Sunruined: Horror Stories Read Free Page B

should be,” Thing One said. “We do you a favor and you try n clobber me with my own damn shovel. Now if you don’t give us any more hassle, we might think about letting you go after we visit Mr. Martin.”
    “Please. Please don’t hurt me.”
    Thing One smacked her cheek and said, “Get up. We got work to do.”
    She stood up, her nervous body shaking violently.
    Thing Two moved closer to her, poked the gun into her ass and said, “You scream any more and we might take it upon ourselves to satisfy certain urges. Understand?”
    “Yes.”
    “Pick up the pot and the shovel.”
    She bent and picked them up.
    “We need to hurry,” Thing One said. “Grab the boy. We can leave the soil here until we come back,” Thing One said.
    “But there’s blood all over it.”
    “Fuck that shit. Don’t matter. It’s Halloween. You think anybody’s gonna think anything of comin up on a bag with a little blood on it?”
    “Guess you’re right.”
    “Besides, it’ll be gone before anybody sees it. Gimme the gun.”
    Thing Two passed the gun to Thing One and grabbed Chris around the ankles.
    Thing One pointed the gun at Nie and said, “You go first. Just follow this here trail up the hill. You run, I shoot. And then we’ll take turns fuckin your corpse.”
    Nie turned and started back along the trail, traveling up the hill and into the moonlight. She cringed at the sound of Chris being dragged along the sandy trail.
    The trail opened up into a large meadow. Dead autumn smells surrounded Nie, dried wild grasses and deep brown thistle crunching under their feet as they walked to the far side of the field. Darkness had brought fog and a chill with it. The fog, still settling, swirled gray and clean-looking over the ground.
    “It should be just over here,” Thing One said to Thing Two. Eagerly, he quickened his pace.
    Maybe I’ll get out of this , Nie thought. Immediately, she doubted herself. She hadn’t thought things could get as bad as they had. She certainly hadn’t thought the twins were murderers when she and Chris had first entered the van.
    They came upon the other side of the field. More woods loomed in front of them. A storm last week had knocked most of the leaves from the trees but these woods contained a lot of eastern juniper cedars making them seem darker, thicker. Nie didn’t want to go into any more woods. Even though they were still in the middle of nowhere, unseen, she found a modicum of security in the clearing.
    “Ah, here she is, buddy,” Thing One said.
    He had stopped just at the edge of the woods. Nie stood on his right side and Thing Two moved up parallel on the other side of her, so they stood in a semi-circle looking down at... what? What was she supposed to see that she didn’t?
    “The June tree,” Thing Two said.
    “That’s gotta be it,” Thing One said.
    The tree stood about chest high to Nie. She didn’t really see anything incredibly strange about it. She supposed that, maybe, it vaguely resembled a human form. Its trunk was abnormally thick for its height. The trunk was as thick as Nie’s chest. It was cruciform so it could be perceived to have a head and arms held out like a martyr.
    “Why ain’t it bloomed?” Thing Two asked.
    “Shit, I don’t know,” Thing One said. “It is a full moon, ain’t it? I mean, we’re not like a day away from a full moon or somethin, are we?”
    “No, it’s full. I checked the paper, the Old Farmer’s Almanac . I even checked online.”
    “Maybe it’s like that old riddle. You know, ‘If a tree falls and no one’s around, does it still make a sound?’ Maybe the June tree don’t bloom unless there’s somebody here to look at it.”
    “And maybe everyone’s just full of shit. Maybe it’s just a rumor.”
    “You think Mr. Martin would lie to us?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You seen his pictures.”
    “I guess.”
    “Should we dig it up anyway?”
    “I don’t see why it would matter.”
    A shrill scream pierced the crisp