Serpent Mound - 8. Little Mall of Horrors

“I think we need to get out of the house!” the teenage blonde girl screamed at the others.

“The doors are locked,” her muscular boyfriend yelled, shaking the doorknob futilely, “We’re trapped in here!”

“It has us exactly where it wants us,” the dark-haired goth girl replied to them both. “None of us are getting out of here alive.”

“If it wasn’t for you and your stupid Ouija board bullshit,” the other boy shouted, “We wouldn’t even be in this fucking mess, bitch.”

“Why don’t you go and do some more bong hits,” the goth-girl snapped back, “And maybe that will fix everything. It seems to be the only thing you’re good at.”

“Everybody shut up!” the mousey girl with brown hair and glasses screamed, “Fighting amongst ourselves isn’t going to get us out. We have to work together! Let’s go down to the basement and see if we can get out through the old cellar door that opens to the backyard. The wood is old, and it’s just held by a padlock. I bet if the two guys work together, they can break it open, and we’ll be free.”

The five teens ran to the basement stairs. The football jock, the cheerleader, the goth-girl, the stoner, and the nerdy girl.

“The smart girl is going to be the only one who survives till the end,” Joe whispered to Bernie, George, and Peter.

“How do you know that?” Peter asked. “There’s still almost 90 minutes of movie left.”

“Because…” Joe replied, “The smart, virgin girl is always the last one to die. Halfway through the movie, she’s going to lose her glasses, her shirt will get torn exposing her cleavage, her hair bun is going to come loose, and then we’re supposed to see how fucking hot she really is. But she’ll still be the smoking-hot smart virgin who makes it to the end of the movie.”

“It’s no use!” the cheerleader cried as the bare lightbulb illuminating the basement swung back and forth wildly casting crazy shadows across the basement, “The door just won’t break!”

“Well, if we’re stuck down here,” the stoner said, “I plan on being nice and baked when the ghost comes to get me.”

The stoner reached into his backpack and pulled out a joint and a lighter. The other four glared at him as he lit the joint and took a big hit. As he exhaled, a white cloud filled the screen.

“Shit, that’s a big hit off of that joint,” George said, “How did his lungs hold that much smoke?”

The smoke in the basement swirled around and around, and then began to seep out of the screen at the front of the theater.

“Whoa!” Peter exclaimed in a loud whisper, “That’s a cool effect! How are they getting it to come out of the screen like that? Is this supposed to be a 3D movie?”

“No, dumbass,” Joe whispered back, “We’d have to be wearing those special 3D glasses if it was. They probably have smoke machines behind the screen or something.”

Bernie looked up and saw the smoke spreading across the ceiling of the theater like a floating white blanket. He didn’t like the looks of it. It reminded him too much of the white mist that had caused him so much trouble.

“Well, I for one am not going to sit around getting high off your second-hand smoke while we all wait to die,” the football jock exclaimed, “I’m trying that cellar door one more time!”

The muscular jock ran at the steps leading to the wooden doors at full speed and used his upper body like a battering ram. To everyone’s surprise they burst open with a loud splintering of wood, and the jock fell backwards down the steps and landed on the basement floor on his side.

“Whoa,” Joe whispered, “That’s different. Part of the plot of these movies is that nobody can get outside the house, and nobody else can get in until everyone inside is dead.”

The cloud of pot smoke on the screen collected in the stairwell to the backyard, creating a thick fogbank that the five teens would have to ascend through to exit the house. They clung to each other in a terrified group as they climbed the stairs and entered the smoke. As they did, the blanket of white mist covering the ceiling of the theater descended upon the theater seats.

Bernie and his three friends breathed in the noxious mist, and they all stood up, choking and coughing.

“Okay,” Joe shouted, “Special effects or not, this is bullshit! I can’t breathe!”

“What’s going on?” Peter yelled, reaching out and grabbing George’s arm. “This smoke is bad, and I can’t see! This isn’t like any movie I’ve ever seen before!”

“Man,” the stoner whined, “I’m going to kick my dealer’s ass for selling me this bad, trippy weed!”

“I don’t think this is your pot smoke, anymore,” the nerdy girl replied, coughing, “This isn’t normal!”

“Somebody do something!” the cheerleader screamed, “Can anybody hear me? Please help us!”

