The Mysterious Ones
Normally, I don’t like writing. However, one of my favorite classes involves writing, so I find it very ironic. My name is Marshall Bloom. Exactly what am I writing about? Well, something very life-threatening happened to me just about a week ago. I’ve been home for that long. I almost forgot how my dorm room looked like. Actually, I’m just rambling now. Let me begin my story.
It was around April 16th. I was actually cramming for this test I had in my English course. When do I ever study? I was up all night playing some Call of Duty while I was hopped up on Mountain Dew. Luckily, my roommate, Wayne, wasn’t there at the time. He usually goes home to crash at night. Why? I really don’t know; I really don’t know much about him. All he is to me is my roommate. I hear that he is a strange dude. He seems fine to me, but he is quiet. You know, the typical shy person I guess you can say.
Anyways, my classes were canceled for the day because there was this shooting that occurred at Virginia Tech. I never seen so many people in shock before in my life. I was horrified to hear of the news, but I was also glad because I had more time to procrastinate to study for this test. I know; I am an awful person.
The cafeteria was nearly empty. I think it had to do something with the Virginia Tech thing. I saw my friend Carter sitting with his girlfriend Sophia. She had her face buried in Carter's shoulder. As much as I didn’t like her, I never seen her like this before. I didn’t just want to walk away from them, so I decided to sit with them. Carter asked me if I heard what happened and I told him I did. Then, he told me that Sophia had just lost a friend during the shooting. Out of respect for the family, I really shouldn’t be using their name. I told Sophia that I’m sorry to hear what had happened and I understand what she’s going through. She looked at me and whimpered, “Thank You”.
To be honest, I didn’t understand what she was going through. I never experienced death before in my life. Sure I’m only 20 years old, but I really don’t have that much life experience. I had to say something to make her feel like she’s not alone even if I don’t really get what she’s going through.
I didn’t want to stay any longer than I had to, so I told them both I had to go back to my dorm room to study for this test. Of course, they believed me because both of them knew I needed to pass this test otherwise I’m going to have to retake the course. I didn’t even finish eating. I threw away my half eaten pizza and regretted my decision afterwards.
As I entered my dorm, a pungent odor instantly crawled into my nose. It was coming from my desk. It was this week old sushi I got from this bistro. I was actually going to eat it, but I got too lazy to finish it and it’s been on that desk for a while. Before I threw it away, I had to turn on the lights in order to find this trash bin.
It’s almost always dark in my room. Wayne usually tells me to leave them off for some odd reason. I guess he just doesn’t like the light too often. His bed was always nice looking. As a matter of fact, his side of the dorm was always neat looking. I think he had OCD or something.
As usual, he wasn’t in the dorm. Not wanting to study for this test, I decided to fire up the Xbox One and play some video games. I think I was up til 11:00 pm. My phone’s text ringtone came on and it was from Wayne. The text read, “Where are you?”. This is odd. Wayne never texted me before. We gave each other our numbers back in our Freshmen year, but this was the first time he ever communicated with me. I shot him back a reply telling him I was at the dorm. Before the text was sent, he sent another text that said, “Dude, I’m in some deep shit right now! I need you to come pick me up, right away!”. Oh man, I was actually nervous at this point. I asked him where he was and he said he was near this old warehouse. However, he told me to meet him in the back. I didn’t want to question it because I can already guess it’s something not good.
The warehouse had been abandoned for 10 years. It used to be a toy-making warehouse, but I think it went bankrupt and they had to shut down. Anyways, as I began approaching the warehouse I saw about 5 black SUVs at the front. At that point, I was pretty much scared. I didn’t even have a weapon to defend myself with. In order to not be seen, I turned off my headlights. I pulled up about 200 feet away from the warehouse right behind some bushes.
I didn’t know what to do, so I texted Wayne to figure out where he was. He replied, “Okay, listen man. There is a bunch of very dangerous guys in the warehouse. Don’t even think about coming in. I’m going to try to make my way to you. I’ll meet you near the front, so please don’t get caught.” My body froze when he said the word “dangerous”. What did he do? I didn’t see anyone in the front, so I thought that maybe I could get some more information from these guys. I got my phone ready to take some footage. I began to film. I made sure to turn off my phone’s flash in order to prevent being seen. I was slowly approaching the SUVs. I was sweating at this point because at any moment any one of these clowns could pop out and jump me.
