“Yo, Molly,” Mars said, looking out the glass doors at the back of the WGP hangouts. She pushed back her hair and scratched her head. “…Do you own a dog?”
I looked up from my laptop, frowning. It was about 2am and the neighborhood was as quiet as death, but leave it to Mars to find the empty backyard more interesting than The Departed. She has the equivalent beauty of a head cheerleader. I was, how some say, shrouded in mystery. And we were best friends. I paused the movie to grab a fistful of popcorn.
“Hell no, I’m not getting chased. It’s probably a stray.”
“It looks really sick, Molly. It’s creeping me out.”
“Just close the damn blinds.”
“I don’t want to,” she whined.
“Jesus, Mars, we see strays every day!”
“I don’t know, now it’s like foaming at the mouth…” she cringed. “Ughh.”
I rolled up from the couch, grumbling as I dropped the laptop and walked up behind Mars. “Look, you moron, the—” I stopped as I looked out the door and into the darkness of the WGP headquarters backyard, lit by a few light streamers in the trees, placed by Sydney.
That was definitely not a dog.
That was definitely a naked gray bald man crouched in the backyard, drooling and staring at us.
My face screwed up in confusion. Leave it to Mars to think that some old dude was a dog. “Aw, crap. I’m calling the cops. That’s not a dog, that’s a homeless guy. And he’s probably mentally ill, it’s not his fault.”
“But he growled at me!”
I was already dialing the Salem City Police Department, ready to explain that there was some naked guy in the backyard at 2am. Ironic for “The City Where Friendship Begins”. The dispatcher clicked on the line.
“Salem City Police Department, state your emergency,” a calm female voice answered.
“Good evening, uh, I’m at INSERT RANDOM LOCATION HERE.” I looked back to the glass doors; the homeless man was still firmly rooted on the property. “Um, there appears to be a naked man in the backyard.”
Static suddenly crackled to life in the background. “Could you give me your address, please?”
Frowning, I gave her the address again and waited for her to respond. Silence; except for static and an occasional pop. I thought that I had lost the call but there was still no dial tone.
“Hello? M’am? HELLO, MA'AM?” I shouted into the phone. “THERE IS A NAKED PERSON IN THE YARD.”
“Where are you going?”
“What?”
A loud pop echoed on the phone before the same tone repeated itself:
“Where are you going?”
“M’am, are you on drugs?” I asked, that being the only plausible explanation at the time.
“Come back.”
“…The fuck?”
“Come back.”
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the thick smell of rotting meat clogged the air. Both Mars and I gagged; she stuffed her sleeve over her nose and looked back at me fearfully. “Why does it smell like hamburgers?”
“Hell if I know!”
Her voice turned fearful. “It’s the dog!”
“Mars, shut up!”
I turned my attention back to the phone, but the woman continued to repeat the same phrase over and over again.
“Come back.”
“Come back.”
“Come back.”
“Can you connect me to the Salem City Police Department?” I asked.
The women was about to respond when Mars let loose a high-pitched shriek; I whipped around to see the homeless man’s face pressed against the glass door, snarling. I gasped at the scene and my eyes bugged. My mind struggled to process the face. That was definitely not a naked homeless man.
The thing had hollow, black eyes and a canine snout; its curled lips revealed dozens of stained fangs. A few gossamer hairs grew on its emaciated head; the rest of the body gray and taut. Its spine stuck out on its back. At this point Mars crumpled up on the ground, sobbing and repeatedly screaming “Sydney”, as the thing brought a huge, bloodied claw up to the door.
I dropped the phone, the woman’s voice now only reduced to something that sounded like Latin, or Italian, I’m not really sure. The phone clattered on the counter as the Naked Gray Thing and I stared at one another. I, shocked and horrified, noticed that it evidently enjoying scaring the crap out of two gamer girls. After what seemed like hours, the thing’s face crept into a huge grin and it paused to rasp a single word. Although the glass door muffled the sound, I heard the word as clearly as if they were whispered in my ear:
“Molly.”
Mars stopped screaming and jerked back to look at me in horror as the thing shot off back into the darkness. I swallowed.
Oh, shit.
That was my name.
Mars and I both looked at each other and screamed. We hit high octaves of horror.
“WHAT DO WE DO?” she shrieked.
“I don’t know. Calm down.” I grabbed her shoulders. “I think there’s a shotgun upstairs. Grab that and come back downstairs.”
Mars bit her lip, resembling a large infant for a split second before running upstairs. I heard her footsteps banging above my head before they stopped abruptly. It didn’t sound like she stopped to climb to the top of the recording box— it was as if she was startled by something and froze in fear.
“Mars?” I called hesitantly.
“Uh…Molly?” her voice was high with fear. “Do you have an adopted sister?”
I frowned in confusion before busting it up the stairs, bursting into the room to see Mars frozen in the middle of the room, staring out the window. The room has a small balcony, and on the balcony stood a tall, thin, girl. She was about our age with straight black hair and a face that could’ve killed someone. Her downy brows sharpened low over her eyes - as dark as her soul - in a mask of rage.
