Cultish Intentions

It was all ready for the ritual. We hung the cat on the lamp post as a sign for where the other members of our cultish group should meet. In dark hooded robes and in muscade colored masks, we start making our way to the seldom house in the woods right outside of the dimly lit streets we all live on. For some, this is a way to escape reality for a while, for others however, they just like the torment and agony of others. When we get to the entrance of the woods, we put blind folds on the new initiates, as a safety measure to keep our little secret, well... secret.

As the old wooden shack comes nearer, we see the other group of members and initiates from the town over  join us on our walk to the ragged old shack. “I've made this trip hundreds, no, thousands of times, but it still somewhat creeps me out.” states one of the higher members of this group. “When you get to the point where I’m at, it all starts to blend together, to where it's just a relaxing walk at dusk.” I say, as the full moon shines on my mask. As we get closer and closer more and more groups start to join us, of different skin color and height, but two things always stay the same, the masks and black robes… 

Now at the entrance of the shack, we take the blind folds off, and enter the building in groups of five, one initiate and four members. The first group, led by the higher member I talked to earlier, walked in. We all hear the sounds and we know that something is off. “Is he supposed to scream?” an initiate asks in a nervous, fear filled tone of voice. “I don’t know the situation, but normally the ritual doesn’t intake anything scary or painful to that degree” I say. “Then why isn’t anyone going in to check on him! He could be seriously injured or even dead!” a newer member of our group states. The other co-leaders and I hold an impromptu meeting a hundred or so yards away from the shack. “Should we go in and check on them? It's already been almost ten minutes.” says Jim, one of my close friends and co-leader. “ But Jim, you must take into account, the ritual can last anywhere between 3 and 15 minutes, depending on  the struggle, so we should wait until the twenty minute mark at least.” I say. 

So wait we did. When the twenty minute mark rolled around Jim led a group of himself and some of the older and stronger looking members. We watch them walk in and then hear their footsteps walk to the back rooms of the shack… then we hear screams.

Loud, horrifying screams, and the group that just walked in sprinting away with blood splatter all over from their heads to their toes! Oh the horror! Everyone, even the initiates, run in. We find blood splatter everywhere and a dead body of the initiate that walked in not even 25 minutes before. The shock on everyone's face says it all. This. Wasn’t. Supposed. To.  Happen.

The police come from the closest town and call everyone in for questioning. The murderers are nowhere to be found and since all of us always wear hoods and masks we have no idea what they look like, except for their height and maybe their skin tone. “The boys were: 1. a taller black dude

2. A small asian dude, and 3. And 4. Were both smaller white guys, officer.” said Joe, an initiate that I met after the horrific events of last night. He seems like a nice person but there is an aura around him that makes me think I can’t trust him, he also sounds familiar.. 

One week later… 

Jim, and Joe and I all make our way to the shack, to investigate and see what happened and find any clues. We get there separately and all meet up in front of the shack. I pack a knife, some food,my phone, and a water bottle before we leave. We walked in through the back door to get a better look, also because we were technically trespassing as this is still an ongoing investigation and they don’t want anyone messing with the evidence, although I own the building. “What was the ritual anyway? Would it have anything to do with screaming?” asks Joe, who I’ve become relatively close with since the incident. “ I trust you enough now that you're basically a member of the group, so I'll tell you. We would normally tie you up with four knots (one for each member with you) to a post in the shack, read you the rules of the group, and then equip you with your mask and robes while you are still tied up. Normally there wouldn't be any screaming but it has happened before, although there has never been a murder.” explains Jim, to my slight dismay, as he isn't a member yet. We start searching the house to try and find clues to what happened and who killed him. We find a knife in the back of the closet in one of the bedrooms, which means.. It was an inside job. “Jim!! Get your ass in here!” I yell. Jim runs in the room and yells ”what happened?! Was it so important that you took me away from searching the chimney?!” “Yes! Now quiet down!” I whisper to him, as I still don’t necessarily trust Joe. “I found the weapon. It's the thing wrapped up in the corner of the closet. Do you have gloves?” I say, as I know he brought some. “No actually, I gave the gloves to Joe, he said he needed them for something.” he said matter-a-factly. I start sprinting. I've finally figured out how I knew him! He was the higher member that killed the initiate! But how did he sneak out? Then I start falling. Well now we know how he got out. He tunneled through the ground under the floorboards. But again, how? The only people that have keys to this place are me, Jim, an…

JIM. he was the insider in all of this. Why did he invite Joe today, besides trying to kill me?

That's the point, there is none, unless I'm just paranoid.

I call for Jim to help me out, as I'm stuck in this hole. “What happened?!” asks Jim, as he offers his hand. “It’s probably just a sinkhole, this house is very old, after all.” Back to running, I finally make it to the room with the knife, and low and behold, it's gone. “Well now we know who the murderer is!” says Jim, who said that sentence in a weird manner. I still don’t trust him, so I send him on a wild goose chase. “You packed a knife right?” I say hoping he did. “No, because you said you were, did you forget?” No, I have mine but I wanted to split up.. Actually you just take mine and  search the surface, while I go look for him inside, he shouldn’t have gone too far.” he says ok, and I go down the hole and go through the tunnel i found when I fell down. After about five minutes of crawling I found a little room. And what do I find you ask? The horrific  and mutilated bodies of the other three members Joe walked in with. “So this is what you were planning joe?You were going to slowly, one by one pick off the whole cult and put them in this room to rot for eternity?” I hear somebody walk up behind me, so I reach for my knife. But I gave it to Jim! I hear the quiet footsteps get closer and closer until I feel his cold breath on my neck. I’m truly scared, but in a slight jolt of courage I turn around and disarm him. My knife goes flying, hitting one of the dead bodys behind me. I move my head up and find that Jim was the person trying to kill me. “But.. Why? Why Would you try to kill me JIm?’ I say in disarray. I had my suspicions but I never truly thought he was going to kill me! He doesn’t respond, and he makes a bolt for the knife. I have a head start so I get to the knife before him, but he socks me in the face and almost knocks me out cold. But I stayed up. An adrenaline rush from the near death experience causes a full blown stabbing fury and I end up maiming and killing one of my best friends. Joe, who turns out was watching from the shadows, ends up calling 911 and I get arrested and sentenced to death. And that's how I’m here today, the day before my electrocution, and a long time after all of the events. Tomorrow I’ll be dead and gone, but I wanted someone to carry on my story as a cautionary tale of how you should never run a cult, especially with masks.

1 day later…

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz brrvvz AAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhh