A Life To Waste (9 page)

This wasn’t coming from inside
the house, this sounded like it was coming from outside. It was
music.

“what the hell is that?” he
whispered.

The music was faint, it was very
slow, it sounded like a jack in the box being turned slowly. Like
whoever was turning it was trying to build tension, waiting for the
precise moment to make the scary clown jump out and terrify whoever
was watching it. Just one beat at a time, it was a painfully slow
tune. He recognised it though, each beat followed by what seemed to
be an eternity before the next one came. It was
Teddy Bears
Picnic,
he said the words to himself slowly, in time with the
tune being played.

“If.....you.....go.....down....to....the....woods....today”

It sent shivers down his spine,
this was the creepiest thing he’d ever heard. It was definitely
coming from outside, what the hell was that?

“You’re....sure....of....a....big....surprise.”

He peeked out the window.

Chapter 14

Dave’s jaw dropped. “It can’t
be” he said.

He looked at his watch to double
check the time, it was 2.30am, the middle of the night. He looked
back out the window again. Outside there, in the darkness, stopped
at the side of the road, was an Ice cream truck. Why the hell would
an ice cream truck be out there at this time of night?

“It’s happened, I finally
have
lost my mind” he said to himself.

The music carried on, it’s
steady slow pace, he couldn’t help but sing it again in his
head.

“If.....you.....go.....down.....to.....the....woods.....today”

This couldn’t be real, he had to
be hallucinating or something. Maybe his sleeping during the day
theory wasn’t really working. Maybe he had drank too many energy
drinks or perhaps this was the book playing on his mind again. It
could be that he was just seeing things, and the music was just in
his head. Like the giggling children before. This wasn’t real, this
was just in his head. He looked outside again. It was still there,
music still playing.

“You.....better.....believe.....your.....eyes.”

No way, this couldn’t be real.
He decided to go outside and prove it to himself. He grabbed his
coat and put his shoes on. He knew that when he walked outside he
would see that there was no ice cream truck. He would see that it
had just been his mind playing tricks on him.

He walked towards the door, he
could still hear the music playing, that slow, haunting, jack in
the box music. He stopped in front of the door and reached his hand
out. He was overcome with fear, what if he opened the door and the
jack in the box sprang to life. What if he opened it and the
thing
came flying through. Could the music be some weird
countdown, waiting for him to open the door so it could pounce. He
shook his head, he had to stop thinking these stupid thoughts, it
was just his mind playing tricks on him again. He knew there was no
ice cream truck, it was all a figment of his imagination.

He opened the door and walked
outside.

“fuck!” he didn’t shout, it was
like a loud whisper.

It was there, that music still
playing. It didn’t seem right though, the music wasn’t loud like an
ice cream truck. If he hadn’t been sat in silence he wasn’t sure he
would have heard it at all. The ice cream truck sat there across
the road from him, in the dark, playing that song like a giant
music box on wheels.

“It can’t be real”

He was trying to convince
himself. He snuck towards the truck, looking around trying to see
if anyone was nearby, there didn’t seem to be anyone there. He was
next to it now, his hands were shaking, he reached out and touched
it.

“oh my god it’s real”

He took a step back, it was
really there, the music was still playing, the same tune on loop,
still that slow haunting music. It was embedded into his head
now.

“If.....you.....go.....down.....to.....the.....woods.....today”

Trembling, Dave moved around to
the driver’s side and peeked in the window. There was no one to be
seen. Where had they gone? Someone had to have been driving this
thing, he couldn’t believe they would just leave it on the side of
the road, music still playing and everything. He looked inside
again. It was unlocked, he knew he shouldn’t but he opened the
door. Something about this just wasn’t right. He had to have a look
inside this truck. He pulled himself in, leaning over so his legs
were still hanging out the door, he was straining his ears trying
to hear if anyone was coming. All he could hear was that god damn
music. He had to be quick, he looked around, he couldn’t really see
anything unusual. It was too dark to see anything properly, the
light inside the truck didn’t seem to work. Dave was thankful for
this, otherwise the owner or this thing would’ve been able to see
the light on from a distance.

“oh well, weird, fuck it.”

Dave jumped out, ok so there was
a creepy old ice cream truck parked outside in the middle of the
night. It wasn’t really important was it? It was probably just some
old guy forgot to turn the music off and lock the thing up. It was
probably one of the creepiest things he had seen and he was sure
that he would never get that god forsaken
Teddy Bears Picnic
in ultimate slow mode out of his head, but that’s all it was, just
creepy. He decided that this was probably more down to his frame of
mind right now, he had been sitting in the dark for nights on end
waiting for some crazed killer to turn up. In his warped and now
fragile mind this was probably perfect for the horror story he had
been fabricating in his head.

He heard screams.

“Oh shit! That
was
real”

He sprinted across the road and
crouched down behind the bushes next to his house. He could still
see the ice cream truck from his hiding place.

“I knew it!” He thought “That
creepy fuckin thing belongs to that crazy bastard, to that
thing
.”

He heard screams again. His
heart was racing, his hands were trembling, he stayed crouched
hidden in the bushes. He needed to see what he was dealing with
here. He needed some form of plan, what was he going to do? He had
to get whatever this was to take him to his mum . How could he do
that? He couldn’t just walk up and ask, “hey crazy guy, can I have
my mum back please?” He decided he was going to have to wait, then
when the moment was right, he could follow this freak. He was sure
that it would lead him to his mum. Then he could save her, he
didn’t know how he was going to do it but he knew had to something.
He stayed crouched, watching the ice cream truck, waiting for the
thing
to appear, the music still playing.

