“Yo, are you ready for tomorrow, bro?” I laid the phone on my desk, the speaker turned on, so I could answer him while I finished packing my bags.
“Just about.” I rummaged through my belongings and rechecked my bags, going over everything we needed, making sure nothing was missed.
“You got the equipment right, Louis?” I asked him.
“Hell yeah I got the equipment,” he replied over the phone.
“Now, if she knows how to work it, we’d be set.” I rolled my eyes, though he couldn’t see it.
“Funny. Now how about the other equipment?” He laughed.
“Yeah I got that to.” I heard him shuffling through the phone.
“We got EMF meters, digital cameras, DVR video systems, WITH night vision, thermal cameras, laser grids, the works.”
“Great. I’m bringing along extra batteries and cameras of my own.”
“Cool. Don’t forget skis. I’m hitting the slopes when we get there.”
“More power to you,” I said.
“I never was good at skiing.” Beeping sounded through the phone. “Hold on, Lou, I think Rachel’s dialing in. She said she’d check up with us before heading out tomorrow.”
I added her to the call and heard a loud crash, and then, “Damn dog, leave things alone. Go on. Go outside.”
“Uh, hey, Rach.” I said. “Having issues?”
“Only a nosey mutt who thinks everything a chew toy.”
“Sup Ray!” Hollered Louis from the other line.
“Hey, Lou.” She answered him.
“You ready to go?”
“Yeah, I’m all packed.” She said. “I got all the essentials and a few drinks and stuff.”
“Drinks?” I asked.
“Well, yeah. Just cause we’re going ghost hunting doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun. It is our fall break, you know.”
“Wooh, yeah! Party time m***********s!” came Louis loudly.
“We’re not getting drunk,” said Rachel. “But I figured we could just chill a bit. I’ve never been to a ski lodge before. It’s definitely a much needed vacation.”
“We’re going to be in the mountains, surrounded by snow and ice. You can’t get much chiller than that.” I said.
She laughed and asked, “Ramy, you know where this place is, right?” I looked through the ski resorts I had laid out on my desk.
“Yeah. Crested Butte Mountain Resort, with scenic beauty and a wide expansive network of lifts, terrain and trails.” I read aloud.
“And one of the most haunted ski towns in America,” chimed in Louis. “Well, according to Professor Anderson.”
A few weeks ago, our college professor was talking about stuff that had to do with climate change, and air differences on a mountain verses the surrounding flat land. One place he mentioned was Crested Butte. Also known as the last ski town. Prior to our own research, Professor Anderson also talked about the hauntings and ghost sightings there. More specifically of a humanoid creature who was solid white except for large, dark eyes. I tried researching this town, and found many reported ghost sightings from there. Growing up, I had always had a fascination with the paranormal. When I got into high school I met Louis and Rachel who shared the same interest. Hearing the stories from Crested Butte, we grew intrigued and a planed a trip to go there on our next break.
“What time were we leaving again?” asked Rachel.
“Meet about 6:30. The flight leaves at 7:00,” answered Louis.
“So we get a break from school for sleep and relaxing, but then we have to get up at 6:00?” I wasn’t a big morning person. At all. It takes me at least 20 minutes to wake up, and that’s getting up at 9:00, with coffee.
“Well, yeah. If you want to get the better rooms first, we have to leave early,” said Louis. “Besides, all the other flights where booked.”
“Well, in that case, I’m going to go ahead and turn in for the night,” said Rachel. “I do need my beauty sleep after all.”
Louis started laughing. “Beauty sleep? You must haven’t had a good sleep in years, then.”
“Yeah, and what’s your excuse?”
“Don’t need one,” retorted Louis. “I don’t need beauty sleep to look this good.”
“Whatever,” replied Rachel. “You realize you’re the only one who says that, right?”
“You two are like siblings, you know that?” I laughed.
“Oh, don’t relate me to that,” complained Rachel.
