Jack
Another year has come and gone, but this one marks 150 years since I lost everything. I haven’t left this scrap of land since, choosing to stay close to where I buried my family. Little Nathaniel and Mary’s graves were the first, then Jane’s. I visit it daily. Rain or shine. Telling them of what they’ve missed and how much has changed. I often wonder what would have become of us all had that night never happened.
Would Mary have grown up, gotten married and had children? Would Nathaniel have taken over the farm? Would Jane and I have had any more children?
So many unanswered questions and asking them doesn’t do anything but torture me.
I like to imagine we would have been happy, because we were. We were so happy before those I thought to be my friends took everything from me.
Those left of our neighbors deserted their homes once they found the bodies I’d killed. It took years for anyone to dare settle close by, but the stories of a haunted forest kept most at bay.
That’s how Talon found me. Through the stories that were passed along of a blood thirsty Jack O’Lantern that walked these woods. He showed up with his brood of monsters and bought theland from me. I’ve always hated dealing with paperwork as it is, and having to forge fictitious new owners every few years to keep people from becoming suspicious was tedious work.
This arrangement I made with Talon lets me stay exactly where I belong while still keeping my promise to hunt evil. The monsters he brought with him were just as fucked up and broken as me. I fit in with them perfectly. We made our own sort of family out here in the shadows. Luring people in to satiate our nature. I even let them use my tragic backstory every once in a while, to scare the tourists.
The newest group has just arrived, and I crack my neck, readying myself for the chase. I fucking love it. Hunting people down and ending them. It fuels me and keeps the desperation far away. If I didn’t have this purpose, I probably would have buried myself right next to my family honestly. It’s the only thing I have to live for.
But then, I see her through the trees. For a moment I think that it’s my Jane, coming to find me after all these long years. My heart nearly stops, and my body stills as I watch her, hoping for a miracle. But as I get closer, I can see that she isn’t my Jane at all. She moves differently and has bright blue streaks placed throughout her brunette hair.
I’m disappointed, but only momentarily because while she’s not my wife, I can’t seem to look away.
Her long, shapely legs carry her to the cabin as she drinks the blue liquid all the guests have. I can’t help but take in her pleasing form, staring at the way her shorts cling to her backside.
For a moment I feel a stab of being unfaithful. Even after all these years, my love for Jane has been hard to shake. I haven’t been with a woman since her death, instead choosing to spend my time hunting the evil that crawls the Earth. One thing that my curse granted me is the ability to see a person’s true colors. It’s something I’ve shared with Talon and his team of monsters.The lot of us feeding our bloodlust by exacting karma on those rotten souls that are unfortunate enough to cross our paths.
Talon tells me I should move on, and while on some level I know he’s right, the rage I’ve felt has been enough to satisfy me. But the longer I watch this woman, the more I question if I’ve just been lying to myself. Would it be so bad to try again? To be with someone new? She looks like she would take me so well and I feel myself growing hard thinking of all the ways I’d like to give it to her. That mouth alone could do wonders, I’m sure. Would she choke around my length and swallow me down her throat? Would she scream as I take her from behind? I bet she screams so loud. She looks the type.
Why I’m even contemplating anything with her when one look at me in my monster form would send her running, I don’t know. But I can’t look away. I’m entranced by her. Drawn to her in a way I haven’t felt in so long.
During these long 150 years I’ve developed a taste for blood and death. Reveling in the screams of my victims. The man that I was is gone and in its place a monster has taken control. Can she handle me at my worst? When all the humanity is ripped away and I’m nothing more than pure vengeance?
That smile on her face leaves me breathless and it’s then that I decide to hell with the what ifs. She’s walked into my territory, and I’ll be making sure she doesn’t walk out. I’ve lost one love of my life already—I won’t chance losing another.
She’s mine. She just doesn’t know it yet.
Chapter 6
Lydia
“Woah, okay. This place is straight out ofFear Street,” McKenzie says, opening the door to what will be our cabin for the week. Cabin number four.
“It’s givingCamp Crystal Lake,” Faye says, calling dibs on one of the beds first. Of course they’re mentioning horror movies.
They start settling in immediately, putting their things away in the complimentary pine dresser, diving the drawers up between each other.
I'm too terrified to unpack anything and I decide to place my stuff within reach. Just in case. Right outside, I know there are a whole host of scary monsters ready to jump out at us. Or chase us. At least for now, this cabin is safe. Unless there’s someone under the bed.
I crouch down and look under the beds before breathing a sigh of relief. Nothing but dust bunnies.
The cabin is outfitted with four sets of old-timey bunk beds, and somehow, we got stuck with the Australian couple.
"I thought the cabin was going to be just us," Stephanie says in a whisper.
She takes the bunk right above me and it squeaks loudly with her weight. Each bed has a flannel pattern blanket and matching pillow. There’s a hint of damp that hangs in the air. It’s nauseating.
I check the bed for bugs before deeming it okay and sit on the edge. That blue liquid is churning hard in my veins making me feel woozy. I really should have grabbed something to eat before we left. Now, all that alcohol has hit my empty stomach and is taking its vengeance out on me and making the floor spin just a bit.
The Australian couple is locked in a pretty serious make out session, dead to the six of us around them.Oh god, they're not going to fuck while we're all in here, are they?
