I live in a small town in Alabama named Noughterbrook. I’ve lived here for most of my life and managed to find it quite comfortable for the most part. It’s a beautiful old town with rich history and amazing stories to tell about itself if you look deep enough into it. It’s shaped a bit like a messed up target. With the library and Noughterbrook County High School at the bullseye and the other places in the town scattered in rows surrounding the two.
Its lush green forests stretch miles along around it, coating the whole damn place with a strong scent of pine tar and serving as a place for the children to play in and the teens a secluded place to drink, smoke, and avoid the prying eyes of parents. It serves as the border of the target, as well as the border separating us from any nearby towns in the area.
Its small family owned reddish brown shops occupy most of the streets. Many of which are paint shops, hardware stores, and a surplus of diners that have been operating since the 30’s.
Recently, Kevin Mulligan and his gang of future school dropouts were smoking in the woods when they said they heard weird sounds. Faraway grunts and that. He joked about how it was probably one of ‘them people’ and how ‘those bucks tend to live in the jungle.’
It’s fairly easy to do well in the town and live comfortably if you’re born here. But they’re especially rude and apprehensive to foreigners, and ones with a shade of brown to their skin they’re particularly iffy about. In fact, there aren’t any people that aren’t white around here to begin with. They’ve all been run out as fast as they’ve come. With many being found dead in the nearby forests days later.
Officer Dan, the police officer who works at our school says that it’s probably just wild animals that are attacking those people. That if they just didn’t “go to a town that ain’t fond of blacks they’d still be alive. But they didn’t. So they aren’t.”
I know he means well and tries not to let race get in the way of his duties as an officer, but sometimes it seems like he isn’t trying hard enough. He cares about me and my family though, that’s for sure. Like when he came to the house when my dad was in the hospital. He told me:
“Don’t worry about him son, he’s strong. I know your father and I know he can get through anything. In less than a week he’ll be back at the house doing what he always does. That you can trust.”
My father died two weeks later from complications with Huntington’s disease.
And yet again he came by the house after the funeral saying:
“You and your mom’ll get over this. I know it may be hard but you have to be strong for her okay?”
At least he was always positive. He would always bring us sweet rolls from the Sweet Tooth Diner every Tuesday without fail. He would knock on our door, drop off the rolls and then come in and talk for a bit. He stayed at the house less and less over the years after those deaths started happening, until he wouldn’t come at all. I wondered why.
The more deaths that would happen, the more reserved he became, his once bright eyes flickering off as if the bright burning fire that kept him going had faded to nothing but smoking embers in the bottom of his head. I started to notice that a lot of people actually seemed the same way.
I mean sure, a string of unsolved deaths would make anyone dreary. But something about how he acted felt off, as time progressed my mom began to act the same way, as if they were holding something in. Trying their hardest to find some discreet way to let it out. However, there was no outlet for them to dispel their anguish. As the deaths piled up, things around Noughterbrook began to change.
After about 12 of these deaths came the curfew. Anyone 23 and under caught roaming the town or its surrounding woods after 12PM would face a fine up to $200 or even jail time.
When many of the younger kids found out about the deaths, they blamed it on axe murderers, scary monsters, and super creeps that lurked through the forest snatching up anyone they could find for a quick meal. The other teens believed that the town set up the curfew in order to cover up any lynching’s they’d done at night in those woods.
The town was hateful towards black folk like a vampire to the sunlight, and it wasn’t unbelievable that they’d commit atrocities of the sort. But I was curious, so I asked my friend Michael to come with me to look around and see what goes on in those woods. It was lunchtime at the end of 4th period, we sat in the room and talked as he stared at the tile floor.
“Listen man.” He started. “I’ll go, but never again after, okay? I can’t be breaking curfew like this. My parents are already mad at me and I ain’t got no intention of making it worse.”
“Dude, you won’t get in trouble. It’s no problem. Your dad is probably gonna be asleep by the time you get back, and your mom stays out late at nights like this. Right?”
“Well… yeah. But I still don’t wanna risk it y’know? My mom might get really mad if she gets home and doesn’t see me, especially if she ends up staying out late tonight.”
He was right, his mom didn’t seem quite there whenever she would come home late. She spoke quickly and erratically, babbling incoherently and slurring her speech. My mind ran to the first time she had acted like that, or at least I’d seen it. She came home at around 1:00 on a night I planned to sleep over. She burst into his room screaming at him. Telling him “He’s a terrible son.” And how she wished he “was never born.” All while sweating profusely, coughing, and shaking in between sentences.
Her long dirty blonde hair was messy and frizzy as she shook and stomped the ground with her short black heels. She wore her scrubs from her old job at the town’s hospital, dirtied with soil and grass stains. Her large hazel eyes darted around the room, pupils dilated all while still screaming as loud as she could about random nonsense irrelevant to what was currently happening.
