Back To The Happy Camper - Part III
Part II
Butch kept trying to get up, but the pain from the way his hand was contorting had him doubled over on the floor. He wasn’t sure how long he had been doubled over, but he was sure that this was the most amount of pain he had ever been in and that Greta had not ceased her cackling since his hand had really started acting up.
He managed to get his head up far enough to see that his hand had looked a lot like how it had looked this morning. The skin looked rotten, the heart tattoo on his hand had become bloated and warped, and his nails had begun to grow long and nasty. Butch grimaced as he began to stand up and try to go towards the kitchen.
However, his left side quickly pulled him down towards the floor. Butch groaned in pain as he slammed down towards the ground and felt the breath escape his body. Slowly, he sat up, taking slow breaths, but his left hand quickly flew up towards his throat, knocking him back towards the couch and knocking the dagger’s box onto the floor. The hand attempted to clamp down on his throat, but Butch quickly reached up with his right hand and began to peel the fingers away. It was a struggle, but Butch eventually succeeded. He then clamped his right hand down around his left wrist and pushed it out to get a good look at what the hell was going on.
He let out a gasp.
His left hand was moving entirely on it’s own and making small squeaking noises.
Butch had to shake out his head to make sure he wasn’t imagining things, but that was definitely happening. “You... BASTARDS!”
Greta’s cackling paused for a second, then just got louder.
Suddenly, his left hand broke free of the right and went straight for his face, knocking Butch into the floor. He struggled and squirmed under the hand for several seconds as it tried to smother him, but he once again got his right hand under it and forced it towards the floor. “Nice try.”
His hand quickly flipped him off, then flew up and grabbed a hold of his collar. It pulled down and knocked his head into the hardwood floor. Butch’s world spun for a few seconds before it went black.
He didn’t know how long he was out, but when he woke up, he felt his body dragging across the floor on it’s left side. He looked up to see his hand slowly pulling itself and Butch towards the axe on the floor.
It was ready to detach itself by any means necessary.
Butch immediately shook himself out of his daze and quickly grabbed a hold of his wrist again. The hand squirmed, but Butch clamped down even harder as he kicked the box with the dagger in it towards him. The lid fell open and the dagger skidded out. The hand screeched and tried to launched towards Butch’s face again, but with a scream, Butch forced his hand onto the floor. It continued to struggle, but Butch forced his left knee down onto his wrist. He then reached over and grabbed the dagger. He could feel his hand struggling under his knee, but he ignored it as he closed his eyes and drove the dagger into his left hand.
A blinding pain went up his arm as the hand screeched.
Greta’s cackling stopped.
In the silence, the skin of Butch’s hand near the blade started to smoke. He didn’t know if it was the pain or the adrenaline, but he couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of it all. “Heh... who’s laughing now?”
When the hand stopped squirming, Butch pulled the dagger out and tossed it to the side. He then reached up to the hearth of the fireplace and took the chainsaw by it’s handle. Using his teeth, he pulled the chord and listened to it as it revved up. “Sorry buddy, but this ends now.”
He turned his head away as he brought the chainsaw down on his wrist. His hand screeched even more and it hurt so much, but Butch kept going.
He felt his blood splash on his face and heard his bones snap. It made him want to vomit, but he kept going.
It felt like forever, but soon, the blade reached the floor and Butch shut it off. He tossed the chainsaw to the side and took several deep breaths as his head began to spin. He looked up to see a puddle of his own blood and a small trail leading away from it as his hand scuttled away. Butch knew he should have gone after it, but that wasn’t his main priority right now as blood was pouring out of his wrist. Slowly, Butch got up and limped towards the kitchen, rolling his flannel sleeve down over his wrist to try and staunch the bleeding.
When he got into the kitchen, he ripped down one of the curtains and wrapped it around his wrist. He felt so light-headed that he almost fell over while doing so, but he managed to keep his balance. Butch then started going through the drawers looking for anything to hold his makeshift bandage on. Perhaps an actual bandage?
All he could find was duct tape.
He wasn’t going to argue with that though.
With the help of his teeth, he pulled some of it off the roll and began to wrap it around his wrist. It was a sloppy job, but he wasn’t focused on that. All he could think of was how he needed to stop the bleeding so he could make it through the night.
He had to live for those who had died.
He had to prove those stupid zombies or demons or whatever the hell they were wrong.