“Dude,” Joe yelled, waving the mist away from his face, “What the fuck is going on in this theater?”

“Is somebody there?” the goth-girl cried out, “We can hear you; can you help us?”

“Guys,” Bernie said, trying to remain calm, “I think we need to get out of here. Now!”

As Bernie finished his words, the mist descended to the floor and disappeared in a great woosh of air.

The boys uncovered their faces and looked around.

They were no longer in the movie theater.

They were no longer with the few other movie patrons who shared the theater at the start of the picture.

They were now standing in a dense forest at twilight. Bernie reached out and felt the trunk of a nearby tree. It was real, as were the dead leaves and pine needles that were scattered around the brown boots of their day uniforms. He looked up and ten feet away were five other people staring back at them.

The five people were the jock, the cheerleader, the goth-girl, the stoner, and the nerd girl.

“Are you in the Army?” the cheerleader asked the four boys, “Did you come to save us from the house?”

“What house?” the goth-girl replied, “It’s completely gone.”

“Where did you four come from?” the jock asked suspiciously.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Joe replied defiantly. “One minute we’re watching the five of you trapped in a house in a movie, and then the theater fills with smoke, and now we’re here.”

“Guys,” Bernie said urgently to his three friends, “We’ve got to get out of here, now! These are the woods from my dreams, and they aren’t safe!”

“It’s him!” the stoner yelled, pointing at Bernie. “He brought us here!”

“You shut the fuck up, pothead!” Joe yelled back, “It was your fucking smoke that did this, so it was you who brought us here!”

“Why are you four dressed like that?” the jock asked in a demanding tone. “Is this part of some crazy government military experiment? Are you fucking with us right now?”

“Asshole,” Joe replied, “We’re cadets at a military school. Today was supposed to be our day off. It’s our Free Day. We just wanted to hang out at the mall…”

Joe’s voice began to break with his last words, and he sat heavily on the ground among the leaves and pine needles.

“Everybody listen!” a voice shouted from the back of the group of five. It was the nerdy girl, and her four friends had to turn around to look at her.

“Whoever these guys are,” the girl said, “They’re in the same trouble as us. We need to work together to figure out how to escape this nightmare or whatever it is. If we are united, we stand a chance of survival. If we remain divided, whatever is causing this is just going to pick us off, one-by-one like some kind of bad horror movie.”

“This one is smart,” an unseen female voice said from behind the girl, “That won’t do at all…”

A second later, two sets of sharp claws attached to hairy paws burst through the girl’s abdomen and ripped her in two from the middle.

In the spot where nerd girl was standing just a moment before, a figure stepped forward. It was a woman with glowing green eyes and fiery red hair that blew all around her from a wind that none could see or feel. Her hands were bloody, covered in auburn fur and the fingers tipped in black wolf claws. As the eight teens gaped at her, she raised her arms, and they once again became human hands with long elegant nails.

“I don’t play by the rules,” the woman said with a sinister grin. “This is one time that the smoking-hot smart virgin girl does not make it to the end of the movie!”

Bernie and his friends were frozen in fear as dozens of figures stepped forward out of the gloom to stand behind the woman. Bernie recognized them from his nightly dreams. It was The People.

“You can end this right now, boy,” the woman said, staring directly at Bernie, “All you have to do is say my name and you can go back to watching your movie like good little soldiers.”

“Is she talking to you?” Joe asked, looking at Bernie, “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

Bernie nodded.

“She kidnapped me from my parents when I was four,” Bernie said to the others, “She probably killed my parents too, I never found out for sure. Somebody helped me escape when I was five, and she’s been trying to get me back ever since. It’s hard to explain, but if I say her name, her connection to me will be stronger, and she’ll know where I am. She’ll come and get me and take me away again.”

“Let’s just give him to the witch now, then!” the jock exclaimed, turning to move toward Bernie.

“Fuck you, asshole,” Joe said to the jock, stepping in front of Bernie, “And fuck you too, bitch. Nobody messes with my friend.”

“Why must humans always put up such a futile fight?” the woman asked aloud. She snapped her fingers, “People! Transform and hunt them all down! Bring them to me at the mounds!”

