The groves

“No one can hear you scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.”

“But how do they REALLY know that? I mean cmon, it’s not like they can take the helmets off to hear it properly right?” Noah exclaimed, eyes rolling while hoku read the fact in the most ominous voice she could muster. Smoke filling the car while 311 played in her 1993 Honda Civic she had gotten for her birthday that year. They had created this Friday tradition sophomore year where they would pick up sci-fi comics, lewd graphic novels and “Riplys believe it or not” strips. Pick up Taco Bell and get high behind the old “Culty”, as Noah so gracefully put it, church parking lot.

No one met there for quite some time now so it seemed as good a place as any. Besides you could drive around back without fearing preying eyes of the small, often gossipy country community.

Hoku laughed at the absurdity of Noah’s comment. As she so often did, due to his never ending supply of absurd thoughts and commentary. He had adopted her after all. Not like in a parent way Ofcourse, but in the way an extrovert always takes an introvert under their wing and develop the kind of friendship that’s borderline co-dependent.

“I mean” hoku started through chuckles, “ I’m pretty sure they can record sounds in space right? But then why can’t they hear screams?” Her high mind trying to grasp the concept of indignant nothingness in the endless abyss that is space.

“Ugh, whatever. It’s giving me a migraine.” Noah mumbled. Closing his eyes and taking another drag of the joint. Noah was pretty, In a masculine type of way. His eyes were large and brown. Freckles speckled the bridge of his nose and across his forehead, while blonde curls dangled over his face. It was a nice contrast to hokus paler skin and much darker long black waves. An interesting mix of half German half Hawaiian she was often told.

She stared out the window trying to concentrate on coming down. She didn’t actually like being high atall. Too much of a control freak, though she had known it was something noah liked more, she had still done it for sheer ceremony.

The day was winding down, a still relatively sunny 4:30, 5pm. She hadn’t checked exactly. Noah rambled on about existentialism and parallel universes, like those in the comic he sifted through. Hoku was still in deep concentration when she heard Noah scream. Not a loud shrill scream but more of a disbelieving gasp. The sun went out. Like a light switch. Sunny one second and dark the next. Hoku checked her clock thinking she might of zoned out for too long. Did time skip in her high induced trance? How long had they been sitting there? Panic burrowed into her skin like a parasite.

“What the.. what the hell just happened?” Noah stammerd, Turing his head frantically like the answer was somewhere in her messy car filled with empty coke cans, a few hoodies and a thick picnic blanket. Hoku looked at the time and her stomach sank even deeper. The air outside, stagnant. The sound of any life, hushed.

“Shit…shit shit shit, I don’t know, shit.” She’s panicking now.

The clock read 5:14pm. Not nearly late enough for it to turn this dark so quickly. Could they both be experiencing the same fever dream? She doubted it. A part of her was still thinking logically through her hazy state. They said nothing for a moment.

Trying to come to terms with the event. No alarms are ringing, no sirens blaring. Everything else seemed normal enough. Although they were unable to see anyone else. the church was isolated but not far from the town. It was the same place, now night.

“I’ve heard about stuff like this.” Noah started. “It’s like when people do acid, sometimes they crack their back years later and they’ll start tripping again.”

“I’ve never done acid Noah .”

“Well after this I’m never even smoking again, shit had to be laced or something.” He paused for a moment unsure on his next move. “Let’s go back to my house, big bob works late tonight.”

Hoku wasn’t convinced but really couldn’t argue. What could she say really? Reluctantly she started the car. When the high beams clicked on she spotted it. Something in the woods that surrounded the back side of the church.

Eyes. Eyes were looking back at her. She jumped faster then she could point when Noah yelled “what?! What is it?!”

“S so something is looking at us.” She managed to whisper as if the thing could hear her. Noah’s eyes met the tree line trying to make anything out in the darkness. “It looks like a person.” Noah squinted. “Actually, it’s a girl. It’s just a girl! What the hell is she doing back there by herself..weird.”

