Spriggan: Dark horror fantasy Read online

  Roger looked surprised ‘I moved it, I swear, I think it grew, it didn’t have these long parts, they weren’t even sharp’ he said.

  ‘yes, the tree punctured our tire by itself.’ Jim yelled ‘you’re paying for that and I only have one spare’ he yelled.

  Of all the shit luck, he thought. This guy Roger was a complete idiot, what did he think he was going to stick it to them and laugh behind his hands.

  They all got back in, and he managed to drive the car up the dirt road, it limped along at a few kilometers an hour, doing untold damage to the rims of the wheels, but he had to get it out of the way. He managed to park it next to Gareths shiny BMW; now he was even madder.

  ‘I guess we can add damage to police property to your list?’ he said to Roger. ‘stay in the car.’

  He got out and went to the house, he could see, most of the kids and Gareth had come out to greet him.

  Gareth spoke first ‘what happened’ he asked

  ‘there was a huge branch on the road, and your brother thought it would be funny to move it, so I drove over it’ he said

  Gareth was speechless, but shook his head; he seemed to believe it.

  He walked inside the house; he was getting so mad at these people, he had to calm down before he hit someone and got in real trouble. Gareth lynch had one of those rich boy faces, if he threw him another smug look, he’d just let loose and break his jaw. It would feel good.

  ‘so, you brought him, he’ll be released?’ Gareth said

  ‘Doubtful, even if these kids don’t give statements, there’s still the families of the dead kids. I’ve seen the movie and while it’s low quality and hard to explain it shows them engaged in a sex act and your brother filmed it, so that’s production of porn, we don’t even need anyone to help us.’ He said

  ‘why did you bring him then?’ Gareth asked.

  ‘I was hoping after seeing his face, some of these kids might change their minds. Now if you don’t mind have work to do’ he said.

  He pushed past Gareth and led Rick upstairs to the crime scene. He still had no idea what to tell them all, but his mind was starting to reconcile what he saw, it was just a fluke of nature, chemical agent, they would find traces in the bathroom, surely. It was like something he’d read or seen in a movie, animals being made aggressive in labs.

  They went upstairs, with all the kids following them and watching everything they did. The girl Vicky asked ‘did you see the video? Do we know what happened’ she asked?

  ‘it’s still an open investigation, but soon I’ll be able to tell you.’

  They walked into the bathroom. It was light, the sunshine from the window streamed in and onto the tiled floor was still covered in glass, Rick walked in and started to search the glass and mirror shards, looking for dead scorpions.

  Jim looked at the scene it looked wrong, then he realized, there was hardly any blood. Two people had bled to death in here. Blood was all over the floor, he’d seen it the night before, it was everywhere, like a spilled bucket of paint, he’d expected it to be cold and to have stained the tiles, but it had been cleaned up.

  ‘Gareth’ he yelled.

  The man soon appeared at the doorway.

  ‘did you clean up this room?’ he asked.

  Garth was shocked ‘of course not it’s a crime scene, why what’s changed.’

  ‘There is hardly any blood; someone has mopped it all up, why? So, we can’t test? we can still test, we have their bodies, and there is still enough.’

  ‘Rick test the room for chemicals or pesticide or whatever’ he yelled.

  This case was strange dropped on top of strange. Why would they clean up the blood, they had already done a blood test on the victims? All he could think was someone was cleaning up something else. What else he didn’t know. He thought about the house, it was dangerous, these people were dangerous, he had to talk to these kids, maybe get a police van to come and collect them all, the longer they were there, the more likelihood of something worse happening to some of them.

  He gathered them all in the front room. He was now talking to the group, a big bunch of young expectant faces.

  ‘so, we’ve seen the video, and while it shows no foul play, it shows this place is dangerous, something is happening here, the crime scene has been tampered with, given none of you will be witnesses, I’m inclined to let you leave’ he said.

  ‘How’ Vicky said.

