When I was in high school, my friends and would hang out late into the night on weekends. We wouldn’t do anything in particular, really, just hang out and do stupid shit. If any of you are familiar with the invisible rope trick, that was one of our favorites. For those who aren’t, it’s when a group of idiots would line up on either side of the road at night and pretend to pull a rope taut as a car was coming. If the car stopped, we’d run away; if it didn’t stop, we’d pretend to fall over as the “rope” pulled us forward, then run away. So yeah, we were pretty much just a typical group of dumb teenage boys.
Anyway, one night my friend Jeff got the idea that we should play hide-and-go-seek at the local elementary school, Hillcrest. The notion came to him as we were hanging outside of the local Safeway, bored and sipping on the Monsters we just bought.
“What are you, twelve?” DeAundre teases, laughing. “Yeah, we can play pretend that we’re pirates after that too.”
“Fuck off, man,” Jeff shoots back, defensively. Seeing that the rest of the group is smiling, Jeff relaxes and grins to save face. “I’m just saying it’d be hella fun at night. Hillcrest’s huge, and it’s got those woods out back that’d be perfect.”
“Yeah, perfect to have me freeze my ass off while your bumbling ass tries to comb through, oh I dunno, an entire fucking forest at 1 in the morning,” I say deridingly. My bud Wade giggles and mutters “Bumbling” to himself and then goes back to dicking around on his phone.
“Ok, fair point, forest’s off limits. Come on, you guys got any better ideas? And Paul, if you say we should go ‘ghost hunting’ one more time, I’m finding new goddamn friends.”
“I wasn’t going to?” Paul turns his hand palm-side up, subconsciously spilling some of his Monster with his other hand. “Shit. No, I was actually gonna say that sounded kinda fun if you weren’t a dick about it.”
“Bro, I can be a dick and still be right,” Jeff chuckles. “So Paul’s down, and he’s basically the size of two people, so that’s like half of us right there.” Paul throws his hand up in exasperation and lets out an “Asshole,” before taking his phone out and pretending to check something.
“Fine man, at least it’ll give me a break from having to deal with your shit,” DeAundre says before starting off toward the school. Jeff gives a cheesy smile before heading off in the same direction and the rest of us follow, sparing the empty parking lot from having to listen to our bickering.
It’s a brisk October night and the leaves have just begun to fall. All is quiet and peaceful aside from the occasional car or murmurs from a backyard gathering that’s persevering into the early morning hours. It feels cozy in that sort of eerie way you can only get in the suburbs, where there’s just barely enough going on to remind you you’re not alone, but not enough to stress you with life’s usual background noise. I wish they still felt that way to me today.
We walk along the sidewalk kicking through leaves every so often, DeAundre leading the pack and the rest of us paired up. Despite the earlier exchange of words, Paul and Jeff are chatting away amicably. Paul had developed a thick skin over the years we’d known him from Jeff’s relentless teasing, so by this point he’s quick to forgive and forget. I think they’re talking about World of Warcraft builds or something, a topic I’m not too familiar with.
Wade and I, on the other hand, just walk side-by-side mostly silent, taking in the beautiful night. I’ve known Wade since we were little kids, so it’s a comfortable silence. I appreciat that about Wade; he wasn’t much of a talker, but when he does say something, it usually sticks with me. That’s why when he turns his head to me and breaks the silence, I listen intently.
“You know, in scouts, they told me the best way to hide from someone in the dark was to take up a real unnatural pose,” he explains to me. “Everyone’s always expecting to see a dude just standin’ or crouchin’ there, so if you’re all twisted up, they’re gonna just glance right past you.”
I stare at him blankly. “Why the fuck would you need to know that for boy scouts?”
“To hide from Scout Leader Brandon, of course, dude was a creep,” he chuckled. “Naw, it was because we played a lot of games at night, like capture the flag. I even won a few games by sprawling like a weirdo on the ground when I had the flag. The other team would just run past me, then I’d sneak back to our base.”
“Huh, good to know,” I reply. I must have a skeptical tone because Wade follows up with “Naw man, I’m serious, it works. Just watch, Jeff’s never gonna find me.”
“Alright man, well I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Before long, we make it to Hillcrest with its sprawling campus. What it doesn’t have in jungle gyms it makes up for in sheer acreage. There’s a huge, open field with cones set up for soccer and plenty of room to spare for other games. Lining the perimeter of the campus are huge bushes and trees of all sorts, shielding the school from the view of the neighboring homes. The school itself is a modest size, dwarfed by the vast open space surrounding it.
“Yeah, ok, woods are definitely off limits. This place is way bigger than I remember.” The others and I nod in agreement, thinking about which areas we would try to hide in. “Who wants to be ‘it’ first?”