“Hey. You alright?” He asked.
“Oh yeah, just thinking.”
“Alright because you zoned out for a sec man. I didn’t get convinced to go into the woods just for you to die right before we could.”
“Yeah I get you. Maybe we could go at like 8:30?”
“Alright.”
On my way home from school I saw about three people sitting down at a park bench. They spoke very quietly and scanned the area with caution, heads on a swivel as if they had known something they shouldn’t.
8:30 had arrived and I went to see Michael. He sat down at the steps wearing a dark green hoodie with a reddish orange stain on it. He sat still and fiddled with his hair.
“Hey, what’s up?” He said
“Nothing, what about you.”
“Nothing really. Mom got home early and my dad’s passed out drunk so we can go.”
“Ight.”
We walked to the nearest entrance to the deepest parts of the woods, A hiking trail that stretches about 20 miles through the brush before cutting off and leaving you with harsh rugged landscape. Near the entrance we heard footsteps behind us so we stopped. The steps continued.
“Hey boys! What are y’all doing around these parts? Ain’t there a curfew?” Said the person with an insincere tone as he grabbed our shoulders.
We turned around.
“Kevin? Dude get lost, we don’t want you here!” I yelled
“Yeah man get the fuck out of here!” Followed Michael.
“Hey man I’m just tryna figure out what’s in the woods and maybe get a quick smoke on the way back. I’d ask you if you want a hit but you wanna be gay about it.” Kevin mumbled the last bit under his breath.
“Dude we literally don’t give a shit. Like for real bro if you don’t get the fuck outta here were gonna-”
“Alright, fine. You can come.” Michael said. “But just don’t be a weirdo.”
“See, not that hard.” Kevin sniffed.
“Alright man, just follow me, and don’t split off.” I said.
We started down the beat up old trail. Patches of grass sprouted out through the dirt in random spots. Soda cans, chip bags and candy wrappers littered the ground reflecting the glow of our phones flashlights. We walked for about 20 minutes trying to see what significance the woods held in the deaths of those people but it was frivolous.
And then we saw him. Or more accurately Kevin did. The young man stumbled through the woods bloodied and beaten about 70 feet away from us. He slowly moved through the brush trying to find an exit. Yelling about the things he’d seen and the people who attacked his friends.
“Hey man you gotta help me! I’m- I’m begging you! The things they- The things I’ve seen an- and the things they do!”
Kevin looked down at him indifferently. He whispered under his breath about a buck but I knew he wasn’t talking about any animal.
“You- Your town’s worse than the f- fucking animals in it’s woods!” The man stammered while out of breath.
He clutched his side and got up slowly. I looked at him and tried to assess the damage. He was a young black man with short black hair. He wore a light gray shirt with several tears in it that exposed a deep gash in his side. I grabbed his hand and helped him. Michael and Kevin stood there silently, for what I’m guessing were different reasons.
“Are you okay?” I asked “Do you need help or do you need to go somewhere? We should really get you to a hospital, that cut looks bad.”
“My friends.” He sucked in a deep breath and continued. “and I need to get to them. Just take me to them.”
“Where do you need to go?” I asked.
“That way.” He extended his finger and pointed across the woods towards what I could see as a slight light in the distance. We ran quickly to the area he talked about and after five minutes arrived at the light. A campfire in the middle of a small clearing about a mile away from the entrance of the woods. We walked slowly and cautiously, trying to catch a glimpse of the man’s assailants. We watched the people at the fire carefully. Then we saw something else. It creeped out from the depth of the woods, the light of the fire slowly flickering on a red putrid mass.
A stringy mess of muscle and vein wound tightly around a slender humanoid frame with 6 sets of white piercing beady eyes scattered randomly across its body that ripped through the dark. It made dry heaving gasps through its mouths. One on its head, another on its chest, two on one of its arms and one on the other. Rows of yellowing, rotting, dirty teeth lined its many mouths. with other teeth scattered across its mounds of red flesh and muscle.
Red tendrils writhed around from the depths of its chest cavity looking for prey. There were about 20 people in a circle, crowded around a young man’s corpse. The thing staggered towards the body and kneeled down, with its uppermost mouth it grinned an insincere and wicked smile. We all stood still and silent in horror as we watched it. It was crouched over the young man’s body, hands extended. Hastily grabbing chunks of flesh and piling them into its many mouths.
I tried to make out the details of the people standing around the fire, their faces hidden from the light. Many were crouched over. Two of them holding some folks that judging by their situation might’ve been the injured man’s friends. The group of people turned around suddenly. Many of the people there I didn’t know very well but I’d seen around the school, either teachers of classes I didn’t have or parents of students I barely knew. But three people stood out very quickly after I could make out their faces in the light of the campfire.
