"Shit, this really sucks.” Eddy said, shifting his shoulders. The sudden downpour caught him, and Maggie, off-guard.
“I’m the one that just got their hair done.” she said, taking this run of bad luck in less stride.
They had just spent the better part of three months, traveling to some of the finest local events America had to offer. Fairs, music fests, ho-downs, nothing was off limits. Deciding to make one more stop in a small town in Maine, they had heard of a small festival celebrating a few local legends. Although, they were still unsure who, or what, the festival was celebrating.
“I just don’t know if we should bother anyone.” he replied. They hustled down a small street past a few matching brownstones. This was a quaint little town, seemingly wholesome in nature. Completely different than the big city they were used to. “Maybe we should just wait back at the car.”
“I really don’t care.” she said, running up the stairs belonging to one of the random homes. Before she could knock, he stopped her.
“Look, we don’t know these people. Now, I'm all for exploring but we can’t just barge into someone’s life like this.”
She huffed. “I’m just really fucking annoyed right now.” She pushes the mops of wet hair out of her face.
“I am too. But we don’t need anyone’s help. We're already wet, your hair is already crazy,” he joked, sloshing it back in her face. “Let’s just head back to the car, and wait for towing.”
Maggie couldn’t help but laugh. “Ugh! Fine. But you’re paying for my hair, all over again.”
“Deal.”
They began to turn and head back down the grey stone steps, just as the front door swung open. Standing there was a woman, roughly late 20’s, same as them. She seemed to have a natural beauty, even without any sort of make-up. Her dark hair cascading down her shoulders. She looked like the average young professional, except for her attire. She wore a vintage band t-shirt, and no pants. Just a pair of form fitted panties. She smiled warmly at them, seemingly unphased by her lack of leg wear. “We heard you outside.”
“Oh. Um, yea. We didn’t want to bother-” Eddy said.
“It’s no bother. We weren’t doing anything.”
“We?” Maggie questioned.
She laughed. “My roommates and I were just napping.” Eddy and Maggie politely smiled, giving each other inquisitive looks. “Come on in. It tends to rain pretty heavy here.”
They headed back up the steps, following her in, and remembering to close the door behind them.
Inside seemed pretty lived in. The living room had a couple of couches, picture frames adorned the walls, a few bookcases housed a couple of books along with several little trinkets. Two small stair cases were located towards the back of the room, leading to the second floor and basement. It looked like a college student’s wet Pottery Barn dream. They tried to shake off the excess water, without it spilling onto their clean floor. “Don’t worry about it.” she said with a smile. “Water doesn’t really bug us here.”
From the hallway, next to the stairs, four other people emerged: two boys and two girls. They all seemed like polite young professionals, except for the lack of pants. Although they each brought a pair with them. Another girl approached the first and handed her a pair of faded denims. “Sorry, we were just napping.”
“We heard.” Maggie said.
The other four got comfortable in the living room and began to dress their legs, as the first introduced them. “So, these are Max, Aaron, and Kristin. And this is Blair.” she said referring to the girl who handed her the pants. “and I'm Stevie.”
“I’m Eddy, and this is Maggie.” Maggie waved.
Stevie started walking to the couch. “I have to get pants on, help them out of those wet clothes.”
Blair and Kristen, now fully dressed walked over to Eddy and Maggie. Very gentle they began taking their jackets and sweaters, but had to be stopped as they began to reach for shirts and pants. “I think those are fine. Thank you.” Maggie said, looking at the girls trying to take off her boyfriend’s shirt. They shrugged, not thinking anything of it. Eddy, on the other hand, looked over at Maggie, a bit weirded out. Aaron, grabbing a couple of towels from a cabinet, draped them over a couch so they can have a seat. Maggie sits down, but Eddy can’t help but look around at all the pictures and other décor. Several of the pictures seemed very old, and very familiar. So familiar, in fact, he noticed many of them were the same pictures and trinkets as several small shops in town.
Max walks off, down the back hallway, disappearing out of sight as Eddy continued looking. “I think I've seen this picture in town.” staring at an old sepia shot of a grizzled fisherman, holding a squid-like creature.
“Yea. It's a small town.” Stevie replied walking to his side.
Max returned with a tray containing seven glasses, putting it down of the table in the middle of the room. “Water?”
Stevie leads Eddy to the furnished basement, discussing several photographs along the route. Explaining many of the local legends in town. As Maggie grabs a glass, the others follow suit. “So, are you here for the festival?” Max asked, taking a sip of water.
“Yes, actually.” Maggie responds. “We heard about it as we were passing through. Figured we’d check it out.”
“Yea, it’s a pretty big deal around here. Sometimes it’s the only fun we have.” Blair chimes in.