“Yeah,” said Louis. “I’m on a higher level, man.”
“Oh, really?”
“Goodnight, guys.” I chuckled as I hung up the phone. I finished packing and got ready for bed. 6:00 am comes quick.
The next morning, we were on our way to Colorado. If Louis wasn’t flirting, he was sleeping for most of the flight. Rachel was reading some books she brought along, and I sat looking out the window while listening to some music or doodling on the back of a notebook until I fell asleep. After 3 or 4 hours, we were in Colorado. The closes airport was in Gunnison, so it was about a 36 minute drive to Crested Butte. Upon entering the streets of the valley, we saw many houses all in a line, pine trees that were decorated with bright, gold lights in front of old buildings and businesses. Ice and snow covered the ground, and over looking the town was Mount Crested Butte.
“It’s beautiful here.” exclaimed Rachel, peering out the window of the Alpine Express Shuttle.
“It kinda does look like a ghost town,” said Louis. I watched out the window at the buildings and cars that went by as we pulled into the Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
The resort was amazing. A tall, 5 story brown and white building that glowed with light from within and trees sparkled with gold light around it. It had other buildings and stories built up around it. We entered the large building and signed up at the front desk for a room. Rachel got one of her own and I bunked with Louis. We went to our rooms and began to get settled in. The rooms were large and was as nice as the rest of the hotel.
“Dude, this place is sick, man.” Louis plopped down on one of the large beds in the center of the room.
“Yeah, it’s pretty nice here.” I agreed, sitting down on the other one.
“A hotel that actually has a comfortable bed is nice on its own,” he said as he stretched out.
“Don’t get too comfy over there,” I got up and went over to my bags I had laid on the dresser. “We still have to set up.” Me and Louis set up a voice recorder and cameras in our room. In the corners, on the desk, and by the window. When we did that, we set a smaller one right outside our door to scan the hallway, but out of the way of any on coming traffic. Louis sat up his computer at the desk that was linked to each camera. After we were finished setting up, we checked in on Rachel, who was just getting done with setting up her equipment along with an EVP.
“All ready to roll?” I asked her.
“Just got done,” she answered.
“Sweet, now let’s hit the slopes!” yelled out Louis.
“Can we eat first?” asked Rachel, holding her stomach. “I’m about starved.”
“Eh, now that you mentioned it, I am getting a little hungry myself,” he said.
“Alright food, then skiing!” and he took off for the dinning area. We both just smiled at each other and walked off after him.
“What’s good here?” Rachel looked the menu over. “You guys know what you want?”
“I already saw what I want,” said Louis, leaning back in his chair. “But I don’t think they’d be none too pleased if I took their front desk clerk.”
“Ew, Perv!” said Rachel as she playfully slapped his arm, making him laugh even more.
“Which one? The blonde or brunette?” I asked him. “Does it matter?”
“You guys are gross, quite it!” Rachel blushed as we both laughed. We finally decided what we wanted and ordered.
As we ate, I caught the rest of a news story that was airing on a T.V in the dinning room. An ancient, frozen corpse that was recently discovered in a cave at the base of one of the ski slopes, was believed to be stolen after it ended up missing two days after it was found. Investigators are still working on finding where it went and who could’ve taken it. According to the news, it dated back to the 1460s of Japan, adorning an ancient Japanese samurai kimono. The story was short and within a few minutes switched over to another news story involving the ski resort. A man was reporting on the disappearance of a young girl and her older brother who had been missing for two weeks after they went out for skiing. They found scrap pieces of clothing, one boot, and both pairs of skiis left behind on one of the slopes, but other wise have found no traces of them.
Other stories appeared on the news such as a cat meowing in the middle of the night to alert her elderly owner of a house fire and a middle aged man drowning in a river after saving a mother and daughter from the same fate. While concentrating on the T.V, Louis’s voice broke through, hollering, “Alright! Time to hit the slopes!” he got up to throw his trash away and turned in his plate, and we fallowed suit.
