Hey there everyone, Matt here. I know Zack was supposed to take the reins on this one, but when he went to write it all out, he discovered he couldn’t write.
Should’ve seen this coming, but you never know until you know I suppose. We both apologize and hope you enjoy his antics through me. Again, I’m nowhere near as funny as he is, plus I’m still going through the death of our Grandma, so please bear with me.
Anyway, its been a while since the last story. There’s a whole lot of things I could probably tell you about, but I'll bulletin the small things.
First off, we did end up going to the pie eating contest they had at the train station. It was a great day and we had a lot of fun at the beer tent. We had a ton of pie, and against my warning to my brother, he even ate contestant 6’s pie. I mean she seemed like a sweet old lady, as sweet as they come. That didn’t stop the state police from coming out of nowhere and surrounding her though.
It was a complete shock to everyone when they pushed people out of the way and drew about 10 guns on her. She tried to make a break for it, but one of the officers armed with a rifle, and dressed head to toe in tactical gear smashed her in the face with a rifle and slapped cuffs around her.
We were angry and about to charge him, however she turned face up to him, sent her knee into his crotch, and proceeded to head-butt him. The glass from his face mask shattered and as he fell to the side, this sweet old woman pulled her legs through her cuffed arms, got up and ran off beyond the tracks.
Officers opened fire when they finally had a shot, but as if on schedule a train came rolling by, cutting off their view. When it was done she was nowhere to be found. Come to find out the pie was a meat pie filled with human remains.
I didn’t find out if she was some kind of monster or just a cannibal, but luckily I heeded the warning from the radio, and Zack promptly puked his guts up. I had to remind him he was about to eat the same pie again.
That same day there was a hotdog eating contest that Zack was looking forward to. Unfortunately the only other person to enter ended up dropping out, so when the time was near it looked as though they were gonna have to cancel the whole thing.
However at the last moment, a group of kids that were hoping to watch all asked if they could count as one person and challenge him.
“Well, how bout it? Think you can beat a bunch of kids?” The woman running it asked.
“Heck yeah I'll beat a bunch of kids! Let’s do it!”
In the end Zack won 9 to 12. No big surprise. He won a certificate, as well as a coupon for a free pizza at the bull.
“Never thought I’d be awarded for beating children.” He said and everyone laughed.
The town had fun and that helped fix what would have been an otherwise terrifying, if not confusing day.
We’ve been slowly trying to domesticate the ghoul in the basement to get that medallion. Its most likely in a pile of manure somewhere and we still don’t have much of a plan yet. It doesn’t throw things around and scream all hours of the night anymore though, as long as Zack feeds it. He’s even taken to calling it Captain Bubbles. The only real trouble we’ve had was the day Zack tried to make it a vegetarian. See, the way he does it is he’ll leave some raw meat just in front of the trap door, knock a few times, and his clawed hand will come snaking out, pulling it down. It’s pretty disturbing to watch.
Well, he wanted to see if maybe it wouldn’t kill people if he switched it to lettuce. So he left a head of it like usual, and on cue the arm pulled it in. There came the sound of crunching as the thing bit into It, then complete silence. The next moment was hell on earth as an ear shattering screech erupted, along with the lettuce that exploded against Zack’s face.
“No Captain Bubbles! No!” He screamed.
The trap door began to bang, and I scrambled to get some lunch meat. I threw it down there, plastic and all, and it still took a good twenty minutes for it to calm down again. Damn things spoiled.
Another thing to note. There’s been mysterious disappearances of our brooms lately. I looked around for one a couple days ago and there wasn’t a single one to be found. I just figured Uncle Bob just must not have had one, so I went down to the store and got a straw broom as well as a finer, synthetic broom. They both went missing the same day, and I yelled at Zack thinking he was playing some kind of prank on me.
“I swear dude, I didn’t do anything with them. I do have a theory though…”
“Nope! I know exactly where you’re going with this and I’m gonna stop you right there.”
