Far from every road

No service. Oh well, there are worse things in the world. Danny Wheeler thought as he looked at his phone. The time read 11:47 PM. He put his phone away and turned back to the campfire. This is what he was really up here for. The Liberty Rock campsite, located about 3900 ft up Mount Liberty Rock, offered the perfect weekend getaway for suburbanites like Danny and his two friends. They were far away from any road and even farther from modern civilization.

Justin and Allie sat to Danny’s right, cuddling in the glow of the fire. They were the quintessential couple in his friend group and everyone was waiting for the day when Justin would pop the big question.

Rounding out the circle, a woman named Lucy sat between Allie and Danny, though there was more space between her and everyone else. This stranger had approached them about an hour ago and told them that she had been hiking the trails and gotten turned around.

“Why were you hiking the trails alone?” Allie had asked.

“I’m actually from around here. I grew up not too far from this campsite. I guess I thought I knew these trails better than I actually do,” Lucy said.

Their fire had guided her to them and she asked if they would not mind if she spent the night on one of the near-by tent platforms. Although Justin had specifically chosen this location for its remoteness, they weren’t going to turn away the desperate young woman. Besides, it’s not like they owned the campsite. She could stay wherever she wanted.

Danny certainly did not mind either. The problem with being single, while your best friend is in a relationship, is that you have to get used to feeling like a third wheel. “The Third-Wheeler” Danny called himself. But tonight, maybe he could find his own companion Justin and Allie would probably turn in soon, and Danny was keen to offer Lucy to share his tent.

Danny took another sip of his tall boy, not so inconspicuously hidden in a brown paper sheath. Not that anyone cared. Justin and Allie had their own booze resting near them. This was another reason they had gone to such a remote section of tent platforms: hoping to avoid the rule meisters who would narc them out to the park rangers.

They had offered Lucy a drink, which she declined. Instead, she asked if anyone objected to her sparking a blunt and then offered to share.

This girl knows how to party, Danny thought. After the hit, Danny felt like he was sinking into the log. This must have been some good stuff. After his second hit, his head was swimming. Shit, don’t get too faded, he thought. Keep your eye on the prize. He took another look at Lucy, and studied the curves of her body in the dancing light of the fire. Oddly enough, she’d chosen to hike in a dress that went down to her knees. She had taken off her boots and socks, put them aside

For most of the last hour, they made small talk: Where do you live? Where do you work? Where did you go to college? Pets? Brothers or sisters? Danny could feel his face going numb. Justin and Allie were slurring their words, but he wondered if that was really them or just his own perception of time being distorted.

There was silence for a few minutes. Danny’s eyes felt heavy. He looked around. Allie had completely sunken in to Justin, who appeared to be nodding off

“Does anyone know any ghost stories?” Lucy asked, breaking the silence. No one answered. Danny tried to think of one, but now he just could not connect two neurons together.

“I know one,” Lucy volunteered. “I know one that’s really scary.”

“Let’s hear it!” Danny said.

“Would you guys believe me if I told you that a vampire lived in these woods?” For a moment, no one answered. Then, Danny chuckled.

“That sounds awesome!” he said, raising his paper bag in a toast to nothing in particular.

“I’m serious,” Lucy said. “There was this guy who lived in, like, this cellar under an abandoned cabin. And he used to crawl out at night to stalk campers on the mountain. And every once and a while, someone would disappear. And when their body was found, it would be drained of blood. Like almost completely.”

“Was he ever caught?” Allie asked. She looked genuinely worried, as if she believed this far-fetched ghost story.

“I’ll get to that,” Lucy said. “But first, I want to tell you how he did it.” She stood up.

“So first, he would pretend to be another camper. He would hang out with his victims, getting to know them and getting a feel for their patterns. And then, later on at night, he would try to offer them drugs to dull their reactions. He would give them pot laced with a powerful natural sedative made from the plants in this area.” Something about that detail sent a shiver down Danny’s spine, but his body felt like it was glued to his seat. The hairs on the back of his neck tried to stand up, but something blocked the receptors and dulled his body’s reaction to the fear it was trying to feel. His arms and legs were beginning to tingle, like they were falling asleep.

“And then, when he was ready to strike, he would strip off his clothes so as not to get them covered in blood.” At that moment, Lucy lifted her dress off and tossed it aside, revealing that she was wearing nothing underneath. Her pale, naked body illuminated in the flicker of the flames.