Remember when I said that I couldn’t ski on any level? We were out on the slopes for a few good hours, and in those few good hours, I think I spent most of that time falling on my a*s or hitting trees and other obstacles then actually skiing. We got back in just a little before dark, got showers, warmed back up and got ready for tonight’s long haul.
“Yo, you said you brought some drinks or something?” said Louis, sitting on the edge of our bed with a towel around his neck.
“Yup,” Rachel sat a dark purple bag on the coffee table and started pulling out an assortments of drinks.
“What are you in the mood for? Taquilla Rose? Fireball? Sake? Smirnoff?”
“And this is the girl who said we’re not going to get drunk on this trip,” I chuckled as she laid out all the drinks and solo cups.
“Hey, we can still buzz,” she filled a cup and handed it to Louis, already knowing his drink.
“And I mainly said that for you, mister lightweight.”
“Wha-I am not a lightweight.” I crossed my arms in mock defence. Louis nearly choked on his drink from laughing.
“Dude, last time you got drunk, you thought you saw a six foot purple rabbit in the basement and tried to feed beans to two garden snakes out front because they were your pets and they were hungry. And that was after just four beers!”
“Hey that was a while ago, I’m better at it now.”
“Yeah, if you consider a while ago just three weeks ago,” said Rachel as I walked over and picked up a bottle of Smirnoff. I popped off the lid and took a drink. “Tell you what, if I get that drunk this time, you can lock me in the bathroom or something.”
“And I’ll be sure to hide all the beans,” laughed Louis as he made his second cup of Fireball.
We chilled in mine and Louis’s room for a bit, drinking and talking about whatever came to our minds, basically bullshiting until the traffic died down in the hotel and it was dark enough to get to work.
“You guys ready?” asked Rachel.
“Totally,” said Louis grabbing another cup of Fireball.
“Man, how much of that have you had?” I asked him as he began downing his cup. He stooped and looked at it, then at the bottle on the table, less than halfway empty.
“I dunno, like, six?”
“Try ten,” said Rachel by the door, about to go to her side of the hallway.
“Oh, really?” he then downed half his cup. “Couldn’t tell, s**t’s good.”
“Too spicy for me.” I took another bottle of Smirnoff, only the third one mind you, and began powering on our computers. “Alright, we got things starting over here.”
“And I’ll start things on my end,” she said as she began to head out the door.
“Don’t get eaten by any beasties or ghouls lurking about,” Louis called from his position on the bed.
“And if you do, make him take you to dinner first,” He busted out laughing as Rachel shook her head and turned to me.
“Looks like you’ll be the one to look after the drunkard this time, Remy.”
“Well, it’s at least not me.” Although, I’ll admit that I did have a slight buzz. Just slightly, though! Louis got up and made his way over to our second computer and began longing in.
“Yo man, I ain’t that drunk. I haven’t started seeing giant purple bunnies yet,” he laughed again as I flipped him off. “I’ll check up in a bit.”
“Get us if you need us,” I told her.
“Don’t think we’re in too much danger at a hotel, but I’ll keep that in mind,” she smiled and I threw up the piece sign as she closed the door and headed over to her room. After a few minutes, I turned to Louis.
“Did I really try to feed snakes beans?” He looked at me and broke out laughing.
It was a little pass eleven and most of the residence in the hotel had turned in for the night. We had already been at this for an hour and not much has happened yet. Some knocking noises and creaking sounds every now and then, but we debunked those as just our neighbors in the other rooms and the squeaking wheels of a janitors cart. I was getting a little stiff now, so I stood, stretched and began checking our other equipment, mainly for the sake of just moving around. Upon checking the voice recorder on the table by our beside, I noticed a piece of scrap paper that was sticking out from the corner of the mattress. It had some writing and I flipped it to where I could read it. ~IF YOU SEE HIM, IT’S ALREADY TOO LATE~.
“What?”
