[ACT 3] Chapter #11: Prey

"Hey, have you guys heard of the Haunted Cemetery of Patrick Road, up in Napa Valley?" Lucas asks us as we wait for the final bell to ring so we can get the hell out of this damn school.

"No, never heard of it," I admit, glancing over at Ella, who shrugs halfheartedly.

"Never been to Napa in general," she tells us.

"What about you Mara?" Lucas asks, tapping her shoulder. She glares back at him, uninterested by the entire conversation. When he continues to wait for a response, she sighs.

"Is that near where those three people almost got killed by that cult? Where that one guy lost his arm?" Mara questions in an unenthusiastic tone.

"Naw, that was like four hours up north, in the mountains or some shit I think. Napa's only like an hour away," I answer her. She shrugs and shakes her head, telling us she doesn't know.

"Anyway, check this shit out you guys, a couple of seniors in my first period told me about it. Apparently, Patrick Road leads out of the nearby town, and if you go to the end of the road and wait, these things called Rebob's will come out and get you," Lucas tells us with a wide grin and twinkling eyes. We just stare back at him like he's dumb.

"What the fuck is a Rebob…" Mara retorts with a sneer.

"There's a whole urban legend about the road. It's named after this family who lived near the end of the road called the Patrick's, and there was some crazy scientist who lived there. At some point durin' World War II, the scientist was doin' some weird testing shit, tryin' to make some weird typa super soldiers or somethin' like that. He would take corpses from the graveyard nearby and do some weird Frankenstein shit by fusing together parts of bats and monkey's for added strength and hearing, tryin' to alter their DNA altogether. Well, once he perfected his crazyass experiments, he began kidnapping random people, modifying them with animal parts, altering their entire DNA like he had planned so that they could go and fight the Nazi's and help win the war. Apparently, after he made a good number of successful Rebob's, as he called them. They ended up gettin' outta control and killing the scientist for all the abuse he'd put them under. They took over his house, and started fuckin', having crazy little mutant babies, and get this, the babies grew wings from the bat DNA, and ended up lookin' like the flying monkeys from The Wizard Of Oz.

"After a while, the house got too full and they had to take to the nearby forest to claim it as their new home. So, if you drive down to the end of Patrick Road and wait for a little while, you can see them up in the trees, glaring down at you with red eyes. And this is the crazy shit, people have been goin' up there for years, and they say that if you go to the Cemetery that the scientist took the bodies from at night, and screech like a chimpanzee, they'll show themselves!" Lucas says excitedly. I begin to snicker.

"Sounds… fake as fuck," I tell him honestly, half chuckling.

"But it's kinda creepy though… How often do you hear of shit like that happening out here?" Ella says, her interest greatly peaked, her eyebrows raised, and a sly smile spread over her lips.

"Well, there was that cult Mara just mentioned, and that massacre in the hills with that family having all been killed, as well as their relatives…" I mutter. Everyone sort of just ignores the comment though.

"Why are you asking about this anyway?" Mara questions, turning around fully so that it's easier to talk with us. Lucas' smile grows wider now, showing all his teeth as he makes sure to look at the three of us, leaning back cockily.

"Do you guys wanna go check it out?" he inquires, a single eyebrow propped up.

"How? None of us have a car," Ella sighs.

"My parents are outta town for the weekend to visit my great aunt, and my mom left her SUV," he replies with a large smirk, pulling out a tangle of jumbled car keys from his pocket. "So, how about it? Wanna go check it out?"

"Yes!!!" Ella pipes up instantly, almost bouncing in her seat with excitement.

"…Ain't got nothin' better to do, so sure, I guess so," Mara agrees as well after thinking it over awhile before gazing over at me. I catch her gaze for a moment, then cast a quick glance at the other two who wait with huge grins.

"Don't you guys wanna do anythin' else? Go see a movie or somethin'? I'm sure I can get some tree for us so we can just chill and eat up on Telegraph. I'll even settle for goin' to the City if you guys want!" I counter, hoping to sway the others.

