Kourriel's Cottage
By Metabad
The harsh winds were howling throughout the pitch black of night, the branches blowing every which way, through the forest walked a young man named Benjamin Kourriel, holding a tied up sack that was jostling and squirming about in his hand. Bandages were wrapped around the sides and across the center of his head, with his ragged, black hair still exposed. The murky mud was squishing beneath his sandals, and some even got on his long, black pants. He soon heard his cell phone ring, so he took it out from the pocket inside his rugged, dirty jean vest. He opened his phone and looked at the caller ID, his dark green eyes reflecting off the phone. When he saw who it was, he pressed a button on his phone and held it up to his ear.
“Hey, what’s up?” He asked. “Yeah, I’ll be fine; it’s just a small wound at best, nothing to worry about. The bandages should be coming off next week.” He paused for a moment. “I’m on my way home, I had to pick up some food for Abigail. Fall is coming up soon, so I have to gather a bunch of these suckers while I still can.” He paused again, looking a little irritated after a few seconds as he clenched the bag in his fist. “Ugh, not this again...look, I’m not ready to go back, especially not after what happened.” He sighed and shook his head. “Besides, they never liked me anyways, you know that.” He mumbled under his breath. He continued walking, allowing the man on the other end of the line to talk and after a few minutes, he was out of the forest.
“Mm, alright, I’ll think about it, but listen; you always know you’re welcome at my place any time.” He started walking uphill and soon felt a few droplets of rain. “Anyways, I better hang up now. Seems like there’s a storm coming up so I better get inside, and you know how bad the reception at my place is.” He laughed. “Alright man, take care.” He scratched the back of his head. “Love you too.” He shut off his phone before pocketing it and soon his cottage came into view. He rushed up towards his old abode and opened the door. He stepped on the mat and took off his filthy, mud ridden sandals.
“I’m home, Abby!” He announced before closing and locking the door behind him. He went into the kitchen and put the small bag down, making sure it was closed up tight. Soon afterwards he opened the dishwasher to put away the now clean dishes, the clanging and clattering of the plates echoed throughout the entire house. He then opened a cupboard, got out a watering can and couldn’t help but notice the rain now falling rapidly against the windows as he began watering his plants. He jumped as he heard thunder outside, his hand twitching, spilling a bit of water on the floor. “Damn, I’ll have to clean that up later.” He walked back to the counter, grabbed the bag and headed downstairs into the basement, where he saw the only other companion in his house, his pet snake Abigail within a large glass tank filled with foliage and branches.
Abigail was his only friend, and he preferred it that way. He walked up to the tank and smiled warmly. “Look what I’ve got.” He untied the bag and took out a live rat by the tail, squirming and shaking on the edge of his fingers. “It’s all for you Abigail.” He dangled the rat over the tank as the snake slithered around; he dropped the rat in the tank, and proceeded to do the same with two more.
The rats were scurrying about, afraid for their lives as Abigail honed in on her prey. She took one of the live rats by the neck and snapped it, slowly devouring its carcass, savouring her meal as the other rats shook in fear. Loud thunder was heard outside as she pounced on the other rat and bit through its back, then the other through the chest. Benjamin smirked as he watched all this, knowing that she loved to hunt her food as if it were her prey, he watched as his pet consumed the remains of the carcass.
“You enjoy that, girl?” he stuck his arm in the tank and rubbed his fingers against Abigail’s cheek, who rubbed her head against his skin affectionately as if to thank him. “Yeah, who needs them? You’re all the company I need.” He chuckled. “I just hope I didn’t give you too much at once.” He pulled his hand out, and the serpent went back to slithering across the twigs and leaves. “Love you, Abigail.” Another loud booming sound of thunder was heard as flashes of lightning shone through the windows, the storm was now coming down harder than ever, leaving Ben concerned.
He began walking away, before seeing one final flash of lightning, with the last violent strike he could only watch as the ceiling began to crack, hearing creaking and rustling noises all around him. He ran towards the tank and completely covered the top of it, he could only think of how much he wanted to protect his only friend. The last thing Benjamin saw was the ceiling falling apart, caving in down towards him, then everything went black.
---
One year had passed since the cottage collapsed, killing Kourriel underneath its wreckage. Three teenagers were seen driving on the roads which were encased in a thick, humid fog. The driver was a 17 year old stoner named Sid who had shoulder length, curly black hair with stubble on his chin, his dirty red shirt was drenched in grease and sweat stains, and his baggy beige pants smelled like smoke and body odor. He could barely see anything ahead of him, but he wasn’t paying much attention to the road. Since the beginning of the trip he turned his radio up full blast, head banging to the heavy metal music blaring through the speakers as his hair waved all over the place, to the point where a few strands of it hit the passenger beside him.
The passenger riding shotgun was an 18 year old named Zeke, the oldest of them all. He had spiky brown hair and wore a thick, brown coat along with black pants. He adjusted his sunglasses and punched Sid in the shoulder “Cut it out.” He mumbled, he was the most mature of the group, but even he had his limits. Sid rubbed his shoulder in annoyance, but continued to drive.
“Man, Zeke, I’m just getting hyped up for the party. Why you gotta be such a buzzkill all the time?” The driver complained, squinting out the window, trying to see what was ahead of him.
“Sid, someone has to pay attention to the road, and you’re the one who decided to drive.” Zeke looked out the window, and then back at Sid. “Now either take some responsibility, or stop the car and let me drive.”
“Psh, man, I’m not lettin’ you drive my bitchin’ car, fuckin’ uptight pussy.” Sid chuckled.
“I really wouldn’t call anyone a pussy if I were you, especially after you dropped out of highschool in your sophomore year.” Zeke shot back.
“Man, high school was bullshit, there was way too much work, it wasn’t for me.” The carefree teenager shook his head, his hair waving from side to side.
“You always tried getting me to do your entire workload for you.” Zeke rolled his eyes.
“Exactly man, like I said, it’s bullshit.” He slapped Zeke on the back. “You of all people should know.”
“You know what? Nevermind, this conversation’s just going to go in circles again.” Zeke tucked his mouth underneath the collar of his brown trench coat, closing his blue eyes, and furrowing his long eyebrows.
“You complain way too much, dude. You don’t hear nerdlinger back there complaining.” Sid pointed his thumb to the back of the car.
Zeke looked back “Will’s asleep, actually.” He remarked.
Will was 16 years old, the youngest of the group. He had combed back brown hair, and braces on his teeth. He wore a black hoodie along with jeans. The thick, black duct taped glasses that he normally wore were off to the side.
“Damn, really? Sleeping through this kickin’ sick music?” Sid asked. “Well then that guy’s boring too.”
“If you didn’t have us ‘boring buzzkills’ who would you take to the party?” Zeke retorted.
“Aw jeez...” Sid pressed his hand against his stubble and began to think. He tossed his head back and rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, good point.”
There was a moment of silence, neither of them knowing what to say for a while until the spiky haired man looked out the window again. “Besides, we shouldn’t even be driving in this fog; I can barely see a thing.”
“No way man, this is going to be the best party in town. I missed it last year, and I’ll be damned if I miss it now! I had to pull a lot of strings to get you guys invited.” Sid said as he squinted through the thick, grey fog. “You bitches better be thankful.”
Zeke tried to reason with him. “Can’t we just walk?”
Sid shook his head. “It’s way too far.”
Zeke raised one of his long eyebrows. “Why can’t we wait until the fog clears up?”
“By then it’d be way too late, it’s only going on for one day, idiot.” Sid smacked his friend upside the head. “Doi.”
“But-“ Zeke tried to speak up, before the driver interrupted.
“Look, I don’t want to hear it.” Sid grumbled, and then smirked. “Besides, I’ve got this cool trick that I’ve wanted to show off.”
“Oh no, don’t you dare-” Zeke began to say, but Sid didn’t listen as he harshly turned a corner and tilted the car against two of its wheels as he continued to drive, sparks flying across the road. “SID, ARE YOU HIGH?”
“NOT YET MAN, NOT YET.” Sid raised his arms and let out a loud holler until the car lost control, skidding across the road. “OH SHIT!”
“SID, YOU IDIOT! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL US!” Zeke yelled.
“IT’S OKAY, I’VE GOT THIS!” He frantically grabbed the wheel, hoping to get control again, the car managed to fall back on its wheels and he continued to drive. “Holy fuck, that was a close o-” Unfortunately, the road he was on felt unstable and he crashed into a tree, knocking them both out cold, and waking up Will before the airbags popped out.
“Oh no, what happened?” Will scrambled to put on his glasses. He inched himself closer to the front seats and looked at his two friends, realizing they passed out, he moved his jittery fingers through his gelled back hair. “Oh dear God, what do I do?” He fidgeted with his seatbelt until he got it off and then checked their pulses to see if they were alive, Sid’s pulse was feint, and Zeke’s was okay, the two were still breathing, but unconscious for the time being. Will felt relieved that they were at least alive, calming himself down as he opened the door and got out of the wrecked car.
He saw that they crashed into a dead, rotting tree. “Oh jeez, Sid, why do you always try to perform stunts in this hunk of junk? They never work.” He slammed the door shut, but then realized he got his sleeve caught in the door. “Aw man, not again!” He tried tugging it out a couple of times, and then on the third tug he managed to get it out after ripping it a little. “Dang it and this was new, too.” He clenched his braced teeth together and put his hands in his jean pockets.
He decided to scout ahead to see if there was anyone who could help them out, or any place that they could stay at, since he knew the totaled car wouldn’t work anymore. He set off, taking a mental note of where his friends were and walked through the fog ridden wilderness. Old decaying trees were scattered throughout the forest, the wind blowing through them. Some of the trees were toppled over, others were broken in pieces, and a few of them looked as if they were just about to fall. A terrible thunderstorm must have been the cause of all this, destroying everything in its path. He walked for a few miles before coming across a lone cottage on a hillside.
Will wasn’t sure if it was just the eerie surroundings getting to him, but he knew right after seeing it that something about this freakishly tall cottage seemed unwelcoming, chunks of wood were chipped off, and other parts of the exterior were rotten and peeling. When he went in for a closer look, he saw that all the lights were off; he wasn’t sure if the place was abandoned, or if the residents were just sleeping. He was thinking about turning back, but he briefly looked around and there was nothing else but dead, broken trees for miles, in fact he couldn’t even see another sign of life nearby. He decided to risk it and approach the door, knocking on it.
“Hello?” He asked. “Is there anyone in there?” He pressed his ear up against the door, listening carefully, but could hear nothing. “My friend crashed his car nearby, we’re stranded here and we really need a place to stay. Do you think you could let us in for a little bit?” He stopped for a while, trying to listen for a response once more, but all he heard was the wind. He jiggled the knob a bit until he realized the door was unlocked. “Alright, well, guess no one’s in there.” He shrugged. “I suppose I have no choice either way.”
He turned and walked back to the car, when he got back he opened the wrecked door and gently hoisted Zeke over his shoulder. Will didn’t have much upper body strength, and Zeke’s muscles made him weigh a lot more than he appeared to, so the unexpected strain of this caused him to pant and sweat after a few miles of walking. When he reached the cottage, he carefully placed him down on the nearby bench. He then went back, got Sid out of the car, and carried him over as well, he breathed through his mouth, trying not to smell the sweat that drenched his clothes, or the smoke that lingered over them. Although he figured that as tired and sweaty as he was, that he wasn’t one to talk. He rested Sid’s body on the step and then opened the creaking door.
Suddenly a gust of wind hit him in the face, blowing right past his combed back hair; he thought he heard a faint voice in the distance, harshly whispering for him to get out. His eyes widened when he heard this, but he then shook his head rapidly from side to side, and the wind subsided. “I must be hearing things...” He carried Sid into the dark musky cottage, dragged him into the living room and placed him down on the couch, in front of a TV that when turned on, only showed static. Afterwards he carried Zeke in and quickly placed him down on the chair across from it.
Will decided to explore the house a bit, he walked back up to the entrance and saw a spiral staircase leading upstairs in front of him, as he walked throughout the hallway, he found plants on the windowsills that looked as if they were just watered, this led him to surely believe that someone was currently living here, or at least taking care of the place, but no matter what room he searched, he couldn’t find anyone.