Butch broke the tape off the roll with his teeth and patted it down. He cringed at the pain, but it was done. The bleeding would slow down and he’d be able to go on.
If only he could stop feeling so dizzy.
He dropped to his knees and plopped over onto the floor. Wood had never felt so comfortable. His vision was beginning to get fuzzy and he had a weird tingly feeling all over. Slowly, he began to close his eyes. “I’m just... going to... nap... here...”
“This isn’t over, Walker!”
Butch wanted to shout at Greta to shut up, but he wasn’t feeling the energy to do so. The floor was too comfortable and sleep sounded so nice.
He promised himself he wouldn’t be out long before he drifted off to a place much nicer than a cabin floor decorated with the blood of four different people.
-------------------
Ryland had never tried to drag a wheeled suitcase through forrest terrain before and he never wanted to again.
He wasn’t sure how long they had been walking down this barely existent trail, but for him, it was too long. “How much longer?”
Amanda, who was taking up the front, shushed him. He tried to protest, but Amanda held a finger up. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what,” Stefani said, as she took up the middle and held the box with the pages closer to her chest.
Amanda shushed her as well and tilted her head up towards the trees. “It sounds like whispering.”
Stefani looked up as well and tried to listen. Ryland was about to say something when he heard it too. It was faint, but it was there. Amanda shouted a ‘Hello!’ to whatever was out there, but it continued it’s furious whispering. “Do you know what they’re saying,” he said as quietly as he could.
“I don’t know,” Amanda said, shining a light towards the branches of the trees. “But it sounds like they’re hissing at the very end of their sentence.”
“They’re saying ‘join us.’”
Ryland and Amanda looked up at Stefani, who seemed a bit nervous. Ryland stepped a bit closer to her. “How can you tell?”
“I... just have a good ear,” she said quietly. “And it reminds me of something I read in some of the translations of the Necronomicon...”
She fell silent and Ryland and Amanda looked at her, expecting her to speak. Instead, she just shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s inconsequential. How much further are we from the cabin, Amanda?”
Amanda rolled her eyes and shone the light down the path. “Not much longer. Probably about five minutes...”
Ryland sighed in relief as they continued down the path. Soon, this whole thing would be over and he could go back to NYU saying he survived escorting GaGa Germanotta to a cabin between no and where.
The closer they got though, the thicker the air seemed to grow. It gave Ryland an uneasy feeling as the whispers grew louder and the sounds of rustling in the woods became more prevalent. From the way Amanda and Stefani walked though, he could tell he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
It wasn’t until the dim lights of the cabin were in their sight that Stefani froze in her tracks. “Something is very, very wrong.”
Amanda and Ryland gave her a strange look, but Stefani ignored them. Quickly, she handed the box of the pages off to Amanda and rushed down the rest of the path towards the cabin.
“Stefani! Wait up,” Ryland shouted, trying to follow her.
“Slow down,” Amanda said, holding up an arm to stop Ryland from running after her. “I think she’s onto something. Something definitely doesn’t feel right here. It feels like... Death.”
Ryland just stared at her, wondering how she even knew that. Instead, he shook his head. “Then why are we going so slowly behind her then?”
“One, because she left us with the heavy stuff,” Amanda said, struggling to shine the flashlight as she continued down the path with the box in her arms. “Two, that’s her father in there. As stupid as it may be for her to go in headfirst, it something she needs to do. And may whatever deity exist take mercy on whatever is in there because they are about to face some serious Italian fury.”
Ryland felt himself shudder as Amanda said that. If it was because of what was in the woods or Stefani’s wrath, he wasn’t sure.
-------------------
Butch was woken from his blood loss induced sleep by someone shaking him violently. They were saying something, but it sounded muffled. “What? What are you saying?”
“I’M SAYING WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FATHER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!”
There was a swift kick in the stomach and suddenly, Butch rushed back to Earth. He was still in the cabin. His left hand was no longer on his wrist and was scuttling around somewhere in the cabin. He had used curtains with a corn cob pattern to stop his arm from bleeding. And duct tape. Lots of duct tape.
His friends were still dead twice over. Expect for Greta, who was still undead in the cellar.
There was blood everywhere. Lots of blood. And an axe covered in blood. As well as a chainsaw. And some sort of ancient dagger.
Now there was a girl standing over him and shouting about her father.
Father... she was Germanotta’s daughter!
And this cabin looked highly suspicious.
