A Scout’s Last Ritual.

Edwin used his lanky arm to throw a pack of cigarettes into the circle we had formed. Our knees were nearly touching and country music was playing from the kitchen below us. Edwin had been talking about how he had brought “Some crazy shit.” I was thinking maybe he’d brought beer or some other kinda alcohol. But no he gathered us in a circle to present a beat up pack of cigarettes.

Edwin: “We outta smoke 'em together.”

Glen had a disappointed look on his face as he folded his arms. Glen always looked proud with his blazing red hair, accompanied with a baby face that mismatched his mildly athletic form.

Glen: “Those things will mess up our lungs.”

Me: “Really will they?”

I said sharply and sarcastically.

Glen: “You don’t needa be rude- I’m just pointing it out. I want ya’ll to be strong-”

Edwin: “Shut the fuck up!”

Edwin was thin and angular with dark greasy hair and pale skin that flushed pink when he got worked up.

Edwin: “Come up off your high horse and join us mister president, We can’t see you.”

Glen: “Alright come on really! Look health is important and ya know, we’re all active.”

Me: “Celebration is important.”

Glen: “Sure but can’t we just celebrate with some smores and a good ol’ camp fire.”

Walsh: “Captain ain’t here you can drop the leader act man.”

Walsh’s voice was deep and booming probably due to his large bearish build.

Edwin: “Yeah quit it, mister president- or Jovi will fuckin hang ya. Cause he’s revolutionary or whatever.”

Glen: “You guys!?- Seriously!? Can’t we just enjoy this like we used to! Ya know, no swearing or… uh smokin.”

Edwin: “Are you a child Glen? We’re all mature and capable of enjoying real shit.”

Glen rubs his brow and looks at me as if I could back him up. But truth be told I wanted to smoke those cigarettes.

Me: “It’s just cigarettes man.”

Walsh: “I mean, yeah no need to be a role model over cigarettes.”

Glen: “They’re cancer sticks man!”

Edwin: “You’d need to smoke a lot in order to get cancer- Actually I don’t know if you know this but you can’t actually just instantaneously contract cancer.”

Things used to be different before we all grew up and got tainted by three years of high school. We were too old to be scouts now and most of our activities turned into dick measuring essentially. We had to one up each other whether we were hiking or building camp fires, someone always had to be the best. Usually it was Glen and he was always so humble about it. We used to joke about him seemingly being raised by his grandparents.

We were dumb teenagers and conversation usually became very personal especially with the banter Edwin created, he often targeted one of us and made endless jokes until he was bored and moved on to someone else. We were all so changed physically and mentally and that built a tension between us on this get away to supposedly celebrate the end of our scout days.

After the cigarette argument on the morning of our first day, Captain our scout master took us on a rather grueling hike to what he called “A meadow so beautiful it’d make us feel the lives of our brave pilgrim ancestors.” After that he looked at me and remarked “The Spaniards were some brave souls as well.”

We had always called him Cap or Captain, I’m unsure if he decided that nickname or if it was naturally acquired by his constant talks about being a soldier and how “War shapes boys into men, and those men need to lead society.” He also looked like a captain in a sense, with broad shoulders and a gut that often leaked out if he didn’t tuck his shirt in. He also had thick bread which started to go grey despite him being in his early forties.

He led us to a hike that mainly consisted of your usual uphill climb. I loved hikes, as cliche as that sounds but nature always spoke to me, the wind in the leaves, the feeling you’d get as you soaked in the beauty around was intoxicating for me. This hike was a gorgeous one, with an aspen grove taking up the bulk of the trek. Edwin always made the same jokes when we passed through aspen groves.

Edwin: “Ya think the aspens always move this much or is Walsh just that fat?”

Walsh only ever allowed jokes like that from Edwin. The one time I made a comment about his weight I was swiftly thrown into a park bench.

Walsh: “Awful lot of talk for someone who looks about as strong as a twig.”

Walsh wanted to be a power lifter. Matter of fact he usually found a way to bring up his strength in most conversations.

The hike was roughly ten miles all around and I spent nearly the whole hike wrapped in thought that the movement of the aspens seemed to usher me into. But my thoughts were occasionally broken by a comment or some banter.

Glen: “This is great ain’t it, just us men out here in god’s majesty. I enjoy times like these boys.”

Edwin: “You trying to build sexual tension Glen- Ya know ya got a sexual predator name.”