He opened the door at the end of the hallway, leading to the kitchen, he saw a fridge to the left, next to it was a counter with a microwave and a toaster beside each other; he looked at the oven right next to him, just barely ahead of the entrance. He also found a stack of dirty dishes on the desk above the dishwasher, which he found odd especially since the plants looked freshly watered. He opened the fridge to see if there was anything to eat, when he couldn’t find anything he looked in the cupboards, only to see an assortment of pots and pans. He walked past the knife holders, containing knives of all shapes and sizes and looked in the drawer only to find spoons, forks and butter knives. He continued to explore his surroundings, both to get a good feel for the place and to see if anyone had truly lived there.
Will found a door to the left, when he opened it he found a staircase that led downstairs, when he walked into the basement it was pitch black. He couldn’t even see an inch in front of him, stumbling about and even falling down a few steps until he got to the bottom of the stairs, where he stepped on something, causing him to jump and rub his foot in pain. He began tapping the object with his foot to get a good feel for what it was that he stepped on, when he crouched down and felt it with his hands, he found out that it was a flashlight. Letting out a sigh of relief, he grabbed it and turned it on knowing that that was just what he needed, the light emitting from the flashlight blinked a bit, but after a few seconds it reliably stayed on, lighting the pathway for him.
He walked onward, the wooden floorboards creaking underneath his feet greatly unsettled him, this entire cottage was putting him on edge making him feel weary and cautious, causing him to be mindful of his surroundings. He opened up the door in front of him, and found a blue coffin propped upright, it was at this moment that he wanted nothing more than to high tail it out of there, and if not for his injured friends upstairs, he probably would have.
A thousand thoughts were racing through his mind at once, was someone in that coffin? If someone did die, then why not give them a proper burial? Will remembered that he was technically underground, so could this have been an actual burial? Was no one meant to find this cottage? The more he thought about it, the more the room felt like it was spinning all around him, his chest tightened. He felt like the world was coming down all around him. He felt himself shaking from head to toe as he ducked and clasped his hands over his head, only being able to hear the sounds of his own rapid breathing.
Will tried to calm down by slowly breathing in through his nose, and out through his mouth, counting to intervals of ten in his head. He got back up as he regained his composure, turned around and began to walk away, until he stopped in his tracks and looked back at the coffin, shining the flashlight over it. Even though he didn’t want to so much as think about it, his curiosity grew overwhelming, to the point where he figured if he came this far, he should at least see what was inside. Maybe this would give him some answers as to the inconsistent state of the cottage.
Deep down, he knew he shouldn’t do this, but he rationalized this to himself by thinking that he’d just take a small peek. He slowly inched the lid out of the way and tightly closed his eyes, the foul stench overwhelmed his nose and he coughed a little bit. He squinted, not entirely sure if he even wanted to see what was inside anymore, but he worked up his courage and completely shoved the lid aside. When he opened his eyes, he saw the decaying body of Kourriel inside, bandages wrapped around his head, only one of his eyes were visible, along with his rotten teeth, and his arms were folded up to his shoulders. Will was too frightened to even move until the decaying corpse of Kourriel unexpectedly fell atop his shoulder, he let out a loud scream, immediately pushed the body away and then frantically ran upstairs in a panic.
---
“Ugh...” Sid was slowly waking up; he slouched over and clutched his chest in pain. “What happened?”
“Another one of your stupid stunts, I’m guessing.” Zeke mumbled, his head buried in his hands.
“Fuck, man. I’m never driving again.” Sid said through his clenched teeth before wincing in pain. Once he had his bearings back, he looked around the house, his eyebrows raised. “Where the hell are we, anyways?”
Zeke raised his head and observed the surroundings as well. “...I wish I knew Sid, I wish I knew.”
“Damn it, we’re totally going to miss that party.” Sid’s leg drooped down off the couch as he pressed his fingers up against his head.
“Not the most pressing matter right now.” Zeke calmly said.
“You don’t understand, man, I’ve always promised myself I’d go to these parties, only to miss them every year due to some bullshit reason or another.” Sid regretfully said. “This was my chance, my chance to finally hang out with my friends, meet some new people, and party all night-”
Suddenly they heard a loud scream, causing them both to jolt up in their seats. Zeke got up to his feet, despite the pains and aches his body was going through, and reached in his trench coat for a gun. When he saw Will run up from the basement he breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his forehead, now knowing where the source of the scream came from.
Will darted into the room and hid under a desk, shaking frantically and covering his head, he looked up to see that Zeke and Sid were awake. “O-oh thank goodness, you guys are awake. S-Sid, you got in an a-a-accident.” Will stuttered, trying desperately to get his thoughts together.
“Told you.” Zeke taunted, Sid weakly punched him in the arm in response.
“I f-f-found this cottage nearby, I thought we should stay here until you guys recovered, but...” Will fell silent, pouting as his entire body shook.
“But what?” Zeke asked.
“I d-don’t think that’s such a good idea anymore.” Will shook his head.
“What’s that Lassie?” Sid taunted, “Little Timmy’s stuck in the well?”
“Shut up, Sid, I’m serious!” Will whined. “I saw something I shouldn’t have.”
“Oh what, what did you see? Is it your first time looking up porn or something?” Sid taunted sarcastically and then laughed at his own joke.
“Laugh all you want, but I’ve had enough of this place, I’m outta here!” Will ran toward the door and turned the knob, when he opened the door Sid shoved him aside.
“Out of the way, nerdlinger.” Sid walked out of the doorway. “I got some stuff I need to get from the car.”
“No need to push me.” Will uttered, rubbing his shoulder, only to see that Sid was already outside, well out of earshot. “Asshole.”
Will thought about getting out of the house right then and there, but after thinking about it, realized that he didn’t want to leave Zeke in this cottage alone, especially when he knew what was downstairs, so he decided to muster up his courage and stay put until his friends got better.
Will sat down on the couch and sighed. Zeke looked out the window curiously. They sat there for a while until Sid kicked the door open, hands full of plastic bags filled with drugs of all kinds.
“If we’re staying here, we might as well make the most of it.” He dumped it all off in the living room. “Don’t worry guys, this stuff survived the crash. We’ll be feeling better in no time.”
Zeke furrowed his brow. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“What’s wrong?” Sid asked.
“You had that in the car this whole time?” Zeke seethed
“In the trunk, yeah.” Sid confirmed. “What of it?”
“You fucking idiot!” Zeke shouted. “You know my dad’s a detective, what do you think would’ve happened if we got caught?”
“Your dad’s on vacation, dude, he wouldn’t have caught us.” Sid scoffed.
“Not my point at all, gah! God damn it, this just raises so many more questions. You were driving SO recklessly! What would you have done if we got pulled over? I mean, you DO realize that we’d have been arrested too, right?” Zeke ranted.
“Nah man, we wouldn’t have gotten caught.” Zeke walked up to Sid and furiously knocked on his head.
“DO YOU EVEN HAVE A BRAIN IN THAT BIG CLOUDED HEAD OF YOURS?” Zeke was furious; he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “I should take you in to the police station myself, you low life piece of shit.” He spat. “But...no, we’re past that now.” He sighed, let go of him and walked away. “It doesn’t matter anymore, what with us being in the middle of nowhere.”
“Pfft.” Sid sat down and took a bag filled with marijuana. “I’m so out of it I don’t even give a fuck, this should at least make me feel less shitty.” He rolled up some of it in a cigarette and got out a lighter. “You want some, Will?” He turned his head only to see Will wasn’t there anymore. “Huh, alright, more for me then, this is gonna be good.” With the joint in his mouth, Sid was about to flick the lighter open until he heard a loud knock at the door.
“Aw, what the fuck?” Sid groaned. “Come on, I’m busy here!” The knocking continued. “Ugh, fine, fine...” He raised his legs and leaped off of the couch; he leisurely strolled up to the door and opened it slightly, just to get a good look at who was at the door. He saw a man with long hair underneath his black fedora, he wore a green jacket along with long black pants, big grey-ish black boots, and black leather fingerless gloves. He had stubble on his chin, along with a pencil thin mustache.
“’Ello there stranger.” The man said in his Australian accent, seeing Sid peek through the crack of the door. “The name’s Royce, y’see I’ve been out in the rain for a while, and I need a place to stay.” He kept his voice to a low rasp. “May I come in?”
“Eh...sure, why not?” Sid carelessly swung the door open, Royce walked inside and took off his soaked, mud ridden boots.
“Heheheh...thanks mate, you’re too kind.” Royce tilted his hat and headed toward the kitchen. Sid looked outside only to see torrents of rain pouring from the night sky, he saw a flash of lightning and quickly slammed the door shut, not liking the look of this hazardous thunderstorm.
Sid walked up to Royce, who was now neck deep in the fridge, looking for food. “Mate, I don’t think I got your name!” Royce exclaimed.
“Ah yeah, my name’s Sid. Do you own this cottage or something?” Sid asked.
“Nah...well, sorta.” Royce took out a big bucket of chicken and set it down on the counter. “My brother owned this place, but he sadly passed away a year ago, so I guess you could say I now own it in a way.”
“Ahh.” Sid nodded. “Well, look, I wasn’t going to stay here long. I was actually on the way to this sweet party, it was gonna be awesome, but long story short I brought some friends along and got in a car accident. Then my stupid idiot friend Will brought me and my other pal Zeke to this place.” He explained. “We’ll be outta here as soon as we feel better, promise.”
“Aw stranger, no need to be so adamant about that, it gets so lonely up here that I could use the company. Stay a while why don’tchya?” Royce took out a drumstick and took a bite out of it.
“No can do, man, I’m already running late enough for this party as is, if it were up to me I’d be outta here by now, but just getting to my wrecked car and back here again was tough enough, I tell you.” Sid shook his head, and then spotted a phone. “Wait, this place had a phone the entire time?”
Royce swallowed his food. “It does, bu-” He started to speak before getting cut off.
“Sweet! Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Sid ran for the phone and began dialing numbers. “Hey, hey, it’s Sid, sorry for the hold up, we’re gonna be late.” He started speaking, only to listen closely and realize...
“The line’s dead, these phones haven’t worked in years, and the cell phone reception is absolute shite. I think my brother preferred it that way, he always was a bit of a loner.” Royce explained before taking another big bite of his drumstick.
“Well, fuck!” Sid threw the phone on the floor. “That really could’ve helped!” He pointed to the phone and punched the wall in frustration.
“Relax, s’alright.” Royce reasoned with him, patting him on the back. “You could step outside and use your own phone, but...” He pointed out the window. “It’s stormin’ pretty bad out there, I wouldn’t recommend it. I’d wait ‘til it was mornin’ if I was you.”
“Guess I have no choice.” Sid sighed and shook his head, heading back into the living room where he sat back down on the couch. “This really fuckin’ sucks.”
“Tell me ‘bout it, I was walkin’ through that storm, y’know.” Royce walked in, pointing his drumstick at Sid, and then at the plastic bags filled with drugs. “Whutchya got there, stranger?”
“Oh, these?” Sid picked up some marijuana. “Only some of the best stuff, I was gonna sell these at the party, in fact my dealer was gonna show up as well, so I was definitely gonna buy some better stuff off of him that was going around, but since that car accident I’ve felt like shit, so I figured this would help ease the pain and get all this stress of my mind.”
“A sound decision, friend.” Royce outstretched his hand. “May I have a toke?”
“Oh, sure man!” He rolled up another joint and passed it. “Smoke up, you’re gonna love this shit.”
---
Zeke was now exploring the cottage himself, Will stuck close by, not wanting to be alone especially after what he had seen. “You sure you’re alright, Zeke?” He asked.
“A little sore, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Zeke told him. They had just finished exploring the upstairs and had headed downstairs, reaching the main hallway, which Zeke was now thoroughly searching. He saw the basement door and started to head over there, until Will grabbed him by the shoulder unexpectedly.
“No! Don’t go down there!” Will shouted desperately in a panic.
“Gah!” Zeke jumped and then looked back. “Why? What’s down there?”
“You really don’t want to know...” Will said, Zeke sighed and walked throughout the hallway, Will however noticed something peculiar. “Wait, what? N-no, this...this isn’t right!”
Zeke turned around only to see Will looking closely at the wall, frantically touching different parts of it. “What’s wrong?” Zeke asked.
“Th-there was a window right here!” Will stuttered.
“You’re sure?” Zeke asked.
“Positive!” He felt around the wall even more frantically. “I swear, it was right here, what on Earth is going on?”
“Hm, that’s strange.” Zeke nonchalantly said. “Then again, considering you took a look around already, I suppose you’d know better than I would.” He headed into the kitchen, only to find a big bucket of chicken on the counter. Will followed in after him, his eyes widening as he saw the food.