  Gareth spoke up, ‘I'm leaving tonight, and I can take three with me’ he said.

  Jim spoke to him ‘no, you're not leaving our sight, until our man has checked this whole farm, also you're not being left alone with anyone. I’m sorry guys, our car is very damaged, and it's late. Tomorrow we’ll have four cars here, and we can all leave here together’ he said.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The sun had set, and he had moved back to the farm and was watching them, they seemed like they would stay, his plan had worked, he was going to destroy the other car, but that would be obvious yet, a great plan was forming in in its mind.

  From Brees, memories were all the tv shows she’d watched, all the news programs, all the books she’d read. She liked books about crimes and killers, dark stories about normal seeming people who snapped and murdered their own families and friends. He knew about the French family, how it had been reported in the newspapers, they had blamed the man. He had killed him last because he was worst one and had to suffer the longest, he had to watch his family die, but he’d been blamed for the crime. If he could find someone to blame, he could do anything, and their suspicion would fall on him.

  He was looking at that person as he thought, the words. The police man had left Roger in the back of his car. He was locked in but sat in the back. He was a criminal and criminals often escaped and did horrible things. To kill him wouldn’t be right, he needed to make him disappear and then they would blame him.

  Creeping up to the car, he slunk low in the darkness and stood behind the car. He had to be fast, the car was near the house, and some of them stood in the front room. He could see Roger in the car, and he held his two hands out, he let them grow fast, so fast, he reached out the meters across the space and boot. The glass of the back window smashed and as the man turned, his hand grabbed him, one went around his mouth and the other under his arms.

  He pulled him back in a moment, lifting him free from the seat, he cut himself on the glass and managed to let out a cry as he pulled him to his chest. He held his mouth still and quickly ran back into the darkness. The sound, of the breaking glass, was loud and they all came running out of the house. The police man had a torch and shined it on the car.

  They saw the back window broken, some blood on the broken glass and Roger gone.

  The man's name was Jim, he spoke ‘he’s escaped.’

  In the darkness the man was struggling, he was big and strong and fought for his freedom. He wanted him to suffer, but he needed this more. He ran off into the darkness with the man struggling against him, they looked up, to hear his fast footsteps but would never see him or catch him. They would think it was just Roger fleeing into the night; now he had the scapegoat he needed.

  He ran through the darkness, back to his home tree. It was almost like instinct; he could run through the branches with his eyes closed, he moved as part of the forest. The big man kept struggling against him. Kicking and wriggling, it was growing annoying. When he reached the home tree, he took the man’s head and smashed it hard into the trunk. He heard a crunch sound.

  Pulling him back to look, he was alive, but nose broken, it was a blood dripping mess, and he’d stopped trying to struggle so much. He placed a hand on the home tree and felt the connection with it. He called out in his mind and asked the vines to come down to him.

  He hung the man up from the tree, vine growing down to claim him. He looked at Roger, he was fat, old and had sickness in his mind. He didn’t want this one to be his brother and join him. He wanted him to pay for his many crimes, cutting trees, spr
aying poison, burning plants and rubbish. Still, he wanted to know more, like with Bree, but he would take more. He’d changed so much, taking her memories, and if he wanted to defeat these defilers, he needed to know more.

  The man hung before him, head slumped to the side, unconscious. He reached out and put a hand on his head. He let his fingers grow and grow until they wrapped around his balding skull. He felt the connection with his mind and started to take all his memories. He wasn’t sharing, it was only taking, and as he learned increasingly, he let his fingers dig in.

  They ripped into the skin, then skull and finally sank into his brain, He kicked once, as he let his hand close and he crushed the top of his skull. The memories, coming much stronger then stopping as he died. Roger slumped to the side, the top of his skull broken and his brain, what there was of one, dripping blood from his skull.

