I'm The Bad Man.

I’m The Bad Man

By: Dustin Ballew

For as long as she could remember, Jess had hated the forest.  Sure, the occasional drive through the dense hills during the autumn months with her parents would be breath-taking at times; or the beautiful backdrop on the horizon they offered, welcoming.  But that was all open for debate as far as she was concerned.  The scenic drives, though beautiful, always filled her chest with anxiety and dread; as if some evil laid in the firmament, lurking menacingly behind each bush.  She always pictured herself lost deep inside them screaming for help, the sun setting quickly and a thick darkness full of monstrous beings from her imagination creeping silently behind her.  Hiking was out of the question.  Hunting was not in the conversation, and don’t even get her started on camping.     

            So as she sat in the passenger seat of her best friend Amy’s car, uncomfortably adorned in her size too small “Army Girl” costume (Amy had said that buying a size too small would make her look older, but realistically, only made her look like a slutty ten year old) driving directly into the abyss of her nightmares, a feeling of sheer terror filled her throat and moistened her palms with sweat. 

            “Would you relax, Jess?”  Amy exclaimed, exasperated.  “You’re in Utah, not Texas.  No one is going to attack you with a chainsaw.”

            “I know, I know.  I just don’t have a good feeling about this! Whose idea to have a Halloween party in the middle of the damn woods was it anyway?”  Jess adjusted the seatbelt and tried unsuccessfully to hide what little cleavage she possessed behind the minute amount of fabric that made up her top. 

            “It was Edgar’s idea; did you even READ the invitation?” Amy scoffed.  “Yes, I believe it said: “Woods! Halloween! Booze! Boobs! Booze!” Jess replied sarcastically.  While Jess tried to hide her cleavage, Amy directed the review mirror to her chest and pushed around; assuring her “Magic Wonder Bra” was doing as advertised. Dressed in head to toe (with the exception of a few revealing places) Amy wore red and brown gauze wraps. A “Sexy Mummy” she called it.  “More like a prostitute wrapped in toilet paper.” Jess joked.  “The boy’s wanted to have one final blow out before The Greatest Snow on Earth showed up.  Besides, you spend too much time in that bunker you call a room and not enough time with me!” 

            Amy shot Jess a playful Billion Watt smile accompanied by big, green, pretty eyes.  Amy was a knockout. Only eighteen years old and the body of a model, complete with long wavy brunette hair and amazing complexion.  Though often shallow and reliant on her stunning looks to get as she pleased, Jess had known her for as long as she could remember and couldn’t dream of life without her.  Best friends for years, Amy had a penchant for talking Jess into anything.  And tonight was no exception. 

            The sun slowly ducked behind the edges of the mountain tops, orange and yellow leaves quietly faded into the same bluish black hue of the night as Amy’s 93 Subaru Legacy wound its way loudly through the canyon.  Jess’s throat filled with terror once again as the forest turned from its welcoming fall colorations to a deep and menacing black, lit only momentarily by faded  yellow of the headlights, creating hazy beasts out of the passing branches.  The moon rose high in the sky, peaking in through the canopies and branches and then disappearing again quickly.  She could feel the cold air starting to sneak through the vents, leaving little goose bumps along her thighs and arms.  She thought about asking to turn the heat on, but noticed Amy had gone back to admiring her breasts, and decided not to disturb her. 

            She was just about to ask how much longer when the headlights illuminated someone leaning against a tree, sending her heart into convulsions.  Pale skin stretched thinly across bone surrounding two big black eyes and a evil smile.  A scream forced its way out of her mouth causing Amy’s feet to slam hard on the breaks, lurching both of them tightly against their seatbelts as the car screeched to a stop. 

            “What the FUCK, Jess!?”  Amy screamed angrily.

            “Tell me you saw that! Tell me you saw that!” She curled into a ball on her seat and scooted as far as she could to the driver’s side as her seatbelt would allow her. 

            Amy looked out the windows and into the dark abyss of the mountains.  “I don’t see shit, Jess. Calm the hell down, it’s just trees and bushes and shit.”

            “I swore I saw somebody!”

