What LURKS in the DARK

CHAPTER 4

I TAKE A deep breath and mutter a line of prayer under my breath as I slowly twist the key again. "Oh shit, oh shit,"

I have been in some faulty cars that refused to start. Most times, there would be a long whine as the battery tried to fire up the engine and start. There would be a little sliver of hope that the engine would start.

But not this our bus. As I turned the key, there was no whine. Just the empty hollow click! click! as the key twisted in its hole. It was like the bus's battery had disappeared.

I glance back at my companions, they are all sleeping soundly.

I open the door and step out. The night is chilly and bright. The physical damage of the truck is not much. I look closely and see that the side of the fender is dented, but that is not the main problem right now.

I pop the bonnet and poke my head under the hood, trying to see the cause of the dead engine.

The battery is there. Everything looks just fine, but for some reason, I use a stone to hammer down the connectors to the battery.

I curse under my breath and climb back onto the bus. I twist the key. The engine is still dead. Dead as a day-old fish out of water. The back of my mind tells me that some fish can survive for over a day out of water. I angrily slam my fist against the steering wheel.

"What's going on, George?" I hear Tristen mumble in his sleep.

"Nothing," I snap. "Go back to bed."

"Henry?" Tristen ask. He wakes up and rubs his eyes. "You are driving?" He stands up and comes to stand beside me.

"I was supposed to," I mutter.

Tristen looks out the windshield and sees the popped hood. "What happened? Why aren't we moving? Why is the hood opened?"

I look back at George and say, "He fell asleep while driving and I don't know. Maybe he hit something, but the bus won't start."

"What the hell?" Tristen says. He leaps out of the bus and heads to the hood. I follow him out.

He pokes his head under the hood and looks around.

"Do you see anything?" I ask.

He starts to shake his head but stops and straightens. "Is that supposed to be like that?" He points into a deep gap.

I grope inside my bag and bring out my phone. I put on the torch and shine it in the spot he is pointing at, and sure enough, the bright glint of exposed copper wire reflects back at me.

"Is that supposed to be like that?" Tristen asks me again.

"I don't know, Tristen!" I say. I realize that I raised my voice a little more than I wanted. The others inside were starting to rouse from their sleep.

The door opens again and Jeff steps out rubbing his eyes.

"What's up, punks?" He says to me and Tristen. "You wrecked the bus, huh?"

"I didn't wreck the –"

Jeff pounds the side of the bus loudly and says in a loud voice, "The punk kid wrecked the bus, wake up all of you."

I sigh in resignation.

There are shuffling of feet and sleepy yawns as they all file out.

"What happened?" George asks.

"The bus refused to start since, you know, you slept off while driving," I say.

"What?!" Carmen shrieks. "You fucking fell asleep when you were driving? You could have killed all of us!"

"Well, we are alive, aren't we?" George snaps.

"So what now?' Grace asks.

"What is wrong with the bus?" Emma asks.

"We think there's a cut wire," Tristen answers. "But we are not sure. I mean, none of us are car experts, right?"

We all stand there in the chilly night, shuffling slightly when a cold breeze blows over us.

After a few minutes of silence, Emma says, "We can't just stand here doing nothing! Who knows what type of animals are in these woods."

We all unconsciously glance behind our backs.

"Hey, smart kid!" Sophie calls. I know she is referring to me but I ignore her until she calls again. This time by my name. "Henry!"

I turn and look at her coolly. She was jittery. "What type of wild animals are in this area, huh?"

I shrug. "I don't know. Lions and tigers, maybe."

Emma chuckle. "Lions are tigers aren't here. The only wild animals here are deer and elk. And those are not exactly a danger to us, are they?"

I look at Emma. This time I really look at her. She is smarter than she looks and behaves. Maybe because she moved with Sophie, whom I already knew was dumb, I had automatically thought that Emma was dumb too.

Emma notices how I am staring and rolls her eyes. "What? I love animal science. That's not a big deal."

"It would have been better if you loved car mechanics," Jeff mutters.

"So what now?" Sophie asks. "Can't we get, like, frostbite by standing out here in the cold?"

"That's true," George says. "Everyone, back inside the bus. Henry, close the hood."

They all go back inside as I close the hood. The hair on the back of my neck suddenly stands. I turn sharply and look around. There is nobody or animal as far as I can see, but for some reason, my mind is not at ease.

I dip my hand into my bag and circle my fingers around the hilt of my knife. I squint my eyes to look into the darkest depth of the night, I don't see anything. I don't hear anything either.

Wait, I don't hear anything.

The night is eerily silent.

