Michael Hunter - Come Get Me

“I’m tired,” she said rising slowly from the chair. “I’m tired and I’m going to bed. All this useless talk of the old days has worn me out. Especially since it’s fallen on deaf ears. But don’t forget what I said Jim. All legends are somehow, someway, somewhere rooted in fact.” With that she turned and wafted out of the kitchen like a ghost.

Sitting there for a few minutes, neither knew what to say. After the conversation with Grandma it seemed a mutual agreement that neither of them felt much like going out. Jill was the first to break the spell and busied herself making coffee while Jim made his way out to the porch and took a seat. It was a lot darker than when he’d first arrived. They’d spent longer talking to than he thought they would.

The night seemed much colder now than before. He didn’t know if it was just because of the season or because of all he’d heard. Sitting there he realized something else. The night was quiet. There seemed to be no sounds. Nothing like what he was used to. There were no sirens sounding in the distance, no screaming and yelling coming from the apartments around him and no sounds coming from the mouth of the teenage gang bangers that seemed to come out like a flock of locusts after the sun went down. He’d forgotten how nice his home town was. He could get used to a place like this.

His breath clouded in front of him as he sat enjoying the quiet night. You could almost imagine that there was nothing else on earth at that moment. But then Jill came out and instead of intruding on the moment she only enhanced it. She carried with her two steaming mugs of coffee that smelled as good as they looked. As she took a seat close to him she handed him one. Having her sitting next to him made everything seem complete. He’d forgotten how nice it was not being surrounded by noise all the time. He’d also forgotten how nice it was having a good looking woman sitting next to him.

The thought of buying a house here, again popped into his mind but he quickly shook his head dismissing it as nothing more than a fantasy. It wasn’t a bad idea. It was just an impractical one. There was no reason to do it. To him when someone bought a house that someone should have a family to live in it with them. Other wise what was the point.

“Well,” Jill said breaking his inner debate and bringing his mind back to the present. “That was sorta weird wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, she did get a little excited didn’t she?” he agreed not knowing what else to say.

“Do you think any of what she said could’ve been true?” she asked.

“Well,” Jim said after thinking for a minute, “it’s kinda hard to believe some of it. I mean I did grow up here and I never saw anything like what she was talking about.” The little lie made him feel like a slug but he said it anyways. “Some monster going around abducting people much less chasing them around the woods for fun is a little hard to believe. I’m sure something happened but it couldn’t have been a monster. There must’ve been some other explanation.” He was still trying to convince himself and it still wasn’t working very well. The things Grandma talked about sounded too much like what had happened to him and his friends when they were little for him to just dismiss it as the prattling of an old lady. Especially since that old lady was Grandma. She wouldn’t lie about something like this. What she said could have some truth to it but he couldn’t admit that to Jill. She’d never even heard of the Goatman before now. There was no reason scare her anymore than she already was by agreeing with her grandmother.

“Maybe it wasn’t some creature,” Jill ventured. “Maybe it was a real person terrorizing the town. It could’ve even been that old woman Grandma was talking about. She said the thing and that old woman disappeared at about the same time. Maybe it really was her like Grandma said and the lady was really some kind of Satanist or something. She could’ve been killing people as a sacrifice or something.”

“That sounds a little more plausible to me,” Jim said thoughtfully, “Your grandmother is old but she seemed pretty sure about what she was telling us. I don’t think she would’ve gotten so upset if she thought what she was saying wasn’t the whole hearted truth. Who knows maybe she got some part of the story wrong or something.” They sat in silence for a few minutes, each struggling to make sense of their own ideas along with what Grandma had revealed to them tonight.

“So what now?” Jill said suddenly changing the subject.

“Well, it is a little late,” he said not even wanting to glance at his watch to see the actual time. “Tommy’s funeral is tomorrow so, I guess, maybe we should call it a night.” She looked about as disappointed as he felt which surprisingly made him feel better about leaving her. Maybe things were looking up.

“Ok,” she said with a small smile, “but we can get together again right?”

“Oh, I think that can be arranged,” he teased as he stood to leave.

“What do you mean you think that can be arranged? It damn well better be if you know what’s good for you,” she answered hotly. Trying to hold back his laughter at her mock anger he turned to leave but she quickly stood up and snatched his arm.

“Before you leave there’s something I need to do…” she said as she stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss that started out as a quick one but ended up turning in to a much longer one. Stepping back from him a little out of breathe she looked at him in a way that gave him chills in all the right places and said “Now that’s a proper goodnight kiss. So are you sure that it can be “arranged” that we meet again?” He just shook his head up and down like one of those bobble heads you see in car windows. Smiling that smile again she turned and reached for the door. “Watch out for the Goatman on your way home,” she said over her shoulder before opening the door.

Jim just stood there for a minute with a dorky look on his face as he watched her walk into the house and close the door. He didn’t even realize what she’d said. He was happier than he could remember being in a long time. When he finally remembered that if he wanted to get home he had to start walking, he almost had to force himself off the porch.

Moving off into the darkness it finally registered what Jill’s parting warning about the Goatman had been. Not wanting to tempt fate with everything suddenly going his way he hurried his steps just a little bit more than normal.

After only a few steps he reached the end of the dirt road and the beginning of the paved. Looking back over his shoulder thoughts of the kiss only moments gone floated back into his head. The piercing whine of a siren brought him quickly back to reality.

Curious about what was going on he stepped up the pace to a fast jog, praying he wouldn’t trip over anything in the dark. He quickly noticed something wasn’t right. Over the thumps of his feet hitting the ground he heard nothing. The siren had quickly gone silent along with the night around him. There wasn’t even a breeze to ruffle his hair. Slowing his pace he found that the night had, for some unknown reason, gone silent. All the insects seemed gone; the only sound he heard was his own heart beating in his chest.

Slowing down so he could hear better and coming to an almost complete halt he tried to will some sound into existence. Waiting for some type of noise he slowly realized what was bugging him the most about the silence. It made him feel like he was being watched.

He quickly looked back the way he’d come and could just barely make out Grandma’s house through the gloom. The Christmas carol trickled through his head again causing the beginnings of a smile to appear but something else caught his eye. Something was moving out there. He didn’t know what and still couldn’t hear anything but he was sure it was there. The blackness around him gave no indication of anything but he knew something was there.