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The fire was dying.
Dwight noticed first. He had been watching the flames for what felt like hours. Long enough that his eyes had begun finding shapes within them. Faces. A jagged smile carved into a mask.
One of the logs collapsed inward with a shower of sparks. There should have been enough wood left to burn for hours. Thick logs sat blackened around the edges but largely untouched by the flames. Yet the fire had shrunk considerably since they’d arrived.
What had once reached above Dwight’s knees now barely crawled above the wood. He now couldn’t help but notice every detail of his surroundings.
The fog was moving.
Until now, it had remained beyond the clearing. A wall of darkness between the trees, shifting occasionally, but never crossing whatever invisible boundary surrounded the campfire. But now, that boundary was shrinking. Tendrils of black mist crawled between the roots of the nearest trees.
Dwight stood, and Meg followed a second later. “What’s happening?” “I… I don’t know.” The group gathered closer around the fire as the clearing disappeared one foot at a time.
The final flame disappeared and darkness swallowed the clearing. Meg grabbed onto Dwight and Claudette and pulled. They stumbled forward pushing toward the trees. Except, there were no trees anymore, only fog.
Black and grey rolled around them, thick enough that the group could barely see each other. Then, the fog moved and something enormous appeared ahead of them. At first, Dwight thought it was another building. Then, the mist peeled away from rusted metal. A car. Or what once had been one, it had been crushed almost completely flat.
Another shape appeared behind it, and another, then another. Dozens, hundreds. The fog retreated, pulling away from them as though something had dragged a curtain aside.
The forest was gone, they stood in the middle of an enormous scrapyard. Mountains of ruined vehicles rose on either side of them, stacked three and four high in places. Rusted chassis sat amongst twisted sheets of metal, discarded tires and machinery. A chain-like fence stretched into the distance before disappearing behind piles of wreckage.
Meg broke the silence. “This isn’t the mine.” Claudette had already moved several steps away, and was now crouching beside a patch of vegetation growing beneath the chain-link fence.
There wasn’t much greenery here. Nothing compared to the MacMillan Estate. Nature only survived where the scrapyard had failed to completely suffocate it. Weeds pushed through cracks in asphalt, vines crawled through fencing, and scraggly trees grew beyond the boundaries of the yard.
“The plants are different.” She moved toward the fence and peered through it, pointing at a leafy mass on the ground. “Virginia creeper, American pokeweed, red maple.” “What does that all mean?” Meg interrupted. “It means we’re not in the Pacific Northwest anymore… We’re somewhere around Virginia… Maybe one of the surrounding states?” Dwight rubbed his forehead, Claudette kept inspecting plants, and Meg now stood staring in the direction they had arrived from.
They started moving, Meg took the front, though she moved considerably slower than usual. Claudette remained behind her, examining the ground and what little vegetation grew through the scrapyard. Dwight followed at the rear, periodically glancing behind them.
The scrapyard seemed endless, vehicles had been piled into crude walls, creating narrow corridors through the wreckage. Some were so badly crushed that what they used to be couldn’t be identified. A child’s shoe sat inside one.
“Do either of you hear that?” Dwight said quietly. They stopped, listening for whatever Dwight heard. “Hear what?” Meg said. Very faintly, the group could hear the sound of something striking against metal, but not the random groaning of the scrapyard. A rhythm.
A building gradually appeared between the wrecks. A garage, with opened doors, revealing several vehicle lifts and workbenches within. Faded lettering stretched across the front of the building. ‘Autohaven Wreckers’.
Meg peered inside. “Maybe there’s another generator?” Dwight remained outside, something bothered him. He couldn’t identify it. He looked back along the path they’d taken, but couldn’t see anything. Then he realized what it was. The crows. There weren’t any, he hadn’t seen a single one since they’d arrived.
“Dwight?” He turned. Claudette and Meg were waiting at the garage entrance. He took another look across the scrapyard before stepping forward.
Somewhere between two distant stacks of wrecked cars, something moved. A shimmer. So faint that none of them noticed, then it was gone. And sitting on the hood of a nearby car, a crow staring toward the garage.
The interior of the garage smelled different than the MacMillan estate. There had been oil there too, but it had mixed with coal dust, wet timber and earth. Here, it was sharper. Motor oil, gasoline, rust, and old rubber. The accumulated smell of thousands of machines being dismantled, repaired, stripped, and forgotten.
Meg had already crossed half the garage. “No generator.” Claudette had moved toward one of the workbenches, tools were scattered across it beneath years of dust. She picked up a wrench, turning it over in her hands.
“This place hasn’t been abandoned as long.” Dwight glanced toward her. “How can you tell?” Claudette gestures around them. “The buildings at the mine were deteriorating more. Some of the wooden structures looked like they’d been abandoned for decades. This is still old, just not as old.”
Meg had stopped listening, something deeper in the garage had caught their attention. At the rear of the garage, beyond several hydraulic lifts and partially dismantled vehicles, another section of the building opened into what looked like an industrial processing area.
A large machine was built around a huge rectangular chamber, surrounded by thick steel supports. Hydraulic cylinders wider than Dwight’s torso stretched along its sides. Heavy metal plates formed the interior, stained with rust, grease, and something darker that disappeared beneath layers of grime.
A conveyor-like platform fed directly into it, with a car sitting atop it, with dark paint dulled beneath dust and corrosion. All four tires were flat, one of the windows was broken, but compared to practically every vehicle outside, it was remarkably intact.
“What… Is that?” Dwight said, slowly approaching. “Crusher.” Meg replied. “Save on space while they’re stored for scrapping.” She moved toward a control station mounted beside the machine, brushing dirt from the panel. There were surprisingly few controls, several switches had long since broken away, leaving empty holes in the metal. A pressure gauge sat dead behind cracked glass, and beside it, a large lever with a worn black handle.
Meg gripped it. “Meg. Why?” Dwight blurted out, stepping back. “Because it’s the only thing in here that looks like it might work.” Before Dwight could protest any more, Meg pulled the lever. After a moment of inactivity something beneath the floor slammed into motion, the crusher shuddered violently as hydraulic pressure surged through lines that should have been useless years ago.
The machine roared, the sound was deafening. Metal vibrated beneath their feet as the platform jerked forward, carrying the vehicle deeper into the crushing chamber. Dwight immediately rushed forward and shoved the lever back, causing the machinery to groan to a halt. Silence crashed into the garage, all that could be heard was the high-pitched ringing in their ears.
Dwight turned, and could see Meg talking, but couldn’t hear anything. Dwight shushed her, pointing towards the scrapyard, and her expression changed. All three moved away from the machine, and waited.
