When I was younger, I partied a lot. My college classes were not a priority; I didn’t even wanna be in school. I just went so my parents wouldn’t think I was a disappointment. My life was a flurry of alcohol, drugs, and the occasional one-night stand. One night I lost a part of myself I can never get back.
My friends Lewis, Gage, and I were driving around. Sitting in the back of Lewis’ mini van, I tried my best to ignore the horrible music blaring from the speakers. Gage passed me a joint from the front seat and cracked open a beer.
“Pass me one of those,” Lewis said.
“Not while you’re driving,” Gage said. “The last thing you need is another D.U.I.”
I took a drag. “When’s the acid supposed to kick in?”
Gage shrugged his shoulders. “Soon. It’s been an hour since you took it.”
“Where are we going?”
“Nowhere in particular, Roy,” Lewis said.
“We can walk around Yellow Brooke for a bit and kill some time,” Gage suggested. “I’ve gotta take piss anyway.”
Lewis took a right down Burroughs Lane and pulled into Yellow Brooke’s parking lot. Gage burst out of the van and sprinted for the forest.
I stared at the forest, the colors of the surrounding trees, bushes, and flowers were amplified. The smell of pine and citrus combined in the air. This wouldn't make sense to anyone who hadn’t taken LSD or other hallucinogens, but I could taste the forest.
“Are you done, Gage? You’re taking forever.” Lewis said.
Gage came running out the woods struggling to button his pants back up.
“What took you so long?” I laughed. “Were you jerking off?”
“I found a trapdoor by a tree. I heard someone from the other side crying and begging for help.”
“Bullshit.” Lewis said.
Gage gestured towards the woods. “Go check it out if you don’t believe me.”
Lewis and I followed the path, the birds chirped their song and the Lilly’s looked like they were dancing. As we walked past them we came across a green door covered in moss, twigs, and dead bugs.
Lewis rolled his eyes. “Are you sure you’re actually hearing someone, or are you just fucked up?”
“Please help me.” A frail, feminine voice pleaded.
Gage went to open the door. “It’s okay we’re going to help you.”
Lewis grabbed Gage’s arm. “Stop. This could be a trap. Don’t you think it’s a little too convenient that all of a sudden we hear a woman screaming for help? It could be some psycho trying to bait us.”
“Please help me!” The woman cried. “A man put me here. I haven’t eaten or drank for days.”
Gage rubbed his temple. “We’ve got to do something, we can’t just leave her here.”
“We can go to the cops.” Lewis said.
Gage jerked his arm free from Lewis’ grasp. “What if she’s dead by the time we get help?”
Lewis ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “They’re better equipped to handle this situation. Besides, we’re all high right now, I don’t wanna risk getting busted just cause you think you hear someone begging for help.”
Gage pushed past Lewis and struggled with the door. He cleared away the brush and discovered there was an old, rusty lock on the handle. “Fuck. We’ve gotta break the lock somehow.”
I scanned the area and spotted a large rock next to Gage. “Use the rock next to you to break the lock. It's all rusted.
You’ll probably break it with a couple blows.”
He struck the lock and it broke off easily. Underneath the door was an abyss of darkness. He pulled out his key chain and used the mini flashlight attached to illuminate the dark. A naked woman laid on the ground. Her hair was caked with dirt and blood, her eyes were sunken, buried in an ocean of purple and blackened flesh. Her nose was twisted in the opposite direction, dry blood was underneath her nose and at the corners of her mouth where her lips were torn and swollen. Bruises and cuts covered the rest of her body.
Gage jumped down into the chasm and approached the woman hesitantly. “Can you walk?”
The woman wiped tears from her eyes. “No, I think one of my legs is broken.”
“Okay, I’m gonna pick you up and my friends are gonna help lift you out,” Gage said.
As Gage got closer to the woman my heart pounded rapidly, a horrible tightness formed in my chest, my stomach twisted in knots as an overwhelming sense of panic and dread consumed my body. Gage bent down to pick the woman up; she grabbed a hold of his arm and tore it off in one swift motion. He dropped to his knees and clutched the area where his arm had once been. He stared at the once incapacitated woman as she stood over him feasting on his severed arm like it was a giant turkey leg. Yellow liquid oozed from her mouth as she ate, dissolving the limb. A horrible slurping like the someone slurping filled the cavern.
Eight black spindly legs burst from her back, her mouth stretched and contorted growing bigger and revealing two large fangs that were each the size of a traffic cone. Eyelids that I didn’t realize were there before opened one by one, eight red glowing eyes stared back at me. Thick, black hair spread over her entire body, the creature grew larger and kept changing into something inhuman.
Lewis started to run. “Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
The message was delivered, but the rest of my body didn’t get the memo. I couldn’t take my eyes off that thing. The creature shot a silk strand at Gage and pulled him into the darkness. The door slammed shut, I pulled, but I couldn’t get it to budge. I banged on the door until my fists were bruised and cut. Helplessness washed over me as I could do nothing to save Gage. tears spilled down my face as I listened to the sounds of screaming, ripping of flesh, and breaking of bones. I snapped back to reality and ran for the van.
At the police station Lewis and I were scared shitless. They didn’t care about the drugs, the focus was the woman and Gage. We told them that we found a woman calling out for help beneath a trapped door in the woods. Gage opened the door, jumped in the trench, and twisted his ankle very badly when he hit the ground. The cops found the door, but they never found Gage or what had taken him. Lewis and I were prime suspects in the disappearance since we were the last ones to see him. Eventually, we were let go because there was no evidence Lewis or I had harmed Gage. Even though we were innocent in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of the public we were guilty.
The rumor that floated around campus was that Lewis and I were satanists and sacrificed Gage. Some of my professors were visibly uncomfortable around me, some even suggested that I transfer schools. Gage’s family held a vigil in his honor. I made the mistake of showing up and it was made perfectly clear that I was not welcome there. His family also had the police in their sights, they publicly criticized the lack of effort to find their son and they claimed that they knew what had happened to Gage and were covering it up for some reason.
The family announced if the police wouldn’t help them then they would conduct their own investigation and find out what happened to Gage. Gage’s parents along with a few other family members and friends went into Yellow Brooke determined to find answers. They found no leads, after the failed search the family moved across the country.
After the incident at Yellow Brooke I took school seriously. I needed to pour myself into something to keep my mind off of what happened to Gage. From then on I stayed sober, drugs were just another reminder of what happened. I graduated, got a good job, and started a family. As for Lewis, well we soon drifted apart after everything that happened. He dropped out of college and got a job at a gas station. A mutual friend had a drink with him at a bar a few years ago. Lewis was skeletally thin, about half of his teeth were missing and those that remained were piss yellow and rotten. He was still working shitty minimum wage jobs and had a few illegal side hustles going on. Out of curiosity one day I looked him up and found his obituary. Overdose was the cause, I wish I could have done something more to help him.
Twenty years later, the fear of that night still haunts me. I buried what happened deep inside me for so long. I had almost forgotten about it until I saw on the news that a group of college students went for a hike at Yellow Brooke. They claimed to have heard a woman begging for help beneath a trap door. One student opened the door, jumped in the pit, and the door slammed shut. The other students were not able to get the door open again. When the police investigated they didn't find the student nor the woman; the other students are the only suspects in the case. Please, for your safety and my piece of mind stay away from Yellow Brooke.