            “Oh yeah? What did they look like?”

            “I….I’m not sure….”  She was certain she had just seen someone leaning against the tree they had just passed.  Those big black eyes burned into her memory.  Was she just seeing things?

            “Get it together Jess, I know the forest isn’t your favorite place in the world but it’s just a tree, your imagination is just fucking with you.”  Amy put the car back in gear and it moaned sadly as it pulled away.  “I hope your right….” Jess mumbled under her breath. 

           

*                                             *                                                  *

They drove for what seemed like another hour before a bright orange glow shining through the trees signaled their arrival.  “We’re here!” Amy sang excitedly pulling the car off the main road and onto a rumbling dirt path discreetly carved into the foliage.  The car grumbled across the path as a large bon fire came into view.  The flames licked the air, reaching what seemed like hundreds of feet into the starry sky, roaring proudly as if it were devouring wild beasts.  Also roaring proudly were two young boys, one in a clown costume, the other in what seemed to be a bad Twilight costume, stumbling wildly around the hearth, a bottle of vodka in each of their hands, howling along with muffled music thumping from within one of the cars parked haphazardly around the camp.  A long park table sat to the side of the fire, covered in various colorful assortments of chips, dips, and snacks.  A short hour glass shaped girl and another boy with his back turned sat on the edge of the table downing a shot of some dark unknown liquor.  The headlights alerted the dancing clown, to which he turned on a heel, opened his arms and bellowed loudly into the night “AAAAAAMMMMYYYYY!!!!”   Amy slammed the car into park and was no sooner bounding out of the open door and into the arms of the drunken clown.  An excited chorus of “Amy’s” followed as everyone else surrounded her in one large intoxicated embrace. 

 “What am I doing here?” Jess sighed in dismay. This is the last place on earth she wanted to be, especially on Halloween night.  The tight squeezing of anxiety embraced her lungs and squeezed the breath from her throat as she shoved the old car door open, stepping into the cool dark breeze.  The twisted branches above her head reached malevolently outward in all directions, illuminated by the light of the fire casting evil dancing silhouettes upon the ground.  Apprehensively, she inched her way closer to the warming radiance of the bon fire and the festive huggers, still locked in a booze fueled embrace.

“Oh my groin!” the drunken clown jumped from the rest of the group. “Is that..........It is! Jess “The Blair Witch” Bolton!” The Clown must have been Edgar; only Edgar was creative and crass enough to come up with that gem.  He jumped into a stumbling dash and zigzagged his way towards Jess, swept her skinny frame into his burly arms and spun her around in abstract dizzying circles.

“I thought I’d NEVER see you this close to trees and bushes or rocks in my LIFE!” he bounced. 

“Well, there is a first for everything I guess.” She gulped, trying to sound more amused than frightened.

“I’m so happy you came! Tonight will be a blast I promise! Let me get you a drink!” 

“I’m ok, Edgar, rea-“She attempted to refuse, but was cut short.

“No, no. I insist” Edgar shot Jess his usual loving, yet deviant smile and bounded away to the park table.

“Wow Amy, what did you have to do to bribe the “Tree-a-phobic” out of her den?” a small squeaky voice chimed.  Walking toward her, arm-in-arm with Amy was the girl who had been at the table taking a shot.  Eevy was small and curvy, with long blonde hair and a pretty face.  She dressed in a cheap store bought Vampire costume that would have made anyone look ridiculous, but, with her added touch (i.e. scissors and yarn) made her look stunning.  Her pretty blue eyes lit up as she ran from Amy’s arm to hug Jess and plant a loving kiss on her cheek.

            “It’s nice to see you, Jess.  Outside of school, I mean.”

            “Yeah, Amy has made it abundantly clear that I need to get out more.” Jess said sheepishly. 

            ‘Well, I’m glad she has.” Eevy smiled and ran back to join Edgar at the table, only to steal a shot from his hand and down it before he had chance to protest.

            Amy came and stood next to Jess and laid her head on her shoulder.  “You ok?” she asked, putting on a concerned pouty face. 

            “Yeah, I’m fine.”

