[Pride 2020] The Spirit Of Thomas Carroll

Trigger warnings: bullying, extreme violence, mention of suicide

The small town of Steven’s Switch got its name from the train tracks that ran through it. Over the years the town prospered, but remained small. It was enclosed in the hills and mountains of the region. Many, who drove through the area, didn’t even know there was a town there. You could see no houses off the main road. To find anything of note in Steven’s Switch, you had to ride off onto one of the many back roads. If you did, you would discover the train station, a couple of restaurants, a gas station, a grocery store, a small movie rental shack, and a school that consisted of two brick buildings, one for Kindergarten through 5th grade, and one for 6th to 12th grade.

These days, the most notable feature about the town was their winning high school football team, the Steven’s Switch Fighting Bobcats. The whole town seemed to rally behind this high school sport, and the players of the sport were treated like celebrities within the city limits. I suppose that’s where the problem started. Once you start treating people like they are above all else, they will start to believe it.

Which brings us to Thomas Carroll. Thomas was a seventeen-year-old senior at Steven’s Switch High School. He had moved here during the summer with his mother, Dorothy Carroll, who had gotten a divorce the previous year. Thomas’s father had been a poor husband and an even worse father. Neither Thomas nor his mom missed the man, and they had moved here to get away from their past in the city. Tom was a small and slender boy. He had dark hair and wore glasses. He was seen as weak and strange by his fellow school mates, mainly because of the way he dressed. In the city, his clothes would have been perfectly acceptable, but out here they caused him to stand out. He wore named brand clothes that would become popular in Steven's Switch a few later, but at the moment they were considered gaudy. It took time for fashion trends to trickle down into smaller rural areas. Within the first week at his new school year, the quarterback of the football team, Mark Hollenbeck, had decided that Thomas would be the focal point of his merciless teasing. Compared to all the other kids, Thomas was an easy choice for Mark. No one would question it either, lest they take Tom's place.

Mark, having grown up as a small town idol, was vain and ever fearful of losing his position in the social pecking order. He was also a sadist. His first well known act of cruelty took place in fifth grade when he super glued Delray Clement's head to a toilet seat in the boys’ bathroom. Throughout the course of that day, every boy in school was encouraged by Mark and his crew to use that toilet when they had to urinate.

The next day, Delray had been sent off. He had a nervous breakdown and had to receive counseling, and nothing was done to Mark. The school suspended a couple of boys that had urinated on Delray, but they contended that they could not find out who had glued his head to the toilet seat, even though the culprit was well known by all. Mark was untouchable it seemed. The group was made up of Mark, his best friend Jonah, and their friends Brian and Travis. They were all on the football team and they all came from wealthy local families.

This was Tom's nemesis and what a nemesis to have. Within the first six week period of school, Mark had managed to make Thomas’ life a living hell. Mark had pissed in Tom’s locker, given Tom a black eye, ridiculed Tom in front of all his classmates, and pulled down his shorts in front of all the girls in P.E. Tom dreaded going to school for fear of what Mark had planned for the day.

Then, in autumn, while Mark was being particularly mean, Tom lost it. Tom fought back. He took two quick swings with his fists and the second one connected with Mark's face. The punch didn’t seem to hurt him, but it felt like time had stopped while everyone looked at Mark wondering what he was going to do. At that moment, Mr. DeWitt, the algebra teacher, walked up to find out what was going on. Everyone quickly dispersed, and Mark was not able to react.

Over the next couple of days, the bullying stopped. No one could figure it out, least of all Thomas. He feared that he had only made things worse at first, and then started to think that maybe standing up to bullies actually worked. Three more days went by with no mishap of any kind. On the fourth day, things got more surprising. Mark walked right up to Thomas and apologized for all of the things he had done.

Over the next couple of days, Mark would hang out with Tom, and would ask Tom to join him at his table in the lunch room. Thomas was sitting with the most popular kids in school. Tom felt a swell of relief that not only was the torture over, but that he might also have friends for the first time in almost a year.

That coming weekend, Mark and his friends were planning a camp out by the river. That was where all their parties happened. Senior skip day, spring break, and the senior party all took place by the river in the Southern Wood. They were planning to camp out Saturday night and come back Sunday.