“No...no way, no, no, no, this can’t be happening.” Will said in disbelief, he rubbed his eyes and opened them again to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, and sure enough the food was still there.
“What is it this time?” Zeke asked.
“Where did this food come from? There was nothing in the fridge when I checked!” Will explained.
“Maybe someone stopped by and brought that with them.” Zeke said.
Will scrambled to the refrigerator and immediately opened it, only to see food of all kinds. “This...no, what’s happening?”
“You’re right, this is peculiar.” Zeke remained calm.
The two teenagers rushed back into the living room to tell Sid about their findings, only to smell strong smoke coming from the room. They began coughing. “Augh, what is that?” Will asked.
“Considering Sid brought in a pile of drugs last time I saw him...” Zeke peeked into the living room, and sure enough there was his friend with a fedora wearing stranger, sitting down and huffing up joints, blowing out marijuana smoke.
“Dude, you ever wonder why we’re here?” Sid asked with his eyes completely glazed over, staring off into space.
Royce puffed out a big grey wad of smoke just before coughing. “Mate, it’s stormin’ like shit out there, that’s why.”
“Nah, not what I meant, dude.” Sid grabbed a nearby bong, lit it and closed his mouth over it as the illegal chemicals began bubbling until he breathed out even more smoke. “I mean like, okay, lemme put it this way. Why were we born? What even put us on this planet?”
“I don’t even wanna think about that.” Royce wagged his finger.
“Nah dude it’s really like...really...deep, man. I mean what if we were born during another time? What makes us, us? Y’know? Why are we in these bodies? What if I was the president of America, or a used car salesman? We could’ve been, y’know, anything if you really think about it. I could’ve been a fuckin’ badger or something for all I know.” Sid tossed the bong over to Royce.
“You unhappy with your life, stranger?” Royce took a hit from the bong.
“Nah man, just sometimes I think about these things, especially when it’s like...whoa man, y’know? It’s like I’m having an out of body experience or something, like I’m so aware that I’m too aware.” Sid trailed off.
“You are so fucking baked.” Royce chortled as he set the bong down and blew smoke from his teeth.
“Pfsh, yeah dude, I know.” Sid continued smoking his blunt. “So are you.”
“I’m just enjoyin’ this high, mate. It’s you that’s trippin’ balls.” Royce scoffed and rolled his eyes.
Sid was going to respond, but he just exhaled and stared off into space. It was then that Zeke walked into the room. “What the hell are you doing?” He demanded answers
“Huh?” the cigarette fell out of Sid’s gaping mouth.
Zeke just pointed at Royce, sprawled on the couch. “Who is he, and what is he doing here?”
“Aw dude, I just let him in.” Sid said.
“You idiot.” Zeke grumbled, he grabbed his shoulder and kept his voice to a whisper. “We don’t even know this guy; he could be a killer, or an ex-con!”
“Nah, dude, that’s just Royce. He’s cool, don’t worry.” Sid reasoned with him.
“Royce...?”
“Yeah man, he’s the brother of the guy who owns this cottage.” Sid told him. “He died by...something or other.”
“Entire place collapsed in on him.” Royce spoke up.
“Oh dang, sorry to hear dude.” Sid brushed his greasy hair out of his eyes.
“Yeah, it was tough but I’m gettin’ by.” Royce rested his hands behind his head. “Day after day.”
“Ahh, cool, cool.” Sid nodded. “Dang though, this place got repaired fast.” He looked over at Zeke. “So what do you want?”
“I can’t believe you’re actually smoking now.” Zeke shook his head.
“Hey, at least I’m not feeling anymore pain.” Sid shrugged.
“Sid, you’re such an idiot.” Zeke sighed.
It was just then that Will scrambled into the room. “Sid, we really have to get out of here.”
Sid looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Why?”
“The windows in this cottage have disappeared.” Will said frantically.
“Well, what’re they blocked off by?” Sid asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t understand, they’re not blocked off by anything...they just suddenly vanished, it’s like they were never even there in the first place.” Will was still shocked.
Sid, however, howled with laughter. “Ahahahahah, dude, what the fuck, that’s...did you get into my stash or something? That’s so trippy!”
“I’ve never done a drug in my life!” Will protested. “And you,” he pointed at Royce and eyed the chicken bone littered on the floor. “There was nothing in the fridge last time I checked and now...”
“Did you restock the fridge just for me?” Royce asked. “Mate, you’re too kind.”
“No...no I didn’t.” Will stepped back, his eyes widened. “We didn’t bring any food with us, nor were we even expecting anyone else to show up. You must’ve brought food with you, didn’t you?”
Royce scoffed and brushed back his hair. “Nope, check the fridge again, there’s enough for a whole buffet in there.”
“So that means...” Will backed himself up against the wall. “The food...must’ve appeared there.”
Sid leaned his head back and let out even more laughter. “I can’t believe this guy!” He pointed at Will, while still in hysterics.
“I’m serious! There’s something really weird going on!” Will yelled.
Royce cleared his throat. “Mate, when the two guys who are high as fuck are thinking more rationally than you, you need help.” He grinned, stifling a bit of a chuckle himself. Zeke caught a quick glimpse of Royce’s crooked, yellow teeth and shuddered.
“I think he’s been reading too many comic books.” Sid remarked after his fit of laughter was over. “Fucking food appearing and windows disappearing, oh man...” He felt himself about to enter another fit of laughter.
“Mock me all you want, but I saw what I saw, and if there’s no rational explanation for it then we need to get out of here, the sooner the better.” Will said as he readjusted his glasses.
“You’re not goin’ anywhere, stranger.” Royce said.
“If Zeke wasn’t injured, I’d be out of here right now.” Will stated.
“Even if he wasn’t, you still ain’t goin’ nowhere.” Royce rested his feet on the arm of the couch.
“Oh yes I will.” Will walked over to the door and unlocked it, but when he opened it he saw a massive amount of rain pouring everywhere. He saw lightning in the distance and immediately closed the door. “Nevermind!”
“Told ya’.” Royce blew more smoke. “We’ll have to wait ‘till mornin’.”
---
By midnight, everyone was sound asleep. A shadowy hand with long, black claws clutched at the side of the basement doorway, seeping through the crack of the door. A thick, black cloud poured into the hallway, soon forming a spectral being. The creature tossed its head back as long demonic horns protruded from it. Its bloodshot eyes quickly glowed red before reverting back to their yellow colour. The ghastly monster grinned, exposing its sharp teeth. The spirit floated through the hallways and scratched its claws against the walls, leaving behind a trail of black mist as it did so.
The spirit floated into the living room, looking at Sid and Royce as they slept with its soulless gaze. When the spirit saw Royce, it seemed to gain some life back in its eyes as it hovered over him, but then looked at Will, resting in a sleeping bag. While he was sleeping, he thought he heard a voice call him by name, telling him to wake up. When he woke up, he saw the dark spirit floating above him, who immediately raised its hand and slashed Will across the face. His bloodcurdling scream woke Zeke up.
“Who’s there? Show yourself!” Zeke shouted as he turned on his flashlight and shined it in the spirit’s face, when he saw the shadowy visage, he was so scared that he stumbled backwards and tripped over the couch, he shined the flashlight on it again and it disappeared.
“What the hell was that?” Zeke asked, trying to process what he saw.
“M-my face!” Will stammered, covering his lacerations.
“That’s it, you’re not staying here a minute longer, you have to get out of here.” Zeke told him.
“B-but your injuries...” Will stammered.
“They’re nothing compared to the amount of trauma you’re going through. Besides, I can take care of myself; I’ve been in plenty of worse situations.” Zeke explained. “Now get out of here, you’ve been through enough!”
Will nodded and darted for the door; he turned around and looked at Zeke. “Be safe.” He opened it and ran out of the cottage and down the hillside. The horrible lightning storm had only worsened since they last saw it, the night sky was just as dark as the basement was, Will could barely see an inch in front of himself. He heard the same faint voice from his dream in his head yet again, this time in a much more demonic echo. “I won’t let you escape.” This made Will run even faster, he had no idea where he was going, nor did he care, as long as he was away from that cottage then it didn’t matter to him. He pressed on and continued to run as far as his legs could carry him.
Will soon found himself in the same dreary forest he entered before, surrounded by dead trees and dying, wet grass. He felt the mud squish beneath his sandals, soaking into his socks which were getting filthier with every step he took; he was running for a long time until a nearby snake bit him in the ankle. Will screamed and howled in pain as he fell face first in the mud, when he rolled to the side and looked up he saw the spirit appear over him, and it outstretched its arm before it opened its twisted, skeletal mouth.
“You dared to disturb my resting place.” The spirit spoke in its deep, raspy, demonic voice. “You will regret this.” It hissed.
“Wait...you’re...”
“Benjamin Kourriel...” Soon maggots poured from Kourriel’s fingers as he rubbed them together, falling all over Will’s body. It wasn’t long before they burrowed beneath his clothes.
“GAH!” Will freaked out and tried to smack and wipe the maggots off his body, but with every maggot he shook off, more and more poured down on him and continued where the last one left off, digging underneath his skin. He tried to get up, but the wet, murky mud caused him to slip.
“Now you know what my corpse is going through, even as we speak.” Kourriel moved his hand from side to side, the maggots pouring from his hand as rapidly and fast as the rain did, continuing to dig and crawl through Will’s flesh.
“Although, this is going much too slow for my liking.” He curled his clawed fingers, his entire hand was soon encased in a purple aura, causing the maggots to grow in size, soon as big as worms, and then as big as snakes, this continued until they were as big as the branches that surrounded them.
“Why, why are you doing this?” Will asked. “I just needed a place to stay, I meant you no harm, I just want to get out of here.” Tears were forming in his eyes.
“I demanded that you leave, but you did not heed my warning, and you tampered with my final resting place, for disrespecting the dead, you shall receive a most agonizing death.” Will saw a sick, twisted pleasure in the specter’s eyes, the poison from the snake bite had weakened him to the point where he couldn’t even move anymore, the enlarged maggots began devouring him, tearing the skin from his bones and leaving gaping, bleeding wounds all over his body.
“Make him suffer for what he has done, devour him until there is nothing left...” The apparition leaned in closer to Will and whispered in his ear. “Before you die, I want you to know that you’ll be seeing your friends very soon...” One of the giant maggots soon burrowed through his eye as he screamed in pain and clasped his hand over his now bleeding eyelid, he screamed even louder when he felt the large maggot brush past his fingertips. It began eating him from the inside out. Kourriel cackled menacingly as the maggot soon ate all of Will’s organs and burst out of his stomach. Kourriel raised his hand and the maggots glowed in a red aura and then burst into a white splattered mess, before turning into dark matter that Kourriel absorbed.
The evil spirit drifted toward his cottage, with his arms stretched and his claws spread out. However, he soon saw the sun slowly start to emerge from the horizon. He shielded his face, for in life he feared the sun, and that had not changed even in death. He quickly phased through the ground, heading directly toward the basement. When he got there, he basked in the darkness and leered up the stairs, deciding to wait for his prey.
---
When Sid and Royce awoke that morning, they saw Zeke looking out the doorway, looking uneasy. Sid walked into the kitchen to fix himself some breakfast while Royce approached the spiky haired young man. “What’s the matter?”
“I told Will to get out of here at midnight; poor kid was scared out of his mind, especially after...” Zeke didn’t even look away from the doorway. “Nevermind, the point is I’m worried about him.”
“Aw mate, no need to worry.” Royce reassured him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “How’s about we go search for him right now?”
“You sure?” Zeke asked.
“Indeed I am, stranger. Lemme just get into my normal clothes, and we can be on our way.” He headed upstairs into his room to get changed.
---
It was still raining, but the rain felt much lighter than before, Sid, Zeke and Royce all searched outside for any signs of Will, but they couldn’t find anything until they entered the forest and saw muddy footprints nearby. Royce scouted ahead while Sid and Zeke talked amongst themselves.
“He must be close.” Zeke remarked.
“Hope nerdlinger’s alright.” Sid said.
“Sid, be serious for once!” Zeke snapped.
“I am serious.” Sid responded “If nerdlinger’s gone, then who am I gonna push around?”
“That’s a horrible reason for wanting to find him.” Zeke stated.
“Psh, whatever, man.” Sid scoffed. “Besides, it’s his fault we missed the party...I was gonna score some good stuff there.”