"Come on man! You tellin' me you really don't wanna come with us?" Lucas asks, shooting a quick look at Mara and back at me. "Or I could just take the lovely girls out for a good time by myself if you really want, that's fine with me too."

"It'll be fun, come with us Jack," Mara insists, giving me a small smile. I sigh, giving her a look as her smile broadens, knowing she's won.

"Fine," I agree as well. They all rejoice, just as the bell rings. Our teacher dismisses us and we all gather our things, shoving them in our bags before heading out of the class and into the hall.

"Ey, can you still get some weed?" Lucas asks quietly while we walk to our lockers, having them right beside one another this year. I unlock mine, shove all of the textbooks inside, and pull out a Ziploc bag of glistening green nugs. "Why'd you make it seem like you didn't have any?" he questions as I shove it into my pack.

"I don't really wanna go on this monster/ghost hunt with you guys," I admit as we walk out of the building, pushing our way through the crowds until we finally make it outside of the school, waiting for the girls at the usual spot.

"Why not? You usually love this type of shit bruh," Lucas asks, a little bummed by my reaction.

"I don't know dude, I just got a bad feeling about this for some reason…"

"We'll be a'ite bruh, don't trip offa that shit. It'll be fun, and it seems like Mara really wants you to come," he notes, nudging my arm with a shit-eating grin.

"I know, that's the only reason I'm goin'. I still don't think this is a good idea though…"

The girls meet us after a few more seconds, letting us head over to Lucas' car. We start it up and pile in, tossing all of our bags into the trunk, then zoom over to a pizza joint to eat before we head up. We smoke a blunt before we go in, hotboxing the vehicle, then walking calmly into the restaurant to gorge ourselves before going on our adventure. We end up staying at the pizza place for a good two hours, chatting about school gossip, happenings with friends, and homework given over the weekend. After a while, we decide to finally leave, knowing that we need to at least make our way up to Napa before it gets dark.

We pile back into the car and drive through the Friday traffic for an hour and a half before we finally make it into the surrounding town. It was kind of a sad drive honestly, passing through a lot of the area where the wildfires had burned through the countryside of northern California last fall and during the summer. Most of the landscape was charred, though they had done a good job of getting the rest of the ash to finally disperse, clearing the air. It was surprising that the town and its surrounding area wasn't charred to hell itself, probably due to the fire department. Still, I know that farther up north in Chico, the fires burned worse than here, so it's a bit strange that even the vineyards are still untouched in the area. We continue along the edge of the town until finding the so-called cursed street, turning down the long winding Patrick road, passing a few wineries as we search for any sign of the flying monkeys, but finding nothing whatsoever.

"Sweet, finally here!!!" Lucas exclaims happily as we pull up to the end of the road. "Let's get out and look around!"

"I gotta pee so bad!" Ella admits as she opens the door and leaps out. Mara follows close behind her and they both rush off behind a couple of large bushes.

"Ey, be careful!" I call out. Lucas chuckles behind me. "What?"

"Nothin', it's kinda funny watchin' you fawn after Mara."

"I'm not fawning after her. We're in a weird place in the middle of nowhere. Who the fuck knows what's out here? There could be some fuckin' creeper out here."

"Haha, okay man, whatever, let's just check out the trees while we wait for them to finish up," he suggests as he walks over towards the surrounding wooded area. I follow him, gazing up at the trees. We search around for a good five minutes, still finding nothing, when I start worrying about the girls. I head over to the bushes they disappeared behind and call out for them, but they don't respond. I call out again, louder this time, to have hands appear from the bush and pull me in. I'm dragged through the bushes by Mara, who looks terrified. 

"What's wrong? Did someone mess with you guys?" I whisper, gazing around.

"We're not sure, but we heard something running around the bushes, coming from the woods," Ella whispers back. "We thought you guys were tryna sneak a peek, so we went to go check it out after we finished, but all we saw was a tall guy, staring at us from behind some trees. He didn't see us, but we didn't want him to come running at us if we called out for you guys."