Butch shot his head up to look up at the girl. She couldn’t have been very big, but from his perspective and in his current mental state, she looked imposing. It didn’t help that she was absolutely seething. “Uh... this is NOT what it looks like, I swear.”
She threw a right to his cheek and knocked him over onto the floor. “Okay, that probably wasn’t the best thing to say.”
“I’m going to give you one more chance,” she said slowly, her voice still dripping with fury. “What did you do to my father?!”
“Nothing! I swear,” Butch shouted, spitting blood onto the floor. He was getting really tired of seeing his own blood.
“Then what’s with all this blood?! Did you kill him with the Sacrificial Dagger?!”
“What? No,” Butch said, sitting back up and waving the stump that used to be his left hand around. “I stabbed my hand with that!”
“Liar!”
She raised her hand again to hit him, but there was suddenly a set of thuds in the doorway of the cabin. “What the fuck happened in here?”
“This man killed my father!”
Butch looked towards the doorway to see another woman and a rather tall and skinny man standing there. The woman was in mismatched clothes and had drawn on eyebrows while the man was dressed in blue jeans and brightly colored button down. At their feet was a wooden box and a suitcase. Butch shook their head at them. “No... That’s not it at all. I have never seen her father.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said, taking him by the right wrist. “Maybe I should toss you in the cellar until you tell me the truth.”
“Stefani, maybe you should let the guy explain himself,” said the man.
“Shut up, Ryland! You want that extra credit or not? Help me get him down there!”
“No... NO,” Butch shouted as the girl yanked on his wrist and the guy begrudgingly helped pick him up off the floor. “Don’t put me down there! You have to listen to me! There’s something down in the basement! I know it sounds weird, but my friend was possessed by... something. I don’t know what!”
The one named Ryland tried to look down to listen to his story, but Stefani shot him a look. Ryland looked back up and Butch looked behind him to see the cellar door growing closer. Butch gulped and thrashed against them. “Listen to me! Please! There was something that was awoken in the forest last night! Something that was woken up by a tape recording!” He then craned his neck to look up specifically at Stefani. “Something that YOUR father recorded!”
Stefani froze and looked down at Butch. Her grip slacked and her eyes grew wider. “Where’s that tape recorder?”
Butch signaled his head towards the side table closest to the couch and Stefani dropped his arm entirely. Ryland let go as well and Butch fell to the floor, breathing rapidly. He looked over at Stefani as she sat on the couch, gently putting the Necronomicon in her lap as she pressed play on the recorder. Butch expected to hear the same voice reading off more incantations that would just make things worse for them, but instead, it started with a cough. A rather weak one, at that.
“The time is 4:56 AM. The date, April 24th, 2009. I fear that perhaps my original beliefs about the Necronomicon have been wrong. Upon reading the passages, something has awoken within these woods. Something dark. Something evil.”
There was another cough. Stefani face remained still, but Butch could see tears gathering in her eyes.
“The book is more nefarious than originally thought. Whatever is in those woods has killed my trusted friend and landlord Gerard Way. I’m afraid I don’t have much longer myself. In fact, this may be the last thing I ever do. To my team, it was an honor to work with fine colleagues such as yourself. To my beloved Cynthia and Natali, I love you. Please do not think ill of me...”
There was another cough as Joseph’s voice grew weaker. “And to my eldest Stefani... my little Lady GaGa Germanotta... You were right. I’m sorry for being a stubborn old man who wouldn’t listen. I love you, my dear. I have to go now. Again, I’m so, so sorry...”
Stefani hit ‘stop’ and wiped at her eyes. “Oh god, Daddy...”
“Wait,” Ryland said, looking at Stefani for answers. “You were right? Right about what?”
Stefani didn’t answer right away. She took a deep breath as Butch slowly rose up from the floor, cradling his ribs with his good arm. Despite his position in front of Stefani, she didn’t look at him. She just stared into the middle distance as she ran her fingers through her hair. “My father believed that the Book of the Dead was a guide to ancient Sumerian burial rights, specifically in the Kandar region, and their beliefs on the afterlife. When I started comparing the notes between him, Dr. Orzolek, Bill and myself though, I started piecing together something much, much worse...”
A silence fell and Butch almost beckoned her to continue, but there was suddenly a clank and rattle of chains. Before he could turn, there was another evil laugh from the cellar. “Oh poor little Lady GaGa Germanotta. Her daddy didn’t listen to her and now he’s fucking dead!”
