Come Get Me

  Come Get Me

  Michael J Hunter

  Come Get Me

  Michael J Hunter

  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?”

  “Alright,” Tommy said cutting in trying to bring a little calm to a situation that could easily spin out of control, “Jim was right, I don’t think we did it the right way the first time. Luckily what he said reminded me of the right way to do it,” he said pausing to look at each of them before continuing, “the only thing is we all have to say it, and you,” he said pointing at Jim, “have to lay off of Pete. He’s just a little bit nervous is all. We all are. He’s just the only one saying anything about it.”

  After thinking about it for a few seconds Jim half-heartedly agreed and apologized to Pete. Now that everything was back to normal Tommy went to each of the boys pausing for a few seconds to whisper something in their ear before moving on. He had just told Rob and was leaning towards Pete when Rob’s hand shot out and grabbed his shoulder pulling him back.

  “Is that it?” he asked with a laugh. Without waiting for an answer he continued, “Hell, if I knew that was all there was too it I’d’ve done it the right way the first time. Forget waiting for you pansies. I’ll do it myself.” Before Tommy or any of the other boys could stop him Rob took a deep breath and screamed.

  “Goatman,come get me!!”

  Each boy froze as they listened to Rob’s voice echo through the woods all the way back, they were sure, to each of their houses and right to their sleeping parents ears. It was funny how parents always seemed to know when their child was doing something they weren’t supposed to. In this case, Rob had pretty much just announced it to anyone who happened to have a set of working ears. Rob stood smiling at each of them until he saw the looks on their faces. All at once each of them threw a punch at a different part of his body.

  “Hey!” he yelled trying to swat their hands away. “Knock that crap off! What are you hitting me for?”

  “Because you’re a dumbass!” came one reply.

  “You probably just woke the whole damn town!” sounded another.

  “Now we really should leave.” came the last one.

  Rob stood sullenly looking at each of his friends wishing he were bigger than he actually was. He couldn’t understand what they were so ticked about. He’d only done what they were going to do anyways. So what if he hadn’t waited for them, it was too late anyways. There was no reason for them to hit him.

  As the boys stood looking at a pouting Rob and listening to their shouts fade into the night they slowly realized something was different than it had been a few minutes ago. Before Rob’s stunt they’d been able to hear the regular nighttime noises of bugs and wind and things like that. Now there was nothing. It was as if Rob’s yell had stolen all sound from the world, there was nothing. No sigh of wind through the trees, no chirp of a cricket calling to another. Nothing at all.

  This was a spooky nighttime quiet. A things coming to get you in the dark type of quiet. A type of quiet that told little boys they should’ve stayed home under the covers and not come messing around in the dark type of quiet. This type of quiet that came to mind when you heard someone say it was as quiet as a tomb.

  “You’re a frickin’ idiot!” Tommy whispered after a few uneasy seconds without some type of sound. “We were all supposed to say it at the same time!”

  “It didn’t even work,” Rob said shakily trying to blow off Tommy’s anger. “Maybe we should try again or something. I don’t think I was loud enough.”

  “Not loud enough?” Pete exploded. “You could’ve waked a dead person as loud as you were! Hell, for that matter you probably did. They’re probably on the way here right now! If there is a Goatman he sure as shit heard you. God, you are so frickin’ stupid sometimes!” Disgust thick in his voice Pete stalked a few steps away from the group kicking at the ground trying to calm down.

  The three remaining boys stood looking at each other for a minute before breaking into laughter. Pete glared over his shoulder for a few seconds before shaking his head and slowly turning back around and joining them. After they’d calmed down a bit they all decided to give it another try. Pete’s earlier reluctance evaporated after seeing that nothing had happened. Nothing had come storming out of the night to attack them at least so they might as well try again just to make sure. Maybe Rob hadn’t done it r
ight or something or maybe it was just all some old legend, which was more probable, that didn’t really work after all.

  “Wait!” Pete said just as they were getting ready to say the call again, “I think I know why it didn’t work the first time. Rob did do it wrong.” Everybody loudly blew out the air they’d been holding as Pete continued. “No wait, I remember the last time we were told the story. Jim’s uncle said you’re supposed to say the Goatman part three times before you say the come get me stuff. That’s the only way it works. Any other way and you get nothing.”

  “Who told you that crap?” Rob asked skeptically. “Sounds like a bunch of bullshit if you ask me.”

  “No more than what you just yelled a few minutes ago genius,” Pete shot back. “Besides that’s how you’re supposed to do it. If you’d open your ears once in a while instead of your mouth maybe you would’ve remembered.” Pete seemed to be getting a lot braver as the night went on. When they’d first come out he’d acted like he would piss himself every time the wind blew too hard. Now he was acting like this was just normal stuff he did every day. Of course, Pete always got this way when he was sure of himself, (which he seemed to be now).

  “Ok, ok calm down,” Rob quickly said to Pete trying to pull the reigns of leadership back to himself. “I was just asking.” Then addressing the group as a whole he continued, “We’ll try it Pete’s way and see if that works any better. If not then I say it’s a bust and we go home.” Each of them agreed before he continued.

  “Ok, now here’s how we’re going to do it. On the count of three we go for it. Not before and not after.” They all said ok. “You assholes better not leave me hanging either,” he added before he started counting.

  “One, Two, Three!” he said which was quickly followed by four voices howling into the night, “Goatman, Goatman, Goatman! Come get me!”