Now before you assume we arent some ruthless killers. We were some dumb kids who had no idea what we were getting into. It started last October our friend Jason went missing. He went on a hike in the mountains and never came back. We live in a tiny secluded town with little to no crime. So as you can gather when someone goes missing it’s a big deal. There were search parties every week, but after about two months they stopped. They never found him. Although police weren’t any help. His parents gave up and moved. Most people said either he fell and died or got killed. Others just said he must have run away.
I and my friends weren’t satisfied. He wasn’t the type of guy to up and leave. He was even less of the type of guy to die like that, and if he did get attacked he put up a fight. We decided to look for him. We picked a night that our parents wouldn’t notice we were gone. This was a struggle for our friend Amber her parents were super overprotective. Nonetheless, we found a night. We packed necessities. We each picked a category so we would all pack something different. Amber was on sight duty aka flashlights, binoculars, and cameras (basically some cheap go pros and headlamps). Ty was on transportation duty which was mostly ropes, harnesses, and hiking cleats. Reef was on sustenance so he packed food, water, whiskey, beer, and well weed. Terra was on energy so she had portable chargers for our phones, battery packs for the cameras, and batteries for the flashlights she also packed a Bluetooth speaker. Then there’s me Princeton but my friends call me ruthless or prince I guess. I chose the great roll of weapons duty so I packed a nail bat, a metal bat, a small hunting knife, an axe, a machete, and my father’s handgun loaded. We thought yah know bear or coyote or something. I also brought 2 shovels just in case we find him not alive. We met up at the bottom of the mountains and cliffs.
“Princey boy! Man you took forever we thought you chickened out on us or something,” Ty says holding a beer.
“Well, I’m here now arent I? Plus it was a challenge getting this,” I say whipping out the handgun.
“Jesus christ prince are you fucking insane!” Amber yells.
“No, but he’s kinda hot now,” Terra says with a smirk. She then takes a beer from Reef’s bag and tosses it to me.
“It’s just a precaution we don’t know what’s out there. Oooooo spooky.” I laugh before wrapping my arm around Amber. “Relax babe I know how to use it. Plus the safety is on so it’s all good.” I say as I put it back in the bag.
“Ugh okay but please don’t use it unless entirely necessary. Oh and um don’t let Ty get a hold of it because he is an idiot” Amber said kissing me on the cheek. I wished that I packed a flame thrower instead of the gun that night. Maybe then we could have ended it that night.
“Yo Reef, how’s it going?” I say putting out my hand. He daps me up and nods. Reef doesn’t talk much or well ever. I think the only time I’ve ever heard him talk was when he got arrested. He’s not a bad guy he stays clean and doesn’t drink, smoke, or even date but that’s beside the point. We got geared up with the cameras, flashlights, weapons, etc. We then headed up the mountain. We followed the trail that Jason usually followed. We were listening to music but not being that bad of a disturbance. We got to the point where they were unable to see tracks of Jason.
“So this is where they last saw him huh?” Ty says crouching on the ground like some wildlife explorer.
“Ty I swear to god if you lick some dirt or smell the ground like some wildlife idiot I will make you go just as missing as Jason,” Terra says leaning against a tree.
“Jeez, I’m not stupid Terra I’m just trying to see if there’s anything to go off of,” Ty says.
“Uhm guys I think I see something. Like something shiny or light I think?” Amber says pointing near a bush.
“Yeah, I see it too what is that?” I ask as Amber gets closer. She picks up a lighter. It has a frowny face engraved on it.
“That’s Jason’s lighter I can tell because of the little frowny face it’s his,” Terra says taking it from Amber. “How did the cops not find this?” She says putting it in her pocket.
“I’m more concerned about how the cops didn’t find this,” Amber says turning Terra’s head and pointing at a small path off the trail.
“Shit babe good eye well that’s the only lead we have so should we follow it?” I ask looking at the group. Reef nods, Amber shrugs, and Terra sighs.
“Yeah I mean it’s all we have I guess,” Terra says. Reef uses his axe to push the bushes to the side letting Terra lead the group followed by Amber and then Reef. I look over at Ty whos about to lick some dirt I smack the back of his head.
“Let’s go, Ty,” I say pushing him in front of me. We got further up the path and it became less vivid. Mostly shrubbery and trees. We thought it was a dead-end but then we saw a shoe. More importantly, a leg is connected to it. I turn Amber away from it as she gasps. Terra shrieks.
“Holy shit. What happened it’s not. No, it can’t be Jason. It’s not him right tell me it’s not him please!” Ty yells. Reef grabs his shoulder and gives a nod. “No god no he was fine this isn’t him it doesn’t look like him!” Ty yells pounding on Reef’s chest.
