Tom Foster
Found Slain
The dead have power over the living. I know, I know how this sounds, but it’s true. How can anyone alive have any true fear of those who have already passed on? Sure we’ve all had our fears of ghosts and malevolent spirits, tales told around the campfire and on Halloween and such, but the next day most of wake up and we allow ourselves to believe that life is for the living, the dead already had their turn. This isn’t reality however. Reality is far, far more than what we choose to believe however.
I know, I’m with you, I never believed in ghosts as real either, just the stuff of old legends and stories meant to scare us as kids. Well now I’m not a kid, and I’m more scared than I’ve ever been in my life. There are things that we weren’t ever meant to see while we’re alive, sights that living eyes aren’t supposed to know about. Just the thought of what these things are and what they mean is too awful to think of.
If you can imagine, those who’ve passed on, the dead in a single word, they aren’t in the best of moods. That’s about as light as it can be put, but if I were to try and explain the insane rage they possess then I’d fall woefully short. There’s no really accurate way to tell why any of us who went down into that place are still alive, to be honest I don’t even know how much longer it’ll be until something decides to finish what was started.
You ever have that feeling like something was tickling the back of your neck, the chill sort of sensation that you just can’t shake? All five of us that were there should have known. At the very least, one of us should have been able to feel something. But no, we were all too easily amazed by what we perceived to be an easy payday. Who needs to worry about instincts when you’re about to get rich right? Of all the times I’ve felt like a dumb kid this is undoubtedly one of the worst. I really don’t understand how any of us could have been so stupid, but in retrospect I suppose its fair to say that I was just as guilty as the others.
Let me begin with an introduction. My name is Riley Stillden, I hail from Vancouver , Washington and I’m eighteen years old. My friends are from different parts of the same town, though of all of us I am the oldest. Ashley Parker, Timothy Stolek, Jeremy Muter and Elizabeth Deater are friends I’ve know since grade school, I grew up with them always around. Attending different schools didn’t really make any difference in our relationship, though to tell the truth it made it that much more competitive during the different athletic seasons.
We managed to keep a tight friendship, not much ever came between us and those few things that did cause conflict were so small that eventually we forgot all about it. In our network of friends the four of us were the tightest, keeping a large group about us at all times thanks to our different locations. Ashley and Jeremy attended Hudson ’s Bay High School over near downtown while Timothy went to Columbia River , a good distance away in the Hazel Dell area. Elizabeth and my self were both seniors at Fort Vancouver , close to our homes up on Mcgloughlin Road .
We could have gone to either Hudson ’s Bay or Fort, but our parents chose the location we’d attend, a trifle that we couldn’t say much against. Besides, we got to see our friends as much as we wanted thanks to the fact that we could all drive. I’m getting away from the story though, sorry.
The trip into the lower portion of Anna Pechanec Hall was only supposed to be for extracurricular activity, at least that’s what Tim told us. He and Beth had been talking for almost a week about some golden opportunity that one of the teachers at Columbia River had told him about. Not a one of us thought it was strange that the teacher, Mr. Nels, wouldn’t say more about why he should visit Clark Community College . Tim, being the kind person he is, or least was, couldn’t help but tell the rest of us. The opportunity was as Tim put it more than even the teacher could realize. You see he’d gone in once before the rest of us and found something that even he didn’t fully understand, and he’s the brains in our little group.
What he told us about his find was something we didn’t understand until he managed to find the simpler words that fit better into our vocabulary. In layman’s terms he found the answers to all our academic worries. It was a nice little program that enabled anyone with even a little bit of computer smarts to hack into any accessible system with ease. Why would anyone care to do something so crazy you ask? Well the answer is rather simple. In our little group we all had managed to play our parts for years, settling into them as a second nature of sorts.
Like I already said Tim was the brains of our little bunch, he was the one who always managed to think for the rest of us when we couldn’t figure something out for ourselves. Elizabeth was kind of our conscience, our moral guide when we decided to see just how far we could get by being a little less than honest. She did a good job of keeping us on a relatively moral high ground most of he time, but there were moments in the past both recent and when we were kids that she tended to lapse. Jeremy and Ashley were kind of our resident badasses, meaning they were the two who were the toughest both mentally and physically.
