Welcome to Scary Story Time. Tonight’s chapter deals with a little boy in the 1950’s who was bullied by the town’s high school greasers and jocks. He learns of an old legend that just happens to be buried in his own backyard and takes revenge on the teen boys who make his life miserable every single day.

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Now let’s begin.

THOSE BONES

1955 Sandcastle, California

It was still early, but Freddie didn’t care. He knew exactly what he had to do after listening to his friends tell the old stories about Jacob Smith, the old miner who haunted the cave near the fork of the river heading out to the ocean. He had lived poor in this old town for so long while his mother scrubbed clothes and dishes for other people while watching the other kids get everything in life they ever wanted because their parents were rich. His dad worked on the dock in another town and was rarely ever home because he had to travel so far to the port of San Francisco that it was cheaper to stay on the boat during the week.

He was sick of it.

“Hey Freddie, you know if you get them bones of that old guy you’ll have riches beyond all of your deepest desires. My dad says they’re in your backyard. They hung that bastard from your tree.” Ricky would tease him before PE class.

“Hey Freddie, going to the boat races this summer?” One of the neighborhood boys would tease knowing that Freddie couldn’t even afford the cost of a ticket.

“Nah, he’s going to scrub the toilets and wash our towels with his momma!” Lucas, the worst of the boys, would chime in and laugh.

“I’ll show you,” Freddie screamed before running home to the forest crying.

He ran up the stairs to their old shack in the woods and threw himself on the bed. Neither parent was home, both working to make ends meet. Normally he would be heating up some old stew from a few nights before but tonight he just wanted to sleep. Tomorrow morning he would find those old bones and show those bullies.

His lids grew heavy and he listened for the voices that always came at night. Normally they calmed him, but tonight they were restless. He cried as he put the pillow over his head, trying to make them stop.

“Our time has come, Freddie.” a woman cooed in his mind.

“You’ll help us and we’ll be out of your head,” a man whispered.

“Stop! Leave me alone!” he cried, pushing the pillow against his ears.

“We’re going to help you, Freddie,” both voices chimed in together then started whispering together in a chatter he couldn’t decipher. It rattled his brain and hurt, but he’d do anything to make them go away and make his life normal. Anything.

***

Freddie scoffed at the images of their faces in his head as he punched the shovel with his foot. The sound of the leaves crunching and the groundbreaking satisfied him as he pushed the spade in deeper and hoisted out a good amount of wet earth. The next few hits were easier as he pushed the shovel in closer and closer to the roots of the tree until finally, he stopped to wipe the sweat off his brow.

“Over here,” Freddie heard the whisper of the woman closer to the tree. He looked around and noticed a fern moving around except it wasn’t windy. The fern grew right underneath a redwood tree with its leaves spreading out like the wings of an eagle. The tendrils of the plant beckoned to him, something that he thought impossible of a plant but there it was calling to him. Freddie walked over and started shoveling where the tendrils were now pointing down toward the ground. Scoop of heavy dirt after scoop and with a crack he finally hit something about 3 feet deep.

Digging faster around the spot, he didn’t care how tired he became. He knew this had to be spot as the voices told him. The air that spoke to him every night and told him something was coming. Something good. It whistled through his window at night and graced his skin when he went outside. It whispered in his head before sleep. Tonight it sounded excited. It. She. Whatever. It usually sounded like a woman and sometimes a deranged man. Crazy thoughts rattled in his brain as he listened to the voices. With no one to talk to at home day or night, they were always in his head.

“Eh, it’s just my imagination,” he would laugh when his mind was busy on other tasks and ignore the sounds but tonight…tonight they answered back.

“Keep digging,” A branch from the tree dipped down and caressed his cheek and with that, he dug faster until soon he was scooping bones out of the ground. Freddie dropped to his knees and growled at the rocks poked into his tender flesh. With his fingers, he moved around the dirt until he found more bones. Piece by piece he pulled them from the dirt–some connected and some not. He plucked out each one until he finally came across the skull. Carefully he dusted the dirt off until it was easily dislodged from the ground and held it in front of him.

“You found me,” this time it wasn’t the woman. Now a man’s voice hummed in his head.

“Keep talking to me in my head I’m going to smash you into the ground.”

“That won’t help you with your treasure hunt, little boy.” it hissed and mocked him.

“Stop it!” Freddie cried. “You don’t know what it’s like them boys making fun of me all the time.

“We’ll show them. Grab my bones and put them together in a bag. We can punish them together.”

He looked at the skull, disbelieving that it was actually speaking to him. For a moment he thought he could see the face of an old miner with big, ugly bloodshot eyes staring at him from the sockets and unattached lips speaking to him. “I..I don’t have a bag. I have a box.”