I got video of three of the license plates. Why exactly didn’t I call the cops? I don’t make the best decisions; I thought I could get Wayne and we would both be out of that place. As I was about to film the fourth license plate, a hand grabbed my shoulder and I screamed. “Stop! It’s just me, Wayne!”. We both looked at each other in fear because these guys probably heard my scream. Wayne took a peek over the SUV, but he didn’t see anything. We both took a sigh of relief that these guys didn’t hear us.
Just then, someone came out of the SUV we were hiding behind. Our relief turned into anxiety very quickly. I didn’t know what this guy was going to do. I could only see his feet, but he stayed in place. I assumed that he was probably looking around. I was hoping that he would either go back into the SUV or just leave. Neither was the case.
All of a sudden, there were voices coming from in front of us. I looked under the SUV and saw many feet. I probably counted 10, but those were the feet that I saw in front. I didn’t know how many were actually to the left or right. Me and Wayne were dead silent. We had no idea what to do at this point. It was either these guys would find us or we would have to make a break for it. At this point, I pretty much knew neither of us would make it out alive if these guys were as dangerous as Wayne described them.
However, an idea occurred to me. I motioned to Wayne to hand me his cell phone. He didn’t hesitate to hand me the phone. I went into the settings and set an alarm on the phone to go off in about a minute. We only had one shot at this, so I had to make this count. I assumed that he knew what we were going to do once this alarm began ringing. As I turned the alarm on, I tossed the phone as far to the left as possible. My heart was pounding. I was thinking to myself, “What would we do if that alarm didn’t ring? What if they don’t follow the noise?”.
To my luck, the alarm began to ring. As soon as I saw every leg move off to the left, Wayne and I both made a run for it. Wayne was behind me as he knew I was taking him to my car. I don’t know how, but one of those clowns saw us. We heard yelling coming from behind us. Then, I heard both yelling and gunshots. I never been shot at before. It’s not like Call of Duty at all. I began to run in a zigzag motion because I heard it’s harder to get shot at since you’re moving. The closer I got to my car, the more my heart began to race. Wayne was yelling at me to slow down. There was no way I could slow down! I kept running without looking back. I was about 5 feet away from my car when I felt a sharp pain in my calf and fell on the ground. Wayne stopped and dragged me to a nearby tree as cover. Luckily, he saved my phone when I fell. He asked me if I was okay. I told him I was fine. Actually, I was fighting back tears. I’ve never been shot before! Wayne asked me for the car keys and I gave it to him. He opened the door and helped me get into the passenger seat.
He did this cool slide over the hood of my car and quickly got into the driver's seat. I’ve never seen anyone reverse so fast before. At that point, we were no longer being shot at. As a matter of fact, none of those guys were even following us. Usually, the bad guys always go after their victims, but these guys just stayed back. I didn’t want to think too hard about it at the time.
My leg was feeling numb and my blood was cold. I was begging Wayne to take me to a hospital, but he was quick to reject the idea. He said he knew a guy who could patch me up in the mean time. Not wanting to drain my phone’s battery in the event something goes wrong, I stop filming. I didn’t know if I should trust Wayne any further. It was all his fault that I had to come get him, and I ended up talking a bullet in the calf for it.
About 15 agonizing minutes later, we pulled up to a Pawn Shop. I asked Wayne what were we going here. He told me, “Relax! The guy I know works here. He’ll patch you up and we’ll be on our way”. Then, he put a sack over my head. He apologized for this, but he told me I couldn’t see the guy. Why? I already know where the guy works! However, I really didn’t care. All I wanted was for the pain to go away. I don’t remember how long I was in that shop for. The anesthetics he used actually knocked me out for a while.
All I remember was waking up in my dorm room. Wayne was actually in the room this time. He looked like he has been up for a while. It must have been around 4am or something like that. Wayne looked at me and can already guess what I’m about to ask. He said, “Okay, I want to start off by saying I’m sorry. Look, man. You know how much of a loner I am. All I really wanted was love. Is that really hard to ask for? For me yes! All this time, I have been with these guys trying to find love. You know how I always go crash at my parent’s place at night? That’s not true. I’m always with these guys. They wanted me to sell my soul in order to complete this ritual. However, I didn’t want to do this, so I took this rock from them because it’s the piece that can finally help me find love.”