Before hoku could protest Noah had already opened the door and yelled out, “hey! You okay? Do you need help or something?”

“Noah get the hell back in the car.” She growled, angry but clearly shaken.

“Ko, it’s clearly a girl, she might go to our school or something.” To his defense, the local high schools current graduating class was 63 students, it was a small town after all so it wasn’t entirely out of the question. Noah rationalized taking a step toward the girl.

You could only make out an outline behind the bush and bright headlights, but it did look like a young girl. That was true. Now that the sun was down, even with the headlights, the blackness of the forest was vast. In Rural Kentucky, the town wasn’t on most maps. Even smaller then park city and much closer to “mammoth cave” the only significant landmark for miles. Not enough light pollution, or even street lights for that matter, to truly see anything further then a few feet past the headlights.

Hoku began to feel her skin crawl as a hand from the back seat grabbed her shoulder.

Screaming and flailing the small hand off of her as if it left residue just by touching her. her eyes closed tight as she whipped around. Noah ran fast to the car trying to see what had her so shaken. Forgetting about the girl entirely.

“Stop.STOP ITS ME. ITS JUST ME.” A small, just as scared voice yelped.

“Kydo! What the actual hell dude” Noah sighed in relief. “You scared the shit out of us.” “What the fuck kydo. Dad said you had jujitsu after school.” Hoku exclaimed, confused but relieved.

“I kind of skipped sixth period and took a nap in your car..I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. Please, don’t tell him!”

Hokus kid brother exclaimed with a hint of guilt in his middle school broken voice. The kid was borderline genius but he couldn’t manage school. Too boring and nowhere near as advanced as he needed.

“Whatever creetin, just shut up for a second.” Hoku snipped and whirled back around to see if the girl had still been there. It was too dark to see but the eyes glaring at her were now gone as far as she could tell.

“Hey, have I been sleeping in here all day?” Kydo, just now taking notice that it was dark out as he rubbed the crust from his eyes.

“Nah man, the sun turned out” Noah said with bloodshot eyes.

“The sun turned out?”

“Yeah dude, you kinda had to be there.”

“Technically I wa- how stoned are you right now?”

“STOPPIT.” Hoku snapped. “Both of you. Seriously, let’s just get out of here.”

With shaky hands hoku switched the car into reverse. Looking back she caught a glimpse of her little brother. They were only 4 years apart in age but in this moment he looked much more child like. He wasn’t very tall yet. Still maintained a decent amount of his “baby chub” their dad so lovingly put it, but hoku imagined once his growth spurt kicked in that awkward stage would be gone for good.

As the reverse lights flared on, hoku could make out the silhouette of a figure. She could only make out that it was a woman, she quickly noticed her now protruding back and stringy hair dangling from her frame.

Kydo turned frantically around to see what hoku what staring at in horror, mouth agate.

“GO Hoku! GO GO GO!” Noah yelled, no longer maintaining any sense of rational.

In a panic, hoku slammed on the gas in an attempt to speed out of there and get the hell away from that woman. That thing..

To her horror, the car flew in reverse instead nearly hitting the woman but instead slamming into a tree just beyond the edge of the church. The events transpiring in mere seconds.

Fight or flight response kicking in, adrenaline kept her from being knocked out completely on impact.

“Fuck.” Noah weezed as he shifted his body over and opened the door to escape the now smoking car.

Kydo knocked completely unconscious in the back seat, with a small speckle of blood spotting his brow. Hoku jumped up, her fight or flight going directly to flight.

With all her strength she managed to pull Kydo out of the back passenger door, hiss full body weight landing on top of hokus small frame with a thud. Noah scrambling to his feet to assist.

“I don’t see her anymo-shit” he exclaimed while clutching his hip, wincing in pain, although temporarily.

“We can’t carry him that far. Let’s just go inside the church and wait it out.” Hoku rationalized.

“Do we even know if it’s open?”