The whole room turned towards the cellar door. Stefani, Ryland and the other woman stared at Greta in complete shock and fear, but Butch just looked at her in annoyance. Greta just grinned evilly at all of them from her spot. “Oh well! More fun for the rest of us now that you’ll be joining him soon! Or perhaps you could join us!”
“Greta-demon,” Butch said through gritted teeth. “For the last fucking time... Shut. UP!”
“Oh grow some goddamn balls and shoot me if you have a problem with it, Walker! Oh wait, you don’t! Too bad!”
She cackled even more and before Butch could even let out another groan of frustration, he froze.
Something was rushing towards the cabin again.
Before he could say anything though, Stefani shot up from her place on the couch, letting the Necronomicon drop to the floor. “Amanda! Close the door!”
The other woman looked at her strangely as Stefani kicked the suitcase out onto the porch and dragged the wooden box into the living room. When Stefani gave her a look of urgency though, Amanda rushed towards the door and slammed it shut. Something thudded against the door and Butch let out a sigh of relief. “You felt that too?”
Stefani nodded as she cradled the box close to her. Her eyes still seemed very far away though. “‘They fly by night, unseen and whispering in the ears of the innocent. ‘Join us’, they will say... It’s a rough translation, but... Oh Daddy, what the hell did you wake up?”
“Ummm, I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news,” Amanda said slowly as she stared out the window. “But the trail we took to get down here? It’s... gone.”
“What? How does that even work,” Ryland said, fear growing in his voice.
“I don’t know,” Amanda said, not taking her eyes away from the window, “but it’s like something just grew over the path... But how could it grow that quickly?”
“Oh, I could tell you,” Greta said with a growl. “I could tell you very intimately. How do you think I got this gorgeous body?”
She cackled again as Butch angrily stomped down on the cellar door, pushing Greta back down into the cellar. “I am really getting tired of that stupid demon...”
“Is... was she a friend of yours?”
Butch turned to see Stefani looking up at him. He sighed and nodded. “She was. Her name was Greta. She was much nicer than this, but whatever took her over has corrupted her completely. I had more people with me, but... well, some of the blood is theirs... some of it is mine.”
He waved his stump again and Stefani nodded as she placed the box and the Necronomicon on the couch. “I’m so sorry for everything. I shouldn’t have assumed...”
Butch waved his good hand. “I don’t think I can exactly blame you. I lost three friends and my boyfriend in the span of 24 hours. If I could find the source of all of this, I would have done exactly what you did.”
Stefani nodded slowly and held a hand to her chest. “I’m Stefani, obviously. That’s Amanda and... Ryland?”
Suddenly, her eyes grew wider and she let out a scream. Butch turned to see the man that had come with them looking very dead as he levitated two feet off the wooden floor. He pointed a gnarly finger towards the three of them. “You miserable bastards! You will suffer greatly for bringing us into this world and for letting your friends and family die! You will never live to see another day! You will be dead by dawn!”
Greta began to cackle again as she rattled the chains on the cellar door and chanted, “Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn!”
Ryland began to advance on them, but Butch quickly grabbed the shotgun and aimed it towards them. With a squeeze of his eyes shut, he slowly squeezed the trigger.
BANG!
Butch opened his eyes and watched as the force of the shotgun propelled Ryland towards the opposite wall. As he crumpled onto the floor, the chains of the cellar stopped shaking and Greta retreated. The room stood in silence for what seemed like forever as they all looked at Ryland’s body. Finally, the silence broke when Stefani quietly said with a shaky voice, “He was just one of my father’s students. He was just supposed to bring me here and go back. He was going to get extra credit so he could graduate before Christmas... Oh my God...”
Butch watched as she sunk down towards the floor, her head cradled in her hands. Amanda wandered back over to her window and Butch just looked at the shotgun he had just used. Slowly, he leaned it against the fireplace and got down on Stefani’s level. He gently reached out and touched her shoulder. “Hey... we’re going to get through this. We just have to figure out how.”
She looked up at him, tears falling from her green eyes. “You really believe that?”
“I’m not sure,” Butch said quietly, “But a little false hope helps sometimes.”
Stefani gave him a tiny smile as she wiped at her eyes. “Okay... we’ll get through this... Walker, is it?”
“Butch,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “Just Butch. Now what do you need from me, Stefani?”
