Blood in the Woods Read online

  Justin and I rode side by side, not really talking that much and then Justin looked over to me. “I have to pee,” he said.

  “Well, let’s stop so you can pee, then,” I replied.

  We slowed down and pulled off the road into the long grass that grew next to the ditch. It smelled to me like sewage, but as a kid your senses are a little bit more resilient than when you get older; even now, when I smell someone’s fart, I have to run out the room to get some fresh air.

  And don’t ever ask me to change a shitty diaper, either. Oh screw that; I know that sounds pathetic and I’m not a dirt-bag father or anything, it’s just that my stomach can’t handle that stuff. Corrie used to think I was making excuses so I wouldn’t have to change our son, until I puked all over our living room floor one day while attempting to change him. Once that happened, my dear wife believed me and never bugged me about it again. I think I inherited the weak stomach from my father – thanks Dad, you scumbag.

  As Justin unzipped his shorts and began emptying his little weasel, I noticed something swirling around in the ditch, moving back and forth and making S shaped ripples in the water.

  “Snake!” I screamed.

  Justin was still pissing when I yelled that magic word and he jumped into the air with his tally-whacker still hanging out of his shorts. I mounted my bike and started hauling ass in the general direction of our agreed destination.

  “Wait, Jody! Wait!” Justin yelled as I took off, leaving him behind.

  I had given him the warning, now he had to move fast because I wasn’t coming back. I stopped my bike a good two hundred or so yards away from Snakezilla, and looked back for Justin, who by now was only about twenty yards behind me. I waited a few more seconds and he came to a screeching halt right next to me.

  “Why – the hell – did you leave – me like that?” Justin asked, out of breath from hauling his own ass.

  I glanced down and I saw that the poor kid had pissed his shorts, or at least giving him the benefit of the doubt, he had pissed on his shorts, either during the scare or the ride over to me. Justin noticed that I was looking at his crotch and he turned a little red with embarrassment.

  “It would have happened to you too if your pecker was out when someone screamed snake,” Justin grumbled angrily.

  “I’m sorry, Justin. I hate snakes and I had to get out of there. At least I gave you a heads up.”

  “Next time you give me a heads up; just make sure my pecker isn’t hanging out,” Justin said.

  He was smiling now, and I knew that the snake hadn’t foiled our plans for seeing the trailer in the woods. We both snickered about the whole thing as we got back on our bikes and headed for the woods across the street from Angela’s house.

  As we rounded the corner of Rhine Road, which quickly turned straight again after only a few feet, I caught a glimpse of an old dirt driveway that was to our left. It was right at the bend in the road and appeared to be pretty much overgrowing with weeds and grass. Intrigued, I made a mental note of the driveway and moved on.

  We kept on pedaling until we got to about fifty yards away from Angela’s house, and my heart began beating fast once more, and my sweat felt like it was pouring out of my body. I didn’t understand why I reacted that way every time I started thinking about her, or even when someone mentioned her name, at times it felt like I was going to pass out.

  “You alright, Jody?” Justin asked.

  “Yes... I’m fine. Now, where’s this eighteen-wheeler trailer again?”

  “It’s through the woods, over there. You see that board that’s been laid across the ditch?” Justin pointed down the street.

  I squinted so I could get a better view, and noticed that there was a raggedy two-by-four stretched across the ditch, and it looked like it could collapse at any minute.

  “Yeah – I see it,” I said.

  “That’s where we cross over to get to the trail that leads you to the trailer.”

  “You sure you know where this place is at?” I asked.

  I had a funny feeling about the whole thing, now. Either Justin was full of shit and was going to get our asses lost in the goddamned woods, or some of the older kids were back there doing God knows what, and would kick our asses for being in a secret spot that only they were supposed to know about.

  “Don’t worry, Jody. It’s there. Come on,” Justin said, and he pushed off the ground with his left leg to set his bike into motion.

  “Here we go,” I said out loud, and took off after him.

  After we crossed over the two-by-four one at a time, there was a good fifty feet left of open field before we hit the edge of the woods. The grass was thick and tall; some of it past our knees, and the field had thousands of tiny blue flowers barely poking their heads up from the earth. I turned around from where I was standing in the field to look back across the street to Angela’s house. I didn’t see any cars, or the family van in the driveway, so I took it that no one was home at the time. When I turned back around, Justin was yelling my name from the wood line.

  “Come on Jody! I think I found the trail!”

  “Alright, alright, I’m coming!” I shouted back, glancing one last time over my shoulder at the thousands of flowers that cover half the field.

  I quickly gathered myself and took off toward Justin, who was, by now rocking back and forth with excitement in front of the trail. Once we were side by side again, we looked into the woods.

  As soon as we stepped in, the trees seemed to completely cover up the sun and the temperature dropped by at least five degrees. There were three towering oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from them; two were on the right, thirty feet apart, and there were several magnolia bushes straight ahead of us that surrounded the third. Currant bushes also ran rampant in the wooded area, accompanied by several briar patches.