We are parked at the edge of the woods, it should be creaking and buzzing with millions of night insects. But no, everywhere around here is quiet.

The woods are lifeless.

I rush into the bus and almost stumble at the stairs. "There's something fucking wrong with this place!" I say under my breath.

"Yeah, no shit!" Jeff mutter. His arms are around Carmen. I roll my eyes at him and turn to George who had unofficially become our leader.

"So what now?" I ask him.

He rubs his face and says, "Uh, we can thug it out here throughout the night. Things will look better in the morning. In the morning, we will go up to the next village and ask for help. It can't be far."

I and Tristen immediately exchange gazes.

George notices and snorts. "What is it with you two?"

"Uh, the bartender at the previous village said we should avoid the next village," Tristen replies.

"Why?" Carmen asks.

"He said the village is cursed."

Jeff burst out in a hearty laughter. "Cursed. Did you guys hear that?"

"Shut up, Jeff!" I snap.

"So you little boys are scared of a cursed town," Jeff asks. "Is that it? Scaredy cat!"

Tristen reaches across and strikes Jeff on his jaw. We all sit still for a second after the blow lands, and then pandemonium breaks out.

Jeff launches out from his seat to tackle Tristen to the ground, except the space is tight, so I go down with them too. Some punches land on my face before George and Lucas manage to pull Jeff away.

"What is wrong with you, Jeff?" George snaps.

"No," Jeff snaps back in George's face. "The real question is, what is wrong with them?!" He points at me and Tristen still on the floor. "They are trying to scare us more by talking about curses."

"I didn't mean to scare you," Tristen groans. "I was only sharing information."

"Get up," George snarls to the both of us.

"Information my ass," Jeff snapped. His face is red with anger. "To show you that it's fucking fake, I will go to the next village tonight."

"Are you sure about that, Jeffery?" George asks.

Jeff nods once. "Yes. I will go and try to find help for us, but only on one condition."

"Hmm?"

"That this screwface comes with me?"

I was expecting Jeff to point at Tristen as it was both of them who had a scuffle, so I received the shock of my life when I looked up to see his finger pointed directly at me.

I leap to my feet and yell, "What? What has this got to do with me?"

"You are the smart one, huh?" Jeff snarls in my face. "I am sure it was you feeding all of them about stories of cursed villages."

"What?" I ask again. I can not believe what I am hearing. "Me? It was the fucking bartender that said it all, man," I looked at George. "Hey George, tell him. I can't go out there. Not this night, if he wants to go, he should pick another person."

George shakes his head and says, "You are the smartest one amongst us, isn't it? If Jeff finds any help in the village, he would not know how to tell them what happened to our bus. None of us would, only you."

I groan and run my fingers through my hair. "Son of a bitch!" I curse loudly and stomp out of the bus. "If I die, my blood is on your heads!" I yell at them.

Jeff's laughter rings out and echoes in the darkness. "You are not going to die, punk. I won't let you."

"Yeah, whatever. Walk fast." I snap.

"Ease up, dude," He says and jogs to catch up to me.

"You should have eased up on your ego and left this till morning!" I snap.

"Yeah, whatever," He echoes what I had just said a few moments ago.

We walk along the tarred road. The moon shone up, lighting up the road. Only the sound of our steps could be heard as we made our way to the next village.

After walking for about 10 minutes, we came to a wooden signboard that said, "You are now entering Con-Hagen," The board creaked as it swung lightly in the mild night breeze.

I hear Jeff mutter under his breath. "Oh shit, that is creepy as hell,"

"We can still turn back," I say.

Jeff chuckles and walks on without stopping. The first houses started coming into view a few minutes later after we passed the signboard.

"Go knock on that one, I'll take the next one," Jeff says.

I gulp and walk up the porch of the small cabin. I take a deep breath and pound on the wooden door. There was no answer. I knock again but there is still no answer.

I can see that Jeff is not having any different results. He is knocking loudly on the doors too.

"Hello?" I call. My voice rings out and echoes back at me. I sigh and move to the next house. I knock on that one too. There was no answer.

"This town is fucking deserted," I say to Jeff who is still knocking. This town is a bit bigger than the one we had stayed in the afternoon.

"Wait, do you hear that?" Jeff asks me. His voice is in a whisper. His face is pale white.

"What?" I ask. My voice, also in a whisper.

"Listen,"

I close my eyes and listen attentively. At first, I didn't hear anything except the sound of the creaking wooden board and the breeze. But then I hear it. Very faintly.

I open my eyes and look at Jeff. "The sound of laughing children," I say under my breath.

"What? No!" Jeff's face twists in confusion. "The sound of a barking dog."