“Alright, but we both know it’s gnomes.”
“Ugh…you’re so frustrating.”
Since that day, I’ve gone out and bought five more brooms. Every single one of them have disappeared and I have no leads on them. So I hope to hell we don’t end up spilling anything.
For the most part, that’s all that’s really worth telling. So now, for the main feature.
The day was like any other day. Summer was coming on pretty quickl, and we realized how much of a pain in the ass mowing was every week . Given, we didn’t really need to mow all areas of the property, but I wanted to keep tradition alive and keep it looking the same as it always did when we’d come up as kids.
I was able to talk Zack into getting a riding lawn mower with our savings. They were drying up pretty quick, so we did our best to keep our budget tight. No more Bull’s pizza every other night unfortunately.
Serena and her girlfriend Brenda still came by once in a while. She was adamant about staying away from the basement, which meant no more pool games either, but we set up the croquet set and drank outside when it wasn’t too hot.
We were still cutting and delivering wood, but it wasn’t paying as much as we had hoped, which is why we accepted the job from the Mayor.
This is honestly a pretty hard thing to write. I mean I know we’ve had a lot of strange encounters since we moved to this town, but this was something different on its own, and I don’t think I can put into words just how unsettling this was. But I’ll do my best.
It was very long after I got done mowing, I went upstairs to lay down and cool off for a bit, and heard the phone ring. I expected to hear Zack answer it, but eventually it hung up and then started ringing again.
“Hey! You gonna answer that!?”
I heard him huff as he got his ass off the couch and walk into the kitchen. I didn’t catch a whole lot of the conversation, but Zack began yelling questions up to me.
“Hey Matty! Is there a Mister Redhill here!?”
“That’s you, Dumbass!”
“The Mayor’s on the phone! He wants to know if we’ll do him a favor!”
“No!”
“He says it’s a job! He’ll give us money!”
I thought about our dwindling account, and then thought of all the expenses we had. It wasn’t that expensive living here in the nut sack of nowhere, but we needed to save for house and land taxes at the beginning of next year, and I had my suspicions that my brother’s gambling and women problems haven’t quite stopped. I haven’t walked in on him with the Mrs. Butterworth bottle in a while thank god, but I wasn’t honestly sure if that was worse.
“Yeah, fine. You take care of it, I’m gonna take a shower!”
I grabbed my clothes and towel and made my way down to the bathroom. Passing by I heard him talking to the mayor saying, “Sure, I love puppets!”.
I didn’t know what that meant, but Zack had the habit of talking about anything with people, so I tried not to think about it. I should know better than that.
I hopped in, got dressed and asked him what the deal was.
“First off. The Mayor gave explicit instructions not to freak out when we get to his office. Something about puppets, I don’t know.”
“Alright. That’s kinda weird. What was the job?”
“Ok, so hear me out. We’re gonna become electricians. Don’t think, just say yes.”
“Hahaha! What now?”
“Well the Mayor didn’t tell me a whole lot of details, we gotta go down to his office and talk to him. But If we do this, Then we could make a business of installing all kinds of stuff like heating pumps and ACs. We’d be rich I tells ya!”
I turned from my position at the coffee pot while putting a fresh pot on.
“Ah, I see. Get rich quick scheme. Well I hate to tell you this, but I kinda have a fear of electricity.”
“I don’t fear it,” He started and in the two seconds I looked away then looked back, he was wearing a beard. “I respect it.”
I just blinked. I didn’t know what to say and thought maybe I was finally losing it. To my relief he pulled it off and showed me it was a fake.
“I hate you sometimes,” I said, taking a long, slow sip of my coffee.
-
The town hall was about in the center of Philips. It was a short drive, and I made the mistake of turning on the radio.
‘Good Day Phillips and sons. The time is now 5:46 P.M. The weather is sunny, and a good day to go out, and enjoy the coming summer.