“Wassup?” Louis looked back at me from over his shoulder.
“Nothing like a creepy note to get the atmosphere all settled in,” I said and handed the note to him. He read it over and gave a half laugh.
“Probably some kids just trying to prank somebody.” Maybe, but it reminded me of something our professor had said and I sat back down at my computer and brought up the internet and stories of Crested Mount Butte. Through the different stories of the ski lodge, I found one that was very similar to what our professor had talked about and clicked on it.
The first thing that popped up was a very creepy looking picture of a thin, snow white creature with large black eyes with red pupils, and an open elongated smile with sharp teeth and a forked tongue. Under the image was the title SKIER. I scrolled down to began reading. ~A humanoid creature had appeared suddenly in the Crested Mount Butte. It was as white as the snow, with piercing eyes and sharp teeth. A forked tongue and blood rained from its jaws. It was in scraps of old clothing and crawled close to the ground, making the sound of guts and raw meat squishing around when it moved, and the sounds of snarls and gurgles rang from its throat. Calling it “Skier” after the many victims its taken throughout the ski slope.~
I made a face at the thought of that gross sound and noticed all the missing people reports that had been listed after this supposed creature appeared. As I kept reading, I noticed the date of the first sighting of it at the ski lodge, almost about a week ago. Around the same time the frozen corpse I saw on the news disappeared. I researched the news story and found that the corpse belonged to a young Japanese male named Akihiro Hisoka. I typed his name into the search bar and many things about him popped up. I found a page that had everything listed about him when he was alive. During the Sengoku period of Japan, Hisoka was a brilliant and strong fighter and was part of many wars, to which most enemies he had slain. He was a powerful samurai, albeit a merciful less one. He was full of blood-lust, not only taking joy in killing enemies of war, but in killing anyone. He was a cannibalist and enjoyed the hunt. Attacking innocent villagers and other samurais, even those who he’d fought beside, drinking their blood and feasting on the carcass. He killed numerous people through his rein. Women, men, and children all fell victim to him. He was dubbed a very dangerous man, and soon was finally caught and executed. Before his execution, he swore to return. They feared him so much that they wanted his body nowhere near Japan. And with the promise of return they buried him in a cold, snowy mountain far away, in fear that the demon may rise again.
The images they had of him looked oddly familiar, and just out of curiosity, I pulled up the image of the body they found frozen in the snow and compared them, just to see if there were any similarities. My eyes widen a bit when I saw the resemblance between the two. Similar clothes, face, body type, and what really pulled it together was the fact that in both pictures, there was a Japanese kanji symbol tattooed on the left side of the chest. Thinking back on what I picked up on trying to learn Kanji, I believed it said “hunter” on his chest. I sat back in my chair, looking at the images and the stories I just read.
“Well, that’s creepy.”
“Eh? What is?” asked Louis, not taking his eyes away from his screen.
“Just some odd stories they posted about this place.”
“Does either one involve a giant, black thing with a red dot in the middle of it?”
“What?” I ran over to his screen. After everyone else in the hotel went to their rooms for the night, we planted more cameras further out to cover more ground. The camera he was looking at was one we recently placed back in the dinning hall. But instead of seeing the food court, the screen was pitch black, except for a sliver of red in the middle part of the screen.
“That’s the food court. Maybe the camera got knocked down. I’ll check it out,” I grabbed a flashlight and headed towards the dinning area.
“Careful, Remy,” called Louis on my way out.
“Watch out for giant purple rabbits.”
“Yeah, f**k you to, Lou,” I heard him laughing as I headed down the hall.
I quietly entered the food court, and quickly located where the camera was. It was stable and in position. It hadn’t moved and nothing was around it. “Maybe a blur on the lens.” I walked up to it and blew on the lens to get rid of any dust particles that might be attached to it. As I did, I could’ve sworn that I heard something being drugged across the floor behind me. I stopped, frozen in place, as did the dragging. Then, a strange, gurgle noise arose from the darkness. It started low, and grew louder, sounding almost like a dog growling, but a bit strangled. And it sounded like it was coming closer. I immediately turned and shined my flashlight. Silence. Nothing but large trash bins, and a bunch of tables and chairs. Maybe those stories got in my head. I quickly headed back for our room.