The figures standing behind the woman suddenly shredded their clothing as they changed into wolves, boars, and panthers. The assembly of creatures sprang at the eight humans standing before them.

“Dude!” Joe shouted, “Run!” and he grabbed Bernie’s arm and began running through the forest. George and Peter where right behind them when Peter was suddenly tackled by a panther and pinned to the ground.

“Don’t look!” Joe shouted, “Keep running! It’s Bernie she wants. She isn’t going to do anything to Peter or any of the rest of us unless she gets Bernie too!”

“How do you know that?” George asked, huffing with the effort of evading the pursuing creatures.

“Intuition,” Joe replied. “Trust me and help me keep Bernie safe.”

The woman watched the melee with glee as the humans scattered in all directions, running for their lives. She waved her hand and called a whisp of mist over to her side.

“One of the boy’s friends is missing,” the woman said to the mist. “He must not have been with the others in the movie theater. I want you to go back out into the real world where you found him today and bring the last one here. He is necessary for my plan.”

Joe, George, and Bernie ran through the woods with all the skill and effort that their physical training by the Staff Sergeant had prepared them. They emerged from the trees into a clearing filled with log cabins covered with sod roofs. Bernie had his bearings now.

“Turn right here!” Bernie said to Joe. “I remember this geography from my dream. There’s somebody who might be able to help us!”

They ran along a trail for several hundred feet before coming into another rocky clearing at the entrance to a cave. The cave was completely sealed by a set of iron bars as if it were a jail cell.

Bernie ran directly to the bars of the cave and began to shout.

“Papa! Help! If you can hear me, help us now!”

A thin and shaggy grizzly bear shuffled up to the bars of the cave and extended its arms through the bars of its prison, wrapping them around Bernie.

“Shit!” Joe exclaimed, “They’re everywhere! Let go of him you asshole!”

“No, Joe!” Bernie said, “This is my Papa bear. He’s the one who rescued me when I was five. That woman has kept him in this cave ever since, but she won’t dare get close to him.”

They heard the commotion of several wolves and boars closing in on their location.

“George, stay close to Bernie,” Joe said, “And both of you stay behind me. I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

George nodded and pressed himself against the bars of the cave alongside Bernie who was sill wrapped in the embrace of the pitifully thin bear.

“What’s he doing?” Bernie asked. “He can’t take them all on!”

“Just try not to freak out,” George replied. “Joe is… different.”

Joe stood in front of his friends and as the invaders grew close, his uniform was shredded to rags as he transformed into a huge and muscular wolf!

“Take one step closer to my friends,” Joe snarled in the wolf-language, “And I’ll rip your throats out. I’m younger, stronger, and better trained at lycan combat.”

The wolves and boars spread out into a semicircle around Joe.

“Joe is a werewolf?” Bernie exclaimed and felt an extra hug from his Papa through the bars.

“They actually don’t like that word,” George said almost casually despite the tense situation. “They prefer to be called ‘wolf-lycans’.”

The semicircle of lycans began to contract, Joe snarled and snapped at them but in the end he was outnumbered. They converged as one and piled upon the lone wolf pinning him to the ground as he fought tooth and nail.

The backup lycans transformed back into their human forms and grabbed at George and Bernie.

Bernie’s Papa growled and roared in the bear-language as his Cub was pulled from his arms, and soon all three boys were being dragged back through the woods to an uncertain doom.

****

Bernie must have passed out following his capture, as he was now shaken awake roughly. He was tied to a tree at the top of the mountain amid the coils of the serpent mound. Peter, George, and Joe were tied to other trees nearby. Joe had changed back into his human form, but the captors had not given him any clothing, so he was tied to his tree naked.

The four surviving movie characters-turned-real were captured as well and were all stripped naked and bound upon the four cardinal mounds. The goth-girl was tied upon the panther mound, the cheerleader on the wolf mound, the stoner on the boar mound, and the football jock on the bear mound.

“This must be familiar to you, boy,” the woman said to Bernie, “Do you remember when you were but a four-year-old child and you lay upon this very bear mound? You have the mark of the bear-god on your body to remind you of that every day of your life, don’t you? The bear-god claimed you on that day as his own, and you cannot run or hide from that forever.

“Today of all days you should know that you belong to The People, the village and the bear-god. Do you know why?”