“Nick lefky swears he hooked up with shana in there every thursday.”

“He also said he kissed Ani Defranco before she was famous..I mean..”

“Oh just go noah!” Hoku whisper screamed, trying not to attract more attention then they already have.

Hoku gripped kydos legs, noah his arms and they braced themselves to run from behind the car.

“Go!”

They half dragged half ran as quickly as they could shuffle to the back entrance of the church. Just as they approached, noah running backward was able to spot the figure again emerging now from the opposite side of the Sudan, elongated fingers curling through the busted back window frame.

Noahs back pressed to the wall next to the door supporting kydos weight, observing the creature in horror as Hoku tried prying the door open from its rusted frame.

“Ku! Hurry up man.I don’t like this. She’s back, she’s back! Wait…. is it.. is it moving? Hoku. HOKU.”

“I’m trying! The freaking thing is rusty as hell! Why is what moving?”

Hoku turned while still yanking the door with all her strength, though still shaken from the crash only to spot the woman, back hunched even further now, the large fleshy lump moving now, as if something was slithering, crawling just beneath the surface of the stretched skin.

Noah, dropping Kydo like a dead weight, to scared now to be gentle, quickly took hold of the large bar with hoku to yank the door open with one last burst of energy. In one swift motion the door swung open sending them nearly to the floor.

The pair scrambled to kydo, fumbling as they dragged him through the open door into the pitch black church.

The last thing hoku seeing before they slammed the door shut being the creature, looking more animal then human now, throwing itself on all fours and galloping toward the door with a shriek inducing spastic chills across hoku’s skin. Noah turned the deadbolt with ease.

The pair managed the see enough into the room that they spotted a piece of wood propped against the wall they were able to quickly shove through the wide door handle, acting as a makeshift double lock.

Hoku slid to the floor, her heart boxing her rib cage, holding her still sleeping brother in her arms demanding her breath to catch. Noah beside her huffing just as hard as the creature pounded at the door just outside.

It was pitch black due to the church having no windows lining the walls.

Hoku always found that odd in the past but didn’t question it much, mind always filled with more pressing matters like school and boys.

Sitting there now she found the vast darkness almost comforting, like a blanket. If We can’t see it, it can’t see us. She kept telling herself, trying to conjure it as fact.

Just as suddenly as it started the banging stopped. No longer rapping at the door. They sat quite, searching for a sign of direction it may have gone to but through the stone walls you could hear nothing. The only stream of light peeping through the colored glass ceiling. The stone fortress could of been atleast 3 stories tall she calculated. Which gave her minor relief.

After a long moment noah reached into his pocket, retrieving his lighter and flicking it to life.

As their eyes adjusted they peered around the room. Hoku studied it swiftly noting the pews just outside the entryway a few yards from where she sat. The stone circular room fashioned a dozen rows of seating all facing the pulpit, which was covered in ornate carvings.

The wall behind it exhibited an inscription transcribed into a stone slab that read “weaving spiders, come not this way.”

“Wha-what happened.” A dazed and confused kydo whimpered.

“Oh, thank god” hoku gasped, “are you okay? Does this hurt?” Hoku questioned while pressing two fingers to his brow lightly.

Kydo recolied but quickly brushed it off, wanting to come off more mature then he actually was.

“I’ll live. What the hell happened. Where’d the creepy chick go?.. wait, where are we?” Kydo rattling off questions quicker than hoku or noah could answer.

“Some screwed up shit is going down here man. That wasn’t a lady.” Noah paused. “We don’t know what the hell it was actually.”

“Whatever it was, it was disgusting.” Hoku murmured while staggering to her feet, kydo and noah doing the same.

“Are we in the old Elohim grove church?” Kydo, finally piecing together the nights events.

“Is that what it’s called?” Noah chirped, lighting the candles set out at the end of each pew.