            “I shouldn’t have brought you should I of?” 

            “No, really Amy, I’m fine.  Just nervous is all. You know I hate the forest.”

            “I know, I know.  I just want you to have fun for once.  Get drunk, have unprotected premarital sex! All the things a girl your age SHOULD be doing!” Sometimes Jess thought Amy’s logic was elaborately flawed.  Just then the boy dressed in the bad Twilight costume interrupted. 

            “May I offer you ladies a drink?”

            “Hi Tyler!” Amy squealed.  Tyler was the teenage heart throb of the school.  Built like a movie star with a chiseled face, trim cut build and deep blue eyes.  Amy had been head over heels every since the seventh grade. 

            “Hi Amy” he smiled “Jess” he nodded in her direction and winked. 

            “Hi Tyler” she sheepishly nodded back.  She also felt a slight swoon whenever he was around, but was able to keep her knees from buckling every time he smiled.  Unlike Amy, who was doing her best to keep the drool forming on her tongue, from spilling out of her mouth and all over his shirt.

            “Tyler, can I talk to you?” Amy flashed a pouty face up towards Tyler, lips pursed in a seductive heart. “Uh…..Ok?”  He chuckled back.  “Nice to see you, Jess.”  He winked with a painfully beautiful smirk, then hooked his arm in Amy’s and walked towards the fire; Amy all the while doing her best to keep both feet on the ground so as to not float away with giddiness.

            Jess looked around the open circle created in the trees.  Tyler’s mustang was parked in the back, a blue tarp covering the hood and windshield, keeping what she could only assume was the autumn leaves of the birch trees above it from touching any part of the exposed paint job.  Behind it was Edgar’s enormous Dodge pickup truck, with a lift so high that its roof racks almost clear the top of the trees.  An ungodly primer grey and a rumble that could be heard two streets away; Edgar had labeled it, “The Elephant” and had sprayed a rather phallic resembling trunk on the hood.  In its bed he had constructed what she thought was a tent, but looked more like a tee pee made out of hockey sticks and several blankets.  Behind “The Elephant” was a vehicle that seemed oddly familiar.  An old red Volkswagen with a passenger door obviously from another vehicle based on its color sent Jess into a panic.  That’s Aaron’s car! She remembered now why the other boy at the table with Eevy looked so familiar; it was her ex-boyfriend Aaron.  Two weeks had gone by since she ended it with him over seeing him kissing another girl in the vacant hallway behind the photography lab.  She had avoided him at all cost, refused to answer his calls or texts, and even told her parents to let him know she wasn’t home whenever he came by her house to talk.  And now he was here!?  She was going to kill Amy if she had known about this.

            She was just about to turn on her heel and leave when a hand from out of nowhere grabbed her shoulder startling her and spinning her around in the opposite direction. 

            “Hey Jess…” a quiet voice greeted.  Aaron stood before her in blue Levi’s with small tears in the knees, a dark green polo and his favorite leather jacket.  His medium length dirty blonde hair teased his eyebrows as the wind blew by; a slight, crooked smile forming on his face.  Jess stood there with a kind of shock grasping her entire body.  It was the first time she had seen him since their break up two weeks earlier; and she could have done with a few more before their next meeting.  Over his shoulder, Jess caught Amy’s apologetic glance from by the park table. 

            “I’M SORRY!” she mouthed, with a worried grimace.

Jess shook her head and dropped her gaze to the ground.  Obviously tonight was going to get longer before it got any shorter.   

“I didn’t know you were coming…” Aaron’s eyes peered deep into hers.

“Yeah, I…..hadn’t planned on it.  But, you know the ever convincing Amy.  Look Aaron, can we just not do this tonight?”

“Do what? I’m just saying hello.”

“Yeah, well I can do without “Hello” right now. I just want to see my friends, have fun then go home.”

He stood there staring into her eyes for a long moment.  The dance of the fire caught his deep brown eyes, a painful distance standing between them.  Jess sighed heavily and pushed past him to go join the party.  Aaron shook his head and watched her walk away.

