It was already really dark and kind of cold. The three of us continued to follow Alice and Arnie, for they had Cindy's bag. I was right behind Cindy and Tommy was behind me, I could see her shivering a little because of the cold. So I took my jacket and put it around her, she stops on her tracks and looks at me.
"Thank you." She says.
"I saw you shivering so, I thought you might be cold." I answer and smile, she smiles back and then turns around. A flashlight was on her hand and she kept calling for Alice.
"Alice!" She calls for her, but no response. "Come on, it's disgusting in here!"
"We're close, Berman, hang in there!" Alice yells and I let out a big sigh.
"Alice!" I call for her.
"I swear to God.." Cindy says but suddenly gasps, I look at her and see that she ripped her polo shirt because of some branch. "Shit! It's ruined now!" She groans.
"Hey, it's fine. You can get a new one after this, okay?" I say.
"You cursed again." Tommy says.
"You want me to murder you?" Cindy says irritated, Tommy starts getting a little dizzy and fuzzy.
"Tommy are you okay?" Cindy asks concerned. I grab his arm so he doesn't fall.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He replies. Suddenly we hear Alice screaming.
"Alice?" I ask but no response. The three of us start running towards Alice, to see if the girl was okay. We get there and see her jumping out from a hole, that looks like some sort of grave, she was okay.
"Watch your step." She warns us.
"Is someone digging a grave?" Tommy asks.
"Graves." Alice corrects him by pointing out the other holes at the place. This is so fucking creepy I swear to God.
"Mary." Me and Tommy both say at the same time.
"Where's the uh..?" Tommy says and then grabs Mary's book from the floor, I stay besides him looking at the book too.
"The X's, look. Look." I say pointing out the X's from the map in the book.
"Look. Here, here." Tommy continues. "She was marking where she dug." Alice flips the page on the book.
"But without her hand, her grip on the land holds firm. And the curse will last until body and hand unite." She quotes.
"Maybe Mary was looking for the hand." I suggest. "To end the curse?"
"That made her daughter lose her mind." Alice continues.
"Guys, come on." Cindy interrupts and chuckles. "This is silly."
"Yeah. I gotta piss." Arnie says.
"Hey. Let me see that." Alice asks for the book. Cindy grabs the book from Tommy's hand and looks at the other girl.
"You can have it, but first give me the drugs." Cindy says. "If Nurse Mary took them and went crazy, then those drugs can be very dangerous." She continues and Alice laughs.
"Oh my God! What happened to you?" Alice asks and leans closer to Cindy. "You remember when we used to have fun?" She asks, staring strangely at her, wait...«used to have fun»...did they...you know.. "I know someone that would love to be in my shoes at that time." She continues and looks at me. Fuck, they definetly did something.
"Just let it go already." Cindy says.
"That's easy for you to say. You lying fucking Brutus." She says and I was about to step in.
"I found it!" Arnie suddenly says. "I found the witch's house." He says proudly. We all run, following Arnie and Alice, as we got there we see a very old house.
"Was I only expecting, like, I dunno, a house made of candy?" Alice jokes.
"Maybe there's candy down here." Arnie says, pointing out some stairs that led to underground. Alice points out her flashlight to the whole, trying to see something.
"Hey Sarah you got any candy down there?" She jokes. Me and Cindy were pointing our flashlight too, I could feel that she didn't like this at all. "We're high and hungry. Sarah Fier!" She yells.
"Okay, we've seen enough." I intervene.
"Alright, then go home Duke. I didn't march all the way out here for nothing, okay?" She says and gives me the middle finger, as she enters that creepy underground place.
"Are you crazy? Alice!" Cindy calls out for Alice but she ignores her, entering the place anyways. "Alice!"
"Hey, someone's been down here." We hear Alice. I decide to go in there to see what she was talking about, as I look around at the place I feel a shiver coming through my spine, this is not gonna end well. "Like, recently." She continues, touching a candle. The rest decided to enter the place too, we look around and see all these creepy satanic stuff. "Look at all these witchy shit!" Alice says touching some goat's head. Definetily satanic shit.
