Sunken Park, page 9
It all seemed so overwhelming. In addition, exhaustion was beginning to set in and Brett could feel his remaining pillar of strength crack as the burden of their nightmare rested squarely on his shoulders.
I can’t fall apart. I’ve got to keep moving.
To help focus his concentration, Brett grabbed a diet soda from the refrigerator but he couldn’t help noticing that the appliance was no longer running. It was off, and dust had gathered in each corner and shelf.
He knew that something was happening. The park was changing, and everything that they’d seen or heard earlier had been an illusion. It was like a fairy tale that was slowly turning sour.
Flipping the top off, Brett tilted the can and drank the soda in a quick series of gulps. Thankfully it was still cool, and the caffeine quickly traveled through his system, providing him with an extra jolt to keep his senses on alert. He tossed the can aside and stepped out into the night, in search of Carrie.
I can’t lose my cool.
I need to think and be calm.
Don’t panic.
Carrie was doing everything in her power to calm her racing heart and prevent her mind from completely spiraling out of control. But the vision of Roy standing in front of her while creatures wriggled from his nose and ears, continued to play itself in her mind over and over.
Somehow she knew that the man she’d been walking with wasn’t Roy. It had looked like him, but there was something evil about him now. The happy-go-lucky person she’d begun to get to know … was gone.
And now she was once again alone in the woods.
But now somewhere out there was a crazy Roy lookalike.
And the hag.
Carrie hadn’t forgotten about the woman she’d seen in the mirror.
Who is she? And why did she appear in front of me like that?
As she continued walking along, Carrie was relieved to see that a smooth pathway was a few feet away. She had actually come upon a point where it created a fork that either went straight or turned sharply to the west. So there were two options.
The decision was simple, because the westernmost point of where the path was leading was exactly in the same direction she’d just come from, and there was no telling whether or not the Roy-creature was still there waiting for her. Carrie chose to follow the path in the other direction and hoped that she was walking north, which would lead her back to the parking lot.
As her feet connected with the smooth dirt, the sensation gave her a strong feeling of hope, and she began walking more quickly—eventually breaking out into a jog.
Sweat traveled down her forehead as she struggled to stay on the path and away from the rogue nature that appeared at every step. Bushes scratched her legs, stones threatened her balance, and tree branches hung low to the ground, just waiting for her to trip over them.
Suddenly Carrie saw light up ahead. Her heat rate picked up considerably, but she forced herself to continue along the path and not veer in a slightly slanted direction towards it. As she approached the glow, it became clear that the light was coming from inside a cabin, shining through dusty windows.
She recognized the cabin as the one closest to theirs—the one they had passed on their way in. She was confused and stopped jogging as her mind tried to process what was happening.
How is this possible? If I’m looking at the cabin we saw when we came in, then I would have passed our cabin, wouldn’t I? And I’ve been running in one direction for close to an hour. Is it possible that I’m running in circles? Why is there a light inside that place? Is someone staying there?
Carrie decided to investigate.
She crept along the trees and slowly made her way toward the structure. As she got closer to the cabin, Carrie began to smell something in the air.
It was the aroma of something cooking, but it wasn’t entirely pleasant. It had an acrid sharpness, like meat that was broiling with too many spices. In addition, the air smelled slightly smoky so she had a feeling that whoever was staying in the cabin had lit some logs in the fireplace.
Maybe I can get some help. But I need to be careful. Need to be sure whoever’s in there is friendly before I go barging in like a lunatic. Plus, I’m sure I look like a total disaster.
Carrie carefully maneuvered around the trees and tried to not trip on anything as she made her way to the side of the house. Dust and cobwebs attempted to attach to her clothing, and she slowly dusted herself off. Normally she would have been disgusted by the filth, but now it was a mere inconvenience in the greater scheme of things.
She peeked over the window frame and tried to see through the dusty film that was resting atop the glass.
Inside, she could see that her assumptions had been accurate. A fire was kindling amongst several large logs in the fireplace. There were an array of pots sitting on the stove and kitchenware rested atop the counters. Some of the lamps were lit and radiated a dull yellow light.
Carrie strained her eyes to see if she could make out anything further, but it was very hard to see past the kitchen into the other bedrooms. She also couldn’t tell if there was anyone inside, but she had a feeling that there had to be, given all the activity.
Her mind whirled quickly as she stared into the window.
I don’t understand. Where did these people come from? We definitely didn’t seem them on the way in. Maybe they stumbled upon this place the way we did. If they’ve got a working smartphone or internet service, we can get some help.
“Not polite to trespass, dearie.”
Carrie nearly wet her pants at the sound of an older woman’s voice chiding her. She slowly turned around and prayed that she wasn’t going to be staring at the same hag from the mirror.
To her relief, the woman standing in front of the cabin looked normal and human. She was wearing an old peasant dress with a sash around the middle and had her hair pulled back by a worn looking rag.