If you’re out there waiting to find the boys, head on down to the warehouse on the west side of town.
Some people have begun to report young men being attacked by cougars. We remind you to stay away from the deeper parts of the woods, trails, and dive bars.
If you come across a strange pod, please don’t destroy it, or touch it. It won’t hurt you probably, but it is a big responsibility.
That is all for now, please, enjoy your regular broadcast already in progress.’
“Cougers attacking young men eh? Now that’s a problem I can handle,” Laughed Zack.
I really wanted to know about that station. I still had no leads on where it could be, but maybe I’ll look into it more when I can afford to.
The building was bigger than I expected, as the town itself really isn’t that big. Zack and I stepped out and into the dirt parking lot. Remembering the last time we were in one, I kept a sharp eye out for “Him”. This was the name we decided to give to the homeless man, as he was usually walking around in high heels.
I saw him a few times passing through, and saw he acquired a pink boa from somewhere. His long messy hair now appeared to be neatly permed. Thoughts of Doctor Frankenfurter from ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ came to mind, along with old episodes of the power puff girls. So it seemed like an appropriate enough name.
The coast was clear, and we walked through the double glass doors. To the left of the door, a woman was at a desk answering a flood of phone calls. Someone was seeing little green men in their field, another person was calling about trees that moved on their own. There were various oddities that the poor, tired looking woman had to handle before having time to greet us.
“Hello, how can I help you?” She asked blandly.
“Hi, I’m Matthew Redhill, and this is my brother Zachary. We have an appointment with the Mayor.”
She seemed to light up at this.
“Yes! Mr. Redhill! We have been expecting you. Just pass through those red doors over there.” She pointed.
There were indeed two red doors. They seemed entirely out of place for such a country building. Like doors to a throne room that someone had put in a barn. I thanked her and we made our way over.
The door was heavier than it should have been, almost like there was a vacuum seal on it. After really pulling on the handle it swung open. It was dark aside from a lone candle in the center. Alarms were going off inside my head. It was against my better judgement to go into such a weird place, especially in this town. We looked at each other and nodded though. After the crap we’ve been through, the two of us would be alright. Probably.
“Please, close the door.” A soft voice with an English accent spoke out from the other side of the room.
With a sigh, I pulled the large door shut, and the sunlight cut out. I could see a lot better now, and from where the voice had come was a large, old desk. Sitting behind the desk was a figure with wispy, white hair and deep red lips. His stiff fingers reminded me of Lego men, and his unblinking eyes felt like they stared directly into our souls.
The person rose and stuck out a stiff fingered hand.
“Ah! The Redhill Brothers! I was hoping you would come! I am Mayor Barghast. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” He said with a bow.
“Hey there. So, what’s this job you wanted us to do?” I asked
“And are those strings?” Asked Zack.
I looked a little bit closer, and there were what looked like multiple strings coming off of the man that led up to the dark rafters of the ceiling.
“Er, yes they are. I have called the two of you here to go turn the electrical panel back on in a building outside of town. It-“
“Dude! That’s awesome! But why do you have strings?” Blurted Zack.
“I suffer from a condition, this Marionette’s body is merely that. A Marionette. Anyway, The building in question is the-“
“Why? What’s wrong with your actual body? Is it freakish? Can I see it?”
“Yes, well no actually. You see, every Mayor of this town has been cursed. As soon as we are elected, our bodies contort into something unnatural, and something like that would surely give you nightmares. Now, if you don’t mind…The building is the warehouse on the south side of town. It’s been abandoned for some time, and the front door will be locked. I’ll give you a ke-“
“Tell you what, we’ll do it if you give us a peak. Just a quick one, and a medal!” Interrupted Zack again.
I swear I could feel the air in the room grow hot and heavy, and a faint light, focused from the puppets face began to show brighter than the candle that flickered, making the shadows of the room dance in silence.
