Tale 2 – Disappearances
Wandering the forests at night sounds like a terrible idea right? So why would you do it especially when several people have disappeared in this forest with bloodstains as the only evidence that they were there? Officers Bennett and Shepard are tasked with this case. Even though they are dedicated and well-armed, they still feel uneasy and who wouldn’t? The duo makes their way there, unaware of the horrors they will witness.
“Who do you think the suspect is; the boogeyman or a werewolf?” Bennett jokes.
“Your mother,” Shepard replies.
“”Ha! I’d believe it. I remember her hitting on you when you came over for dinner.”
“She is probably the scariest person I know.”
“So no one we find will be scarier than her?”
“I don’t know. I’m honestly on edge here.”
“Come on. You’re the one with literal balls here.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. You’re the most positive.”
“And there’s a reason for that. We’re going into a dark forest at night where people have been kidnapped. Sure, we have backup on standby for us and they’ll come if we don’t report in after a while, but I’m just on edge as you are.”
“But we can’t let it bother us. It’ll get us in more danger if we do.”
“You’re right. Now look who’s the most positive.”
“Make sure you have everything you need. We’re here.”
The two officers park at the roadside and go to the area in the forest where blood was found. They’re shocked when they find more blood than what was reported, some of it still fresh. Bennett reports it to command.
“This isn’t going to be good,” Shepard says.
“I know.”
“Hey, it looks like someone was dragged deeper into the forest.”
Shepard points his flashlight at the spot he’s looking at. Though there are breaks in the line, it definitely looks like someone or more accurately some people were injured and dragged deeper into the woods.
“There are multiple blood stains going to different places. Do you think we should-”
“No, we’re not splitting up.”
“Agreed.”
The two follow one trail of blood to a small cabin. The cabin itself is pitch black inside. When the officers enter the cabin, they find an outline of a chainsaw on the wall and a basement door with a circular chain on it.
“Do you think we should just let backup take care of this?” Shepard asks.
“I-I think we should at least take a quick look.”
“I’ll look for the key or something to open it up.”
Shepard finds a key hidden inside a drawer and they open the basement door. In this basement full of spider webs, the stench of death is potent and whispering could be heard from the depths of its darkness. Bennett finds what looks to be a cursed book with satanic markings on them. There also appears to be satanic markings on the floor written in blood.
“Fuck this,” Shepard says as he quickly exits the basement.
“Yeah fuck this,” Bennett agrees.
They leave the house and mark it for investigation. The two then follow another trail of blood that leads to a little house. It’s dark and empty like the other one except this one seems to be the scene of a fight with blood on the floors and the walls. There’s a bloody machete in the basement and a knife pinning a skull to the wall. Camping equipment, empty bottles of alcohol, and other things can be found on the upper floors as if this was a campsite. The officers mark the house and follow another trail.
They are lead to a slightly larger house with caged windows. The house appears to be the sight of a movie or some kind of supernatural horror. It’s contorted and broken down in certain places, however, the boiler room still seems to be operational. A hat and gloves with finger knives are found by it along with rubbery skin that’s left on the floor. In an upstairs room, one of the beds is imploded with a huge red splat of blood on the ceiling. For some reason, there’s a tongue attached to the phone and laughing can be faintly heard from it.
“Fuck this one too,” Shepard says.
“It looks pretty cool, but yeah fuck this if it’s all real.”
They mark the building and follow the last blood trail.
“All of these houses are weird as shit,” Bennett says.
“I know. They all seem to be the site of a horror movie set up.”
“Yeah, I know. I know a few of the references. Did you get them?”
“I got all of them. I watched all of the classics starting from the eighties until now.”
“Really? I didn’t expect you to be a fan.”
“You should come over more often. I have an entire shelf of classic and modern horror movies in my room.”
“Is that how you invite all women to your room?”
“No, I wasn’t trying to imply anything like that.”
“What? I am not good enough?”
“No, you are, but since you wanna talk like that, yes, I wouldn’t want to take your ugly ass to bed and I feel sorry for the guy that does.”
Bennett can’t help but laugh while Shepard holds his laughter in.
“Now I know why my mother likes you.”
“Don’t even bring her up. She likes being rejected.”
The two reach a house that is bigger than the rest but doesn’t have any blood or weapons on it. The only things they find are daddy longlegs insects and an abandoned travel van with a wheelchair in it.
“There’s nothing here,” Bennett reports.
“At least it wasn’t bloody or messy like the other ones.”
“Did you check the back of the house yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Let’s look at that first before we go back.”
“Alright.”
Shepard marks the house first before they check the back where they find a dirt trail.
“Should we follow it?” Shepard asks.
Bennett is already calling command about it.
“Yep, but command says that we should immediately report in as soon as we come into contact with anyone. The people we could be facing could be some really messed up psychopaths.”
“We’ve got twenty-four bullets and extra clips with us. I think we can handle it.”
“Look who’s the brave man ready to fight with a maniac?”
“I’m just saying we’re well protected.”
They follow the trail which leads them to a little farm with withered crops and a legless, armless scarecrow.
Bennett walks up to it and says, “Aren’t you afraid of these?”
“I was when we were kids, but not anymore.”
“You sure? Go up to it and hug it.”
“What?”
“Hug it.”
“I know what you said, but why?”
“To prove that you’re not afraid.”
“Uck. Fine.”