Bernie remained silent and shook his head.

“You don’t know what day this is?” the woman asked in surprise, “I suppose you were too young when we took you and killed your family. There has been no one to remind you of your birthday each year since.”

Bernie’s eyes grew wide with recognition.

“Yes!” the woman exclaimed, “Now you understand! Today is your eighteenth birthday! We are ready for you to end this game of hide and seek and return to the village like a responsible adult. All you have to do is speak my name, and there will be no more repercussions to any of your companions.”

Bernie glared at the woman but remained silent.

“I see,” she said, “You still require a demonstration of the power of the Tuath D­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­é to convince you. Witness the fate that awaits your friends if you choose to remain silent!”

The woman dipped her head and began to chant. As the chant increased in volume, the five mounds began to glow with a green light. The movie characters-turned-real squirmed and squealed upon their glowing mounds.

After a minute of chanting, the green lights coalesced into the shapes of the wolf, panther, boar, and bear. The animals’ forms became solid, and they each stood on their hind legs, and plucked the person bound upon their mound off the ground with their front paws.

The four characters screamed in panic as the animal-gods opened their fearsome mouths and bit savagely into their necks. Their screams increased in intensity and volume as they did not bleed, but their very life essence was pulled from their bodies into the maw of the animal-gods. When there was nothing left but an empty, gray husk, the animal-gods threw the remains to the ground, where the husks quickly evaporated into a white mist that moved to hover over the head of the woman.

“Now do you see?” the woman asked Bernie. “Is this what you want for your friends? Say my name and all of this ends!”

Bernie clenched his jaw shut tightly and looked away.

“I see,” the woman replied. “You require yet another demonstration. How sad for your friends.”

“Bring in the fourth!” she shrieked, and a cloud of mist vaguely in the shape of a man brought forth Manny and Jenna.

Jenna was thrown at Bernie’s feet while Manny was taken to the Bear mound, stripped and bound. As pairs of the woman’s followers began to untie Joe, George, and Peter from their trees, Jenna stood up and held onto Bernie tightly.

“Jenna,” Bernie whispered, “How did you and Manny get here?”

“It was awful!” Jenna whispered back, on the verge of tears, “The whole mall filled with a thick mist, and the lights began to flicker on and off. People tried to run, but anyone who did ended up on the ground with broken legs or horrible head wounds. The smoke closed in on me and Manny, and we felt ourselves being lifted from the ground. The next thing we knew it was like we were in a tornado, and when the winds and smoke went away, we were here in this forest. What the fuck is going on?”

“The woman with the green glowing eyes is behind all this,” Bernie whispered to her, “I don’t think she’s really going to hurt any of them, but I’m the only one who can stop this.”

“My God, stop it already!” Jenna whispered, “This is a nightmare!”

“The problem is,” Bernie said, “If I give in, it probably means she gets my soul.”

Jenna’s mouth hung agape at this news, but she spoke no more, looking out instead as the four Cadets were stripped naked and bound atop the four animal mounds.

Joe was bound upon the wolf mound, George upon the panther mound, Peter upon the boar, and Manny upon the bear.

“This is your last chance, boy. Say my name or watch your friends’ souls become food for the gods!”

“Don’t do it, Bernie!” Joe shouted, “Fuck this bitch, and fuck this whole nightmare!”

The woman bowed her head and began to chant. The glow in her eyes intensified, and her hair blew back from her head again as if from an invisible wind. The mounds began to glow and coalesce into the animal-gods once again. The creatures became solid and stood upon their hind legs. They plucked the boys from the ground and held them aloft stretching their mouths full of razor-sharp teeth ready to bite and consume their souls.

Jenna screamed and squeezed Bernie’s arm looking away in terror. Bernie let out a howl and a scream…

“Rieka! Your name is Rieka, you fucking bitch! Let my friends go! Rieka, Rieka, Rieka!

The animal-gods were frozen in place, their maws inches away from the boy’s necks.

“See?” Rieka said, “That wasn’t so hard, was it? Enjoy the rest of your Saturday, boys. I’ll be seeing you soon.

“Very soon.”

