The Chill Kill

It was evening outside. The light from the sun shone on the trees and the few clouds in the sky have turned into pink cotton candy. A chilly breeze could be felt flowing from the woods. The cicadas could be heard from within the clutter of trees, being their annoying selves as usual.

And there I was standing on the outskirts of the Chilly woods within the town of Chillsville, near a couple of dead trees acting as a sort of menacing gate into the forest. I took my phone out of my backpack to call my friend in case she didn’t come (I knew it was pointless though since we didn’t get service out here in Timbuktu). As I waited, the cool air caused me to develop goosebumps. In boredom I began to play flappy bird.

My name is Mark. I am 15 years old and I am a freshman in high school. My parents are divorced but I live with my father who is a police officer. My father not only fights crime, but he is also a nice person who helps out our neighbors in his free time. He has always been seen as a sort of hero around our city. I hope to follow in his footsteps someday. My grades in school are decent but nothing really noteworthy on any account, though I don’t mind as long as I can become a member of the police. I normally help out with chores around my house and I occasionally play video games.

“Hello fellow human”, I look around to see a girl wearing jeans and a sweatshirt with a cute heart on it. She was carrying a huge backpack, running towards me.

That girl is my close friend, Valeen Valentina. She is around the same age as me. She is the daughter of the town mayor and his wife. She’s pretty much what you could call a dork or a weeb. She is incredibly smart, known around town as an A+ student. In her free time she tends to play video games (especially because her parents can pretty much buy her as much as she wants) and watch anime. I would always play along with her antics like that one time where she got a pirate hat out of nowhere and I had to act like a part of her scurvy crew. We used to hang out more often but ever since the middle of our 8th grade year we kinda drifted apart because she just didn’t want to hang out as much anymore.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, I was packing up a few things for the expedition as evidenced by my backpack. I may have had to sneak a few expensive items from my parents”.

“How much did you pack!?,” I said with visible awe.

“Everything that you would need for an expedition like this. This trip could be dangerous as you may know so I brought the usual assortment: Some flashlights, a lot of bags of Flaming Hot Cheetos, a couple of mangas (some with a large muscular man posing on the cover of it?) for our entertainment, a knife I snuck out for our own protection, a lighter to help start a cozy fire and a couple of sleeping bags along with a tent so we may sleep comfortably if we end up having to camp out in the woods”.

“That should suffice for everything we need” I say half-jokingly with a little voice crack at the end.

“Hahahaha” she laughed jokingly, “you sounded like a little weasel right there” she said while I blushed.

“So are you ready to go?!” I say like some sort army general.

“Yes sir!” she replied.

The mission my friend and I are about to embark on revolves around a certain mystery that began around the middle of our 8th grade year together. Many people including adults and kids (even some from my school) began to disappear without much explanation. The only thing we know about these cases is that they last visited Chilly Woods. Many rumors have been made to explain it but the most popular one by far is that the disappearances were caused by a monster (along with many YouTube videos popping up saying they spotted the monster in the thumbnail along with poor quality videos just like in the Bigfoot conspiracy). One man even reported finding a few blood stains while venturing through the woods but nothing else showed up. Our mission is to find out what happened to the people who disappeared and catch whoever is behind it (sort of like Scooby-Doo). Although this venture could potentially be dangerous, I know it would be a large step in following in my father’s footsteps. I tried to ask around to see if anyone wanted to help but no one did… that is until Valeen heard about it and contacted me for the first time in a while asking if she could join.

Both of us proceeded to go into the forest with me walking with a neutral face and Valeen skipping around like a 7-year old. It’s a lucky thing we were doing this in a forest and not in public or else I would be completely embarrassed.

“So, how is school going for you?,” she asks with a curious look.

“Decently, at least I’m not failing any of my classes. I’ve been getting by with some C’s and B’s. How about you... well, let me guess, you’re getting all A’s in your classes?”.

“Yep, you guessed it!,” she said with a hint of pride showing in her smile. I can’t help but get a little jealous when she talks about her grades. “Soooooooooooooooo... Who do you think will solve this mystery first, me or you?” she asked.

“I think I can win this one considering that I have seen detectives at work on tv and have even got to see detectives up close when my father lets me come to where he works.”

“I’d beg to differ, I am the smart one out of the both of us after all,” Her smile changed to something of a snicker, “Maybe we could make a bet on it?”

“How much are you thinking?”

“A hundred bucks!,” She exclaims, “And I’m sure I’ll be coming back with another hundred.” A hundred dollars is a lot of money but considering her spirit it’s a hard bet to turn down.

“I accept your challenge then but I’m certain that you’ll lose!,” I say confidently.

“Then it tissssssssss a deal.” she says hitting the tree with a stick as if hitting a gong to show the game has started.

We walked around for a while, finding no traces of evidence. It was like the forest kept going on and on. Eventually we grew silent, walking further into the forest. “Do you believe in monsters?” Valeen asks me out of nowhere.