“I thought you said you wanted to make new friends...” Zeke questioned.
“Oh, well, that was kinda...yeah, complete bullshit on my part.” Sid confessed. “My dealer was actually gonna show up, we arranged a meet up there and everything. Hey, maybe if we find nerdlinger fast enough, we can ditch the stupid cottage and catch him.”
Zeke took off his shades and glared at him. “So let me get this straight, you risked our lives and got us stranded...just so you can buy drugs?”
“Hey, I didn’t intend to do either of those, you’re just making me sound like an asshole at this point.” Sid said, Zeke was resisting every urge in his body to punch him in the face as he gritted his teeth.
“Sid, you...” The careless stoner was clearly pushing his patience to its limit.
Their conversation was cut short when Royce up to them. “You might not want to see what’s up there.”
“Why, is it Will?” Zeke asked.
Royce winced. “What’s left of him, anyways.”
“No...” Zeke pushed past him and ran up ahead. “Will!” He continuously called out his name until he saw the carcass of his friend in the damp mud, chunks of his flesh were missing, and a big gaping hole encased in dried up blood went across his entire stomach. “Oh God, Will, no...”
“Will is dead.” Royce whispered as he placed his gloved hand on Zeke’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
Zeke bent down, crying over his friend’s corpse, looking at it in disbelief until he looked away, unable to take this anymore. “What could have done this to him?” He said in between sobs.
“People are sick these days.” Royce spat at the ground.
“People?” Zeke pointed at Will’s lifeless body. “No single person could’ve done that to him, it’s too gruesome for a single man, yet too intricate for a wild beast.” Zeke glared off in the distance and lowered his arm. “I don’t know what could have happened to him, but one thing’s for sure, we have to get back to the cottage, it’s the only safe place here as far as I’m concerned.”
Royce nodded, spread the news to Sid, and they all ran back to the cottage.
---
Zeke entered first, followed by Sid, when Royce finally ran inside, Zeke slammed the door shut and locked it, then started boarding it up, making sure no one could get in or out.
Sid was catching his breath from running so fast, and then glared at Royce.
“What’s wrong?” Royce asked.
“You were awfully calm during that whole thing.” Sid grew suspicious of him. “What made you so sure about going ahead of us?”
“Just had a bad feeling I s’pose, didn’t want you guys finding out any gruesome details before I could give you a fair warnin’ ‘bout them.”
“No, no I don’t think so.” Sid shook his head and walked up to Royce. “I think you knew what happened ahead of time, you seemed awfully sure about it even before you found him.” He grabbed him by his jacket collar. “It’s almost like you had something to do with it!” Sid shoved Royce, who just backed away slowly and waved his hands dismissively.
“Now, now, let’s not jump to any conclusions so suddenly.” Royce motioned his hand toward his coat.
“Oh, I know what you’re trying to do...trying to get a weapon so you can kill me as well, huh? Get rid of any witnesses so you can get off scot-free, huh? Well that’s not going to happen!” Sid yelled, shaking in rage.
“You’re overreacting, mate. I’m innocent, just getting’ a cigarette, y’see?” Royce pulled out a cigarette and grinned.
“Wait, Sid.” Zeke spoke up. “Don’t do anything hasty, he might know more than he lets on.”
“Oh, I’ll say!” Sid snapped.
“Not in the way you meant.” Zeke clarified.
“What makes you say that?” Sid asked.
Zeke sighed. “Alright, I wanted to avoid mentioning this in front of Sid, but last night I saw something that looked like...some kind of spirit.”
“What?”
“It’s a face I’m never going to forget; it’s probably going to give me nightmares for weeks.” Zeke cringed.
“Hoo boy...” Royce scratched the back of his head.
“I take it that’s your brother?” Zeke asked.
“Yep, I’m afraid that’s Benjamin Kourriel, or at least, what became of him. He lived and died here, I guess he’s just so attached to the place that he returns here even in death. In fact, funnily enough, he died in a freak storm, much like the one that happened last night.” Royce explained.
“What spirit?” Sid asked. “You guys are bullshitting me!” He pointed at Royce. “You must’ve killed Will in a drug induced rage without even noticing, yeah that’s it! It was my damn supply that did it to you, god fucking damn it!” Sid took all the bags containing his drugs and began stomping on them repeatedly. “I’m never doing these again, oh no, I’m not becoming a murderer myself!”
“Sid, you’re being paranoid, just relax!” Zeke tried reasoning with him.
“I can’t fucking relax with a murderer on the loose!” Sid drew out a pocket knife. “You’re going to pay for killing nerdlinger, you asshole!” Sid yelled viciously.
“No, I swear it wasn’t me! I did nothing wrong. C’mon mate, don’t be like this, we had some good times, right?” Royce pleaded and begged.
Sid ran up to him. “An eye for an eye, bitch!”
“You’re not listening, I’m completely innocent!” Sid opened his switchblade and stabbed him in the stomach, Royce yelled in pain as Sid worked the silver knife up through Royce’s body and drew it out, just before he fell to the floor bleeding, muttering his final words. “It wasn’t me...I’m innocent...” He let out a final breath and then lay there, dead in a puddle of his own blood.
Zeke looked traumatized as he saw these events unfold before his eyes. “Sid, you...”
“I’m never fuckin’ doing drugs again.” Sid looked at Zeke. “I guess it’s good that we didn’t get to that party, huh? Otherwise I probably would’ve ended up like this guy.” He spat at Royce’s corpse.
“Brother...no...” They heard a voice call from the basement.
“The fuck was that?” Sid walked over to the basement; Zeke didn’t say anything, he just reached into his coat, touching the handle of his holstered gun. He thought back to Sid’s paranoid rage and felt that he wasn’t the same man that he entered the cottage with, he was tempted to shoot him right there for killing an innocent man, but he knew better than to do what Sid did and give in to his rage.
Zeke soon froze with fear as he saw the door creak a bit, and then swing wide open as a dark hand grabbed Sid by the leg. “What in the fuck?”
“And now, you die!” Kourriel pulled Sid down, causing him to trip down the stairs. Zeke rushed over and grabbed his hand.
“Sid, no!” Zeke yelled.
“Zeke, oh my God Zeke, help me! I’m too young to die!” Sid yelled hysterically.
“I’m not losing another friend!” Zeke stated. “Come on, Sid!” He tried pulling him up, but Kourriel’s grip was much tighter.
“Zeke, I’m slipping!” He felt his fingers slowly slipping alongside his palm. “Oh God, I’ve wasted my fucking life.” He began bawling.
“We’re going to make it out of here, don’t worry. You can have a fresh start.” Zeke pulled as hard as he could. “Just hang on!”
Sid knew it was useless, he felt his grip slipping and he knew no one would be able to save him from this vengeful spirit. He thought back to when he killed Royce and then looked up at his friend. “Remember me...as a cool army dude.”
At this point, Sid’s hand completely slipped out of Zeke’s and he descended down the stairs. “No!” Zeke reached out.
Sid frantically tried grabbing on the railing, but the clawed hand dragged him down with such force that his hand was dragged alongside the banister, scraping against the wooden railing, causing his fingers to splinter. Sid was kicking and screaming, especially when he reached the end of the stairs, he tried to shake himself free, but nothing could escape Kourriel’s tight grasp. He felt his body slide along the floor, desperately trying to grab anything for support, but there was nothing there, he just felt himself endlessly descending, as if he were getting dragged down to the depths of hell.
Zeke heard Sid’s screams eventually get more distant and quiet until the shrill screaming abruptly died down and an eerie sense of silence filled the air. “...Sid?” Zeke called out and he began running downstairs into the basement himself. He found no trace of Sid, until he came across Kourriel’s coffin. He walked over to it, but it seemed to be getting further and further away from him, as if the length of the hallway extended with every step he took. He thought he heard wolves howling and people screaming in the distance. He shook his head rapidly, and found himself in front of the coffin. Zeke removed the lid himself only to find Sid’s corpse inside, completely skinless with his mouth gaping wide open, his wide bulged eyes endlessly staring back at him with a look of agony and never ending torment. Zeke felt himself nearly throw up as he saw the spirit’s hand clenching the corpse’s jaw, moving it to the right, and then tearing the top part of his head off from his mouth, the lower jaw now bleeding profusely.
“Two down, one to go...” Kourriel’s voice harshly rumbled before he held up the top of his prey’s skull, admiring his handiwork. Zeke got up to his feet and ran as fast as he could upstairs.
He thought about opening the door, but then looked at it and remembered he boarded it up. “Fuck!” He yelled. He couldn’t find anything that could break the wood nearby, so he took out his gun and tried shooting it off. After breaking the wood he tried frantically to open the door, desperately turning the knob only to remember that it was locked. He tried looking for the key, but he couldn’t find it. “Damn it! Of all the times, it had to be now?”
Kourriel stalked his victim and slashed his sharp claws across his back. Zeke grunted in pain, but then took out his gun and fired at the spirit a total of six times, three times at his chest, and three more times at his head. He knew it wouldn’t affect him in the slightest, as the bullets phased right through him, but he was hoping it would buy him enough time to get away.
“You fool, no mortal weapon can kill me...I am permanent!” Kourriel raised his head. Zeke looked around, and then took out the flashlight and shined it in the poltergeist’s face, knowing that it worked last time. Kourriel yelled in pain and shielded his eyes as his essence began disintegrating. Sure enough, this caused him to sink back in the shadows. This gave Zeke a chance to try and escape, he ran throughout the living room and rummaged the place, looking everywhere for the key, as well as a back door or a secret entrance somewhere that he might have missed before. Unfortunately, no matter where he looked he couldn’t find a thing. He turned around only to see Kourriel emerge from the shadows, reaching his arm back.
Zeke heard thunder in the distance once more, the rain outside was falling down harder than it ever did before. He looked at the flashlight, but it was too far away. He raised his gun, hoping it would distract the phantom yet again, but as soon as he pulled the trigger, he knew he had run out of bullets. Kourriel proceeded to impale Zeke in the chest with his claws, stabbing right through his heart.
Kourriel soon saw his cottage cave in once more, just as it had done a year ago, the falling debris finishing Zeke off, burying him and the others within its collapsed remains. Kourriel saw a tree, singed in half by lightning, lying atop the wreckage that was once his home. Kourriel let out a sinister laugh before sinking into the shadows.
---
One year later, two teenagers were driving on the road next to a nearby forest. They were speeding along without a care in the world, until they had run out of gas. With their car now having stopped dead in its tracks in the middle of nowhere, they decided to trek through the forest for any help they could find, and after a long search had unexpectedly found a cottage in pristine condition.
“Hey Joel, maybe we should ask for directions.” One of the kids remarked.
“Couldn’t hurt, let’s go, Jack.”
They entered the cottage and called out for anyone who may have been there.
“Hello, is anyone there?” Jack asked.
“Sorry to intrude like this, but we need directions!” They waited for someone to answer, but only felt a slight gust of wind brushing past their hair. They could have sworn they heard someone whispering for them to get out, but shook it off, as it was so quiet that they thought they were just hearing things, not knowing the other had heard it as well.
“Well, guess no one’s here.” Joel said.
“I’ll head to the basement; see if anyone’s hiding out in there.” Jack said.
“Alright, be careful. I’ll wait for you up here.” Joel said as his brother rushed downstairs.
“Oh dang, it’s dark down here.” He took out something from his pocket. “Good thing I brought a flashlight!” He turned it on and opened the door in front of him, finding a blue coffin up against the wall.
He was wondering if he should really proceed any further, when he thought that maybe this was some sort of trick to scare off unwelcome guests, he opened the coffin only to be proven wrong when he saw Kourriel’s dead body there. Before he could even react, the corpse opened his yellow eye from underneath his bandages and his spirit emerged from his body, flying straight toward the intruder and pinned him to the floor, his mouth curled into a scowl as he raised his arms, he reached toward him with his claws spread out. “You should have left while you had the chance, now you will pay dearly, with your life...” Jack screamed at the top of his lungs as the specter swung his claws toward his eyes.
Joel heard the scream from upstairs. “Oh shit, Jack, are you okay?” He was just about to head downstairs when he soon heard a knock at the door. He quickly rushed to the door and opened it, and there stood Royce, as good as new.
“’Ello there stranger...the name’s Royce, y’see I’ve been out in the rain for a while, and I need a place to stay. May I come in?”