“Hows she looking?” I asked as I walked in.
“Well, she looked pretty good earlier, but I bet she looks even better now she’s in bed.” I just looked at him and his grin widen.
“Oh, are we not talking about the clerk at the front desk?” he laughed the more I looked at him and clicked through his camera screens. “Yeah, seems good now.”
“Dust on the lens.” I pulled out my chair to sit down. “You heard from Rachel?”
“Nah, not yet.”
“I wonder if she’s found anything.” I pushed my chair back in and went over to check on her. She must’ve read my mind, because she opened the door as soon as I got to it.
“Anything?”
“Funny I was going to ask you the same,” she chuckled. “Nah, not really.”
“Me neither. Just odd noises every once in a while.”
“Yeah, that janitor really needs his cart oiled.” I laughed.
“No, it’s not really squeaky sounding. More like, squishy sounding.” I stopped and looked at her.
“What do you mean by squishy sounding?”
“Well, you know when it rains and the ground is all muddy and wet and you step on it? Or how fresh meat sounds in the packaging when you pick it up and move it around? It’s something similar to that.”
“Uh-huh,” I leaned up against the door way, my mind going back to the stories I read earlier. I’ve got to stop reading these things at night. Behind us, our door opened and Louis stepped out.
“What’s up?” I asked him.
“Damn camera’s out again, turned black on me again.”
“Oh, yours done that to?” said Rachel. “Thought it was a bug on the lens or something. It’s like a little red dot in the middle of a black screen. Yeah. I’m gonna go down and take a look.”
“Want me to go?” I said.
“Nah, it’s all good. I can’t keep setting in that chair, bro. Need to get out and stretch my legs a little,” he drunk the last remaining bit in his cup, threw it in a near by trash can, and walked down the hall.
I turned to Rachel. “Say, you know any stories about this place?”
“Well there’s that one that our professor told us. And then these missing people with no bodies to be found. This place is definitely creepy at night but it seems the ghosts here just doesn’t want to play tonight.” I gave a half laugh and rubbed the back of my neck.
“Yeah. I mean what hotel isn’t creepy after dark. Most of them are like that during the daytime. Guess I’ll get back to my station.”
“Yeah, I’ll see what I can find here. Hopefully something will pop up.” I nodded to her and we both went back inside our rooms.
After some time, my concentration on our detectors and cameras began slipping, and I began wondering about the stories, the missing people reports, and the note that was left in our room. If you see him, it’s already too late. It played back in my mind. What was Skier? Is that what the note was talking about? Why does it resemble that frozen corpse? Could that be Akihiro Hisoka? I thought these questions over and noticed all the connections. This couldn’t actually be real, right? And mostly, what did I hear back there? I shook my head, believing it was my imagination, a combination of late night stories and being alone in the dark. Theres no way this thing exists. All coincidence, the similarities. Someone probably saw the news story and knows the Japanese legend, seeing an opportunity to f**k with people. Corpses don’t reanimate themselves, right? Especially after apparently being froze for so long. Right?
Just as I was getting comfortable with my thoughts, Louis came running into the room.
“Dude, I found one!” he shouted, grabbing an EMF detector, voice recorder and a hand held camera.
“Found what?” I quickly stood as he gathered his gear.
“Bro, there’s one here! I saw it! It headed out back! Solid white!”
“Wait, you saw a white creature going towards the back?”
“Creature, ghost, whatever you wanna call it, we got it! We’re actually going to have proof of something!”