Dwight crouched beside an overturned tool cabinet staring through the open garage doors. Meg stood behind the engine block of a dismantled car. Claudette slipped behind a workbench.
Nothing moved outside, the narrow corridor between the wrecks remained empty. Dwight listened, no heavy footsteps, no scraping cleaver, and no jagged smile emerging from the darkness.
Meg slowly straightened. “Maybe he’s not here?” Dwight looked nervously to the fog, Claudette slowly approached, placing a hand on his shoulder giving a soft reassuring smile towards him. Meg continued, “We’ve been standing here making enough noise to wake the dead and nobody’s tried to kill us.” Dwight relaxed slightly, but couldn’t shake the feeling of unease he had.
None noticed the distortion standing less than fifteen feet away, occupying the space beside one of the hydraulic lifts. Light bent strangely around something tall and thin. The outline shifted whenever the weak garage light flickered, like heat rising from asphalt. For the briefest moment, there were the suggestions of limbs, with something long, curved, and sharp hanging from one hand.
Then, the distortion shifted and became nothing more than another imperfection in the darkness. Two pinpricks of white light hovered in the air, moving from Dwight, to Claudette, to Meg, and finally, toward the crusher, and the car sitting halfway inside.
Meg returned to the controls. “You’re going to do it again?” Dwight whined. “There’s not much else we could be doing, plus, there could be something useful inside.” Meg said, her hand landing atop the lever. Claudette approached the car, through the filthy glass she could see cracked seats and an empty interior.
She leaned slightly, trying to see into the back. “There’s nothing in the seats. There could be something in the trunk.” She tried the door, but it was locked. “We crush it, and we see what falls out.” Dwight began to protest, but was quickly drowned out as Meg pulled the lever and the machine came alive.
The platform dragged it forward, its front bumper scraped against steel as it shifted into place. Then the hydraulic plates moved. The first contact produced an almost gentle metallic creak. Then pressure increased, the roof buckled and glass exploded outward. The sound became monstrous.
Steel folded against steel, the hood crumbled. Doors bent outward before being forced inward again. The roof collapsed into the seats as the chassis screamed beneath the pressure.
The vehicle became smaller, and smaller, until there was barely anything recognisable left. The crusher gave one last hydraulic groan, then stopped. Meg released the lever, leaving a compressed block of metal inside the chamber.
Behind them, the distortion moved closer, its white eyes staring at what remained of the car. For an instant, another vehicle occupied its place. Blood beneath the trunk, a hand striking weakly against the inside. A pair of terrified eyes, a man running, a blade across his throat. The wicked distortion of a weapon flickering slightly.
Dwight rubbed his arms. “Is anyone else cold?” Claudette felt it too, the peculiar sensation that comes when another person enters a room behind you. She turned, staring into the dark. She couldn't see anything, but something moved, barely. The air beside the crusher rippled.
“Dwight. Meg.” She said, standing very still, her gaze remaining fixed on the empty space. Meg followed her eyeline. “What are you looking at?” “I… I thought I saw something.” Dwight’s heart accelerated, he whipped around staring into the darkness. Then, the sound of a bell exploded through the garage causing Dwight to nearly jump out of his skin.
The air beside the crusher twisted, the space itself seeming to distort as a silhouette appeared, emerging piece by piece from nothing. Long legs, a narrow torso. Something like wood seemed to crawl across its body, its skin, or whatever covered it, was dark and rough, blending with the filthy walls behind it.
It was enormous, but not broad like the Trapper, tall. Its head was crowned with twisted growths, like branches emerging from a tree. In one hand, it held a weapon, a crude club fashioned with a mixture of metal and bone, what appeared to be a skull and spine melded with it.
Finally, in the other hand, a large rusted iron bell affixed with another skull. The figure slammed the club into the bell, gaining more and more physicality with each toll. The final shimmer disappeared, and the creature stood in full view beside the machine.
Nobody moved, all watched the tall creature as its head turned, its gaze settling upon the crushed car. Then, its posture changed, and as it turned back to face the three intruders, its white eyes glowed brightly. It raised its weapon into the air and stepped towards Meg.
They scattered, Meg sprinted between two vehicle lifts as the creature lunged after her. The weapon swept through the space her head had occupied less than a second earlier, and smashed into the side of a car. Claudette ran toward the nearest exit, nearly slipping on an oil stain before catching herself against a workbench. Dwight ran the opposite direction, deeper into the garage, ducking between two dismantled vehicles and forced himself through a narrow gap between a wall and a stack of tires, emerging beside another garage door.
Meg burst from the building twenty feet away, with Claudette exiting from behind a stack of wrecked vehicles. Dwight sprinted toward them. “Where is it?” Dwight risked a glance, but couldn’t see anything. He slowed. “Where-“ Dwight was interrupted by the hauntingly slow ringing of a bell coming from the garage.
The creature stood in the doorway, its body beginning to change. The edges of the silhouette distorted first, then its torso shimmered, leaving only its head floating above nothing. Then that vanished too, leaving the scrapyard around them empty once more.
The group remained staring at the garage. Barely visible, a distortion passed through the weak light spilling through the doorway. Like looking through distorted glass. It was moving toward them, following them.
All three moved at once, Meg pulling ahead, Claudette following, and Dwight stumbling after them, risking a glance over his shoulder. There was absolutely nothing behind him, which somehow, was more worrying than seeing something.
They rounded a mountain of crushed vehicles and entered another narrow passage. Meg took the corner hard enough that one hand struck the side of a rusted van to keep herself upright.
Something shimmered behind them, fog stretched strangely around an invisible shape. Light reflected where nothing existed. They burst from between the wrecks and entered an open section of the yard. Several partially dismantled cars sat atop concrete blocks. Beyond them was a chain-link fence, and farther along, another collection of buildings.
“There!” Meg pointed, leading the group toward the nearest structure. Behind them, the bell began to ring again, Dwight flinched with every sound. The final toll sounded almost directly behind them. Dwight turned, and saw the creature materializing less than ten feet from them.
Its weapon swung, and Dwight threw himself sideways, the combination of bone and metal passed close enough that he felt air move across his back. He hit the asphalt shoulder-first, rolled, and scrambled upright.
The creature changed direction toward him. Meg doubled back and slammed a loose car door into its side. The impact didn’t knock it over, it barely seemed to move at all, but it did stall it momentarily. Its head snapped towards Meg, and its glowing white eyes brightened.
Meg ran, and it pursued her. Dwight stared for half a second before Claudette grabbed his sleeve. “Move!” The corridors between the wrecks made it difficult to maintain any sense of direction. Every path looked almost identical, rusted metal, discarded tires, weed, fences, and the oppressive fog hanging beyond everything.