  The trail that we were on appeared to be the only path that led through the woods. The ground was matted down flat from either people or animals that followed its meandering, and it looked to me like it was used often. As Justin and I walked along for a minute or two, we noticed a lot of trash along the sides, some of it tossed even further back into the woods; beer cans, Butterfinger wrappers, Coke bottles – you name it. Wherever this trail was going, kids had definitely been back here, partying with junk food and booze stolen from their parents. We walked on a few feet further, until we came to a small clearing that had an old cooler in the middle of it, which was surrounded with yet more trash.

  “This must be the spot where everybody hangs out,” Justin said.

  His voice almost made me jump out of my skin; we hadn’t said a word to each other the whole time we’d been following the trail.

  “I guess so. This place smells like a trash can,” I said.

  I took a good whiff of the air, which was a bad idea, and had to stop myself from gagging; it smelled to me like something dead and rotting.

  “Where the hell is this trailer? It’s got to be around here somewhere,” Justin proclaimed. “Follow me, Jody.”

  At this point, between the smell of rotting garbage and heady mix of booze, I was getting sick to my stomach and I just wanted to go home. I kept straining my ears to hear if Momma was blowing that God-awful whistle, but so far, so good. I gave myself a gut check and continued on with Justin passing through the clearing, and the further we walked, the worse the stench seemed to get.

  The trail itself faded away bit by bit, until it was finally gone. Once it was no longer visible, we had to start navigating our way through all the briar patches that were now blocking our way. The briars dug viciously into my flesh, ripping tiny, jagged holes in my clothes, but I still followed Justin until he came to a sudden halt.

  There were hundreds, if not thousands of flies circling the infamous eighteen-wheeler trailer we had come all this way to see. FRED’S FURNITURE was written along the side of the trailer in big green letters, taking up the whole side. The reek of rotting flesh had intensified to the point now that I started to d
ry heave into my mouth. Flies swarmed all about my face, some even shot up into my nose, and I started flailing my arms around like I was some kind of deranged Karate expert defending myself from multiple opponents.

  This was all too much for us, and Justin and I took off running into the woods until we were far enough away from all the damned flies to talk without them flying into our mouths.

  “Why the hell are all those flies there?” Justin asked me, still swatting away at the air.

  “You don’t smell that, Justin? Something’s got to be dead, that’s why all those flies are swarming over there,” I surmised.

  “Of course I can smell it, but I don’t see any dead raccoons, dogs, cats... I don’t see anything.”

  “Well, I’m getting sick to my damned stomach, and I’m ready to go home. This was a dumb idea,” I told him.

  “Oh come on, Jody! Let’s at least go take a look in the back of the trailer.”

  “No! Let’s get the hell out of here. I’m not going back anywhere near those flies, or that smell!”

  “Quit being a little girl. Are you scared or something?” Justin asked in a little baby’s voice.

  “No, I’m not scared. I just don’t see the damned point. We came, we saw the trailer and now we need to leave. My mom is probably blowing her come-home-now whistle, and I can’t hear it from here because I’m standing with you in these dumbass woods, looking at this dumbass trailer.”

  Because I had said all of that all in one breath and without stopping, I sighed in an attempt to regain the natural flow of my breathing.

  “Well, I’m still going to go take a look in the back of it – with or without you,” Justin stated.

  “Justin, come on. Let’s just –” but before I could finish with what I was saying, he was already walking away from me, back toward the trailer.

  I thought to myself, well screw him, I’m leaving, and made my way back through the woods away from Justin, trying to find the one and only path that would lead me out.

  But, before I could get through the very first briar patch, I heard Justin scream. Without thinking, I turned around and shot toward him as fast as my feet could carry me.

  I was at the trailer within a matter of seconds, out of breath, standing next to it with my hands on my knees. Justin was standing to the side of the trailer frozen, with flies covering him from head to toe. They buzzed and crawled and formed seething masses on top of his head and as I watched, he leaned forward and threw up; it looked like spaghetti mixed with melted Pop-Tarts shooting out of the kid’s mouth, spewing in every direction. The flies quickly swarmed over their fresh meal, all courtesy of Justin’s weak stomach.

  “Are you ok, Justin?” I asked him.

  I was concerned now, because Justin was just fine minutes ago, and it looked like he had lost some color in his face. Without saying a word, Justin looked up and pointed to the back of the trailer. I didn’t say anything to him, but I knew he expected me to go look inside. I walked slowly toward the back of the trailer, swatting flies away from my face, and once I rounded the side, I peered in and saw something that would haunt and disturb me for the rest of my life.

  Inside the trailer there were two slaughtered calves, lying in pools of their own congealed blood.

  My body went into complete autopilot as I clambered up into the back of the trailer without even thinking. I guess I just wanted to see everything that was going on inside. And when I finally got up into the back of the trailer, I became confused with the whole scenario.

  Black candles had been placed all around the calves’ bodies, to form a neat circle around them. Half of the candles were burnt down to the last nub of wax, while the other half looked like they had been deliberately blown out. Both calves had their throats cut, which explained why there was so much blood – but it didn’t explain the six Styrofoam cups on the floor that were all stained red on the inside.