Joel thought about it briefly, and then opened the door “Alright, come on in.” Royce walked inside and took off his soaked, mud ridden boots.
“Heheheh…thanks mate, you’re too kind!” Royce tilted his hat and headed toward the kitchen. History certainly has a way of repeating itself and many mysteries still remain unsolved in Kourriel’s cottage.
“Hey, what’s up?” He asked. “Yeah, I’ll be fine; it’s just a small wound at best, nothing to worry about. The bandages should be coming off next week.” He paused for a moment. “I’m on my way home, I had to pick up some food for Abigail. Fall is coming up soon, so I have to gather a bunch of these suckers while I still can.” He paused again, looking a little irritated after a few seconds as he clenched the bag in his fist. “Ugh, not this again...look, I’m not ready to go back, especially not after what happened.” He sighed and shook his head. “Besides, they never liked me anyways, you know that.” He mumbled under his breath. He continued walking, allowing the man on the other end of the line to talk and after a few minutes, he was out of the forest.
“Mm, alright, I’ll think about it, but listen; you always know you’re welcome at my place any time.” He started walking uphill and soon felt a few droplets of rain. “Anyways, I better hang up now. Seems like there’s a storm coming up so I better get inside, and you know how bad the reception at my place is.” He laughed. “Alright man, take care.” He scratched the back of his head. “Love you too.” He shut off his phone before pocketing it and soon his cottage came into view. He rushed up towards his old abode and opened the door. He stepped on the mat and took off his filthy, mud ridden sandals.
“I’m home, Abby!” He announced before closing and locking the door behind him. He went into the kitchen and put the small bag down, making sure it was closed up tight. Soon afterwards he opened the dishwasher to put away the now clean dishes, the clanging and clattering of the plates echoed throughout the entire house. He then opened a cupboard, got out a watering can and couldn’t help but notice the rain now falling rapidly against the windows as he began watering his plants. He jumped as he heard thunder outside, his hand twitching, spilling a bit of water on the floor. “Damn, I’ll have to clean that up later.” He walked back to the counter, grabbed the bag and headed downstairs into the basement, where he saw the only other companion in his house, his pet snake Abigail within a large glass tank filled with foliage and branches.
Abigail was his only friend, and he preferred it that way. He walked up to the tank and smiled warmly. “Look what I’ve got.” He untied the bag and took out a live rat by the tail, squirming and shaking on the edge of his fingers. “It’s all for you Abigail.” He dangled the rat over the tank as the snake slithered around; he dropped the rat in the tank, and proceeded to do the same with two more.
The rats were scurrying about, afraid for their lives as Abigail honed in on her prey. She took one of the live rats by the neck and snapped it, slowly devouring its carcass, savouring her meal as the other rats shook in fear. Loud thunder was heard outside as she pounced on the other rat and bit through its back, then the other through the chest. Benjamin smirked as he watched all this, knowing that she loved to hunt her food as if it were her prey, he watched as his pet consumed the remains of the carcass.
“You enjoy that, girl?” he stuck his arm in the tank and rubbed his fingers against Abigail’s cheek, who rubbed her head against his skin affectionately as if to thank him. “Yeah, who needs them? You’re all the company I need.” He chuckled. “I just hope I didn’t give you too much at once.” He pulled his hand out, and the serpent went back to slithering across the twigs and leaves. “Love you, Abigail.” Another loud booming sound of thunder was heard as flashes of lightning shone through the windows, the storm was now coming down harder than ever, leaving Ben concerned.
He began walking away, before seeing one final flash of lightning, with the last violent strike he could only watch as the ceiling began to crack, hearing creaking and rustling noises all around him. He ran towards the tank and completely covered the top of it, he could only think of how much he wanted to protect his only friend. The last thing Benjamin saw was the ceiling falling apart, caving in down towards him, then everything went black.
---
One year had passed since the cottage collapsed, killing Kourriel underneath its wreckage. Three teenagers were seen driving on the roads which were encased in a thick, humid fog. The driver was a 17 year old stoner named Sid who had shoulder length, curly black hair with stubble on his chin, his dirty red shirt was drenched in grease and sweat stains, and his baggy beige pants smelled like smoke and body odor. He could barely see anything ahead of him, but he wasn’t paying much attention to the road. Since the beginning of the trip he turned his radio up full blast, head banging to the heavy metal music blaring through the speakers as his hair waved all over the place, to the point where a few strands of it hit the passenger beside him.
The passenger riding shotgun was an 18 year old named Zeke, the oldest of them all. He had spiky brown hair and wore a thick, brown coat along with black pants. He adjusted his sunglasses and punched Sid in the shoulder “Cut it out.” He mumbled, he was the most mature of the group, but even he had his limits. Sid rubbed his shoulder in annoyance, but continued to drive.
“Man, Zeke, I’m just getting hyped up for the party. Why you gotta be such a buzzkill all the time?” The driver complained, squinting out the window, trying to see what was ahead of him.
“Sid, someone has to pay attention to the road, and you’re the one who decided to drive.” Zeke looked out the window, and then back at Sid. “Now either take some responsibility, or stop the car and let me drive.”
“Psh, man, I’m not lettin’ you drive my bitchin’ car, fuckin’ uptight pussy.” Sid chuckled.
“I really wouldn’t call anyone a pussy if I were you, especially after you dropped out of highschool in your sophomore year.” Zeke shot back.
“Man, high school was bullshit, there was way too much work, it wasn’t for me.” The carefree teenager shook his head, his hair waving from side to side.
“You always tried getting me to do your entire workload for you.” Zeke rolled his eyes.
“Exactly man, like I said, it’s bullshit.” He slapped Zeke on the back. “You of all people should know.”
“You know what? Nevermind, this conversation’s just going to go in circles again.” Zeke tucked his mouth underneath the collar of his brown trench coat, closing his blue eyes, and furrowing his long eyebrows.
“You complain way too much, dude. You don’t hear nerdlinger back there complaining.” Sid pointed his thumb to the back of the car.
Zeke looked back “Will’s asleep, actually.” He remarked.
Will was 16 years old, the youngest of the group. He had combed back brown hair, and braces on his teeth. He wore a black hoodie along with jeans. The thick, black duct taped glasses that he normally wore were off to the side.
“Damn, really? Sleeping through this kickin’ sick music?” Sid asked. “Well then that guy’s boring too.”
“If you didn’t have us ‘boring buzzkills’ who would you take to the party?” Zeke retorted.
“Aw jeez...” Sid pressed his hand against his stubble and began to think. He tossed his head back and rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, good point.”
There was a moment of silence, neither of them knowing what to say for a while until the spiky haired man looked out the window again. “Besides, we shouldn’t even be driving in this fog; I can barely see a thing.”
“No way man, this is going to be the best party in town. I missed it last year, and I’ll be damned if I miss it now! I had to pull a lot of strings to get you guys invited.” Sid said as he squinted through the thick, grey fog. “You bitches better be thankful.”
Zeke tried to reason with him. “Can’t we just walk?”
Sid shook his head. “It’s way too far.”
Zeke raised one of his long eyebrows. “Why can’t we wait until the fog clears up?”
“By then it’d be way too late, it’s only going on for one day, idiot.” Sid smacked his friend upside the head. “Doi.”
“But-“ Zeke tried to speak up, before the driver interrupted.
“Look, I don’t want to hear it.” Sid grumbled, and then smirked. “Besides, I’ve got this cool trick that I’ve wanted to show off.”
“Oh no, don’t you dare-” Zeke began to say, but Sid didn’t listen as he harshly turned a corner and tilted the car against two of its wheels as he continued to drive, sparks flying across the road. “SID, ARE YOU HIGH?”
“NOT YET MAN, NOT YET.” Sid raised his arms and let out a loud holler until the car lost control, skidding across the road. “OH SHIT!”
“SID, YOU IDIOT! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL US!” Zeke yelled.
“IT’S OKAY, I’VE GOT THIS!” He frantically grabbed the wheel, hoping to get control again, the car managed to fall back on its wheels and he continued to drive. “Holy fuck, that was a close o-” Unfortunately, the road he was on felt unstable and he crashed into a tree, knocking them both out cold, and waking up Will before the airbags popped out.
“Oh no, what happened?” Will scrambled to put on his glasses. He inched himself closer to the front seats and looked at his two friends, realizing they passed out, he moved his jittery fingers through his gelled back hair. “Oh dear God, what do I do?” He fidgeted with his seatbelt until he got it off and then checked their pulses to see if they were alive, Sid’s pulse was feint, and Zeke’s was okay, the two were still breathing, but unconscious for the time being. Will felt relieved that they were at least alive, calming himself down as he opened the door and got out of the wrecked car.
He saw that they crashed into a dead, rotting tree. “Oh jeez, Sid, why do you always try to perform stunts in this hunk of junk? They never work.” He slammed the door shut, but then realized he got his sleeve caught in the door. “Aw man, not again!” He tried tugging it out a couple of times, and then on the third tug he managed to get it out after ripping it a little. “Dang it and this was new, too.” He clenched his braced teeth together and put his hands in his jean pockets.
He decided to scout ahead to see if there was anyone who could help them out, or any place that they could stay at, since he knew the totaled car wouldn’t work anymore. He set off, taking a mental note of where his friends were and walked through the fog ridden wilderness. Old decaying trees were scattered throughout the forest, the wind blowing through them. Some of the trees were toppled over, others were broken in pieces, and a few of them looked as if they were just about to fall. A terrible thunderstorm must have been the cause of all this, destroying everything in its path. He walked for a few miles before coming across a lone cottage on a hillside.
Will wasn’t sure if it was just the eerie surroundings getting to him, but he knew right after seeing it that something about this freakishly tall cottage seemed unwelcoming, chunks of wood were chipped off, and other parts of the exterior were rotten and peeling. When he went in for a closer look, he saw that all the lights were off; he wasn’t sure if the place was abandoned, or if the residents were just sleeping. He was thinking about turning back, but he briefly looked around and there was nothing else but dead, broken trees for miles, in fact he couldn’t even see another sign of life nearby. He decided to risk it and approach the door, knocking on it.
“Hello?” He asked. “Is there anyone in there?” He pressed his ear up against the door, listening carefully, but could hear nothing. “My friend crashed his car nearby, we’re stranded here and we really need a place to stay. Do you think you could let us in for a little bit?” He stopped for a while, trying to listen for a response once more, but all he heard was the wind. He jiggled the knob a bit until he realized the door was unlocked. “Alright, well, guess no one’s in there.” He shrugged. “I suppose I have no choice either way.”
He turned and walked back to the car, when he got back he opened the wrecked door and gently hoisted Zeke over his shoulder. Will didn’t have much upper body strength, and Zeke’s muscles made him weigh a lot more than he appeared to, so the unexpected strain of this caused him to pant and sweat after a few miles of walking. When he reached the cottage, he carefully placed him down on the nearby bench. He then went back, got Sid out of the car, and carried him over as well, he breathed through his mouth, trying not to smell the sweat that drenched his clothes, or the smoke that lingered over them. Although he figured that as tired and sweaty as he was, that he wasn’t one to talk. He rested Sid’s body on the step and then opened the creaking door.
Suddenly a gust of wind hit him in the face, blowing right past his combed back hair; he thought he heard a faint voice in the distance, harshly whispering for him to get out. His eyes widened when he heard this, but he then shook his head rapidly from side to side, and the wind subsided. “I must be hearing things...” He carried Sid into the dark musky cottage, dragged him into the living room and placed him down on the couch, in front of a TV that when turned on, only showed static. Afterwards he carried Zeke in and quickly placed him down on the chair across from it.
Will decided to explore the house a bit, he walked back up to the entrance and saw a spiral staircase leading upstairs in front of him, as he walked throughout the hallway, he found plants on the windowsills that looked as if they were just watered, this led him to surely believe that someone was currently living here, or at least taking care of the place, but no matter what room he searched, he couldn’t find anyone.
He opened the door at the end of the hallway, leading to the kitchen, he saw a fridge to the left, next to it was a counter with a microwave and a toaster beside each other; he looked at the oven right next to him, just barely ahead of the entrance. He also found a stack of dirty dishes on the desk above the dishwasher, which he found odd especially since the plants looked freshly watered. He opened the fridge to see if there was anything to eat, when he couldn’t find anything he looked in the cupboards, only to see an assortment of pots and pans. He walked past the knife holders, containing knives of all shapes and sizes and looked in the drawer only to find spoons, forks and butter knives. He continued to explore his surroundings, both to get a good feel for the place and to see if anyone had truly lived there.
