| |
News anchor Johnathon Sharp straightened out his blank pieces of paper on the desk and looked up at camera one with his picture-perfect grin as the light above it turned green.
“Welcome back, folks. As we wrap up tonight’s broadcast, we’d like to remind everyone of the tragic anniversary that falls on this weekend. Two years ago, the Cherry family went camping near Orange Peak. When they didn’t return, a search party was sent up, but they were never found. Volunteers searched for seven days until a storm wiped out any possibility of following a trail, but they found no trace of where they could have gone. One year later, Sylvia Bryar went on a hike with a university club and her group lost track of her and her three sisters near the same area. Similarly, there was no sign of where they went.
“We have also found that the authorities have re-investigated other missing persons over previous years, and they all have two things in common; the time of the year and the location. The officials have released a statement warning anyone to avoid Orange Peak this weekend or to postpone their camping trips altogether. Police presence will be high every night for the next two weeks in order to prevent any more disappearances.”
Trey switched the television off and smiled around at his friends. “So, it’s true then.”
Andrea rolled her eyes. “Of course, it’s true. I know how to do research.” She slouched back into the ratty brown couch in Trey’s living room and picked her phone up.
Adam comically rolled his eyes in a dramatic impersonation of Andrea, which was spot on since they were twins, and then he laughed and flipped through his notebook. “Okay, so we’ve found the trails and the camping sights, and they’re all marked with flags. We went up last weekend. Did you guys get the gear?”
Steven nodded. “I borrowed the tents and shit from my uncle. He’s super proud of me for wanting to ‘get in touch with nature.’ Or something like that. Fuckin’ hippy.”
Trey hooted with laughter.
“And you?” Adam asked.
Trey calmed down and pointed to the kitchen. “Food and water are ready to go. Just gotta pick up ice on the way out of town for the coolers.”
“Good.” Adam checked off a list in the notebook. “And we have the cameras ready and extra batteries charged.” He rocked forward and smiled. “This is going to be so awesome.”
“Do you really think we’re gonna find anything?” Andrea asked. She was the least excited of the group, but always tagged along with her brother’s crazy adventures. “So, a bunch of people have gone missing over time in the mountains. It’s not that strange. Just a coincidence with the timing and location.”
“Aw, come on sis. You saw the reports with your own eyes. Other missing people are found. Or at least parts of them. These people completely vanished.”
“Whatever. I’m still coming. I’m just saying not to get your hopes up.”
*
DAVE AND HIS SON JOHNNY stood at the back hatch of the family SUV and stared at the pile of supplies strewn across the driveway. Dave kept looking back and forth as he made his plan of attack, but Johnny looked skeptical.
“You sure this is all gonna fit in there, dad?” He asked.
“Sure. It has every other year.” Dave picked up the tents and lined them up against the seatback.
“Yeah, but every other year Sasha wasn’t a pre-teen girl. Look at her suitcase.” Johnny picked up the pink bag that was twice the size of every other member of the families. “Does she think we’re going to a be up there for a month?”
Dave laughed. “Okay, you’ve got a point. We’ll save her bag for last, and if she needs to downsize, we’ll handle it then. But I’d like to post-pone her freak out for as long as possible.”
Johnny shrugged and grabbed the grilling supplies to load into the car.
*
THE MOON, TWO DAYS from being full, hung in the sky and taunted Eris where she stood in the mouth of her cave. Or her prison. Her milky eyes stared up at the moon and she chanted under her breath. Her hair, twisted into tangled knots and entwined with leaves and grass, hung at the base of her neck and seemed to spark with electricity with every word that fell from her cracked lips. Soon she would be free of her cage to hunt and replenish. Soon, so soon, she would be beautiful again.
Behind her, the sound of people at work raised her spirits. Her small army hammered and shaped her tools into perfection. The knives gleamed. The nets were strong. But best of all was the new fire pit they had crafted for Eris. Even larger than last years, she’d be able to sacrifice seven at a time now. She’d appease the gods’ appetites with more efficiency and then drink her fill of their pleasure. And maybe this time, they would forgive her slight and free her from the curse.
