The Ritual

his stained and scabbing face. ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’
    Phil swallowed. ‘I saw . . .’
    Hutch groaned and eased himself down and on to his knees. ‘Buddy, buddy, take it easy. Just take it nice and easy. Tell us exactly what you saw.’
    ‘I went for a piss. And I was looking at the ground so I didn’t hit my feet. But I started to feel weird. You know, like someone was standing next to me. Like they’d come up to
me. Was right next to me. And when I looked up . . . I thought it was a tree or something. Out there. It never moved, but it didn’t look right. I stared at it and . . . then it
moved.’
    Luke squinted through the smoke around his face. ‘Eh?’ The other two turned their faces towards the overgrown cemetery.
    ‘In there.’ Phil pointed at a copse of trees crowding over the first rune stone they had passed. ‘By those trees. At the edge. Something moved out from between them and kind of
went backwards really quickly and then it was gone. Never made a sound. It was so fast.’
    ‘An animal?’ Hutch asked.
    Phil shook his head. ‘I thought it was a dead tree. One of those hit by lightning. But then . . . I don’t know . . . I thought it was something on two legs. Standing up. Really tall.
It’s dark in all that scrub. But something was kind of camouflaged in there, because it was standing really still.’
    ‘Fucking stop it,’ Dom said. ‘It’s not funny. Not here.’
    ‘It’s no joke, Dom! I saw something. It was in my dream last night. In that house. Coming down the stairs.’
    ‘Enough,’ Dom barked. ‘I’m doing my best to forget last night. And whatever the fuck was in that tree yesterday.’
    Luke looked out at the forest. Then glanced at Hutch, who looked pale under the filth and all jittery around his big eyes.
    ‘You don’t believe me?’ Phil said.
    Dom’s face was so tense his lips thinned to nothing and his teeth were showing. ‘No we bloody don’t! So stop trying to freak us out!’
    ‘Something’s gone bad out here,’ Luke said quietly, as if to himself.
    ‘What the fuck are you on?’ Dom challenged him.
    ‘Nothing, and more’s the pity. But that rotten mess’ – Luke pointed at the derelict chapel – ‘is full of human remains. They’re in a right
state.’
    ‘What?’ Despite the grime, Dom’s face still gave the appearance of being pallid.
    Hutch shook his head, and looked as if he’d been told some terrible news. ‘Something awful happened here. I’d hazard a guess they all came to a bad end.’
    ‘Bad end?’
    ‘Torn up. Heads smashed in, like a war grave.’
    Phil’s shaking was getting worse. For once, Dom didn’t respond.
    ‘How?’ Phil asked Hutch, but there was as much pleading as curiosity in the question.
    Hutch swallowed. ‘Thank Christ we didn’t go into those other two buildings. I’d have put money on us finding something just as fucked up in them.’
    ‘What is it, Hutch?’ Phil pleaded.
    ‘I don’t know, mate. I’m really not sure I want to know either.’ He stood up. ‘Witchcraft. Black magic. Some old cult. The Swedes are really religious up here. I
just don’t know. But it’s messing with us, chaps. With our heads. Some places are just bad, I reckon. And it’s getting on top of us. You saw an animal, Phil. An elk. Moose. Red
deer. They’re all over this part of the country. That’s all. We’re just jumpy. Who wouldn’t be? But let’s chill. Just cool our heels a bit. I mean it.’ He looked
at Luke, his eyes hard. ‘Let’s not fall apart any more than we have already, yeah?’
    Luke stood up too, and looked out at the trees. ‘It’s two o’clock. We need to put our foot down if we’re going to get out of here before it gets dark. Judgement call. Go
back and try to get out the way we came in yesterday?’
    ‘Which means going past that fucking tree,’ Dom said, his fear turning to anger.
    ‘And the house,’ Phil said, and drew further into himself. He was almost crying; they could hear it in his voice.
    ‘Or,’ Luke said, raising his hands, palms out, ‘we take our chances on the other side of this clearing and just peg it.’
    Dom looked up at him as if he were a congenital idiot. ‘How do we “just peg it”, in this bloody state?’
    ‘We do the best we can. I’ll get you a crutch.’
    ‘I don’t want a fucking crutch. I don’t want anything from you.’
    Hutch put both hands over his face and groaned, and kept on groaning until they all stopped