They reached another building, the remains of an old service station stood beside a collection of abandoned pumps. A convenience store occupied one side, most of its windows shattered.
They hurried inside, most of the shelves had been stripped bare, leaving narrow metal aisles covered in broken glass and old packaging. Dwight crouched behind the counter while Claudette slipped into the gap between two shelves. Meg remained by the window, peering outside.
“Meg! Hide!” Dwight said, trying to keep his voice low. The scrapyard outside was motionless. After a few minutes they moved toward the rear of the store, stepping carefully around broken glass. A doorway opened into what had once been a storeroom, and beyond that, an exit led into a narrow alley between the service station and a workshop.
Dwight stopped before stepping outside, quickly looking over his shoulder at an almost imperceptible sound. A crow sat atop the counter he had just been hiding behind. Then right next to him, a loud sound rang out from the doorway they now approached.
Dwight threw himself away from the door as the air twisted. Its silhouette assembled itself from rippling darkness, white eyes burning into existence first. The bell disappeared beneath one elongated hand as the other raised its grotesque weapon.
Meg grabbed a metal shelf and pulled it, toppling it in front of the doorway. With the few seconds they had gained, the group ran back through the store. Meg vaulting through a window, with Claudette following close behind, and Dwight doing so considerably less gracefully, his thigh catching the edge and almost face-planting into the dirt if Claudette hadn’t been there to keep him upright.
Meg led them between two stacks of wreckage, turned left, then right, then stopped, unsure of where to go next. Dwight kept moving, leading the group to the skeletal remains of a school bus. They reached the back and took a moment. Meg was bent over, hands against her knees trying to catch her breath, Claudette crouched against a chair, and Dwight kept staring back through the bus, looking for disturbances in the fog.
Meg straightened. “We need to figure out where the hell we’re going.” Claudette pointed out a window. “I think the garage was that way.” “No, that’s where we just came from.” Meg began to argue. Dwight wasn’t paying attention, his only focus was the open space in front of him. Something shimmered beside a wrecked pickup truck. “It’s still following us. We have to keep moving.”
The group climbed through the open back of the bus as the sound of that dreaded bell began to toll again.
It happened four more times. They would run until they couldn’t see or hear it anymore. Then minutes later, the bell would ring again.
Dwight’s lungs felt like sandpaper. Claudette couldn’t stop wheezing. Meg didn’t look much better, her hands against her knees as she dragged air into her lungs. Claudette staggered to a stop beside a rusted car. “We can’t keep doing this.” Dwight leaned against the vehicle. “How does it keep finding us?” Meg turned back. “Doesn’t matter, we need to make sure it can’t chase all three of us.”
Dwight understood what she meant immediately. “No.” “One of us has to keep it busy.” “We literally just did this!” Dwight’s voice rose as he stepped closer to Meg. “We split up, somebody gets caught, and we leave them behind! Again.” Meg’s eyes moved down to the ground.
“The fog looks different.” Claudette’s voice cut through. At first, Meg and Dwight couldn't tell what she meant. But the scrapyard was clearer. The black haze still curled between the vehicles and blanketed the distant paths, but when they’d first arrived, the far fence was almost completely swallowed. Now they could make out several additional rows of wreckage beyond it.
“It changed while we were in the garage.” She noted. Meg frowned. “You think the crusher did something?” “I don’t know… But this place has rules. At the mine, repairing the generators changed things. Here, we used the crusher and the fog changed.”
Meg looked at the rusty machine next to them. “So we crush more cars.” She looked back in the direction they had approached from, and Dwight could tell by her change in posture that she had seen something. “You two go, find another crusher. See if the fog changes again.” Claudette started to protest, but she had already started to move.
Dwight and Claudette moved in the opposite direction. Eventually, Claudette started to move away. “We should split up too.” Dwight stared at her. “Are you insane?” “If there are multiple crushers, we’ll find them faster.” “And there’ll be three of us alone!” Claudette looked frightened, but she nodded. “We don’t know how long Meg can keep it occupied, we need to make the most of whatever time she can buy for us.” Dwight hated that she was right.
They separated. Dwight watched her disappear between two stacks of vehicles. He was alone again, he hated how familiar that felt. Dwight started moving again, following the widest paths and looking for buildings.
The scrapyard became increasingly dense. Vehicles had been compressed down into cubes and stacked into walls. Something dark stained one section, but Dwight did his best to ignore it.
“Crusher…” He whispered to himself. “Find crusher, crush car, escape murder ghost.” His head tilted as he kept walking, considering the nickname he’d given to his pursuer…
Something scraped ahead scattering Dwight’s thoughts as he ducked behind a wall. His heart slammed against his ribs as he listened, hearing footsteps. Dwight slowly reached down, and grabbed a length of rusted metal from the ground.
Dwight held his breath. Someone was standing around the corner. He raised his makeshift weapon and waited. A figure rounded the corner and Dwight swung. Whatever it was doubled back, dodging out of the way and grabbing onto Dwight’s wrist.
Dwight stared, the piece of metal slipping from his hand. His mind refused to process what his eyes were showing him. Dirty clothes, dark hair, lean frame, that same unreadable expression.
“Jake?” Jake released Dwight’s wrist. “Yeah.” Dwight stumbled backwards, his mouth opening and closing, unable to form words. “Are the others with you?” Jake said, cutting off Dwight’s wordless questioning.
Dwight shook his head, reaching forward and touching Jake’s shoulder. “What are you doing?” “You’re… Real.” Jake’s expression became considerably more suspicious. “Did you hit your head again?” “You’re… You died.”
Jake stared at him. “What?” “I watched you die!” Dwight could feel his face getting hotter, and tears starting to form, his voice rising as he forgot where he was standing. “The Trapper! He tore you off the hook and killed you!” Jake stared at him, Dwight could see him trying to remember. “I remember the hook…”
His hand moved to his torso, where the hook had pierced through him. “Then… Then I woke up here.” Dwight’s breathing slowed. “You don’t remember what happened after?” “No. What did he do?” Dwight saw it again. The Trapper tearing Jake from the hook, a flurry of swipes with his cleaver, the beartrap, the boot coming down. The horrible sound of the beartrap closing.
“Dwight.” Jake spoke, studying Dwight’s face. “Nothing. It’s… You’re okay now. Right?” Jake frowned, but nodded toward Dwight. “I’m fine. Dwight, what happened?”
Dwight couldn’t say it. Instead, he stepped forward and wrapped both arms around Jake. Jake became completely rigid, his hands hovering awkwardly in the air. “You’re alive.” Dwight laughed, but it came out dangerously close to crying.
