this thought process as the night progressed, even going so far as to grab a pen and paper to start writing down his thoughts and feelings. He spent hours sitting at Trey’s desk, starting with the bad choices he had made that put him where he was in life, and what steps he planned to take to improve his life and be happier overall.
This actually worked as a good distraction for Wes, at least for a while. It was something he’d been meaning to do for a while. It just took something completely off the rails to finally motivate him to do it. He continued writing until his hand began to cramp up and he had to stop.
With his mind a bit more at ease, he plopped himself on the couch and turned on the TV. Settling on a true crime documentary, he laid back on the couch and eventually fell asleep.
Wes woke on the couch the next morning feeling slightly refreshed. Unlike the previous night, he actually slept peacefully. He started to believe that maybe everything was okay. Sure, what happened in the woods was weird, but it was probably just some strange anomaly. He began to accept that it had happened, and that, in his hallucinogenic state, he happened to get horny and fuck a mushroom shaped like a human being. Nobody else would believe the story if he told it to them but accepting it for what it was made him feel a little better about the whole thing.
He decided to get dressed and head back out into the woods. In his mind, the best way to fully move past this was to destroy the mushroom woman, if she was still there, then head back to the cabin and enjoy his time with Trey when he arrived the next day.
Confidence overcame him, and it showed in his stride as he made his way out towards the ditch. This confidence, however, waned as he approached the ditch.
The mushroom woman was still there, but the bottom of her distended belly had been broken. After leaning in closer, it looked as though something had burst out from it.
Once again, he fell to his knees and began to cry, just as he had the day before. Every bit of acceptance he had acquired overnight had gone out the window. What had happened up to this point was beyond imagination, but he had managed to find a way to make sense of it. This, however, was a whole new set of problems.
Did something come out of her? Did she give birth? What did she give birth to? Is it connected to me?
Paranoia suddenly overtook him, and he scanned his surroundings, half expecting to see some kind of mushroom creature emerging from the trees. He gasped at the sound of a twig snapping and turned to see a deer running off.
Taking note from the deer, Wes got to his feet and ran back to the cabin. Once inside, he locked the door and scanned the surrounding forest. He slowly stepped back from the door and froze at the sound of running water coming from the bathroom.
“Trey?” he called out.
There was no answer.
Running to the front of the cabin, he looked out the window, hoping to see Trey’s car. He deflated at seeing no car outside other than his own. He looked down beside the front door to see an aluminum baseball bat leaning against the wall. Grabbing it, he began making his way towards the bathroom.
He entered the bathroom, bat raised, and turned to face the shower stall. Despite the running water, it was empty.
“The fuck?” he muttered to himself.
Holding the bat steady in his right hand, Wes reached out with his left to open the stall door and turn the water off. He looked to the floor and noticed faint, wet footprints on the tile. His heart began beating so rapidly that it felt as though his head was pulsating.
He screamed as he stepped back out into the hall, seeing a humanoid figure standing at the other end, a kitchen knife in its hand.
The first thing Wes noticed about the figure was that, despite looking almost human, it didn’t have eyes. He scanned over it some more, noticing that it resembled him a bit. Its skin was a lighter tone, and had a sheen to it, almost like the mushroom woman he had found in the ditch, though its color looked slightly more human. The features resembled him, but not fully. It was the human equivalent of a poor-quality photocopy.
Did I make this? Did this thing come from that woman?
“Did you come from her?” Wes asked, pointing towards the woods.
The humanoid creature before him tilted its head slightly, as if thinking about its answer.
“What are you?”
The half man-half mushroom figure didn’t answer him verbally. Instead, it pointed its finger directly at Wes.
“What do you want?”
The figure held out its right hand, palm up. With its left hand, it ran its finger up its wrist, miming a suicide attempt.
It wants to kill me.
Instinct took over, and Wes suddenly felt filled with rage. Raising the bat, he charged at the figure. It didn’t even attempt to move out of the way as he approached it.
Once he was within a close enough range, he swung the bat, striking the figure in its head. A large chunk of its surface material broke off, landing on the ground and filling the air around them with spores.
Withdrawing the bat, Wes made to swing it once more, but the creature shoved the knife into his throat before he could strike it again.
The bat fell to the ground, and Wes fell to his knees, grabbing his throat. Blood poured from the wound profusely.
Knife still in hand, the figure began slashing at Wes. The pain of the cuts was excruciating, and he could feel his life draining. He fell onto his back, ready to succumb to his fate.
As he lay there, the figure dropped the knife and lay on top of him, its body absorbing every drop of Wes' blood as it drained from him. If Wes had been conscious, he would have seen its appearance slowly become more human.
Trey pulled up to his cabin ready to get out of the car after a long drive. He was excited to see his brother. He had been worried about him ever since the divorce and hoped the time away had helped lift his spirits some.
He stepped into the cabin with a smile on his face. “Where are ya, bro?” he asked.