*                                      *                                              *                                     *

The group warmed themselves in the following hours around the roaring fire. Spinning fanciful tales of their high school being haunted, supposedly by the girl who overdosed there.  They cracked jokes about Edgar’s truck or Eevy’s heavily endowed chest; Amy’s promiscuity and Jess’s fear of the forest.  Alcohol flowed freely between them, each one taking a gulp from the bottle and passing it to the next.  Whenever it made its way to Jess, when no one was looking, she would quickly spit her gulp back into the bottle, hoping the others wouldn’t realize the lack difference in the level of liquid in the bottle.            

As the night wore on, slowly one by one the group started to drearily and drunkenly call it a night. 

Edgar stumbled to his feet, his knees failing him whenever he tried to straighten himself out.  “Goodnight everyone!” he slurred.  “Thank you for enjoying my company! The pleasure is all yours!  I now take my leave.” With that, Edgar spun on a heel and zigzagged his way back to “The Elephant” holding his arms out like that of a bird, trying his best to keep from falling headlong into ground.

“I should probably call it a night too; he will probably kill himself trying to climb into that thing.” Eevy proclaimed, receiving a chorus of “Boo’s” from the rest as she got to her feet.

“Oh be quiet!” she laughed.  Kneeling down she stole the bottle out of Tyler’s hand and finished the last gulp, grimacing as the bite burned her throat.  She turned away from the circle coughing slightly and skipped to “The Elephant” where Edgar was still attempting to climb into his make-shift tee pee. 

Tyler, who had all but passed out, lay quietly looking into the fire; a contemplative look etched onto his face. 

“Everything ok Tyler?” Amy said leaning down close to his side. 

“Huh? Oh yeah.  Just have this funny feeling I guess…”

“You gonna be sick?”

“No, no. Nothing like that, I just feel like there has been something watching us all night. Just behind those trees. Have you felt that?”

Amy shot a sarcastic look towards Jess, whose blood had just ran cold thinking about the face she had seen earlier on the side of the road.  The thick feeling of fear started to squeeze her chest again and flushed her face. 

“I’ve been feeling it too.” Said Aaron, who had been quiet for most of the night, almost spooking everyone as his voice chimed in unexpectedly.  “Like there has been something at the edge of the tree line this whole time.”

“Oh you guys are just being pussies.”  Amy mocked standing up and looking all around her.  The fire had started to die away into glowing embers and the darkness of the trees seemed much more ominous then before. 

“I’m serious!” Tyler hopped up next to her.  “This whole night there has been something right over there just watching us.  At first I thought it was something like a deer or something but….” 

Jess looked out into the thickness of the trees.  She was beginning to feel it too.  Somewhere just behind the first row of trees, something was watching.  Or waiting. 

“Well let’s go find it!”  Amy turned, her Billion Watt smile playfully beaming at everyone as she darted back to her car.

“What do you mean “Go find it?”  Tyler looked back to the others with suspicion. 

She quickly returned with two flashlights in hand, giving one to Tyler and tossing the other to Aaron.  “We will split up, Tyler and I will go this way.   Aaaannnndddd Jess and Aaron can go the other.”

Jess shot a fiery glance at Amy, who returned it with a playful smirk.  “We will go out, see if we can find anything, and when I prove you all wrong we can come back here and…” she paused and looked at Tyler thoughtfully “Tyler can rub my back!”

“I really don’t have a good feeling about this at all, Amy.” Tyler stopped her “Let’s just go to bed and forget about it, please?”

But Amy was already bounding away gracefully into the forest.  Tyler looked apprehensively at the others.  “I’m sure it’s just a deer.” His expression said he thought otherwise as he darted after Amy, quickly disappearing into the trees. 

Aaron and Jess stood at an awkward distance from each other and let the silence hang like death was between them. 

After a few moments Jess sighed with frustration and marched her way passed Aaron, ripping the flashlight from his hands and pointed the beam out into the trees. 

“What are you doing?” he asked sternly.

“The sooner we get this over with the sooner I can get out of here and away from you.”

“Away from me? You’ve been avoiding me all night!” he ran to catch up with her as she stepped over the rocks that lined the edge of camp and into the abyss of trees.