*
ERIS LAY SPREAD-EAGLED on the stone in front of the cave entrance and bathed in the moonlight. The rays danced upon her skin and gave her renewed strength and energy. A shadow of a smile spread across her face, and it grew as she listened to the sounds of agony in the cave behind her. Her first captive of the year.
He’d been so easy to lure into her clutches. She hadn’t even passed the bush line when he’d wandered into her presence. And with barely a bat of her eyelashes, he’d been hers. She’d dragged him back into the cave and her army had strung him up over the pit.
Thinking about his bare body waiting for the sacrifice, Eris pulled herself up off the ground and strode away from the moon. In the flicker of firelight, she admired her prey. Ropes dug into his ankles and he swung back and forth as her army prodded at him with sticks they’d sharpened into points. He whimpered with each turn and they cackled back at him.
Eris tilted her head and tapped her chin with a bony finger. Deciding on where to start was her favorite part. Should she do it quick and spare the pain? Or drag it out and savor every last one of his cries? It had been so long since she’d been able to enjoy this, and she wasn’t sure how many more she’d catch before the moon waned. Best to make the most of this one.
“Flesh,” Eris croaked and waved her hand.
Her army shrieked with delight and went for their knives.
“Please let me go,” the man said. He tried to catch Eris’s eye, but they were lost under her nest of hair. “I won’t say anything. Please. Just don’t kill me.”
Eris approached him and ran her fingers through his hair as though he were a lover. “Hmm...” She tightened her grip and thrust his head back. “I don’t think so.” She licked the side of his face and then dug her nails into the skin on the back of his neck. He yelled as she pulled up a layer of flesh and threw it into the fire pit.
“Better gag him, mistress,” one of her girls whispered at her elbow. The woman was hunched over from improperly healed injuries and could only see out of one eye. She held out a length of cloth and bowed her head.
“You’re probably right.” Eris took the cloth and shoved it roughly into the man’s mouth. “Pity. I enjoy their cries.”
“As do I, mistress. But there are crowds tonight. People want to find you.”
“Yes. And we shall let them.” Eris drew her own knife and dug the serrated edge into the man’s calf. She dragged it down in a slow line to his kneecap. The blood ran over her hand and down her arm. Then she pulled the flap of skin forward and sawed at it until it came off in her hands. The man was shuddering and sobbing behind the gag. She smiled and threw the skin into the fire pit. She retreated and waved her army up for their turn at the man.
Eris meandered over to the cave’s entrance once more and licked the blood from her hand. She stared up at the moon and wondered again if she would be free this time.
A noise in the bushes caught her attention and with a wave of her hand, the cave behind her went silent.
A crackle of a radio and a snap of a branch. Then a police officer emerged from behind a tree. He hadn’t spotted her yet, but her eyes locked on him. And then there were two men, and then three. Their flashlights shone around the ground, and one man pointed at something he saw in the dirt.
“I think he must be close,” one officer said and waved the others on with him.
“He’s closer than you think,” Eris said. Her voice came from every direction.
The officers froze and looked around, their guns drawn, but they still hadn’t seen her in the shadows.
“Show yourself,” the first one said. His gun pointed three feet to the left of where she stood.
Eris grinned and felt her army move in close behind her. “As you wish.”
Her girls leapt out and tackled the men to the ground. They tore, and scratched, and bit at their skin, and Eris reveled in the sounds of their deaths.
*
“DID YOU HEAR THAT?” Steven stood at the edge of their campsite and stared out into the trees. He kept his back to the others to hide the genuine fear on his face.
“What?” Trey joined him and turned on a flashlight to shine into the woods.
“He didn’t hear anything. You’re both ridiculous.” Andrea lounged in her chair and turned a page in her magazine.
Adam grinned at his sister but humored the boys. “What did it sound like? Could be a bear.”
“Nothing like a bear. I heard someone scream,” Steven said.
Trey flashed the light back and forth and took a few steps back. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
“Pussies.” Andrea turned another page.
“Hey! You don’t get to call us that! You didn’t even want to come!” Steven turned and stomped and waved his hands in the air, anger taking over his panic for a moment.
“No, I didn’t, because I think this is lame and nothing is going to happen. And yet, here I am, cool as a cucumber, while there you are about to piss your pants.” She flipped another page.
