They Came After Me Read online

  Olivia and Steve went looking around in the kitchen for candles, and I helped with opening some of the windows to get fresh air inside. Olivia ended up finding a few long candles and placed them on the old wooden kitchen table. The place started to look a little bit better with light coming through the windows. There was actually a little bit of color in the place instead of everything all dark in color. An old, 1980s television was in a corner, a painting of boats on a lake hung above the fireplace, a white refrigerator stood against the wall, and there was a brown- and yellow-colored couch that had probably been brown and white at some time in the past. An old, multi-colored, oval-shaped rug was in front of the couch. And an old, brown, leather footstool that had tears on the side and top of it was nearby.

  “Guys, we can use the fireplace tonight to see in the cabin if the candles don’t do the trick. There’s plenty of wood stacked on the side of the cabin, what do you all think?” Steve asked, looking at Olivia. We all agreed that it was a good idea. “I’ll go get the wood then,” Steve stated, as he walked toward the front door to go out.

  “Hey, did anyone check the bedroom or whatever is in that room?” I said, pointing at a closed door to another room. We looked at each other, and no one said that it was checked. It was funny what happened next because the four of us walked over to the door at the same time. Mike raced over to be the first to open the door, and then the three of us collided into each other behind Mike.

  Mike opened the door, and it screeched open like the doorjamb was rusted out. Mike and the rest of us walked into a mixture of a bedroom and a storage room. There was an antique-looking dresser and the bed looked the same. The two pillows and bedspread were supposed to be white, but over time, they had become a light yellowish color and were dusty looking. Brown cardboard boxes were stacked throughout the room, and there was an old nightstand with a dusty lamp on it beside the bed. Some woodworking tools[pe3], and an ax were leaning against the wall beside an open box full of pictures with frames. A footlocker was at the end of the bed, an American flag still on an outdoor hanger was draped in one of the corners, and blankets and sheets were piled up on the floor next to the bed.

  “I call dibs on the bed tonight, guys!” yelled Mike.

  “I call shotgun!” yelled Emma.

  “Hell, I call the couch then!” I yelled back.

  “Well hell, where am I going to sleep?” Olivia asked.

  “Maybe you and Steve can make something out of these blankets and sheets on the floor?” Emma asked.

  “Maybe you can sleep in Steve’s car since there’s a lot of room in the back. It’s carpeted and better than being on this nasty floor, Olivia,” Mike suggested.

  “I guess, but I’ll be hanging out here before I go to sleep in the car by myself.”

  “Get Steve to sleep in the front seat and keep you company, Olivia. He has no real choice; he can either sleep on the floor or sleep in his car,” I stated.

  Being nosy that we all were, we started looking through the boxes and the closet. We found some old family photos from a bygone era. Most of them were photos at the cabin that we were in and photos on the lake. Many of them were funny pictures of what I guessed were Steve’s family. They liked to stick their tongues out at the camera, pose in strange ways, and hide their faces. Mike and Emma were looking at one album while Emma and I were checking out another when Steve dropped some wood on the floor in the living room.

  “Are you all still in the bedroom, guys?” Steve yelled out.

  “No shit, Sherlock, what made you come up with that deduction?” Olivia replied back.

  Steve came to the door and saw what we were up to and stated, “Come on, guys, get out of that stuff. Stop being nosy and get out of here,” he said, as he grabbed the album I had out of my hands.

  “Your family looks fun, Steve. I loved your pictures,” Emma said, while she closed the album she had and put it in a box.

  “Yeah, Steve, you looked cute as a kid. What happened to you?” Olivia asked.

  “The same thing that happened to you, turd,” Steve replied with a grin.

  After getting out of the room, Emma suggested we go on down to the lake and look around.

  “Sounds like a good idea, Emma,” Mike replied.

  Chapter Two

  We all left the cabin, pushing through some of the small shrubs and brush. Finally, there was the lake in front of us.

  “Gross, what is that green stuff on the bottom, Steve?” Olivia asked, as she pointed toward the water

  “Yeah, what is it? It’s on some of the rocks also,” Emma stated.