Was this part of the act, adding drama to a silly little ghost story? Was the shy, quiet girl really an exhibitionist? Like typical men, Danny and Justin all sat frozen in awe, their mouths hanging open. But, a primordial instinct from the back of his mind tipped Danny off that something was sinister about this woman. Allie had a look of disgust on her face, like a flash of jealousy as this woman dared to expose herself to her boyfriend as she sat right there.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Is this some kind of joke?” Allie asked. Lucy smiled at her before slashing her hand at Allie's throat. Danny saw it, almost in slow motion, He heard a sickening squelch of tissue separating. Allie tried to speak again, and a spew of blood shot out and doused the fire, sizzling with a gut-wrenching smell of burning metal. Allie collapsed into Justin’s arms. There was only a look of pure terror on her face. A look that told everyone that she knew she was going to die here.

Danny tried to force himself up. He felt like gravity could cling to him as he tried to use the log to keep his balance. His legs felt numb and gelatinous. She really fucking drugged us!

“Allie!” he heard Justin scream. “Allie! No! No, no, no no no!” Danny saw Justin desperately trying to wrap his hands around Allie’s neck and stop the bleeding.

“What are you trying to do?” Lucy asked him with a mocking tone. She giggled. “Do you think you’re going to save her? If anything, you’re just going to strangle her.” Justin looked up at her with pure helplessness in his eyes.

Danny finally pulled himself upright. He tried to maneuver around the log to give himself some space to stand, but he could not lift his foot up high enough. He tripped over the log and went right into the ground with a hard thud. Danny caught Lucy’s eyes, but she only smirked and turned back to Justin.

An instinct told Danny to crawl away. He was useless in this sedated state. He would try to crawl to the nearest tent platform and pull himself up again. As he crawled he could hear Allie’s death spasms, her last gasps of life, in the background. Danny crawled onwards over the jagged rocks that stuck out of the dirt.

“Stop!” Danny heard Justin yell. He turned his head and saw Lucy lift Allie out of Justin’s arms and wrenched the dying woman’s head from her shoulders. She lifted Allie’s head above her and let the blood douse her body like she was taking a relaxing shower. When Lucy opened her eyes again, they were now black pits. Her skin began to turn from a healthy, human color to a mottled pallor. Then, Danny heard a cracking sound as Lucy, apparently, unhinged her jaw and her teeth revealed a maw of sharp fangs.

What the hell was this woman? Danny thought. Lucy dropped Allie’s head and then grabbed a horrified Justin. He tried to push her away, but this creature held him in her grip. She pulled Justin over the fire. He began to scream and flail his arms as the flames licked his skin and cooked him. His clothes burned away. His flesh blackened. It took some time - an eternity to Danny - but Justin finally stopped his screaming and flailing. Lucy held up the blackened, charred remains of Justin’s body.

She turned to Danny, locking eyes with the horrified man. She put her finger over her mouth.

“Shhh,” she whispered. “Lights out.” She pushed Justin’s husk into the campfire and pressed down, smothering the flames. Danny found himself in a world of darkness, barely able to see with only dim light from the embers of the campfire. Then, he heard a piercing shriek from Lucy that snapped him back into reality. He screamed himself, and then tried to crawl away. He crawled as fast as his numb arms and legs could squirm over the jagged rocks. Somehow, despite barely being able to feel his limbs, he felt every scrape and cut of the rocks.

Danny could barely see anything ahead of him. He did not dare to glance back. Then, he heard Lucy’s laughter piercing through the darkness.

“Where are you going, Danny?” she asked. “I thought you wanted to spend the night with me? I saw you eyeballing me this whole time!” She was right, and the thought sickened him. “Won’t you come back and keep me company? We can start the fire again. We can share your friends!”

Danny stopped, just for a moment. What in God’s name could that mean? He dared to glance back. In the faint glow from the dying embers, he saw Lucy still crouched by the firepit. She grabbed Justin’s back and pulled a large chunk of flesh off of the body. Then, she ate the meat.

Now, Danny felt the cheap beer and snacks force their way back up his windpipe. Stinging bile spewed out of his mouth and even some out of his nose. The violent expulsion somehow was enough to bring some feeling back to his limbs and Danny started to pull himself up. He got to his hands and knees and tried to force himself to keep going. He felt gravity starting to pull on him and he could tell he was starting to climb downhill.

“Danny, you can’t run from me, sweetheart. You can’t even stand up. If I don’t eat you, something else will out there. You are so far from every road.”