“If.....you.....go.....down.....to.....the.....woods.....today”

“I really hate that song”

Chapter 15

“What the hell is that?” Dave
said to himself.

He looked over into the dim
patch of light just passed the ice cream truck. He could see the
shadow of what looked like a monster, it was huge. As the creature
crept into the light he could begin to see features appear. It
wasn’t a monster, he didn’t think anyway. The face was still hidden
in darkness, there was only a black space where it should be. What
Dave could see was this guy was
big
, really big. Must have
been at least 6”10 and he was wider than any man he had ever seen.
It was like looking at a gorilla, a gorilla that was walking
upright like a man.

“Jesus, it’s fuckin bigfoot”
Dave thought.

The gorilla was carrying
something, he had something over his shoulder and something else
was glistening in his other hand, it must have been a knife or
something metal, Dave thought. What was the other thing he was
carrying on his shoulder, there was something dangling from either
side, like I fireman carrying someone from a burning building. It
was a person, it was only small but it was a person. It must have
been a child. The light shone across the small things face. It was
definitely a child, it was a young boy, must have only been about
ten or twelve. Where the hell was he taking him? What had he done
to him? He must have done something if that other thing in hand
was
a knife!

Dave stayed crouched down and
watched as he saw the gorilla like creature carry the boy along
like a rag doll. This yeti was walking really slowly, when he
reached the truck he pulled the side window open, then like a rag
doll, he flung the boy round from his shoulders and straight
through the side window into the ice cream truck. This guy must
have been really strong as it didn’t even look like he needed to
put any effort into shifting the kid. He climbed into the truck and
reached up for something. The music stopped. The silence fell over
Dave like a heavy quilt of fear, he hadn’t notice the music was
still playing until that moment. He didn’t realise that although it
had freaked him out before, it was a lot more comforting that this
complete silence.

Big foot walked slowly around
the truck and opened the back door, he grabbed something from
inside. Dave couldn’t quite see what it was, there was two things.
It looked like two buckets? The giant slammed the back door shut
and then strolled along back into the shadows. He was whistling
something, it was a slow whistle as he strolled along. It was
Teddy Bears Picnic.

“oh no, not that again!” Dave
thought.

This guy whistling it was even
more creepy than the music that had been playing before. It was in
the same slow and creepy timing Dave couldn’t help but sing it in
his head again.

“If.....you.....go.....down.....to.....the.....woods.....today”

Dave tried to shut it out of his
mind again, it was freaking him out. What was in those buckets that
the freak took back with him.

“Oh shit! That was blood! That
was the pig’s blood!” Dave realised, his thoughts racing “if that
freak’s gone to paint this kids house with blood then I might have
time to get the kid out of that truck.”

He waited for bigfoot to
disappear in the shadows then he began to sneak back out from his
hiding spot. He quickly ran over as quietly as he could, he reached
for the door that he opened before, it was locked.

“Damnit!”

How could the bastard forget to
lock his door before but then remember to lock it in between going
to spread blood everywhere! Maybe he could try the back door. He
ran around as fast as he could, he knew it didn’t have much time
before this freak show came back. He tried frantically to open the
back door, that was locked as well. What could he do? He was
running out of time.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Maybe he could smash the window,
he was looking around for something he could use to break the
window to the truck, he heard something.

“You’re.....in.....for.....a.....big.....surprise”

It was that slow whistling
again! The gorilla was coming back, Dave turned to run away, he
slipped as he turned a went tumbling to the ground. He banged his
head as he landed on the concrete, he was dazed for a second. He
looked up, he could see a giant emerging from the shadows.

“Oh shit!” he cried out in a
whisper.

He half crawled half ran across
the street and dived into the bushes, did this guy see him? Was he
coming to get him? He was too scared to turn around and look. What
if this freak hadn’t seen him but then he made so much noise trying
to turn around that he drew attention to himself. He closed his
eyes shut tight and stayed as still as he could in the bushes. He
knew any minute now that freaks giant hand was going to grab his
shoulder and drag him backwards. Dave remembered the thing that guy
had been carrying, the knife looking thing that he saw before. This
thing was going to drag him out of the bush and the cut him to
pieces with that knife. He waited, this was it, this was the moment
he was going to die. A sudden bang made him jump.

“What was that?”

It was a door, it was big foot
getting into the truck. The engine started, and so did the freaky
jack in the box music.

“You’d.....
better.....believe.....your.....eyes.”

He was leaving, the freak was
leaving. Dave had to do something now or he had lost his chance.
This is what he had been waiting for, this was his chance, he had
to take it.

He climbed out from the bushes
to see the Ice Cream Truck pulling slowly out of the street. Dave
ran. He pushed himself to run as fast as he could, he imagined
himself back on the tracks fighting for first place. He could feel
the wind rushing passed him again, he could feel his body
trembling, the adrenaline rushing through his veins. He was flying.
He was back in his youth, no one could run as fast as him. This was
his time to shine again. He wasn’t fighting for first place this
time, he was fighting for his mums life. He was fighting to save
that little boy locked in the back of the truck. He gave more
effort than he even knew he had, he pushed with every inch of his
capabilities. He had to concentrate so he didn’t over run and go
tumbling head over heels.

He was getting closer he was
almost there now. He needed to reach the truck before it pulled out
of the estate and got onto the main roads. If it got onto them and
accelerated then he had no chance of catching it. He put in one
last ditch attempt, he pushed so hard his face was bright red, he
looked like he was going to explode. He didn’t have time to wonder
if the gorilla driving had seen him running behind. He just had to
assume that because the freak hadn’t stopped, he hadn’t seen
him.