“Put me in the box then. All together. Put back all of the dirt. Set out three candles in a triangular shape and spill my bones right in the middle. Then, under the blood moon tonight, light three candles and invite three people over.

“What happens then?”

“Their souls will be traded for mine and I will live again. Then I can show you where there is gold, more than just gold in the river. Pirate treasure from the pirates who killed me looking for their loot.”

Freddie felt the smile spread across his face for the first time in years.  All he could think about as he packed the bones into the box was treasure: gold coins for his dad, earrings for his mother, and everything else for him. Of course, he would share it with his family, but he wanted all of the rest for himself. He would take care of them and they could retire from the hard life they led. They would work for him and no one else.

He carefully carried the bones back to his bedroom and hid them in his closet where no one, not even his mother, would look. He carefully put the box in the corner of his dark closet and covered it with the spare blankets he kept for winter.

***

“Hey guys, I found it,” Freddie whispered to his three classmates as he walked into the classroom and sat down at his desk.

“Found what, dipshit?” Lucas said as he shoved a piece of paper into his mouth and chewed it up until it was a juicy spitwad and sent it flying in Freddie’s direction. It hit Freddie’s cheek with a splat and all the boys laughed.

“Damn it jerk! Shove it. Maybe I won’t tell you about the bones and share the treasure with you.”

“You ain’t found no treasure, Freddie. Stop makin’ shit up,” Ricky chimed in.

Freddie felt his cheeks heat up as his face turned red. He peeled the spitball off of his skin and tossed it back on Lucas where it made a sick slapping noise as it hit his leather jacket. He never before had such gall, but this time he knew life was changing and it was good.

“You’re gonna get it, freak. Tonight you’re going to show us those old bones and if they’re not real then I’m going to kill you, got it?”

“Y-yeah,” Freddie responded, knowing that Lucas meant what he said. “Tonight under the old redwood tree behind my house. Be there at 10. I’ll show you it’s real.”

“Is everything OK?” Mrs. White walked over to their desks. She was wearing her peach pencil skirt and her tight white button up blouse with the ruffles. The boys could see her cleavage, but they never complained like they were supposed to when she wore inappropriate clothes for class. She leaned over, pressing her palms on the desk and her shirt dropping full view at the curve of her breasts. The four boys just stared as she placed her hand on Freddie’s cheek.

“You show them, Freddie. Tonight you show them what you found then I’ll see you later.” The teacher winked and walked away. Freddie winced, hearing only the voice of the woman he normally heard in his head.

“Did you hear that?” Ricky kicked Lucas in the leg.

“Oww, crap Ricky, watch it!” Lucas kicked his friend back hard.

“Hear what?” Mrs. White turned around and stared at the boys.

“Ma’am, that you were going to help Freddie here later.” Lucas stammered.

“I said that he could get help later with his homework if he needed help. How is he ever to get any work done with you boys always asking him for help and cheating from his papers?” she sounded normal again to Freddie.

The rest of the class laughed turning the cheeks of Ricky and Lucas bright red. Lucas’s lips tightened as he clenched his fists. “You better be there tonight, Freddie. Remember what I said or I’m going to go ape on you,” Lucas warned as he turned around to finish the rest of the class.

***

After dinner, Freddie hopped into bed and waited for the lights to go out. His mom always went to bed early, earlier than Freddie, because of her work hours. She would be long gone before he even woke up to go to school with his mother leaving his breakfast of pancakes and sausage in the oven for him to heat up.

Once he knew they were asleep he grabbed the box from his closet, three candles, and a lighter from his dad’s top drawer then placed them in the corner of his room. He changed back into his jeans and a sweatshirt then quietly carried the box to the redwood tree in this backyard. The crickets sang in the distance with the hoot of an owl somewhere behind him in the forest of redwood trees. Off in the west, he could faintly hear the Pacific Ocean crashing against the rocks and shore.

“Right here,” the skull’s raspy voice whispered in his head.

Freddie cleared the area around the tree and placed the bones in a pile with the skull on top. He dropped the three candles into a triangle and lit them with this dad’s lighter. The flames shot up into the air seemingly impossible for the size of the candle wick and he waited.

“What if they come?” he looked at the skull.

“Who are you talking to, nerd?” Lucas strolled up to the bones and laughed hard. “What is this pile of trash? A Halloween get up?”

Freddie looked around nervously at Lucas and then at the other two boys that Lucas brought with him. Andrew and Ricky frightened him just as much as Lucas did. The fear of getting punched in the face, or even worse, wedgied at school, flashed in his head then the haunting voice took over, clouding his thoughts.

“Tell them the treasure is under the bones,” the voice coaxed. “Tell them to reach in and grab a bone to start digging.”

“They’re not going to listen,” Freddie looked to the side, answering the voice.