“Maybe the same thing that’s making this weird noise I just picked up.” Rachel came in, holding a recorder in her right hand. She laid it on the nightstand, and replayed the audio. The same creepy gurgle came through the recorder. The same kind of growl I thought I heard in the dinning hall. Through the audio, raspy breaths and lower growls broke up the gurgling noises at random points, and I could’ve sworn I heard a creepy laugh at the end of the track.
“Rachel, where did you record this from?”
“In the Plaza.”
“That leads right outside to the slopes, same direction it went in!” Louis was excited now. He picked up his small camera and started recording.
“Let’s go bag us a beastie!” And with that, hurried out the door. Rachel and I followed, grabbing jackets on the way out, my mind soon racing again.
We quickly, but quietly rushed through the Plaza and out a door that lead directly to a ski left.
“Here?” I asked him, slipping on one of the heavier jackets we brought.
“Around here,” Louis answered, seemingly not minding the cold at the moment. Rachel started her recorder.
“Anyone here? Hello? Could you talk to us? What are we after again?” she turned to Louis. He ran a hand through his longish blonde hair and gave a small half shrug.
“I don’t really know, exactly. Just that its skinny, white and about the size of an average man, but slouching.”
“So, we could just be tailing another person?”
“Well, if the person is snow white, boney and growls like a zombie, then yes. We’re tailing another person,” he scanned the surrounding area with his camera, then, very carefully, made his way down and around the slope. We followed suit, trying to keep balance. Well, me anyway.
“Let’s see how I do without skiis,” I mumbled, almost immediately slipping into Rachel.
We got to where Louis was, crouching behind a mound of snow, motioning us to be quite and to crouch beside him.
“Dudes, you seeing what I’m seeing?” Me and Rachel looked in the direction Louis’s gaze went, and I felt a cold feeling go up my spine. There, by another mound of snow, crouched a lanky, pale white figure. It’s back was towards us, I heard a crack and munching sound, seeing the motion of its arms pick something up from the ground. It was eating something.
“Oh my god,” breathed out Rachel. “What the hell IS that?”
“SHH!” came Louis. “It might hear us.” He edged forward a bit, attempting to get a better shot. As he did, he lost traction on his shoes, his feet slipping out from underneath him, causing him to topple forward onto the mound, knocking over some of the snow into a separate pile. He loud out a loud breath of air, and we all three froze when the creature stopped and slightly turned its head. It look directly back at us, just more of turning slightly towards the sound and was facing the woods to the left of us. As soon as it moved, Rachel let out a blood curdling scream.
“What are you doing, it wasn’t looking at us yet!” I quickly tried to pull both of them back down, but realized it was staring dead at us.
I froze. I couldn’t move. Not because of the cold, but from the piercing gaze of this creatures eyes. Large, black ovals with a shiny red pupil. Just like from the cameras. It had tattered cloths draped over him that resembled an old time kimono and that’s when I noticed the tattoo on the left side of his chest. He cocked his head at us, messy, shoulder length white hair that was grown at different lengths slightly fell in front of his face, a wide sharp tooth grin stretching across his face, never taking his eyes off of us. Skier.
None of us moved. He was locked on us. If you see him, it’s already too late. The note displayed in my mind again. An undead, snow white centuries old cannibalist with a long history of hunting and killing. The corpse they found had disappeared, but it was sitting right in front of us. It began to slowly crawl towards us. His skinny arms with thin hands and long boney fingers were arched and a gross sound of loose guts and organ was clear with every movement.
“S**t!” Yelled Louis, nearly dropping his camera. He quickly grabbed it before it hit the ground, and froze in mid movement when a pair of large, white boney feet appeared in front of him. He followed those up to shining red pupils, staring holes right through him. His grin had grown wider, and blood dripped from his mouth and off his hands. I glimpsed back to where he was originally crouched, a figure of what appeared to be a small female laying in the snow. What was left of her anyway. The girl from the news who went missing with her brother.
My eyes shot back up to the monster when I felt his cold gaze upon me. As he looked the three of us over, he licked his lips clean of blood with a long, forked tongue, those creepy gurgling noises rising from his throat.