Part IV
Butch kept trying to get up, but the pain from the way his hand was contorting had him doubled over on the floor. He wasn’t sure how long he had been doubled over, but he was sure that this was the most amount of pain he had ever been in and that Greta had not ceased her cackling since his hand had really started acting up.
He managed to get his head up far enough to see that his hand had looked a lot like how it had looked this morning. The skin looked rotten, the heart tattoo on his hand had become bloated and warped, and his nails had begun to grow long and nasty. Butch grimaced as he began to stand up and try to go towards the kitchen.
However, his left side quickly pulled him down towards the floor. Butch groaned in pain as he slammed down towards the ground and felt the breath escape his body. Slowly, he sat up, taking slow breaths, but his left hand quickly flew up towards his throat, knocking him back towards the couch and knocking the dagger’s box onto the floor. The hand attempted to clamp down on his throat, but Butch quickly reached up with his right hand and began to peel the fingers away. It was a struggle, but Butch eventually succeeded. He then clamped his right hand down around his left wrist and pushed it out to get a good look at what the hell was going on.
He let out a gasp.
His left hand was moving entirely on it’s own and making small squeaking noises.
Butch had to shake out his head to make sure he wasn’t imagining things, but that was definitely happening. “You... BASTARDS!”
Greta’s cackling paused for a second, then just got louder.
Suddenly, his left hand broke free of the right and went straight for his face, knocking Butch into the floor. He struggled and squirmed under the hand for several seconds as it tried to smother him, but he once again got his right hand under it and forced it towards the floor. “Nice try.”
His hand quickly flipped him off, then flew up and grabbed a hold of his collar. It pulled down and knocked his head into the hardwood floor. Butch’s world spun for a few seconds before it went black.
He didn’t know how long he was out, but when he woke up, he felt his body dragging across the floor on it’s left side. He looked up to see his hand slowly pulling itself and Butch towards the axe on the floor.
It was ready to detach itself by any means necessary.
Butch immediately shook himself out of his daze and quickly grabbed a hold of his wrist again. The hand squirmed, but Butch clamped down even harder as he kicked the box with the dagger in it towards him. The lid fell open and the dagger skidded out. The hand screeched and tried to launched towards Butch’s face again, but with a scream, Butch forced his hand onto the floor. It continued to struggle, but Butch forced his left knee down onto his wrist. He then reached over and grabbed the dagger. He could feel his hand struggling under his knee, but he ignored it as he closed his eyes and drove the dagger into his left hand.
A blinding pain went up his arm as the hand screeched.
Greta’s cackling stopped.
In the silence, the skin of Butch’s hand near the blade started to smoke. He didn’t know if it was the pain or the adrenaline, but he couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of it all. “Heh... who’s laughing now?”
When the hand stopped squirming, Butch pulled the dagger out and tossed it to the side. He then reached up to the hearth of the fireplace and took the chainsaw by it’s handle. Using his teeth, he pulled the chord and listened to it as it revved up. “Sorry buddy, but this ends now.”
He turned his head away as he brought the chainsaw down on his wrist. His hand screeched even more and it hurt so much, but Butch kept going.
He felt his blood splash on his face and heard his bones snap. It made him want to vomit, but he kept going.
It felt like forever, but soon, the blade reached the floor and Butch shut it off. He tossed the chainsaw to the side and took several deep breaths as his head began to spin. He looked up to see a puddle of his own blood and a small trail leading away from it as his hand scuttled away. Butch knew he should have gone after it, but that wasn’t his main priority right now as blood was pouring out of his wrist. Slowly, Butch got up and limped towards the kitchen, rolling his flannel sleeve down over his wrist to try and staunch the bleeding.
When he got into the kitchen, he ripped down one of the curtains and wrapped it around his wrist. He felt so light-headed that he almost fell over while doing so, but he managed to keep his balance. Butch then started going through the drawers looking for anything to hold his makeshift bandage on. Perhaps an actual bandage?
All he could find was duct tape.
He wasn’t going to argue with that though.
With the help of his teeth, he pulled some of it off the roll and began to wrap it around his wrist. It was a sloppy job, but he wasn’t focused on that. All he could think of was how he needed to stop the bleeding so he could make it through the night.
He had to live for those who had died.
He had to prove those stupid zombies or demons or whatever the hell they were wrong.