  I studied the calf to my right and saw that its gums were beginning to decompose, they were as black as night, and maggots wriggled and jostled over the remaining teeth. And, much to my disgust, both calves had flies covering almost every inch of their dead bodies, from the hooves to the tips of their limply hanging tongues. What struck me the most, though, were the maggots crawling all over the beast’s unresponsive eyes; one calf’s eyes seemed to be looking back at me from beyond the grave, shooting guilt almost as if I was the one who had done this.

  I glanced up from the butchered animal and turned my attention to the very back of the trailer, where there was a huge circle with a star in the middle of it, drawn in blood; obviously that of the unfortunate calves. I had never seen that type of symbol before in my life, and I wondered what the hell it meant– and why someone would draw it with baby cows’ blood.

  All of a sudden, something grabbed me by the ankle and I screamed at the top of my lungs.

  “It’s me, Jody. It’s Justin.”

  “What the hell, Justin!? You scared the crap out of me,” I yelled at him.

  “I’m sorry, Jody – but we need to get the hell out of dodge. I think I heard someone walking around in the woods,” he said.

  Justin’s eyes were wide, and I could tell that the kid was scared out of his mind. Seeing him in that state rubbed off on me, and I came off of autopilot in an instant and once more gagged from the thick stench of death. My heart raced as fear set in, and I was almost to the point of throwing up when Justin and I heard a branch break somewhere in the woods directly behind us.

  We didn’t even say a word to each other; it was like we were using telepathy as we both jumped from the back of the trailer. Once our feet struck the ground, we took off out of the woods, not daring to look back, and hoping no one was behind us.

  We shot out of the woods, coming back out into the field in front of Angela’s house, and thanks to the adrenaline that was pumping through our veins, we cleared the ditch with one jump. With one quick motion, we scooped up our bikes and proceeded to haul tail back home.

  “What the hell was going on back there, Jody?” Justin asked as he pedaled next to me.

  “I don’t know what’s going on back there, but I’m scared,” I admitted.

  “Yeah, me too,” Justin replied.

  “Do you think whoever did that to those calves was still back there? You know, maybe just hanging around?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know, but those calves had been dead for a while. I swear to God, Jody, I’m not lying to you; I heard footsteps right before that branch broke,” Justin said.

  “You think someone was watching us?”

  “I don’t know for sure – but I think so.”

  “Are you making this stuff up, Justin?” I panted, “'cause if you are, you need to cut it out. You’re freaking me out now.”

  All I could picture in my mind was an image of a tall man with a machete dripping with blood, leaning up against one of the trees in the woods watching Justin and I, as we checked out his two-calf masterpiece.

  “I’m so not lying!” Justin yelled back at me, and for some reason, I believed him.

  We had both stumbled upon something horrible, of that there was no doubt, and neither of us would forget about it any time soon, but I did wonder if it was just the kid’s imagination when it came to hearing someone in the woods; a lot of people imagine things when they’re scared – just watch the Exorcist alone one night, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

  I put the thoughts in the back of my mind for the time being and continued home, not speaking another word to Justin along the way.

  As we approached my trailer, I began to slow down so I could make the left turn onto the driveway. Justin zoomed right past me, flying straight back in the direction of his street; we didn’t even say goodbye to each other, Justin just kept on going as I wondered just what the hell I was going to tell Momma as I rolled up to the front porch. I threw my bike down, leapt from the ground onto the stairs and jetted my ass up them until I came to the front door. I paused, collected my thoughts a
nd finally turned the knob.

  “Momma,” I called out, “you in here?”

  “What do you want, Bubba?” Momma asked as she walked down the hallway, carrying the vacuum cleaner.

  “I have to tell you something, but I don’t want you to get mad at me, okay?”

  “What did you do now, Jody?” Momma asked me.

  She set the vacuum cleaner down slowly, her eyebrows lifted so high they touched her bangs. I knew that look – oh yes, it was the infamous You’re about to get your ass beaten look that I’m sure everybody has gotten at least five or six times in their childhood. If I didn’t speak fast enough, I was going to get beaten before I could even tell her what happened.

  “I didn’t do anything! I was just with Justin, you know, the kid that lives a street over? And we were down by Angela’s house playing in the woods across the street, and we found something,” I told her without taking so much as a breath.

  “Well – what did you find, Jody?” Momma asked.

  When I was finally done telling her about the whole ordeal, Momma sprung up from the couch and grabbed the phone.

  “Go sit outside on the porch, Jody,” she demanded.

  I stood up from the couch and did exactly what she’d asked. Once I was on the porch, I planted my skinny tail down on the top step and replayed the whole conversation I’d just had with my mother from start to finish. I tried to remember if I’d told her every last detail that she needed to know, but my mind kept going back to the grisly tableau of slaughter I had just discovered less than an hour ago. I was looking down at the stale blood that had covered my Nike sneakers, when my mother swung open the front door.

  “I just called the police, and they’re going to go over there and take a look, so you’d better not be lying to me, or I swear to God, Jody, you’ll never see the light of day again,” Momma spat.

  “I’m not lying to you Momma. Why would I lie about something like this?” I said.