Delcie said.
“What did he look like?” Jen asked.
“Oh, fairly tall, but not too. Dark, red, bushy hair. Freckles.” Jen felt the skin on the back of her neck go up. She had just gotten rid of the headache. It had lasted for quite a while after he dropped her off at the edge of town.
“Dark eyes?” Jen asked
“Yes! Really dark. Kind of spooky. Too dark maybe”
“What was he wearing?” Jen asked, already suspecting the answer.
“I don’t remember much except that everything looked like it was way too small on him. Like he was wearing clothes he’d had for a long time, or that he’d stolen from his little brother or something.”
“I think I met him too.” Jen said, tight lipped.
“You did? Where? Delcie asked. Now Jen had to figure out how much she was willing to divulge about this afternoon’s walk.
“I think I got a ride from the same guy. I was just taking a walk this morning, and, well, I got kind of lost. It was weird. I was walking down a logging road, and it was like I was going into some forest that was so dense you couldn’t see into it, so I decided to turn around, and he was just kind of there. In a jeep. Waiting for me.”
“How did he get there?”
“I think he just drove around the gate to get in, but I’m not sure. It was just really weird that he was there at all. Like he expected to find me there. Then he takes me into town and won’t drop me off in town, but about a quarter mile or so away. I thought it was weird, and kind of rude, but he just kept smiling – smiling all the time – and turned around and drove back. I ran into you guys not too long after that. I was still a little rattled. I never took my eyes off of him. It was an old beat up jeep, like from World War two. It was open, with no top, and I thought if he did anything weird, I’d just jump out, but…” Jen stopped herself. She was sounding kind of paranoid. Really, the only weird thing that happened was the trees, and she supposed she could come up with a rational explanation of that. Her mind kept trying to tell herself that everything was normal, but some patient little voice way back in her head kept saying “No, it wasn’t.”
“OK, check this out. I’m in Maples. You know, that greasy little department store? This kind of cute guy just appears on the aisle I’m on. He’s got to be the same guy. T-shirt old and way too small, pants too small, but still had the legs rolled up weird. And weird old shoes with pennies in the front, like loafers or something.”
Jen remembered the shoe in the shaft of light at the house. Her head was throbbing again and she felt pale.
“That’s him.”
“Well, as I’m walking by, I’m kind of checking him out a little, and he’s smiling looking at what he has in his hand, and as I pass him, he gives it to me. It’s this beautiful white rose blossom. He just gives it too me, and I take it up to the checkout but by the time I got there, it was all dead and dried. Not like it wilted, but like it had been there a long, long time. And I look back in the store and he’s nowhere. I mean that store is not big enough to hide in, and he’s just not there. I left to go find my mom, and watched the front door to the store for a while, and nobody came out.”
Jen sat in silence for a moment. “That’s not all. I mean about the boy. I think he was at this house I went to the other day. A house I went to with a guy I met. Another guy. Normal guy. Cute guy.”
“What’s his name?” Delcie said, sounding just a little more predatory than Jen liked.
“Oh, Tanner. He’s nice. I just met him. We went out in his boat. And we wound up at this very strange lake house.”
“What do you mean?”
Jen found that she didn’t really have the words to describe what she and Tanner had experienced. It’s not that she didn’t think Delcie would believe her. It was that no matter how she thought about it, there wasn’t a good way to describe how she’d felt there.
“I think maybe the boy was there. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. You ever go someplace where you just feel really uncomfortable? Really creeped out for no reason whatsoever?”
“Yeah. The library.” Delcie said. Jen laughed a little between throbs of her headache.
“Right. You know what I mean. Just a really bad feeling like you want to leave as soon as possible. This place was like that. It was dark in the middle of the day.” Jen said. Delcie had a quizzical look on her face.
“Let’s go there. Then I’ll know what you mean.” she said, with an adventurous light coming into her eyes. Jen thought for a moment.
“I want Tanner with us.” She said. Delcie looked a little put off.