“Where are Meg and Claudette?” Dwight’s relief disappeared, and finally released Jake. “Right. We’ve got a new problem.” He explained while they moved, the scrapyard, the crusher, the creature, and the bell. How it could disappear almost completely, how no matter how thoroughly they escaped it, it found them again, and how Meg was currently distracting it.
“I saw it.” Jake said, waiting for Dwight to finish. “Didn’t know what it was.” “Murder ghost.” Jake stopped, and turned to face Dwight with a look of confusion. “I don’t know! It goes invisible and tries to murder us!” Jake pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’re not calling it that.” Dwight crossed his arms. “Well what would you call it then?” Jake paused, thinking for a few moments, before continuing moving forward. “The Wraith.” Dwight had moved on from the relief of Jake being back. He was annoyed again.
Meg had stopped trying to lose it, she knew it wouldn’t work. Instead, she concentrated on keeping it interested. She sprinted around a wrecked bus and deliberately slapped a hand against the metal as she passed. “Come on!” The bell began to ring behind her, she didn’t turn to look back, instead, she counted. One… Two… She dropped as the weapon swept over her head.
She rolled beneath the open chassis of a wrecked car and came out the opposite side. Her pursuer circled around the car, still following behind her. The bell rang again and it vanished. That was the main problem she faced, with the Trapper, she could watch him. Measure the distance, know when she was gaining ground.
Meg passed through a narrow lane and stopped, her chest heaving. “Come on… Where are you?” She scanned her surroundings and noticed a second too late a shimmer appearing directly beside her.
Claudette found the second crusher. It sat in the processing building at the end of the yard. The machinery was designed to flatten vehicles horizontally, rather than compress them from every direction. A car sat beneath the plate, waiting. She stepped forward, and wrapped her hand around the lever, and pulled. The crusher roared to life.
Far across the scrapyard, the Wraith stopped mid swing. Meg almost collided with a fence before realising she wasn’t being followed anymore. The creature stood about 20 feet back, completely visible, its head turned toward the distant sound of twisting metal. The white glow from its eyes flickered for a moment, before it turned, ignoring Meg and heading straight for the crusher.
Claudette watched as the enormous metal plate rose again. What remained of the car beneath it could no longer be considered as such. The roof had been flattened almost level with the hood, the windows reduced to glittering fragments scattered across the floor.
She stared at the destroyed car for a few moments, before remembering where she was, and hurried towards the entrance. The processing building was larger than the garage, with several enormous doors opening into different sections of the scrapyard. Claudette stopped between them, suddenly unsure which direction she entered from.
She chose left, and made it a few steps before she heard the bell. It sounded much closer than she would have liked. She ducked behind the rusted shell of a pickup truck. She stared through the pickup’s broken window. Scanning for anything unusual.
Then she saw it. The fog shifted strangely, as something tall passed between two stacks of vehicles. She ducked back down, clamping her hands over her mouth to keep herself quiet.
Something scraped against the other side of the pickup. Claudette lifted herself from the ground and started to run as a weapon of bone and steel smashed through the driver’s window behind her.
The Wraith seemed to glide through the scrapyard. Its elongated limbs carry it forward with an unnatural stride. Its weapon hung beside it, the skull and vertebrae incorporated into its construction bouncing slightly with every movement.
Claudette’s breath was already lost to her. A vehicle blocked most of the path ahead, Claudette squeezed through the narrow opening between its crushed hood and a stack of tires. The Wraith’s large body forced it to circle around the long way.
As Claudette gained ground on her pursuer, she felt a hand grab her wrist. She was pulled to the side, coming face to face with Meg. Claudette almost collapsed against her, Meg caught her shoulders. “It’s coming?” Claudette nodded frantically. “Alright.” Meg stepped past her and looked toward the passage.
The creature emerged from between the wrecks. Meg grabbed at a rusted hubcap and hurled it, striking the Wraith squarely in the chest. “Hey!” Meg yelled towards the lanky figure. It barely reacted to the impact, its glowing white eyes remained on Claudette, as if it couldn’t even see Meg at that moment.
“Come on! You were pretty interested in me five minutes ago.” Meg yelled, goading it to chase her, but the Wraith continued forward toward Claudette, raising its weapon as she turned and ran.
“What did you do to it?!” Meg yelled, chasing behind them. “I crushed a car!” Claudette managed to wheeze out in between gasps for air. The Wraith brought its weapon down, Claudette tried to dodge out of the way, but not quickly enough. She was struck across the back, the pain exploded from her shoulder to her side.
She hit the ground, her glasses slipped halfway down her nose. The asphalt scraped against her palms as she tried to push herself upright. “Claudette”! Meg screamed out. The Wraith stood over Claudette, raising its weapon.
Meg hit it. She had picked up a fire iron and brought it across the Wraith’s back with both hands. The creature lurched, and turned to face Meg, giving Claudette a moment to scramble backwards, one hand pressed against her injured shoulder. The Wraith turned back to Claudette, and Meg circled around, positioning herself between them.
It tried to step around her, but Meg kept moving with it. For several seconds, Meg found herself physically blocking a creature nearly twice her size as it attempted to get around her.
The Wraith’s weapon swept outward. Meg ducked, but Claudette wasn’t fast enough. The edge caught her already injured shoulder. She cried out and stumbled against a wrecked vehicle, collapsing to the ground.
Meg grabbed the Wraith from behind, wrapping both arms around its torso. It barely noticed, throwing an arm backwards and sending Meg flying. She struck the hood of a car, and rolled against it, landing on the opposite side.
Claudette pressed herself against the wreckage, nowhere to go. The Wraith approached, reaching its hand down toward Claudette to snatch her up. Claudette closed her eyes, then…
Crunch.
The Wraith stopped. Claudette slowly opened her eyes, seeing that the creature remained completely still, its hand hovering in the air in front of her. Another tremendous metallic groan rolled across the scrapyard.
The Wraith lowered its arm, turning its head toward the noise. For a moment, Claudette could see nothing through the gaps between the vehicles. Then, a thin figure stumbled backwards from a control station. Even at this distance, she could recognize him. “Dwight!”
He stared at the compressed car, and then at his surroundings. The fog had changed again, he could see considerably farther through the scrapyard now. More buildings had appeared beyond the fence, and a distant water tower with four crows sitting atop it.
Somewhere behind him, a bell rang. Dwight didn’t even bother looking, he threw himself around the crusher and ran between the stacks of vehicles.
