Episode 3 - Dreams and Dying (Episode 1 - Episode 2)
The leaf litter crashes in time with the rhythm of Janine’s running. She dives this way and that, trying to avoid stepping on anything sharp in her bare feet. Every time she looks behind her the ghost of Buddy appears a little closer than before. She knows that he is only toying with her. He has disappeared and reappeared multiple times. If he wanted to stop her he could. No. He’s forcing her in a particular direction. This realization does not change her mind, though. Fear is the fuel driving her into the woods, and the fear will not be dissuaded.
This is over when Buddy says it is.
Blind with a rising panic, Janine stops focusing on her path and just moves as fast as she can.
Buddy appears to her right. She turns.
Buddy appears to her left. She turns.
“Stop it!” she screams, flailing wildly at the dark. A bolt of pain tears up her leg and Janine falls to the forest floor. She looks down and sees blood welling on the top or her foot. First she spots the rock she tripped on, then…the dog. Rugers is different somehow. Deep in the hollows of his eyes is an orange glow, like the embers of a dying fire. Behind the dog, Buddy appears, breaking into a wide smile decorating his paper face.
“Know where we are?” he asks.
“Get away from me!” Janine desperately screams in response.
“This is it, Janine. This is the place.” Buddy raises his hands and presents the little clearing. “This is where we were to share our first kiss mouth on mouth, tongue to tongue. Right here.”
Janine looks around her at the little clearing, and begins to sob. “Here?” she mumbles through huffing breath. “You brought me here?”
“So you do remember?” he asks. “You left me here. Alone. Alone, broken and vulnerable.”
This was the very clearing where Buddy had last declared his feelings for her. Where he forced a kiss on her. Where she told him to never speak to her again. And yes, where he died.
“You broke me here, Janine,” he began. “But this will be the place where I fix us.” The ghost turns to the dog and orders: “Hold her down.”
There’s no time to cry. There’s no time to scream. There’s no time to call for help. In the flash of a moment the dog is on top of her, growling ferociously and pinning her to the ground at the neck. She fights back, but this only makes the animal hold her more tightly. Her vision goes blurry, and the dog’s hold feels wet and crushing.
“Heel!” orders Buddy, and the dog immediately lets go and sits at his new master’s side.
The ghoul that was once Buddy kneels beside her shivering frame. “Forever,” he promises her. His mouth cracks and splits into a massive gap. Sounds of struggle and retching come from the newly-formed chasm in the ghost’s face. He drags his paper hand across his tongue and harvests a frothy slime. It’s a pale green color, and sticks terribly to Buddy’s hand. “Forever,” he repeats, and wipes the slime on her face.
As her vision fades, Janine watches the frame of the ghost fade into the woods. She looks to the dog. Rugers’ eyes are still burning embers. His expression is impassive. Darkness consuming her, Janine resigns to the fact that all hope is lost. Buddy has won. Rugers is no more than the sentinel placed here to ensure she dies. Her eyes roll as she loses her fight from the heavily looming darkness.
Images begin appearing in her head. Bad scary images of horror. In her dwindling conscious state she fights with all her might against the images mentally pushing them from her head.
◊◊◊
Janine wakes to an incessant nudging. She paws as the source and feels cold fur.
And then it all comes back.
The woods.
Rugers.
Buddy.
Janine pushes hard at the fur and scrambles to her feet. The dog just sits, staring at her, but there’s something different. Rugers’ fur still looks sickly, but his eye’s seem more alive somehow.
“Rugers?” she whispers. The dog’s tail flicks weakly. “Is that you, boy?” He offers a muffled woof, then looks to the left and whines.
“He’s there, isn’t he?” she whispers. “Out in the woods. What’s he doing?”
The dog looks to her, then whines again. In the distance, a cold breath of wind rolls in. Janine’s vision cracks and Rugers appears at her side, pushing her away to the right. He looks to her with a pleading expression. She begins to back away slow, then hurries to a nearby bush.
Just as she crouches behind her cover, the ghoul returns to the clearing carrying Janine’s final meal of poisonous mushrooms in one hand. In the other, a handful of gnawing brown recluse spiders, that will be her final contact with earthly life. As he enters the clearing and sees his death bride gone, the mushrooms drop to the ground.
“No!” he shouts, wheeling on the dog and reaching high into the air squeezing the spiders until they are a ball of hairy mush. “Got too far from you, huh?” Buddy growls through his teeth. “Find her!”
At that, the dog’s eyes burst with a red flash and he takes off. Only he’s running away from Janine, not toward her.
Buddy starts after the dog but stops abruptly, and awkwardly cocks his head to the side. Rugers digs at the ground excitedly, barking for Buddy to follow. But the ghoul just stands there. Janine can see Buddy through the brush; his back to her. Then his head rolls to one side, and he turns until he is facing right at her bush. Her ears start to ring, and her breath is lost somewhere deep in her stomach. All Janine can register is the cruel smile on Buddy’s face as he takes a step toward her.