“We have to have a guy with us?” she jabbed at Jen. Jen looked at her. Delcie could be a little “high maintenance” she was beginning to think, but Jen still saw the good glow in her eyes; a persistent, somewhat self-focused, but genuine character shone there. She smiled back at her.
“Nah! Who needs ‘em?” She joked. “Except I don’t know how to get there. It’s all the way across the lake.”
“Can’t we drive there?” Delcie said.
“I don’t think so. If you can, I don’t know how. I mean, it’s like 10 minutes away across the lake in a boat, but miles by road, even if you knew what road to take…”
“Well, I’ve got a car, a full tank of gas. Let’s get some food and go!” Delcie said, thrilled to have something to do and somebody to do it with.
Jen thought for a moment, then grinned. The creepiness of the afternoon had worn off, dusk was falling, and the world seemed so safe inside the big Volvo. Her headache was even easing up a bit.
“Let’s eat, then we’ll check it out, ok?”
“Yes!” Delcie said, as they pulled into the only drive-in in town. Jen had a huge greasy cheeseburger and root beer float and was ready for a challenge, and an adventure with a new friend.
The House at Night
“It’s got to be this road.” Delcie said, and Jen wondered how she would know, especially at night. The sun set quickly amidst the deep pines. Twilight was brief, and full darkness came down surprisingly quickly. She thought that Delcie just wanted to cruise around, which was fine with her. She wasn’t particularly thrilled with the notion of going to the lake house at night.
Delcie eased the SUV around the logging road gate. The sign said “Closed to thru traffic”. Jen wasn’t nuts about getting on another logging road. She checked to make sure the door was locked. She was pretty sure this would just wind up being a ride in the woods at night. She couldn’t imagine a lake house as remote as this one would be easily found by road.
They drove for a while without much change in the road which continued to snake around in the dense forest. Eventually, small patches of pine needles blown onto the road in clumps gave way to larger clumps, until finally Delcie found herself slowing as the road was almost entirely covered with pine needles. No cars had been here recently, or if they had, in such small numbers as to leave the pine detritus almost untouched on the road. It was eerily quiet, the pine needles completely muffling the sound of the tires on the road. Delcie rolled the windows down. The cool pine scent and gentle breeze wafted through the car. Jen looked out her window in the gloom, more than just a little apprehensively. She feared that they were actually on the right road.
The woods at night are always a little strange. Even a small patch of trees can take on ominous dark shapes at night, and the deep tall pines of Northern Wisconsin became almost like a scene from another planet. Occasional ghostly white birches almost seemed to leap out into the headlights. Jen didn’t feel like she had any business being there. During the day, the woods belonged to people. At night, they belonged to the night and the things that go by night. Delcie giggled and cut the headlights off and let the car coast under the shafts of high moonlight. Jen shivered just a little and both girls giggled despite the thrill. Delcie let the car coast to a stop, braking gently.
“Spooky!” she laughed. The night sky was starry and moonless, a dark blue just barely lighter than the dense bl
ack of the trees that obscured it.
“Hope there aren’t any bears around!” Jen said. Delcie looked at her as if to say “You mean there really are bears around here?” The windows went back up in a few seconds as Delcie cut the lights back on.
There, with the headlights feebly illuminating the coarse wood siding, stood the house
Both girls drew deep breaths and sat silently staring. There was no need for Jen to identify the house. Delcie was pretty sure this was it. . It’s straight vertical lines peeked from behind black pines, a ghostly grey, dimly luminescent from the weak light of the stars. It seemed so utterly abandoned and remote that imagining anyone ever living there seemed impossible. Dead black windows surely never shown with light. Sounds surely never swelled from open doors. Smoke surely never curled from a chimney that seemed to tilt dangerously at them, menacing.
“We don’t have any flashlights or anything, do we?” asked Jen.
“Umm. Actually I think there is one in the glove box.” Delcie said, almost as if she regretted admitting it, now more than a bit hesitant to go house exploring. Jen fished it out and tried it; an expensive anodized aluminum light that shone as bright at the headlights.
“Well…?” Jen said, looking at Delcie. Delcie looked at her as if maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. The house already had an effect on her she couldn’t identify.