Will found a door to the left, when he opened it he found a staircase that led downstairs, when he walked into the basement it was pitch black. He couldn’t even see an inch in front of him, stumbling about and even falling down a few steps until he got to the bottom of the stairs, where he stepped on something, causing him to jump and rub his foot in pain. He began tapping the object with his foot to get a good feel for what it was that he stepped on, when he crouched down and felt it with his hands, he found out that it was a flashlight. Letting out a sigh of relief, he grabbed it and turned it on knowing that that was just what he needed, the light emitting from the flashlight blinked a bit, but after a few seconds it reliably stayed on, lighting the pathway for him.
He walked onward, the wooden floorboards creaking underneath his feet greatly unsettled him, this entire cottage was putting him on edge making him feel weary and cautious, causing him to be mindful of his surroundings. He opened up the door in front of him, and found a blue coffin propped upright, it was at this moment that he wanted nothing more than to high tail it out of there, and if not for his injured friends upstairs, he probably would have.
A thousand thoughts were racing through his mind at once, was someone in that coffin? If someone did die, then why not give them a proper burial? Will remembered that he was technically underground, so could this have been an actual burial? Was no one meant to find this cottage? The more he thought about it, the more the room felt like it was spinning all around him, his chest tightened. He felt like the world was coming down all around him. He felt himself shaking from head to toe as he ducked and clasped his hands over his head, only being able to hear the sounds of his own rapid breathing.
Will tried to calm down by slowly breathing in through his nose, and out through his mouth, counting to intervals of ten in his head. He got back up as he regained his composure, turned around and began to walk away, until he stopped in his tracks and looked back at the coffin, shining the flashlight over it. Even though he didn’t want to so much as think about it, his curiosity grew overwhelming, to the point where he figured if he came this far, he should at least see what was inside. Maybe this would give him some answers as to the inconsistent state of the cottage.
Deep down, he knew he shouldn’t do this, but he rationalized this to himself by thinking that he’d just take a small peek. He slowly inched the lid out of the way and tightly closed his eyes, the foul stench overwhelmed his nose and he coughed a little bit. He squinted, not entirely sure if he even wanted to see what was inside anymore, but he worked up his courage and completely shoved the lid aside. When he opened his eyes, he saw the decaying body of Kourriel inside, bandages wrapped around his head, only one of his eyes were visible, along with his rotten teeth, and his arms were folded up to his shoulders. Will was too frightened to even move until the decaying corpse of Kourriel unexpectedly fell atop his shoulder, he let out a loud scream, immediately pushed the body away and then frantically ran upstairs in a panic.
---
“Ugh...” Sid was slowly waking up; he slouched over and clutched his chest in pain. “What happened?”
“Another one of your stupid stunts, I’m guessing.” Zeke mumbled, his head buried in his hands.
“Fuck, man. I’m never driving again.” Sid said through his clenched teeth before wincing in pain. Once he had his bearings back, he looked around the house, his eyebrows raised. “Where the hell are we, anyways?”
Zeke raised his head and observed the surroundings as well. “...I wish I knew Sid, I wish I knew.”
“Damn it, we’re totally going to miss that party.” Sid’s leg drooped down off the couch as he pressed his fingers up against his head.
“Not the most pressing matter right now.” Zeke calmly said.
“You don’t understand, man, I’ve always promised myself I’d go to these parties, only to miss them every year due to some bullshit reason or another.” Sid regretfully said. “This was my chance, my chance to finally hang out with my friends, meet some new people, and party all night-”
Suddenly they heard a loud scream, causing them both to jolt up in their seats. Zeke got up to his feet, despite the pains and aches his body was going through, and reached in his trench coat for a gun. When he saw Will run up from the basement he breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his forehead, now knowing where the source of the scream came from.
Will darted into the room and hid under a desk, shaking frantically and covering his head, he looked up to see that Zeke and Sid were awake. “O-oh thank goodness, you guys are awake. S-Sid, you got in an a-a-accident.” Will stuttered, trying desperately to get his thoughts together.
“Told you.” Zeke taunted, Sid weakly punched him in the arm in response.
“I f-f-found this cottage nearby, I thought we should stay here until you guys recovered, but...” Will fell silent, pouting as his entire body shook.
“But what?” Zeke asked.
“I d-don’t think that’s such a good idea anymore.” Will shook his head.
“What’s that Lassie?” Sid taunted, “Little Timmy’s stuck in the well?”
“Shut up, Sid, I’m serious!” Will whined. “I saw something I shouldn’t have.”
“Oh what, what did you see? Is it your first time looking up porn or something?” Sid taunted sarcastically and then laughed at his own joke.
“Laugh all you want, but I’ve had enough of this place, I’m outta here!” Will ran toward the door and turned the knob, when he opened the door Sid shoved him aside.
“Out of the way, nerdlinger.” Sid walked out of the doorway. “I got some stuff I need to get from the car.”
“No need to push me.” Will uttered, rubbing his shoulder, only to see that Sid was already outside, well out of earshot. “Asshole.”
Will thought about getting out of the house right then and there, but after thinking about it, realized that he didn’t want to leave Zeke in this cottage alone, especially when he knew what was downstairs, so he decided to muster up his courage and stay put until his friends got better.
Will sat down on the couch and sighed. Zeke looked out the window curiously. They sat there for a while until Sid kicked the door open, hands full of plastic bags filled with drugs of all kinds.
“If we’re staying here, we might as well make the most of it.” He dumped it all off in the living room. “Don’t worry guys, this stuff survived the crash. We’ll be feeling better in no time.”
Zeke furrowed his brow. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“What’s wrong?” Sid asked.
“You had that in the car this whole time?” Zeke seethed
“In the trunk, yeah.” Sid confirmed. “What of it?”
“You fucking idiot!” Zeke shouted. “You know my dad’s a detective, what do you think would’ve happened if we got caught?”
“Your dad’s on vacation, dude, he wouldn’t have caught us.” Sid scoffed.
“Not my point at all, gah! God damn it, this just raises so many more questions. You were driving SO recklessly! What would you have done if we got pulled over? I mean, you DO realize that we’d have been arrested too, right?” Zeke ranted.
“Nah man, we wouldn’t have gotten caught.” Zeke walked up to Sid and furiously knocked on his head.
“DO YOU EVEN HAVE A BRAIN IN THAT BIG CLOUDED HEAD OF YOURS?” Zeke was furious; he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “I should take you in to the police station myself, you low life piece of shit.” He spat. “But...no, we’re past that now.” He sighed, let go of him and walked away. “It doesn’t matter anymore, what with us being in the middle of nowhere.”
“Pfft.” Sid sat down and took a bag filled with marijuana. “I’m so out of it I don’t even give a fuck, this should at least make me feel less shitty.” He rolled up some of it in a cigarette and got out a lighter. “You want some, Will?” He turned his head only to see Will wasn’t there anymore. “Huh, alright, more for me then, this is gonna be good.” With the joint in his mouth, Sid was about to flick the lighter open until he heard a loud knock at the door.
“Aw, what the fuck?” Sid groaned. “Come on, I’m busy here!” The knocking continued. “Ugh, fine, fine...” He raised his legs and leaped off of the couch; he leisurely strolled up to the door and opened it slightly, just to get a good look at who was at the door. He saw a man with long hair underneath his black fedora, he wore a green jacket along with long black pants, big grey-ish black boots, and black leather fingerless gloves. He had stubble on his chin, along with a pencil thin mustache.
“’Ello there stranger.” The man said in his Australian accent, seeing Sid peek through the crack of the door. “The name’s Royce, y’see I’ve been out in the rain for a while, and I need a place to stay.” He kept his voice to a low rasp. “May I come in?”
“Eh...sure, why not?” Sid carelessly swung the door open, Royce walked inside and took off his soaked, mud ridden boots.
“Heheheh...thanks mate, you’re too kind.” Royce tilted his hat and headed toward the kitchen. Sid looked outside only to see torrents of rain pouring from the night sky, he saw a flash of lightning and quickly slammed the door shut, not liking the look of this hazardous thunderstorm.
Sid walked up to Royce, who was now neck deep in the fridge, looking for food. “Mate, I don’t think I got your name!” Royce exclaimed.
“Ah yeah, my name’s Sid. Do you own this cottage or something?” Sid asked.
“Nah...well, sorta.” Royce took out a big bucket of chicken and set it down on the counter. “My brother owned this place, but he sadly passed away a year ago, so I guess you could say I now own it in a way.”
“Ahh.” Sid nodded. “Well, look, I wasn’t going to stay here long. I was actually on the way to this sweet party, it was gonna be awesome, but long story short I brought some friends along and got in a car accident. Then my stupid idiot friend Will brought me and my other pal Zeke to this place.” He explained. “We’ll be outta here as soon as we feel better, promise.”
“Aw stranger, no need to be so adamant about that, it gets so lonely up here that I could use the company. Stay a while why don’tchya?” Royce took out a drumstick and took a bite out of it.
“No can do, man, I’m already running late enough for this party as is, if it were up to me I’d be outta here by now, but just getting to my wrecked car and back here again was tough enough, I tell you.” Sid shook his head, and then spotted a phone. “Wait, this place had a phone the entire time?”
Royce swallowed his food. “It does, bu-” He started to speak before getting cut off.
“Sweet! Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Sid ran for the phone and began dialing numbers. “Hey, hey, it’s Sid, sorry for the hold up, we’re gonna be late.” He started speaking, only to listen closely and realize...
“The line’s dead, these phones haven’t worked in years, and the cell phone reception is absolute shite. I think my brother preferred it that way, he always was a bit of a loner.” Royce explained before taking another big bite of his drumstick.
“Well, fuck!” Sid threw the phone on the floor. “That really could’ve helped!” He pointed to the phone and punched the wall in frustration.
“Relax, s’alright.” Royce reasoned with him, patting him on the back. “You could step outside and use your own phone, but...” He pointed out the window. “It’s stormin’ pretty bad out there, I wouldn’t recommend it. I’d wait ‘til it was mornin’ if I was you.”
“Guess I have no choice.” Sid sighed and shook his head, heading back into the living room where he sat back down on the couch. “This really fuckin’ sucks.”
“Tell me ‘bout it, I was walkin’ through that storm, y’know.” Royce walked in, pointing his drumstick at Sid, and then at the plastic bags filled with drugs. “Whutchya got there, stranger?”
“Oh, these?” Sid picked up some marijuana. “Only some of the best stuff, I was gonna sell these at the party, in fact my dealer was gonna show up as well, so I was definitely gonna buy some better stuff off of him that was going around, but since that car accident I’ve felt like shit, so I figured this would help ease the pain and get all this stress of my mind.”
“A sound decision, friend.” Royce outstretched his hand. “May I have a toke?”
“Oh, sure man!” He rolled up another joint and passed it. “Smoke up, you’re gonna love this shit.”
---
Zeke was now exploring the cottage himself, Will stuck close by, not wanting to be alone especially after what he had seen. “You sure you’re alright, Zeke?” He asked.
“A little sore, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Zeke told him. They had just finished exploring the upstairs and had headed downstairs, reaching the main hallway, which Zeke was now thoroughly searching. He saw the basement door and started to head over there, until Will grabbed him by the shoulder unexpectedly.
“No! Don’t go down there!” Will shouted desperately in a panic.
“Gah!” Zeke jumped and then looked back. “Why? What’s down there?”
“You really don’t want to know...” Will said, Zeke sighed and walked throughout the hallway, Will however noticed something peculiar. “Wait, what? N-no, this...this isn’t right!”
Zeke turned around only to see Will looking closely at the wall, frantically touching different parts of it. “What’s wrong?” Zeke asked.
“Th-there was a window right here!” Will stuttered.
“You’re sure?” Zeke asked.
“Positive!” He felt around the wall even more frantically. “I swear, it was right here, what on Earth is going on?”
“Hm, that’s strange.” Zeke nonchalantly said. “Then again, considering you took a look around already, I suppose you’d know better than I would.” He headed into the kitchen, only to find a big bucket of chicken on the counter. Will followed in after him, his eyes widening as he saw the food.
“No...no way, no, no, no, this can’t be happening.” Will said in disbelief, he rubbed his eyes and opened them again to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, and sure enough the food was still there.
“What is it this time?” Zeke asked.