“You, man, you’re the one who wanted to play,” DeAundre says. “I’m tired, I’m tryna take a nap.”
“Fine, ok but you guys have to leave your phone volume on,” Jeff says, slightly irritated. “I get one free call per person to help me find you.”
“What, that’s gonna make it way too easy,” Paul says. “You wouldn’t be saying this if you didn’t have to be ‘it.’”
“Dude, no, this place is huge; it’s gonna take any of us forever to find each other. Look, fine, half volume, one call per person, final offer.” Eventually we agree to the conditions and Jeff begins counting to 100 without warning. The rest of us promptly scurry off.
Before I break off from the pack, I look over and see Wade eyeing a back alley on the side of the school where the dumpsters are. I guess the guy is dead serious about winning, but I’m not about to sit next to a steaming pile of garbage for half an hour. I can just smell the sour cafeteria milk. No, I’m going straight for the bushes out back. Jeff says the woods are off limits, but he didn’t say anything about the bushes right before it. By the time I’ve gotten there and crouch down by the base of a rhododendron, I’ve completely lost track of where everyone else could be hiding. No one else is in sight. I’m completely alone.
Minutes and minutes pass uneventfully, and boredom begins to take over. My knee is starting to hurt, so I resign to getting my ass dirty and just sit crisscross applesauce on the ground. Eventually I see what looks like a phone flashlight off in the distance; must be Jeff scanning around, and I think I hear 2 voices from that direction. I guess Jeff has already caught someone, probably Paul. Paul never fully commits to the games we play.
After a time, they disappear, and I am once again left entirely without stimulation for about 3 more minutes. But then I hear something. Heavy, crunching steps coming from the right of me. Are they coming from the woods? No, I must just be imagining that. It must be Jeff coming to find me. Then, all of a sudden, they stop.
Being careful not to make a sound, I adjust my position to get a better look from inside the bush, but can’t see anything except the dimly-lit backside of the school. Eventually the steps start up again and the silhouette of a hulking behemoth of a figure lurches into view. Could that be Jeff somehow fucking with me? Does he know where I was already and has some sort of makeshift costume to scare me shitless? I don’t have much time to think before my phone starts ringing. Jeff or whatever that thing is move with a start at the noise
I scramble to get my phone out and turn it off, but I fumble and drop it before seeing the caller: Jeff. God dammit, Jeff, fuck you and your stupid last-minute rules. Eventually I decline the call and the sound stops, but it was too late. The figure is already moving in my direction. Panicked, a million questions rush through my mind: could this thing really just be Jeff? No, how could it be? Should I make a break for it? Maybe, but I’m scared so shitless that I can’t even move. What do I do?
I’m paralyzed, and all I can do is watch the thing inch ever closer, and with every step, I feel I could make out more and more details of its shape. It looks like it has knobby, human-like appendages of all sorts hanging limply off of it, swaying whenever it moves forward. Yes, there are definitively some human hands that I can make out, most of the time just dangling limply, but occasionally flexing suddenly and contorting like it’s seizing up. What in God’s name is this thing? What am I going to do?
Then I remember what Wade had told me. Without thinking, I suddenly twist myself into the most convoluted shape I can muster. I wrap myself around the base of the bush, its branches poking into my stomach uncomfortably. I twist my arms back with my fingers jutting out in all manner of strange directions, doing my best impression of a bush. My legs are so far apart from each other that I’m practically doing the splits. It’s painful as hell, but I hold that position for dear life and try not to make a sound.
The steps get closer and closer. I can hear the cracking of fallen leaves, the shifting gravel, and eventually, something else: wet, labored breathing. It’s an extremely deep, phlegmy noise that grows louder with each passing second. All I can do is wait and pray that Wade and his dumbass boy scout troop know what they’re talking about.
After the longest wait of my life, the footsteps stop right outside of the bush I’m in. Realizing what this means, I struggle not to panic. I can’t even breath to calm myself; instead, I just start counting in my head.
One. I see gnarled hands with broken fingernails reaching into the bush above me. How many are there? No, I can’t focus on that, I have to just keep—
Two. The gangly hands grasp blindly at the branches of the tree and feel around, searching for someone. Who? Oh God, that’s right, it’s looking for—
Three. I feel something touching my left leg. It has to be some sort of animal, it can’t be—
Four. Whatever’s touching me grabs my leg and I have the urge to break free. No I can’t, I have to just stay—
Five. I feel its cracked fingernails running up and down my leg, its fingers poking and prodding and squeezing and—
Six. I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to—
Seven. What’s that? I hear what sounds like beeping from the other side of the school. All of a sudden the hands retract and my leg is free. Why is it—
Eight. The creature begins to walk away from the bush. At least that’s what I think it’s doing. It must be. Oh my God, I’m not going to die. Oh thank God.