Myself, I was what you would call an opportunist, finding what I need when I need it, and occasionally doing such for the others, when they need it. Trouble is they don’t often tell me when they need such a service, so I figured on many occasions that I’d just offer up my services for free. I mean what the hell, they are my friends, or at least they were.
Back to the matter at hand, the dissolution of our friendship and the sanity we all once thought we possessed. After hearing the story from Tim I figured that it was too good to be true. I didn’t figure on being right about that, but then, hindsight is a real pain in the ass sometimes. It was only a short time before Tim managed to tell the four of us of this, keeping his voice hushed throughout the entire conversation. It was a little bit clandestine to be sure but we still listened, Tim was a friend and therefore worth listening to. Right now I wish we-
Sorry, thought I heard something. You’ll have to excuse me as I write this, I might get interrupted now and then. What happened in that lab is apparently still happening, no matter how hard I try to ignore it. You see, they need us to acknowledge them to gain power, the dead. Don’t ask me why this is, it’s simply what we’ve managed to figure out. I suppose a guess might be wagered where they came from, though I doubt it would be in any way educated. My guess, they’ve been there all the time, we just have never really bothered to care.
I guess there’s no point in hiding how really scared I am right now, I’ve never been this frightened in my life. Not even when I almost fell off the top of a three story tenement was my heart beating this fast. It still makes my heart skip a few beats thinking about what happened first.
Clark Community College is right across the street from Hudson ’s Bay High School , a favorite hangout spot of the students of both schools. The campus is rather expansive for such a moderate sized college, offering many places for students to congregate. Thankfully for us only two days ago the computer lab on the ground level of Pechanec Hall wasn’t one of them. At least we were thankful then.
Damn, could have sworn I hear something just then, like someone walking along a hard surface. The wooden floor in my house isn’t the easiest thing to be stealthy on despite any attempts to prove that wrong. I know, I’ve tried to sneak back into the house too many times. I have to focus, I have to get this all down before I go the same route as my friends. If nothing else it’ll serve as the ravings of a madman, something for the amusement of others. Lord knows I have the skills to please even the sickest mind.
It was around four o’ clock in the afternoon when we all met in the parking lot near Pechanec. Tim and Elizabeth were already there when I showed up with Ashley and Jeremy. I live only a few minutes away from the college and have been there many times, though in truth I’ve never entertained the notion of attending. I’ve always thought I’d be bound for someplace like the University of Washington or Washington State . Now I’m pretty sure there’s only one spot that I’m bound for, it’d just be so nice to know whether it’s in a northerly or southerly direction. I really don’t know if direction is a factor though.
If the land of the undead is so near, then surely heaven and hell can’t be that much farther away. Just how close however might knock people’s socks off and blow their hair back at the same time, if they knew that is. None of us knew when we wandered into the lab. But really, how could we? How in the world could we have possibly known that a mundane classroom could be a gateway to something we couldn’t rightfully understand?
The answer was simple: we couldn’t. Classic case of being stupid when you see something you don’t understand, you keep going in spite of any misgivings. Even Beth didn’t seem to realize that our lack of judgment was leading to something, which was in all likelihood one of the major problems that led to this. When I say “this” it’s rather simple to understand, we’ll soon be joining whatever realm, or domain or whatever you wish to call it, though I have to admit I’d really rather at least try and resist.
Have you ever tried so hard not to think of something only to find that you think about it that much harder? That’s the dilemma I have now. Even as I write this down I find that I can hear noises within this house that in my eighteen years I’ve never heard before. Am I rightfully terrified? You’re damn right I am, since it’s nighttime, I’m alone, and I know at least a little of what’s coming for me. It’s the same foul thing that came for each of my friends, consigning them to a place that I really don’t care to think about but can’t help doing anyway.
