“When they set Johnny on fire, you could barely hear his screams over the laughter of his team mates. He writhed, struggled, and bit, as his body cooked on the pole of the basketball hoop. His Jersey grafting to his bare skin”
Jeremy leaned in listening to Stephen tell the story, clearly entranced and disgusted.
Stephen continued, “Johnny’s eyes popped right out of his skull, and dripped like melted chocolate down his charred cheeks. His team mates started cheering
‘Whoop! Whoop! Johnny Basketball!’
“Whoop! Whoop! Johnny basketball!’” Stephen mimicked these cheers with slow deliberation, punctuating each word.
“When he was found he was a skeleton with with burnt skin hanging lazily from his corpse”
Stephen lowered his voice so we had to lean in to listen to him speak “In the following week all the other team mates died seemingly in their sleep. Johnny’s Jersey number ‘37’ found somewhere burnt on the skin of each one of them.”
“Okay then why have I never heard of this?” I asked.
“The town covered it up, they knew what they had done. A little town like this with its pristine image. Imagine what would happen to the property values” Stephen replied.
“Anyway” Stephen went on “They say now that if you show up to that old abandoned gymnasium, he’ll show up and shoot some hoops. There’s only one catch”
Taking the bait Jeremy asked “What’s the catch?”
“He’ll use your head!” Stephen shouted and we both jumped back. Stephen laughed, his eyes watering with glee and self congratulations.
“What the fuck dude?” I asked, catching my breath. Jeremy laughed, but I could tell he was nervous, he had never really been one for frights.
While Stephen laughed I looked over at Jeremy
“Hey, Jare, you all right man?”
“Yeah, I’m fine” he nodded.
Stephen composed himself “you know tonight’s the night. There shouldn’t be anyone guarding the gym. We could break a window and see Johnny for ourselves”
Jeremy gaining some some self advocacy spoke up “I really don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t want to” there was clearly some timidity in his voice.
“Oh come on, who’s that on your shirt Jeremy?”
“It’s Bruce Campbell” Jeremy replied, somewhat annoyed.
“Yeah man, that’s Ash, he would go in there and kick Johnny Basketball’s sorry ass”
“We really don’t have to commit crimes right now” I suggested.
“Oh shut up” Stephen shot back at me “Let’s go and see a ghost, unless you’re too scared!“
Jeremy looked at Stephen and then looked over at me “Eric, he’s right, we hardly ever get a chance to be brave, and this is our chance. Besides, I bet there’s no Johnny Basketball anyway”
I sighed, I knew I wasn’t going to win this battle. It was already around midnight and we lived in a pretty quiet town, nobody was going to be out.
We decided to walk to the abandoned gymnasium, it was only a few blocks away on Applebaker Street, we figured having a car parked would make us too conspicuous.
We made it to the building with its brick walls, and busted up windows.
I walked up first and peered inside, it was pitch black aside from the metal of the hoops that cast an almost holy glow onto the wooden floor as they refracted the street lamps from outside.
Thinking that I might as well get it over with I took my shirt off and wrapped it around my arm. I busted out the rest of the window, there wasn’t much, and crawled my way into the gymnasium.
I walked over to the front of the gym, each step echoing in the dark cavern, and opened the door to let my friends in.
We all stood there, Me, Jeremy, Stephen, taking in the sight. Johnny Basketball or not there was a cold eeriness about this place. Like God had come down to tell us that we were one free throw short of salvation, and the buzzer had just gone off.
Stephen took a a long knife out of his pocket, and ran toward Jeremy. He grabbed him and held the blade firmly against his neck.
“If he moves or if you move, I’ll kill him” he shouted.
“What the fuck, Stephen?” I asked confused, and horrified.
“I’ve always hated you two. I’ve hated this whole town. You’re all a bunch of fucking losers” he sneered while Jeremy stood trembling under the touch of the blade.
“Okay” I said, trying to think “What do you want then?”
“Nothing” Stephen replied “I just wanted you to watch”
He dug the knife into Jeremy’s neck, and blood poured out of his neck like water pouring from a water balloon stabbed with a pair of scissors. It poured down his shirt, and onto the floor while he gargled. His eyes rolled listlessly into the back of his head then Stephen dropped him onto the ground with a thud.
We both looked down at my friend’s corpse, and saw that blood was seeping into the floor, not slowly, but quickly as if it were being swallowed up. Like water poured onto dirt. I can’t help, but think of it as the dirt of a cemetery now, tombstones with our names on it, ready to swallow up what once was our souls.
Both of spell bound, we looked across the court and saw him. It was just like Stephen described. A man standing maybe seven feet, skin peeling from his bones, a Jersey grafted onto blackened muscle.
I tried to run, but I couldn’t, something kept me frozen in place. And looking at Stephen, I could tell he was stuck too. Jeremy’s blood had brought something horrid to this gymnasium.
Before the end of a breath Johnny was next to Stephen. Stephen screamed while Johnny dug his bony fingers into Stephen’s skull. Johnny yanked and yanked until his head came off, his vertical vertebra protruded from his headless neck as his body flopped to the floor, the wood drinking it up as it had Jeremy.
Johnny Basketball held on to the ball and laughed, and stared at me “Your friend didn’t have his head in the game”
He threw my former friend’s head at me, it landed on the floor by my feet.
“Pick it up” Johnny commanded, “pick it up and throw a free throw, if you make it, I’ll let you go. If you miss, we can play one on one forever”
I could move, I didn’t dare fight back. I picked up Stephen’s head, grooving my fingers into his hair for grip. I had to turn his face away from mine because I swear his eyes looked right through me.
It was heavier than I expected, the weight of a good bowling ball. I walked up to the free thrown line while Johnny stared down at me with joyful contempt.
Everything had gone silent. I prayed to God that I would make the shot, the holy glow of the hoop casting down onto the ground was my salvation. I breathed in deeply noting that it would likely be my last.
I threw Stephen’s head into the air, and it went in to the hoop with an echoing swish. I collapsed to the ground, cried, and vomited onto the ground. Hours of pent up fear and misery was devoured by the wooden grave.
Johnny frowned “You made the shot you can go”
I looked at him in disbelief, after all of this, it couldn’t be that easy.
“Don’t worry, I won’t follow you” Johnny said “You know the rules. No traveling”
I made it out that night, and went back to my apartment. I never heard anything about Jeremy or Stephen.
I guess Stephen wasn’t lying about our town wanting to keep its pristine image.