Meg dragged Claudette upright. “You okay?” Claudette winced. “No…” “Can you walk?” Claudette nodded weakly, and Meg slung Claudette’s arm across her shoulder. They moved quickly in the opposite direction from where the Wraith had disappeared. “It…” Claudette choked out as they walked. “It looked at the crusher before it attacked us… In the garage… Then after me when I used this one… And now… Dwight…” Meg adjusted her grip on Claudette, shouldering more of her weight. “You think it cares about cars?” “I think something about the crushers matters to it…”
A figure appeared ahead, Meg stopped, releasing Claudette and stepping forward. Jake stood between two wrecked vehicles, Meg’s expression emptied. Jake broke the silence. “Hi.” Meg punched him, then grabbed onto his jacket and pulled him into a crushing hug. “You asshole… It was supposed to be me.” Jake could feel her tears against his shoulder.
He stood stiffly for a while, letting Meg get her emotions out of her system, until she eventually released him. He looked over to Claudette, and noticed the growing puddles of blood. “You’re hurt. Let me see.”
The Wraith’s weapon had torn through her shirt across the shoulder and upper back. Blood ran beneath the fabric. He carefully pulled the damaged fabric away from the injury. Meg crouched opposite them as Jake continued to work. “What happened to you?”
“Woke up here. From the fog.” Jake said, trying to focus on his task. “You remember, the hook?” Meg asked, Jake replying with a slight nod. “And, after?” “No. But Dwight seemed to imply it wasn’t good.”
Jake finished patching up Claudette, and she had already started to feel better. Whatever force was keeping them there had begun the process of keeping her participating. “We need to help Dwight.” Claudette groaned. “Someone else needs to crush a car, to get that thing off him.” “The Wraith.” Jake said. “That’s what me and Dwight are calling it.”
The Wraith kept appearing in front of Dwight, ringing its bell and blocking whichever direction Dwight tried running. He had started to use the bell as a warning. He sprinted through the shell of a dismantled ban, the bell rang, and he immediately dove through the opposite door as the Wraith materialized behind him and swung. The weapon struck the van hard enough to buckle the frame.
Jake led the group through the scrapyard differently. He wasn’t looking for easy pathways, he looked for evidence of use. Places where stacks of vehicles had been positioned to create routes wide enough for machinery. Nobody spoke for some time as they weaved through the scrapyard. Eventually, Claudette did. “Jake… What do you remember?” He knew exactly what she meant. “The hook.” Claudette waited. “Being put on it, and you three leaving.” Claudette’s face tightened, and Meg’s fists clenched as she walked.
“I’m not angry. He was coming, if you had stayed, you would have died too.” Claudette looked down. “We still left you…” Meg’s voice spoke out, breaking slightly. “You were there.” Jake looked ahead. “What?” Her eyes had filled with tears as she kept moving ahead, refusing to turn to face him. “That was the last thing you said… Before we couldn’t see you anymore.” Jake’s expression became distant. “I don’t remember saying it…” and for several seconds, he said nothing. “Sounds like me.”
Claudette laughed despite herself as they reached the end of the lane. A rusted crane towered over an enormous rectangular pit. Beside it sat another industrial crusher, this one partially exposed to the elements beneath a corrugated roof, with another car waiting on the loading platform.
They approach the crusher, Jake moving over to the controls to start it up, but Claudette puts out a hand to stop him. She remembered the first car, the Wraith staring at it, and its sudden rage. Something uncomfortable moved through her stomach. Her eyes gravitated towards the trunk, and her body followed. With trembling fingers she reached down and opened the trunk, and stared inside. At first, she didn't understand what she was looking at. Her mind identified individual details before allowing them to become whole. A shoe pressed awkwardly against the side, pant legs, a hand curled against stained upholstery. Then the smell reached her, causing her to recoil, one hand flying over her mouth. Meg moved forward. “What?” She peered into the trunk.
A man had been folded into the confined space. His wrists were bound behind his back by thick layers of tape, shoulders forced forward by the confined position. A filthy strip of cloth remained tied around his mouth, darkened around the edges. There was a wound on his throat, deep enough there could be no question as to what had killed him. Dried blood covered his neck and shirt, and had pooled beneath the body, blackened with age.
Meg’s expression hardened. “Jesus Christ…” Jake approached last, he didn't recoil as dramatically, but his face changed the moment he saw the body. Claudette forced herself to look again. “Do… You think... The other cars..?” The three stood in silence, interrupted only by the sound of a distant bell. Jake slammed the trunk closed. “We don’t have time.” He moved towards the crusher’s controls and pulled on the lever. Claudette’s eyes stayed on the back of the car as the crusher came to life. “Jake…” “If the crushers are letting us leave, we need to use them. Changing anything could make it stop working.”
The group watched as the crusher slowly began to flatten the car, after a few minutes, Jake released the lever, staring out into the wreckage. A shimmer passed between two vehicles, then disappeared, followed closely by a figure stumbling through the darkness. “Wait!” Dwight’s voice called out through the night air. The bell began to ring once more, and the Wraith’s legs appeared, followed by its torso emerging from nothing, then the bell, the weapon, then its face, with brilliant white eyes.
The Wraith stood at its full height, not looking at anyone, staring past them all at the crusher, at the car. The Wraith’s eyes flared, and white light flooded everyone’s vision. For an instant, Jake wasn’t wearing his usual clothes, greasy mechanic’s overalls covered his body, heavy fabric soaked through with oil. A name patch stitched over his chest, though the letters blurred when he tried to read them.
Claudette stared at herself, military fatigues covered her body, sweat ran down her forehead as there was something heavy strapped across her chest. Pouches and equipment she didn’t recognize.
Meg could see a pistol against her hip, her hand instantly recoiled from it. It felt real, she could feel its weight pulling against her belt, and the smell of kerosene filling her nose.
Dwight staggered backwards as he now found himself holding an assault rifle. He almost dropped it, he had never held a gun before, but somehow his hands knew the weight.
Then the white light vanished, and they all returned to Autohaven Wreckers, and their usual attire. The Wraith twitched, and threw its head backward, the sound that emerged was unlike anything they’d heard from it before, a mixture of pain and rage that echoed across the countless metal surfaces that inhabited the scrapyard. Jake moved first, and the Wraith’s head snapped toward him. It charged, and Jake barely managed to raise his arms in defense before the weapon hit him. The impact threw him sideways, he struck the control panel hard enough to dent it and collapsed beside the crusher. It closed the distance quickly, standing over Jake and raising its weapon again, and as it brought the savage blade down, it stopped inches away from Jake’s head as tendrils of dark fog wrapped around the Wraith’s arms.