Suddenly, the thick mist rose up from the ground all around and consumed them. When it lifted, Bernie, Joe, George, Peter, Manny and Jenna were all clothed and standing in the middle aisle of the movie theater once again. The mist continued to whirl near the ceiling, and spill out from the theater doors. The jock, cheerleader, goth-girl, stoner, and nerd girl were back on the screen where they belonged, trapped in their haunted house, but the other patrons of the cinema were abandoning their seats, running screaming from the theater and the strange smoky mist.

As the boys and Jenna quickly exited the theater behind the rest of the screaming movie-goers, mall security officers, police and firemen were waiting for them outside.

“I should have known that it was going to be trash from that Academy behind all this!” the mall manager shouted as the police officers stepped forward to detain the boys. “Imagine setting off smoke bombs and causing a panic inside a mall in these troubled times! I’m calling your Headmaster right now! I expect the lot of you will be expelled for this behavior!”

“What are you talking about?” Jenna yelled back at the mall manager, “These boys didn’t do a thing! They are just as much victims as the rest of the people here today!”

“We’ll see about that!” the manager said, “And if they are guilty, as I suspect they are, then you’ll be going to jail right along with them, young lady.”

“Bernie,” George whispered to their group after they were all roughly pushed down onto a bench in handcuffs to await Gary’s arrival, “Why would they think that we did this? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“That woman controls the white mist,” Bernie replied sadly. “Everywhere I’ve gone my entire life, that white mist has followed and caused trouble, and every time it caused trouble, I caught the blame.”

“Does Gary know about it?” Joe asked.

“Yes,” Bernie said. “Remember on my first day when the Staff Sergeant nearly drowned during my swimming test? It was the white mist that did it. I told Gary and the Staff Sergeant, and they both believed me. They’re the first ones who ever believed me.”

Just then, they heard the booming voice of their Headmaster coming down the hall.

“And just what proof do you have to implicate my Cadets? Think carefully before you answer, because if you continue to hold them without any evidence, I will sue this mall into the ground, and you will be lucky to get a retail job cleaning gerbil cages!”

They heard a panicked-sounding mumble, which was obviously the mall manager trying to state his case.

“Officer, are you hearing this bullshit?” Gary’s loud voice exclaimed next.

“I will give you exactly thirty seconds to let my Cadets go, or else I will inform this officer that I am pressing charges against you, personally, and have him arrest you on the spot. I suggest you go release them now!”

A few seconds later the mall manager scurried over to their bench with an agitated-looking police officer who began unlocking their cuffs.

“I told you they didn’t do it,” Jenna huffed. “You’re in so much shit this time, Eugene.”

The boys stood as soon as their cuffs were off, and they were able to turn and see Gary and Bill walking down the mall corridor toward them.

“Don’t think you lot are completely off the hook,” Gary said sternly. “You may not have been responsible for what happened here, but we’re going to have a talk about duping Rodney and Marcus to chauffeur you around town on your free days.”

“We do need to have a talk, sir,” Bernie replied. “It’s worse than you think. It was the white mist and the woman. And… she finally got me to say her name to save the other four from being killed.”

Gary and Bill shot each other a worried look.

“If that’s the case, then we’re all in deep shit,” Gary replied. “We need to get you back to the Academy and figure out how we’re going to fight that bitch!”

“Thank you, sir,” Bernie said, looking up at Gary with teary eyes.

“For what, Cadet?” Gary replied, “We haven’t beaten her yet. She has the upper hand right now.”

“Thank you for believing me,” Bernie replied and grabbed the big man into a hug.

“Always, Cub,” Gary said, hugging Bernie back. “Now, let’s get all of you someplace safe!”

“Manny?” Jenna asked as the group began to head for the door.

“Oh shit, babe,” Manny replied, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do that date next weekend.”

Jenna nodded and grabbed his face in both of her hands.

“You take care of whatever the fuck this is, fight that bitch, and you come back to me, understand?” she said, looking him directly in the eyes. Then she pulled his face down to her own and gave him a deep and long kiss.

When she finally released him, all six men, young and old, stood staring at the couple in disbelief.

“Yes, ma’am,” Manny replied with a grin and then turned to join his comrades.

“When this is over,” Gary whispered to Bill, “Remind me to add a sex-ed course to the Juniors’ curriculum.”

“I think Casanova over there is almost ready to teach the class!” Bill whispered back.