Mark asked Thomas to come along, and Tom was thrilled. Mark told him that they weren’t supposed to be out there drinking and getting high, so the trip had to be kept quiet. Thomas agreed and that Friday he packed a few things. He had them waiting in the closet of his room for Saturday when he was to leave.

He told his mother he was planning to go camping alone in a wooded area near their house, and that he would be back the next day. Thomas was almost eighteen and very smart, so his mother thought nothing of letting him go. She was very proud of the person Thomas was growing into.

When he left, he walked down the road a bit and waited for the guys to arrive. About twenty minutes later, they swung by, picked him up, and they were off. Brian had brought some beer, Travis had brought some girly magazines, and Jonah had managed to get a hold of some weed. They were all set for a very fun night.

They drove deep into the woods and then hiked another fifteen minutes to get to a perfect site by the river. Once there, they unpacked, got the camp site settled, and started the party. It was early autumn so it was still plenty warm. Warm enough for them to swim a bit in the river anyway, but the nights got chilly pretty quick after sundown. They took turns swinging out over the water on a rope that was tied to a large tree branch, and then jumping in. They didn't have to worry about cracking their skulls on rocks because this particular part of the river was almost twenty feet deep.

They swam around until the sun started to go down, and then they started a good campfire. They huddled around it getting dry, warm, and started cracking open the beer. They were joking around, getting a bit drunk, and a little high.

As the night came upon them, a low fog crept over the area, but they were all having too good of a time to notice. They soon changed into warmer clothes and got their tents set up before returning to sit around the fire.

Around ten o'clock that night, Tom was sitting comfortably by the fire listening to Brian and Travis talk about their dream cars. Jonah was returning to the site with more wood for the fire, and Mark was thumbing through a magazine.

Then Mark made a comment about one of the girls in the magazine he was looking at, which didn't seem strange at first, but it was a signal. All at once, Tom felt a thunk on his head as Jonah clubbed him with a hefty piece of fire wood. As Tom fell to the ground, the others all jumped on him like a flock of hungry vultures that had just spotted a juicy corpse.

Thomas cried out for them to stop as he felt multiple hands tearing at his clothes and eventually stripping him bare. They ripped through the garments quickly and threw the shreds into a pile. Soon, Thomas lay naked upon the cooling dirt of the forest floor. Wet leaves stuck to his body and tears poured freely from his eyes. Tom pleaded with them to stop, and then asked why they were doing this as the three young men tied him to a large nearby oak tree. They used some remnants of Tom's clothes to fashion a gag that they placed in his mouth. They threw the rest of the rags in the campfire. After that, his questions and screams were muffled.

Tom remained there in silence for several moments. His mind started to wildly grasp for some answers. Then, all at once, Tom understood the plan. It was all a farce; Mark’s apology, and the group’s friendship had all been a ploy to get him out here in the middle of nowhere. Tom was alone with them in a spot where no one could hear his cries for help. The police wouldn't even know to look here if they left him tied up. He had told his mother he would be in an entirely different area. Tom had once thought himself so smart, but now he felt like an idiot. How could he have missed this? How could he have fallen for such an obvious trick? He was ashamed, and it showed upon his reddening face.

“Hey buddy...still happy to be our new friend?” Mark asked standing right in front of Tom.

Mark had a large, satisfied smile across his face. The other three just stood behind Mark cackling like hyenas. Then Mark suddenly punched Tom as hard as he could in the stomach. Tom felt the breath being knocked out of him. His body instantly wanted to throw up, but the gag would have caused complications. Tom used all of his will to keep that from happening.

"Nobody punches me and gets away with it," Mark said as he raised his fist again. "Especially not a weak little faggot!"

For the next few moments, Mark used Tom's body like a punching bag, but then he signaled for his friends to join in. They spent the next hour coming up with different forms of torture. They caned his legs with branches, made a game of throwing clumps of mud at him, the bullseye being his penis, and they even tried to carve words like "worthless" and "homo" into his skin with a hunting knife. They discovered that carving words into skin was a lot harder than it looked, and gave up after doing a sloppy job with the two previously mentioned words. The verbal torments continued while the gang stayed unrelenting in their assaults.

Travis began slapping Tom’s face while Brian pulled Tom’s hair up to hold his head in place. Every slap came with a demeaning comment and a chorus of wicked laughter. Thomas felt sickened as Jonah forced a glob of mud, leaves, and worms into Tom's mouth. They punched him in the stomach till he would open up, and they would hold his mouth shut till he swallowed the vile mess.

