The Vendeleer Brothers Book 4: The Plagued Forest
Chapter 13: The Figure in the Mask

It was approaching nightfall, and Brian and Ian still had absolutely no idea where they were. At this time of the year, in this part of the country, there should have been a steady hum from the cicadas, but it was still unnaturally silent. A low fog rose up from the water, and the night began to grow cold. Much colder than it probably should have been. Ian led the boat to a little patch of dry land, not wanting to continue wandering around the dark in the swamp.

“You uh… Doing ok there Mr. Swamp Monster dude?” Brian asked, leaning over as it feebly pulled itself to dry land. It slumped over, looking exhausted. Ian and Brian frowned.

“I think he’s getting worse.” Ian commented with a sigh.

“Do you think that’s why the swamp seems to have gotten bigger?” Brian asked. “Cause I haven’t even seen anything remotely familiar to the town.”

In response, Ian shrugged and then lay down in the boat. “Well, we should probably get some rest. WE’ll try looking for that crystal place in the morning.

“But-.”

Ian had already closed his eyes, and so with a sigh, Brian lay down on the other side of the boat, looking up at the stars through the tree branches above them. He shivered a little, finding it hard to get comfortable. After a few minutes, he sat up.”

“Ian.” he whispered into the darkness. “Are you still awake?”

Ian didn’t respond, and Brian listened for a moment as he breathed softly from the other side of the boat.

“Guess not…” Brian said with another sigh, climbing out of the boat and onto the dry land. He slowly walked up to the swamp creature they had helped to save and stood there watching it for a moment. It’s large, sludgy body was slowly falling and rising in its sleep. Brian tilted its head at it, wondering what exactly it could be. He had never read about anything like this in any of those monster articles he had read that had been written by crackpots who believed in things like Bigfoot.

Brian suddenly turned around when he thought he heard something. After all, everything around them was so quiet, it was hard to miss any little noise. He glanced over at Ian sleeping in the boat, then at the creature, and then started to venture a little further on their spot of dry land.

The moon lit his way as he stepped carefully, trying to make sure that he didn’t accidentally step in any mud spots or pools of water. Unfortunately, he wasn’t very good at that, and he found himself suddenly ankle deep in muddy water with some of that gross mucousy stuff in it. In disgust, he pulled his foot out and shook the stuff out. Why was he even out here looking around? He should be sleeping and dreaming about all the games he wished he was playing right now.

Brian squished out of the muck and started wiping the mud off his shoes. He paused when he noticed that he had come across another little clearing. However, everything in this clearing was dead. The grass near the middle was such a dark brown, it was almost black, and the trees and plants on the edge looked like they were in the process of dying. Everything that was facing the clearing was affected by it.

In the middle, standing out because of its rigid and smooth surfaces, was a small black cube. Brian stared at it, wondering what it was and why it was out here in the middle of the swamp, completely unaffected by everything. It seemed so out of place.

Brian felt a shiver roll up his spine as strange unintelligible whispers started to call out to him from the shadows. He debated on what to do. Should he ask who was there? No. That was stupid. They were creepy whispers. Obviously, they weren’t going to answer or anything.

Right?

Brian nervously cleared his throat.

“Um… hello?” He called out into the darkness. Everything suddenly went silent. Brian could feel himself sweating. A branch snapped from somewhere behind him. He immediately tensed up.

I swear if there is something creepy behind me, I’m going to freak the flip out… he thought to himself as he slowly turned around.

In fact, there was something creepy behind him.

Someone was standing there in the shadows. The surprise of seeing the mysterious figure there caused him to back up in a hurry and fall to the ground. When he looked back up, the person was standing on the edge of the clearing, barely illuminated from the moonlight. They had a black trenchcoat on, even in the South Carolina heat, and a gas mask that completely covered their head. He also wore a dark hat, casting his already hidden face in even more eerie shadows. The whispers started back up again, but now, they were louder and more pressing.

“Open the box… Open the box…” the voices pushed from the shadows. Brian glanced over at the black cube on the ground and then up at the dark figure looming over him. After a moment of just sitting there paralyzed by fear, the figure started to reach out to him with a clawed gray hand.

“Open the box!! Open the box!!” the voices urged.

Instead of doing as he was told, Brian scrambled to get up and away from the creepy guy in the gas mask.

Nooooo!! Open the box!! Open the box!! OPEN THE BOX!!!” the whispers screamed in his ear.

Heck no!! I’m not opening some creepy box in the middle of a swamp just because some scary voices told me to!! Brian thought to himself, stumbling along the vines and not caring anymore that he was running through muddy spots.

When he finally got back to the motorboat, he dove in, rocking if so hard that Ian jolted awake.

“What the crap Brian?!” Ian exclaimed angrily, gripping the side of the boat. Brian remained hidden in the boat, cowering and shaking.

“Th-There-There’s somebody-gas mask-and -whispers-black box-.” he gasped.

“You’re not making any sense.” Ian exasperated. Brian peeked from his hiding place and ten quickly hid again.

“I think the creepy guy is still there.” he whispered fearfully.

“Creepy guy?”

Ian squinted into the dark trees, and then widened his eyes.

There really was someone there… staring at them from the shadows. Ian ducked down.

“Who the freak is that?!” he hissed over at Brian. Brian simply shrugged.

“I don’t know man!! But he’s freaking weird!! And I kept hearing these voices in the bushes-.”

He stopped talking as the strange whispers started up again.

“Open the box… Open the box…”

“What box?” Ian asked, hesitantly looking around.

The two of them peered over the side of the boat. The man in the mask was a bit closer now, and he was holding the cube Brian had seen in the clearing earlier. He was holding it out to them silently, as if waiting for them to come to him.

“Uh… I vote that we don’t go towards the creepy guy and open his sketchy looking box.” Ian whispered.

“I’m with you on that one.”

The two of them sat there, unsure of what to do. The person in the trenchcoat shifted impatiently, and then suddenly, Brian and Ian found themselves grabbing onto each other when a bunch of clawed gray hands started emerging from the ground and water.

“WHAT THE CRAP?!” Ian yelled as a hand gripped onto the side of the boat.

“Open the box or die…” the voices sing songed from nowhere in particular. “Open it… Open it… Open it… OPEN IT!!!”

Brian and Ian were now surrounded by these creepy hands as they shrank back from them in the middle of the boat. When they looked up, the gas mask guy was standing right there, staring at them. A hand emerged from the actual metal of the boat, clenched into a fist. When it opened up, it was holding up the box and offering it to them. Ian and Brian made no move towards it at all.

“I’m not touching that thing!!” Ian murmured, eyeing some of the gray hands getting closer to them.

“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh.” Brian said over and over again as the hands started to lightly touch them. The two of them sat very still and closed their eyes, trying to ignore the soft touches of the gray hands on their faces and arms.

“Open it open it open it open it open it…” the voices chanted. Then suddenly, they stopped, Ian and Brian still kept their eyes closed tight, shaking a little. After a long moment of silence, Ian was the first to open his eyes.

All of the hands were gone, and the mysterious figure in the gas mask was nowhere to be seen. Ian let out a huge breath of hair, feeling a bit sick to his stomach. He clutched the side of the boat, feeling dizzy.

“It’s-it’s gone Brian. It’s gone…” he gasped. Brian opened his eyes, looked around, and then leaned over the side of the boat and threw up. Ian wiped the sweat off his brow. He wasn’t sure what all of that had been just now, but he knew that he never wanted to experience that again.

There was no way he was going to sleep now.

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