Steven took a step forward, and Adam moved into his path. “Okay, bud, let’s chill out.”
“She needs to chill out!”
Adam pushed Steven’s shoulders and then changed his direction to take him to his own tent on the other side of the clearing. “Sit down and cool it for a bit, yeah? Smoke a blunt and get your head on right. Nothing’s going to come of this trip if we freak and bug out early. So relax, yeah?”
Steven slumped into his chair. “Yeah, okay.”
Adam turned to Trey. “What about you? You good?”
Trey still had his light flashing all around and didn’t look at Adam. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Quit with the light, then. There are bears out there and shit. You’re gonna draw a lot of attention to us.”
“Right.” He turned it off and put it back in his pocket. “Sorry.”
Adam smiled and rejoined Andrea by her tent. “You have the feed going?”
She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “The screens are on. Nothing good yet. There was a scream, though.” The corner of her mouth twisted up, and she shot a glance in Steven’s direction. “Saw some cops cross one path further up the trail. They haven’t come back yet. That’s all.”
“Cool. Keep me updated. I’m gonna go smoke with Steven.”
*
ERIS PREENED FROM A low branch and watched her girls at work. An entire family was spread out below her, each wrapped in their own length of rope. Their eyes were wide and stared up at her, but they hadn’t made a sound since she’d taken out her knife.
With the last knot tied, she jumped out of the tree. Eris approached Sasha and nudged her with a toe. She was young. The perfect age to for conversion. Eris leered down at her and the girl whimpered.
“Let’s get them back to the cave. This one is mine.”
*
JOHNATHON SHARP STRAIGHTENED his tie and rechecked the story on the teleprompter. He hated having to deliver bad news on Monday mornings. Monday’s were bad enough on their own. But it was still there, waiting for him to read when the light turned green.
“You ready?” the cameraman asked as he stepped out into the staging area.
“Uh, yeah. Sure. Let’s do this.” He cleared his throat and watched for the light change. “Good morning!” He smiled and then shifted his seat to stare at camera two. “We open this morning with news of tragedy. Several people have been reported missing over the weekend. All were last known to be at Orange Peak, even with the warnings to stay away. Among the missing are cops that were patrolling the area. There hasn’t been any sign of where they could have wandered off to. A family of four has also not been heard from since they went up into the mountains and one solo hiker was reported missing by his girlfriend when he failed to return home this morning.”
He looked down and shifted back to camera one. “We go now to the base of the mountain where Lillian Plath is waiting to speak to a few campers that just made it out. Lillian?”
“Thanks, Johnathon.” Lillian came into view, along with Adam, Trey, Andrea, and Steven behind her. “These four young adults spent the weekend near Orange Peak and seem to have been here for the thrills. Let’s see what they have to say about their experience.”
Adam stepped forward to the microphone Lillian offered and grinned at the camera. “Yeah, we decided we wanted to see what all the fuss was about. We put up cameras in the trees all around our campsite and waited it out. But nothing happened.”
“Not nothing!” Trey jumped forward and grabbed the mic out of Lillian’s hand. “We heard a scream.”
Steven joined him. “Yeah, and there were a bunch of weird noises the night of the full moon. Like singing or chanting or something.”
Andrea rolled her eyes and continued texting in the background. “You were imagining things. You two were both drunk most of the weekend.”
“Not true!” Trey spun on Andrea and Lillian snatched her microphone back.
“There you have it. Screams and weird chanting coming from the mountains. Search teams are up there now, trying to find any sign of the missing family and officers. Volunteers are welcome to come help while the tracks are fresh.”
“Thank you, Lillian.”
*
ERIS HELD HER FACE up to the sky with her eyes closed. Dried blood from her sacrifices coated every inch of her skin. Behind her, they hung from the roof of her cave over the fire pit, their skin roasting and falling off. Beyond them, Sasha struggled against her bonds and cried as the other girls poked at her and jeered into her face.
But Eris ignored them all. She only had time for the goddess now. She murmured under her breath, praising her and thanking her for the generosity of the full moon. And she begged to be forgiven and set free at last. But the goddess did not grant Eris her wish, and she would remain in the cave for another year to try again.