I stared at her for a moment. How could she have accessed the balcony?
“Are you lost?” I shouted at her. “This isn’t your place!”
She continued to stare.
And then she took a step forward.
I’m not sure if it was her furious expression, her dark, ominous eyes, the fact that a strange girl just appeared on the balcony, or the fact that a weird naked gray thing had just attacked us, but Mars and I both rushed into the box and jammed ourselves inside. I grabbed the shotgun wedged in the back and cocked it, aiming it at the closed door of the recording box.
“I’m scared,” Mars whimpered.
“Shut up,” I muttered. “It’s just a random girl.”
I cracked the closet an inch to look outside.
Looking into the space was the girl.
My heart stopped and I fired the gun wildly, the base slamming into my shoulder as bullets riddled the room and smoke filled the air. Mars screamed and jumped on me in fear, knocking the gun away. As the smoke cleared, the girl still stood before us, unharmed. We silenced immediately as her furious expression changed into a deep frown.
“All right, you idiots,” she said. “You’re in trouble, and I’m here to help. The name is Drea.”
Drea and I sat opposite one another in armchairs, Mars cowering next to me. Drea was more terrifying than before, now seeing her in the light. She had blood stained cloths and resembled more of a zombie/demon hybrid than human - although she still had some attractive demon eyes.
“Uh,” I said. “We’d really appreciate you telling us why you followed us, broke into WGP and then told us that we were in trouble.”
She nodded, disinterested. “Yeah. Right. Okay. So.” She paused. “I hate to tell you this, but…you’re being hunted down by a monster who won’t stop chasing you until he basically rips you up and eats your dead body.” She paused again. “Sorry.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Excuse me?”
She sighed. “Let me phrase this another way.” She paused. “You’re fucked.”
Mars and I exchanged glances. “Uh…what?” Mars managed.
She steepled her fingers a la Doctor Evil, turning to me. “If Garden Tool says your name…” Drea made a chopping motion with her hand. “You’re good as dead.” She paused. “Except for me. I attribute my survival to my intelligence and charm.”
“Garden Tool?”
“That gray thing that came up to your door.” She rolled her eyes. “The grand council of internet virgins uses the name ‘the Rake’ and writes fanfiction about him. I don’t know, it’s kinda bullshit.”
I blinked at her. I was never exactly a horror aficionado, but the fanfiction I read never involved Naked Gray Dog Men. That was a subject I did not want to touch.
Her eyes snapped to mine. “I was a few doors down from you. I heard the screaming and went to investigate.” She paused. “It was after me last week, but I suppose it has a new plaything.” She shrugged. “Now both of us are fucked.”
I threw my hands out. “You say that so casually!”
“It’s pretty easy to talk about death once you’ve accepted the inevitability of it,” she said cheerfully, “and if you're Satan’s daughter.”
There was silence for a moment.
“I can try to help you guys out,” Mars mumbled guiltily.
I turned to her. “Goddamn it, Mars—”
The powerful stench of rotting meat hit me and I stopped; Mars and I both registered it at once and turned to Drea, our eyes tearing and sleeves over our noses.
“Yo, Molly,” Mars whimpered. “It’s that smell!”
Drea wrinkled up her nose. “That isn’t good.”
“What the hell do we do?” I asked desperately.
A knock on the door.
All three of us looked to the front door, still overpowered by the rotting smell. It was about 3 AM. Everybody was at home, sleeping. Who the hell would be at the door at 3 AM?
Mars jumped up from her seat. “I’ll get it—”
“Mars, you idiot!” I grabbed her arm and pulled her back, picking up the shotgun from the side of my chair.
I inched to the door, looking through the peephole.
Darkness. Not the darkness of night, but pure black with a glass sheen. My mind worked to figure out what I was looking at, when I suddenly realized in horror what it was.
An eye.
“Oh, fuck!” I scrambled back just as the door began crashing on its hinges, battered by something huge. Cracks raced across the wood and I cocked the shotgun, aiming it at the door.
“I have no experience shooting a gun,” I said, cowering behind my armchair. Meanwhile, I think Mars wet herself.
Drea sat up in her chair. “We need to leave. Now. Get a car; it’ll catch us on foot.”
The door was almost down. “I don’t have a car.”
Drea looked at Mars and she shook her head, trembling. “Mine’s in the front.”
“Fuck.” She tried to knock the gun out of my hands. “Don’t even bother, that fucker won’t work anyway.”
My eyes bugged at her. “What?”
“We need, like, holy water or some religious shit. I don’t know, don’t ask Satan’s daughter about those holy dudes.”
“You tell me that now?” I shrieked.
The door fell down with the splintering of wood and a huge crash.
The three of us shot behind one armchair to hide, which was both stupid and ineffective. I heard claws scratch against the wood floor as whatever broke down the door walked into the room. There was silence for a few moments, coupled with wheezing, before I heard a familiar, rasping voice. I knew instantly what had just broken down the door.
“Meeeaatt…come outtt.”
Garden Tool.