"Come on, let's get the fuck outta here," I tell them, ushering them out of the bushes quickly and heading toward the car. "Lucas!"

"What?" he calls out, hurrying back from the edge of the woods. 

"There's some fuckin' crazy dude out here who was peepin' on Ella and Mara, we should go."

"What? We just got here man! Are you sure it was even a guy?!" he complains instantly, slouching the rest of the way over to us.

"Yes, it was a guy!! The fuck Luke! Why would we lie about something like that?!" Mara retorts angrily, her ears starting to burn red under her short pixie cut hair. Ella nods defensively beside her, and my frown deepens.

"Dude, seriously… We can fuckin' come back up here whenever the fuck we want! Don't be an asshole right now!"

"I'm not bein' a asshole Jack! Don't make me out to be the bad guy just so you can score points with a girl who barely fuckin' notices you!" he retorts, frustrated. I just stare back angrily, my cheeks burning red.

"Wow Luke… really? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Ella chimes in with a disgusted tone, shoving him a bit. He raises his arms defensively, pointing out to the woods. 

"I just wanna make sure there was an actual fuckin' person out there, before we have to drive for another hour back to Berkeley! What did you see? Was it really a tall guy? Could you make out any features or anything?" he asks calmly, trying to be reasonable now.

"We couldn't make out much. He was shadowy from what we could see, but he was tall, and his eyes were glowing from what we could make out, almost like a cats," Ella admits.

"Wait, it had… reflective eyes?!" Lucas asks with wide eyes, his bitchy attitude gone immediately. "YOU GUYS!!! You saw it! It was a Rebob!!! You guys saw a Rebob!!! Where was it at?!"

"Behind the bushes, towards where you said Patrick Cemetery is supposed to be," Mara says begrudgingly, eyes still narrowed as she looks at him.

"Fuck yeah!" he says and starts trudging through the woods. When he notices us not following him, he stops and turns back around. "Hurry up Suckas!"

"Ugh, I guess let's follow him before he disappears," Ella groans, following him into the dark.

"Are we really doin' this?" Mara questions angrily.

"Unless you two wanna stay there by yourselves and wait for the weirdo to come by," Lucas shouts from the woods as he and Ella press farther in, their phone lights out now and searching all around them. Mara scrunches up her face for a second before finally sighing. She grabs the sleeve of my jacket and pulls me along with her. We hang back from the other two, unsure of what to say to one another, Lucas' words ringing in my head, bothering the fuck out of me with how he could not only be a huge dick, but also be right at the same time.

"Hey," she murmurs quietly, tugging on my hand. I glance back, waiting for her to talk. "I'm sorry if it seems like I'm just leavin' you hangin' a lot of the time. I know that you like me."

"It's okay, I never really expected you to like me back. I was just kinda content with bein' friends honestly Mara," I admit, surprised that she's actually holding my hand now. I just sum it up to her being freaked out still, her eyes flickering around the forest as we shine our lights among the treetops and forest floor. "I am surprised that you started hangin' out with us though. You didn't seem like you liked us at first."

"I don't like Luke. He's a cocky asshole, acts privileged. Seems like he's finally showin' his true colors tonight," she confides, giving my hand a light squeeze. "Ella's cool though… Annnnnd, I like you too."

I glance down and see her blushing as she looks the other way. I feel my heart begin to pound a bit faster and my cheeks burn red again, a big, dumb, gleeful grin spreading over my lips. Before I can respond, Ella shrieks out on the path ahead. We hurry to catch up to them, finding the corpse of… something… on the ground. 

After a lot of bickering, we decide it's a deer after Mara guessed it. But… something is horribly wrong with it. Its fur is completely white with small patches of gray where its spots would've probably been, like all the color had been drained from it. Its tongue hangs out of its mouth, dried up and shriveled, and is gray too. Its eyes are gone, leaving only a dry hollow socket. 