“Not really, I don’t believe in those kinds of things.” I replied trying to act cool “Why?”

“Rumor has it that a monster lurks around these woods and that it has been causing the disappearances,” she said raising her hands and wiggling her fingers menacingly. “I believe these rumors are full of crap and that this is easily the work of a murderer. Either way this could be pretty dangerous which is where this knife will come in handy,” she said, taking the knife out of her bag and twirling it a little bit.

“Is there a possibility that this could be some sort of wild animal?”

“Pretty unlikely,” she said with confidence, “For a string of disappearances of that magnitude it’s unlikely that a simple wild animal would have caused all of it. Someone or something else is definitely behind it.”

We didn’t say much more about the topic before we realized that it had become dark outside. Valeen grabbed a couple of flashlights from her bag and we kept searching for a little while longer for any leads. Nothing changed unfortunately as we didn’t manage to find much else other than that. “Yyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnn”, she espoused like an elephant, “I think we should call it a night and find somewhere to sleep”.

“I can second that,'' I say with a little yawn afterwards.

“Welp we are surely in luck then because I see a nice open meadow over to our left,” she said pointing over to a small, grassy area to our left. “Let’s gather a bit of wood first before we camp out.” Even luckier for us, we find a bunch of pieces of wood laid out for us to carry so obviously we carry them back to camp. When we made it to the meadow Valeen dropped her backpack making a large thunk noise as it hit the ground. “Now how do we make a fire?” she asked quizzically.

“Fiiinnnneee I guess I’ll have to do it”, I say sarcastically. I took her lighter, arranged the wood properly and tried to light it… it didn’t catch. I kept trying to light the fire, assuming many positions until I accidentally dropped the lighter into the wood as I turned it on and the fire caught instantly. Valeen clapped in sheer approval for the show she just watched. I use a nearby stick to move the lighter out of the fire. I then proceed to help Valeen with setting up tent and anything else we have. Afterwards we decided to sit by the fire I miraculously made and hung out.

“Mark, what do you plan on doing in the future after our prison time in high school is over? “she asked with a hint of curiosity.

“I plan on becoming a police officer, like my father and help those around me.”

“You’re as predictable as usual. You’ve wanted to be a police officer since you were a kid” she said, “Though it does seem like a pretty neat job nonetheless, being able to fight crime like a superhero and stuff… Or give out parking violations.”

“I sure hope my job will be more interesting than that,” I say a bit somberly,”So what do you plan on doing?”

“I’m definitely thinking of being a sort of photographer for magazine covers, especially getting to pose people so I can get the perfect picture for a beauty magazine or something,” as she said this she posed epicly on top of a nearby tree stump.

“You always did like to pose barbies when we were very little,” I said chuckling a bit.

Her face immediately got a bit red and she suddenly fell off of the stump she was previously standing on. “Let’s not talk about that, I still get a bit embarrassed about it”. She picked herself up, and looked at her phone to check the time which showed it to be 10 o’clock pm. “It’s getting a bit late out, maybe we should sleep for the night,” she said with even larger yawn than last time that I was sure could be heard across the whole forest.

“Yeah, I could certainly go for some,” I say yawning loudly.

“Actually, it might be dangerous for us both to sleep cause if that monster is out here in these woods, if it finds us, we could easily be killed. That’s why I think one of us should stay outside and watch while the other sleeps.”

“Yeah, you do make a good point but how will the person keeping watch sleep?”

“We can simply switch off at 4 o’clock a.m. so we can both get a decent amount of sleep. The only question now is who will go first?”

“I’ll go first, you seem quite a bit more tired than I am so I will go first and take watch. No murderer/monster is getting past me,” I say puffing my chest out to look tough.

“Okay then it’s settled, I’ll switch off with you at 4,” she said turning on her phone alarm. “Before I go to bed though I just want to say that I missed you ever since we stopped hanging out. It’s been a lot of fun finally getting to see you after so long.”

“I missed you too, it honestly has been quite a while. I always kinda wondered what happened?” I say with heightened interest.

“I’ve just been pretty ‘busy’ lately and I haven’t had much time to do anything with you. Hopefully we’ll be able to see each other a lot more after our investigation of the forest.”

“I think it would be great if we were able to hang out again after this!,” I say excitedly.

She proceeded to lean closer and closer to me and softly whispered “Yeah that would be pretty great wouldn’t it,” and she kissed me on the cheek. My cheeks turned bright red as a rush of euphoria burst out of me. “I think I’ll go to sleep now, it’s late enough as it is so, goodnight,” she said waving her hand before disappearing inside of the tent.

I couldn’t stop thinking about her kiss. I had a hard time processing the fact that she had feelings for me. I did have some feelings for her but I thought about it too much. I kinda wonder how long she has felt this way about me? Either way I couldn’t ignore the fact that I had fallen in love with her. I started to think about whether I should ask her on a date when this is all over.