“And yet it still seems I’m far too close for comfort.” Jess said, sighing heavily, trying to calm her nerves before crossing the tree line.

“It’s been two weeks Jess! Can’t you at least hear my side of the story before you condemn me to the fiery abyss of your dreams?”

“I don’t give a shit how long it’s been, Aaron! I don’t give a shit what your side of the story is! As far as I’m concerned that’s all I need!”

Just then a loud snap echoed from behind a large bush to the left of them.

“What the fuck was that!?”  Jess choked a scream in her throat and shown the flashlight onto the base of the bush.  They both stared uneasily into the light seeing nothing but twigs and dead leaves.  “Here, let me see that.” Aaron said as he slowly took the flashlight out of Jess’s shaking hands and moved closer to where the noise came from. 

“What are you doing?!  What if it’s a bear or something?”

“Then I’ll let you handle him…” Aaron remarked, to which Jess socked him in reply.

The glint of two big eyes suddenly appeared in a small hole in the branches.  Jess gasped and latched hard onto Aaron’s right arm, making him wince with pain and drop the light.  Darkness enclosed them as it flickered out after hitting the ground.  The two big eyes caught the light of the moon above them and gazed menacingly at them both. 

“Don’t move, don’t even make a sound.”  Aaron wrapped his arms behind himself and around the waist of Jess.  Trying to shield her with his body.  Just then the bush came alive, Jess screamed as the two big eyes jumped forward and at them landing with a loud crash just feet from them.  Jess squeezed her eyes tightly together, waiting for the pain of death to hit.

“What is it!? What is it!? She screamed grasping tighter to Aaron’s arms.  But he didn’t reply.  Instead his body started to shake, and she heard what she thought could have been a slight laugh.  Yes, it was.  He was laughing.  She couldn’t open her eyes but she was sure he was laughing.  He soon erupted with laughter and she felt him almost fell to his knees.  What was so funny?  Here they are about to die and he is laughing! She reluctantly opened one eye slightly, trying to see what was standing in front of Aaron. 

Is that…..What I think it is?”  She released tension and opened both of her eyes. Before them, chewing curiously on a mouthful of what seemed to be grass; was a small doe. Its big pretty eyes staring blankly back at them with startled confusion.  Jess thought she might break out into a fit of laughter as well.  She had been so convinced she was about to die, and now what stood before her was nothing more than Bambi’s mom.  Jess and Aaron’s gazes met and they both lost it. 

Suddenly the doe’s head whipped to the left, its two big ears pointed towards the sky and locked on whatever it heard in the black. 

“Look.” Aaron pointed at the deer. 

“What do you think it heard?” asked Jess, a slight tremble returning to her voice.

The doe’s eyes widened and like lightning it dashed away in the opposite direction.  The two watched it disappear then caught each other’s gaze again; both sharing the same curious and worried face. 

Then a shrill noise screeched through the mountains; echoing off the cliffs and sending shivers down Jess’s spine. “What was that?”  Aaron whispered; his voice barely audible over her shaking.  A deathly cold breeze blew past them and cut through their skin, turning the blood in their veins to ice water; they both realized what it was.  They both turned and tore full speed back to camp, hoping over twisted and dead trees and dodging the brush.  The shrill sound echoed once again through the forest, causing Jess’s heart to jump into her throat.  

They jumped through the entrance to camp and stopped dead in their tracks.  The fire, that before smoldered in an orange glow, was now extinguished; a giant white plume of smoke billowing from the embers as if someone had dumped a bucket of water over it.  Aaron shined the flashlight frantically around the camp, checking for any sign of their friends.  They could only hear the sound of their heavy breathing and nothing else.  Jess’s heart pounded like a hammer in her throat and her eyes stung from the tears forming in the corners. The night was pitch, everything enveloped by complete and utter black save for small hints of light from the moon and the flashlight. The silence was deafening.

“AMY! EDGAR! EEVY! TYLER!” Aaron yelled.  No reply.

“HELLO!” he tried again.  Still not a sound.

“Aaron those screams sounded like Amy…” Jess sobbed, choking on the lump of fear in her throat.