Lucy was right; he could not run. He had no idea how long this drug would cripple him but Lucy could chase him down and butcher him at any moment. He couldn’t run, but maybe he could hide. Danny felt his way around the rocks. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he could just barely make out one of the lower tent platforms. He slowly made his way over the terrain, pulling himself through the bushes that lined the trail, slowly, so as not to make noise.

“Danny? Did you fall asleep?” Lucy called out to him again. Danny held his breath, imagining that she could track even the faintest noise he made. “Okay, fine! Be that way!”

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, Danny found the outline of the platform. He felt around the base and, to his overwhelming joy, found a space between the platform and the ground. He began to work his way into the opening. It was tight, his body just barely fitting into the small opening. The sturdy wood of the platform sandwiched his body between the rocks and hard ground below. Had he been just a few inches wider, he would never be able to crawl into the darkness.

Then, he heard footsteps. He froze. His heart began beating like a jackhammer. It could only be Lucy on one of the tent platforms. She was hunting for him and almost half his body was still out in the open air.

“Okay, I give up. You can come out now!” she called. Her voice was closer now. She was closer now. Danny stayed frozen. “Danny, I have all night!” Her voice sounded like it was right next to him. He had to move. With slow, deliberate movements, he pushed his way further inside, inch by inch. Eventually, he had to slither like some kind of snake, wiggling his shoulder and toes, at least as much as they could move, to get inside. Finally, he felt his boots pass through the lip of the platform. He tried his best to curl himself into a ball.

Lucy called out her taunts into the night: His friends tasted delicious. There was no hope. No one was coming to save him. Danny could feel anger welling up in him but he knew that if he let her words get under his skin, then soon her claws would too.

Throughout the night, he could hear Lucy chewing on what he knew had to be Justin and Allie’s bodies. She chewed loudly; she wanted him to hear it. She wanted to break him. She wanted him to cry out and give away his position. He just had to take slow, deliberate breaths and not make any noise.

He didn’t know how long it had taken, but Danny started to feel his arms and legs again. His breathing was less labored and his mind stopped swimming. The drug was starting to wear off.

Eventually, he couldn’t hear any chewing. He could only hear the sounds of the night: cicadas and crickets played their music. Had Lucy left now that she had had her fill of his friends? For all he knew, she could be standing on the platform above him, waiting for him to come out. Just another sick game she played. She was a predator, and she liked to play with her food.

And what the hell was she anyways? She had transformed from a beautiful young woman to a heinous abomination. She could slash a woman’s throat with her fingertips and tear her head off. And then, he remembered the story: A vampire lived in these woods. Could that be it? Was Lucy some kind of vampire? It would make sense. That sadistic creature would foreshadow her atrocities.

But if she was a vampire, then she had to hide from the sunlight, right? Dawn felt so very far away, but maybe Lucy had to go back to some kind of home to hide. Danny could only wait in the darkness; still as he could be.

Eventually, he saw the early rays of sunlight illuminating the trail. He waited a bit longer until it was almost full daylight. He was still terrified, but he knew he had to leave eventually. He couldn’t just stay under this platform forever. He began to slither and inch his way out. He grunted with the effort but eventually he got his boots out into the open air. Then, his legs.

Danny finally freed himself and took a deep breath. He looked around and he couldn’t see Lucy anywhere. He was alive. He had survived.

And now, he had to face what happened last night. He steadied himself and went back up towards the campfire. Last night, between the effects of the drug and having to hide from Lucy, it felt like he had crawled a marathon. In reality, it was only a few steps before he came up upon the firepit and saw what was left of his friends.

The sight was still horrific. Their bodies had both been thoroughly mauled. By some strange mercy, they were too torn-up for Danny to clearly make out. They both looked like giant heaps of gore, but at least he couldn’t see their faces. He couldn’t bear to have to look into their soulless eyes. And then, he broke down. Tears gushed out.

“I’m sorry guys,” he said, blubbering the words. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. And I-”

“Yay! My boyfriend came back!” Lucy’s voice cut through Danny like a bullet to his back. He snapped his head and saw her standing on one of the platforms, still nude and covered in blood. A wide smile carved her face and her teeth were stained a color like rust. At least now she looked human.

And now, maybe Danny had a chance to run. He turned towards the trail and saw a naked man, also covered in blood. He turned in another direction. More bloody, naked people were coming out of the woods. Danny found himself surrounded by a group of about six gore-encrusted men and women.

Danny collapsed to his hands and knees, his arms barely able to hold him up. Lucy came up behind him and pressed her body into his back. From behind him, she wrapped her arms around his chest, and cradled his exhausted body. Her lips pressed against his ear.

“Now, we have leftovers.”