  “It’s just algae, it won’t hurt you. It just feels weird and squishy on your feet when you step on it. My aunt Anita used to call it mushy gushies when we were kids,” Steve replied.

  “There’s a good spot for sunbathing, guys,” Mike said, pointing to an open area where the sun was shining through on the sand.

  “Does anyone want to go swimming now or just hang out here?” I asked.

  Olivia started to take off her shirt top, to my surprise, because I thought she didn’t have on anything under her shirt. But she had on a bikini top on underneath, and then she took off her shorts in quick succession and was wearing the matching bottoms. We all watched her to see what she was about to do next. She quickly took off her shoes, ran into the water, and then dove under.

  “I guess that was a yes,” I stated.

  “Come on, the water feels good!” Olivia yelled, as she came up from diving under.

  Emma had her bathing suit on under her clothes as well and did the same thing that Olivia had done. She ran down to the water and splashed her way in, yelling, “It’s cold! It’s cold!” and then dove under.

  The three of us on the beach got a good laugh at Emma plunging into the water. Since we looked like we were not ready to go into the water, Steve yelled to the girls swimming that we would come back in a few minutes with towels and some food.

  As we started to walk back to the cabin, Emma yelled, “Hurry up and get our bags for us please, the water is cold!”

  “I’ll get the cooler if someone can grab the charcoal and the grill,” Steve stated.

  “I’ll get those and Will can get the girls’ bags,” Mike said, while looking at me.

  “No problem,” I replied. We went back to the car and retrieved all of the bags and stuff for cooking out. We went inside the cabin to drop off the bags, changed into our swimming attire, and then headed back down to the lake.

  Steve quickly stopped for some reason and said, “Dude, what the hell is that?” to Mike and me. We both stopped and looked at Steve in a state of panic as he looked toward the water in front of us.

  “What?” I asked Steve.

  “Something is in the water midway out. It looks like something black and round,” Steve replied. He was in somewhat of a panic as he put down his cooler. Mike and I looked out toward the water and couldn’t see anything. “Son of a bitch, it went under,” Steve said.

  “Don’t go fucking with us, Steve, that shit isn’t funny,” Mike said with a fearful look on his face.

  “I’m not, guys, I’m telling you there was something like a black hump or a head sticking up out of the water out there.”

  “It might have been Nessie the Loch Ness Monster taking a swim,” I said sarcastically.

  “I’m not shitting you, guys, what I saw was real. I’m not going in the water; fuck that,” Steve said. He was freaked out.

  We continued down to the beach where the girls were still swimming and told the girls what Steve had seen as we put down our luggage.

  “Dude, I saw the same thing!” Olivia said from the water.

  “What did you see, Olivia?” Mike asked, as Emma and Olivia were getting out of the water.

  “I saw something like a blackhead from Steve’s face floating on the water, and then it was gone,” Olivia stated sarcastically.

  “Good try, guys, who came up with that bull-crap story to try and freak us out?” Emma asked us. />
  “Believe what you want to, but I’m not going in the water until whatever I saw is gone,” Steve replied.

  “If you did see something out there, Steve, it could have been a bird, a big-ass turtle, or maybe a submarine. Just stay in the shallow part of the water if you’re scared; we’ll take care of you,” Emma stated.

  “Whatever, I’m gonna go and get the grill started, so we can eat, guys. You girls aren’t allowed,” Steve said with a grin on his face as he walked away. The girls got into their bags and grabbed their towels and dried off while Mike and I found a spot to lay our towels on the sand.

  After drying off, the girls laid their towels out onto the sand too and basked in the sun. The four of us spoke about how school was going for us, and then Olivia and I teased Mike and Emma a bit about their relationship. It was fun making Emma blush a bit, and Mike couldn’t answer how far he was going in the relationship. Not long had passed before we heard Steve yelling from the cabin.

  “Did you guys hear me? Come and get it!”

  “I don’t smell anything, do you, Mike?” Emma asked Mike.

  “I don’t smell anything, and I to God hope he cooked something because I’m starving,” Mike replied.