“No they didn’t! You don’t know that!” Aaron snapped back.  He swallowed hard and lighted the area behind The Elephant.  Sudden snaps like feet hitting twigs rang out from deep within the darkness.  Aaron pointed the flashlight towards the sound, desperately trying to control his shaking.  The snaps became quicker and louder, as if someone was running towards the camp.  “Who’s there?”  Aaron shouted.  The scream rang out again, this time closer, and seemingly followed by the snaps. 

“HELP!!!” it wailed. “HELP ME PLEASE!!” 

“Oh god, who is that!?”  Jess exclaimed, her voice wrecked with fear.

“Just stay where you are and stay calm.”  Aaron tried to focus on the area the sound was coming from. 

At the top of her lungs Jess screamed as someone jumped out from behind the trees and stumbled at her feet, taking Jess and Aaron aback.

“It’s Amy!” Jess screamed, recognizing her mummy costume.

“Jesus Christ, Amy!! You scared the fuck out of us!” Aaron barked angrily.

“Help me please!” Amy wailed.  Jess bent down and wrapped her arms around her, trying to help her catch her breath. 

“What’s wrong honey, what’s wrong? What happened?”  Jess cooed as calmly as she could into Amy’s ear helping dry the sweat off her body.  Inwardly she hoped that Aaron was right, and this was just a joke, that Amy would hop up and yell “Surprise, Fuckers!”  As Jess’s hand ran down Amy’s back, she touched something sticky and warm, something thicker then sweat.  She raised her hand to her face, but couldn’t make out what the dark sticky liquid covering her fingers was in the night. 

“Aaron…” she called.

“What?” he snapped, raising the light and shining it in her face.  Her heart stopped mid-beat.  Every muscle in her body tightened and her mouth went dry.  Dripping down her hand and freezing her finger tips as it cooled in the wind was a thick layer of the deepest red she had ever seen.  Blood.  She couldn’t scream.  She couldn’t move.  She couldn’t breathe.  Judging by Aaron’s silence, he saw it too.  He moved the light to her back, revealing a large jagged cut carved deep into her skin.

“There’s…so…much….BLOOD!!” Amy screamed through her sobs.

“We need to get the FUCK outta here!”  Aaron panicked.

Jess didn’t hear it, her wide, frightened gaze still locked on the red that stained her fingers.  “Jess Come on! EDGAR! TYLER! EEVY! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!”  Aaron frantically called out for his friends to no reply.

“Fuck! Where’s Tyler, Amy?” he shouted

Amy’s breathing became labored; Jess could feel the warm hint of tears seeping through the blouse of her thin costume.  “He’s…..He’s dead!” she balled. “He killed him…He killed him.”   Jess finally broke her gaze with her hand and glanced at Aaron who had gone rigid.  “What do you mean he killed him?”  Jess whispered.  Amy looked up into Jess’s face.  Her forehead was soaked in sweat and her cheeks dotted with small droplets of blood; some getting washed away by her tears.  “Black eyes…such black eyes…He called himself the “Bad Man…”  Jess remembered face again.  “Oh God…”

Amy’s head dropped into Jess’s lap.  Her breathing had begun to slow and her grip on Jess’s back loosened. 

“Amy?”  Jess nudged her.

            “Oh my God, Amy!” she shoved again. She was limp.  Jess jumped up and let Amy’s lifeless body sink to the ground.  Aaron dropped the flashlight and quickly bent down next to her putting his fingers on the bottom her wrist.  He waited, and then moved his hands to the left side of her throat.  He slowly backed away, pawing frantically for the flashlight.  Jess started to hyperventilate.  She knew from Aaron’s reaction that Amy was dead.  Her best friend just died in her arms.  She began to feel a dizzy, nauseous feeling envelop her body.  She could feel warm bile filling her throat and sting the back of her tongue.  Suddenly her knees buckled and she dropped to the ground.  Aaron ran to her side and grabbed her shoulders.

            “Come on Jess we have to get out of here!”

