It all started with the old cars hidden in the woods. The wind howled through the broken windows and dented holes. The ascending, eerie sound echoed off the trees like a chorus of ghouls luring prey into their jaws. At least that’s what Evan felt like. With only his handy-dandy flashlight as a guide and his older brother’s old sports coat for protection against the chill summer night wind, he felt exposed and vulnerable. He also felt ridiculously stupid for letting Kai’s ghost stories get the better of him. And, better yet, for dragging himself out there on another one of his friend’s games. He pulled out the paper he found in his mailbox tha afternoon, Kai’s handwriting was all over it. And so, what Evan thought, was a ketchup stain.

“Through the crooked trees,

Past Hedwig’s cliff,

Lay paradise for junkyard junkies,

A graveyard where the broken lie stiff,

We lurk in search of passing,

To whatever comes next,

We steal all souls who come trespassing,

Enter if you dare this wicked hex,

Stay in the graveyard where the broken lie stiff”

When Evan found Kai that nightmarish junkyard, he planned to tell his friend he was reading way too much Edgar Allen Poe.

According to local Springfield legend (and his horror-obsessed comrade), a group of teens frequented the abandoned area for, let’s just say, recreational activities. However, one day, they never returned. No one in town could ever agree on what happened. Some said a deep, dark portal to the netherworld opened between the delapidated Camry and the unrecoverable Bronco. Some thought they joined a cult. Others thought an alien abduction. And Evan was pretty sure his neighbor down the street thought they turned into werewolves under the full moon. He knew to take that old lady’s word with a grain of salt.

The police never found anything. It was as if this group of misfits just vanished into thin air. Evan always assumed they ran away, same as the police thought. Kai, on the other hand, believed in whatever paranormal explanation he was perseverating on at the time.

The trees ruffled, the wind blowing that sinister tune that sent chills right through Evan’s bones. He wanted to find his friend and get out of there as fast as he could. So he began searching the abandoned wrecking yard. Underneath the light of the full moon, he scowered every nook and inside every car that would crumble at the slightest touch.

After an hour of searching, Evan was ready to give up. He’d, maybe, covered half the place. The wind was starting to eat away at him and his feet were ready to fall off his legs. He took a deep breath and headed back where he came.

Out of the corner of his eye, a wisp of a shadow shot from one car to another. He threw the light in its direction. But saw and heard nothing.

“Who’s there?” He yelled out.

Nothing. He was beginning to think the late hour was catching up to him. So he brushed it off and kept going.

Footsteps sounded from the other side of the row of cars parallel to his walking path. He stopped. The footsteps stopped. He continued on again and so did the footsteps. He shined the light over in that direction. Nothing still.

He picked up his pace. It was the speed just before he had to start running.

“Hey.” A calm, deep voice said off from the footsteps. “You there.”

Something sounded off about it. Wrong. Evan turned to face the voice but continued to walk backward. He saw nothing.

“I’m leaving, now. I want no trouble.“ Evan stated.

No response.

He didn’t know what he should do other than get the hell out of that yard. So he kept up his pace and kept his flashlight pointed in the direction of the voice.

Without seeing anything, he heard the footsteps begin again. They were faster this time. Faster than him.

So he ran. Faster than he ever thought he could. He kept going and going but the footsteps got louder and louder. He dared a look behind him.

Nothing.

The look costed him as he slammed into something solid.

“Dude, why are running so fast? You got so close to finding me!” He knew that voice.

“Kai?” Evan rolled on the ground to face his friend who grunted as he sat up.

“Yeah, dude. Who else?” Kai rose to his feet. “Where was the speed in gym class when we lost to the football team in dodgeball?”

Evan, still shaken from whatever it was that was chasing him, stood and yanked Kai by the arm. He was leaving. They were leaving right now.

“Woh, woh, woh. What’s gotten into you? I was setting up a fire and some chairs when I heard you shout.”

“We’re getting out of here.” Evan said, completely out of breath. “Something not right. Someone was chasing me.”

Kai pulled out of his grip. “Oh come on, dude, you’re just paranoid. There’s no one out here. If anything it was probably just a squirrel that you heard.”

Evan had had enough of this. He was leaving. He didn’t care what it may or may not have been. He needed to get home and sleep it off.

“No, Kai, I’m done. Please just come with me? I swear something’s not—“

“Hey.” That voice chimed back in.

Both boys froze. The hair on the back of Evan’s neck stood up.

“You there.” It said still calm and calculated. “Wanna join?”

Kai slowly turned. Eyes wide. Face drained of color.

A shadow slid up from behind a car about twenty yards away and stilled. Evan couldn’t see a face but somehow he knew it was staring at them.

He grabbed his friend’s shirt and tugged at it to move backward. Both of them inched, step by step, back toward the junkyard exit.

“Don’t go.”

Kai and Evan said nothing and kept moving, both keeping their eyes on the shadow figure.

Then the voice was loud and growling as if right in front of them, “Trespassers.”

Evan spun and booked it back to the woods. By the time he reached the edge, he realized Kai had not followed him. Horrified, he looked back for his friend to find him still frozen in place, as if entranced by the dancing darkness. He was surrounded by a blur of shadows that got thicker and thicker with each passing second.

“Kai!” Evan shouted, desperate for his friend to hear him.

As he took the first step back to the cars, the shadows vanished.

And Kai with it.

It has been seventeen hears since. No one has ever believed him. The police found nothing. Evan went back and found nothing but the remnants of the fire Kai had started building and his phone.

And the voice still haunts his nightmares. Except now it calls him dude and asks him to join him by the fire.