The story of the room was rather short really. We went in, we got the data we needed, and were about to leave when something strange happened. In all the horror movies I’ve ever seen the ghosts and ghouls always appear where you first least expect them and then in the most obvious of places that you forgot to look. This thing, presence, ghost if you will, didn’t follow either rule. Oh hell no, it popped up right in front of us, though at the time we thought it was just another computer glitch, a random blip of the screen. I know what you’re thinking now, or at least what some might think if they read this. I’ve seen the movie Pulse, I saw how the ghosts came through anything electric. As scary a notion as that was this one is even worse. What we saw didn’t need electricity, it was just there.
What I mean when I say that is, well, just how it sounds. Getting online to gain the access codes was easy, getting it copied off onto a disk was even easier, it was getting out of the room that was hard. Four of us were occupied with absolutely nothing while Tim was gaining the access codes, it’s still hard to understand how it took us so long to realize that something was wrong.
All of his life Tim had been a little large, big boned, jolly, whatever you want to call it. I figured later on that maybe that was why he wasn’t able to move out of the way in time. Whatever the case he was the one who got the full effects face first, even if we didn’t realize it until later. All we saw at that time was our old friend stiffen up a little bit, sort of like he’d cramped up or something. When Beth asked him what was wrong I only half heard his reply, I was too busy thinking that someone was in the back lab.
I don’t know if it occurred at the same time, but it had to have been close. Right in the middle of a conversation on where we might be going to college next year I saw a shadow cross over the window set into the door in the next room. That kind of got me since I’d been back there before and I’d never seen a door leading out. There was only one way into that room and one way out. Neither Ashley nor Jeremy really noticed as I walked over to the door, they probably thought I was drifting like I tend to do sometimes.
The door to the room was locked, which further confused me since my mind told me right then that I’d definitely seen something. Looking as far through the slim window as I could I managed to see a whole bunch of nothing. You ever get the feeling on the back of your neck? Well at that moment that was the only feeling I was concerned with. Of course the next moment I was concerned I might be going crazy. Just a split second before I was about to turn around one of the shadows, I know it sounds crazy, but one of the shadows decided to jump at the window. The effect was kind of like watching an agitated animal attack the glass at a zoo, only I’ve never heard of anything quite like this.
Right at that same moment the others told me it was time to go, and I obliged without any trouble whatsoever. Tim moved a little sluggishly on the way out and I acted a little nervous, but all in all we got out of the college rather quickly. Life kind of went to hell only a few hours after that.
Crap, I heard it again. I know my parents aren’t home, they left only twenty minutes ago for a beer and wine convention. I wanted to go, God how I wanted to go, but they wouldn’t have it. In their minds I have no business around alcohol yet, too bad they don’t know about the last three years. Hellfire, there it is again. I’ll have to come back to this in a minute, I need to make sure this isn’t just my imagination.
* * *
The house seemed unnaturally dark this night, though that could have been his own nerves as they began to fray. Lord knew he’d been on edge for the last six hours. Approaching the door that would lead out of his room he looked about his walls, noting the sinister cast that the shadows lent to his posters and other pictures. He usually kept only one light on in his room, the lamp on his desktop that sat next to his computer. The white screen illuminated the room well enough for his eyes, despite his parents’ protests that it would one day ruin his vision. He was young, he wasn’t planning on going blind anytime soon.
A sudden chill swept through the room, causing goose bumps to rise along his arms. He shivered uncontrollably for a moment, his teeth chattering for just a second as his eyes widened. The scent of roses wafted through the slight crack between his door and its jamb, confusing him as he kept walking forward. His room never exhibited such odors, neither did the house. His mother and father were more the potpourri type, so the house always was a rather pungent blend of spices and herbs So it was that this new and alien aroma made him even edgier than he had been only a moment previous, if that were at all possible.
The image of what he had seen in the lab still played behind his eyes, attacking the glass he had tried to peer through over and over. There was no way he could have seen what he’d thought, shadows didn’t just spring up and acquire lives of their own on a whim. Still, whatever trick of the light had occurred had rattled him bad enough that he found it difficult to think straight.
