Come Get Me

Come Get Me

Michael J Hunter

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2007 Michael J Hunter

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Prologue

This is a dream

The group popped from the fog so suddenly it
looked as if they’d been spit. They were so full of energy they
were bouncing. They were many reasons for being happy but mostly it
was because they were finally out. Not stuffed in their houses
under the watchful eyes of their parents anymore. But it wasn’t
just being out that had them so excited, it was the reason that had
them all jazzed.

They were on a mission. Something they’d been
trying to do for as long as any of them could remember. Now it was
just minutes away from becoming a reality. If they were honest with
themselves it was more of a hunt. But not just any hunt. Oh no, it
was THE HUNT. This thing had been in the works ever since the first
time they’d gone camping with their fathers and heard the spooky
story about the creature. What else would men talk about out in the
middle of the woods with no women around. They always wondered if
the legends they were told were true. Their fathers made it sound
as if it was but hey, what did they know. They were just kids. Now,
though, now, after what seemed an eternity of waiting, it was time
to find out if the legend was true.

It all started with the words ‘There was once
a man who was not just a man. He was also a goat…” Not that scary
in and of itself but for them, they were hooked. The story went
that this thing roamed the deserted back roads and byways, the
quiet place normal humans dared not to tread not to mention the
quiet woods surrounding the little town they called home. No one
really knew what it was after but it was guessed to be looking for
unsuspecting persons to play its devious tricks on. He would prowl
around until he found a weary traveler then jump from the bushes
scaring them half to death. The frightened people would then run
screaming through the woods until they finally reached a safe
haven. That is if they were lucky. If not, well, they were never
heard from again. The Goatman, for that’s what it came to be known
as, rarely hurt anyone but whenever a child or animal went missing
he was always to blame.

The thing about the legend that captivated
the boys so much was that none of it had ever been proven. Sure,
there were supposed eye witness accounts of what happened, but the
boys suspected these accounts were tainted. They figured the
witnesses most likely had just spooked themselves or been drunk and
then made up a story so they wouldn’t look foolish. The creature
that haunted the woods where they grew up was like Bigfoot. There
were plenty of people that said they’d seen him but there was no
actual proof.

That was all going to change after tonight’s
adventure though. The boys were going to find the proof the world
had been denied so long. At least they were going to try.

The four soon to be men making up the hunting
party were all well past the age when believing in monsters and
things that went bump in the night was considered cool. They knew
they were too old for it but just didn’t really care. It was as if
they knew they couldn’t let one more second of their lives continue
without at least trying to find out if the creature were truly
real. So after many a whispered conversation at school it was
decided that tonight was the night.

The summer was over after tonight.

It had to be this night.

School was in a few more days and they knew,
in that strange way boys knew things, that they would most likely
end up being to busy for each other anymore. On some unspoken level
they knew this was going to be one of the last things if not the
last thing they did before drifting apart. They thought of it as
their last hurrah for lack of anything better to call it. After
this it was off to the wonderful world that waited for them as
freshmen in high school.

So, here they were, four soon to be men who
had been damn near inseparable almost since birth. Tommy, Rob, Jim,
and Pete, together, in their short lives they’d taken on anything
and everything thrown at them so chasing a mythical creature in the
dead of night would just about be the icing on the cake. They’d
spent many hours discussing the most likely place they might find
their quarry until finally deciding on a patch of woods that lay
not more than a ten minute walk from Tommy’s bedroom window. They
knew this because they’d walked it earlier before the sun set.
Nothing like being prepared. Tommy didn’t like thinking he might
live so close to the creature and tried to argue that it couldn’t
possibly be so close, but the others were adamant in their
decision. His arguments fell on deaf ears. He didn’t like it but he
guessed he could live with it. It didn’t matter anyways. He kinda
liked monsters.

With the major decision of where to start
taken care of, they only needed to wait until the right time to
begin their journey. To take up that time they came up with a
plan.

The boys told all their parents they were
having a sleepover at Tommy’s. They’d done it a million times. The
parents suspected nothing. Little did they know that after tonight
their sons would be famous for catching the mythical beast known as
the Goatman. After the lights were out and Tommy’s parents were
finally snoring the night away, one by one, each boy climbed out
Tommy’s window.

That in itself was an adventure. They had to
make sure they were extremely quiet, one little noise might wake
Tommy’s dad and bring his wrath down on them. Tommy’s dad wasn’t
really anyone to be afraid of but it just made the adventure sound
better in their heads if they thought of him that way if only for a
minute.

Once outside with Tommy’s parents none the
wiser, they quickly darted from shadow to shadow across the
backyard until they reached the path that would lead them to their
eventual destination. Stepping from the underbrush onto the wide
dirt road they were greeted by an almost impenetrable
blackness.

What only minutes before was a perfect
moonlit night with plenty of light to see by had inexplicably
turned to something altogether different. The overhanging trees
didn’t allow any light to pass through their branches. Shadows
clung to every possible surface they could find. A regular tree
suddenly looked like a dreaded monster ready to pounce. The creak
of a branch sounded like the scream of banshee.