“Not suprised, kydos a total nerd.” Hoku chimed attempting to lighten the mood. She was aware of the danger they were in but didn’t want her brother or Noah to share in the pure terror she was feeling. She was good at hiding her emotions and got better with every year she had to. Kydo was to young to remember when their mother left and she tried her best to be a surrogate for him.

“Yeah they were pretty weird actually, when they opened in the 40s everyone believed it was a Jewish sect, mostly because there wasn’t that many Jewish people around here at the time and the word ‘Elohim’ is Hebrew, but they eventually figured out they were some alien worshiping cult and pretty much just chased them off.” Kydo explained matter of factly.

“See, total nerd.” Hoku chuckled, lightening the mood. The trio doing a pretty good job disassociating, given the current situation. They didn’t know what their next move was, but they knew they weren’t going to leave any time soon.

For the time being they roamed around the abandoned church. They entered what seemed to be the office down the hall from the main venue. Hoku sifted through desk drawers attempting to kill time while kydo examined a map sprawled across the oak wood table. Noah following close behind, looking but not wanting to touch much of anything, as if he’d catch something.

“Does that run in your family or something? Going through peoples crap that doesn’t belong to you?” Hoku and kydo met Noah’s gaze following his sarcastic remark. “No, we just get bored easily.” Hoku scoffed. “Even if their is some freaky bitch creeping around outside.”

“Hey guys, check this out!” Kydo said shoveling through paper stacks on the table top. Noah and hoku making their way to the table across the room. Kydo handed hoku a stack of photos with random images. Scientists standing infront of a sign reading “Morgan island” the tallest of the group holding a lap dog sized monkey.

The next photo of a group of men sitting at a large outdoor dining table. Whiskey glasses in hand and 40s attire. A large map sprawled across the desk of North America. Random locations circled. A few near California, another off the coast of South Carolina.

“You think this is the cult freaks?” Noah asked, as if kydo would have an answer.

“I guess so, I mean I have read about some of these places atleast. In the late 70s Morgan island was opened for a bunch of infected monkeys. You can’t visit or anything but apparently it was to help out another country who was testing things on animals. Pretty weird right?”

“You guys think these people had something to do with that?” Hoku asked, not expecting an answer. Just then, she noticed something in her peripheral. A small port sized window to her right, just big enough to peep out of but much to small to fit through, which relieved her. Something was moving out there.

“Guys!” Hoku said while ducking, crawling toward the small window. “I think she’s still out there.” Kydo and Noah joining her on the floor now. Ducking out of possible sight.

Hoku slowly began to rise gripping the window sill attempting to sneak a peak without being seen herself. She surveyed the tree line searching for any sign of movement when she spotted her. The woman no longer hunched. Standing a foot taller then she had been, frozen. Hoku noticed her ribs weren’t moving. No longer pulsing in and out. Was she breathing? Frozen as a vhs put on pause.

“You guys I see her!”

“What is she doing?” Noah asked, panic rising in his voice. “Is she coming?”

“No, no she’s just standing there, but the hump is gone.” He squeeked.

“What do you mean it’s gone?!”

“Gone, as in no longer there Noah.”

“So what does that mean?” Kydo chimed in, not exactly understanding.

“I don-“ Hoku was interrupted by a loud thump, followed but ticking. A rythimic tapping forming from all angles. The sound echoing in the large chamber at a rapid pace.

“Is that.. rain?” Noah guessed.

“I don’t see any rain out of the window.” Hoku explained.

The trio made their way to the main hall, attempting to find the source.

“Guys, look!” Kydos voice broke while he he shot his arm toward the stained glass ceiling.

They could just make out tiny figures scattering across the dome in every direction.

“Are those.. bugs?”

Noah’s voice shook with each word as more and more figures appeared. Each set of legs tapping across the glass.

“Those aren’t just bugs” Hoku began, unable to take her eyes off the scattering anthropods. “Those look like spiders!” “Why the hell are they so big?!” Noah unable to look away while asking.

To there horror, the ceiling began to crack.