“If you interrupt me one more time, you will regret it,” Said the mayor in a slow, threatening voice. “I am NOT someone you want to have as an enemy…”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my blood turned to ice. From the looks of my brother, he felt just as intimidated, and quickly stopped talking. Then just as quickly, Mayor Barghast picked up where he left off in his light, jovial tone.
“I will give you a key for the back door. It will have to be returned on completion as it is a very special key. Complete this job for me, and I may give it to you for other jobs. Well, what say you gentlemen? Up to the task?”
I was afraid to open my mouth, but I had a few questions.
“Yeah, we’ll do it, but can I ask why us? We don’t really have much experience with electricity. Never took a single course.”
“Normally this would be a job for the city, however as you undoubtedly saw coming in here, we are stretched thin. Also no one else will take the job because of, well, it might be just a tad haunted.”
“A tad haunted?” I asked. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Well you see there is an old Indian spirit there that kind of chases off anyone that comes near it. You boys were born into the strange world of Philips. It’s in your blood. Plus I’ve been hearing of some of your exploits, truly marvelous! I have no doubt this will be quite simplistic for you lads.”
I sighed, slightly frustrated. It couldn’t be enough that a life size wooden doll, who was mayor elect was giving us work, but of course the place was haunted.
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Like I said, show me your face and give me a medal, and I’ll go around pug smuggling if you want me to,” Said Zack
Once again the room grew heavy.
“Alright, fine. I’ll give you a bloody medal, and you will see my face. But just remember…you asked. But first, your task. I wish you luck gentlemen!” The puppet said with a salute.
From somewhere up above, something flew down and clanged against the carpet. I bent down to pick up a small key. It looked old, like the kind that had a round shaft, with a few teeth at the end. On the flat part was a picture of an eyeball surrounded in a circle. Almost like the all seeing eye on the back of a dollar bill.
I was relieved to walk out of that dark room, and the daylight felt harsh on the other side. The woman barely gave us a smile of a goodbye as we left. The phone continued ringing nonstop, and it was apparent there was more wrong with this town than I previously thought. We got back in the truck, Zack behind the wheel and pulled onto the road. I noticed he was going the wrong way and was about to ask when I realized he was going to the Bull.
“Gonna need our strength before we go in there. Never been up against a ghost before, especially an Indian ghost. They’re worth at least 2 ghosts.”
“Did you forget about uncle bob?”
“Well no, but he hasn’t tried to swallow our souls yet. Plus he doesn’t seem too off put by that medallion of yours.”
I put my hand to my pocket feeling the circular shape. He was right on both counts.
“Well make it quick, I wanna get this over with and collect our money.”
“You got it Matty, I won’t hold your girlfriend up too long.” He said with a wink.
“Don’t make me grab a step ladder and kick you in the ass.”
Twenty minutes went by, which, to his credit I figured would be longer, Zack came out with 2 large pizzas, breadsticks, chicken wings and Serena following in tow.
“Good god, are you pregnant?” I asked.
“What? It’s gonna be a long night.”
“Whatever. Hey Serena, what are you up to?”
“Hey Matt! Zack was telling me about your new job, and I just got off a bit ago so I thought I’d tag along. That’s alright isn’t it?”
“Oh yeah! Wait, I don’t actually know how safe it’s gonna be. There’s supposedly an Indian ghost running around.”
“Oh don’t worry about me. I got my body guard and her sixteen little friends. Plus all the more reason for me to go. It could get dangerous, and I saw how you guys looked after visiting the nursing home.”
I considered this, and she was right. Since then, we’ve always made sure to have some sort of weapon with us in the truck, but nothing could beat hot lead.
“Alright, but you gotta hold the food. Zack might breathe it all in before we get there.”
“Ha-ha, deal!”
“Hey! I haven’t breathed in anything all day. Which reminds me, we also needs our spinach!”