Unfortunately while I was contemplating the whole situation the fire went out leaving me in the dark. I didn’t want to be stuck out here with only flashlights as my source of light so I decided to go back into the forest to find some more firewood. It was even darker in the forest without the light of the moon so I made sure to keep track of where I was by planting sticks into the ground as a sort of landmark. As I kept walking, the bushes near me rustled and I jumped a little bit only to see… It was a squirrel. How can I be scared, there are no such things as monsters.

After gathering a bit of firewood within the forest I begin to head back to camp when I suddenly heard “Aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiieeeeeeeee” ring across the forest. It was Valeen’s scream.

“I’m coming Valeen,” I say as loud as I can and I run, following the trail of sticks I previously placed back to camp. I look inside the tent only to find nobody inside. I frantically looked around only to figure out she wasn’t around. I hear her scream again this time so I decided to follow it. I looked around and yelled for her yet I couldn’t find her. It seemed like minutes… Very stressful minutes before suddenly a person ran out of the brush to my right and ran into me.

“Valeen, is that you?”

“Yeah it is but we don’t have much time to talk, I met a monster and now it’s searching for me as we speak.” She grabs my hand and we run as fast as we can. “While the monster carried me, I just so happened to spot a small cabin in the distance so when I managed to escape it’s grasp I thought it would be the safest place to go.” I continued to follow her for a few long minutes. My head hit a few branches that I couldn’t see and some thorny bushes poked me but we ended up making it to the cabin. It was decrepit with vines growing all over it, holed in the roof, a broken door, and etc. but it still stood so it might be nice for shelter against the horrible monster we were up against.

“This place has definitely seen better days,” I say bluntly.

“Yeah, this place could definitely use a makeover but it’s better than nothing.” We quickly run inside and I discover that the inside of the house is actually in a much better state than the exterior. The walls had a fresh coat of paint, the furniture was suitable, the toilets worked and everything else seemed like it was functional. It wasn’t in that amazing of condition but It seemed like someone could still be living in it.

“Maybe we should look around and try to barricade any entrances and look for a place to hide. I doubt it knows we are here but it’s best to make sure we can make it out of this situation alive,” Valeen said in commanding tone. We split up and looked for many of the entrances like doors and windows and used the furniture to block the doors and some spare wooden boards along with a hammer and some nails for the windows. We did this for a little while to make sure we covered everything.

“Mark, you might want to see this,” she said to me from the living room. I headed over to where she was to find out that she had found a secret door hidden in the wall. It led to a flight of stairs going down to a sort of basement and it was very dark. “I found this accidentally while looking around the room. I tripped on the carpet and when I hit the wall the sound it made was kinda hollow, like a door leading to somewhere else. I fiddled around with it until I managed to open it. We should check it out.”

“Yeah, it may be good to see where this leads,” I say curiously.

“Can you go first though Mark, this place creeps me out and it would make me feel a little more safe if you take the lead while I follow?”

“Okay!” I say bravely as I begin heading down the stairs. As I headed down I noticed that it got humid and that a foul stench was coming from whatever was at the bottom of the stairs. Soon we reach the bottom and I manage to find a light switch. *Click, the lights turned on and what I saw was… absolutely grotesque. Dead Human corpses were everywhere, most were naked with some wearing clothes. The naked bodies were piled in one corner of the room with sets of clothes in another corner. The corpses wearing clothes were strung by strings and were affixed into numerous positions. The corpses have not decayed very much and the wounds (judging by the looks of it seem to be knife related) were covered up with bandages as if someone were taking care of them. All of the people who had gone missing were here, dead.

“Valeen, are you seeing this?” I asked, horrified of what I was witnessing.

“ This is quite horrendous I must say,” she said oddly with a sort of neutral face.

I take one more look at the scene. The bodies looked like mannequins, with oddly clean clothes and put into various positions. Something seemed off about it, one body in particular had a familiar pose to it, I had seen it from somewhere before. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, something was very wrong. I kept thinking and thinking until an idea floated around in my head… a very ugly idea about who the murderer could be. All of a sudden a sharp pain shot up my back. I was been stabbed in the back with a knife. In pain I promptly stumbled forward and coughed a little blood out. I look behind me to see Valeen standing there with a bloody knife in her hand. She had a crazed smile on her face.

“Am I the monster that you were looking for?,” she said laughing, “I am the one who killed all of those people. You’ve lost the bet we made, I got to you before you got to me, thus making me the superior one of us, though, I’ve decided to raise the cost past the measly hundred dollars we agreed upon. At least you get to join me, forever as a part of my collection”.

I couldn’t hardly say anything with the wound I had received (not like it would help in this situation). It was her, the person who I eventually suspected. I couldn’t bear to believe that the person I fell in love with was a deranged serial killer this whole time and I (being an idiot) fell into her trap. I couldn’t manage to figure it out sooner. I was… too…. late was all I could think before everything grew dark as I collapsed to the ground.