There was no answer.
“Wes. You here?”
He jumped as he stepped into the kitchen.
“There you are. Good to see you, man.”
Something that looked like Wes stood before him, a knife in its hand. He realized quickly that something was off about him. There was a blank expression on his face, and his eyes looked strange. Its skin had a slight sheen to it.
“You okay?” he asked. “You don’t look so good.”
The thing that looked like Wes contorted its face into what looked like a smile.
The Christmas Guest
After spending the day visiting her parents, Ginny was ready to wrangle up her daughter, Carolyn, and begin the two-hour drive home. It had been a nice Christmas visit, and Carolyn was more than happy after the bounty of presents her grandparents had given her.
Ginny thought the number of gifts they had given her was a little overboard, but with Carolyn being their only granddaughter, at least until her brother’s wife gave them a second one sometime in the spring, she figured it was just a buildup of the love that grandparents have to give. Carolyn definitely didn’t have an issue with this, though Ginny worried that jealousy would rear its ugly head when her new cousin arrived.
Once the car was loaded up with Carolyn’s presents and they got all of their winter gear on, Ginny and Carolyn said their goodbyes to her parents and headed out on the road.
While the two of them spent the entire car ride out that morning singing along to Christmas songs, Ginny kept the radio off and welcomed the quiet on the drive home. It also helped that Carolyn was exhausted from the excitement of the day and had fallen asleep shortly after pulling out of the driveway. She had always admired children’s ability have so much energy and excitement, only to fall asleep at the drop of a hat afterwards. She missed those days of being overloaded with excitement and then crashing out soon after. Anymore, she often struggled to find the energy to do anything social, followed by a few hours of wind-down time afterwards.
Smiling as she occasionally checked on her sleeping daughter in the back seat, Ginny did her best to keep her attention on the road. It was a frigid cold night, and the sky was clear, revealing a blanket of stars as far as the eye could see. The almost full moon lit up the usually dark drive home. Ginny wouldn’t have been surprised if it started snowing at any moment, though she was hoping that wouldn’t be the case.
However, her hopes for a clear drive were ignored about an hour into the trip. Light snow flurries began falling from the sky, gently coating the ground alongside the road. She hadn’t even realized that Carolyn had woken up until she heard her go from dead silence to joyful excitement.
“Look, mommy! It’s snowing!”
“I know! Isn’t it cool?”
She hated driving in the snow, and she knew that, with how cold it was, it wouldn’t be long before it started sticking to the road. What she really wanted to do, was use language that she preferred not to use in front of Carolyn, but she feigned excitement for her daughter. She concentrated on the road as best she could while the snow began coming down harder, limiting her visibility.
The snow coming at her windshield in the headlights was almost hypnotizing. It reminded her of the starfield screensaver that used to come with early versions of Windows. She had taken her focus off of the road for just a moment too long and hit a pothole. The loud bang startled them both, Carolyn’s scream making Ginny’s anxiety climb even higher. She looked in her rearview mirror and noticed that the trunk had popped open upon hitting the pothole.
“Shit!” She said, gently pressing on her brake pedal and pulling off onto the shoulder.
“Mommy, you said a bad word.”
“I know, sweetie. I’m sorry. I’ll put a dollar in the swear jar when we get home.”
“Why are you stopping?” Carolyn asked as Ginny brought the car to a stop on the shoulder.
“Because the trunk popped open when we hit that pothole. Mommy must not have closed it hard enough.”
Carolyn gasped. “My presents are in there!”
“I’m sure your presents are fine, sweetie. Just wait here.”
Opening the door, Ginny stepped out of the car and into the bitter cold. The tiny snowflakes tickled her nose and cheeks as they fell upon her. Before heading to the trunk, she walked to the front of the car to check the tires, making sure the pothole hadn’t caused one of them to start going flat. Seeing that they were fine, she let out a sigh of relief before making her way to the back of the car. She looked in the truck and inspected the haul, making sure all of Carolyn’s presents were still there.
*
Carolyn looked out her window, watching the snow fall while her mom was outside making sure the car was okay. She felt a chill as she took her focus off of the falling snow and noticed they were parked in front of a cemetery.
Even though at seven years old and often proclaimed herself to be a big girl now, Carolyn was scared at the thought of them being so close to a cemetery at night. Especially after she and her friend Lauren had recently read a book full of scary stories a few weeks earlier. There was one story in particular that stood out, about a little girl ghost in a cemetery who would try to keep kids from finding her grave. That story had given both her and Lauren the chills, and she was hoping her mom wouldn’t take too much longer.
Once Ginny confirmed that none of the presents had fallen out, she closed the trunk. She stepped to the passenger side of the car to check the rear tire and froze when she saw boot prints in the snow leading to her rear passenger door. Following the trail of prints, she now noticed that she had stopped in front of the cemetery. The prints seemed to trail off from that direction.