  He let the memories of the dead man wash over him, they came in a story of short and pointless life, he’d done right in killing his crimes against nature, and his own kind was many. One memory stood out because it was connected to him, the man had cameras in the house. He was on them and had one in the bathroom. He could see him placing it behind the mirror and knew it would have seen the attack when he’d sent his scorpions to kill those two in that room.

  There was no memory of him watching it, and he knew what Roger knew, that the police had taken it and watched it for evidence. He stood up and started to go back to the farm, he had a lot of work to do tonight, and he had to be careful. The policeman, Jim, and the other police would have seen it, and he would know.

  If they could let themselves believe it, he was coming to realize that the people of today, didn't believe in anything they couldn’t see and even if they saw it they would find a way to believe they hadn’t. They had little lives of work and things that made sense, and they didn’t let anything else enter that world.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  She’d wished she’d just started walking in the day time, she could have been sitting in the front seat of a truck with a total stranger, who was probably a sex offender and she’d be a hell of a lot safer than she was now. Shit was officially serious. Trust your instincts her boyfriend had said, her instincts said to run into the darkness and escape. The police had shown up, not told them a thing except they were in danger, and now Roger had escaped from the back of the police car. She’d been fooled by him. She thought he was harmless, if a disgusting pervs, but now it seemed he was actually dangerous.

  They had run out when they heard the smashed window, and then they heard sounds of running feet in the darkness, he was off into the bush, but she was more scared of him coming back when they were asleep. At least they had two cops with guns. Though he was a country living Australian and surely had a shotgun somewhere.

  She sat in the front room, scared, no one was talking, except Gareth and Jim, the sergeant. Bree was sitting near her holding her hand. They heard another sound from outside, a huge crash and banging, then silence and more banging and hissing.

  Once again, they ran outside, the police leading the way.

  Jim drew his gun as they looked at what had happened. There was the police car, it now had its side window smashed, glass was all over the ground, and jagged piece hung from the frame. The BMW had had its tires slashed. The two wheels she could see had deep stab like marks it the black rubber. The car hissed as it slowly lowered to the ground. He must have done all four.

  He was cutting them off from the outside world, no cars, no phones. No escape, no rescue. Still, t was him against, two armed police, a ranger bloke, and a room full of very pissed off backpackers. She looked at them all; they seem a lot more scared than pissed off, only Liam, looked like he’d knock Roger out if he saw him.

  Jim ran to the car and yelled in anger he came back slowly.

  ‘He’s destroyed the radio; we’re cut off until the troops and cars arrive tomorrow.’

  Gareth spoke up ‘why would he do this? It makes no sense?’ he said

  ‘So, he can kill us all?’ Liam said they were all thinking it.

  ‘Kim and myself both have guns, we won’t let this pycho hurt anyone’ he said, ‘but let's be safe, no one leaves the main room, unless with one of us, and let's check everyone is here.’

  He counted around all the people, but Vicky spoke.

  ‘Rick is outside, he was searching the farm for something’ she said

  ‘he’ll be fine, he’s a trained professional’ he said.

  That wasn’t very comforting. She looked at Bree ‘this is so fucked, what do you think he wants?’

  She seemed to think about it, ‘I think he wants to punish us, but you’ll be ok, just don’t take off the wristband’ she said.

  ‘why would Roger want to punish us’ she said.

  She smiled at her ‘ruining his life, who knows he’s crazy.’

  They found their way back to the house in the darkness, and she sat back down, in the same spot in the lounge, looking out the window. If there was hardly any conversation before, now there was truly none. She imagined this was what it was like a war, or London during the blitz, just sitting around and waiting for something bad to happen.

  Then, of course, it did. She was looking at them all and the lights when off. One second it was light, then nothing. All the girls in the group screamed, and Jim put his torch on.

  The power came back on, and she could hear a faint humming sound.

  Gareth spoke up ‘it’s fine, we have a generator’ he said.

  It was far from fine; now he was trying to cut the power off, this was getting seriously crazy, it was almost time to lock herself in a room with a kitchen knife.