“Don’t be afraid. Why don’t ya come in for a bit?”
“Oh, I don’t want to bother you. I’m just on my way out to meet my boyfriend. We’re leaving tonight because our friend is very sick.”
The older woman shook her head. “Tsk, tsk. These things happen out here. These woods? Well, they’ve got a mind of their own, don’t they?”
Carrie wasn’t sure how to answer. The woman seemed off somehow, but she didn’t want to be rude so she smiled and replied, “Yeah, you could definitely say that. We’ve had nothing but bad luck since we got here. The brochure definitely didn’t describe any of this.”
The older woman seemed to darken at Carrie’s mention of a brochure.
“You found a brochure about this here park?” she asked.
Carrie nodded and explained how they’d found the last brochure in a rack at a nearby restaurant and how they’d come as a group to have some rest and relaxation. She paused and decided not to share what had happened to Roy and decided to focus on the need to reach the outside world.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a working phone or a computer we could use to send a quick email, would you?”
The woman smiled at Carrie. “Why don’t you come inside? I’ll see if I can help you git a hold of someone.”
Do I really want to go in there? This woman seems so weird. She sounds uneducated and she’s missing teeth and, oh God, what if I’m never able to find my way out? She may be my last hope.
Carrie nodded quietly and followed the woman inside the cabin.
Immediately, the darkness of night was replaced by warmth and light. Carrie was surprised at how homey the small cabin was inside. Different rugs covered the wooden floors, blankets rested atop the couches, and there were pictures of different nature scenes on the walls.
In fact, the cabin looked more like a home than a temporary vacation spot.
“How long have you been visiting Sunken Park?” Carrie asked as the woman disappeared into one of the bedrooms.
“Oh, I’ve been here a while. It’s such a quiet, beautiful place, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it definitely is,” Carrie responded.
She continued to walk through the living area looking around at everything. Her eyes rested on a photograph that was situated above the fireplace. It was in a frame and was resting atop a small shelf. The reflection of the small flames from the fire below cast skinny orange fingers along the glass, making it difficult to see the picture inside, so Carrie picked it up and stared at it carefully.
The photograph was of a group of people and, to her surprise, Ranger Jack Blaze was one of them. The picture was strange in that none of the people were smiling. Rather, they stood in a semi-circle, almost glaring at the camera.
They looked angry.
The photograph made Carrie feel strange, so she put it back on the mantel. She could hear the woman bustling about in the bedroom, so she tried to keep herself busy and continued walking around.
Carrie noticed another photograph in a frame. This one was sitting beside the couch, so she sat down next to it and picked it up from the table. The comfort of sitting was overwhelming and Carrie closed her eyes for a minute and let out a whoosh of air from her lungs.
Finally, a chance to rest.
When she opened her eyes, she took a look at the photograph.
It was a photograph of the woman from the cabin. She was in the forest and was surrounded by small animals on all sides and appeared to be knee-deep in some sort of muck.
All the animals around her were dead.
Oh shit. What the hell?
Carrie stood up quickly and dropped the photograph on the couch.
“Um, I think I’m going to leave,” Carrie called out. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll find another way to get in touch with people. Thanks for your hospitality.”
She turned to leave when the sound of a woman crying carried over to her ears.
“Hey, are you ok?”
There was no response, but she could still hear the crying.
Fuck. I can’t just leave her in there. What if something’s wrong with her?
Even though she knew that it probably wasn’t the right move and it would be best to run far away from the cabin and all of its strange artifacts, Carrie began walking toward the bedroom. She wasn’t sure if she was consciously moving in the direction of the crying, because her feet seemed to have started operating on automatic. In essence, she felt as if something or someone was pulling her forward with a force that had powerfully taken over. The doorway to the bedroom grew closer and closer until she was standing in the center of the opening, looking in.
The woman who had invited her in was standing at the window, staring out at the woods. She was no longer crying but intently looking through the dusty glass. Without turning to face Carrie, she put her hand out and motioned for her to come closer. She then pointed to the woods as if there was something she wanted Carrie to see.
Carrie didn’t speak and continued to allow the force to pull her forward. She walked slowly over to the woman, who remained stoic and then followed her gaze to the window.
At first, there was nothing to see. The blackness of night created a shroud that simply reflected their own images back at them. Carrie tried not to stare at the older woman’s reflection and kept her gaze on her own mirrored image, noticing how fear was clearly evident in both of her eyes.
Then, the darkness disappeared and to Carrie’s shock, she was staring out the window and could see a scene playing out in daylight …
There was a group of people standing together in the center of the woods. Carrie recognized them from the photograph. They were all looking carefully at a spot along the ground that appeared dark and unstable.
“You think she’s gone?” one of them asked.