“I guess. You sure it’s safe?”
“Define safe…” Jen said, popping her door open. She’d already made a deal with herself. The first shoe she saw – anywhere – and she was back in the car and out of there, Delcie or no Delcie.
Instinctively, they grabbed each other’s hand. Delcie handed the flashlight to Jen.
“You lead the way, ok?’
“The porch is really rotten. Let’s walk around back.” Jen said, remembering the open window. However, on turning the corner, the light shone on a back wall with closed windows, none broken or open.
“No way!” Jen harsh-whispered.
“What?!”
“When we were here, Tanner went in right through that window, which was not just open, but broken out completely!” she whispered, pointing the light to the same window. It was now not only whole and complete, but also completely fastened and secure despite its dilapidated state. She simply stared at it in the light’s glare waiting for it to make sense. For a moment she entertained the thought that perhaps this was not the same house. This only lasted a moment, though. Then she thought someone had been there and fixed the window. But the grey weathered wood and dusty dirty glass implied it had been there for a long time.
“Are you sure?” Delcie asked.
“As sure as I’m standing next to you!” Jen said, not willing to walk forward without some understanding of what was happening. She stood silently as if an explanation would come to her somehow. Gradually she worked up the nerve to shine the light in at the nearest window, but this she did with both of them at some distance, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder.
The light panned slowly and erratically through the filmed grimy windowpanes, alternately illuminating spots on the walls, a countertop, the front door and its knob, an ancient fishing pole, an old license plate. Nothing terribly unusual. When she was confident that she’d illuminated most of the interior, at least what she could from where she stood, only then did she walk to the window, Delcie glued to her hip.
“God, this place looks like it’s 200 years old!” Delcie said.
“I know! The wood never got painted, I guess, and it just weathered really badly. I don’t think it’s all that old. That license plate is from 1956.”
“That’s old enough!” Delcie said.
“I agree.” Jen said, without really considering it. She was intent on filling every corner of that room with some light before even thinking about trying the back door. Slowly edging towards the window, she slowly pressed her face against the glass, at the same time fishing the light beam as tight as she could into the corners. She wiped at the glass with the heel of her hand to clear the grime as best she could. Delcie was huddled so close to her behind she could have been in her back pocket.
“Don’t push!” Jen whispered.
“Sorry! See anything?”
“It’s too dark. This window is too dirty, too. I can’t make anything…” Just as she said the words, a glint of light caught the corner of her eye. She stared harder into the darkness. There it was again. Then Delcie screamed. Jen whipped around. What she thought was movement inside was a reflection in the window. Dark shape. Dark shapes. And they were moving behind them.
“Holy shit…” Jen said.
As they whipped around, Jen slashed the beam of light like a sword. There, circling, just in view in the dense pines, shot with starlight as they ducked in and out, occasionally being caught by the flashlight beam, but wincing and retreating from its light, circling them, circling the house, were animals. They looked at first like dogs, but then not. Something like dogs, but not quite – lowering their heads and penning them in, pushing them towards the house; the relative safety of the house. Each movement from each animal brought them slightly closer. Dogs? Their paws – if paws they were – were long. Were those fingers? No, they couldn’t be. Long necks which led to dog-like heads, but the faces had no snouts. Just glowing circles in faces that looked like a child’s deranged cartoon version of a human face. And they were muttering. Delcie saw them first, and started sobbing quietly, whimpering.
“Oh, my God, they’re talking! What the hell are they saying?! Oh, God, Jen!”
The things circled, arching their backs, looking to one another, muttering, looking at them. The dead, grey lights in their eyes were more horrible than anything Jen had ever seen in her life. They had wandered right into a nightmare.
They backed up, not looking, seeking to do anything to get away from the things, and Delcie, in back, hit the door first. It was not locked or latched, and the two nearly fell over each other is they backed through it. Jen sprung forward, dropping the light as she latched the door behind them. Delcie huddled with her back to the door. Jen retrieved the light and shone it out the through the window.