Shepard hugs the scarecrow and as he does, what seems to be blood seeps out of it.
“The hell?” Shepard says.
“Is that blood?”
“This area has a comedic level of blood everywhere.”
“But why in the scarecrow.”
“Let’s see.”
Shepard breaks apart the scarecrow and finds a dismembered corpse inside.
As Shepard jumps back, he sees shadowy figures in the distance close in on them. He quickly says, “Oh shit! Call backup now!”
Bennett calls command, but then the two get knocked out by people who were hiding in the ground. They wake up minutes later in a basement, chained to the ceiling, and stripped of their clothes. The huge basement is full of rotting corpses of various shapes, sizes, and colors. It looks like a butcher’s factory for humans with several hanging bodies on the walls and ceiling.
Shepard looks over to Bennett and says, “Where the fuck are we?”
“Not in Kansas.”
“We don’t have time for your jokes! Can you get free?”
“I can’t.”
“Me neither.”
Two people who are wearing human skin come into the basement and sharpen their machetes.
“Hey, you fuckers!” Shepard screams, “Let us go! We’re officers and we got backup on the way! Give us up now and we may not give you the death penalty.”
They don’t seem to pay attention. They then walk up to the two then knock the two officers out before they start carving parts of their skin off. The two then wake up at a dinner table with dressy clothes on and strapped to a chair. They’re still in pain but they’re too shocked to feel it now.
“Are you okay Bennett?!”
“I’m fine. Are you?!”
“I’m alright. I can’t get free.”
“Me too.”
Four people walk into the room with human masks on. They are wearing dressy outfits, but their sex isn’t apparent. They put prepared human meat on the table and spread it amongst themselves and the two officers.
“Who the hell do you people think you are?!” Shepard screams while trying to sound intimating.
One of them looks at him, tilts their head, and says, “We’re none of your fucking business!”
The family laughs in unison as if the person said a joke.
“Fuck you guys!” Bennett says in frustration.
They fall silent and stare at her.
“Now there’s no need to SCREAM at the dinner table sweetie.”
Two members of the family force feed Shepard and Bennett as the rest of the family eat.
“So, Shepard, is it? Are you married?”
Shepard tries to spit out the human meat out of his mouth while saying no.
“No? Then what’s this for? Are you going to purpose to someone?”
“Hey, Bennett. I found this photo of two kids, are they yours?”
She tries to say no while struggling.
“No? Is that you in the picture and someone else you know because you two look about the same?”
The voices of the insane family seem to mix as they act like different people and use different languages as if they were all possessed by demons. The two feeding Shepard and Bennett manage to shove the human meat down their throats, which makes them puke it out. This stops the chaotic conversations of the family and gets them mad.
“You think you can insult our cooking like that?”
“You’re scum!”
“You’re filth!”
“You’re shit!”
“You think you’re so tough, don’t you? Why don’t we have a little fight here?”
Shepard and Bennett get cut free and they stagger to stand up because of their exhaustion and pain. Before the psychos can get their weapons for them to fight, the two decide to jump out the nearby window. The family is made silent again.
“Dammit! How come we didn’t think to block the windows?”
“How come you didn’t block the windows?”
“This is like the third time this week.”
“Whatever just get after them!”
Shepard and Bennett immediately get themselves together and run into the forest with whatever strength and adrenaline they have.
“We should make our way back the way we came. Backup should be almost here,” Shepard says.
“Right.”
The family comes out of their house with machetes, knives, cleavers, and one even has a chainsaw. They chase the officers through the forest.
One of the psychos says, “I give you two this, you run as fast as that last woman with her child that we killed yesterday.”
The two officers don’t pay attention to what was said, so it doesn’t get to them. Shepard looks back at Bennett and she looks at him with a smile as if to help push him forward, but then a barrage of sharp weapons fly at her and stab her in the back and head. Her smile fades as does any comfort that Shepard felt. He keeps on running as two of the family hack up Bennett’s body and argues about what to do with it.
“Damn bastards,” Shepard says to himself, “I’ll make you all pay for this!”
Shepard is losing stamina as his body starts to work against him. He decides to run into one of the buildings he inspected before since he still has a lead on his pursuers. He grabs a knife from inside the building and hides inside a closet. The psychos enter the house and walk through it while searching every spot Shepard could be in. The man with a chainsaw gives away his position with his slashing and screams while the others talk a bit too much.
Once Shepard catches his breath, he quietly exits the house. He starts running again once he hears a noise behind him and the chase starts again. Since he didn’t take much of a breather, Shepard starts to lose his strength again, but at least he can see his fellow officers in the distance.
“Hey!” he calls out, “Over here! I need help now!”
“No, he doesn’t!” one of the psychos says.
The officers look around until they see Shepard. They run towards him with their weapons drawn.
As he gets closer, Shepard says. “Toss me a gun and light up these motherfuckers!”
One of the officers tosses the wounded Shepard a gun. He catches it then turns around to shoot his pursuers. The other officers shoot down the remaining family members. Shepard then empties his gun into each of the family members before one of his friends calms him down.
His friend says, “Holy shit Shepard, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just needed to get that out of my system.”
“Where’s Bennett?”
“Dead. These pieces of shit killed her along with dozens of other people.”
“Damn. I’m sorry man,” his friend says as he puts his hand on Shepard’s shoulder.
“…I’m fine. I just…I just need a long…long break.”
