by Crithni
There was no doubt about it; they were lost. They had been hiking through the woods in Maine, when they decided to leave the group.
Adelaide and Analise had gone hiking with their class on a school trip. It was supposed to be educational, but not one out of the twenty-six students was listening to Mr. Sanders explain the difference between maple leaves and elm leaves.
“I bet no one would notice if we snuck away,” Analise whispered into Adelaide’s ear. They had been trailing the whole way, and no one would notice if they left the group.
“I don’t know,” Adelaide seemed worried. Analise was the adventurous one, always getting into scrapes, and managing by sheer luck to get out of them.
Analise looked down at the map she held in her hands, “If we take this little trail that goes off the main one, we can just go the long way. Look, it comes right back to the main trail at the end. No one will ever know we were missing.”
Adelaide looked at Analise, “What if someone does notice? I mean-”
“Look, the trail,” Analise interrupted, pointing to a path that looked as though no one had even glanced at it for around ten years. She pulled Adelaide towards it, and they began to fight their way through the bushes that had decided it was their turn to use the path.
They continued like this for about ten minutes until Adelaide just stopped.
“What’re you doing?” Analise yelled. “We’ve got to keep going, or we’ll never get back in time!”
She sat down next to Adelaide on a fallen tree, “I didn’t know it was going to be this hard. I’m sorry, Ad.”
There were silent tears streaming down Adelaide’s face. “We should’ve gotten onto the main trail by now.”
Analise looked at her map. Adelaide was right; they should’ve reached the main trail by now.
“Well,” Analise started to say as she stood up, “We’re never going to find the group just sitting here. We might as well keep going.”
Adelaide looked up, and then plucked the map out of Analise’s fingers, “If we just cut through the middle of the woods, we should hit the trail.”
Analise followed Adelaide’s finger. She was right again; they could just cut across and find themselves right where they had begun.
“Let’s go,” Analise stated loudly, as if to tell the trees that they were going to get out, no matter what.
They pushed their way through the undergrowth. It was hard work; the branches and bushes seemed intent on not letting them through.
They continued on like this for what seemed like hours, only stopping for breaks when they just couldn’t push any farther.
“It’s getting dark,” Adelaide whimpered. There were no more shafts of dusty sunlight streaming through the canopy, and the shadows just kept getting larger, longer, and more ominous. “What should we do?”
“I don’t know Ad, I don’t know.”
* * *
Mr. Sanders and his class had just finished their nature walk. He looked at his watch. Good, they were still on schedule; most of the parents got a little paranoid when their son wasn't returned to him or her at the exact minute promised.
He lined them up in front of the school bus and started to count heads, steering them into the bus as he went. "21, 22, 23, 24... Jake," he called to number 24, "Pop your head into the bus and see who's missing; we've only got 24."
Jake did as he was told, and in a couple of minutes came back out, "It's the twins, Mr. Sanders," and re-entered the bus. Mr. Sanders sighed to himself, and rolled his head back. He would wait a few minutes, and if they didn't return by then, he would go and look for them.
But they didn't appear. Mr. Sanders stuck his head through the doors and beckoned to the driver. "Ted, we've got a small problem. We're missing two girls. I'm going to go see if I can round them up, so just try to stall a little bit."
"Can do, Mr. Sanders," Ted turned around and shuffled slowly back into the bus. As soon as the doors closed behind him, Mr. Sanders headed back towards the trail. A little ways back was the restroom.
"Girls?" he called through the door, "Adelaide, Analise, are you in there?" There was no reply. He tentatively peeked into the room. It was totally deserted. They had to be somewhere, and they couldn't have wandered very far. He had just seen them - oh god, he hadn't seen them since the class had stopped at the rest area to eat lunch, and that had been a good three hours ago. He walked a little farther into the woods.
"Adelaide! Analise!"
Nothing. Mr. Sanders jogged back to the bus.
"I have some bad news. I haven't been able to find Adelaide and Analise," the class didn't respond. "I'm afraid we're going to be stuck here for a while."
They searched, but couldn't find them. They would just have to call the state troopers. Every once and a while, someone would dejectedly call for Analise or Adelaide, but there was never any answer, so the half-hearted calls became few and far between. It was pitch black when they finally reached the bus.
They wearily filed back into the bus and took their seats. They whispered to each other about how they were never going to find those girls; they had probably wandered off. They quickly lapsed into silence, as whispering seemed trivial now.
* * *
Adelaide and Analise had found a little niche in one of those huge maples. They had crawled into it, and out of pure exhaustion, dropped off to sleep. The next morning, Adelaide woke up first. Everything seemed to have been purified overnight. She leaned over and shook her sister awake.
"We should keep going, Ana."
"Alright," Analise replied groggily. She pulled herself out of the fetal position and dropped to the ground, stretching lazily. "Let's go."