I stay perfectly still in the same agonizing position until I can no longer hear the horrible steps anymore, and then 5 minutes after that. I scramble to get to my phone and see 3 more missed calls from Jeff. Making sure my volume is still off, I call him.
“Dude, where are you?” Jeff answers. “I give up, man, I gave up a long time ago. You, Wade, and Paul aren’t answering.”
Whispering, I say “There’s something out here, it almost killed me.”
“Oh fuck off with that shit, man, I’m done, someone else has to be it,” Jeff retorted, dismissively.
“No, I’m serious, man, something fucked up is going on,” I blurt out, my voice shaky.
“Jesus Christ, alright man, just meet me at the basketball court.” The call ends.
Peeking my head out of the bush and making sure the coast is clear, I sneak out and head toward the front of the school, trying not to lose it. I have no idea what I’m dealing with, so I try to be as careful as possible. Finally, I see Jeff and another figure in the distance; is that DeAundre? That’s right, Jeff said Paul wasn’t answering either. He and Wade must still be out there.
“Fucking finally, dude, where were you?”
“I told you, man, I was hiding for my goddamn life. We need to find Wade and Paul and get the hell out of here right now.”
DeAundre looks nervous, but doesn’t say anything, just shifting his gaze from me to Jeff and back to me again. Jeff, seeing how visibly shaken I am, begins to seem a little more concerned. “Alright, alright, geez, yeah, let’s find them. Any idea where they went?”
“I don’t know about Paul, I just saw Wade head over toward the dumpsters.”
“For real, man? Damn, that’s nasty. I figured no one would hide over there. Alright, let’s go.”
As a group, we make our way to the opposite side of the school and see the alley faintly illuminated by the school’s cheap, yellow-tinted light. I can already smell the sour scent of trash as we approach.
“Alright, you first.” Jeff elbows DeAundre, but DeAundre just silently glares back at him. “Fine, whatever man, everything’s always my problem, huh.”
The three of us creep forward with Jeff in the lead. We can’t hear anything except the dull hum of the fluorescent light. I feel like I’m going to throw up. The adrenaline from earlier wearing off, the disgusting scent of trash, and my horrible fear of whatever grabbed my leg are too much for me. But I have to keep moving forward, for Paul and Wade.
We make it to the alcove where the dumpsters are, and neither of our two friends are in sight. It’s so silent that I feel like I’m going to scream. But then we hear it: a small whimpering noise coming from one of the dumpsters. DeAundre, Jeff, and I all look at each other, and then slowly approach the source of the sound. “Probably just some animal,” DeAundre whispers, but his tone is unsure.
I grasp the lid of the dumpster and turn to the other two, nodding. In one fell swoop I pull the dumpster open, and there, covered in week-old food and trash with his hands over his head, is Paul.
“What the fuck are you doing in there, man? Dude, that’s fucking disgusting!” Jeff yells. But Paul doesn’t respond or move an inch. He just stays there, his face pressed into a garbage bag, crying uncontrollably.
“Where’s Wade?” I whisper to him.
After a time, I hear Paul’s muffled response. “He’s here.”
“Where, man? I don’t see him anywhere, cut the shit,” Jeff spits out, now getting visibly upset and nervous. His eyes dash all around the alcove and the alley we came down.
And then it hits me. I slowly turn my head into the dark corner of the alcove, hidden from the fluorescent light, and I see him. Contorted beyond anything I thought possible, Wade is propped up against the wall. His arms and legs are broken in multiple places and bent in all the wrong directions, his jaw is pulled out almost cartoonishly, several of his teeth are missing. His back is twisted like a pretzel. His eyes are bulging from their sockets, one of them almost completely out.
I point and attempt to scream, but no sound comes out. Thank God for that or who knows what would have happened. It takes a minute for it to register for my friends’ minds before they begin to panic too. We pull Paul out of that fucking dumpster and run blindly, sprinting away. We need to get anywhere but here. The cold autumn air hurts my lungs, but I keep on running and running until I miraculously make it home.
It’s been almost a decade since that day, but every October I can’t get it out of my mind. I’ve moved halfway across the country and done weekly therapy sessions, but I don’t think I’ll ever be fully over it. The trauma is too much to handle.
The worst part is that I’ll never get any closure. When Wade was reported missing, we told the police where we’d last seen him, but there was nothing there. The body was never recovered. I have to make peace with the knowledge that I’ll never understand what that creature was or what ultimately happened to Wade.
But what really haunts me from that night is that sound. That sound from that dark corner of the alcove next to the dumpsters. It wasn’t much louder than a whisper, one might even think that they could have imagined it. But I know it was real. It was the labored, wheezing sound of breathing.