  I yelled back to Steve that we were coming, as the four of us headed back to the cabin.

  As we pushed through the brush to get to the cabin, I found something that looked like a snakeskin of sorts. I picked it up and carried it with me on the way to the cabin. Steve was standing at the back door with his grill fired up. As we got to the cabin, we could see sandwiches grilling.

  “What are you cooking there, Steve?” Olivia asked.

  “We got some grilled cheese sandwiches, boys and girls, look at that cheese just bubbling out,” Steve replied, as he flipped a sandwich over.

  “Guys, let’s take a moment and remember that the next time we are together, we don’t ask Steve to bring the food,” Olivia stated, shaking her head.

  “What? What’s wrong with grilled cheese sandwiches?” Steve said, a bit mad. “I grew up going to the lake and the beach having grilled cheese sandwiches. I’m sorry that I don’t have steak and lobster for you, Ms. Queen Victoria,” Steve stated to Olivia, while giving her the spatula.

  “Damn, someone’s testy,” Olivia replied.

  “I don’t care what the hell we’re having. I’ll have a grilled tire if that’s on the menu. I’m hungry as hell,” Mike said, while he grabbed some chips off a nearby picnic table.

  “Hey, grab some of the paper plates and bring them over here to the grill, while you’re not doing anything,” I said to Mike.

  “Bullshit, I am doing something. I’m opening this bag of chips and I’m going to stuff my face first,” Mike replied.

  Emma walked over to Mike with a smile on her face and grabbed the bag out of his hands. She then picked up the plates and forced them into Mike’s belly. “Thinking about yourself again, hunh? Get over there and give those paper plates out to everyone so they can eat,” Emma said to Mike, while pointing at the grill.

  “Yes ma’am, I’m sorry,” Mike said, with his head hanging low.

  The grilled cheese sandwiches were pretty good, and Olivia actually apologized to Steve while we ate. We ended up using the whole loaf of bread because we were so hungry. Steve hadn’t done too badly with the lunch to me. He had dill pickles, potato chips, sodas, and Reese’s cups for after. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about the Reese’s cups; he had a huge bag of those. I mentioned to everyone that I had found what looked like a big snakeskin or its shedding skin while coming back up to the cabin.

  Steve, being a know-it-all, said, “There’s no big snakes in Maine there, buddy; you probably found my grandmother’s nylon stocking from a hundred years ago.”

  “Hold on a second, I’ll go get it,” I said, as I got up from the picnic table. I had to prove Steve wrong, so I went down to the bushes where I had dropped the snakeskin and picked it back up to show everyone. As I was heading back to the table, I noticed that this thing in my hand no longer looked like a snakeskin. “Okay, well, it’s not a snakeskin, but what the hell is it, guys?” I asked everyone as I put the thing on the table.

  “Gross, what the hell is that?” Emma asked.

  “Dude, that’s a molt from a spider!” Mike responded to everyone.

  “A what?” I asked Mike.

  “It’s when spiders shed. It’s kind of like what snakes do with their skin.”

  “Are you friggin’ telling me that this two-foot-long piece of whatever is part of a spider? Please tell me you’re kidding,” Steve asked.

  “I think it could be. It also could be some dried-up packing tape that’s been around for a while. Spiders don’t shed this big, so it’s probably that old, brown packing tape I saw in one of the boxes, in the cabin.”

  “Will, can you get rid of that thing before I freak out over what Mike just said?” Olivia asked me.

  “Yeah, you guys are getting better with these campfire stories, get it out of here,” Emma stated.

  I reached over and picked up the dried tape and tossed it in a metal trash can next to the cabin door.

  We all went back down to the lake and hung out there for about two hours before we got chilled by the afternoon breeze. We decided to go back to the cabin and clean it up a little bit and see what the kitchen had for snacking.

  “I don’t think there’s anything in the cabinets that may be healthy enough to eat, guys. I mean, my grandparents haven’t been to the cabin for years now.”

  “I hope no one left anything in the refrigerator; that would be gross,” Emma stated.