They were gone.
Whatever had been there now gave way to stippled black green shots of moonlit pine limbs and undergrowth. It was impossible for them to all have disappeared so quickly.
“It’s OK. They’re gone. I think.” Jen said.
“No, it’s not OK! What the hell was that?”
“Maybe they were wolves?” Jen said, knowing the neither she nor Delcie thought for one instant that they were anything like wolves.
They stared for a long time out at the darkness, making sure there was no movement. It was so quiet and dark in the house. Only the occasional moonbeam shot through the odd window and briefly lit spots here and there. Jen shone the light around but didn’t want to follow it with her eyes. She feared a shoe would turn up in the spotlight. She felt no safer in here than she did on the porch. Her head was throbbing so hard she could hear the blood pulsing in her ears. She sat, crouching next to Delcie against the door, seeking her closeness. They were suddenly two frightened little girls who had just wanted to do something fun but had wandered off. She was going to have to start listening to this headache, it occurred to her. It comes when bad things happen.
Delcie was first to hear the crying. It came from everywhere at once, it seemed. No; More like from under the floorboards. No, the stairs. No, no, it was coming from outside. It was definitely coming from outside. They didn’t want to look. They could not bring themselves to raise their eyes to see whatever now walked around the house next to the windows, quickly walking, crying while walking, from window to window, from the sounds of the crying, slowing, pausing to look in at each window before moving to the next. It sounded like a child’s crying, but it came from too high. Out of her peripheral vision, Jen could see the tall shape as it blocked the light at each window. The tall, too-tall-for-a-child thing that cried like a child, sobbing
, heartbroken. She would not look directly at the window. She knew somehow that it is what it wanted her to do. To look at it and accept its existence. She would not, and she held Delcie’s face towards her to prevent her from doing the same.
“Oh, Jesus, it wants us in here. We have to get back to the car. We have to get out of here back to the car.” She said. She was afraid it would come in. Delcie lowered her head.”
“I don’t think I can move! Who is it!? Why is it crying?! It sounds like a little boy!” Delcie said.
“Yes, you can, Delcie! You can move! And it’s not a boy. This is bullshit, and we’re getting out of here. Somehow...” Her own rising anger emboldened her. She was pissed, and she welcomed the anger, knowing that it was her survival instinct taking over. She shot the beam of light at the window now occupied by the shape, and then she screamed. And the screaming frightened Delcie, and they rose. Both fearing each other’s screams, they rose and they jerked the door nearly off the hinges, and ran to the car.
They ran, with the sound of crunching pine needles coming from behind them, crunching under the weight of something crying like a child but weighing as much as a football player, they ran. Delcie hurt herself slamming her head in the door in her rush to close it. She floored the Volvo in reverse before Jen could close the door, and the weight of the door flung it wide open, nearly within the reach of the large thing that was so sad and cried so pitifully and terribly. Jen nearly hit three trees in reverse before daring to whip the SUV around, into drive and spinning clouds of pine needles behind them, cutting on the headlights, taillights illuminating the pursuing thing that neither would look at.
In the moonlight, as they left, the shape wept and stopped chasing them. It cried because it wanted them, but it was afraid, too. It – He – wept tears from his black, dead eyes. Sightless, depthless eyes. The things in the trees with their dead light eyes retreated from it. They feared him.
The Ride Home
Delcie cried. Jen would have cried, too, but her headache made her too angry. It was easing now, though. The farther they got from the house, the better it got. She grabbed Delcie’s hand.
“It’s OK, sweetie. It’s OK.”
“No, it’s not. Oh, God, no, it’s not! I hate this. What just happened??”
“I don’t know.” Jen said, and she too began to cry. When back on the main road to town, after tearing over the pine needle covered logging road, swerving wildly around the chained entrance, Delcie pulled the car to the curb and both girls cried hard for a few minutes. It was not even that late yet, but she wanted to go home. She wanted to be around her normal family in their normal, boring lake house, playing a normal, boring game of Monopoly while eating a normal, boring bowl of popcorn. But she couldn’t go