When you’re about to die, you notice the little things in life. Like the fact that the kitchen faucet was dripping, carelessly left on by Mars, or the sudden knowledge that you forgot to pick up beef jerky from the store. The little things.
Death was approaching, and I knew that in that moment, we weren’t infinite.
We were fucked.
I eyed Drea, muttering to her. “Are you absolutely positive a gun won’t work against it?”
“Well, it won’t kill it.”
“Stun?”
“I guess…”
“Commeee out, meattt…”
I shot up from behind the armchair and pumped lead into the monster, tumbling back from the shotgun’s recoil. I attempted to say something suave, like “This time, it’s personal,” or some shit, but all I said was, “AUGGGG”.
As I fell back, Garden Tool did too, lurching back with the shots and splattering the room with black blood— but just as he rolled on the floor he rose again, bullet wounds filling up with flesh. The blood faded. That was definitely not normal.
I stood, paralyzed, as he stalked forward. The thing cracked a grin, revealing stained sharp teeth, black eyes narrowed. He knew that I was terrified.
“Guns don’t workkk.”
Suddenly, I heard a shout behind me:
“GET AWAY FROM HER!”
Mars came through for me again, hefting an armchair over her head with a mighty roar and heaving it at Garden Tool. The monster tried to duck away but the chair was too large and it smashed into his body, trapping him back in a corner. Black blood began to pool around the chair and his twitching limbs.
The three of us stared at the bloodied armchair.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
The armchair moved and in a split second the three of us tore up the stairs while Garden Tool was incapacitated, stuffing ourselves back into the box.
“Why the fuck didn’t we run outside?” Drea asked angrily at us.
“We can’t worry about that now,” I whispered. I turned to Mars. “GirlsPlay talk. What the fuck do we do?”
“I don’t know, Molls,” Mars sniffed. Tears appeared in her eyes. “I’m scared. Guns don’t work. Chairs don’t even work. What the literal fuck?!”
“Mars, we’ll get through this.” I grabbed her hand. “Remember the power of friendship. I love you.”
“I love you too, Molly.”
“Okay. What do we do?”
“I got the keys to my car, we just need to get to the front of the building.”
“How?” Drea whispered angrily, cutting into our heartfelt friendship fest.
“A distraction,” Mars whispered. “How about I jump out, start flapping my arms and meowing—”
Garden Tool threw the closet door open, screeching in fury. I screamed and for once in my life, had a good aim— I shot him directly in the mouth; he jerked back from the force, screaming in pain and frothing blood.
“FUCKING MOVE!” Drea howled, pushing us into a run. We barreled to the front of the house, Garden Tool springing up and tearing after us.
I leapt through the busted front door and shot out into the winter night, stuffing myself into the passenger seat of Mars’s car. Mars and Drea followed suite, Mars taking the driver’s seat and Drea tumbling into the back of the car. I cocked the shotgun as Mars struggled to take her keys and stick it in the ignition, much like R. Kelly.
“Mars, MOVE!” I yelled.
Mars blinked back tears. “I’m scared!”
I pulled her into the passenger’s seat, jamming the shotgun into her hands and shoving myself into the driver’s seat. I heard scrabbling outside the car.
Garden Tool leapt onto the front of the car and then smashed it’s head on the windshield. I gunned the engine and floored the car forward; Mars blasted a bullet into the windshield, missing Garden Tool completely and blowing a massive hole in the car. Glass exploded everywhere; I threw my arms up to shield my face as Garden Tool forced his torso through the broken glass, screeching in my face.
His breath smelled like, guess what, surprise, that rotting meat smell that followed him everywhere. He was about to lunge at me when Drea shot up from the back seat and threw something around his neck, pulling back.
Garden Tool shrieked, choking, scrabbling to untangle itself from whatever was choking it. I caught a glimpse of the restraint for a split second, saying, “Drea, The Mistress” on it. A choker. How she fucking got one out of nowhere, fuck if I know.
Drea let go of the choker and Garden Tool fell back from the front of the car. I rammed the gas and the car roared before shooting forward, running over the creature with a satisfied thump and roll of wheels.
We burned rubber onto the street, shooting into Salem city. Drea looked back and saw Garden Tool for a split second, slowly rising from the ground. She flipped him off.
“Drea, DON’T TAUNT HIM,” I screamed back at her.
“Whatever, mom!”
I drove blindly, flashing past side streets and continuing deep into the city. The more people, the safer. “Okay, Drea, where the fuck do we go?”
“I’m kind of hungry,” she mumbled. “McDonalds?”
“You said that religious items hurt him? All religious items? Plus, where’d you get that choker?”
“My father gave it to me at his church; the Church of Satan.”
“Can you tell me how to get there?”
“Sure, but we’ll have to bust in.”
“I don’t care. If you think it’s safe, we’re going there.”
Drea gave me a look that wasn’t the most confident thing I wanted to see, but I steeled myself and turned onto the highway, burning rubber the rest of the way.