Walsh: “Glen I’m sorry he’s got a point though, I mean I know you ain’t a deviant but ya got the name of one.”

Glen: “The name my parents gave me- ain’t my fault man.”

The remarks and banter usually never got to Glen but sometimes they made him quiet. This time I think they’d actually hurt, maybe calling him a sexual predator broke his savior complex a little.

The hike pushed on higher up the mountain making the air thinner, which slowed us down a little. Luckily we’re all used to high elevation. We learned some years back that our absolute limit was roughly fourteen thousand feet. That was an educated guess however because we had only ever reached eleven thousand feet.

And then Edwin had decided I was now the target for his jokes because Glen had pushed up ahead of the group with Captain. Captain usually drifted ahead of any hiking groups acting like a ranger of sorts.

Edwin: “You've been awfully quiet Jovi, what you thinking bout- you thinkin bout your boyfriend I bet.”

I decided to counter, usually I’d meet his remarks with a laugh but today I wasn’t.

Jovi: “Nah I’m just reminiscing about your mom’s pussy.”

Edwin went slack jawed and slowed his pace to match mine.

Walsh: “Jesus Jovi! Where the hell that come from?”

Walsh was laughing hard enough to make his gut flex, enough so he had to slow down and hunch over. Edwin started laughing too and slapped my shoulder like he was proud of me.

Walsh: “Ahh he got ya Ed! He got your ass!”

Edwin: “I wasn’t expecting him to say some shit like that. Was that rehearsed or that just roll off the tongue?”

Me: “just rolled off the tongue.”

Edwin: “That was quick and clever, I’ll give ya that.”

Edwin and Walsh continued to banter as the trees thickened from aspens to evergreens. The sticky and bitter smell of pine cleared my nostrils as the sun started to hide behind some clouds. Glen and Captain had slowed their pace, finally clustering us back into a group.

Walsh: “Much further Cap?”

Captain: “Not by too much …We’re probably on the last stretch.”

Edwin: “This meadow better be some sight.”

Captain: “It will Ed- lighten up will ya? Enjoy the day, enjoy your youth my friend, it ain't last long.”

Edwin rolled his eyes, setting up an opportunity for Glen to make himself look better.

Glen: “Missed the wise words Cap.”

Edwin: “Just you did- You’re literally the only person that misses his-”

Captain: “Aye! Watch it there… Better be nice Ed. These wise words took a war and divorce to come up with.”

This time I rolled my eyes which Glen also caught.

Glen: “You couldn’t handle a war Jovi- You’d snap, you’d be fodder.”

I rubbed my brow.

Me: “You’d die too then.”

Edwin: “Yeah Glen you’d get capped in the dome by some arab kid, prolly with a shitty ak too.”

Captain: “You joke. But I swear that used to happen- Knew a guy once and he got a round right through thigh. I watched him bleed out, wished I coulda grabbed him but we was under fire-”

Edwin yawns and stretches his arms in the air.

Glen: “Quit it Ed! It ain’t funny he’s trying to tell a story.”

Walsh: “You making this story up ain’t you Cap?”

Captain chuckled and popped his back.

Captain: “Perhaps I am… Mostly just trying to scare you boys honestly.”

Captain was unlike any other scout master, he was very carefree about the jokes and language we used around him. There were a few lines we couldn’t cross of course, those lines were pretty unspecific however. Essentially if we never challenged any of his political views we were okay. However Edwin loved pushing buttons and he loved putting the blame on others.

Edwin: “How was that pride parade Glen?”

Edwin’s cheeks flushed as the words left his mouth and Captain’s smirk faded from his mouth.

Glen: “I’d never go to a pride parade, you liar.”

Edwin: “Bullshit! I saw you and your family there back in June.”

Glen: “No you didn’t Ed!”

Edwin: “Did too, saw you there with Jovi and his dyke sister.”

I felt my jaw tense and before I could even process what I was doing; I turned and hooked Ed in the Jaw knocking him over into the brush. The guilt flooded me as fast as Ed started crying, my fist was still balled and my jaw still clenched. Captain pulled me away as he bent over to pick up Ed.

Me: “I’m sorry Ed..”

Edwin: “Shut up!”

He screamed at me through tears as he stood up. He tried to lunge at me but Cap pulled him back using his backpack straps like a dog leash. Captain was about to say something but he stopped as he looked at the back of Ed’s pants.