“Where did this food come from? There was nothing in the fridge when I checked!” Will explained.
“Maybe someone stopped by and brought that with them.” Zeke said.
Will scrambled to the refrigerator and immediately opened it, only to see food of all kinds. “This...no, what’s happening?”
“You’re right, this is peculiar.” Zeke remained calm.
The two teenagers rushed back into the living room to tell Sid about their findings, only to smell strong smoke coming from the room. They began coughing. “Augh, what is that?” Will asked.
“Considering Sid brought in a pile of drugs last time I saw him...” Zeke peeked into the living room, and sure enough there was his friend with a fedora wearing stranger, sitting down and huffing up joints, blowing out marijuana smoke.
“Dude, you ever wonder why we’re here?” Sid asked with his eyes completely glazed over, staring off into space.
Royce puffed out a big grey wad of smoke just before coughing. “Mate, it’s stormin’ like shit out there, that’s why.”
“Nah, not what I meant, dude.” Sid grabbed a nearby bong, lit it and closed his mouth over it as the illegal chemicals began bubbling until he breathed out even more smoke. “I mean like, okay, lemme put it this way. Why were we born? What even put us on this planet?”
“I don’t even wanna think about that.” Royce wagged his finger.
“Nah dude it’s really like...really...deep, man. I mean what if we were born during another time? What makes us, us? Y’know? Why are we in these bodies? What if I was the president of America, or a used car salesman? We could’ve been, y’know, anything if you really think about it. I could’ve been a fuckin’ badger or something for all I know.” Sid tossed the bong over to Royce.
“You unhappy with your life, stranger?” Royce took a hit from the bong.
“Nah man, just sometimes I think about these things, especially when it’s like...whoa man, y’know? It’s like I’m having an out of body experience or something, like I’m so aware that I’m too aware.” Sid trailed off.
“You are so fucking baked.” Royce chortled as he set the bong down and blew smoke from his teeth.
“Pfsh, yeah dude, I know.” Sid continued smoking his blunt. “So are you.”
“I’m just enjoyin’ this high, mate. It’s you that’s trippin’ balls.” Royce scoffed and rolled his eyes.
Sid was going to respond, but he just exhaled and stared off into space. It was then that Zeke walked into the room. “What the hell are you doing?” He demanded answers
“Huh?” the cigarette fell out of Sid’s gaping mouth.
Zeke just pointed at Royce, sprawled on the couch. “Who is he, and what is he doing here?”
“Aw dude, I just let him in.” Sid said.
“You idiot.” Zeke grumbled, he grabbed his shoulder and kept his voice to a whisper. “We don’t even know this guy; he could be a killer, or an ex-con!”
“Nah, dude, that’s just Royce. He’s cool, don’t worry.” Sid reasoned with him.
“Royce...?”
“Yeah man, he’s the brother of the guy who owns this cottage.” Sid told him. “He died by...something or other.”
“Entire place collapsed in on him.” Royce spoke up.
“Oh dang, sorry to hear dude.” Sid brushed his greasy hair out of his eyes.
“Yeah, it was tough but I’m gettin’ by.” Royce rested his hands behind his head. “Day after day.”
“Ahh, cool, cool.” Sid nodded. “Dang though, this place got repaired fast.” He looked over at Zeke. “So what do you want?”
“I can’t believe you’re actually smoking now.” Zeke shook his head.
“Hey, at least I’m not feeling anymore pain.” Sid shrugged.
“Sid, you’re such an idiot.” Zeke sighed.
It was just then that Will scrambled into the room. “Sid, we really have to get out of here.”
Sid looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Why?”
“The windows in this cottage have disappeared.” Will said frantically.
“Well, what’re they blocked off by?” Sid asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t understand, they’re not blocked off by anything...they just suddenly vanished, it’s like they were never even there in the first place.” Will was still shocked.
Sid, however, howled with laughter. “Ahahahahah, dude, what the fuck, that’s...did you get into my stash or something? That’s so trippy!”
“I’ve never done a drug in my life!” Will protested. “And you,” he pointed at Royce and eyed the chicken bone littered on the floor. “There was nothing in the fridge last time I checked and now...”
“Did you restock the fridge just for me?” Royce asked. “Mate, you’re too kind.”
“No...no I didn’t.” Will stepped back, his eyes widened. “We didn’t bring any food with us, nor were we even expecting anyone else to show up. You must’ve brought food with you, didn’t you?”
Royce scoffed and brushed back his hair. “Nope, check the fridge again, there’s enough for a whole buffet in there.”
“So that means...” Will backed himself up against the wall. “The food...must’ve appeared there.”
Sid leaned his head back and let out even more laughter. “I can’t believe this guy!” He pointed at Will, while still in hysterics.
“I’m serious! There’s something really weird going on!” Will yelled.
Royce cleared his throat. “Mate, when the two guys who are high as fuck are thinking more rationally than you, you need help.” He grinned, stifling a bit of a chuckle himself. Zeke caught a quick glimpse of Royce’s crooked, yellow teeth and shuddered.
“I think he’s been reading too many comic books.” Sid remarked after his fit of laughter was over. “Fucking food appearing and windows disappearing, oh man...” He felt himself about to enter another fit of laughter.
“Mock me all you want, but I saw what I saw, and if there’s no rational explanation for it then we need to get out of here, the sooner the better.” Will said as he readjusted his glasses.
“You’re not goin’ anywhere, stranger.” Royce said.
“If Zeke wasn’t injured, I’d be out of here right now.” Will stated.
“Even if he wasn’t, you still ain’t goin’ nowhere.” Royce rested his feet on the arm of the couch.
“Oh yes I will.” Will walked over to the door and unlocked it, but when he opened it he saw a massive amount of rain pouring everywhere. He saw lightning in the distance and immediately closed the door. “Nevermind!”
“Told ya’.” Royce blew more smoke. “We’ll have to wait ‘till mornin’.”
---
By midnight, everyone was sound asleep. A shadowy hand with long, black claws clutched at the side of the basement doorway, seeping through the crack of the door. A thick, black cloud poured into the hallway, soon forming a spectral being. The creature tossed its head back as long demonic horns protruded from it. Its bloodshot eyes quickly glowed red before reverting back to their yellow colour. The ghastly monster grinned, exposing its sharp teeth. The spirit floated through the hallways and scratched its claws against the walls, leaving behind a trail of black mist as it did so.
The spirit floated into the living room, looking at Sid and Royce as they slept with its soulless gaze. When the spirit saw Royce, it seemed to gain some life back in its eyes as it hovered over him, but then looked at Will, resting in a sleeping bag. While he was sleeping, he thought he heard a voice call him by name, telling him to wake up. When he woke up, he saw the dark spirit floating above him, who immediately raised its hand and slashed Will across the face. His bloodcurdling scream woke Zeke up.
“Who’s there? Show yourself!” Zeke shouted as he turned on his flashlight and shined it in the spirit’s face, when he saw the shadowy visage, he was so scared that he stumbled backwards and tripped over the couch, he shined the flashlight on it again and it disappeared.
“What the hell was that?” Zeke asked, trying to process what he saw.
“M-my face!” Will stammered, covering his lacerations.
“That’s it, you’re not staying here a minute longer, you have to get out of here.” Zeke told him.
“B-but your injuries...” Will stammered.
“They’re nothing compared to the amount of trauma you’re going through. Besides, I can take care of myself; I’ve been in plenty of worse situations.” Zeke explained. “Now get out of here, you’ve been through enough!”
Will nodded and darted for the door; he turned around and looked at Zeke. “Be safe.” He opened it and ran out of the cottage and down the hillside. The horrible lightning storm had only worsened since they last saw it, the night sky was just as dark as the basement was, Will could barely see an inch in front of himself. He heard the same faint voice from his dream in his head yet again, this time in a much more demonic echo. “I won’t let you escape.” This made Will run even faster, he had no idea where he was going, nor did he care, as long as he was away from that cottage then it didn’t matter to him. He pressed on and continued to run as far as his legs could carry him.
Will soon found himself in the same dreary forest he entered before, surrounded by dead trees and dying, wet grass. He felt the mud squish beneath his sandals, soaking into his socks which were getting filthier with every step he took; he was running for a long time until a nearby snake bit him in the ankle. Will screamed and howled in pain as he fell face first in the mud, when he rolled to the side and looked up he saw the spirit appear over him, and it outstretched its arm before it opened its twisted, skeletal mouth.
“You dared to disturb my resting place.” The spirit spoke in its deep, raspy, demonic voice. “You will regret this.” It hissed.
“Wait...you’re...”
“Benjamin Kourriel...” Soon maggots poured from Kourriel’s fingers as he rubbed them together, falling all over Will’s body. It wasn’t long before they burrowed beneath his clothes.
“GAH!” Will freaked out and tried to smack and wipe the maggots off his body, but with every maggot he shook off, more and more poured down on him and continued where the last one left off, digging underneath his skin. He tried to get up, but the wet, murky mud caused him to slip.
“Now you know what my corpse is going through, even as we speak.” Kourriel moved his hand from side to side, the maggots pouring from his hand as rapidly and fast as the rain did, continuing to dig and crawl through Will’s flesh.
“Although, this is going much too slow for my liking.” He curled his clawed fingers, his entire hand was soon encased in a purple aura, causing the maggots to grow in size, soon as big as worms, and then as big as snakes, this continued until they were as big as the branches that surrounded them.
“Why, why are you doing this?” Will asked. “I just needed a place to stay, I meant you no harm, I just want to get out of here.” Tears were forming in his eyes.
“I demanded that you leave, but you did not heed my warning, and you tampered with my final resting place, for disrespecting the dead, you shall receive a most agonizing death.” Will saw a sick, twisted pleasure in the specter’s eyes, the poison from the snake bite had weakened him to the point where he couldn’t even move anymore, the enlarged maggots began devouring him, tearing the skin from his bones and leaving gaping, bleeding wounds all over his body.
“Make him suffer for what he has done, devour him until there is nothing left...” The apparition leaned in closer to Will and whispered in his ear. “Before you die, I want you to know that you’ll be seeing your friends very soon...” One of the giant maggots soon burrowed through his eye as he screamed in pain and clasped his hand over his now bleeding eyelid, he screamed even louder when he felt the large maggot brush past his fingertips. It began eating him from the inside out. Kourriel cackled menacingly as the maggot soon ate all of Will’s organs and burst out of his stomach. Kourriel raised his hand and the maggots glowed in a red aura and then burst into a white splattered mess, before turning into dark matter that Kourriel absorbed.
The evil spirit drifted toward his cottage, with his arms stretched and his claws spread out. However, he soon saw the sun slowly start to emerge from the horizon. He shielded his face, for in life he feared the sun, and that had not changed even in death. He quickly phased through the ground, heading directly toward the basement. When he got there, he basked in the darkness and leered up the stairs, deciding to wait for his prey.
---
When Sid and Royce awoke that morning, they saw Zeke looking out the doorway, looking uneasy. Sid walked into the kitchen to fix himself some breakfast while Royce approached the spiky haired young man. “What’s the matter?”
“I told Will to get out of here at midnight; poor kid was scared out of his mind, especially after...” Zeke didn’t even look away from the doorway. “Nevermind, the point is I’m worried about him.”
“Aw mate, no need to worry.” Royce reassured him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “How’s about we go search for him right now?”
“You sure?” Zeke asked.
“Indeed I am, stranger. Lemme just get into my normal clothes, and we can be on our way.” He headed upstairs into his room to get changed.
---
It was still raining, but the rain felt much lighter than before, Sid, Zeke and Royce all searched outside for any signs of Will, but they couldn’t find anything until they entered the forest and saw muddy footprints nearby. Royce scouted ahead while Sid and Zeke talked amongst themselves.
“He must be close.” Zeke remarked.
“Hope nerdlinger’s alright.” Sid said.
“Sid, be serious for once!” Zeke snapped.
“I am serious.” Sid responded “If nerdlinger’s gone, then who am I gonna push around?”
“That’s a horrible reason for wanting to find him.” Zeke stated.
“Psh, whatever, man.” Sid scoffed. “Besides, it’s his fault we missed the party...I was gonna score some good stuff there.”
“I thought you said you wanted to make new friends...” Zeke questioned.
“Oh, well, that was kinda...yeah, complete bullshit on my part.” Sid confessed. “My dealer was actually gonna show up, we arranged a meet up there and everything. Hey, maybe if we find nerdlinger fast enough, we can ditch the stupid cottage and catch him.”
