I don’t know who or what it was, but since that night both my boyfriend and his best friend have gone missing. The Police here think hes just ghosting me and leaving town, accusing me of making it all up. And yet dodgy answers and they way they seemed to already know what I came to report had me on edge. The more I’m looking into things, the less I believe there’s a mistake at all. A string of disappearances have been happening here in Boise. Ill start with what’s happened to me and you can put the rest together, believing what you will.
It started as a trip downtown. My boyfriend James and his friend Brad were both off on Friday and planned to hit the town. The two had known each other for ages making quite a pair. My James was beautiful albeit short with a smile that sold you before it even spoke. His friend Brad was a larger man who liked to lift but lacked the social graces to get him anywhere in life. James did most of the talking, and Brad was most of the muscle. The two went on their own adventures often so I was surprised when My boyfriend invited me.
“C’mon, It’ll be fun.” He kissed me as he took my phone out my hand. If he wasn’t so attractive, many of his antics I would have found annoying and yet I was all the more smitten by his boldness.
“I thought you’d want some time alone with your friend?” I asked with my arms around his shoulders.
“Well I want you to, so you coming with?” The smile in his eyes assumed the answer and he was right.
“I suppose.” I feigned displeasure with a playful roll of the eyes. To be honest I was bored cooped up in the house and I could use the outing to.
“Great.” He stood up the second he got what he wanted and strode to make preparations. A phone call sent for the where’s and when’s and so the plan was made.
Brad pulled up in an old Sebring. As he hopped out of the car he had an overnight bag slung across his shoulder. No one asked me if he could crash at our house yet I knew that wasn’t his fault. The man was polite to a fault and I knew he asked James who assumed I’d be fine. I didn’t even mind that he was staying , I just wished they checked with me first.
“HI Kayla!” Brad gave me a sheepish wave which I returned. He walked in and set his bag, and we all hopped in James’ SUV to hit the town.
Boise is a lot bigger than most would give it credit for, especially these days. Sunset hit the Zion tower as a hundred thousand people set upon a square mile of bars, clubs, restaurants and boutiques. Street performers tuned their instruments and homeless scribbled on cardboard signs. Even they ate well as everyone three shots in would start dropping ones and fives like it was raining money. For the rest of the night, everyone would forget the world and get lost in a crowd of faces for an evening of fun. At least that’s what we thought.
As soon as we parked we hit the town. Brad wanted pizza from a place called the Pie Hole which came with a beer for only five dollars. After slurping down a greasy plate of cheese we thought on where to next.
“Where else would we go? To the space bar!” James pointed two blocks over. Brad was full and Vibing as I shrugged and went along with them. A couple crosswalks led to a flight of stairs. Underground was a sea of neon lights, retro arcade games and cheap beer. A game room stood full of couples, hipsters and , college kids killing the hours on a fist full of dollars.
James and I took turns on a Pac-man machine. He ordered a pair of drinks for us, gulping down his second to order a third. I had a bad feeling watching him drink yet that smile came back and I chose to let it go. As long as he was sober enough to drive by the time we got home it wasn’t worth the fight. After an especially large paycheck at his construction job to celebrate with, that looked like it wouldn’t be for a while.
“Guys!” Brad popped up with excitement oozing off of him pointing towards a doorway in the back. “You wont believe what I just found!”
“The bathroom?” James asked as I choked a laugh in my drink.
Brad shook his head none deterred. “No no! You guys got to follow me. You’re never going to believe it!”
James ended his round on the game and so we did. The back room did have two bathrooms yet the hall kept going further. He led us onward and the scenery changed from black-lights and paint to the makings of an abandoned warehouse. Bare walls. Peeling plaster. I thought he was pulling our leg until we turned a corner. An old Scandinavian woman stood bent over a giant iron pot, stirring it as she glared with a judgmental eye. Surrounding her was a wooden bar and all sorts of cookery. Flags of various colors adorned its upper rim and so we found what looked like a ramen bar in the middle of nowhere. By far one of the most random encounters I’ve ever had.
“Its gets better!” Brad exclaimed at just below a shout, dragging us as the old woman scoured on. To the right of her was a second doorway which showed that her booth was only a part of something bigger. A Pirate theme bar lay before us. All the furniture was driftwood. Sunken ships in bottles adorned the walls. There were Tiki Heads and little bowls of fire. Even a skull full of business cards lay at the end of a bar captained by a man in full regalia.
“What in the world?” James looked on exasperated, laughing at where we found ourselves. I couldn’t blame him. After admiring the scenery, we ordered shots and went on our way. It was the tip of the iceberg of everything in town and the night was young. We ordered coffee, watched street performers dance and sing. People cheered at strangers from the balcony’s and everywhere we wandered the party was alive and well.
Hours passed and night had come. After turning a corner that night a movement unsettled me as it came from the corner of my eye. It was in the darkness of one of the alleys. Thousands of people were in the revelry yet for the second it was there a silhouette sent a shiver up my spine. I turned to stare down that darkened hole. The air from that decrepit pit held something foul as I could almost see a pair of eyes in the shadows.