Who the fuck builds a camp with a bunch of kids near a satanic temple?
"It's Sarah Fier!" Alice jokes pointing out the flashing to Cindy.
"Sarah Fier isn't real." She says.
"Well, someone lit that candle." Alice says, she walks near to a tiny tunnel which has some lightning on the other side. "Hey Sarah Fier if you're in here say something!" She yells through the tunnel. "Maybe she's shy." I chuckle and see Alice and Arnie going trough the tunnel, I follow them to make sure they don't get hurt.
"Alice. Cassie! God!" Cindy calls us out. As we enter the place we see a symbol carved onto the floor, with some liquid on it. Candles all around it, names carved into the stones on the wall, bones.
"Whoa." I say shocked.
"It's some kind of, like, occult thing.." Alice says, she points her flashlight to a shelf with some books and candles. "Like, devil worship." I feel Cindy's breath hit my shoulder, I could feel she was spooked so I squeezed her hand in reassurance, I wouldn't let anything hurt her.
"It's kinky." Alice jokes and grabs Arnie.
"It's the witch's mark." Cindy suddenly says and I look at her confused.
"The what?" Alice asks. Cindy opens the book showing us the page with the same symbol carved in the floor.
"A deal was made with the devil. Sarah Fier cut off her wicked hand on Satan's stone in exchange for eternal life, scarring the soil beneath with the witch's mark, bringing darkness upon the land." She reads.
"That's it." Arnie suddenly says. "It's acetaminophen."
"Arnie, what are you talking about?" I ask him.
"L484. It just hit me. It's fucking tylenol. It's nothing." He says and I grab the bottle of pills, opening it and taking one out. L484. I read, it's tylenol.
"Are you sure?" Cindy asks.
"Positive." He replies. Cindy goes to the shelf on the side of the room, I follow her and take one of the books out. "Come on, Alice. Let's get out of here. Pretty sure Joan might still have some weed if we can pay her." He calls for Alice and leaves through the tunnel. I look at the book in my hand, «Salem's Lot» by Stephen King. Sarah Fier has good taste, I chuckle. I suddenly hear a voice calling out for me. Cindy looks at me, she heard it too. She took some books from the shelf and pointed her flashlight, showing to another part of the tunnel. Suddenly Alice grabs me by the shoulder and I let out a gasp.
"I need to show you guys something." She says serious.
"This place...It keeps on going." Cindy says.
"Now!" Alice says and we get up, she points her flashlight to the wall with a bunch of names on it. "Cyrus Miller. Billy Barker. Ruby Lane." She reads the names on the all. Shadyside killers....
"Mary's daughter." Cindy says.
"Yeah." Alice replies.
"Isaac Milton, Harry Rooker." I read.
"You don't have to go to fucking class to know these names." Alice says, scared.
"The Shadyside killers." Cindy says.
"Yeah. Except one." She continues and points her flashlight lower. Thomas Slater. What....
"Tommy? Alice, this isn't funny..." Cindy starts complaining.
"What, you think I carved your boyfriend's name into solid stone with my fingernails?" Alice asks.
"Alice's right, someone else did that." I say and Cindy looks at me uneasy. We both decide to go back 'cause this place was creeping the shit out of us. As we exit the tunnel we see Tommy getting up from his seat, grabbing an axe.
"Tommy?" Cindy asks.
"Tommy, what the fuck are you doing?" I ask but he doesn't answer, he just keeps walking closer to Arnie.
"What the hell are you doing man?" Arnie asks. "Tommy?" He doesn't answer and suddenly swings the axe towards Arnie's face, killing him instantly. I freeze there in shock for what I just saw, I hear Alice and Cindy yelling at Tommy to stop. He hits Arnie with the axe another time before turning around, looking at us. There was no soul in his eyes, that isn't the Tommy I knew. This fucking curse, it's happenning again...