 He ran to the back of The Elephant still standing beast like at the edge of camp, tearing away the sheet that covered the opening to the tee pee.  He shined the light inside and jumped backwards, his muscles convulsed in shock.  “Fuck!”  He screamed in horror.  The sheets forming the walls of the tee pee dripped heavy with blood.  Small pools formed in the bed of the truck and drained like faucets from the tail gate.  He peered in again and went cold.  Inside laid Eevy’s small ravaged body, cut from her groin to her collar bone.  Her chest was spread open letting all of her innards, lungs and heart, fall in between her legs; her beautiful blonde hair sticking to her face drenched in blood; her eyes staring blankly into nothingness.  Aaron shook with terror, the smell of blood and death filled his nostrils making his muscles lock and his throat empty the contents of his stomach.  He rested his hands on his knees, waiting for the next wave of sickness to pass.  Then out of the corner of his eye he caught something on the roof of the tee pee.  Picking up the flashlight he pointed it to the roof, his jaw dropping at what he saw.

Smeared chaotically with Eevy’s blood were the words I’m the Bad Man, written over and over again.  He turned and ran back to Jess, who sat cross legged feet away from Amy rocking back and forth, staring unwaveringly at Amy’s corpse.  He pulled Jess to her feet and scooped her up into his arms, her gaze never leaving her friend. 

“Jess, I’m going to get you out of here ok?”  He assured her, but she wasn’t listening.  She couldn’t hear anything but the pounding of her own heart and the screaming in her head.  Aaron carried her to his Volkswagen and laid her on the hood.  He opened the driver door with a loud creek and tore apart the inside searching for the keys.  He thanked God when he found them still in the ignition.  He started the car and turned on the lights when suddenly Jess sat upright and screamed.  Strung above the campsite was the unbearable sight of Edgar and Tyler.  Hanged from their throats, hand in hand, they swung in the wind; their intestines dancing wildly beneath them dangling out of their savagely torn abdomens.  Each of their faces was contorted in a painful grimace. Beneath their mangled bodies, scrawled in the dirt read: I’m the Bad Man.

Aaron grabbed Jess and forced her into the passenger seat before running to the other side and slamming the car into gear.  The car rocked violently as they hit the park bench and crashed through the opening to the main road.   He floored the gas pedal and sped down the mountain as fast as the little car would go; Jess sobbed quietly in her seat, trying desperately to wake up from this nightmare. 

           

            They had finally made it down the mountain.  Away from the campsite.  Away from their friends.  Away from the blood.  Their bodies ached and their lungs were raw.  Jess sat quietly in her seat.  Aaron had been quiet too, not a word had been said since they made it off the mountain.  She felt too sad to cry, and too scared to scream.  She looked back down at her hand.  The deep red that had covered it had now dried into a sickening brown, flaking away when she rubbed it on the leg of her costume.

            The car started to rumble angrily.  Aaron swore under his breath, the fuel gauge flashing empty.  He pulled the car to the side of the road and slowly placed it into park.  They sat in silence for what seemed like hours, months almost; both staring straight ahead. 

            “What do we do?” asked Jess quietly.

            “I’ll stand on the side of the road and try to flag someone down ok?”  Aaron said; his voice hoarse and deep.

            “Please no!”  Jess jumped up and begged, still feeling like someone was watching from afar. 

            “It’s ok, we’re safe…I promise.”  He kissed her hand and cleaned a tear from her cheek.  “I love you.” he whispered. 

            She nodded and hugged him tightly.  She sobbed silently as he opened his door, stepped outside and slammed it shut.  She pulled down the sun visor and looked into the mirror on the opposite side.  Her eyes were red, and dirt smeared her cheeks.  Licking her sleeve she began to clean the dirt when something on the back window caught her attention.  She turned to see and felt all the air leave her body.  The pale face that she saw beneath the tree on her way up the mountain stared back with the same menacing smile.  Searing pain suddenly shocked her entire body as something long and cold sunk deep into her stomach.  His black eyes watching unblinkingly as her face flushed of color.  Her vision blurred and jumped, and her body began to tense, but not before she focused on what was written on the back window.  Smeared in a deep red were the words I’m the Bad Man.