The end may come a bit too quickly, not really sure about it. and I was told it was a bit confusing and that it didn't make sense. and I realize that the story has the potential to continue on from where I left off. I really didn't have time to give it a good finish. oh, well. just tell me what you think. *Note*-the plot isn't mine. It belongs to my friend Lisa. the details, however are mine. It was a group project in my creative writing class to come up with a plot for a story and write our own spin on it.
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Jerome, Idaho, Present Day
“Claude! Get your lazy butt down here, you worthless boy!”
A young man of seventeen shivered in fear at the sound of his grandfather’s voice. He knew what would happen if he listened. He didn't’t know if he could take it much longer.
Kill him. A voice whispered in his mind. You know you want to.
No. the boy thought in his mind. I’m not that kind of person, Snake.
The voice just laughed at him. Says who? He said.
Claude paced back and forth across the attic, the place he always hid from his grandfather’s beatings.
He stumbled over his grandfather’s war supplies from Vietnam, and shivered again. That was another thing that had scarred his childhood. His grandfather’s stories of Vietnam had given him nightmares for years. He never could get them out of his mind.
He noticed a piece of tattered paper sticking out from underneath his grandfather’s war chest.
Pick it up. Snake whispered.
Claude obeyed and picked it up.
“A map…” Claude whispered in wonder. He smiled. I have to show Brandi! He thought in excitement. Maybe then she’ll pay attention to me…if I show her something interesting. If only she wasn’t so interested in Chandler…
Kill him. Snake whispered again. Kill Chandler. Then you can have Brandi for your own…
NO! Claude screamed in his mind. I’m not a killer!
You could be if you tried. Snake said, laughing and Claude felt himself slip out of consciousness.
***
Snake walked down the school hallway with an arrogant smirk on his face. He could get Brandi for his own any way he wanted. Claude was too weak to do what he was about to.
Please… Claude’s voice begged inside of his mind. Don’t do this. Chandler’s my best friend!
“Not anymore.” Snake whispered with a smirk.
That’s when he saw her…Brandi. She was petite with long silky black hair and beautiful almond shaped Asian eyes. She was Vietnamese…and the most beautiful girl Claude had ever seen. Snake approached her and the enemy she stood beside…Chandler…with a purpose.
***
When Brandi noticed Claude approaching her, she smiled. He had been her best friend since kindergarten and they were very close. Something was different about him today though, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. He seemed…strange. Not as he usually was.
She looked up at her boyfriend, Chandler, to show her concern, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Hey, man!” Chandler said, clapping him on the shoulder. “What’s up?”
He and Claude had been friends before she met them. But…the look in Claude’s eyes bothered her. She still couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Look what I found with Grandpa’s war junk.” He stated, showing them both what appeared to be a tattered piece of parchment.
“What is it?” Chandler asked, curious.
“It’s a map.” Brandi said, looking closer. “Of some kind of cave.”
“You wanna go?” Claude asked.
“Go where?” Brandi asked in suspicion.
“To go find it of course!” Claude said with a disturbing grin.
“Are you kidding?” Chandler asked with excitement. “Of course we wanna go! I’d never pass up an adventure!”
Chandler’s enthusiasm bothered Brandi. He was way too quick to accept…way too quick to trust. But Brandi would follow him wherever he went. That was one of her weaknesses.
“Alright.” Brandi said. “Let’s go.”
***
“Just where do you think you’re going, boy?”
Snake grinned as Claude’s grandfather approached him. Now was his chance.
The old man barely made a sound as the knife slide between his ribs. The ‘Nam Vet slid to the floor and moved no more.
“Good riddance,” Snake whispered as he walked out the door.
***
“…and where are we going again?” Brandi asked skeptically, as she and Chandler followed Claude through the darkness.
“Come on, Brandi,” Chandler told her reassuringly. “It’s not that scary,”
“It’s not just that…” Brandi trailed off, looking at Claude in suspicion.
“Brandi, you honestly don’t think that Claude would lead us astray, do you? He wouldn’t hurt a fly! Come on!”
Somehow, Brandi wasn’t so sure.
***
“It’s just like Indiana Jones!” Chandler exclaimed as they ventured deeper and deeper into the abyss of the cavern. Claude didn’t reply, he seemed to be looking for something…some way to lose them within the caverns, perhaps?
“Stop it!” Brandi told herself. “He’s your best friend!”
“Brandi, stay here,” Claude said, as the group proceeded to approach a part of the cavern that seemed to disappear down into the dark abyss.
“Claude…”
“It’s too dangerous for you. Chandler and I are going to check it out.”
“Claude!” she said again, but he was already gone.
***
“Why’d we leave Brandi by herself?” Chandler demanded angrily. “She could get lost!”