Zeke took off his shades and glared at him. “So let me get this straight, you risked our lives and got us stranded...just so you can buy drugs?”
“Hey, I didn’t intend to do either of those, you’re just making me sound like an asshole at this point.” Sid said, Zeke was resisting every urge in his body to punch him in the face as he gritted his teeth.
“Sid, you...” The careless stoner was clearly pushing his patience to its limit.
Their conversation was cut short when Royce up to them. “You might not want to see what’s up there.”
“Why, is it Will?” Zeke asked.
Royce winced. “What’s left of him, anyways.”
“No...” Zeke pushed past him and ran up ahead. “Will!” He continuously called out his name until he saw the carcass of his friend in the damp mud, chunks of his flesh were missing, and a big gaping hole encased in dried up blood went across his entire stomach. “Oh God, Will, no...”
“Will is dead.” Royce whispered as he placed his gloved hand on Zeke’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
Zeke bent down, crying over his friend’s corpse, looking at it in disbelief until he looked away, unable to take this anymore. “What could have done this to him?” He said in between sobs.
“People are sick these days.” Royce spat at the ground.
“People?” Zeke pointed at Will’s lifeless body. “No single person could’ve done that to him, it’s too gruesome for a single man, yet too intricate for a wild beast.” Zeke glared off in the distance and lowered his arm. “I don’t know what could have happened to him, but one thing’s for sure, we have to get back to the cottage, it’s the only safe place here as far as I’m concerned.”
Royce nodded, spread the news to Sid, and they all ran back to the cottage.
---
Zeke entered first, followed by Sid, when Royce finally ran inside, Zeke slammed the door shut and locked it, then started boarding it up, making sure no one could get in or out.
Sid was catching his breath from running so fast, and then glared at Royce.
“What’s wrong?” Royce asked.
“You were awfully calm during that whole thing.” Sid grew suspicious of him. “What made you so sure about going ahead of us?”
“Just had a bad feeling I s’pose, didn’t want you guys finding out any gruesome details before I could give you a fair warnin’ ‘bout them.”
“No, no I don’t think so.” Sid shook his head and walked up to Royce. “I think you knew what happened ahead of time, you seemed awfully sure about it even before you found him.” He grabbed him by his jacket collar. “It’s almost like you had something to do with it!” Sid shoved Royce, who just backed away slowly and waved his hands dismissively.
“Now, now, let’s not jump to any conclusions so suddenly.” Royce motioned his hand toward his coat.
“Oh, I know what you’re trying to do...trying to get a weapon so you can kill me as well, huh? Get rid of any witnesses so you can get off scot-free, huh? Well that’s not going to happen!” Sid yelled, shaking in rage.
“You’re overreacting, mate. I’m innocent, just getting’ a cigarette, y’see?” Royce pulled out a cigarette and grinned.
“Wait, Sid.” Zeke spoke up. “Don’t do anything hasty, he might know more than he lets on.”
“Oh, I’ll say!” Sid snapped.
“Not in the way you meant.” Zeke clarified.
“What makes you say that?” Sid asked.
Zeke sighed. “Alright, I wanted to avoid mentioning this in front of Sid, but last night I saw something that looked like...some kind of spirit.”
“What?”
“It’s a face I’m never going to forget; it’s probably going to give me nightmares for weeks.” Zeke cringed.
“Hoo boy...” Royce scratched the back of his head.
“I take it that’s your brother?” Zeke asked.
“Yep, I’m afraid that’s Benjamin Kourriel, or at least, what became of him. He lived and died here, I guess he’s just so attached to the place that he returns here even in death. In fact, funnily enough, he died in a freak storm, much like the one that happened last night.” Royce explained.
“What spirit?” Sid asked. “You guys are bullshitting me!” He pointed at Royce. “You must’ve killed Will in a drug induced rage without even noticing, yeah that’s it! It was my damn supply that did it to you, god fucking damn it!” Sid took all the bags containing his drugs and began stomping on them repeatedly. “I’m never doing these again, oh no, I’m not becoming a murderer myself!”
“Sid, you’re being paranoid, just relax!” Zeke tried reasoning with him.
“I can’t fucking relax with a murderer on the loose!” Sid drew out a pocket knife. “You’re going to pay for killing nerdlinger, you asshole!” Sid yelled viciously.
“No, I swear it wasn’t me! I did nothing wrong. C’mon mate, don’t be like this, we had some good times, right?” Royce pleaded and begged.
Sid ran up to him. “An eye for an eye, bitch!”
“You’re not listening, I’m completely innocent!” Sid opened his switchblade and stabbed him in the stomach, Royce yelled in pain as Sid worked the silver knife up through Royce’s body and drew it out, just before he fell to the floor bleeding, muttering his final words. “It wasn’t me...I’m innocent...” He let out a final breath and then lay there, dead in a puddle of his own blood.
Zeke looked traumatized as he saw these events unfold before his eyes. “Sid, you...”
“I’m never fuckin’ doing drugs again.” Sid looked at Zeke. “I guess it’s good that we didn’t get to that party, huh? Otherwise I probably would’ve ended up like this guy.” He spat at Royce’s corpse.
“Brother...no...” They heard a voice call from the basement.
“The fuck was that?” Sid walked over to the basement; Zeke didn’t say anything, he just reached into his coat, touching the handle of his holstered gun. He thought back to Sid’s paranoid rage and felt that he wasn’t the same man that he entered the cottage with, he was tempted to shoot him right there for killing an innocent man, but he knew better than to do what Sid did and give in to his rage.
Zeke soon froze with fear as he saw the door creak a bit, and then swing wide open as a dark hand grabbed Sid by the leg. “What in the fuck?”
“And now, you die!” Kourriel pulled Sid down, causing him to trip down the stairs. Zeke rushed over and grabbed his hand.
“Sid, no!” Zeke yelled.
“Zeke, oh my God Zeke, help me! I’m too young to die!” Sid yelled hysterically.
“I’m not losing another friend!” Zeke stated. “Come on, Sid!” He tried pulling him up, but Kourriel’s grip was much tighter.
“Zeke, I’m slipping!” He felt his fingers slowly slipping alongside his palm. “Oh God, I’ve wasted my fucking life.” He began bawling.
“We’re going to make it out of here, don’t worry. You can have a fresh start.” Zeke pulled as hard as he could. “Just hang on!”
Sid knew it was useless, he felt his grip slipping and he knew no one would be able to save him from this vengeful spirit. He thought back to when he killed Royce and then looked up at his friend. “Remember me...as a cool army dude.”
At this point, Sid’s hand completely slipped out of Zeke’s and he descended down the stairs. “No!” Zeke reached out.
Sid frantically tried grabbing on the railing, but the clawed hand dragged him down with such force that his hand was dragged alongside the banister, scraping against the wooden railing, causing his fingers to splinter. Sid was kicking and screaming, especially when he reached the end of the stairs, he tried to shake himself free, but nothing could escape Kourriel’s tight grasp. He felt his body slide along the floor, desperately trying to grab anything for support, but there was nothing there, he just felt himself endlessly descending, as if he were getting dragged down to the depths of hell.
Zeke heard Sid’s screams eventually get more distant and quiet until the shrill screaming abruptly died down and an eerie sense of silence filled the air. “...Sid?” Zeke called out and he began running downstairs into the basement himself. He found no trace of Sid, until he came across Kourriel’s coffin. He walked over to it, but it seemed to be getting further and further away from him, as if the length of the hallway extended with every step he took. He thought he heard wolves howling and people screaming in the distance. He shook his head rapidly, and found himself in front of the coffin. Zeke removed the lid himself only to find Sid’s corpse inside, completely skinless with his mouth gaping wide open, his wide bulged eyes endlessly staring back at him with a look of agony and never ending torment. Zeke felt himself nearly throw up as he saw the spirit’s hand clenching the corpse’s jaw, moving it to the right, and then tearing the top part of his head off from his mouth, the lower jaw now bleeding profusely.
“Two down, one to go...” Kourriel’s voice harshly rumbled before he held up the top of his prey’s skull, admiring his handiwork. Zeke got up to his feet and ran as fast as he could upstairs.
He thought about opening the door, but then looked at it and remembered he boarded it up. “Fuck!” He yelled. He couldn’t find anything that could break the wood nearby, so he took out his gun and tried shooting it off. After breaking the wood he tried frantically to open the door, desperately turning the knob only to remember that it was locked. He tried looking for the key, but he couldn’t find it. “Damn it! Of all the times, it had to be now?”
Kourriel stalked his victim and slashed his sharp claws across his back. Zeke grunted in pain, but then took out his gun and fired at the spirit a total of six times, three times at his chest, and three more times at his head. He knew it wouldn’t affect him in the slightest, as the bullets phased right through him, but he was hoping it would buy him enough time to get away.
“You fool, no mortal weapon can kill me...I am permanent!” Kourriel raised his head. Zeke looked around, and then took out the flashlight and shined it in the poltergeist’s face, knowing that it worked last time. Kourriel yelled in pain and shielded his eyes as his essence began disintegrating. Sure enough, this caused him to sink back in the shadows. This gave Zeke a chance to try and escape, he ran throughout the living room and rummaged the place, looking everywhere for the key, as well as a back door or a secret entrance somewhere that he might have missed before. Unfortunately, no matter where he looked he couldn’t find a thing. He turned around only to see Kourriel emerge from the shadows, reaching his arm back.
Zeke heard thunder in the distance once more, the rain outside was falling down harder than it ever did before. He looked at the flashlight, but it was too far away. He raised his gun, hoping it would distract the phantom yet again, but as soon as he pulled the trigger, he knew he had run out of bullets. Kourriel proceeded to impale Zeke in the chest with his claws, stabbing right through his heart.
Kourriel soon saw his cottage cave in once more, just as it had done a year ago, the falling debris finishing Zeke off, burying him and the others within its collapsed remains. Kourriel saw a tree, singed in half by lightning, lying atop the wreckage that was once his home. Kourriel let out a sinister laugh before sinking into the shadows.
---
One year later, two teenagers were driving on the road next to a nearby forest. They were speeding along without a care in the world, until they had run out of gas. With their car now having stopped dead in its tracks in the middle of nowhere, they decided to trek through the forest for any help they could find, and after a long search had unexpectedly found a cottage in pristine condition.
“Hey Joel, maybe we should ask for directions.” One of the kids remarked.
“Couldn’t hurt, let’s go, Jack.”
They entered the cottage and called out for anyone who may have been there.
“Hello, is anyone there?” Jack asked.
“Sorry to intrude like this, but we need directions!” They waited for someone to answer, but only felt a slight gust of wind brushing past their hair. They could have sworn they heard someone whispering for them to get out, but shook it off, as it was so quiet that they thought they were just hearing things, not knowing the other had heard it as well.
“Well, guess no one’s here.” Joel said.
“I’ll head to the basement; see if anyone’s hiding out in there.” Jack said.
“Alright, be careful. I’ll wait for you up here.” Joel said as his brother rushed downstairs.
“Oh dang, it’s dark down here.” He took out something from his pocket. “Good thing I brought a flashlight!” He turned it on and opened the door in front of him, finding a blue coffin up against the wall.
He was wondering if he should really proceed any further, when he thought that maybe this was some sort of trick to scare off unwelcome guests, he opened the coffin only to be proven wrong when he saw Kourriel’s dead body there. Before he could even react, the corpse opened his yellow eye from underneath his bandages and his spirit emerged from his body, flying straight toward the intruder and pinned him to the floor, his mouth curled into a scowl as he raised his arms, he reached toward him with his claws spread out. “You should have left while you had the chance, now you will pay dearly, with your life...” Jack screamed at the top of his lungs as the specter swung his claws toward his eyes.
Joel heard the scream from upstairs. “Oh shit, Jack, are you okay?” He was just about to head downstairs when he soon heard a knock at the door. He quickly rushed to the door and opened it, and there stood Royce, as good as new.
“’Ello there stranger...the name’s Royce, y’see I’ve been out in the rain for a while, and I need a place to stay. May I come in?”
Joel thought about it briefly, and then opened the door “Alright, come on in.” Royce walked inside and took off his soaked, mud ridden boots.
“Heheheh…thanks mate, you’re too kind!” Royce tilted his hat and headed toward the kitchen. History certainly has a way of repeating itself and many mysteries still remain unsolved in Kourriel’s cottage.
The End