Soon enough, we rolled up to a darkened church on one of Salem’s smaller streets. A sign with faded lettering stood in front of the church. The road was deserted.
“Welcome home,” Drea muttered. “I forgot how old it was.”
“Well, let’s get inside before that thing hunts us down…” I got out and slammed the car door behind me, tossing the keys to Mars. I pulled on the church’s front door, armed with the shotgun. Locked, obviously. I had no clue how to pick a lock, let alone bust a door down, but I wasn’t going to look like an idiot in front of Drea and Mars. I had already shot a monster in the face; might as well continue my descent into badassery.
Mars stood next to me at the door, frowning. “I don’t like this, Molls…”
“I know, Mars. But this is all we can do right now.”
She paused, eyes downcast. “This is all my fault. I’m sorry, Molls. I’m the worst friend ever.”
I punched her shoulder. “Hey, don’t be like that. You’re the best friend ever.”
“But you still condemned your friend to death,” Drea chimed in, worming her way into the conversation. Mars went back to looking depressed.
I turned back to the locked door and began using the shotgun as a kind of battering ram before Drea shoved me aside. “Shithead. Let me do it. You’re not fooling anyone.”
I quailed away as she got busy picking the lock, finishing with a smug smirk and the click of an unlocked door. She cracked open the door, smile turning into a frown. “Jesus. I forgot what a dump this place was.”
The three of us piled into the church, locking the door behind us. Drea flipped on some lights and the space illuminated in a disappointing array of empty chairs and a fake wooden podium. It looked nothing like the predominantly white-Catholic churches of Oregon. Bowls of what I assumed were blood stood at random places in the church. A massive Satan crucifix was poised behind the altar, weeping blood tears.
Drea flopped down in a seat. “Well, here we are. Feel free to start praying. I don’t know.”
I paced the back of the church. “Okay, so, I propose that we create a gun filled with holy water and wine, call it the Baptizer 2000, and then—”
“Uhhh,” Drea said.
I turned to her. “Uh, what?”
She paused before muttering, “I kind of lied about the power of Jesus thing.”
I frowned at her. “Excuse me?”
“The religion thing?” She avoided eye contact. “Actually, that was just a guess.”
“WHAT,” I screamed.
She thrust up the satan necklace she had used to choke Garden Tool. “My father gave me this from this church, and that seemed to work. I threw a dollar-store necklace at Garden Tool once and he laughed. I don’t know, okay?”
Mars finally seemed to comprehend what was going on. “So…you drove us out here for nothing?”
“No! I know there’s something about this place that must work, it’s just…” she gave a little shrug. I saw her face sadden. “I was actually hoping you two could help me. You didn’t think I broke into your house just because I wanted to help you out, did you?”
“You don’t seem like the most charitable person.” I glared at her.
She matched my glare. “Fuck yo-”
She silenced at a far off noise - the sharp, muffled ring of a telephone.
I scanned the room and saw the telephone perched on the far side of the room. I started towards the phone as Mars yelped, “Wait, Molls!”, but I caught the call on the last ring, answering with a hard, “Hello”. I was getting tired of these games.
Static on the other end.
“This isn’t scary,” I said. “I live in Salem, for fucks sake!”
There was a pop of sound, before:
“Where are you going?”
I shrieked like a small child and hung up the phone. Suddenly, there was a bang and the church lights cut to black. I froze, my voice taken away.
“Molls?” Mars’s far away voice called.
“What the FUCK,” I responded.
Something slammed into my temple and white-hot pain split through my head. I fell back, my mind going dizzy for a minute, the darkness and sudden sounds of shouting mixing together in my head. I figured that this was what a hangover felt like. I tried to get up but I struggled; after a minute I managed to stumble to my feet again. Something was strange.
The church was completely silent.
I steadied myself on the wall, pinching the bridge of my nose. My head pounded.
“Mars?” I called. “Drea?”
Silence; the pain in my head made it hard to think straight and I ended up stumbling backwards. I thought I was going to hit the wall but instead I fell back into a seat behind a heavy curtain. I panicking for a moment, feeling walls around me, but then I thought back to my church days— a confession box.
I rested my head in my hands, rubbing my head. “Jesus Christ…”
“Yesss…?”
I looked up, eyes wide. That was definitely not the voice of Jesus.
That was the voice of Garden Tool.
“You are not Jesus!” I yelled in a random direction, blind in the darkness.
Garden Tool rasped a laugh; I realized he was on the other side of the confession box. The stench of rotting meat filled the air. “I have something that is everything to youuu…”
“What, the movie? I don’t care what you steal from me!”
“Return to this church at dawn and I will let her go.”
My heart dropped. “What…?”
The lights suddenly flashed back on. I hissed and squinted before stumbling out of the confession box and throwing the curtain aside. Garden Tool was gone.
I cursed under my breath and suddenly remembered Mars and Drea before running to the front of the church. Drea was just raising herself up off the ground, a hand at her bloodied head.
Mars was gone.
“I feel like I just got hit by a truck…” Drea mumbled, still groggy.