Captain: “Aye quit screamin!”

Then the smell hit me. It was rot and fresh rot at that, it was almost masked by the pines and the cool mountain breeze. In the indent in the brush Ed had left there was dried blood and flies in the air. Glen stepped forward and pulled away some leaves, then he went pale and stumbled back. Then Cap peeked in.

Captain: “Jesus Christ! What the fuck!?”

Curiosity pulled me to the brush but the curiosity soon boiled into nausea. There were what looked to be tubes of human flesh, pulled seamlessly from the muscle; then it clicked it was two skins pulled away from the arms they belonged to. Discarded like used gloves and tossed aside. I nearly barfed as I stepped back. Walsh refused to look after Glen threw up his lunch.

Edwin spun around to look at the arm skins letting us see the blood leaking into the butt of his pants.

Walsh: “The hell is it!?”

Edwin wiped tears from his face.

Edwin: “It’s like the skin from some dudes… arms?- I think?”

Glen couldn’t aim his barf and got it on his shirt and shorts, and it was now leaking down his knees and into his socks. Then he crossed his chest and forehead for the holy trinity, nearly touching the barf on his shirt.

Captain: “Back away from it now!”

Edwin stepped back as thunder boomed overhead and the wind angered. Thoughts raced in my mind. Was there a serial killer out here? Did an animal do this?

Edwin: “I dare you to look Walsh.”

Walsh shook his head and stepped back further. Captain seemed to be panicking but he slid his shades down trying to hide it as he spun around. Then Edwin smiled as he glanced at me, the kinda smile a child would give an old action figure before launching it across the backyard.

Edwin picked up one of the skins with a pinch. The look in his eyes was inhuman, his pupils were dilated wide open like he had a concussion. He then opened the skin and slid his own arm into it, wearing it like a glove. His arm worked its way in pushing blood up onto his sleeve. Until the whole thing was pulled over his arm.

That inhuman look sparkled in his eyes as he lunged forward. I should’ve moved faster but I was too busy trying to figure out if what was happening was even real. Then he stopped and let his arm go limp which also allowed the skin to slop off and splatter on the trail. The look in his eyes was gone and thunder cracked the sky again.

Edwin: “Felt like your mom’s pussy Jovi!”

My face shifted in disgust.

Walsh: “What the fuck is wrong with you Ed!?”

Captain snatched Edwin by the backpack straps again forcing eye contact.

Captain: “You are fuckin done Edwin! Soon as we get to the cabin you are going home and I’ll be pushing hard for you end up in some fuckin loonie bin.”

This was the most enraged we’d ever seen Captain. He shoved Edwin forward back down the trail as he pulled his phone from his pocket and tossed it to Walsh.

Captain: “Let’s go get movin! Walsh call the cops now.”

Walsh: “Your phone is dead.”

Captain: “What!?”

Walsh: “It’s dead I’m not shitting you Cap.”

Captain grabbed Edwin’s collar and froze, fear seeming to grip him. And then Edwin broke Caps’s grip and spirited down the trail.

The rain started to fall lightly and trees swayed like waves in the ocean. We were all frozen for a moment until I took off my heart pounding in my chest as went after Edwin. I heard Cap shout for me but it was like my instincts were telling me to stop Edwin. Edwin was fast and nimble; he was almost gliding through the woods.

He was always the fastest of the group but had awful stamina which he never accounted for. But that didn’t seem to be an issue right now. I was trailing a few feet away from him, enough to hear him talking to himself. It sounded like he was trying to comfort himself.

Edwin: “I didn’t hear that-I didn’t hear that-I didn’t hear that.”

I felt dread push through my skull and into my brain. Something was wrong, something was so wrong. It felt like dread and fear lined my bones like heavy lead and the lead only got heavier as Edwin slowed and came to a stop in a clearing.

Edwin stopped completely and I nearly ran into him but caught myself. The grass around us was dry and yellow and it moved in an aquatic nature with the wind. The sun started to push through the gray heavy clouds, casting beams of sunlight down like deformed spotlights. Edwin started to walk forward slowly as the dread lacing my skeleton nearly made me topple over. In the center of the clearing was a large circle of small boulders that had to be two hundred feet in circumference. Within the boulders were three pillars made of aspen trunks tied together with rope.