Meg picked up and swung a metal bar into the Wraith’s ribs. The fog withdrew, as it swung an elongated arm outwards, backhanding Meg as it stood. Claudette rushed forward, helping Jake away from the creature. Dwight remained frozen, still looking down at his hands. He was brought back to his senses by a strangled noise, he looked up to see the Wraith had lifted Meg up into the air, holding her by the throat. Her hands flew to its wrists, boots scraping against the ground as she kicked uselessly beneath her. Whatever covered the creature’s arm felt wrong beneath her fingers. Not skin, not bark, something dry that seemed to shift beneath her grip.
Meg drove her knee forward, striking it somewhere beneath the ribs to no reaction. Then it started walking, carrying Meg through the scrapyard with one arm, her feet occasionally striking against wreckage as she struggled. Its weapon hung from the other hand, scraping against the ground every few steps.
The remaining three watched the Wraith disappear between stacks of crushed cars. Jake moved first, following behind while staying low to the ground, Claudette and Dwight quickly hurried behind him. They rounded a stack of vehicles, seeing the Wraith quickly approaching a somewhat familiar looking structure. It blended in with the scenery, but it was unmistakable, a long pole made of a thick industrial support jutting out of the asphalt, with a wicked hook hanging from an arm.
Meg’s struggle became increasingly frantic, striking against the Wraith with both hands as she was lifted higher, before being abruptly brought down, the hook punching through her back easily causing her to let out a blood-curdling scream.
Dwight flinched so violently that he nearly stood from their hiding place, Jake grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him down again. Meg’s hands wrapped around the metal above her, her body trembling as she desperately tried to lift herself away from the wound.
The Wraith stood before her, its head tilting slightly as it stared at her. Meg forced her eyes open. “You…” Her breath caught. “You ugly… Stick insect…” Meg’s eyes closed as she swallowed another cry of pain. The Wraith rose the bell back into the air, and began to slam the skull adorning its weapon into it. The sound rolled through the scrapyard as the creature disappeared into the fog.
Dwight’s stomach tightened, he began scanning across the scenery to find where the Wraith had gone. A faint outline passed behind the shell of a car, then disappeared completely. Jake was similarly motionless beside Dwight, but Claudette’s breathing was a problem. Her injured shoulder had been patched up, but still hurt with every breath, and the effort of suppressing it made each inhale sharper.
Dwight slowly reached over, and placed his hand over hers, she looked over at him as he made eye contact with her. He breathed slowly and deliberately, and she copied him. The shimmer appeared again, across the yard, but still close. Then a crow called somewhere across the scrapyard, followed by another. The distortion glided away towards the noise.
Jake approached Meg on the hook first, stopping periodically to listen, watching behind them while Claudette hurried toward Meg. “Dwight, Jake, take the weight off the hook.” Dwight nodded, moving behind Meg and wrapping his arms around her waist, Jake took the opposite side. Meg tightened her grip on the hook, closing her eyes in anticipation. “Do it.” They lifted, Meg muffled a scream through clenched teeth as Claudette guided her carefully upward, trying to prevent the hook from tearing further through her body.
The hook slipped free as Meg collapsed down onto them, almost taking Dwight down with her, but Jake caught most of her weight. As they lowered her down, black fog swirled overhead. “We can’t stay here.” Jake noted, looking back over towards where the Wraith had left. “We don’t know how long it’ll take before it comes back. In between groans of pain, Meg spoke. “It… Kept finding us… It’ll just find us again.” Dwight leaned down, looping Meg’s arm over his shoulder. “No, after it put you on the hook it didn’t know where we went.” Jake nodded, taking Meg’s other arm. “It can track us while it chases us, but not if it can’t find us first.”
They carried Meg, eventually finding shelter beneath the remains of an old tow truck. Its rear had collapsed against a wall of crushed vehicles, creating a narrow triangular space beneath the chassis. Claudette had already begun to work, pulling Meg’s shirt away from the puncture as Dwight quickly turned around. Blood ran freely, but tissue that should have been torn apart had begun to knit itself together. Claudette quickly dressed it, and Meg tested the movement, immediately regretting it and leaned back against the truck.
“I’m going back to the crusher.” Jake said, standing and moving towards the exit to their hiding place. “The one we just ran from?” Dwight replied, turning to face him. “The car wasn’t completely crushed, the fog hasn’t changed.” Claudette stood, moving as well. “I’ll come with you.” Jake went to protest, but upon looking at Claudette’s expression, he relented. “Fine.” Dwight nodded. “Alright, me and Meg will stay here until she recovers fully.”
“Nope.” Meg stood. “We’re looking for another crusher, I don’t want to spend any more time here.” Dwight looked back at her. “You were just impaled, you should rest.” Jake and Claudette left as the two began to argue. Eventually, after a brief break, Meg and Dwight also emerged from their safe haven. Dwight discovered that an injured Meg was still considerably faster than him.”Slow down please.” “I am going slow.” They passed beneath a suspended car held precariously by a rusted crane.
Ahead stood another crusher, but there was no car in it, instead a vehicle waited several yards away on a rusted track leading toward the machine. As they approached the vehicle, something moved behind them, they turned to see a distant crow sitting atop a mountain of metallic scrap, then another landed beside it.
Jake and Claudette approached the previous machine, the mostly flattened car remained beneath the crushing plate. Jake approached the controls as Claudette remained by the vehicle, staring at the trunk. Jake looked over to her, pausing momentarily before pulling down on the lever, and bringing the hydraulic system to life. Metal screeched beneath its weight, a long shriek echoing through the air as what remained of the car flattened another few inches towards the floor. Claudette flinched as the trunk disappeared beneath the plate.
Jake watched the machine finish its work with an expression that gave away almost nothing. The hydraulic press reached the bottom of its cycle and remained there, shuddering faintly as pressure continued to strain against already compressed steel. Then the fog changed, dark mist had been crawling across the floor of the processing building, now it began withdrawing, slowly receding toward the open doors.
Jake released the lever and the crushing plate rose with a hydraulic groan. Claudette stepped closer to the entrance, shapes that had previously existed only as silhouettes became visible. Another fence, a crane, several more rows of stacked vehicles. Jake was already moving. “Come on.” They slipped through one of the processing building’s side doors.
Meg’s eyes jumped from the crusher to the vehicle again and again. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The car sat perhaps twenty feet from the loading platform, its wheels resting inside two rusted channels embedded in the ground. A heavy chain ran from beneath its front bumper towards a motorized winch beside the crusher. Dwight inspected the controls, finding two levers, a button, and no labels. Dwight froze, inspecting each component again and again, trying to discern any meaning from them. Meg pushed him aside and examined the controls for a second before pushing the button. The winch screamed as the chain snapped taut and the car lurched forward. Dwight jumped away as Meg kept her hand pressed firmly on the button, watching the vehicle scrape forward on the tracks, its seized wheels refusing to turn. Somewhere overhead, a crow called, Dwight looked up to see three birds sat along the crane. “Meg?” “I see them…” She pressed harder against the button. “Come on!”