“Reef can you help me with this,” I say holding a shovel. Reef sits Ty down on a log nearby. Reef nods and takes a shovel. I look at Jason’s body. It’s a massacre almost unreal. His face is shredded and mauled. There are holes in his torso the size of a fist. His limbs are just thin strings like spaghetti almost. I gag before grabbing his lower torso at what used to be his hips. Reef grabs at his shoulders but they are just bone no skin no flesh just shoulder bones. We lift and head down a small hill to a creek. We dig as deep as we can and gently put what used to be Jason in it. We fill up the hole and put a decent rock beside it. I use the tip of my shovel to carve Jason. I turn around and tears are streaming down Reef’s face. I hug him. We head back up to where the group is. Ty is facing away from the rest. Terra is sitting on the ground holding the lighter. Her face is stained from tears. Amber gets up at our return and just stares at me with sorrow in her eyes. I hug her. We sat there quiet for what must have been an hour at least.
“Who or what could have done that to him?” Terra asks breaking the silence.
“No person could have done that could it have been a bear?” Amber asks making eye contact with Terra.
“No Bear does that,” Reef says looking at the ground. I forget how low his voice is. We all look at the ground.
“What if it was a werewolf?” Ty says turning to face us.
“A werewolf?” Terra says confused. “Are you joking right now?” Terra asks crossing her arms.
“He might be right. I mean no man could have done that let alone someone from town. It’s not that much of a stretch the way he was, how he, the condition he was in. That’s what you see in horror movies. Not even horror movies.” I say shrugging a bit. Reef nods in agreement. Amber pinches her chin.
“Okay so let’s say it is a werewolf. Then what we just kill it?” Amber says with a shrug.
“We do what it did to him or worse,” Ty says clutching his metal bat.
“Well, shit I’m with Ty but we have no idea where this thing went or is for that matter,” Terra says standing up. We all look at the ground discouraged. Reef rests his hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eyes.
“Wait a minute there was a cave on the way down that hill now that I think about it Jason’s left hand was missing. The entrance of the cave had blood in it.” I say pointing to the hill. “It’s a stretch but we might get results who knows,” I say with a shrug.
“Sure plus we have rope so if we tie it to something outside the cave we won’t get lost,” Ty says holding up his bag. We thought about it for a minute and decided it was worth a shot. There were many big mistakes that night but the decision to go into that cave was the worst of them all. We went into the cave and it was small at first. It was smart to use rope and probably saved our lives and as we got deeper it got bigger. We reached a door.
“Why is there a fucking door?” I say taken aback a bit at the sudden normality of having a door in a cave.
“Uhm dude look,” Ty says pointing at my feet where right in front of the door. There’s a hand bone. Like the entire fucking hand just sitting there. “That’s gotta be his right?” Ty asks as I step away from it.
“It’s not him,” Terra says.
“What?” Amber says stunned.
“It’s not Jason’s hand,” Terra repeats.
“Who else hand would it fucking be!” I say. She’s joking it has to be his hand. “No one else comes down to this side of the mountain.” I mutter “Unless it wasn’t from this side of the mountain.” I say looking Terra in the eyes as she nods.
“Jason’s left pinkie was missing ever since he was a kid,” Terra says while picking up the hand bone. “He was six and messing with fireworks. This hand still has its pinkie so it’s not him.” Terra says tossing it to the center of our group.
“Okay yeah, but what do you mean it wasn’t from this side of the mountain,” Ty says. “There’s no other place it could have been from.” He combs his hand through his hair and sighs. “All the other caves in this mountain are too small and even if they weren’t they can all lead here,” Ty says leaning against the walls of the cave.
“Think about it like this,” I say drawing in the dirt. “If we have this big cave that we are in.” I draw a large circle. “There’s no way that there’s only one entrance,” I say adding a small line from the circle towards me. “But as our space got larger we didn’t see any more entrances why is that?” I say adding x’s next to the line. “Now not all caves have more than one entrance, but this cave has a door,” I say making a box between the circle and line. “If it were me building a cave house. Id makes another entrance or an escape route. Because rock slides happen all the time.” I say making three more lines lead to the circle. “Now you said the entrances were too small for someone to have a route to a big cave. No average person would fit. Isn’t that right Ty?” I say looking up at him.
“The nutty putty incident?” Ty asks making eye contact with me.
“The nutty putty incident,” I repeat back to him.
“Holy fucking shit dude!” Ty yells with his hands up.
“I’m sorry but please share with the rest of the class. I’m confused.” Amber says and Reef nods with a confused look on his face.
“Okay so to explain it simplest. We found a wide entrance that we can walk into. Just because we could walk in others might not have.” Ty says making one of the lines in the dirt bigger.
“Wait I thought people explore these caves all the time? Don’t most people get trapped because they get too small?” Amber says confused.
“They get too small for any person to fit,” Ty says making x’s at the end of the other lines of the drawing.
“So if they get too small for any person-” Amber cuts herself off and looks up at us. “We aren’t dealing with any person or maybe something not human at all,” Amber says.
“Boom people get trapped and never leave because they get stuck and killed,” Ty says standing up.