I jumped as a hand lay on my shoulder. “You alright?” It was only James. His eyes were glassy from the booze and a slur had tilted his speech. In the back of my mind I knew he would be in no shape to drive later yet at the moment I loathed the coming fight. Confrontation was never my strong suit.
I opened my mouth to say something yet as I did Brad came stumbling after us. Hands full of a paper tray full of the greasiest cheese steak you had ever seen. He took a bite as the provolone stretched from his mouth with cartoonish ease. The look on his face with the health code violation in his mouth was that of utter satisfaction. “Food!” His exclamation climbed over the chunks still in his mouth, stumbling with his tray outstretched. “Here. Take this for a second, I have to go.”
He stumbled off into the the alley that was the source of my unease. I called out to warn him yet he heard not a word. James stood between us as his friend trotted into the dark to do his business. “Is everything alright? You haven’t been having a lot of fun lately.” The question felt more as an accusation than genuine concern.
-Watching you to get plastered isn’t what I call fun.- I thought to myself yet only shrugged. Anything to avoid the fight.
He took my silence as compliance and tried to cheer me up. “Lighten up and drink with me, everything going to be fine.” He tried to smile with his seductive warmth yet ten shots in that air about him was gone.
It was then we heard a yelp from the darkness. We called after him yet instead of a reply all we heard was a shuffling and a muffled pop in the dark. We stepped closer with caution, peering in. James to his credit stood between me and the unknown. All we saw however was an empty patch of pavement. There it was, nothing but litter, bits of concrete and a slit in the gutter to the sewer system. A crowd of people paraded through town stumbling to the next event on the other side.
“Where do you think he went?” I asked, the hair on my neck bristled in my unease.
My boyfriend shrugged it off. “He always does this when he’s drunk. Probably found something shiny and wandered off. He’s got a reputation for disappearing like Batman, popping back up with a corn dog or a forty in his hand. Now come on. Let’s go.”
He took my hand and dragged us off to Mulligans. A bar and pool hall that served cheap liquor. Seeing the cursive sign above I groaned yet he paid it little mind. He ordered two drinks of vodka and sprite and we played pool, I watching the light leave his eyes as the liquor took hold, nursing my drink knowing I would be driving yet again.
We left this bar after an hour and Brad had yet to find us. James was pulling me to another yet I had enough. I pulled my hand away, outstretching it for the keys. “Give me them, you’re in no shape to drive.”
“You really want to do this?” His eyes glared with ill intent. The man I loved was gone, leaving a grown child scowling to have been told no.
“Your the one who’s doing it.” I had finally stood my ground. I didn’t know how bad this fight was going to get yet something in my stomach told me it was time to leave.
“You always try to ruin things for me. Its why I never take you anywhere. You just want to be miserable all the time and I’m sick of it!” The impudence in his voice made it sound like a fit, making him all the less attractive in my eyes. Watching him sway in his folly I wondered how much longer I could keep doing this.
Now wasn’t the time for a break up fight. I kept my hand outstretched and tried to placate him with a tempered tone. “Just give me the keys, we’ll go home and we can do something fun tomorrow, alright?”
He snorted turning himself away to leave me. “I’m not having it. You want to go so bad, you find your own way home.” He stumbled further, storming off into an alley for the next bar.
I could have called a cab. I could have phoned a friend or even my parents but instead I followed after. Something told me we were all in danger and the more I think back on that night , I know I was right.
James tumbled onto the asphalt. The excitement upsetting his stomach and the liquor turned sour. Bending over behind a trash can he vomited in the dark.
Behind James puking, something moved towards him. A shape like a man but terribly thin. It was gaunt and bent, moving in a strange dance swaying closer and further in the dark. He gyrated like a man lost in a hit of ecstasy playing with the space between them. James simply swore at the man in shadows. “I don’t have any change, go find someone else.” He snarled wiping the bile from his mouth on his hoodies’ sleeve.
The thing wobbled there undeterred. Turning the corner I got to see my boyfriend bent over in his booze and puke as some thing there danced above him. Before I could say anything it struck, leaping like a sprung serpent. His arms and legs wrapped around my boyfriend in an instant. James’ cry was muffled by the silhouette of an elongated hand.
Swallowing my terror I shouted after them. It stopped in response, turning them both with force to look at me. A car drove behind us and in its light what I saw I couldn’t believe. A pale rake of a man wrapped itself around my boyfriend. Each of his limbs wriggled and writhed enveloping its victims extremities. Even his body wriggled against him in a slow rhythm that witnessing shook me with revulsion. Its face and head twisted long. Jaw slacked in a crooked smile of mischievous glee. It was the most ugly and terrifying thing I had ever seen, writhing in the night air naked save a ragged loincloth.
It looked at me in a manner that could only be described as predatory. My skin crawled looking on as my boyfriend started to cry. It was in that moment the car passed and with unnatural strength it rocked them backward, throwing them both behind the dumpster.
I yelled after them yet standing there in terror I could not will myself to go in. It was with every ounce of courage I could muster I reached in my pocket. I turned on my phones flashlight, inching towards them in the dark. My shout drew a small crowd behind me yet as I turned the corner neither of them were there. Nothing except that small slot in the gutter, echoing with laughter in the dark.