Butch broke the tape off the roll with his teeth and patted it down. He cringed at the pain, but it was done. The bleeding would slow down and he’d be able to go on.
If only he could stop feeling so dizzy.
He dropped to his knees and plopped over onto the floor. Wood had never felt so comfortable. His vision was beginning to get fuzzy and he had a weird tingly feeling all over. Slowly, he began to close his eyes. “I’m just... going to... nap... here...”
“This isn’t over, Walker!”
Butch wanted to shout at Greta to shut up, but he wasn’t feeling the energy to do so. The floor was too comfortable and sleep sounded so nice.
He promised himself he wouldn’t be out long before he drifted off to a place much nicer than a cabin floor decorated with the blood of four different people.
-------------------
Ryland had never tried to drag a wheeled suitcase through forrest terrain before and he never wanted to again.
He wasn’t sure how long they had been walking down this barely existent trail, but for him, it was too long. “How much longer?”
Amanda, who was taking up the front, shushed him. He tried to protest, but Amanda held a finger up. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what,” Stefani said, as she took up the middle and held the box with the pages closer to her chest.
Amanda shushed her as well and tilted her head up towards the trees. “It sounds like whispering.”
Stefani looked up as well and tried to listen. Ryland was about to say something when he heard it too. It was faint, but it was there. Amanda shouted a ‘Hello!’ to whatever was out there, but it continued it’s furious whispering. “Do you know what they’re saying,” he said as quietly as he could.
“I don’t know,” Amanda said, shining a light towards the branches of the trees. “But it sounds like they’re hissing at the very end of their sentence.”
“They’re saying ‘join us.’”
Ryland and Amanda looked up at Stefani, who seemed a bit nervous. Ryland stepped a bit closer to her. “How can you tell?”
“I... just have a good ear,” she said quietly. “And it reminds me of something I read in some of the translations of the Necronomicon...”
She fell silent and Ryland and Amanda looked at her, expecting her to speak. Instead, she just shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s inconsequential. How much further are we from the cabin, Amanda?”
Amanda rolled her eyes and shone the light down the path. “Not much longer. Probably about five minutes...”
Ryland sighed in relief as they continued down the path. Soon, this whole thing would be over and he could go back to NYU saying he survived escorting GaGa Germanotta to a cabin between no and where.
The closer they got though, the thicker the air seemed to grow. It gave Ryland an uneasy feeling as the whispers grew louder and the sounds of rustling in the woods became more prevalent. From the way Amanda and Stefani walked though, he could tell he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
It wasn’t until the dim lights of the cabin were in their sight that Stefani froze in her tracks. “Something is very, very wrong.”
Amanda and Ryland gave her a strange look, but Stefani ignored them. Quickly, she handed the box of the pages off to Amanda and rushed down the rest of the path towards the cabin.
“Stefani! Wait up,” Ryland shouted, trying to follow her.
“Slow down,” Amanda said, holding up an arm to stop Ryland from running after her. “I think she’s onto something. Something definitely doesn’t feel right here. It feels like... Death.”
Ryland just stared at her, wondering how she even knew that. Instead, he shook his head. “Then why are we going so slowly behind her then?”
“One, because she left us with the heavy stuff,” Amanda said, struggling to shine the flashlight as she continued down the path with the box in her arms. “Two, that’s her father in there. As stupid as it may be for her to go in headfirst, it something she needs to do. And may whatever deity exist take mercy on whatever is in there because they are about to face some serious Italian fury.”
Ryland felt himself shudder as Amanda said that. If it was because of what was in the woods or Stefani’s wrath, he wasn’t sure.
-------------------
Butch was woken from his blood loss induced sleep by someone shaking him violently. They were saying something, but it sounded muffled. “What? What are you saying?”
“I’M SAYING WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FATHER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!”
There was a swift kick in the stomach and suddenly, Butch rushed back to Earth. He was still in the cabin. His left hand was no longer on his wrist and was scuttling around somewhere in the cabin. He had used curtains with a corn cob pattern to stop his arm from bleeding. And duct tape. Lots of duct tape.
His friends were still dead twice over. Expect for Greta, who was still undead in the cellar.
There was blood everywhere. Lots of blood. And an axe covered in blood. As well as a chainsaw. And some sort of ancient dagger.
Now there was a girl standing over him and shouting about her father.
Father... she was Germanotta’s daughter!
And this cabin looked highly suspicious.