I looked at him in disgust. I wanted to strangle him right then and there, but I held back my desire to kill him. I told him, “What the hell is wrong with you!? Do you even know how these cults work? Do you even know what they are capable of? Dude, they shot me in the leg! As a matter of fact, they probably know where we are!” He began to look like he was about to panic. He stormed out of the room without a word. I didn’t feel like going after him.
There I was. I was just in my dark dorm room with a bandage around my leg. I had a slight headache, but the tingling sensation in my stomach was beginning to numb the headache. What was I going to do? What if these guys did know where I was? I didn’t want to risk being in any danger. However, I decided to get some sleep because I still needed to take a test. I don’t know why I was thinking about anything else at the time.
I only slept for about 3 hours and awoke from a nightmare. I don’t remember what the nightmare was about, but if I slept in for another 10 minutes then I would be late for class. It’s been a long time since I had any nightmare.
As I was walking to my class, there was almost nobody walking around me. It has never been so empty before. People are usually out and about, but not today. I only saw maybe about a couple of people. When I got to my classroom, the test was about to start. Great, I guess I should have felt awesome for making it on time.
I was feeling hungry. My friend Tucker came over to invite me to have some Pizza Hut with him, but I told him I was busy. He knew that something wasn’t right. He asked me what was up and I told him I just don’t feel right. Before he could say anything, he looked off behind me. I turned around and saw this guy in a robe in the distance. Oh no, they know who I am and where I lived. I ran off and didn’t look back.
Before I closed my dorm room’s door, Tucker put his hand on the door. He said,” Dude, you really have to start saying something. Who was that guy and why did you run? What did you do?”. I didn’t know where to start. Then, Wayne came into the room. He already knew that something was wrong when Tucker gave him a look. That’s when Wayne filled him in on what has happened.
Tucker’s facial expression was quick to turn horrified. “So if these guys know where you are? Why are you still here? You should be getting out of…”. He was stopped by a banging at the door. We were all standing completely still. We looked at each other wondering if one of us was going to open the door. Then, someone began to speak, “Listen guys! I know what you’re dealing with. I heard everything and I followed you here. Please, let me in and I can help”.
I didn’t want to open the door. Tucker and Wayne were looking at me as if they didn’t want me to open the door either. Reluctantly, I went to go open the door to this stranger. He was this tall, slender guy. He was wearing a brown trench coat with some shades on. His beard was big and bushy while his hair was shiny and shoulder-length. He looked suspicious enough not to trust him, but apparently he knew something, so I allowed him to talk. He introduced himself as Blake Sherman.
“This may sound like complete BS, but these guys mean business. They are the dangerous kind of cult. I’m talking voodoo type cult, man! However, they aren’t afraid to use firearms either. This cult is much bigger than you think it is. Have you heard about these disappearances? “. He pulled out newspaper clippings and handed them to me.
I looked at them and these were murders that happened over the course of three years, but why would he show me these? I asked what was I looking at.
“These murders are all connected, man! All of these guys were decapitated, but not with a blade! The cops never figured out exactly what caused the decapitation” he said.
“And you think this cult is somehow connected to these murders?” I said.
“It’s clear who it’s by! I’ve been following these guys for the past three years. They always murder some lonely guy who tried to find love using their help. I guess they don’t follow their end of the deal, so they just end up dead. You’re friend right there is their next target”.
“If my friend is the target, why are they following me?”
“You recorded them! They want you dead because you have proof that could lead to them being discovered, but the problem is that these guys are off the radar. They do a good job at being untraceable. However, you discovered where their main operation is at! That’s why they will do everything in their power to kill you and your friend to prevent getting caught. Also, they want that rock that your friend has!”.
“Wait! What is so important about that rock and how haven’t they been caught?” I said.
“Look, I really don’t know what that rock does, but it must be very important if they are continuing to stalk you guys. These guys must have some high-end equipment if they haven’t been caught yet, but you have the power to locate them. These guys are still people. It’s not like they are monsters! However, they are powerful because they use evil voodoo magic or something like that.”
“Okay, I can just give this footage to the police and they’ll take care of it!”.
“No, that wouldn’t work! You would probably be dead before you can reach a police station and more than likely they are monitoring your every technological move to make sure you are not sharing that footage. There is only one thing you can do at this point.”