Reaching his door Riley perked his ears at another slight sound, sweat breaking out on his brow as his hand met the doorknob. There were no pets in the house, his parents felt that they were simply too much to take care of and Riley couldn’t help but agree.
A light touch fell upon his shoulder, causing him to jump as he spun around. He was presented with nothing more than an empty hallway. With his heart hammering in his chest he looked all about, seeing nothing but the same hallway he had grown up in. Riley began to think that he had made an error in even leaving his room, thinking with mounting fear that he would soon become like the idiot who was killed first in horror movie because he went out to examine the weird noise. Shaking his head he tried to dispel such irrational thought, telling himself that what he had heard was only the sound of the house settling.
Again he felt a slight pressure against his body, this time his lower back. He whirled about again, still seeing nothing. He didn’t understand how such a solid sensation could be caused by his mind alone, it just didn’t seem possible. Was it this cold in here when he’d come out the door? He shivered lightly as he walked down the hallway towards the washer and dryer closet, looking left into the kitchen and then right down the short hallway that would lead him into the living room. Seeing nothing still he frowned, not understanding why he was this spooked.
The dryer clicked, startling him so badly that he quickly closed the bi-fold doors, the appliances disappearing behind the wooden slabs. Moving down the hallway towards the living room he walked slowly, his hands near the walls as he went. He didn’t see as behind him the wall seemed to bow outward, forming into a ghostly face complete with a full flowing head of hair. Waving tresses pressed against the drywall and several layers of paint, crinkling and rearranging the surface in ways it had never been meant to withstand. The face possessed no eyes but followed his progress regardless, its vacant mouth stretching wide as though screaming at him. A crack sounded behind the wall as the drywall was pressed beyond its limits. Withdrawing quickly it was gone before Riley, already spooked as it was, turned to see a large crack in the wall where he had just passed.
He was not as brave as he often pretended to be, streaking in the other direction, towards the large family room that was on the other side of the living room. Banging through the door he stopped cold, not quite believing what he now saw.
The family room had at one time been his playroom, where he had come with his toys to engage in activity with his friends or simply enjoy his time alone. It had also been used for holidays and family gatherings, its large space perfect for holding many people. The space was nearly forty feet long by twenty feet wide, a rather expansive room for this size of house. At the moment however it held nothing of which he recognized.
His stomach heaved as he beheld his friends, not even wondering how they had gotten here without his knowledge at that moment. All he cared about was backing out of this room as fast as he possibly could to escape the horror he’d been presented with. There was no other desire in his mind, though for some reason he found it difficult to move his feet. As the temperature began to drop even farther he finally managed to back away, the bile rising in his throat as he fought his very best to contain it.
Turning quickly around Riley had no other thought but to return to his room, not caring that exiting the house might be far wiser. He ran through the living room, racing down the hallway and then ramming hard into the wall, turning to the left in order to make it to his room at the end of this hallway. Rushing through his door hard enough to send it crashing into the opposite wall he slammed it just as hard, falling into his bed as his balance failed. Leaning over the edge of the bed he then vomited quite violently, the chicken strips he’d eaten earlier coming up in greasy chunks that splattered over the plush carpet of his floor. Groaning he felt his throat constrict for some reason as he found it difficult to draw air. He rolled off the bed, or at least he tried to.
Riley felt a cold, sticky sensation along his front, causing him to look down from where he now found himself. He hadn’t made it to his room, the thought having blossomed before he could take action. Instead he found the reason for his throat hurting so bad, his fingers finding a confusing and impossible occurrence. Rolling his eyes to the left he saw what looked like an arm made of a mixture of drywall, texture and latex paint as it emerged from the wall itself, its grip upon his throat as sure as a band of iron.
His mind refused to believe this, rebelling against the sight even as a patch of the wall in line with his face began to move about as though something was underneath it. As he watched in abject horror a face appeared, featureless as a mask with insanely flowing tresses stretched forward to leer at him. Riley felt himself close to passing out as the hand tightened, cutting off his air supply. This could not be happening, things like this just didn’t occur in the normal world. Soon he would wake up in his bed, maybe still covered in puke, but that would be just fine given the circumstances he now found himself in.