“Mars!?” I rushed past her, screaming Mars’s name. At some point I tripped on a chair and tumbled onto the floor, but instead of getting up I just stayed there for a while, crying. I knew my search was fruitless— Mars was gone.
Return to this church at dawn and I will let her go.
I eventually got up, Drea standing over me. “What the fuck just happened?”
I swallowed. “Garden Tool took Mars.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
I whipped around to her. “The religion shit didn’t work, Drea!” I yelled, kicking a chair. “All of this is bullshit! He took Mars, Drea! You took us here for nothing! NOTHING!”
“I didn’t promise anything.” Her voice was hard and cold. “I could’ve just left you two to die. Instead, I try to help. You should be thanking me for even trying.”
She threw her arms up in huge movements to show all that she did for us, which added up to breaking into WGP, forcing Mars to cut up a pineapple, asking to go to McDonalds when we were being hunted down, and then taking us to a random Satan worshiping church.
I stormed away from her, and, having nowhere else to go, walked up to the altar. I sat down at the front of it and attempted to pray, but no matter how desperate I was, I was still an Atheist. I attempted to be proud of my mental fortitude.
I put my head in my hands and struggled to be calm. All I had to do was face Garden Tool at dawn and Mars would be fine. Mars would be fine. Mars would be fine.
There was still a massive hole in my heart as I attempted to comprehend my own death at the claws of a monster. The fear was there, but no hesitation— Mars was my main girl, my heterosexual life partner. I would take a bullet for her, let alone sacrifice myself to a monster. she would do the same. I looked up at Jesus hanging over the altar. I suppose that’s why people coveted religion so much— the feeling that someone had your back, no matter what.
A thought suddenly shot through my mind.
My eyes widened and I got up from my seat, effectively standing in awe of my own brilliant idea.
I knew exactly what to do.
Drea puttered up behind me, giving me a skeptical look. “Are…are you okay?”
“…I’m fine. I’m perfectly fine.” I turned to look back at her. “Hey, Drea?”
“What?”
“Where’s the closest place we can buy dynamite?”
Dawn.
The sun peeked through the windows as I stood at the altar of the church, smoking a cigarette. The cigarette tasted disgusting, but I looked like an absolute badass so I was struggling through it.
The monster was due to appear any minute now, and I had my shotgun at the ready. If my plan worked, it would be the most epic day of my life. The birth of my first-born child would be welcomed with an apathetic nod, because nothing would be as beautiful as this moment. If my plan didn’t work, Mars and I would both be dead.
You win some, you lose some.
There was the loud bang of a slammed door somewhere from within the church, and I whipped around to see Garden Tool slinking from the front of the church, black eyes shining. He wore a massive grin of needles. That hunched, gray form was nothing human or animal— and he dragged something along behind him in one of his claws.
He was dragging an unconscious Mars behind him, my best friend completely out but otherwise unharmed. For a minute I thought she was dead, but then I saw the light rise and fall of her sides, indicating her breathing.
As Garden Tool neared me, his eyes flickered and he noticed the shotgun in my hand. He hesitated for a moment before leaving Mars behind on the floor and slinking closer.
“You never said no weapons,” I said nervously, as if using logic would appeal to a gray dog-human monster.
He hissed a laugh. “I fear no weaponnn. Prepare for deathhh.”
Garden Tool tensed, looking ready to pounce, and I released an incredibly pathetic whimper of fear. I caught myself, attempting to remain stoic.
“This isn’t a regular gun,” I managed, relatively close to peeing myself in fear. Garden Tool suddenly seemed to notice that I had modified my gun with something. Don’t ask how I modified it; I’m in AP Engineering. “I call this baby the Baptizer 2000. Not only does it shoot bullets, but holy water too.”
“Your pathetic religion won’t kill meee…” Garden Tool hissed with laughter once more, squinting in delight. He moved from his crouched position, and my fear dampened. He was amused.
“You know, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.” I paused to exhale smoke from the cigarette, attempting not to choke and start tearing up. “I’ve been contemplating life.”
“Sucideee?” he asked, hopefully.
“No. I’ve been thinking about all of the joys of life, and what makes all of our struggles meaningful.” You could’ve heard a pin drop; Garden Tool’s expression became slightly confused. “I know that religion might not hurt you…but you know what will?” I paused, letting it soak in.
“Love. Love will kill you.”
Although he tried to hide it, I saw his expression flicker into one of absolute fear, and then switch immediately back to an expression of amusement. “Love? Love? Emotion is nothingggg.”
“You keep on saying that things are nothing. You’re wrong. Love is everything. Back in my house? The shotgun and armchair hurt you because Mars and I were protecting one another. Drea’s necklace worked because her father gave it to her.”
As I ended my speech, Garden Tool’s eyes widened. Damn, I should’ve written my thesis paper on that shit. It was pure gold.
“Garden Tool, you’re right. Religion won’t hurt you. But you know what will?” I cocked the gun. “This, and 100 pounds of explosives. Filled with love. WGP love.”