Claudette kept one hand against her shoulder as she followed Jake. Her injury had already begun healing with the same impossible speed as everything else they’d suffered since arriving in this place. The pain had dulled from something sharp and overwhelming into a deep ache beneath her shoulder blade.
Jake’s injuries were similarly disappearing, the wound from the Wraith’s weapon had torn across his upper chest and his head still ached from the impact with the control panel. He seemed barely bothered by it, but Claudette noticed the occasional stiffness in his movement before she noticed something distorting behind a stack of cars, and pulled Jake down. The Wraith emerged with its weapon hanging loosely beside its elongated body.
Its white eyes scanned the scrapyard, left, right, then towards Jake and Claudette. Claudette held her breath, Jake’s body tensed. It took a step, and stopped, its head lowered, Jake followed its gaze. Something dark glistened against the asphalt, a tiny droplet of blood. The Wraith began to walk, following the slightest trail of blood as if it were a beacon glowing in the dark. Jake’s expression hardened. “It’s tracking us. We need to split up.” Claudette felt her heartbeat quicken, before nodding. Jake and Claudette waited for an opportunity, before splitting up, Claudette moving right and Jake slipping left.
The car reached the loading platform, and Meg released the button and moved her hand over to the leftmost lever. “Wait.” Dwight said, moving closer to the car. “What now?” Meg rolled her eyes, hand still gripped onto the lever. Dwight stared through the driver’s window, something looked wrong. The interior of the vehicle was empty, but Dwight couldn’t shake a feeling of unease. The glass shimmered, and all of a sudden, the car was filled with bodies. Dwight staggered backwards. “Jesus Christ!” Meg released the lever and moved closer. “What? What happened?” She peered inside to see dozens of bodies crammed inside, far more than should’ve been able to physically fit inside the vehicle. Human forms were packed together from floor to ceiling, limbs twisted around one another, faces pressed against windows.
Every body glistened, something golden covered their skin. Was it… Honey? It poured from their mouths and noses, ran across cheeks, matted hair against faces, and filled wounds. It looked like the bodies were moving, but upon closer inspection, it was something moving on them. Thousands of tiny shapes crawled across the corpses, red ants. Swarming over the honey, disappearing beneath torn clothing, crawling into any orifice or open wound. Dwight stepped back, turning away and covering his mouth. Meg similarly moved away, but towards the controls, gripping onto the lever and pulling it, bringing the crusher into action.
The crushing plate struck the roof, metal buckled and the windows exploded outward. The crusher didn’t stop. Dwight turned to look at Meg, and saw a haunted expression on her face, staring towards the crusher, unblinking, and not releasing the lever. “Meg..?” The hydraulics of the crusher screamed out under the building pressure. “Meg?!” Dwight called out, louder. “I… I heard…” Meg whispered. “One of the bodies inside. It spoke.” Dwight’s stomach dropped, and he looked back over to the flattened car. “What… What did it say?”
Meg released the lever, her hand trembling. “It said… I forgive…” Tears had begun to roll down Meg’s cheeks as she stared blankly ahead. Dwight moved forward to console her, but before he was able to, the fog at the edge of the clearing exploded outward. The Wraith emerged at full speed, not invisibly stalking anymore, running with a desperation they hadn’t seen before. It’s glowing eyes not focused on Dwight, or Meg, only towards the crushed car.
The creature rushed past so close that the ragged material hanging from its body brushed against Dwight’s arm, causing him to recoil and nearly fall against the Meg. The Wraith reached the crusher and stopped, standing before the compressed vehicle and staring down at what remained with its brilliant white eyes. The crusher had reduced the car to an uneven slab of twisted steel and shattered glass. One elongated hand reached toward the crushed vehicle, its fingers stopping inches before the metal, and curling into a fist.
The fog began to move, it poured between the vehicles in thick streams. Darkness spilled beneath the crusher and curled around the Wraith’s feet. Instead of retreating, it was gathering, sliding across the compressed vehicle, winding through the broken machinery and around the Wraith as its entire body tensed. Then, a sound rolled through Autohaven Wreckers. Dwight felt it in his chest, the deep and vast toll of a bell, seeming to come from everywhere at once, vibrating through scrap metal and rattling loose pieces across the asphalt. The Wraith rose, standing once again at its full height.
Another toll came, from near the center of the yard. Claudette heard it, she had been moving carefully through a narrow corridor of crushed vehicles when the sound rolled over her. Jake heard it too, stopping beside the remains of a tow truck, Jake looked toward the sound and began towards it.
The Wraith stood completely still as more and more fog built up at its feet. Dwight grabbed onto Meg’s arm and began to pull her away, it took her a moment to gather herself before she began to follow. The black mist surrounding the Wraith surged upwards, surrounding it entirely, before exploding outward and blanketing the entire scrapyard in darkness. Meg and Dwight ran through the fog for a while, trying to put distance between themselves and the Wraith.
The fog behind them shimmered as the Wraith emerged from the darkness behind them, materialized already moving with its weapon raised. Meg shoved Dwight sideways as the blade swept between them. Dwight stumbled through the fog as the Wraith continued towards Meg. “Keep going!” He almost turned to go after them when something grabbed him, he yelped as a hand covered his mouth. “Quiet.” Jake, Dwight relaxed. “Could you stop doing that?” Jake ignored him. “We need to get to the center, where’s Meg?” Dwight pointed uselessly into the fog. “That way, she was being chased by the Wraith.” Jake followed his finger, looking to the darkness. “We need to move.” He pulled Dwight forward.
Claudette found Meg near an overturned school bus, or rather, Meg nearly ran into her. They both almost screamed, but managed to keep quiet. They both began towards the center of the scrapyard. Claudette noticed that Meg was limping again, but didn’t say anything. Something appeared ahead, an opening, the mountains of scrap separated around a huge circular yard, at its center, stood an enormous rusted iron bell hanging from a crude wooden frame assembled from telephone poles, chains, and pieces of industrial machinery. Its surface was blackened, covered in streaks that looked almost like fingerprints. Beneath it hung a thick rope. Meg stared at it. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”
Claudette looked around, seeing several paths converging on the clearing, and several unlit torches sticking out from the ground. As the two stepped into the clearing, they saw Dwight and Jake emerging from the opposite entrance. The four ran to the center, staring up at the giant bell. Dwight looked to the rope. “So… Somebody rings it?” Jake stepped forward, reaching for the rope, Claudette grabbed his wrist. “Wait.” The fog surrounding the clearing was moving, circling them. Claudette slowly released Jake. “We’re not alone.”
