The title may sound strange, but it truly is the only way i could describe my situation.
I moved to Utah when i was 7. It wasn’t really a difficult move, since i adjust quite easily and make friends quickly. I made a small group of friends that were especially close to me. I dont want to use their real names, so i’ll give them aliases.
But me and Ben, we were thick as thieves. We use to play alone In the woods when none of our friends could join. Ben was quiet, smart and extremely logical. I on the other hand was, not exactly brave, i would say, but rather shameless. Adrenaline was the only thing that mattered to me.
Ben would steal biscuits and cake from his fathers fridge, and i would take my fathers old hockey stick. We played in the woods, but we never went to deep, because Ben was scared we may never find our way out, or maybe a bear would get to us, or perhaps, we would get split up. His reasons were endless.
We would play a game we made up with the old hockey sticks that we called “The Black Knight and the White Knight” We would battle with the hockey sticks like swords, wearing black and white bicycle helmets.
Ben was always the White Knight. Some times our friend Ellias would join our game, so he would be crowned “The Red Knight”. If our friend, Bella joined, she would be “The Yellow Knight”.
It was rare for all four of us to come together to play out little game, but we occasionally managed it.
One one such day, we all came together. We wore our bicycle helmets and posed with our hockey sticks, and play fighting with eachother, occasionally shouting “En garde!” or “Thou shalt not be spared the tip of my blade!” without any idea of what the phrases actually ment. But Ben wasn’t playing as usual. He fought, almost Profesionally. I could feel the blood lust in his eyes, as he swung his hockey stick with uttering a single word. I was impressed at first, but i soon became scared, as i realised he was aiming not to play, but to hurt.
I yelled at him to stop multiple times. It wasn’t until Bella called Time Out, that he stopped. I breathed heavily, took a sip of water, or rather a couple of gulps, and yelled at Ben.
But again, Ben said nothing. His face was blank but his eyes were fierce. Even at just 8 years old, i realised that this couldn’t be Ben. He wasn’t acting like Ben. But he had to be him, who else could look exactly like Ben?
Then finally, he spoke. “i’m bored of this game.” We all asked whta he ment, he suggested he go back home and bring the largest knife we could find, as a substitution for actual swords.
Obviously we all disagreed. Ben argued to at least use sharp sticks, to which Ellias agreed but me and Bella were against.
Ben started to pout. But not in a childish way as you may expect, but a weird way. I can’t describe it, it just seemed strange.
We continued to play, but this time i refused to play with Ben, and fought with Ellias instead. Ben fought Bella, and she yelled at him to be more gentle every so often.
Then came Ben’s next brilliant idea. He suggested we go deeper, just to “feel the thrill of doing something new” This seemed harmless to us. In fact we were always trying to convince Ben to go deeper. The adults usually scared us with the idea of bears, but there were no bears. There were, however, Cyotoes.
We walked deeper, Ben in front. He seemed to be familiar with the area, and seemed to be leading us somewhere.
However, At some time, me and Ellias got separated from Bella and Ben. Ellias had water, and I had a couple packets of biscuits and dry fruits. But we were aware, Bella and Ben had nothing. I suggested to go deeper and look for them, but Ellias argued that we were already sort of far from home, and that we should go home and tell adults.
Eventually I agreed with Ellias, and we started to go home. I found it difficult to turn back, like there was some kind of invisible glue that pulled me.
But we got terribly lost. For 2 days, in fact, we couldn’t find our way out. We had food, the nuts and dry fruits gave us a bit of warmth.
We would have been in longer, but an adult trecking had found us. We were brought back, and the whole time the only thing on my mind was weather Bella and Ben were okay. I wished when we got home, they would come home and assure me that they were fine.
But they were not there.
2 days turned to 3, 3 turned into 4. They were missing for a week.
Eventually Ben turned up. After a whole week. He refused to talk, or ensure others of Bella, For Bella never came back.
The adults searched for months. The found Bella’s yellow bicycle helmet, and the ragged golf stick she used as a sword. They even found muddy footprints of Bella’s shoes. But they never found Bella.
Ben would never talk about Bella, no matter how often we badgered him. He would then act cruelly, he became a sort of fierce bully.
Me and Ellias stopped talking to him.
When I was 10, Ellias moved away. I too moved away 5 after, when I was 15.
years later, I came back to Utah to visit my grandma. I found out Ben still lived here, but in less then good conditions. I felt bad about abandoning him.
I still felt strongly about him, but I chalked it up to me being irrational. I figured his silence about Bella and his violent behavior was some kind of PTSD.
I went to visit him, he lived exactly where he used to. But now the house was cold, smelled of rotten meat and food. The place was unkempt and on the table please poorly cooked beef with simple tea in a dirty cup.
I greeted Ben. He looked up, and beckoned me to come sit. No smile, no hello.
I didn’t want to be rude, so I sat down. But the cushion on the chair was dusty and rotten and mouldy looking.
I tried to talk, but Ben barely acknowledged me. When it got awkward, I tried to start a new conversation. I complimented a neck piece he was wearing. I seemed hand made and had a single canine tooth on the end of it.
But then Ben smiled. A smile that didn’t touch his eyes. He got up, went to the kitchen and brought back another necklace, but the tooth on it was slightly chipped. He handed it too me.
I turned it around my hand. It was definitely a real tooth, but I couldn’t understand of which animal. I was too small to be an Ox, and too dull to be a cats.
He spoke in a slippery manner, Ben started to talk about some ritual. A ritual to bring peace to the dead. It was the most grotesque thing I had ever heard. He talked about if one was murdered by an individual without a weapon, the body part used to kill the person must be torn or cut of, as to bring peace to the soul.
He started to talk nonsense after. He told me he was to scared to do it while we were young, but Bella’s soul visited him in his dreams and kept telling him to do it.
For the first time he smiled, a full, toothy smile. I gagged in horror.
All four of his canines were gone. Ben grabbed my hand and started to talk rapidly. He kept asking me if I saw it too. I ran away screaming.
I am sure that is not Ben. Ben would never. I don’t know what to do. I left Utah, and am preparing to have my grandma move in with me. I don’t want her to be alone there. Not when that thing is there. And I don’t want to think about what may have happened to Bella.