Garden Tool didn’t react; I knew that he didn’t want me to see his confusion. I cocked my head at the Satan statue behind me. He glanced at the statue, its arms held out in a welcoming gesture— arms now full of dynamite, dynamite that I bought using my credit card at a shady downtown Oregon weapons shop. The dynamite gathered in a string that lead down to directly in front of me. Garden Tool couldn’t contain his shock; he whipped his head at me with an expression of pure fury. His nostrils flared.
He lunged at me, claws out and jaws agape, and I shot him square in the mouth with a combination of holy water and bullets. Garden Tool seemed to freeze and drop in mid-air like lead; crumpling on the ground and frothing from the mouth. An inhuman gargle ran from his jaws. He attempted to rise; I shot his back and he crumpled up, howling.
I stepped up to him, tossing my gun aside. I daintily held my cigarette in my fingertips. I was glad to stop smoking it, smoking tasted like shit.
“You’re reign of terror is over, Garden Tool,” I said. “Never again will you prey on random innocents.”
Through his gurgling and writhing, I saw something slip from one of his eyes, as clear as day. A tear.
My heart fell. I wasn’t as badass as I would’ve liked to think I was, despite the despicable nature of the creature. I blotted out the cigarette on one of the chairs and aimed the gun at Garden Tool’s head.
“Au revoir, asshole,” I said. It was the best I could do.
I ended up pulling Mars’s dead weight by her foot. I had to bump the church door open with my back and drag her through, but as I was doing so the door accidentally closed on her head and she woke her a start.
She held the door open, sitting up and blinking groggily at me. “Mars…?” she suddenly snapped back into consciousness and jumped up, crushing me in a massive hug. “MOLLY! YOU’RE ALIVE!”
We pulled back. “I’ve never been more alive!”
Tears sprung up in her eyes. “And you saved me, Molls.”
We fist bumped. “Hey, Mars. That’s what I do best.”
We walked out from the church and to where Drea was waiting outside, leaning against Mars’s car. After taking a tour through more of the unsavory parts of Oregon, trolling for explosives, she wasn’t exactly happy with me.
She sighed and cocked an eyebrow. “So, did you kill him? I thought there was supposed to be a giant ass explosion and you walk out of the church; triumphant.”
“He’s dead, but no explosion.” I paused, shrugging. “I really didn’t want to blow up a church. Also, I guess I’m not one for theatrics and death in the same situation.”
Suddenly, the church exploded behind me, filling the air with a massive boom and an upward rush of smoke and fire. The three of us jumped behind the car, watching the church’s frame burn and crackle.
My eyes widened. “Shit! That wasn’t supposed to happen!”
Mars patted me on the back. “Yo, Molly, don’t worry about it. The Satan worshipers can fix it.” Drea glared at her.
We sat back against the car and all took deep breaths. I nodded at Mars. “Well, buddy, everything turned out okay. Want to go back to WGP and play some MKX?”
“Most definitely, Molly.”
So the three of us drove Mars’s completely destroyed car back to WGPH, stepped through the busted-in front door, and sat down to play MKX. Even though our adventure amounted to several million dollars in damage and probably months of therapy for Mars and I both, I had my friend by my side. And when it comes right down to it, religion or no religion, afterlife or no afterlife, good life or bad life, the people you love are all that matter.
At that moment, life was good.
I looked up from the game for a moment to see Mars on the other side of the room and looking out my busted up front door.
“Yo, Molly,” she said, scratching her head. “Why don’t we go out?”
I paused the game then stood up, “Alright, cool. It’ll get our minds off things.”
We walked through the woods where a natural path was made by a small creek. About 150 feet away from WGP there was a medium sized clearing in the woods with random pieces of junk scattered at either end. When I asked about it, I was told that it was just a random clearing. Mars happened to love that place and would go out every once in awhile to just chill. I stopped to tie my shoes, and then we continued deeper into the trees.
About a few minutes of walking, Mars suddenly stopped and by instinct I stopped as well. She looked down at the ground and asked me, “Are you wearing any good shoes?”
“No,” I replied, scared for the reason she asked. “Why do you ask?” I questioned.
Mars replied, “It's about to get very muddy, very quickly.” About two days ago it had rained and apparently, since the trees blocked the sun, the ground wasn’t able to evaporate the excess moisture. So in certain parts of the forest, there were huge mud spots.
“Hey! What are you guys doing?” someone exclaimed. Mars’s eyes immediately widened, and without a word she started sprinting into the woods, through the mud hole. I had no choice but to follow her, and getting my Nikes marinated in mud in the process. We probably ran for a good five to seven minutes before Mars slowed down. I waited a minute to catch my breath, and asked,
“Who was that?”
“I have no idea,” Mars replied. I left it at that and kept walking. After a few more minutes, we entered a clearing about the size of a baseball field.
“Wow!” I exclaimed. It was just stunning. In the middle of the clearing ran a clear water stream, gushing over rocks with a slight gurgling sound. A fallen tree trunk about four feet in diameter lay down on one side of the river, leaning up against a tall tree. The tree trunk was slanted, with its highest point about fifteen feet in the air. The tree was covered in graffiti and carvings, as were most of the skinny trees around it. The air smelled fresh of moss and leaves, which were the color of fire, a golden red with a slight tinge of yellow.