If that‘d been all their was they would’ve
been ok. But it wasn’t. They hadn’t counted on the fog. It had
risen like a long dead corpse from the ground after the sun went
down and grown thicker as the night cooled. They hadn’t noticed it
in the backyard when they’d left but now it just made everything
seem that much spookier. They tried ignoring it but coupled with
the already eerie darkness, found it more than a little difficult.
None of them could figure out why they hadn’t thought of it before
and brought along flashlights. After some whispered argument they
decided instead of turning around they would continue on. They
edged their way closer and closer to their confrontation with the
Goatman.

Before they knew it they found themselves
turning down one of the numerous back roads that ran around the
little town. They were secure in the knowledge that the legend of
the Goatman was nothing but a story used to scare kids. There was
no such thing so there was no reason to be afraid of anything. Even
if something strange did happen they knew the area like the back of
their hands. They’d be able to easily escape whatever the
surrounding woods could throw at them, without missing a beat.

Soon, they were approaching the stomping
grounds of their quarry. The lair of the mythical beast was all
around them. At first they started in a whisper, first one then
joined by another and another and another until they were all
saying it, they began reciting the words that would pull the
creature from whatever hole or crevice he was hiding in and make
him appear before them. After the first time through with no
results the boys’ grew which showed up in their voice. What had
been at first only a loud whisper was growing. The second time
through you might have thought they were only talking to each other
but they still had one more sentence to go and they were going to
give it their all. The third and final time they were so loud it
seemed almost as if they were daring the night to bring forth its
evil servant and prove to them that it really existed. Having
finished the call the boys stood waiting. None moved. Four sets of
eyes and ears were staining for any sight or sound that might
signal the dark creature’s arrival. All they heard was the echo of
their voices. After a few minute the silence was broken but not by
the beast.

“This shit is boring!” Rob whined. “He ain’t
ever going to show himself if he’s even real. You ask me I think
he’s chickenshit!”

“He ain’t chicken,” Tommy argued coming to
the monster’s defense, “you just have to wait a little while. He
has to have time to get here.” Tommy had a thing for monsters. Ever
since the first time he’d heard about the Goatman, he’d been
hooked. In Tommy’s opinion every other creature of horror paled in
comparison to the Goatman. He was, hands down the best. Tommy
wasn’t fond of the idea of a monster living so close by, but if
there had to be one then the Goatman was the best one it could be.
Goatman was a local monster, not like Bigfoot or the Yeti, which
made it better. All kid dreamed of find a monster but the other two
were too far away. Goatman was accessible, he was a possibility.
They weren’t.

“You guys just aren’t calling him the right
way,” Jim volunteered, trying to stop a fight before it began. “My
uncle told me you have to call him a certain way or he won’t come.
We didn’t do it right the first time. We didn’t say everything we
were supposed too. We left a few words out.” He paused then added
in a quieter voice, “But if I tell you how and he does shows up
you’d all better be ready to run your asses off cause you sure as
shit won’t want to stay anywhere near here.”

“Well,” Rob said sarcastically, “if you’re so
damned smart why don’t you just tell us, using all your infinite
wisdom, how we’re supposed to call the damn thing the ‘right’
way.”

“Didn’t any of you ever pay attention to the
damn story we were told?” Pete asked rolling his eyes, not that
they could see it in the dark. “Or were you to chicken to listen to
the whole thing without hiding in your sleeping bags and covering
your ears?”

“About damn time you opened your mouth Pete!
Almost forgot you were there, you were being so quiet,” Rob
bellowed slapping Pete on the back hard enough to make the other
boy stagger a few steps. “Why are you being so quiet anyways?”

“I just don’t think we need to be so loud,”
Pete said glancing at the woods to either side of the road, “you
never know who or what might hear us.”

“What’re you scared?” Tommy teased.

“We’re in the frickin’ woods Pete!” Rob
yelled louder than before. “Who do you think is going to hear us?
The rabbits?”

“Enough of this crap!” Tommy said as he
turned to Jim. “Now how do we call him? We need to get this show on
the road! The nights a wasting. All this yelling and hollering
might’ve woke someone. We aren’t that far from my house ya know. So
let’s do this the right way before it’s too late.”

“I don’t think we should call him,” Pete said
before anyone else could say anything, “I think he’s dangerous. I
think if we do call him we’ll regret it.”

“Oh, how the hell would you know?” Jim said
beginning to get a little bit pissed. Pete was always being a
little bit too careful. When the guys wanted to do something that
might even be the little bit dangerous it was always Pete that
didn’t want to do it and ended up ruining the possible fun. “Who
the hell cares what you think anyways?” he continued before Pete
could protest, “Have you ever called him? Have you ever seen him?
What’s that? No answer. Well I’ll give you one. The answer to both
those questions would be a big frickin’ NO! So if you don’t want to
call him fine, go home and hide but if you stay at least be quiet
so that those of us who want to call him can, ok?”