Tom couldn’t understand the level of brutality he was experiencing. The pain was searing and the hunting knife had escalated the event to an entirely unexpected level. He kept thinking it would stop after the next humiliation, when their revenge would finally be spent. Tom reflected on his mother for a moment and began to cry again with renewed vigor. Soon the only part of his face that wasn't covered in dirt were the lines down his cheeks where his tears had run. Not too long after that, Thomas started to drift in and out of consciousness. There were many tortures that he thankfully missed due to these blackouts.

Tom was only partially aware when the guys untied him from the tree, let his body collapse to the ground with a thud, and removed his gag which was thrown callously into the campfire. He didn't notice at all when they started tying a rope around his ankles because his legs had gone numb, but he came to just as they threw the rock that the other end of the rope was tied to into the river while Mark whispered in his ear, "We're getting bored, so you can die now. Nice knowing you Tom."

Tom weakly whimpered and struggled to grasp at the passing dirt as his body was drug into the cold depths of the rushing water. The words carved into his arms began to sing in gleaming agony when they became submerged. He watched the faces of his attackers staring down at him illuminated by fire and moonlight as he sank deeper into the river. He felt such anger and sorrow looking up at them. He hadn't thought it would go this far. This was high school payback. It had gotten extreme, but he had still believed there was going to be a tomorrow. Soon, all Thomas saw was darkness, and his disbelief turned to scared rage before all went inert.

Months passed. Eventually the search for Thomas was abandoned. Tom’s mother committed suicide the day after the search ended. She had blamed herself completely. Not long after that though, life returned to normal in Steven’s Switch. The football team became state champions, and the quarterback was praised for his talent. Mark was offered several scholarships to play at numerous state colleges.

The senior party eventually came around and, considering all they had to celebrate, the obnoxious quartet decided to go back down to the river for a party. It would be the first time they had gone back since the night Tom vanished.

They packed their usual party supplies and headed off that evening. They arrived at the campsite about an hour later where they proceeded to drink and party like wild men. They told stories of the women they had screwed, but those were all lies. Truth be told, the only time Mark could even get an erection was when he was fantasizing about the evening he tortured and killed Tom. He had even considered doing the same to Jonah a month earlier to get that euphoria back, but had luckily talked himself out of it.

Brian and Travis had fallen into a sadomasochistic porn addiction that they hid from their other two friends. They were worried about what Mark would think if he knew they were enjoying this activity...together. They were even learning how to use rope in bondage play by practicing on each other.

Jonah's guilt had left him completely impotent, and plagued his sleep with night terrors. These were truths that the boys would never share with each other.

The night continued on as midnight approached and the low hanging fog returned. If the boys hadn’t been so completely oblivious, they would have noticed that the crickets had stopped chirping, the birds had flown away, and a storm was on the horizon. Within the hour, the wind picked up, the fog grew thicker, and rain began to drizzle. The boys quickly set up a tarp to sit under and then started to complain that their night was ruined when bubbling noises rose up from the river.

At first, they didn’t notice the sound due to the noises the wind and rainfall were making, but as the sound got louder, it caught Jonah’s attention. He had been glancing over at the river off and on all night as Tom's face would shamefully spring to his mind,  but when he turned his attention to the river this time he saw a dim green light emanate from deep below the churning river’s surface.

Jonah nudged Mark’s arm with his elbow to get his attention. Mark turned to Jonah with an irritated look in his eyes. Just as Mark was about to complain about the nudge, he noticed what Jonah was looking at. The green light from under the water was getting brighter. Mark’s eyes widened as he emerged from under the tarp and began to walk towards the river’s edge. Jonah, Brian, and Travis followed close behind, all walking with a timidly slow pace.

Their mouths dropped open as a form surfaced and walked towards the shoreline. Mark’s eyes almost bulged out of his head when he realized who it was. Thomas’ body was walking directly towards them. The rope around his ankles was worn, and it was no longer connected to a rock. Mark could still make out the words that they had carved into his now pickled skin.

As Thomas continued to rise out of the water, the forest seemed to come alive. Branches began whipping about, roots started ripping up from the ground, and weeds slinked out of the water around Thomas Carroll’s lumbering form. Jonah fell to the ground with a quick yelp as a vine wrapped around his legs and jerked him prone. Brian and Travis almost immediately followed suit. Mark continued to watch the activities that played out before him. He was unable to move and a puddle of piss started to surround the area where he stood transfixed.