Butch shot his head up to look up at the girl. She couldn’t have been very big, but from his perspective and in his current mental state, she looked imposing. It didn’t help that she was absolutely seething. “Uh... this is NOT what it looks like, I swear.”
She threw a right to his cheek and knocked him over onto the floor. “Okay, that probably wasn’t the best thing to say.”
“I’m going to give you one more chance,” she said slowly, her voice still dripping with fury. “What did you do to my father?!”
“Nothing! I swear,” Butch shouted, spitting blood onto the floor. He was getting really tired of seeing his own blood.
“Then what’s with all this blood?! Did you kill him with the Sacrificial Dagger?!”
“What? No,” Butch said, sitting back up and waving the stump that used to be his left hand around. “I stabbed my hand with that!”
“Liar!”
She raised her hand again to hit him, but there was suddenly a set of thuds in the doorway of the cabin. “What the fuck happened in here?”
“This man killed my father!”
Butch looked towards the doorway to see another woman and a rather tall and skinny man standing there. The woman was in mismatched clothes and had drawn on eyebrows while the man was dressed in blue jeans and brightly colored button down. At their feet was a wooden box and a suitcase. Butch shook their head at them. “No... That’s not it at all. I have never seen her father.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said, taking him by the right wrist. “Maybe I should toss you in the cellar until you tell me the truth.”
“Stefani, maybe you should let the guy explain himself,” said the man.
“Shut up, Ryland! You want that extra credit or not? Help me get him down there!”
“No... NO,” Butch shouted as the girl yanked on his wrist and the guy begrudgingly helped pick him up off the floor. “Don’t put me down there! You have to listen to me! There’s something down in the basement! I know it sounds weird, but my friend was possessed by... something. I don’t know what!”
The one named Ryland tried to look down to listen to his story, but Stefani shot him a look. Ryland looked back up and Butch looked behind him to see the cellar door growing closer. Butch gulped and thrashed against them. “Listen to me! Please! There was something that was awoken in the forest last night! Something that was woken up by a tape recording!” He then craned his neck to look up specifically at Stefani. “Something that YOUR father recorded!”
Stefani froze and looked down at Butch. Her grip slacked and her eyes grew wider. “Where’s that tape recorder?”
Butch signaled his head towards the side table closest to the couch and Stefani dropped his arm entirely. Ryland let go as well and Butch fell to the floor, breathing rapidly. He looked over at Stefani as she sat on the couch, gently putting the Necronomicon in her lap as she pressed play on the recorder. Butch expected to hear the same voice reading off more incantations that would just make things worse for them, but instead, it started with a cough. A rather weak one, at that.
“The time is 4:56 AM. The date, April 24th, 2009. I fear that perhaps my original beliefs about the Necronomicon have been wrong. Upon reading the passages, something has awoken within these woods. Something dark. Something evil.”
There was another cough. Stefani face remained still, but Butch could see tears gathering in her eyes.
“The book is more nefarious than originally thought. Whatever is in those woods has killed my trusted friend and landlord Gerard Way. I’m afraid I don’t have much longer myself. In fact, this may be the last thing I ever do. To my team, it was an honor to work with fine colleagues such as yourself. To my beloved Cynthia and Natali, I love you. Please do not think ill of me...”
There was another cough as Joseph’s voice grew weaker. “And to my eldest Stefani... my little Lady GaGa Germanotta... You were right. I’m sorry for being a stubborn old man who wouldn’t listen. I love you, my dear. I have to go now. Again, I’m so, so sorry...”
Stefani hit ‘stop’ and wiped at her eyes. “Oh god, Daddy...”
“Wait,” Ryland said, looking at Stefani for answers. “You were right? Right about what?”
Stefani didn’t answer right away. She took a deep breath as Butch slowly rose up from the floor, cradling his ribs with his good arm. Despite his position in front of Stefani, she didn’t look at him. She just stared into the middle distance as she ran her fingers through her hair. “My father believed that the Book of the Dead was a guide to ancient Sumerian burial rights, specifically in the Kandar region, and their beliefs on the afterlife. When I started comparing the notes between him, Dr. Orzolek, Bill and myself though, I started piecing together something much, much worse...”
A silence fell and Butch almost beckoned her to continue, but there was suddenly a clank and rattle of chains. Before he could turn, there was another evil laugh from the cellar. “Oh poor little Lady GaGa Germanotta. Her daddy didn’t listen to her and now he’s fucking dead!”