“She could get hurt.” Claude told him smoothly. “We don’t want that, now do we?”
Chandler frowned. Something didn’t feel right…but he did have a point. Chandler didn’t know what he would do if anything ever happened to her.
The cavern seemed to get even darker as they descended deeper, if that was even possible. It made Chandler nervous, not knowing his way through the dark. It almost made him believe Brandi’s feelings of suspicion. No matter the circumstances, he was hardly prepared for his best friend to attack him like a wild beast.
A yell of surprise was all that escaped his lips as the knife slipped between his ribs.
***
Brandi’s heart leaped into her throat as she heard the scream.
“Chandler…” she breathed.
She ran after the noise as fast as her legs could carry her. She should have followed after them, no matter what Claude said. This part of the cave was deeper and darker than the rest. It almost seemed sinister.
She tripped over something, then. A body, by the feel of it.
“No…” Brandi thought. “I can’t be too late!”
“Brandi…” a voice rasped.
He was alive! For the moment at least.
“Chandler!” Brandi cried. She felt for his lips and kissed him.
Her other hand was on his chest and she felt a wet, sticky substance. Blood. Chandler was gasping for his life.
“Claude,” Brandi snarled. “Where is he?”
“Not…him…” Chandler gasped.
“What do you mean?” Brandi demanded. “What do you mean it’s not him?”
“Not…him…” Chandler repeated. “Split…personalities…should have…seen it…coming.”
Brandi felt a twist of fear in her stomach. “Where is he?”
“Still…here…” he breathed.
That’s when she felt him breathing down her neck.
“Behind…you!” Chandler gasped, and he fell still.
“NOOO!” Brandi screamed, and she launched herself at what appeared to be Claude.
“How could you?” she wailed, using every Tai-Kwon-Do move that she knew, anything that would protect her from this psychopath who wore her best friend’s face.
“Why, Claude?” she cried.
He laughed a chilling laugh. “Claude’s not here right now,” the voice she no longer knew whispered, and he attacked.
***
Chandler labored for breath. His heart still beat…but barely. He watched, helpless, as his one-time best friend beat up his girlfriend.
He didn’t have much time left, he knew. It was a miracle he had lasted this long, but he had to do something. He wouldn’t watch Brandi die.
He dragged his almost useless body across the cave floor, and came into contact with a human leg. Claude’s he presumed. He felt the shoe laces. Brandi had been wearing flip-flops. He bit down into human flesh as hard as he could. He tasted blood. Claude screamed in agony.
“Brandi, run!”
And run she did, away from the cave and out of sight.
He felt the steel blade go into his back and he knew no more.
***
It was pitch black when Claude awoke, and he had no idea where he was. He felt the environment around him to find a hard, stone floor and a scattering of other rocks. He felt blood on himself and hoped it was only his own.
He felt his way around the cavern and stumbled upon a body. He didn’t even have to wonder who it belonged to.
“NOOOOO!” he screamed, and Snake cackled at the back of his mind.
20 YEARS LATER
The Jerome Gazette
CAVE KILLINGS ON THE RISE: POLICE SUSPECT VIOLENT ANIMALS
It has been twenty years today since the tragic accident when three teenagers ventured into Jerome Caves and only one came out. Claude Anderson and Chandler Johnson, both seventeen at the time were murdered in that cave by a bear.
Brandi Lee, now a leading psychiatrist specializing in multiple personality disorder, was with them during that time and was the only survivor. Police have questioned Mrs. Lee many times over the years, but she is no longer a suspect. However, Mr. Anderson’s body has never been found, and police now suspect that he had been devoured by the bear.
These killings have risen as of late. Five hikers have gone missing over the last month and police stick to Mrs. Lee’s story about the bear and…
Brandi put the paper down in frustration. She still felt guilty about telling the police that both Claude and Chandler had died in the cave. She knew that Claude wasn’t the killer this time. The police had never found him. He had probably starved to death by now. But something in the back of her mind told her not to be so sure…
She put that at the back of her mind. She had patients to worry about, papers to fill out.
The door bell rang. “I’ll get it!” her husband called, knowing that she had work to do.
“Brandi!” he called from the front of the house. She met him by the door.
There were two police officers at the door.
“Is something wrong, officers?” she asked.
“We’d like to talk to you about your friend Claude.”
Brandi frowned. “What about him? Claude’s dead. I told you that years ago.”
“We are beginning to doubt your statement, Mrs. Lee.” The female officer stated. “We think that he’s behind the killings now.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Brandi exclaimed. “Even if he hadn’t been killed by the bear, he would have starved by now in that cave.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Lee.” The officer said. “We’re going to have to take you in.”