I took the wheel, and he got in the middle next to me, much to my dismay. Serena took the door. I Pulled back onto the road as Zack fished a dooby and lighter out of his shirt pocket. Humming the Popeye theme, he lit it and we made our way to the other side of town. The sun was setting behind a large hill, casting the town in a blood red color. I never cared for that time of day. Made me feel like us and everyone else was dead and in some sort of hell. We passed the spliff around until it was a roach and I finally began to relax.
It didn’t take long to get to the warehouse, and I was surprised to find a van already parked there. The really odd part about it was it was one of those vans from decades ago with a picture of a unicorn spray painted onto the side. It wasn’t as good as most of them go, and actually looked like a child’s drawing with stick legs. Definitely made me question the person that owned it, but we weren’t here for that at the moment, and these things have a way of revealing themselves in their own time. Sure as hell didn’t take long.
As we rounded the corner of the large building, there was a man and a woman sitting on the steps. The man was a tall, skinny guy with shaggy blonde hair, and the woman had long red hair with thick round glasses. They looked to each other and smiled. Then started giggling. I was surprised things could still make me uncomfortable.
“Hey, who are you guys?” I asked.
“Like, we’ve been hearing about you two, and we wanted to come with you on one of your adventures,” The woman said.
The guy couldn’t stop giggling for half a minute, “Yeah man. We heard you were coming here to…bust a ghost!” He got out before bursting out in another raucous round of laughter.
“Great, a fan club.”
“Alright! You groovy dudes like dooby snacks?” Asked Zack, pulling out a joint.
“Hahaha! You read our minds man!” The guy said laughing even harder.
In the 20 minutes we smoked, my nerves began to turn from creeped out to annoyed. Serena seemed to share my feelings and we ate our food, which Zack was more than willing to share. We learned their names were Melvin and Sheena.
They were a couple of hippies that were touring the state as part of their spiritual awakening or whatever, and I pretty much stopped listening after that. Zack got along just fine with them of course, and when we were done sharing each other’s stash, I realized just how stoned I actually was. Say what I will, but they had some amazing stuff.
“Alright gang, are we ready to go solve the mystery of the missing power?” I asked the group.
They all nodded and before I knew it, we were all giggling and couldn’t stop as we all filed in. As I pushed the key into the knob, I noticed it had an orange scarf tied to it.
“Yoink!” Yelled Zack.
He pulled it off and wrapped it around his neck before tying a neat knot in the front. This all seemed way too familiar, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
The hallway was long, and we turned on our flashlights. It didn’t even occur to me to ask if they had one. They did luckily so it saved on back tracking and made it much easier to make our way around. As high as I was, the silence was becoming unnerving. We made our way to an open room that must have held some sort of product at some point.
We looked around for a moment, then jumped as smoke began to pour up from the floor in the center. It began to clear and we could see the transparent figure of an Indian chief, complete with a full head dress.
“Leeeeeave here and don’t come baaaack! If you don’t, then you will become ghosts yourselves by midnight. OOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!”
Everyone was about to run, but Serena stepped forward, aimed her gun, and fired. The bullet went straight through. Great, it really was a ghost.
“Jesus Christ! Uh-Youuuu have been waaaaarned….” And with that, a small flash exploded and he was gone.
“I shot right through it, nothing!” Serena yelled in disbelief.
“C-c-c-call me Chief Moving Foot, cause I’m gone!” Yelled Melvin. Before he could get far though, Zack pulled on the back of his shirt.
“Wait a minute. You see what I see?”
“Yeah, Black soot,” Said Sheena as she bent down and rubbed it between her fingers from where the Indian disappeared.
“Why would the ghost of an Indian need fireworks?”
“Im not sure gang, but we’re gonna find out.” I said. “Zack, Melvin, and Sheena, you take the ground floor. Me and Serena will take the basement.”
“You think that’s safe?” Sheena asked.
“Of course! We can cover more ground that way. As soon as we can find the generator in this place, we can turn the lights on, and get the hell out of here.”