The Wraith stepped from the fog, its white eyes staring at the enormous bell, then to the group of four. The Wraith charged forward. “Ring it!” Dwight screamed. Jake leapt forward, grabbing onto the rope and pulling, but the bell barely moved. Meg grabbed on too and both began to shift the bell from side to side, slowly building momentum.
Claudette ran as the Wraith chased her, ducking and weaving between the torches as her pursuer swung its weapon at her. The bell swung, and released an unbearably loud sound, causing everyone’s vision to blur momentarily as the entire scrapyard seemed to vibrate, sending crows up into the sky from the surrounding wreckage.
Jake and Meg continued to ring it, with each thunderous sound, one of the torches in the clearing lit up. The Wraith turned, focused on Meg and Jake now, and rushing toward them. They both let go of the rope and split up, the creature twisted to follow Meg as she led him away from the center. Dwight jumped out, grabbing onto the rope to maintain its swing.
Dwight watched in horror, unable to stop his task of pulling on the rope as the Wraith gained more and more ground on Meg, raising its weapon to the sky and bringing it down onto her shoulder, opening a massive wound that sunk deeper and deeper, only being stopped with a hard thunk against bone. Meg screamed out and collapsed to the ground, Dwight began to move towards her to help. “No! Keep ringing the bell!” Jake called out, sprinting towards their injured friend. Dwight’s grip tightened, and he forced his eyes closed. He felt awful, first abandoning Jake, and now Meg, he vented his frustrations into the bell, pulling it so hard his arms felt like they were going to fall off.
Jake reached Meg before the Wraith could strike again. He caught her beneath one arm and dragged her backwards, boots scraping against the asphalt as the Wraith readied its weapon. Meg tried to help, but the instant she put weight through her injured side, her knee buckled. “Claudette!” Jake shouted. She rushed past one of the burning torches and slid down beside Meg as Jake lowered her against the base of a rusted vehicle. Blood had already soaked through the entirety of Meg’s shirt.
Jake stood as Claudette began to tend to Meg and moved directly into the Wraith’s path and led it away. He could hear the others shouting after him as he led it away through the wreckage without wasting energy looking backwards. Leading it across the clearing to the far side, and he almost made it before an elongated hand closed against the back of his neck and spun him around. Jake’s hands grabbed at the creature’s wrist. The Wraith didn’t seem to notice or care about Jake’s weight as he kicked at its torso, twisted, and tried hooking his leg around its arm.
The Wraith turned, carrying Jake towards one of the exits, the fog parting to reveal a familiar looking hook causing Jake’s struggles to double. As the Wraith carried Jake towards the fog it stopped and turned towards a sound behind it. Dwight lowered his shoulder and rammed into the Wraith as hard as he could. He didn’t even remember letting go of the rope, but now he stood before the creature, pain travelling from his shoulder throughout his entire body, but the impact surprised it enough that it staggered sideways, its grip loosening enough for Jake to drop to the ground.
Instead of continuing after Jake, the Wraith turned on Dwight, quickly bringing its weapon around and bringing its jagged edge across his chest. He screamed out as he was thrown sideways, landing hard against the ground, before scrambling upright.
Up at the bell, Meg and Claudette pulled on the rope, starting its swing once more, shifting back and forth until eventually, it rang out, lightning the final torch. The sound flooded the ears of everyone, the Wraith stopped, one foot hovering halfway through another step. Its white eyes blazed, then flickered. Its weapon lowered as the brilliant white glow inside its eyes faded. It began to move again, looking around in confusion, its grip on the weapon loosened as the metal and bone weapon dropped to the ground.
Claudette went to speak, before the fog surrounding the clearing erupted forth, surrounding them all. Then, as fast as it encroached on them, it was dispelled. Warmth touched Dwight’s face as a familiar clearing was now in front of them. The glowing light of the campfire was in front of him again, and he saw Meg, Claudette, and Jake all standing with him. He looked down to see his wound had been healed, and his shirt was fixed.
Meg inspected her shoulder, moving it experimentally, Claudette noticed and stepped forward. “Does it hurt?” “No, like nothing happened at all.” Meg flexed her arm before looking up towards Jake. “Hey! You didn’t die this time, good work.” Jake turned to look at her, clearly unamused. “Very funny.” Jake walked to the edge of the clearing, crouching beside one of the trees and picking up a stone from the ground. “Jake?” Claudette asked. He tossed it into the fog and waited for a few seconds, before turning and sitting on one of the logs around the fire.
“So.” Jake started. “How did I die?” Dwight coughed, caught off guard by Jake’s question. “Jake-” “I need to know. What did the Trapper do?” Meg’s eyes fell towards the fire. Claudette was the first to respond. “When we went through the gate… He couldn’t follow us… The fog stopped him.” “I remember that, but what happened after?” “He… Didn’t let the hook take you… He pulled you off of it, and…” Claudette’s voice grew quiet. “He just kept cutting into you.” Meg spoke up, still looking towards the fire. “Whatever was controlling him was hurting him, trying to get him to stop. But he wouldn’t.” Jake stared down at the ground beneath his boots. “Then he put your head in one of his traps.” Dwight finished.
Jake looked up, his brow furrowing. “They can hurt us… Or kill us… But whatever controls this place doesn’t always want them to. It wants the hooks…” The group sat in silence once more, pondering one overarching question: Why?
Claudette broke the silence. “At the end. When we rang the bell, before the fog brought us here.” She paused briefly. “The Wraith looked confused. Like it… Woke up.” Dwight spoke up. “It wasn’t in control either.” Meg stood from her seat. “It doesn’t matter, they’re still trying to kill us.” That brought silence back to the campfire, before Jake spoke up again. “So what happens now?” Dwight replied. “Last time we waited for a while until we heard the Wraith’s bell, then the campfire went out and the fog pushed us to Autohaven Wreckers.” “So when that goes out we go somewhere else?” Jake said, looking back to the fire.
“We should sleep.” Claudette said. “I don’t know how long it’s been since we got here, but if we keep moving like this with no rest we won't last long.” Dwight stared at her. “I don’t think I can sleep here.” “You’re going to have to try.” Jake replied. “I’ll take the first watch, you all get some rest.” They settled around the campfire, Dwight took off his glasses, letting the world blur around him. He hoped that the sun would soon rise over a real forest, the police would arrive, and all four of them would go home. Eventually, his eyelids became too heavy to fight, and he drifted off to sleep.