The aspen shrines had wolf carcasses hung from them by their necks, their guts sliced open from the pelvis to the bottom of the rip cage. Their innards were stung around the pillar in a strategic manner almost like they were being used to make letters from some language humans aren’t meant to know. And on the ground around the pillars were small piles of flesh that I couldn’t yet make out.

My gut twisted and nausea tensed my jaw but Edwin seemed to be drawn to the pillars. Then I saw the large pillar in the middle. It was made of three massive evergreen trunks also tied together with a larger rope. Around the large pillar hung four human corpses, all of them skinned and gutted with their hands and feet nailed into the wood in a crucifixion-like manner. Under them lay more piles of unidentifiable meat.

Edwin walked slowly towards the circle in a robotic manner.

Edwin: “Can’t you hear them singing?”

I fell to my ass, the dread on my bones made me feel ten fold my normal weight. Edwin inched closer and closer to the circle and the world felt so still. The grass blew around me hitting my face. Edwin turned around looking at me with that concussed look in his eyes again. It was like he was a puppet, his muscles seemed to not be functional, It was like invisible strings from the sky were moving him, Like god made him into a puppet.

Edwin: “Tell them to stop singing.”

Me: “WHAT!?”

Edwin: “They’re hurting my ears Jovi… It hurts.”

I found the courage to stand up but the effort was immense enough that my knees were shaking.

Me: “Ed what?... What are you talking about?”

Edwin: “I was thinking about really bad things- but the singing it… made them- It made the bad things so pretty.”

Edwin wavered in the wind, constantly making little twitchy corrections to stop himself from falling over. I could hear the rest of the group getting closer, shouting for me and Edwin as they searched.

Edwin: “Can you hear the singing?”

Edwin looked at me and his jaw popped open and snapped back down hard knocking some of his teeth loose.

Edwin: “I’m gonna fuck your dad’s corpse when I get to hell… that’s what they just said in the song- ahaaha. They said I’m gonna fuck your dad’s corpse, Jovi.”

He pivoted and inched toward the shrine again. I could hear the group just behind the tree line.

Me: “I’m here! I’m over here!”

The rest of the group broke out from the tree line and Cap ran to me and grabbed my shoulder as Walsh sprinted for Edwin.

I should’ve told him to stop but the world wasn’t making any sense. Walsh reached out for Edwin but Edwin spun around and caught Walsh’s hand, his teeth immediately drawing blood and crushing bones. Walsh screamed in pain and Edwin had no reaction and started to continue his walk toward the circle dragging Walsh with him.

Walsh: “Ed! ED! STOP!”

Walsh punched Edwin in the face hard but the punches had no effect even though they bruised his face and broke his nose. Walsh and Glen started to sob into the wind, Glen ran back into the tree line screaming and crying as he did. I started to walk forward towards Walsh to help but Cap gripped my shoulder tighter.

Captain: “Don’t.”

Walsh tried to grab Edwin and throw him to the floor but God was a skilled puppeteer, making Walsh’s strength and size useless.

Edwin chuckled as he bit into Walsh’s hand harder forcing Walsh to scream even louder.

Walsh reached towards me and Cap.

Walsh: “HELP! HELP! MEE PLEASE!”

It was too much. I broke Cap’s grip and sprinted forward trying to shoulder ram Ed and give Walsh an opportunity to break free. But Edwin seemed to have planned for that and caught me in the face. His skinny hand was so strong, it ripped through my cheek and his fingers caught hold of my gums and teeth. I screamed and shouted as he placed a full grip on face, his fingers using my teeth as holds and his thumb meeting them through the skin under my chin. It was the same arm that turned the arm skin into a sleeve and I could taste the rotten blood under his finger nails.

I looked back at Cap expecting to see our hero but he just stood there, as I struggled and screamed trying to free myself. I sobbed as Edwin laughed some more. Edwin used his other hand to lock Walsh’s arm while grabbing his shoulder. We passed between two boulders and were now in the circle. I was on the verge of passing out and felt blood soak into my collar.

Edwin spoke through Walsh’s ruined hand.

Edwin: “Stop screaming! Stop you’re ruining the singing!”

Edwin then used my jaw to thrash my head into one of the aspen pillars and everything went black.

( I have more planned for this and my other series YaleCrest.)

This story is also super rough so any feedback would be appreciated. But I’m also just kinda messing around with this story hence the rather rapid pace. More of comedic tone on this was my intention as well.