“So those who don’t get rescued die. There’s one thing I don’t understand is why doesn’t the creature eat them?” I say putting my hands in my pocket.
“Maybe it does,” Amber says. “What if it wasn’t done with Jason so it left his body for later.” She says pointing at the tunnel we came in.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” I say gripping my nail badly tightly. The others grip their weapons.
“Wait shouldn’t you hold the gun Prince?” Ty says.
“Yeah, I should. Ty takes the nail bat instead of the hunting knife.” I say pulling the gun out. Ty takes the nail bat. He then puts the hunting knife in the little sheathe it has and puts it in his pocket. I grab the door handle and open the door we all rush in. It was empty or we thought it was.
“Guys” Reef says pointing to one of the walls where a figure stands. We all turn to look at it. We stare realizing it’s Jason. Not any Jason but mauled Jason. “What the fuck is that?” Reef says as our flashlights begin to flicker. Then they all go out.
“Shit Terra lighter,” I say. As Terra flicks on the lighter we see it. It’s transformed into a massive spider. Not just a spider. Half spider half Jason. “Fuck run!” I scream we all scatter Just as we do our headlamps turn on. The spider is right in front of Ty. I take aim and shoot, but the gun doesn’t fire. Ty swings the nail bat it gets stuck in the spider’s abdomen.
“Uhm Prince if your going to use that gun now would be the time!” Ty shouts as the spider falters back. The bat falls out of the spider and to the ground. It heads towards Ty again. I try to shoot one more time it doesn’t work.
“Ty it’s not working fuck shit!” I yell back in response. The spider is right over Ty. Just then he stabs it in the eye and dives out of the way.
“Prince the safety turn the safety off!” Amber shouts as Ty slides and grabs the nail bat. I turn the safety off as Ty runs over to me getting behind me. I shoot 10 out of the 13 bullets and the spider transforms rapidly as it makes a high-pitched shriek. We all dive at it hitting it with our weapons. We all took a step back closer to the door. The thing transforms into some giant goop thing. I don’t even know what it was at that point.
“Shit, what do we do that thing won’t die,” Terra says gripping the pocket that has her lighter in it.
“I have an idea distract it for me!” I yell through the creatures shrieking noise.
“What do you mean distract it it’s unkillable!” Terra yells back.
“I didn’t say kill it just distract it okay!” I say as I rip off part of the sleeve of my shirt. I then run towards the door as all the others start making noise and swinging their weapons at it. I look for Reef’s bag. I dig through the food and the weed looking for the bottle. I hear a gunshot. I turn around to see what happened Amber has a scratch on her chest, Terra’s leg is bleeding badly, Reef’s right hand is gone, And lastly, one of Ty’s eyes is gone. Ty is now holding the gun. He fires two more times before tossing it to the side. He then dives out of the way. Just as he does that I’ve made my weapon. I’m no military kid but I’ve seen enough video games to make this bad boy. A good old Molotov cocktail. “Guys get over here now!” I yell to them. They swing one last time at the creature before rushing over to me.
“What the fuck is that?” Amber asks pointing at the Molotov.
“A solution!” I say grasping it tightly. “Terra the lighter now!” I shout out to her as she’s running over. She throws it to me I catch it one-handed. Just as everyone gets behind me I light the Molotov and throw it at the creature. It explodes engulfing the creature in large thick flames. It shrieks and shrivels as we all stand there and watch. We left through the door we came in and followed the rope out. As we sat outside in silence I thought of something.
“Did anyone else think that room looked like the inside of an anthill?” Ty asks breaking the silence.
“Yeah it did, but that means that couldn’t have been the main room,” I say with my arm around Amber.
“What do you mean?” Amber asks resting her head on my shoulder.
“Well, ants have a center room for their food to be stored. They also have eggs in the same room.” I say looking at the burns on my hands.
“Are you saying that there’s more?” Terra says holding her leg.
“Well, I mean ant colonies might behave differently than that thing. But hypothetically maybe.” I say tossing the lighter back to Terra.
“Queens don’t fight,” Reef says while calmly wrapping his hand with his flannel.
“What?” Amber says tiredly.
“He’s right queens don’t fight in colonies they usually have the workers fight. The workers put their life on the line for the queen. Plus it didn’t eat Reef’s hand it just tossed it to the side. That means it didn’t want to eat us.” Ty says with his hand covering where his eye used to be.
“That means it wasn’t the queen it was just a worker. Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t queens bigger too?” I say making everyone look at me.
“Well fuck me bloody with a chainsaw,” Terra says putting her face in her hands. So yes my friends and I killed that thing. Before you ask no we didn’t go to the police they’d think we’re fucking crazy. We went down to go look at Jason’s grave but it was gone all dug up. We think it fed on his dead body. So we had no evidence. We aren’t done with those things well go back and bring hell with us at that. So I guess you could say. My friends and I killed something.