We sat there in the van staring at the yellow-tinted woods beyond the gate.
Darrell interrupted the silence, 'Well, I guess we could go to my place, instead.'
'No, no, no, wait a minute. I know a way in,' Rick said with a sly smile on his lips. Then, he shifted into reverse and peeled out back onto the main road. He hummed something I'd never heard before as he turned into smaller and smaller back roads until we finally ended up on a small dirt road. After a few minutes, the dirt road forked off to the left up a hill with large stones surrounding it. He pulled up onto the hill, the van gunning almost straight upward, throwing Jeremy and I on our backs.
Then the van fell back to level ground with a loud thud and Rick swerved and stopped, pushing all of us forward with inertia. He put the van in park and said, 'Well, here we are. Told you guys I knew a way in.'
Not having any way of knowing whether we were really in the park or not, I held my tongue. We got out of the van, and before us, the small island of a hill was as nice of a camping spot as any you would find in the park either way. The sound of rushing water in the distance kept complete silence at bay.
Before long, we sat and drank beers around the campfire Rick and Darrell had started. Half a dozen beers apiece later, we popped open the cooler and pulled out the package of hot dogs and started cooking them over the fire.
In between sloppy bites from his hotdog, Darrell bragged about the different girls he had slept with. I couldn't help wondering what kind of girl would sleep with him as those black teeth ground away at his food. I got up and walked out into the woods to take a piss, Darrell's tall tale fading in the background as I went. I caught myself leaning a little as I stared up at the star-strewn sky while my piss continued to stream aimlessly.
There was a rustling beyond the trees and I nearly peed all over myself as I hustled to close up my pants. I held my breath as I squinted in the direction of the sound. I could see nothing but the phantom licks of flame the campfire had burned into my vision. Then, as the pale glow of it faded, I could see movement and I became still as an icy sensation crept up my back.
The movement stopped suddenly and I felt the air thicken around me.
Then, a small white rabbit hopped away from the spot and I exhaled the breath I'd been holding. Goddamn you, Peter Cottontail, I thought. I turned and went back toward the campfire. When I got back, the guys were passing around a joint and I sat next to Jeremy with unease.
Darrell stood up and reached over the fire to hand me the joint and before I could make my usual gesture, Jeremy took hold of it.
'Bob's more of a drinker, man.'
Darrell looked at me suspiciously.
'It's cool, man. He's not gonna call the police or anything.'
Darrell nodded and smiled with that impish grin again.
'Damn right, he won't. I'd kill him if he did,' he said and laughed. The other two joined him and I did my best to smile. If Jeremy wasn't concerned, I would try my best to shake it off.
When the joint was finished. Jeremy climbed into the back of the van and lay down, leaving me in what, I felt, might at any moment turn into a scene from Deliverance. I calmed my nerves with another beer and Darrell and Rick lit up another toke. After a few rounds, the joint came back to Rick and he stood with it in his teeth and started dancing around the fire. The light of the fire and the look in his eyes as he stomped around saying, 'Master, oh Master, oh Master of Power,' made him look even more like a crazed Chris Farley. His conjuring dance increased in its excitement to the point that Darrell was getting annoyed.
'All right, Rick. It's time to settle it down, man. Jeremy's over there trying to get some sleep and I'm about to do the same.'
Rick's chanting only grew louder.
'Master, oh Master, oh Master of Power, I summon thee!' His voice echoed back from the forest.
Darrell, still smiling like a gremlin at Christmas, got up and made a calming gesture with his arms. 'Now, Rick, don't make me have to bust a bottle over your head,' he said and looked at me, laughing. No sooner had he turned to look back at Rick that the deranged Farley look-a-like reached out, grabbed him, and spun him around so he faced back to me. Darrell laughed with a mix of annoyance and drunkenness as Rick embraced him with one arm.
'Come on, Ricky-boy, I think you've just about had one too many--'
Rick reached up with a knife in his other hand and slit a deep gash in Darrell's throat. Darrell's voice cut off in a dreadful, gargling sound as his face stuck somewhere between the usual grin and a grimace of terrible realization.
I staggered back as Rick leaned Darrell's body over the fire, leaking the blood from his throat onto the flame with a loud crisp sizzle. Behind Darrell's twitching body, I could see that familiar glow from the old outhouse coming from Rick's eyes and mouth. A red mist began rising from the fire and then swirled up into a huge, indefinite shape. I jumped up into the back of the van and shook my sleeping buddy and yelled, 'Jeremy!
Jeremy, wake up!' He groaned with annoyance in reply.
Behind me, I felt an ominous presence growing. I looked back to see the red mist now swirling around Rick's body and connecting with the red light coming from his face. His body rose from the ground looking like the lost footage from some wacked out B-movie starring Chris Farley as a hell-raising demon.
Jeremy finally opened his eyes. He squinted at the red chaos behind me and then his eyes shot open wide like silver dollars. 'Holy shit!'
We ran toward the front of the van, pulling the doors shut as we went.
That eerie red glow was coming in through the foggy back windows. Jeremy jumped into the driver seat and looked around for the keys that we both knew were probably still in Rick's pants pocket. Then, the van started to shake. We both grabbed hold of whatever we could to try and hold ourselves still. The shaking only increased until the van was rocking.
My stomach dropped sideways as the van began to tip just enough to almost fall over. It came back down on all four wheels with a slam and then began to tip the other way. My stomach fell again and before I could focus to try and calm myself, the van fell on its side with a crash of glass and metal hitting solid ground.
I slammed into the new floor of the van landing on my back as Jeremy came flying down, right shoulder and head first. I barely registered the crack when he landed as reality faded.
When I came to, the van was shaking again. I pulled myself up and steadied my balance with the now sideways bucket seat and knelt down to take a look at Jeremy. He lay crumpled upside down against the passenger seat and cast in that red glow. He was unconscious, but when I put my hand in front of his mouth I could feel his warm breath contrast with the cool dry autumn air.
It was only as it started to return that I realized my hearing must have subsided for a short period of time. That was when I heard the wind. It sounded like a hurricane was just outside the van. The shaking came back full force.
I was afraid to move my friend in his current position but I also knew I couldn't leave him in this situation. I carefully pulled him up, relieved that he was light enough I could do so. Then, I stepped up onto the side of the bucket seat and pushed my way up toward the driver side door. I knew it would be too difficult to open it, so I began turning the crank for the window instead.
As the window opened, the sheer volume of the wind drowned out what little hearing I still had. I pushed Jeremy up and out the window, careful to set him on the side of the still-shaking van. I saw his body half roll back and forth as I pulled myself up until I was sitting inside the open window.
A huge red vortex was rising up to the sky from behind the van and Rick was nowhere to be seen. Now I knew where the wind came from.
I pulled my legs out from inside the van, crossed the window, and sat back down to where my legs hung over the bottom of the van. I then reached over and pulled Jeremy by the arms as I jumped down. Going first and pulling him with me, I aimed so I would break his fall. It hurt like hell, but I knew he would've done the same for me.
When I got out from under Jeremy and looked up at the sky, my breath stopped in my chest for a moment. The red mist was spreading up the vortex, into the sky, and out toward the horizons like red wine spilling upward into the atmosphere. I caught my breath and leaned down, pulling Jeremy's body over my shoulders. Then, I ran for the edge of the hill, slid down onto the dirt road, and started to run.
Beyond the dirt road, I came into a thick forest. When I couldn't run any farther, I stopped and set Jeremy down and collapsed onto the ground, breathing rapidly. The red mist was now taking up a large portion of the