  ‘Where is the generator?’ Jim asked.

  ‘It’s outside, over near the barn’ he said ‘why.’

  ‘Because if that goes, we’re truly sunk, I want to go out a check it, and maybe I’ll stay and guard it, to make sure we all have power’ he said.

  Vicky spoke up ‘I wouldn't go, mean it’s a trap, right? In horror movies, it's always a mistake to go outside, alone’ she said.

  ‘We’re not in a horror movie, and if that prick comes at me I’ll hit him in the head with my gun, I think I would enjoy it at this point’ he said ‘Kim keep an eye on them.’

  With that, he left. Vicky sat with Bree and then looked up to Kim, ‘can we get some food?’ she asked.

  ‘sure, but go together’ she said.

  She took Brees, hand, and they went to the kitchen.

  ‘you hungry?’ Bree asked.

  ‘No, but I wanted something’ she said.

  She started to open draws and look in, there was cutlery in one, and she drew out a huge knife. Then she lifted the front of her shirt and tucked it into the front of her jean, so you couldn’t see it.

  Bree was shocked ‘what are you going to do with that?’ she asked.

  ‘If I see Roger, it’s going inside of him’ she said ‘you should take one too.’

  ‘ok, if it’ll make you happy’ she took the small knife from the drawer and tucked it up her sleeve.

  ‘Have you ever been in a fight? Bree asked her.

  ‘I’m from south London’ she said.

  ‘Is that a yes?’ she asked.

  ‘we’ll it’s actually a no, but it sounds tough.’ She went around the room, searching in draws and cupboards. Until she had collected a handful of candles, two torches, some matches, and a little bit of food.

  ‘Why do we need that’ Bree asked.

  ‘so, when Jim is murdered, and the lights go out, we don’t have to find them in the dark.’

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  He stood in the darkness and whipped some of Rogers blood and brains off his long fingers, taking the man’s memories was a good idea, he now knew so much more about the new people who had come to his grove. They had talked in front of Roger, and he knew the man Rick, was some kind of animal and insect specialist. He was coming to investigate scorpions; he’d asked Roger if there had been any other st
range insect behaviors and he’d said the bees had attacked the girl. He had some stupid idea that a chemical was making the bugs and things go crazy, it was lucky for them they didn’t have a tracking dog with them, or they would have to explain that as well. He would have love to turn them against their supposed masters.

  He’d taken their phones, the cars and now he knew where the power cable was. Roger had accidentally cut it once while digging in the yard and knew where it was. They had a generator, a machine that made power but once he’d cut the main line, all he had to do was ruin that, and they would be in the dark, and he could move freely in the house, besides the more he did, the more fear they felt, it was what they deserved.

  He ran to the front of the house and looked down at the soil in the dark, he could see Rogers memory of the cable, and reaching down, he plunged his fingers into the earth and dug through. He found the foreign line of plastic and metal. He reached around it and pulled it hard upwards.

  He felt a surge of power run through his body as he did. He realized he’d been electrocuted. It would have killed one of them but, to him, it was like a warm buzz, good to know, that couldn't hurt him either. He looked to the house, and it had gone dark the second he pulled it. He could hear the generator in the distance, humming. He’d fix that, but first, he had to get Rick before he went inside to hide from the dark,

  This Rick he hadn’t done anything, but he hadn't been watching him, they were all sinners, you just had to give them a little while to prove it. The man Rick was bold, he must have assumed the only danger was from nature, and he walked bravely around the property. He watched as he checked the barn. Looking at every bag of feed and organic lifter, every barrel of diesel fuel, every tool and item. He ran a little cotton bud over some things and put them in plastic bags. He was going to test them. He was a good one, strong, fit, he walked in the dark, calmly and confidently. His torch the only thing in front of him, not stepping on anything wrong, then he went to investigate the flower where he’d had to teach Bree a lesson.