“Now wait just a minute!” Brandi’s husband Lin said. “You can’t just take my wife like that! She’s done nothing wrong!”
Actually, Mr. Lee, she has.” The officer said. “She’s been lying to us for twenty years.”
***
“Now tell us everything you know about Claude Anderson.” The interrogator said in an intimidating voice.
“We’d been friends since kindergarten…” she began, and told him the true story of what had happened that night. She didn’t even know why she told the falsehood to begin with. Perhaps it was because she knew that it wasn’t really Claude who had killed Chandler. She had believed Chandler’s dying words. Believed them with her whole heart. Maybe it was because she wanted to believe. She knew there was some good left in him. There had to be. For his sake.
“A sociopath with homicidal tendencies is that correct?” the interrogator asked.
Brandi nodded.
He shook his head. “A split personality…” he mused. “I suppose that’s why you got into the psychiatric field, correct?”
She gave him a weak smile.
“Now, don’t think you’ll get off so easily just because you’re telling us the truth now.
Brandi frowned.
“You’re gonna help us find this monster.” The interrogator gave her a crooked smile.
***
Flashbacks of that night went through Brandi’s mind as the police car pulled up to Jerome Caves. “You alright, kid?” the officer sitting next to her asked. She snorted. She was thirty-seven years old. She hardly deserved to be called ‘kid’…but this officer was at least sixty-five.
She smiled. “Well enough.”
“Let’s get him, boys.” The officer said to his team.
Brandi followed them into the darkness.
***
Snake heard the officers coming with an inhuman sense. Living in the cave for twenty years granted him that. These days he mostly lived by instinct, like an animal…feeding on those who came through here to survive. He didn’t care that he’d turned into a cannibal. It got him through the days. Besides, he hardly even considered himself human anymore. The isolation had gotten to him, for he hadn’t left a single day since the night he’d murdered Chandler and scared Brandi away. He hadn’t let Claude out for awhile now. He was a distraction…something to be avoided. He was sure Claude would find his way out of the back of his mind eventually…and wail in grief at what Snake had done. As for now, there was only the anticipation of the hunt.
***
Brandi didn’t stumble through the darkness this time as the officers who had accompanied her carried flashlights. The cave was different this way, though for some reason that made it seem even more frightening. Now she could see exactly where Chandler had been murdered. She almost thought she saw him still…lying there in his own blood.
“Keep close, ma’m.” the officer said. “We don’t want you to get lost.”
She nodded. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she got lost. Claude…or whatever Claude had become found her first…well. She didn’t want to think about it.
***
Claude struggled for control of his own body. He didn’t know how long it had been since he had found Chandler dead by his feet. Snake’s doing. It months since it had happened, but Claude no longer had the sense of time within his grasp. It was always dark, wherever he was. That terrified him, not knowing. Not knowing what he had done or would do. He suspected he floated somewhere in Snake’s subconscious. A voice in the back of his mind. Just like Snake had once been to him…until Snake had turned the tables on him and taken complete control. He had to keep trying. He had to get back into control…or he was just as weak as his grandfather had always told him.
***
The flashlight shined on his face and he attacked the officers. Brandi felt the tears gather in her eyes. So this is what he had become. An animal struggling to survive. They were right. He was a monster.
If she could only help him remember who he was! He wasn’t this killer…this beast. She had to try.
“Claude…” she said softly.
The beast stopped and turned to look at her. She saw a dawn of recognition in its eyes.
“Claude, it’s me, baby.” She said with a sob. “It’s me, Brandi. Don’t you remember me?”
Brandi was no longer afraid as he approached her, slowly.
She gasped at his appearance. He was as handsome as he’d always been, but a tangled straggly beard covered his face. His skin was now pallid and chalky, like a ghost. His eyes had a haunted look in them.
He blinked, then, and stared around the cave in confusion.
“Brandi?” he asked.
“Yes.” She said in a small voice.
“You came back.” He said with smile. “Even though I scared you away.”
“Yes.” She said with a smile.
“What happened?” he asked. “Where am I? Why do you look so old, Brandi? It’s only been a few months since you left, right?”
Brandi felt as if she was going to cry again.
“No.” she said. “No it hasn’t. It’s been twenty years, Claude. You’re thirty-seven years old. Not seventeen. As am I.”
“What? That’s not possible. I…” he began babbling to himself.
“You’ve killed five people.” She said softly.
“What?”
“Tore them to pieces. We’re going to have to take you in.”
“That wasn’t me.” he said in a small voice, like that of a tortured child. “You have to believe me!”
“I do. We’re going to get you help, Claude. I promise you that. Can you trust me?”
“Yes.” He replied. “I trust you. I always have.”
Or something along those lines.
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