“Although we don’t really know what it’s about.”
“Well, it’s really just celebrating this local legend we have. It's just kind of an odd thing the old people like to do, but it’s kind of cool, so we just enjoy it.”
“it really is kind of fun.” Aaron adds.
“Interesting. I’m in.” Maggie says with a smile, taking another sip of water.
Max grabs two of the glasses and disappears again, this time down the stairs. Kristen sits next to Maggie, taking a sip of water, and laying her legs across Maggie’s lap, like they were old friends.
Downstairs, Stevie continues talking to Eddy as Max approached, holding the two glasses of water. Stevie takes them, handing one to Eddy, and taking a sip herself. “It just sounded like something we’d like so we pulled a quick U-turn and got into town yesterday.”
“it really is just some old story my grandparents told us as kids. But there's some cool stuff there, so we kind of dig it.” Stevie says looking at the old pictures fondly.
“But what happens?”
“Huh?” She asks confused.
“at the festival. What's the legend? What kind of stuff happens? Games? Rides?”
“yes. All of it.” Stevie smiles.
“And what’s the story? Who’s this guy?” pointing at another picture of the fisherman.
“Just an old story.” Eddy turns to ask again, but is cut off. “Let's head back upstairs.”
As they approached, the rest of the group, Maggie included is caught up in conversation about some band the couple scored tickets to see a month earlier. Joining the group, and grabbing a seat next to Maggie, Stevie hops in the conversation. Eddy looks on as Maggie is laughing with the group. He puts his full glass down next to the others, all half drank. Max stands up, unzipping his pants and dropping them.
“it’s getting warm.” Maggie comments.
“Aaron, check the temperature.” Kristen asks. Aaron, sitting in the corner, gets up and turns the air conditioning up, before starting to work on his own pants. And returning back into his corner. The conversation continues, as one by one they remove their pants again, in an attempt to cool off. Eddy looks around confused as he’s still chilly from the rain.
Maggie begins to look flustered as she follows suit. “it's starting to get really hot.” she removes her own pants before slumping back on the couch next to Stevie. And just as quickly as it started, each one began to pass out, falling asleep in the middle of the conversation. Eddy just stares on in confusion, then worry, as Maggie’s eyes begin to flutter right before she falls asleep herself.
Concerned he walks over to her. It was only a few seconds, maybe a minute, before Kristen’s eyes popped back open. She shook herself awake, similar to what could only look like someone falling in a dream. And one by one, they all began to shake awake. All except two: Aaron and Maggie. Eddy rushes over to Maggie, as Stevie drags her legs and slumps down next to Aaron. She shakes him for a few, before he finally wakes up, gasping for air. Once his breathing normalizes, and he regains his bearings, he smiles at Stevie. They group share a half-conscious laugh, as Eddy attempts to shake Maggie awake.
“Maggie? Maggie!” he yells, attempting to shake her from her sleep. Soon, she begins to stir, which escalates to she body shaking and kicking the air, before her eyes pop open. She screams some gibberish, pushing him out of the way. Tears streaming down her face.
Running past, and down the stairs, Eddy trails begging for an explanation. “What happened? What was that.”
“I can’t. I know.” she says sobbing.
“Know what?”
“I know the truth. I Know it all. Just leave me alone. Please.” she begs, pulling at her hair, stumbling down the stairs. He lays his hand on her and she freaks out, “Don't touch me! Leave me alone!”
Eventually she makes her way into a small bathroom, locking herself and barricading herself in. “Oh god. It’s been so long. Oh god, I know it all.” Confused, he tries to reason.
“You fell asleep. It’s literally been a minute. Please let me in. What's wrong?”
“Go away. I can’t. JUST GO AWAY!”
“She saw the sign.” Stevie says, calmly standing at the bottom of the steps in the doorway. “Some can’t handle it.”
“Open the door.” he says again, to no answer. He tries to shove it. “Open the door.” still no answer.
He begins kicking it. Throwing his shoulder into it. Doing whatever he can to get the door to open. Eventually he shatters the frame, with the door cracking open. He pushes it just enough to get his head and shoulder in to see the carnage.
Blood. Blood everywhere.
Using a razor, she slashed her wrists, throat, thighs, arms, anywhere with a major artery. she slashed so deep, and with such force, it’s like she couldn’t die fast enough. He skin was already pale. Eyes wide, scratch marks from her scalp to her cheeks. She was gone. Sobbing he drops to his knees. His stomach churned from the sight. His head was light. He wanted to vomit.
Standing just outside, Stevie said again “She saw the sign. Once you see it, it doesn’t leave. She saw the sign. She heard the call.”
Eddy looks up.
“Cthulhu fhtagn.”