Mars said that she had dropped her phone while running, and went back to retrace her steps.
When she came back, she gave me a knife, and told me to carve my name onto some trees. I had managed to carve several words. The first was on the giant trunk, on which I wrote my name with the year 2016 next to it. On a thinner tree I carved my initials with the year, and on another tree I carved just my initials. Right when I finished putting some final touches on the third carving, Mars came up behind me and said that I shouldn’t claim all the trees as mine.
The two of us found a rock on the stream that was wide and wouldn’t touch the water, and we sat on it. We sat for about five minutes, observing the flow of the water, the songs of the birds, the whisper of the wind, and rustle of the leaves, and the sighing of our breath. It felt like life, like this is what people should be doing everyday to get away from the stress of work and school. For those few minutes, I forgot all my homework, all my problems. Everything. I might not even have answered to my name. All I thought about was the serenity and silence surrounding me.
After a little bit, we started to head back. We grabbed all of our stuff and went back the way we came. We walked very quietly. As if both of us was still lost in the peace of the woods.
I heard something behind me, I spun around to see Mars collapse onto the ground. I ran over to her, kneeling down. I took her hand in mine, checking for a pulse. When I find one, I lift her shoulders and prop her up,
“Mars? Mars!” I start shaking her, violently,
“MARS!!!” I heard the rustling of leaves again. As I’m standing up, I feel a burning pain from the side of my head. My vision gets blurry as I fall. I look around and find Mars’s hand. I grab it in mine as my eyes flutter close.
“I love you, Mars” I say weakly, as my eyes close and my breath becomes calmed.
It’s so… peaceful here.
Such quiet...
Such calm...
Don’t fight it...
I awake to the sounds of heavy breathing and whining. At first, I think it’s a dog - but I’m wrong. I open my eyes and see flashing lights and my eyes burn until they get used to the light. It takes me a couple minutes to realize I'd woken up in the woods. Why the hell would I wake up in the middle of the damn woods? Could I have gotten drunk? I don’t remember drinking alcohol. I don’t remember anything!
I lift my head and it hurts like hell. I can't move my neck; it's so sore. I lift my torso up and rest back on my arms. I get light headed so I just sit there until the dizziness goes away.
I open my eyes again and see a black figure on the ground a few feet away from me. It's just laying there. I try to stand up, but I can't move my legs. I can't even feel my legs. They aren't asleep though. Usually when your legs are just asleep, it feels all tingly and it kind of hurts, too. I try grabbing my shins and propping them up on my feet. I get both of my legs to balance on my feet, but I still can't stand up. I try and try, over and over again, but I can't do it. I begin crying.
I wake up again and I have no idea what is going on. All I know is that I want to go home and be with Mars. That’s all I want… and as I weep, it gets harder to breathe and I start to make louder noises. Then the black figure a few feet away from me moves. It looks like it's trying to get up and it… it’s struggling, like I was. It gasps loudly and starts to sob and groan as well. I recognize the voice. It's Mars.
"Mars?" I ask. "Mars, is that you?"
"Where are we? Why are we out here? How did we get out here?" she asks, barely able to talk through her tears.
"I don't know. I can't get up. I can't feel my legs. I think I'm paralyzed," I said, starting to cry more.
She gets on her knees and crawls over to me. The flashing lights off in the distance make her visible every couple of seconds. I scream and cry uncontrollably when I see her.
"Mars!" I yell. "Your face! Your neck!"
"What?!" she yells back.
"What happened to you?!" I scream.
She has cut marks all over her face. One of her eye brows is completely missing; she has cut marks on her cheeks and forehead and one going from her eye, through her nose and lips and to the tip of her chin. I can see her chin bone through the wound. There are cuts on her shoulders and collarbone and after moving closer to put my arms around her, I see the most terrifying wound. Her neck had been cut and it was still gushing out blood.
"It looks like someone tried to kill us! You're badly hurt! We need to get to an ambulance," I yell.
She raises her hands to feel around my face, but it just makes matters worse. Her ring finger is missing… her right index fingers are missing… and her hands and arms are all cut up as well. She screams and keeps screaming until I start yelling at her to be quiet.
"Listen! We're never going to get out of here alive unless you calm down and think!" I yell at her.
She keeps on crying and gets closer to me. Just as I am about to put my arms around her, she jolts back and pushes on me with her hands to get me away.
"What?" I ask.
"You got blood on me. You're hurt too!" she says.
"Where?!" I ask. "Where am I hurt?!"
She gets even closer to get a better look. She puts her hands up to her mouth and closes her eyes. She is trying to say something, but it sounds mumbled because her hands are in the way.
"What did you say??" I ask.
"You're shot!" she yelled. "Right in the head!"
I feel around my hair until I find a hole. She's right. I am shot. I can feel it on the side of my head… and the other.
"But am I all cut up?!" I ask.