“What the f**k, what the f**k ok!?” Rachel blurted out. Skier stared at her, grin still wide with sharp teeth.
“What the f**k are you?”
“Skier.” This time, I said it out loud.
“What?” She looked at me and I almost shrieked. Because, as soon as she did, Skier nealed down in front of her, his mouth open.
“Otsumami,” came a raspy and creepy voice.
“W-What?” Louis looked at me, the ski slope, then back at me. I caught what he was trying to say and was ready to take a hold of Rachel when it was time.
“Otsumami,” he said again and let out the creepiest laugh I think I’ve ever heard and raised a bloodied hand. “Snack. My midnight snack.”
Before he made his move, Louis yelled, “Now!” I grabbed Rachel and began pulling her up the slope.
“What-” She was cut off when a swift moving hand grabbed onto her face and shove her back down in the snow. At the same time, he had Louis by his leg.
“Damn it!” He grasped at the snow and threw a hand full back at the demon. Skier laugh, now pulling him down with her. I jumped and grabbed Louis’s hand, but fell backwards when a hard, bloodied first collided with my temple.
I fell back. And, at first, I couldn’t hear anything. Then, there was a lot of screaming and what sounded like bones cracking. The screaming soon faded, but a loud ringing remained. I couldn’t see. Couldn’t open my eyes so I didn’t know what was happening. Cracking. Squishing. Chewing. Gurgling. Then silence.
The next sound I heard was someone shouting, “Over here!” Another voice followed, “I got two here, and the missing girl.”
“Any IDs?”
“Not on the younger female. But I found the ones on these two. Rachel Brooks and Louis Axel.” Hearing the names of my friends, I tried desperately to get up.
“ARE THEY ALRIGHT!?”
“Easy there, son.” I felt a strong hand lean me back and my eyelids pryed open, a small light shining in them.
“Your alright now. Relax. Look, can you tell me your name?”
“R-Remy,” I stuttered out. “Remy Marcel. Where is Louis and Rachel? Are they alright? What happened? Where is he?”
“Who’s he?”
“He attacked us! He attacked them!” I yelled. “That girl! He was eating her! Did he get them?”
“Who’s he?” The man asked again, and I gathered he was a paramedic.
“Let me get to my friends!”
“Don’t think you want to do that. We’re taking you to the hospital.”
“No! I need to know if they are alright!” I guess I got a little out of control and they had to sedate me, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital bed.
I had some head trauma, but nothing serious. Bad bruises, busted lip and a gash under my eye. My mother stayed with me while I was there and caught me up on the events that happened. While I was sedated, she said I kept yelling the word Skier, but it was brushed off since we were in a skiing lodge. They found the missing girl but was still looking for the brother, also a few more bodies at the resort, two of those being my best friends. Rachel had been dismembered and the skin of her face were missing in most places, and Louis’s organs had been completely ripped out. She comforted me and said the police are looking for the killer now. But I know who it was. And they won’t be able to stop him. Late at night in the hospital, my mother was sleeping in a recliner, but I just laid there, and tried to wrap my mind over what had happened in these past few weeks.
Most of it was hazy from the point they found me to just a few days ago. Most may be a blur, but I will never loose the image of that blood covered, white demon, his wide grin plastered in my memory. Then Louis and Rachel. I can’t believe they’re gone. It was like I was just with them yesterday. That part I hadn’t actually grasped yet. Dismembered and disemboweled? It doesn’t sound real. None of this seemed real. I dug the heels of my hands into my eye sockets, trying to see if maybe this was just fake. A nightmare. I was ready to wake up.
I sat there like that for a bit, listening to the silence around me. All was quite except for the occasional beeping of the monitors in my room. It was silent. Until, there was the familiar and terrifying sound of guts squishing around and I jerked my hands down quick enough to see a shadow duck behind my mother’s recliner. Then, there was that creepy laugh.