“Who in the hell are you talking to, weirdo?” Andrew punched him in the arm.

Freddie stopped for a moment, almost ready to run back to his house then remembered the prize. “It’s a game, guys. Really. The gold miners left treasure under the tree and the game is to dig it out with the old bones. Grab one. Come on.”

“What do you think we’re little kids?” Lucas grabbed Freddie by the neck and started to squeeze.

“Get off of me!” Freddie pushed him away, hard.

“Hey, Lucas. I think these are real. Check it out!” Andrew grabbed a bone from under the triangle and started inspecting the edges.

“All right I’m game, nerd,” Lucas grabbed one of the bones and started digging. Ricky followed suit and grabbed a femur. As they pushed away the dirt from within the triangle, the bones began to heat up from the friction.

“What’s on these bones?” Lucas screeched.

Freddie watched, fascinated by the bones that were now glowing. He gulped hard when Lucas started screaming and watched as the boy’s skin began turning brown and grey. The color changed up his arm and into the other limbs. Freddie couldn’t see the torso, but he watched in awe as Lucas’s neck turned grey.

“Help me!” Lucas screamed and rammed into Andrew.

Andrew just dropped to his knees and cried. The skin on his arm was chafing and falling off onto the ground. He stared in horror as the skin and muscles pulled away showing the bones of his arm and hand. His clothes began to wither away along with the pieces of skin and muscle falling off and seeping into the ground. His heart, liver, and other organs followed as the earth devoured the meat.

Ricky, wearing only shorts and a t-shirt, tried to run but as his leg graced upon the bone Andrew was gripping with the now visible bones in his hand, the evil disease began in Ricky’s calf and spread up his thigh and down to his foot. He screamed as the skin of his leg began falling into pieces while the disease or whatever it was, Freddie had no idea, covered the rest of his body and pulled his flesh into the ground.

Lucas was last to die. His transformation was slower than the others. He groaned in pain as his skin slowly turned grey up and down his arms and legs. Freddie stood over him and laughed then spit on him.

“Freddie, help me, please!” his voice rattled from his throat through the flaking skin. His face was almost gone, showing nothing but bone and muscle. His eyeballs still moved with the muscles still intact. He fell back and landed on his back and glared up at Freddie.

Freddie laughed as he looked Lucas up and down. His clothes were gone as well as most of his skin and muscle yet somehow he was still alive. Instead of offering his hand to help him up, Freddie stomped on Lucas’s thigh bone and broke it in two.

A gargled scream rattled in what was left of Lucas’s throat. Freddie laughed and stomped on the other leg and then his calf. He could see many of the nerves and blood vessels were still connected, sending pain screaming through the boy’s body as the rest of him disintegrated into the dirt.

“This is for all of the crap you put me through. My reward will be great for disposing you guys from the town. I will be king!” he laughed and stomped last on Lucas’s head. With the crushing sound of the skull brain matter splattered up Freddie’s leg. One eye popped out and rolled across the ground. Freddie picked it up flicked it like a marble into the pile of old remains. Soon, Lucas faded into the ground as the other boys had leaving nothing but bones.

The whispering started again, this time louder until he realized it wasn’t coming from his head, but the lump of bones. He watched as the dirt from where his friends’ bodies disintegrated moved toward the pile and build itself around the bones. Each bone connected as muscle, tissue, and skin began to thread itself around the old pieces until a man stood before Freddie, smiling an almost toothless grin.

“Who are you?” Freddie stammered, terrified of his fate.

“Don’t worry, boy. I’m not going to hurt you…yet. Now get up and fetch me some food. I’m starving.”

“What about my treasure?” Freddie said quietly, remembering the fate of the other boys.

“I did promise you treasure and you will get it. Food first.”

Freddie brought the man into the kitchen and heated a bowl of stew on the stove from the batch his mother made earlier. The man ate it fast without a word the belched loudly.

Freddie put his finger up to his lips and warned the gold miner. “Hush or my mother will hear you.”

“You got a woman in here? I haven’t had a woman in almost a hundred years!” the beast laughed, spewing meat and potatoes across the table.

“Touch my mother and I’ll put your bones right back into the ground old man,” Freddie grabbed a kitchen knife from the drawer and pointed it at the man.

“Aye, don’t worry boy. I’m not going to hurt your mother. I have other issues to tend to and you’re going to help me. My name is Jacob Smith and I’m back for revenge.”

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I’m going to head on over and watch Creature Features now. I love the old horror movies, but I especially enjoy watching the host Vincent Van Dahl and his co-hosts Tangella and Livingston. The guests are always fun, too! You can join me on YouTube on Saturday nights and chat while I watch with my friends or visit the Creature Features website at www.creaturefeatures.tv.

That’s all for tonight. I’ll see you in your nightmares.