A Place So Wicked by Patrick Reuman (life books to read txt) 📕

Toby could see that Eli was in a manic state and sat him down. He just had to think. There had to be a way out of all this.

“Okay, Eli,” Toby started.

Paisley eased herself back onto the couch as well, slowly. “That’s why you came to the back door,” Paisley said. “I was wondering why you’d come to the back door instead of the front door like a normal person. It was because you were afraid someone was watching.”

Eli didn’t say anything, but Paisley knew it to be the truth. She was angry with Eli, but she felt that even in the short time she had gotten to know this boy he wasn’t a bad person. Despite knowing the risks, knowing that coming here to help them could be life-threatening, he still came. For that, she was thankful.

“Okay, Eli.” Toby took in a deep breath. “For us to figure out what to do, first, we need to know what exactly is going on. Is there anything at all that you can tell us that might help? What exactly do you know about this house?”

“Not a lot. They do what they can to keep things a secret. Everybody knows that something is going on. But I don’t think very many know exactly what that something is. They don’t like it when you ask questions. They find out. They always find out.”

“How do you know they find out?” Paisley said.

Eli looked at Paisley, his eyes appearing as though they had aged years since entering the house. “When I first moved here, I looked into the town a bit. Not because I thought there was anything wrong with the place, I just enjoy history. We’ve moved a few times and I’ve always looked into the new town’s history. It’s just a hobby of mine.” He paused, still hesitant, as if unsure if the walls could hear them. “But somehow they found out.”

“What happened?” Paisley asked anxiously.

“I don’t know. Two men came to the door one day to talk to my mom. I have no idea what they said, but I remember my mom coming into my room—she was crying—and she demanded that I stop. I’m not sure she even knew what she was telling me to stop doing. I’m not sure she wanted to know.”

There was a long pause. Eli coughed, dry and raspy. Toby rose and said he was going to fetch Eli a drink, hurrying out of the room while Eli was still in mid-cough and unable to decline the offer. The sink came on in the background. The entire house was silent aside from Toby. No stirrings came from above. Paisley just stared at Eli, who, she thought, seemed like he had been waiting so long to get these things off his chest. She wanted to hug him, to comfort him and to be comforted in return, but just then, Toby walked back in holding a cup of water. He handed it to Eli, who took a sip before setting it down on the table.

“This town,” Eli started again, the words coming out slow. “The land, and the people on it, there’s something wrong with it, with them. There always has been.” He took in a deep breath. “Black Falls wasn’t originally called Black Falls. Its original name, the one that the settlers gave it, was Dead Falls. See, from what I could dig up on the internet, the history of the area, and various conspiracy sites, was that this place was completely uninhabitable, at least at one point. When settlers tried to build a colony here, the land was crude, dried up, and dead. Nothing could grow. And those that lived here…they all died. Every single one of them. But that’s where things got even crazier. Because, if everything that came here died, how are we here now? Why did people keep coming back? Well, this is going to sound insane. Because it is insane! But each time, after people would come here, fail with their crops, not find any food to hunt, and then die, the place would finally come to life.”

Eli took another drink from the cup, his throat having gone dry from talking so much. He hadn’t really thought about any of this in a long time, having hid the information in the recesses of his mind for his own protection, but now that he was retelling it, now that he finally had someone to tell it to, all the memories, all the information he dug up, was pouring back into his mind, and he had to get it all out.

“It’s said that the ground, after everybody had died, would suddenly grow. The crops, as if waiting for the growers to die, would spring up. The water from the falls, having tasted foul, would finally run clean and become drinkable. Animals would return. Life would return. Then, after word got out of the area’s new prosperity due to travelers passing through, settlers would return. But, by the time they arrived, the land would once again be barren.”

Toby pictured animal carcasses spread along the ground, the flesh having decayed off their bones, rib cages protruding into the air as if trying to get away from the tainted soil. Paisley imagined black water pouring from a small waterfall, the falls that she had never even seen before but knew existed somewhere outside of town. Toby remembered the dead grass outside and the tree that looked as though all life had been drained from it years ago.

Eli continued. “They would build homes, plant crops, try to live their lives, hoping that the land would return to the way it was told to be, the way the travelers had seen it. But it never did, not in their lifetimes. They would end up like all the rest. They would die.”

“But somebody must have figured out something,” Paisley