“Yeah. She’s gone. Now we need to do what we talked about and get on with it. We can’t look back. Getting rid of her was the best thing fer everyone. Let’s move on. And y’all need to keep quiet. Got it?”
The rest of the group nodded quietly.
Carrie looked over at the strange woman, who was still staring straight ahead. She turned back to the window, and now the scene changed. It split into four different quadrants somehow as if Carrie was watching different TV screens that had been pushed together to form one large image.
In the upper right, she could see a woman cooking dinner. As she stirred broth in a large vat, a dark form appeared from behind her. The woman in the image flinched as if she felt something, but didn’t turn around. A moment later, the dark image reached out with two shapeless arms and pushed the woman’s head down into the steaming liquid, holding her there. The woman’s arms flailed but her head didn’t emerge.
In the upper left image, a man walked along the road. He was smoking a cigarette and slowly ambling on as if he’d been drinking too much. A car light appeared in the distance and grew closer and closer.
Carrie’s chest tightened with the understanding of what would happen next …
The car came closer and the man finally realized that it was approaching so he moved away from the road and continued trudging forward on the grass. The car approached quickly, and, in one fluid move, swerved and hit the man from behind. The image blurred as the man flew forward, the look on his face full of terror and pain.
The lower quadrants demonstrated similar moments of death. One woman was attacked in her bed by a blur of violence, while another woman who was standing on a cliff fell to her death.
The images continued to play while Carrie watched, horrified. But an understanding began to form in her mind.
These people weren’t simply killed. They did something terrible to deserve their fates. But what did they do? They spoke of getting rid of someone. Did they kill someone and end up suffering the consequences of their actions?
“There’s always a price to pay, dearie.”
Carrie turned to look at the woman, who was still staring out of the window. She seemed thoughtful and unaffected by the horrific images that were playing out in their reflection.
“Who were those people?”
“Ah. They were folks who don’t understand what they don’t understand. They were too blind or stupid to realize that there’s more than meets the eye. And now they’re dead.”
She cackled to herself.
Carrie started to back away from the window.
“They killed you.”
The woman remained in place, but Carrie could tell that she was smiling.
“What’s death, really? Is it the rotting of yer corpse? If so, then yer friend Anita is dead already. Is it lack of knowledge of who you are and what you’ve done? Then yer friend Roy is long gone.”
She turned to face Carrie, who felt the blood drain from her face.
“Or is it the lack of vanity, dearie? If so, then you’d better run. Because that’s one way to look at things, eh?”
And then, the woman’s face began to morph into the same horrific hag that Carrie had seen in the bathroom. The one that was so frightening that it had caused her to black out entirely.
But Carrie was ready, and instead of standing in place, watching the hag fully transform, she ran from the bedroom into the living room, noticing that now all the lights were off and it was dark and cold.
Like death.
Carrie threw the cabin door open and ran back into the woods.
As her footsteps echoed through the warm night, she could hear the woman’s evil laughter carry through the trees, twist in the wind, and permeate everything that grew in the darkness.
Chapter 12
Come with us.
Anita wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting at the table, newspaper clippings surrounding her like soldiers preparing for an attack. She’d been sobbing, which then turned into moans of anguish as the pain from her illness continued to take over. Everything felt wet and awful.
Even her teeth hurt.
But then she heard a strange voice, and in the brief second that it spoke to her, the pain had mysteriously disappeared. The respite had lasted for only a moment and then the pain returned once more.
“Hello?” she called out. “Is anyone there?”
Come with us.
She looked around wildly, trying to find the source of the voice but the room was empty, and she wasn’t sure if it was just the sound of the wind. She knew that in her current state, hallucinations weren’t entirely out of the question.
Hell, my body probably wants to hallucinate so that it can’t feel pain anymore.
With all the effort she had left, she pushed herself into a standing position and grimaced when she saw that parts of skin remained on the table. She imagined her body was turning into an onion that was slowly shedding its layers.
Until there’s nothing left.
Shuddering, she turned and began to walk back down the hallway to the exit. To her surprise there were people standing in the entranceway. They were holding flashlights and motioned for her to follow them.
“Thank goodness you’re here,” she called out. “I’m really sick. Can you help me? I need a hospital!”
The people nodded and backed away from the entrance, disappearing into the night.
“Wait!” she called out. “Don’t leave me here!”
Anita managed to make her way down the hall and exited the building as quickly as she could. She could see the group of people up ahead, but they were walking back into the woods.
Damn. I’ve got to catch up to them or I’m screwed. No sense waiting here for Brett. Maybe they have a car on the other side of the gate and can get us out of here faster.
“Hold up! Wait!” she called out, but the group continued to move into the darkness of the trees.
Anita took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. Every step hurt—particularly since she was barefoot—and struggling to breathe, but her hope was stronger than any of her aches and pains and pushed her forward. She limped slowly after them and felt her heart surge when one of the men turned around and motioned toward her—