I didn’t like where this was going. I had to play dumb and asked, “What do you mean?”
“You and your friend are the only human beings who know where these guys are at. Meaning that the two of you are the only ones who could do anything. I’m saying that you have to kill their leaders in order to stop them from coming after you!
“Whoa, man! I never killed anyone before and I’m keeping it that way! There has to be something else!”
“Don’t be foolish! For the first time in the time that they been around, you two are the only ones who got away from these guys alive! You guys are lucky. Hopefully, that luck can help you finally disband this group”.
I didn’t know what to say. What was I going to do?
“Here take these”.
He gave Wayne and I revolvers. At this point I began freaking out. I knew what he was about to say, but I just can’t go through with it! I’m a pacifist for God sakes! I didn’t even know how to shoot a gun!
“Those were the last guns I had. Anybody that you told this too will end up dying unfortunately, so you kind screwed your friend over right there”.
Tucker began tearing up. He was one of the happiest guys I knew and here he was about to cry. He was scared. He didn’t know what to think. The thought of waiting for your death is scary especially if you can’t stop it.
I wanted to console Tucker, so I told him how sorry I was.
It was kind of hard to understand him, but he whined and said, “It’s okay, dude. There was no way you could have known about this. I shouldn’t have been nozy. I have to get out of here, dude! I’m going to find a place to hide and hopefully not die. In case something happens to me, I want to say that it was glad knowing you guys. By the way, I’ve been messing around with Sophia.” And just like that he darted out of the room.
I didn’t really care that he was messing around with Sophia; it only gave me more of a reason to hate her.
“Look guys, I wish I can give you more information, but I got to go myself. I risked my very safety by being here. If you guys are still around, I’ll find you in a week and give you more information. I gave you guys the guns, so you can last until that week. I’ll see you then”. Then, Blake had gone as well.
I’ve never been so confused before in my life. I didn’t know if I should hunt down these leaders or not. My odds at survival were at a solid 0. Wayne held onto my shoulder.
“Listen, man. I know that this is my fault that we ended up in this mess, so I’m going to fix this myself. You shouldn’t have to do this”.
I looked at him in disbelief. I was caught by surprise. I almost couldn’t come up with anything to say.
“I honestly can’t bring myself to kill anyone, man. Even if these guys deserve to die, I just can’t stand the thought of ending a human life.” I said.
“I understand that, but if these guys die then we would prevent them from killing anyone else. If I do this, then I would be doing good by getting rid of these guys”.
“Wayne, look at me. Unless you have super powers or had any kind of experience with a firearm then you would actually have a chance at stopping these guys!”.
“Unlike you, I am actually willing to go and stop them! Don’t you get, Marshall!? We can be the good guys and put a stop to this! However, you want to be a coward and run away!”.
“I’m not a coward! Every man has to know his limits. This is something that is just impossible to win. These guy use guns and fucking magic! Do you honestly think that you can stop them by yourself”.
“Wow, you’re even more pathetic than I thought you were. I’m ending this tonight. I don’t even care if I die. I will at least die fighting”. Just like that, Wayne was gone.
I wanted to stop him from going. Believe me, I really wanted to. However, there was nothing I could have done at that point. He made up his mind and decided to fight. I on the other hand decided to pack up my things and hit the road.
Now here I was on this computer. I haven’t heard back from Wayne in over a week and Blake was probably still back at my campus. There is someone downstairs and I know that my parents are out of town. I have the gun right next to me. I don’t know what I should do. At any moment, this guys could barge into my room and murder me. I kept hearing footsteps. They sound like they are getting closer to my room. I think this person is trying to silently enter my room, but they are not doing a good job at stealth.
I can tell by the footsteps that he or she was wearing boots. Maybe they were wearing combat boots or something like that. They can easily tell that I am in the room because the only light was coming from my computer monitor.
I don’t want to end up like those guys in those newspaper clipping. I actually always wondered if it was more dignified if someone took themselves out rather than another person doing so. If these guys killed me, then they would win.
However, they are going to lose this. Well, my chances of survival are at 0, but at least I’m not going to die at the hands of these guys. I hid the footage somewhere where Blake would find it. He seems like an observant person, so I know he will find it.
It’s been good living this life, but now it’s time for me to go.
Goodbye.
-Marshall Bloom
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