She hadn’t felt the car move or heard the door close, but she still stepped up to the rear passenger door to open it, checking to make sure nobody had entered the car. She noticed that Carolyn was staring out the window, looking at the cemetery, seemingly fixated on it.
“Sweetie, are you okay?”
“Mommy… I wanna go.”
“Me too, hon. Your presents are all there and the tires are good, so we can go.”
Ginny closed the door and walked back to her driver’s side door. She was overcome with a strange sensation as she walked around the front of the car. It reminded her of when she was a little girl. She visualized those moments in her head when she had to use the bathroom at night. That feeling that something was behind you, watching, as you made your way down the dark hallway. She remembered turning her walk into a run to get to the bathroom quicker, turning on the light and closing the door in a flash. Then being wary to go back into the dark hallway after she had finished. The thought sent a chill up her spine.
When she got to her door, she just about went airborne as she jumped into her seat, practically slamming the door shut behind her and hitting the lock button as soon as it was closed. She looked back at Carolyn, who was still staring out the window at the cemetery, “Did you see someone out there, sweetie?”
Her daughter final turned her attention away from the cemetery, facing her with a confused look. “No. Why? Was someone out there?”
She could see the fear in her daughter’s eyes. Not wanting to scare her further, she came up with the best response she could think of.
“Was just wondering why you were staring so intently.”
“The cemetery,” was all she said in response.
“I know they seem creepy, but there’s nothing to be scared of. It’s just where people go to be at rest after they die. Like your great aunt Sissy. We were there when they buried her, but it wasn’t scary, was it?”
Carolyn shook her head, “It was sad.”
She thought back to that day and how she hadn’t been prepared for explaining death to her daughter so soon. She was thankful to have had her mother there with her to help her explain things better.
Pulling herself from that memory, Ginny put the car in drive and pressed the gas pedal, letting up on it shortly after as she began to spin out while pulling back on the road. She regained control of the car quickly and drove on, taking caution with her speed as the snow continued to fall.
Noticing that Carolyn still seemed to be a bit spooked, she reached over and held her hand as they made their way home. This seemed to relax her for a while, but she couldn’t shake the feeling she’d had ever since seeing those boot prints in the snow. She shuddered as she drove, a combination of the cold and the eerie sensation that seemed to surround her.
They had been back on the road for about twenty minutes when that uneasy feeling Ginny had felt at the cemetery suddenly intensidfied. For a brief moment, she could swear she had seen the shadow of a man sitting in the back seat. Her gooseflesh caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up straight. She did her best to play it cool and not alarm Carolyn but noticed that her daughter was now squeezing her hand a little tighter.
“Mommy…” Carolyn said with a tremble in her little voice.
She looked over and saw Carolyn looking her right in the eyes, fear just about radiating off of her. She knew without asking that her daughter was experiencing the same feeling.
“I feel it too, sweetie. Just ignore it and it’ll go away.”
As soon as she finished saying this, they were both startled by the radio turning on by itself. ‘Never Gonne Give You Up’ by Rick Astley was playing at a loud volume. Carolyn cried out as Ginny hit the knob to turn the radio back off.
“Mommy!”
“It’s fine sweetie. The radio must be broken.”
Ginny was still alarmed, but she couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at the jaunty song selection.
Did I just get Rick Rolled by a ghost?
They continued the rest of the drive in silence. The eerie feeling they had both experienced slowly dissipated, along with the snowfall, as they got closer to home.
A sense of relief washed over both mother and daughter as the car pulled into the driveway. Ginny popped the trunk and stepped out to grab some of the presents before grabbing Carolyn’s hand to walk with her to the front door of the house. Sitting the presents just inside the door, she walked back to get the remainder of them. She was slightly alarmed to look back at the front door and see Carolyn standing there, seemingly in a trance once again.
With the remainder of the presents in hand, Ginny brushed by her daughter as she made her way through the door. A cold gust of wind came through, almost taking her breath away. She turned to see Carolyn still standing at the open door, looking outside.
“Sweetie, go ahead and closed the door. You’re letting the cold air in.”
Carolyn didn’t move or respond.
“Carolyn! Shut the door, please!” She said, with a little more sternness in her tone.
Carolyn jumped, startled at the command and seemed to shake herself off, closing the door quickly just after.
“Carolyn, sweetie. Are you okay?”
Carolyn stood there, stoic and answered her mother in a monotone, almost robotic tone, “I hope we didn’t let him in.”
Ginny wasn’t sure how to respond to this. What Carolyn had said was probably just the product of a child’s overactive imagination, but it still made her blood run cold. She shivered at the thought of whatever she saw in the rearview mirror, if she actually saw anything at all, being in their house.
In that moment, she resented the hell out of her ex for being such a deadbeat, more so than she usually did, and she hated the fact that she was raising her daughter alone, left to feel so vulnerable in creepy moments like this.