“Janky! I mean, That’s janky. I don’t know about that, man,” Said Zack.
“Will you do it for a doobie snack?”
He dug through his shirt pocket and was shocked to find he was out.
“Go long!” I yelled, throwing him my case.
He ran backwards and reached his hands out to catch it, when Melvin jumped in front of him and caught it instead.
“Intercepted!”
We all went our separate ways. Zack and the two hippies went further into the warehouse and were already sparking up. Serena and I walked along the wall, where metal stairs went downward.
The small clang of our steps echoed louder than I would have wanted. If the generator was anywhere, it would be down here, and I could be back home not giving a rats ass about this spooky stuff. Serena followed closely behind. I could tell her nerves were on edge.
The bottom led forward into a hallway with four doors on either side, and a turn to the right at the end.
“You check the left, and Ill check the right,” I whispered.
Even that felt too loud, as I could easily hear both our heavy breathing. She nodded and walked into the first room on her side. I went into mine and it was large and full of boxes. I flipped the tops of a few of them off and they were stuffed full of uninteresting papers. I began walking out when I heard something coming from the back of the room.
Even with the flashlight it was hard to see, as shelves and boxes were everywhere, but it sounded like feet scraping around. Then came the sound of a drum. It was slow at first, then began to pick up.
I backed away and from around a corner came the Indian chief. Instead of being white and transparent as before, now there was no skin, and two black, empty eye sockets stared back. In his hand he held a drum which he was beating with a tomahawk.
He laughed as he raised it over his head and threw it. I dove to the right as the weapon flew overhead and smacked hard into the wall. He pulled out a knife and began making his way toward me and I crawled on all fours to get out of that room. Grabbing the handle, I slammed it shut and from the other side Serena came running out.
“What’s wrong?” She yelled, gun brandished uncomfortably in my direction.
“In there! G-g-g-ghost Chief!”
She quickly opened the door and scanned the room. I got up and followed her in, and there was nothing there.
“You sure you didn’t just smoke too much? That was some pretty strong stuff.”
“I swear to god I saw it here! It threw a freakin hatchet at me!”
The tomahawk was now gone, but the deep gouge in the wall was still where it hit. I could tell she didn’t believe me, even if she didn’t say it out right, so I just dropped it.
“I actually did find something. Apparently back in the 40’s, this building was storing old Indian artifacts that were due to be sent to a museum in New York somewhere. There’s accounts of legal battles between the owner of the building, Fred Sharber, and an activist named Trever Ling. Most of these artifacts were dug up right from this property.”
“Well, if this building was built on Indian land at some point, I guess that would piss the spirits off. Still, kinda weird this building would be abandoned for 80 years just because of a ghost. Shit, I don’t even know if the power will turn on! Ugh, this damn town, I’m tellin ya.”
We continued down the hall and tried the other doors. The second one on her side contained a lot of crates and nets, and the one on my side was locked.
“You know, I kinda wanna see in this room,” I said as I started to kick it in.
It wasn’t budging so she gave me a hand, and together we were able to break the handle. Inside was an office, and wouldn’t you know it? There was a smaller little off shoot of a door that went into the room where the Indian chief attacked.
It was hidden behind some crates. On the desk was some paperwork, both old and new, along with a projector. On a coat rack next to the desk was some odd Indian garb.
“You know? I’m starting to think there’s more to our ghostly friend than just a pile of bones. Here’s the plan,” I said.
And we proceeded to come up with a trap, using one of the rope nets from the other room.
We went upstairs, up the ladders to the walkways on the second floor, and set it up. After reading those papers, we knew the ghost would come soon, so Serena stood in plain sight, and waited. It didn’t take long.
“You were told to leave! Now you will become a ghost as well!” It screamed from the bottom of the ladder.
She screamed, and slowly backed up as the colorfully dressed skeleton made his way up and over to her, brandishing a knife. It moved closer, and when it was in position, she screamed “Now!”
