Glades and Playgrounds

“Yeah, this’ll do” a very dark, male voice rung through the quiet woods and I felt Gerard’s already stiff body stiffen. “Are you sure no one comes here, Brady?”

“Boss said it didn’t, so I guess not” another voice said, this one slightly softer then the other man’s. My breath got caught up in my throat as the silhouettes of at least four men became visible. If they took a few more steps forward, there was no doubt they’d see Gerard and me. Thankfully, Gerard got out of his statue-like behaviour and let me down, took my hand and violently pulled me after him to stand behind the tree. It was a very old tree, one of those big oaks, so as long as we stayed behind it, the men probably wouldn’t see us. I wasn’t actually scared of them, they could just be four random men out on a walk in the park, but when I met Gerard’s eyes, I became convinced it was something more than that.

“Over here, gentlemen…” a third man growled and footsteps came dangerously close to where Gerard and I were hiding. Gerard instantly pressed himself up against the tree to become more invisible and quietly forced me backwards as well, my back against his chest, and he protectingly put an arm across my chest. “We better hurry; he’ll wake up any second.”

Just as the man’s voice had died out to become a weak echo, a bloodcurdling scream cut through the silence like a sharp knife through flesh, and like taken from a horror movie, several birds left their trees to flee. Gerard put a hand over my mouth like he thought I’d make a sound, but even if I did, it wouldn’t be heard. The scream lasted for at least three whole seconds before it was effectively muffled by something.

“Jesus Christ, if someone heard that-“

“They didn’t” the dark voice snapped. “And if someone did, we need to hurry the fuck up even more. Martin, give me my gun”

My eyes widened at the man’s words and I heard Gerard gasp quietly in my ear. Then, by the sound of how the men were talking, Martin had given the man his gun. Footsteps came even closer, and a few seconds later, the men were visible. They were standing next to us, though at least ten feet away, but if one of them turned their head, they’d definitely see us.

There weren’t four men as I had though, there were six, all dressed in black from what I could see. It was too dark to see their faces, but the most scaring thing was the black body bag at the men’s feet. It was thrashing about on the ground and muffled screams were heard as the person inside of it struggled to get out. The man with the gun aimed it at the man, or tried to, but as the body wouldn’t lie still, he made an impatient growl.

“Could someone calm him the fuck down?”

The man standing the closest to the body bag aimed a kick at where the body’s head would be and a low moan was heard from the bag. It would probably have been a scream, but from the sound of it, they had put something in or over his mouth to keep him silent.

“Good. Open the bag” the man with the gun ordered.

“But shouldn’t the bag be closed?” Martin asked.

“What the hell do you think? The bag needs to be intact, you idiot, or the blood will leak out into the water!”

Martin bent down, unzipped the bag and a very white hand immediately shot up, grabbing Martin by the collar of his shirt. I didn’t get a chance to react until the man with the gun had pulled the trigger and the hand fell to the ground. Gasping at the sight in front of me, one of the men instantly turned around to see what caused the noise. Gerard put a hand over my mouth again and then exhaled sharply from his nose in fright as the man started walking towards our way. The rest of the men were busy with the body to even notice what their colleague was doing.

“Hello?” the man called out, a mere meter away from us but as Gerard was pressing us so close to the tree the shadows were hiding us. My chest was falling and sinking so rapidly it felt like I got cramp in my lungs.

“Shh…” Gerard whispered into my ear, barely audible. The hand he was holding over my mouth pressed harder the closer the man came.

“Hello?” my eyes nearly rolled back in fear as the man would be able to see my face if he took a few more steps forward.

“Geller!” one of the men behind him hissed. “Shut the hell up!”

“But-“ Geller tried to argue, but was cut off.

“You’ll wake the whole fucking neighbourhood up! We’re in the bloody woods; you just heard an animal!”

Those words seemed to kill his suspiciousness, and Geller walked back to the others. Seconds later, they had all left just as quickly as they had arrived.

I didn’t dare to move. My eyes wouldn’t stop staring at the black bag that was lying just by the water. The person in it was dead. Dead. Like… not alive. Never would be. It was like out of a movie, so surreal that I couldn’t even feel remorse for the poor man inside of the black bag. I felt strangely numb, desensitized. I didn’t even notice that Gerard was trying to make me walk.

“Frank, come on…” he whispered, tugging at my hand, but I couldn’t move. I had just witnessed a murder. The plastic material of the body bag was reflecting the white moon’s light, and it just made it even more surreal. “Frankie!”

The slap I received wasn’t that hard, but it was hard enough to make me snap out of my trance and look at him. “We need to go!” he whispered, his eyes darting back and forth, as if trying to keep eye contact with me, but still wanted to see the body bag. “Are you listening?!”

He brought his hand up to my face again, but much slower this time, so I knew he wasn’t gonna slap me again. Instead, he gently caressed my cheek. At first I thought it was because of the slap he had given me, and he just wanted to apologize for it, but then felt cold tears slowly being smeared out over my cheek by his hand. “You okay?” I hadn’t even known I was crying.

“I…” I mumbled, “What-“

“The mafia. We need to get the hell out of here, okay?”

-

If Gerard hadn’t been there, I’d probably still be standing behind that tree and staring at the black body bag. But then again, if Gerard hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t’ve been there in the first place, but that’s not the point, because the point is that he made sure we came home. I couldn’t remember much the next day. I couldn’t even remember climbing up the slippery drainpipe, but when I woke up, mom hadn’t said anything, so I guess I was okay. Though she did notice something was up with me the following days, but being the sappy person she is, she thought it was because I missed Gerard.

Sunday. The Sunday afternoon was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. Maybe even worse than witnessing a murder. My mind wouldn’t leave me alone, it just kept playing this stupid movie inside of my head, replaying what I had seen, like seeing it once wasn’t enough. Body bag. Weapons. Moonlight. God, I had known New Jersey wasn’t the state with the lowest crime rate, but still… I couldn’t wait ‘til Monday. I just wanted to go back into old habits, see Gerard, go to school and have something else to concentrate on instead of being grounded and just stay up on my room.

The day seemed to creep by, and the night went even slower. I would sleep for an hour, wake up cold sweating, sleep, wake up, sleep, wake up, sleep until I simply walked down the dark stairs and fetched my math book. The rest of the night, I studied math just to have something to do and to stop the mental images.