I'M STILL THERE
A regular bunch of stupid teenagers on a Saturday night, bored with nothing to do. They all pile into one car and do something even more stupid, they drive to a heiau. Not just any heiau, but Pu’u’omahuka heiau. It’s an hours drive from town but when they get there the gate is closed so they park the car at the entrance and walk the rest of the way in. It’s a fairly long haul but by the time they get to the old sacrificial temple the sun is gone and it’s pitch black. No one thought to bring their flashlights and
so they have to use their cell phones. They trample around on the inside of the massive structure and one of them actually urinates smack dab in the middle of the old temple and forces his younger brother and two friends to do the same thing. They otherwise find the evening uneventful and boring and so they leave. The trek back seems twice as long as the walk in, maybe because it’s gotten to be so late and the lights from their cell phones aren’t so bright any longer, the batteries are dying.
The oldest named Reg is responsible, not responsible in the way that he should have talked everyone out of it but responsible for his reprehensible action, everyone is walking in a tight huddle and muttering small talk here and there but eventually, it gets quiet. All anyone can hear now is the other person breathing as the old road dips and rises and causes everyone to trip or stumble over their own feet. The other two guys named Clay and Bert keep blaming the other for anything that they can blame one another for, “So dumb, why you forget da flashlights?”
“Why YOU forget da flashlights? It’s your flashlights!” Bert couldn’t breathe and walk at the same time.
Meanwhile, Reg’s ten-year-old brother Craig keeps whining about the walk being too long and being tired. Reg has no sympathy and back hands his brother across the chest, “Shaddup fag! I told you stay home!”
“Faka!” Clay screams at Bert because he has had enough. “I told you fo put the flashlights in the back pack and where da back pack now hah you fuckin’ dick!”
Bert lunges forward and tackles Clay into a small ravine, the two go tumbling down the dark space punching, crawling and biting one another. Reg is indifferent, he keeps walking until he notices that Craig is no longer whining. He turns to see Craig sitting on the road crying and it only infuriates him even more. “Get up off the fuckin’ road you faggot! Walk before I crack you one more time!”
“No.…I no like walk anymore...carry me on your back..” Little Craig had enough and no matter how many times Reg would hit him, he wasn’t going to move. Reg let out a growl of frustration and hiked Craig on his back and continued on. “What about Clay and Bert Reg? What about Clay and Bert?”
Reg kept Clay and Bert around for kicks because he loved manipulating them against each other, it had gotten to the point where the two brothers believed every lie that Reg had told the one about the other. “Fuck ‘dem, dey no catch up let ‘um walk!”
“We going wait for dem when we get to da truck? We just going leave?” Craig asked with his half asleep voice.“Yup,” Reg replied. “Dey not dea by da time we get to da truck dey can walk home or catch bus!”
“Reg, if I neva say nutin’, you was going leave me too?” Craig was beginning to tear up and Reg hated it, because it only meant that his little brother was going to complain to their parents later.
“I wen give you piggy back right? Why you gotta complain now?” Reg never hid his irritation with Craig because Craig was a burden that he didn’t ask for. He was always the one that had to be a parent to Craig because his parents worked long hours. Before he knew it they were back at the car, and Craig didn’t feel as heavy as when he began carrying him. Reg reached around to grab his little brother and place him on the ground while he opened the car door except there was no Craig on his back. His brother was gone, he looked around and started calling for him, “Craig! Craig! Craig!”
No reply, ‘fuck ‘um’ he thought to himself and jumped in his car and started it up. He reversed and made a u-turn and headed back down the hill. ‘You can catch da bus with Clay and Bert,’ Reg thought to himself. As his car rounded the hairpin turn, the headlights of an oncoming vehicle flashed into the interior of Reg’s car and that’s when he caught a glimpse of Craig, Clay and Bert in the rear view mirror, seated in the back. The three were pale and were bleeding from their eyes, ears, and nose, each one muttering the same thing to Reg, “You was going just dig out brah? You going just leave us to die?” They all reached forward and grabbed Reg by his face and pulled him into the back seat with them as the vehicle went flying off the edge of the hair pin turn and plummeted nose first into the Kiawe and rocks below.
….………
Reg woke up because of the mid-day sun burning down on his face, he sat up and saw Craig, Clay, and Bert wandering around the far perimeter of the heiau but they were inside the temple looking out. There were hoards of tourists about taking pictures, selfies, and video. “HOY!” Reg yelled at the three, “Lets go! It’s frickin’ daytime already! My parents going kick my ass! Let’s go!”
Clay, Bert and Craig made a beeline toward Reg and when they stepped over the wall and into the parking lot, they all became transparent and vanished. The mob of tourists was greeted with a breeze which manifested out of nowhere but carried a foul odor with it. Reg woke up because of the rain falling on his face, he sat up and saw Craig, Clay, and Bert wandering around the far perimeter of the heiau but they were inside the temple looking out. The parking lot was empty, “HOY!” Reg yelled at the three, “Let’s go! It’s frickin afternoon already! My parents going kick my ass! Let’s go!”
Clay, Bert, and Craig made a beeline toward Reg and when they stepped over the wall and into the parking lot, they all became transparent and vanished.
Reg woke up because it was dark and cold, he could barely make out the images of Craig, Clay and Bert wandering around the far perimeter of the heiau but they were on inside the temple looking out. The parking lot was empty and quiet, “HOY! Reg yelled at the three, “Let’s go! It’s frickin’ dark! My parents going kick my ass! Let’s go!”
The three made a beeline toward Reg and followed him over the wall where they walked the length of the uneven road in the dark. Clay and Bert while fighting with one another fell down a steep ravine and broke their necks and died. Reg unknowingly killed his little ten-year-old brother Craig when he hit the boy in the chest too hard and collapsed his lung, killing him instantly. Grief stricken over the accidental murder of his brother, Reg Milan drove his car over the edge of the hair pin turn where he was killed on impact once his vehicle hit the bottom. At least this is the story that the authorities put together, but who knows what really happened? Right?
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