That notion was quite readily dispelled as the hand clenched, crushing his throat in its grasp as his eyes widened in disbelief. Riley managed to gasp once before his heart stopped, the force that had compressed his larynx traveling downwards to instantly freeze the powerful organ instantly. As his eyes glassed over the arm retreated, folding back into the wall with only a slight wrinkle in the paint to show for it. The face lingered for a few moments, its flowing hair waving about its blank features as it looked down upon the dead young boy. He looked so pathetic lying there, his arms and legs crumpled in towards his body as though he were trying to assume a fetal position.
Brown and light green vomit stained his shirt, a sad testament to the final moments of his life. Rolling upward and to the side as though cracking an unseen neck, the face disappeared back into the wall, leaving no trace that it had ever been there. It would take only a short time for the body to cool, the blood within the boy’s veins falling victim to the same chill that had reached his heart. From the direction of his slightly upturned eyes it looked as though his last sight had been directed towards the large crack where the face had first appeared. Silence now ruled the house, the presence absent as its job had been completed.
From the Daily Columbian:
Five High School Students Found Slain
Grisly murders go unsolved in bizarre tragedy
By Jim Stenson
Five high school students were found horribly mutilated Friday night in the home of one of their friends. The friend in question was also found dead on the scene only one room away in the hallway of the house. Riley Herman was reported to be home alone by his parents on the night in question, leaving the question as to how his friends came to be in the same house at the time of death. While the description of how the youths were murdered is far too grisly to be reported it goes without saying that police were at a loss as to how to explain away the scene.
Authorities were reluctant to comment and have thus far kept silent on the nature of the murders. Sources however have released information stating that it appeared to be the type of injuries seen in top-level assassinations, a touchy subject though indicative of a new sort of foul play within the city of Vancouver . When further pressed police were cooperative enough to disclose information regarding similar cases that occurred nearly ten years ago on the grounds of Clark Community College .
Anna Pechanec Hall suffered a similar tragedy within one of its lab rooms only a decade before, the method of homicide far too similar to what occurred last night to be anything but a repeat. What is confusing however is the amount of time between each occurrence…
The high school mourned for their fellow students for nearly a year, each young life being felt as a loss to the whole, or so the faculty told the kids. In truth they were missed for all of six months before the student body got over it and went on as usual. The minds of young kids were amazing things at times, they dealt with extreme situations far quicker than those who were older.
Parents on the other hand did not forget. How could they? They’d spent a good portion of their lives making sure their children grew up to be civilized, well-balanced and moral human beings. If they were fortunate their offspring would grow to maturity with all the values they desired, perhaps even taking care of them once they grew older. When such hopes were so quickly and unexpectedly dashed it could very easily destroy the mindset that they had built up for all those years. It was too hard for them to imagine the novel of their children’s lives being reduced to a short story at best. No doubt the parents of the five slain kids would argue that there were enough memories of their children to fill volumes, but I know better.
I knew the measure of these kids when they first entered my room. Yes, they were good in their own right, but they were also far too curious. In effect that fatbag of a teacher, Mr. Nels, sealed the fate of these kids, I just made it final. Reading Riley’s final reckoning I couldn’t help but laugh at his words. Kids today, always looking for the easy way out of problems. I suppose I could make the argument that Riley got the easy way out. Compare to his friends he did anyway.
The details of what I did to the other four are a little too gruesome for even me to recount, but needless to say, the pieces would be impossible to put back together. There’s no introduction to be made, no story of my own that I feel the need to compel. I’m just one of the many wandering specters that roam the local college, nothing more and nothing less. For ten years now I’ve decided against moving on in order to continue something I enjoyed in life. That’s just my vice, like it or not. If you want anything else then you’ll need to consult someone who actually knows something. For me it’s already starting to fade.
Now what was I doing? Oh yeah, back to the room.