She looks around my body and doesn't find anything. I take my shirt off so she can wrap it around her neck and the sudden surge of cold air that hits my back feels like a thousand needles. I tell her to look at my torso and back. As she searches my torso, she doesn't find anything, but as she looks at my back, she screams once again.
“What?!”
"There's a huge hole in your back!" she yells. "It's from top to bottom! Only half of your spine is there!"
"What the fuck!" I yell.
That explains why I couldn't move my legs before.
"Listen! Listen! We have to get out of here! Okay? So you need to calm down and listen to me. You need to drag me by the hands. I know you can do it. Let's go towards those lights. It might be a party or tow truck picking up an abandoned car or something."
"Okay. I can do that," she says.
She grabs me by my shoulders and turns me over on my stomach and then grabs my left hand. I use my right hand to raise my upper body up off the ground and I use my hand like a leg or like how a monkey walks so that we can get out of the woods faster. I look at our hands holding onto each other. I can feel the nub where her right index finger used to be. It's bad timing, but I puke. I puke all over my right hand on the ground. She drags me through it, but I don't care. We're both covered in blood and sweat and now puke, but we will survive this, I think to myself, we have to.
The closer to the lights we get, the more we start to hear voices, the clearer they became. It's a party for sure, I think. I don't know what else it could be. "We're almost there," Mars says.
"The lights are just a couple blocks away."
We're coming downhill, so it's easier to see the lights outside the tree line. It looks like there's a small clearing, so it has to be a road.
"It's a tow truck!" I say. "I knew it!"
We both start becoming really excited. We go down the hill and we see it wasn't a tow truck, but a group of 4 cop cars and 2 ambulances.
"Were they searching for us?!" I ask excitedly.
"I think so!" Mars says.
"Over here!" I yell. "We're over here! We're Molly and Mars!" I begin to run out of breathe from crawling and screaming. "I can't talk anymore, Mars. You get their attention." I say.
"Over here! We're coming! We're badly hurt!" Mars screams.
We can see 4 police officers standing together talking, 2 with dogs and we can see 2 more police officers putting down flares in the road to stop oncoming traffic from getting too close. We get to the bottom of the hill and out of the trees and onto the shoulder of the road. Mars gets too excited and she lets go of my hand. I don't catch myself and I land face first into a pile of mud. My head hitting the ground so hard makes me dizzy and I can't collect my strength to pull myself up again until I'm almost out of breathe and drowning in the mud.
"Come back!” I yell, “Pull me!"
Mars comes back and grabs my hand and starts pulling me again. My stomach is getting torn up on the pavement of the road, but I don't mind, it's not as if I had any choice in the matter. We are safe now anyways. She drags me around the ambulance onto the street and we see 2 gurneys with bodies on them. They are wrapped in blankets and have a million tubes and bags surrounding them. She drags me closer and we realize… it's us on the gurneys.
We freeze.
Neither of us move.
We don't know what to say, think or do. We are both paralyzed at that point. I look down to the ground with my mouth open. I can hear the medics talking.
"What happened to the female?" one of the medics asks, looking towards a gurney where a body with black hair lay.
"Gun shot to the head and get this - the guy ripped out half of her spine. He cut open her back and ripped out half of her spine. I don't know how he did it. Probably used a saw or something. I don't know," the other medic replies.
"And the other?" said the medic, looking towards a body with abnormally thin limbs,
"Slit neck, multiple stab wounds and cuts all over the body and two missing fingers," the second medic says,
“They have already done all they can to stop the bleeding from her neck until they get to the hospital and they are using a breathing mask on her.”
I look up and see a bright light form around the Mars I'm with. She turns around and looks at me, crying. She disappears. I lower my head once again and start to sob. Then I hear something. I hear coughing. I look up and I see Mars trying to get out of the bed and the medics are trying their hardest to keep her down. She begins crying uncontrollably and screaming about how she can save me and she knows where I am. She looks over in the direction where she sees me. I swear we make eye contact and just as we do, I became so full of hope. I know I am going to be saved. I crawl over to my bed where I am and I wait. I never come back.
The ambulance leaves and so does Mars and the police. I sit here in the middle of nowhere, dead and alone. I begin to beat myself in the head with my fists then grab a rock. I hear bones breaking and I knock myself unconscious. But I just wake up, still sitting here and with the rock in my hand like nothing happened.
"Kill me!" I start to scream. "If I could, I would! Just do it!"
At that moment, I begin to hear whispers. It sounds like they are coming from all around me. I plug my ears and then they become silent. I look around and down the street; I think I see another black figure. I start crawling towards it and as I get closer, I realize it is a man in a black robe. He starts walking towards me as well. We get to be a couple feet from each other and I am just staring at him. I can't see his face because of the robe, but I can see his hands. They are white with black sharp fingernails.
"Who are you?" I ask. "Just kill me."
As I finish my last sentence, the man grabs me by the throat, digs his fingernails in my neck, picks me up and throws me into a brown burlap sack. He tightens the opening to it and walks off into the woods and disappears.