My town sits in a rural, mountainous area. The tallest mountain gets snow every year, which melts in the summer and floods Paynes creek. Everyone from the town loves to swim in the creek during the hottest days of summer. I regularly go there with my friend Patrick.
One sweltering summer day, we were walking up the creek bank and looking for skipping rocks. We would stop to pull out the fuzz from cattails and watch the tadpoles in the algae-filled puddles where the creek branched off. Patrick and I went miles up the creek that day, ending up in the foothills of the mountains.
We came upon an old cement bridge out there, used to carry the railroad track over the creek. Part of me was getting antsy, since we had walked miles away from the swimming hole everyone hung out at. Judging by the position of the sun, it had to be about 4’o’clock, meaning it would be getting dark by the time we got back.
“Hey, check out the sign on the bridge!” Patrick climbed up the embankment and dusted off a section of the concrete. When I got up there to look, I saw the words: Paynes creek overflow
Next to the writing was an arrow pointing further up the creek. Patrick ran around to the other side of the bridge.
“Hey,” I called out, “its getting late. Maybe we should head back?” He ignored what I said, instead waving at me to come look. When I walked over, I saw a dried up section of the creek that diverted off to the left side of the bridge. It went up about a few feet before directing into a metal drain pipe on the side of the concrete rise.
“Let’s go check it out!” Patrick exclaimed, heading for the drainage pipe.
“Dude, it’s getting really late. We should head back.”
Still, he didn’t listen. He got up to the entrance of the pipe and began yelling into it, listening to the echo reverberate back. Coming up beside him, I saw the pipe went down at a sloped angle for a ways before being enveloped in darkness.
“Shit, too bad I don’t have a flashlight. I want to see what’s down there.”
I crossed my arms and gave him a stern look.
“Patrick, we really need to get back to the swimming hole before it gets dark.”
He laughed before standing up and walking away.
“Fine, coward. We can start heading back.”
I watched him turn around under the bridge. Just when I was about to start following him, I glanced back down the drain pipe. There were a set of eyes staring back at me. I only saw it for a split second and it was gone in a heart beat.
I ran back up to Patrick. Figured it must have been my nerves playing with my head. We got back down to the swimming hole where kids and adults alike splashed around in the water.
The following day, Patrick showed up to the swimming hole with a bag containing a flashlight and a bunch of other stuff.
“I’m gonna see what’s down the drain pipe,” he said with an excited grin. I repeatedly told him:
“Don’t be an idiot, it could be dangerous down there!”
He ignored me and began walking up the creek. I didn’t want him to go alone in case he got in trouble, so I followed him. We made better time that day since we went straight to the bridge without stopping to pull cattails or look at tadpoles. It was right around lunch time when we got to the pipe. We stopped to eat the sandwiches he packed before moving onward.
Patrick pulled out his flashlight and aimed it down the pipe. It illuminated a rusty, dried algae covered straight of pipe that went deep into the Earth. It still looked like an endless black hole at the very farthest point.
“Well? Come on!” Patrick gestured with his head and entered the pipe. At this point, I gave up protesting. I knew it wouldn’t get through his thick head.
It felt like we went a good mile into the pipe. The air was musty and smelled like a wheelbarrow full of water had been left out to bake in the sun for weeks. It was also unpleasantly quiet. The only thing I heard was an occasional drip, drip, drip.
“Patrick, this is boring. Its just a smelly old pipe that goes on for who knows how long. It probably just dumps off at a lake or pond somewhere. Can we please go back?”
My voice echoed. Patrick shushed me, raising one hand.
“Do you hear that?” he whispered. We stopped and listened to the silence. That’s when I heard it: a faint laughter, like a child. It sounded like it came from deep within the pipe.
“Dude, it sounds like a little kid,” I whispered. Patrick began moving quickly down the pipe.
“We gotta help, what if they’re trapped down here?”
Now I’m not a claustrophobic person, but I sure felt that way while I struggled to keep up with Patrick. We came up to a level section of the pipe that had a thin layer of murky water on the floor. I hated getting my shoes wet, but Patrick didn’t stop and there was no way in hell I’d turn around and leave the pipe without a light source.
When he stopped, it was abrupt and I ended up bumping into him.
“Oh, my, God,” he mumbled. I never heard him speak like that. It sounded like something had stricken him to the soul. He leaned against the pipe to show me what had startled him, and then I understood why.
Laying against a metal grate that prevented further access down the pipe sat the decomposed body of a little girl. I didn’t even notice the horrible stench of rotting flesh until I saw the body, laying there with mottled skin and bits of exposed bone.
Patrick and I bolted out of the pipe, running all the way down to the fishing hole. We contacted the police and they sent someone out there to get that poor girl’s body out. I would later learn she was reported missing by her parents just a few months prior.
These days, Patrick and I don’t see each other often. Once in a blue moon we might get together. When we do, we always talk about the dark secret we found in Paynes creek overflow. We’ve even re-visited the pipe some years later. They had installed a metal grate at the entrance so nobody could enter.
I remember the last time we re-visited the pipe, the creek had dried out for the summer. The wind wasn’t blowing and there wasn’t a sound to be heard. Well, there was one sound if you listened close enough. I think that poor girl is still haunting the pipes down there, because I heard the faint sound of laughter.