Sunruined: Horror Stories Read Free

how the expansive lower thigh joined almost evenly with the calf. He rapped his knuckles on the flesh and it made a doughy patter sound.
    “That bone there,” he said. “For those that’s got em anyway, is called the patella. That’s what we was born without—the patella. I guess we still got the muscles and everything.”
    Chris and Nie gaped in awe.
    After riding silently for a few minutes, Nie noticed they weren’t going in the direction of town. She didn’t think anything was strange at first because she thought maybe the twins were planning on taking one of the side roads farther up.
    She looked at Chris and mouthed, “Where the hell are we going?”
    To allay her suspicions, Chris asked, “So, you guys from around here?”
    “Huh-uh,” the driver said. “We’re from over in Preston.”
    “Never heard of it,” Chris said. “You know how to get back to town from here?”
    “Now, we’re not going there just yet. We got some stuff to do. Might could use your help.”
    “We kind of needed to get back in a hurry,” Nie said, icy fingers of fear spreading through her.
    “Well, now your boyfriend here, he was willin to pay us, said anything you want... I reckon we need us some help.”
    Nie leaned forward in her seat and said, “That’s not part of the deal. If you want cash, that’s fine, whatever you want, but we’ve got places to be and... parents that are expecting us.”
    “Just ease up, honey. We ain’t a couple of sickies. We just need your help, that’s all.”
    Nie clenched her jaws, ready to lash out at them. Chris reached over and put his hand on her knee and spoke in her place.
    “What, exactly, will we be helping you with?”
    “Just a little, uh...” the driver looked at the passenger and they both chuckled, “Horticulture.”
    “I don’t understand,” Chris said.
    “You ever hear tale of the June tree?”
    “No,” Chris said.
    “Don’t rightly know why they call it the June tree, since it blooms in October.”
    “I’ve never heard of a tree blooming in October,” Nie sneered.
    “Well, this’n does. At least it’s rumored to. I guess the tree must’ve been named June or something before.”
    “Before what?” Chris asked.
    “The way the story goes, a number of years back, prob’ly before any of us was even born, there’s this girl named June who got raped and killed out by some woods. But that ain’t the really strange part. I mean, that shit happens every day. But now they say that, if you was to be standin and lookin at this old dead tree that happens to be bout round where they say the girl was murdered, and it was a full moon on Halloween, you’d see the tree become that girl. You’d see it bloom.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” Nie said.
    The passenger turned around and looked at her and, for the first time, she saw that he had a red number two on his tank top. It made her think of Thing One and Thing Two, from The Cat in the Hat . “It’s nothin to be afraid of. It’s not like the tree’s gonna jump out and getcha .”
    And then he shot his arms out and squeezed the inside of Nie’s thighs, a little too close to her crotch for Chris’s liking. But Nie took care of herself. After jumping nearly to the roof of the van, she roped out her right arm and punched the guy in the face.
    The man retreated back into his seat holding his mouth and Nie was pretty sure he was sobbing. She was surprised when the van didn’t stop and they weren’t asked to leave.
    Then she heard the passenger say, “She hit me, Vin.”
    The driver reached out and patted his brother’s quivering shoulder. “That’s all right, buddy. She didn’t mean it. Did you, sweetie?”
    “Yeah, I did, shitface.” She wasn’t looking at the driver. She was turned in her seat, scanning the back of the van, looking for some means of escape. On the floor in front of the backseat, she spotted a shovel, a bag of dirt, and a large plastic pot. She looked at Chris and motioned toward the