"What… the… fuck…" I whisper as I examine it closer. There's a large wound on its back, what seems to be a huge jagged bite mark from, I don't know, a cougar or something else that size. It's so large we could look inside of it a bit, the meat clinging to the crunchy fur tightly. I crouch down and pick up a stick, sliding it into the largest part of the wound, prying it open wider to check out the inside of the strange bite, only to hear a large CRACK, which is followed by dozens of tiny snaps. As I pry it open, confusion already plastered on my face becomes heavier, concern furrowing my brow as I examine it further.

"That's not natural, is it?" Lucas asks, crouching down beside me.

"No… Dead flesh doesn't turn white after you die, it just rots away. And fur shouldn't be this color on a deer either… they don't live long enough for it to turn fully gray like humans. At most, it'll have patches of gray, but that's it. This is something… unnatural," I answer and stand up, snapping a picture of the dead animal before looking around, making sure nothing is sneaking around us.

"Could it be because there isn't any blood left in the meat?" he asks, still checking out the deer.

"Maybe. I'm not sure about that one Luke… but that shit's weird," I respond, seeing a few random leaves fall from the treetops about 20 feet away. I shine my line up, but don't see anything, just an extreme feeling of unease creeping over my skin, my hair raising as goosebumps spread. "We gotta get outta here…"

"Oh my GOD bruh… come the fuck on! Again with this bullshit?!! Things are finally gettin' interestin'! Are you tellin' me you're gonna pussy out on me after we've already come this far, just because of some dead deer that's prolly been rotting here for a few days?!" he sneers, an arrogant glare in his eyes as he stares me down. I hold my piercing gaze until he turns away with a scoff, continuing towards the cemetery. "Like I said, if you wanna wait for us at the car, go the fuck ahead! But I'm goin' to that graveyard and takin' a fuckin' picture of this thing!"

"You should be more concerned with the fact that whatever the fuck did this to the deer is still out there, and if we're not careful we'll run into it and be FUCKED!!!" I yell back. He brushes his hand through the air to blow me off. The girls stand with me, unsure with what to do, but clearly freaked out by the sight of the strange corpse. "Come on, I guess," I tell them, and they look at me like I'm crazy. "Believe me, I wanna wait in the car too… But he's got the motherfuckin' keys… We gotta stay with him just in case he does get into trouble, otherwise we're all walking back to town."

"We should've just gone up to Telegraph and smoked like you said…" Ella mumbles. I almost laugh at the thought, my high completely gone with this turn of events.

"Yeah…" Mara chimes in, both highly regretting this whole monster hunt that's turning too real too suddenly for them. I nod, wishing the same thing, but not wanting to be a bitch by saying "I told you so". I start back up, with them hurrying along with me as we walk after Lucas, who has completely disappeared amongst the trees, not even the light from his phone visible anymore. I feel Mara grab my hand again, inching closer than before, fear truly being her incentive this time as sweat beads down her face and neck. Ella's no better, her eyes wide with anticipation that something will spring out on us any minute now. I feel the same way honestly, that same feeling of unease crawling over my skin as before while we hike along the forest floor. All I have on me is my knife like always, but a six-inch switchblade won't be worth much against a mountain lion, or whatever the fuck is out there stalking us.

"How did he get so far ahead so quick?!" Ella asks, a hint of concern in her voice.

"I'm pretty sure he either ran up ahead to be a dick, or he's hidin' behind one of these trees to pop out and scare us…" I reply, hearing some rustling above us in the trees. I halt and shine the light up again, finding more leaves floating down, but no sign of what had caused them to flutter down.

"…Where…did those come from?" Mara asks as she peers around nervously, her grip on my hand tightening. "There's no wind…"

"I know…I'm not sure… Just keep your eyes peeled, okay? If we see anything at all, we're gonna needa make a run for it… And fast."

And we continue on, hushed and alert, as we feel the eyes licking at us from the shadows, like a dog on a bone. None of us will say it, but it's become abundantly clear… There's something out here… And we've become its prey…