  “Some things stay good for many years like spaghetti, dry goods, canned stuff, maybe there’s something’s like that,” I commented.

  When we got to the cabin, all of us headed into the kitchen and started opening cabinet doors.

  “Holy shit, look what I found!” Olivia said excitedly, while holding up two wine bottles.

  “Oh my God, I know what I’m having for dinner tonight!” Emma replied, while going over to grab one of the bottles from Olivia.

  “I found a crap ton of canned food. Let’s see, spaghetti and meatballs, peas, corn, spinach, beans, asparagus, potatoes, soup, chili, nasty ass Spam, fruit cocktail, chicken, and other stuff I can’t reach in the back. I hit the motherload,” Mike said excitedly.

  “Yeah, well, I found dust and some rat shit in my cabinet,” I replied.

  “Well, some of that stuff might go good with the hotdogs and burgers that I have in the cooler. What kind of beans did you find, Mike?” Steve asked, while walking over to Mike.

  “Not the kind of beans we would eat with burgers and hot dogs, Steve. Green beans and kidney beans are what I found,” Mike replied.

  Steve then looked over to Olivia and said, “Well then, let’s get the wine and put it in the cooler to get it chilled for later, since there’s nothing in here.” Olivia gave the wine bottles to Steve, and he then walked outside to the cooler.

  “Being a nerd that I am, did you guys know that Steve’s cooler doesn’t need ice? It’s a twelve-volt electric cooler that gets cold only by sticking the power cord into a car’s twelve-volt outlet,” Mike said, as he looked over at Emma with a smile and eyebrows raised.

  “See Mike, this is the reason why I like you. You’re so cool like the cooler and nerdy at the same time,” Emma said, as she walked over to Mike and held his hand.

  “You two are so queer, why don’t you both just get a room and get it over with?” Olivia said, walking away into the living room.

  I was curious about what Mike had said about the cooler. I wondered if the car needed to be running to keep the cooler working. I decided to go outside to meet up with Steve, but Steve and the cooler weren’t there. Steve had gone to his car with the cooler to plug it into one of the outlets. I tracked him down pretty easily because Steve started his car and was revving his engine like it was a race car ready to take off. As I was walking to the car, I could smell something like oil b
urning, and then I saw smoke coming out from under Steve’s car. “Steve!” I yelled and waved to get Steve’s attention, as I started to run to the driver’s side door.

  Steve smiled and revved the engine even more.

  As I got to the door, I yelled, “Turn off the engine!”

  Just then it was like Steve finally realized that something was wrong and turned his car off.

  “Your car’s smoking!” I yelled, as I tried to readjust to the car noise being gone.

  Steve’s eyes were wide open, like he’d just gotten shocked, and pushed his car door open. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Steve was yelling angrily as he got out of his car and ran to the front of it, trying to open the hood. “Hey, release the hood latch, Will!” Steve suggested.

  I then reached into the car and pulled the hood latch, hoping in some way I could help. The hood raised and a huge plume of dark-colored smoke billowed out from underneath the hood. The smell was again awful and smelled like burnt oil and now something else. Steve, waving the smoke away as much as he could, yelled, “Son of a bitch!” as he looked closely at the engine. “Will, look under the car to see if you see anything leaking,” Steve said.

  I lay down on my side to look under the engine compartment and caught a glimpse of oil all over the ground. I stood up and looked at Steve with my lips curled in, not knowing how to break the news.

  Just then Steve looked up at me, after being bent over the engine, and said, “What? No, don’t say it.” Then Steve quickly got down on his knees and looked under the car. “What the fuck!” Steve yelled. “That friggin’ oil pan has a hole in it, and my stupid ass was blowing the oil out of it while racing the engine. Great, just fucking great,” Steve said angrily.

  I didn’t want to get in Steve’s way or ask any questions because he looked like he could rip a tree in half at that point. I knew that we all were in trouble if Steve lost all of his oil in the car due to the oil pan not having any more oil coming out of it. “I’ll be back, Steve,” I said quickly, as I left to go back to the cabin. I had to see if there were any tools that could help fix the hole in the oil pan.