Michael Hunter - Come Get Me

Jim didn’t even want to think about what he might’ve done coming up on a horrific scene like that. “What did you mean there was blood all over the place?” he asked as they stepped back from each other.

“That’s not what I said,” Rob quickly replied, “I just told you what the guys hunting out there said it looked like when they first got there. I mean, from the way they tell it the place was a slaughter house. It wasn’t like that though. There was some blood on the bushes around the tree where Tommy fell and a few other places but the sheriff, along with the doc, figured it was just from him struggling to get off the thing jammed in his back. They said he finally just lost too much blood and fainted. A little while after that he died and that’s how we found him.” Rob looked a little greener than he had when he’d started his story but it couldn’t be helped. Jim didn’t like making him talk about stuff like this but unfortunately he needed to know and Rob seemed to understand.

They’d slowed their pace while they were talking but now resumed a more normal step. Jim was having a hard time believing everything he’d been told. Everything pointed to some kind of accident but he was still having a hard time believing that. Tommy just wasn’t the type who would fall out of a tree. It just didn’t sound like him. Jim had seen him climb one when he was half drunk one time without a problem so he just couldn’t understand how it could happen to the same guy when he was stone sober.

“Was there anything else that you saw out there that you haven’t told me about?” he asked hoping Rob would remember something that would make it all easier to accept.

Rob didn’t answer right away. He looked as if he’d recovered somewhat from his earlier description of the grizzly scene he’d witnessed but there was something else going on in his head. Jim didn’t know what it was but he had a feeling it was important especially since Rob was having a hard time looking him in the eye. He looked almost as if he was trying to decide whether to tell Jim anything else or not. Seeming to come to a decision he shrugged his shoulders slightly then began adding more to his story.

“Alright, there were other things out there,” he said almost too quiet for Jim to hear. “But you can’t tell anyone, and I mean anyone, you know about this stuff. Not even your mom. I mean it. This is stuff nobody else is supposed to know. Before I say anything else I want your word you won’t go spouting off to anyone who will listen and getting all excited about what I tell you. Don’t make any of it any bigger than what it is.” Jim made the promise and hoped he didn’t regret it later.

“Ok,” Rob said after being satisfied, “remember how I said the tree looked like it’d been cut? Well we found what was left of it a little ways off from Tommy’s stand. It was sorta buried under some bushes and fallen trees, kinda like someone hid it or something. You definitely wouldn’t have seen it when you walked up. The only reason we found it at all was because we were looking for stuff like that. You know, things that were out of place.” Rob watched Jim as he spoke as if at the first time Jim had a reaction he would quit speaking. When he saw Jim was about to ask a question he quickly continued before his first word could be uttered.

“I said it looked like it was hidden that doesn’t mean that it was. The sheriff said that it might have just fallen where we found it. It was close enough to the tree that it could’ve happened like that. It was just a little suspicious.” He said pausing to let what little he’d revealed sink in.

“Anything else?” Jim asked after a few minutes of waiting.

“Boy, you sure are in a hurry,” Rob said slowly almost like he was reluctant to continue. “I really didn’t want to bring this up but it doesn’t look like I have any choice now. Like I said I don’t you want getting all excited about anything but while we were looking around we found two other things that everybody thought were just a little out of place.”

“Well, what was it?” Jim asked impatiently.

“We found some hair and some prints,” he said quickly looking away.

“Is that it?” Jim asked. “Why were you afraid that I would get excited over something like that?” He didn’t understand what the big deal was. It was the woods. There was bound to be other types of prints out there and probably a lot of other types of hair as well what with all the animals running around back there. There were things like that in the woods last time he’d checked so it wasn’t very surprising to find hair and tracks. Humans weren’t the only things that walked the woods. Maybe that actually was what happened to Tommy. He’d been attacked by animal or something. Maybe a bear or some other big animal. It could’ve scared him which in turn caused him to fall out of his stand and onto the tree.

“You’re right,” Rob said, “Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal finding stuff like that out there but the things we found aren’t what you would usually find in.” He stopped talking again and took a deep breath. These dramatic pauses were really getting on Jim’s nerves. He wished Rob would just come out and say what he had to say. “We think the tracks belong to a goat. A big one. Since the tracks look like goats we’re guessing the hair belongs to one too. We aren’t sure yet but that’s what we’re looking at.”

Goat hair? Jim thought. What the hell would goat hair be doing out in the woods. He didn’t even think there were any goats anywhere near town much less out in the woods the only goat he could think of wasn’t even a real one. With that one thought he began to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Looking at Rob he saw that he had thought the same thing when he’d first seen the tracks. The greenish color had returned to his face.

“Now Jim, you’re thinking the same thing I did. But you and I both know it can’t be. That thing isn’t real. There’s no way it was the Goatman.” Rob didn’t really sound like he believed what he was saying. He sounded like he wanted Jim to agree with him and tell him he was right. But deep inside, they both knew.

“You’re right,” he heard himself say as he looked at Rob. “It can’t be him. That all happened a long time ago. It was all our imagination. Plus like you just said, it isn’t real. There is no such thing as the Goatman.” The creature’s name flew off his tongue like a curse. Denying its existence did nothing to make his stomach feel any better. He could say it until he was blue in the face and he wouldn’t feel any better. If he didn’t even believe himself how could Rob?

There was no way Tommy could have been killed by something that didn’t exist. It simply couldn’t have happened. There had to be some other explanation for why the hair and tracks were out there. Maybe a goat had somehow gotten away from a farm and was now roaming the woods looking for food and whatever else goats looked for. That scenario didn’t make much sense but the only other option made even less. He quickly asked Rob about his theory and was shaken by his answer. No one in the area had any goats. They seemed to be far and few between out here. They’d checked, or at least Rob had.

“Well, like I said before,” Rob began after a few shaky minutes, “don’t tell anyone else. Everyone around here grew up hearing the stories about that damn thing and the sheriff doesn’t want the town to getting fired up thinking there’s some creature on the loose killing people. That’s all we need right now is a bunch of the good ol’ boys going out hunting for the thing and shooting everything between here and the next town up. The only thing they’d probably manage killing is each other and some poor animals. Tommy’s death is being reported as an accident. End of story. I don’t like it but that’s what the law says it was so that’s what it is.”