My own mother. Michael’s mother and Officer Dan. I didn’t understand, I felt an intense pressure building up in my head. I took a quick deep breath and let everything gather. In just a few seconds I understood the true and absolute severity of the situation. My mouth went dry.
“Mom?” Michael shouted angrily. “You’re the reason these people are dying? What reason could you have to do what you’re doing? I - I can- I cant.” He started huffing and gasping for air.
“WE ARE THE SAVIORS OF THIS TOWN!” Michael’s mother shouted, sweat beading from her forehead and spit flying out in strings from her mouth. She calmed herself and continued. “If it weren’t for me, this whole town would be gone. That thing needs people to eat, and if it ain’t them… It’s. Us.” she swept the hair from in front of her face. “I was called upon for this duty, all these ‘people’? She paused for a second and glared at the two bound men with a searing intensity. “Do they matter in the bigger picture? Do you believe that their lives are more important than the sake of Noughterbrook? NO!”
“So what? You’re a hero now? You? A savior? You’re nothing but a junkie and a fraud. I’m calling the police.”
He turned away and began dialing. I watched him as he did. He didn’t seem angry, he more just seemed stressed and hopeless, knowing this was the last straw and he had finally lost his mother.
A click echoed through the woods, disrupting the order of the seemingly endless silence. We all turned around in quick succession. In the glow of the campfire, a silvery object was gripped tightly in Officer Dan’s hand. A gun.
Michael froze and turned around. Officer Dan pulled the hammer back slowly.
“No.” Michael whispered quietly. “Wait wait NO!”
BANG. The shot fired into the air. Michael fell to the ground clawing at the wound for a quick few seconds. He screamed and clawed desperately for a few moments and then his body relaxed, his eyes closed, and he died.
Then the creature went feral, clawing at the sides of its head frantically as if to rip the loud sound of the gunshot from it’s ears.
Kevin wasted no time to run back to the entrance as the stranger soon followed. But the creature noticed. It paused, stood up quickly, and then ran off after the two. As the creature passed me It turned It’s head to look at me and let out a deep breathy groan. A sound that made it seem as if it was warning that it would be back for me soon.
It ran through the forest weaving through the trees with high precision and agility. Finally It had started to catch up to Kevin, reaching its hand out grabbing impatiently. Slowly Its tendrils slid out and grabbed at his leg. It ripped through the flesh sliding meat off the bone like seared steak. Pulling him closer to Its chest cavity and beginning to gnash Its teeth violently. Kevin let out a scream. The creature took one hand and grabbed his head.
Its hand pulled him closer to its main mouth. It rammed Its teeth into his neck, over and over taking bigger bites until his head only hung onto his neck by loose veins and muscle. Its tendrils grabbed his body, pulling the corpse towards Its chest cavity ripping through it in seconds. Blood and viscera flew out of the mouth of the creature as It quickly ate. It stopped for a moment before coughing out pieces of bone and then running through the woods to look for the stranger.
I ran for hours, looking for some way out of the woods. My heart was racing and with the time to finally process what was happening, thoughts fled through my mind. I ran for about twenty minutes before I made it out of the woods. I ran to the nearest open store and got in. The man at the counter gave me a puzzled look.
“Hey, chief.” he stared. “You feeling all right?
“Listen I can’t explain it but I need to hide, m- my- my friend i- is hurt an- and and and there’s an injured man in the woods. It’s a long story, just i- if someone comes in and asks about me say I’m not here. Okay?”
“Okay buddy, just.. Calm down all right.”
thump
I froze.
thump
thump
The creature’s heavy footsteps shook the street as it walked past the store. I held my breath as it passed by, and waited for silence.
“Hey pallie. What was-”
The creature crashed through the wall, hastily making its way to the store clerk. It tackled him to the ground and began to eat him. I got up and ran. It took loud quick bites as the man screamed for help, screamed for my help. But I was powerless against the thing. I ran out of the store, trying my hardest not to look back, to ignore every plea, and every crunch of his bones under the pressure of that thing’s teeth.
Eventually I made it home. I hopped over the fence and walked through the door. I sat down on the couch trying to steady myself and stop myself from shaking. After a bit I went into my room and tried to sleep to no avail. As I sat, I realized I couldn’t stay here. I grabbed all my essentials, and I basically cleared the fridge, I put everything in my backpack and left. As time went by, I grew up. After ten years I now had a new house, a wife, and a family.
But I will always remember how the creature looked at me, glaring around at my figure in the darkness and opening its mouth as if to threaten me. I always dread the idea that one day it’ll find me. And some nights, I see small pinpricks of light through my windows and wonder if it has.