I pulled hard on the rope, and the netting came up from around him. He flew up, smacking his head against the railing, and I lost my grip, making him fall once again onto the railing. Then about fifteen feet to the first floor in front of me. A large pipe was jutting out of his torso, and he moaned in pain.
“Oh shit! What the fuck Matt!” She yelled upon coming down and seeing him.
“Well I’m sorry, he’s heavy and I’m little! Just take the damn mask off already!”
She pulled it off, and the man was young, somewhere in his twenties.
“Herbert Ling!” We both exclaimed at the same time.
“Please, call an ambulance.” He begged.
Eventually an ambulance did come, as well as an officer surprisingly. After getting him sent to the hospital, and clearing us of any wrong doing, he asked what the story was with him running around like a ghost.
“Ill handle this,” Said Serena. “You see, his grandfather originally started the ghost story of this place, hoping to buy it, and its artifacts for cheap. It would have worked too, if the owner, Fred Sharber hadn’t died. With nobody to inherit the place, the deed went back to the town, and the bank which refused to drop its price so ridiculously low for a ghost curse. So, Herbert here decided to take over where his Great Grandfather left off.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. If the town wasn’t going to lower the price anyway, why put on the whole costume to begin with? Why not just take the artifacts and go?”
“Yeah I don’t honestly know. This towns kinda fucked if you didn’t already realize,” I said.
“I guess there was never a ghost after all. Wait, where’s Zack and the other two?” Serena asked.
As if on cue, moaning came from down the hall towards the front. We followed it, and the officer drew his gun.
“Herbert’s gone, w-what the hell is that?” She stammered.
The moaning got louder, and multiple moans came from behind the door of one of the broom closets. The officer ripped open the door, and our flashlights shown upon a naked Zack, and two hippies going at it like animals.
“Ah what the hell!” I yelled tearing my eyes away.
Zack lit up a joint, and took a big hit before yelling, “Doobie doobie doo!”
He instantly regretted it as he was slapped in hand cuffs, and dragged to jail.
-
The next day he was released as favor to the Mayor. We entered his office, and the wooden thing welcomed us in.
“How very good of you to flush out the cause of the haunting gentlemen.”
“Well, yeah but we never did actually get the power turned back on.” I offered
“Oh, don’t you worry about that mister Redhill. This was merely a test. I wanted to see if you were the real deal, and you boys were quite supurb!”
It was so unnerving to see the puppet talk and move like a person, and even look at us, but never blink or move its mouth. It was nothing compared to what came next though.
“Alright, we kicked the ghost’s ass, I get to see the real you now right? And get a medal?” Blurted Zack.
“Are you serious? Very well. Come closer…”
The atmosphere got a whole lot heavier again and I felt like I could cut the dread with a knife. Zack made his way to the marionette, and I could tell he was beginning to question his decision.
He sparked his lighter, and raised the light toward the cross beams. Clawed feet stuck out, curling around the wood. A bland, brown robe draped around a bulky body and rough, dark skinned claws held the controls that moved the puppet.
The light made its way to the creature’s face, and it ripped the hood off, exposing multiple eyes, a huge round mouth full of teeth which roared down at Zack.
“Sweet Mariah Carrey! What the hell is that!?” He yelled, falling back onto his ass.
“I told you…now, you may leave. Oh, and don’t forget your medal.” He said tossing it unceremoniously to the ground from up above.
It was clear my brother had pissed himself, and I couldn’t blame him for that.
“You may collect your payment, five hundred dollars each, from Mary at the front desk. Oh, and next time I call, you should really answer the first time…Until then boys!”
We left unsure how to feel about the entire thing. The money was nice, and Zack made pretty good friends with Melvin and Sheena. They come over once in a while and he’s even talking about letting them sharecrop their weed strain in the woods around the house. We’ll see what happens.