“This isn’t fucking happening,” Mark bawled! “We fucking killed you!” Mark shook his head from side to side as if to tell himself that he was hallucinating. Brian began clawing at the ground trying to get away. He felt dirt begin to build up painfully beneath his nails until a couple of nails broke free from the skin of his fingers. Travis curled into a ball and began to rock back and forth almost uncontrollably as he whispered prayers begging forgiveness from gods he had never before believed in. He would gladly swear unending fealty to any deity that chose to answer his prayers, but none would have him.

The mottled gray body before them spoke in a gurgling, hiss of a voice, "You would be best served cold." At once, vines, roots, branches, and weeds began to rip off all of their clothes. They began shivering as the cold damp air touched their naked skin.

Thomas turned to Brian and Travis. “Always together, always a pack...I am not without compassion. I would not separate you," Tom said with the slightest hint of mirth.

The vines began to twist and weave pulling Brian and Travis' bodies together. They were bound skin to skin like lovers in an embrace. Their tears ran together as one while they took comfort in one another for the briefest of moments.

A swarm of leeches began to bulge forth from the river like a croaking toad's throat. The leeches slowly poured over the two bodies before them. They grappled onto naked flesh with greedy mouths, and began drinking unnatural amounts of blood from their helpless prey. They started to bloat and turn dark red like large, wiggling blood blisters. The two young men soon started to feel light headed from the copious blood loss. The two jerked and wailed from the horror of this experience, but when they opened their mouths, several handfuls of leeches slithered past their teeth, around their tongues, and into their defenseless throats. It didn’t take long before they passed out. Their bodies slowly sank into the muck and sediment of the river where the leeches could finish their meal in private.

Jonah witnessed these deaths with unimaginable fear and disgust. He didn't want to die...not like that. As he started to unconsciously step back from the horrid scene, roots burst from the ground and wrapped him from head to toe like a cocoon. The vines scratched his skin as they curled around his agonizing form. He cried out for help till his vocal cords were rendered worthless under the strain. The malevolent creepers started piercing his skin and worming their twisted way into his body. The sight of them snaking around under the few exposed areas of skin was nightmarish. More and more of them kept coming up from the ground, continuing to feed themselves into Jonah’s wounded body, until he began to go into shock. Thomas stared into Jonah with cold milky eyes as several roots dug their way into his chest cavity. Jonah mouthed the words, "I'm sorry," then convulsed for several terrible minutes before he went limp. The roots and vines then pulled his carcass into the ground. Within seconds, no sign of Jonah was left on the surface.

Thomas walked towards Mark who had stumbled back under the tarp. Mark had backed himself up against the very tree where they had tied Thomas. Without realizing this trivial coincidence, Mark used the old oak for support. He had seen the gruesome fates of his friends, knew there was no escape, and so Mark took the only action he could think of, he began to beg.

“I'm so sorry! Please don't kill me!” Mark pleaded. "I take it back! I take it all back! Please! I'm scared.”

Thomas reached down and picked Mark up with supernatural ease, and threw Mark over his shoulder. "As you wish," Thomas said as he began to carry Mark towards the eerily glowing water. Mark kicked and punched trying to break away, but it was no use. Tom's grip was like iron. As they sank into the depths, Mark felt Tom's claws bite into his bare skin gripping him tightly. Right before their heads went under, Thomas said, “It’s lonely down here anyway, and I could use the company.” The water swirled around them as the green light dissipated and their forms disappeared into the shifting gloom.

After a month, the townspeople of Steven’s Switch gave up the search for the missing boys. The next crop of high school football players had began training for the upcoming year, and soon things returned to normal. The town talked about the chances the team had to make the play offs this season, and which players had looked good at practice.

Years later, rumors started spreading about the haunted campsite by the river. The rumors soon became a folktale about a group of senior boys that died at a camp site where their spirits still linger. Only rarely would people go down there. When they did they would return with scary tales. They would swear that at night the fog would roll in, and they could hear faint screaming coming up from the river.

What they don’t know, is that the screaming is coming from Mark as Thomas Carroll continues to use him for entertainment. Neither able to escape. Neither able to truly die. One can hide their misdeeds under oceans of shadow, but they will ultimately rise into the light.

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