The whole room turned towards the cellar door. Stefani, Ryland and the other woman stared at Greta in complete shock and fear, but Butch just looked at her in annoyance. Greta just grinned evilly at all of them from her spot. “Oh well! More fun for the rest of us now that you’ll be joining him soon! Or perhaps you could join us!”
“Greta-demon,” Butch said through gritted teeth. “For the last fucking time... Shut. UP!”
“Oh grow some goddamn balls and shoot me if you have a problem with it, Walker! Oh wait, you don’t! Too bad!”
She cackled even more and before Butch could even let out another groan of frustration, he froze.
Something was rushing towards the cabin again.
Before he could say anything though, Stefani shot up from her place on the couch, letting the Necronomicon drop to the floor. “Amanda! Close the door!”
The other woman looked at her strangely as Stefani kicked the suitcase out onto the porch and dragged the wooden box into the living room. When Stefani gave her a look of urgency though, Amanda rushed towards the door and slammed it shut. Something thudded against the door and Butch let out a sigh of relief. “You felt that too?”
Stefani nodded as she cradled the box close to her. Her eyes still seemed very far away though. “‘They fly by night, unseen and whispering in the ears of the innocent. ‘Join us’, they will say... It’s a rough translation, but... Oh Daddy, what the hell did you wake up?”
“Ummm, I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news,” Amanda said slowly as she stared out the window. “But the trail we took to get down here? It’s... gone.”
“What? How does that even work,” Ryland said, fear growing in his voice.
“I don’t know,” Amanda said, not taking her eyes away from the window, “but it’s like something just grew over the path... But how could it grow that quickly?”
“Oh, I could tell you,” Greta said with a growl. “I could tell you very intimately. How do you think I got this gorgeous body?”
She cackled again as Butch angrily stomped down on the cellar door, pushing Greta back down into the cellar. “I am really getting tired of that stupid demon...”
“Is... was she a friend of yours?”
Butch turned to see Stefani looking up at him. He sighed and nodded. “She was. Her name was Greta. She was much nicer than this, but whatever took her over has corrupted her completely. I had more people with me, but... well, some of the blood is theirs... some of it is mine.”
He waved his stump again and Stefani nodded as she placed the box and the Necronomicon on the couch. “I’m so sorry for everything. I shouldn’t have assumed...”
Butch waved his good hand. “I don’t think I can exactly blame you. I lost three friends and my boyfriend in the span of 24 hours. If I could find the source of all of this, I would have done exactly what you did.”
Stefani nodded slowly and held a hand to her chest. “I’m Stefani, obviously. That’s Amanda and... Ryland?”
Suddenly, her eyes grew wider and she let out a scream. Butch turned to see the man that had come with them looking very dead as he levitated two feet off the wooden floor. He pointed a gnarly finger towards the three of them. “You miserable bastards! You will suffer greatly for bringing us into this world and for letting your friends and family die! You will never live to see another day! You will be dead by dawn!”
Greta began to cackle again as she rattled the chains on the cellar door and chanted, “Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn!”
Ryland began to advance on them, but Butch quickly grabbed the shotgun and aimed it towards them. With a squeeze of his eyes shut, he slowly squeezed the trigger.
BANG!
Butch opened his eyes and watched as the force of the shotgun propelled Ryland towards the opposite wall. As he crumpled onto the floor, the chains of the cellar stopped shaking and Greta retreated. The room stood in silence for what seemed like forever as they all looked at Ryland’s body. Finally, the silence broke when Stefani quietly said with a shaky voice, “He was just one of my father’s students. He was just supposed to bring me here and go back. He was going to get extra credit so he could graduate before Christmas... Oh my God...”
Butch watched as she sunk down towards the floor, her head cradled in her hands. Amanda wandered back over to her window and Butch just looked at the shotgun he had just used. Slowly, he leaned it against the fireplace and got down on Stefani’s level. He gently reached out and touched her shoulder. “Hey... we’re going to get through this. We just have to figure out how.”
She looked up at him, tears falling from her green eyes. “You really believe that?”
“I’m not sure,” Butch said quietly, “But a little false hope helps sometimes.”
Stefani gave him a tiny smile as she wiped at her eyes. “Okay... we’ll get through this... Walker, is it?”
“Butch,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “Just Butch. Now what do you need from me, Stefani?”
Part IV