They began to tramp through the forest, refreshed from the night's sleep. The hostile branches seemed less offending in the bright morning light, and their spirits lifted. After about an hour of fighting through the thick foliage, it began to thin.
Analise threw herself forwards, and cleared the trees. And disappeared from view. "Analise!" Adelaide cried, and hurried to her sister's side. She only barely caught herself from falling headfirst into the small pit that lay right in front of her by grapping onto a tree branch. Her feet slipped out from underneath her and left her hanging. A ripping noise came from above her, and the branch cracked, dropping Adelaide into the pit.
She landed with a thud onto the hard dirt bottom. Her sister lay prone next to her, breathing lightly. Next to her head was a large flat rock with a small smudge of shiny red on it. Adelaide looked around. The pit was obviously man-made, and at least ten feet down. The sides were devoid of any rock or root that could've helped her climb out.
A face appeared over her, and Adelaide stifled a scream. It was grossly disproportioned and had a twisted grin covering one half of its face. Adelaide couldn't tell if it was male or female.
"Need some help, girlie?" it asked gruffly, revealing the sex to be male. Adelaide tried to quell her fears; he probably wasn't a bad person, he just looked funny.
"Um, yes please. Me and my sister fell down here, and she's unconscious, and we can't get back up. It's too high," Adelaide involuntarily began to ramble, but the man just laughed.
"Sure thing, girlie," he turned and stomped off. A few minutes later he appeared, carrying a folding ladder.
He lowered it into the pit, and climbed down. Hoisting Analise over his twisted shoulder, he climbed back up, motioning for Adelaide to follow him. She reached the top, and looked up only to see a brown burlap bag come down over his head.
Someone tied the end around her feet, and dragged her, struggling and screeching, over the rough terrain. After a while she stopped thrashing, and spent her energy trying to cushion her delicate skin from the bumps of the trail.
After what seemed like days to Adelaide, they stopped. Someone untied the sack and threw her to the ground. She pushed herself shakily to her knees and looked around. To her utmost horror, she was surrounded by more deformed freaks, some with white paint on their faces.
One of the painted ones was tending a large bonfire. Two grabbed her and tied her tightly, seating her on a log split in half and laid on the ground. Then the same two spread Analise on the ground and began to strip her.
"Stop! Stop it!" Adelaide screeched. "You leave her alone!"
Neither looked at her, but another one approached her and roughly tied a gag around her mouth. When Analise was naked, one of them turned her on her side. Another placed a large smooth stick a foot longer than Analise on either end next to her. They proceeded to tie her tightly to it, and hoisted it over the fire, hanging it from two Y shaped poles.
Adelaide wanted to look away, but her eyes seemed locked in place. She watched as her sister's skin crackled and crisped, and the fat dripped off her body. Her eyeballs exploded, running melted pink jelly down her roasting cheeks. Hair fell off in clumps, and burned, releasing horrible odors. The smells of burnt flesh and hair overwhelmed Adelaide's senses and her head spun dizzyingly.
When the body was charred black, two of the freaks removed it from the fire and laid it on a crude wooden table. They cut the rope and removed the wood. Another took a wicked looking carving knife, and began to slice into the crisped skin. All the freaks with white painted faces lined up, plates in their hands. The unpainted ones hung back, watching. One grabbed a plate and filled it with meat, and approached Adelaide.
She pulled off Adelaide's gag, and stuck the hot human meat in front of her, "Hungry?"
"You sick fuck! Who are you? Why are you doing this?"
The deformed woman shrugged, "We're the traveling freak show, and they're our clowns," she gestured towards the white ones who were feasting gluttonously on Analise's carcass.
She walked off, leaving Adelaide filled with a mounting horror. The sight swam in front of her eyes, and all went dark.
* * *
Police Chief Randalls was sitting with Lisa and Matt Thurman, trying to think of a way to tell them they would probably never see their daughters again. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again, but before he could start, one of his officers looked into the room, and motioned for him.
"Chief, we've found her."
Lisa and Matt jumped up, and Lisa whispered, her throat thick with tears, "Her? What do you mean, her?"
"Chief," the officer was grave, "You should see this first."
Randalls followed the officer to the front. A small girl was sitting there, her long golden hair matted and dirty. She was shivering violently, and her eyes held horrors unfathomed. On closer scrutiny, Randalls could tell she was no girl, closer to a young woman.
"Oh my baby!" Lisa rushed towards the girl, "Adelaide! But, Analise?"
Adelaide looked at her, her eyes unfocused, "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me."
Adelaide Christa Thurman was committed to Moody Point Mental Institution on November 17, and has been there ever since. She hasn't spoken to anyone voluntarily since, and when forced, only repeats the maxim. Analise Rochelle Thurman was never found alive, and the remains of her body still lie undiscovered in the forests.