The Swimmer and the Demon Worshipper
Virgo
Summoning my readers! @Bookworm @CellarDweller
So, I haven't posted a story or a poem in a while, mainly because I first got consumed with this story, and then I got consumed with another. Anyway, as of right now, my next week is going to be pretty busy for me. So I figured I'd start posting what I already got done so far with this story. As of right now (27-June-2021), this story isn't "finished," so I'll let you decide if you'd like it to go on. I think it might be a good challenge for me, because it'd remove my power to go back and edit the earlier chapters if I decide to make any serious changes. Hey, if the pulp fiction writers could do it, so can I.
I don't think this story needs a content warning, there's some bullying if you find that triggering, although I'd say so far, it's only been PG-13. I do need a disclaimer though, so I don't, you know, get suedÂ
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Please do not quote parts of this story when replying to this thread.
Okay, with that out of the way . . .
.
.
.
So, I haven't posted a story or a poem in a while, mainly because I first got consumed with this story, and then I got consumed with another. Anyway, as of right now, my next week is going to be pretty busy for me. So I figured I'd start posting what I already got done so far with this story. As of right now (27-June-2021), this story isn't "finished," so I'll let you decide if you'd like it to go on. I think it might be a good challenge for me, because it'd remove my power to go back and edit the earlier chapters if I decide to make any serious changes. Hey, if the pulp fiction writers could do it, so can I.
I don't think this story needs a content warning, there's some bullying if you find that triggering, although I'd say so far, it's only been PG-13. I do need a disclaimer though, so I don't, you know, get suedÂ
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Please do not quote parts of this story when replying to this thread.
Okay, with that out of the way . . .
.
.
.
The Swimmer and the Demon Worshipper
Â
By Chase TheQueerXX
Â
Chapter 1
Â
They say dark and mysterious things happen in the Dormcourt Triangle. Boaters go missing on the lake, hikers get chased out of the woods by monsters, cars get stalked by UFOs on the road. For me, I got outed on the first day I moved there. I made the mistake of not being careful at my new school. I thought I could finally be myself. I mean, my family just moved up north, they’re supposed to be more accepting and tolerant up here than the folks down south. It looks like people are just the same wherever you go.
           In math class, Mrs. DeMinci was rambling something about dimensions. A crumpled-up piece of paper pecked me in the back of my head and fell into my hood. I reached over my shoulder, fished it out, put it on my desk, and uncrumpled it. The message was written in all caps: UR A QUEER.
           I turned my head around. Scott was two seats behind me smirking and making some expression that said: Yep, damn right I wrote it. What are you gonna do about it, huh? Nothing.
           I turned back to the board and went back to copying whatever Mrs. DeMinci wrote. Scott was such an asshole. I so wanted to kick his ass. He’d probably beat me in a fight though. I mean, he’s not that much bigger than me, but he is on the wrestling team. I could get my teammates on the swim team to help, but I could never gang up on someone like that, even if they deserved it. I’m just glad the guys in swimming still support me. They don’t let me change with them in the locker room, but they know they’d never make it to nationals or even state without me.
           Class ended and I went to my locker. A short freshman I didn’t even know jumped in my way, yelled “Queer!” in my face, and ran away. Down the hall, he high fived a senior. This was getting absurd. I miss my old school where I was still closeted and popular. My friends back there would hate me if they knew, but there was a comfort in staying hidden like I did.
           I went to swim practice. I swam up and down the pool as fast as I could. The guys couldn’t even come close to my timing. I set a new record that I hoped to God I could replicate at the next match. “Thank God you moved here, Noah,” said my coach. “I don’t think our team ever stood a chance of making it to nationals like this. Keep it up, and you’ll be winning gold medals in the Olympics and be able to retire at the ripe age of thirty.”
           I sighed. Becoming an Olympian sounded awesome, but this school was getting so tough, I sometimes didn’t know how I could make it. I just can’t let them break me. Coach was right, I just need to hold on, keep playing my cards right, and this will all be over. I’m a senior, after all.
           I dried off in front of the pool and put my clothes back on, right over my jammers. If my teammates didn’t want me in the locker room, then I’ll just live in my swimsuits. At this point, swimming was all I had left.
           “Hey Noah.” Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around. It was my teammate, Jake. He looked like more of a nerd than a jock, but he had a hell of a backstroke. “Me and the guys are going to hang out at the reservoir. Why don’t you come?”
           “What’s the reservoir?” I asked.
           “Lake Dormcourt,” said Jake. “It’s a reservoir. You know, a lake that was made by damming up a river.”
           “Oh, duh. Sure. I’ll follow you in my Jeep.”
           “Um, maybe you should ride with me,” said Jake. “Since my car has four-wheel drive.”
           “So does my Jeep.”
           “Yeah, but my car has all-wheel drive. It’s better.”
           “I don’t think so,” I said, “my Jeep is ”¦ uh, sure, fine, whatever. I’ll ride with you.” This was weird. Usually the guys acted like my gayness was somehow contagious, as if that would be terrible if it were true, and now Jake wanted me to ride with him. Maybe Jake is different, I don’t know.
           I followed him to his car, a ten-year-old Volvo. We rolled down the windows and cruised through hills that were sliced open long ago by dynamite. We came to a road where on one side was a cliff wall and on the other side was the calm black waters of the lake. Jake asked, “Do you believe any of the stories about this place?”
           “Which ones?” I asked. “I don’t understand why a lake would be haunted.”
           “It’s supposed to be because of all the people they flooded when they built the dam,” said Jake. “They didn’t want to move.”
           “I don’t know much about history,” I said, “but that doesn’t make much sense. I mean, I’m sure they had time to move as the water was filling up.”
           “True,” said Jake. He turned down a road that ran across the dam. A large, grassy, manmade steep hill taller than a football field sloped down the outside, with one concrete section that fed a river. “But people were pretty messed up back then. The town of Dormcourt used to be part of some strange cult that some people said worshipped demons.”
           I shrugged. “People are still messed up, if you ask me. Have you ever seen anything weird?”
           “Not so much saw,” said Jake, “as I did experience it. I was on the lake with my dad one time. We went fishing on our boat. It was foggy that day, at least, that day for us. It felt like we were only out for a few hours, but when we came to the shore, there were search parties for us. My dad’s watch didn’t change much at all, and I don’t think I was even out there long enough to go to the bathroom, but everyone said we were gone for days.”
           We came to a non-paved parking area. There was just Jake’s car, our teammate Gary’s car, and a pickup truck with an empty boat-carrying wagon. There were tall trees that shaded the entire area. Nailed to one tree was a sign that said the parking area was courtesy of the power company, on another tree was a sign promising heavy fines for littering and warning not to pick any of the protected swamp pinks, and another that showed how to identify invasive zebra mussels. Gary and three more of my teammates, Joe, Nick, and Ken, got out of the car. Gary was a senior like me, while Joe was a junior, Nick a sophomore, and Ken a freshman. Jake and I got out and joined them.
           Between the dirt parking lot and the wooden docks were picnic tables and charcoal grills. No one else but us was there. All of the picnic tables were vandalized with knife carved penises and swastikas. We left the park and walked along a trail that snaked through the woods along the lake. You couldn’t walk the shore for much of the lake because it was either too rocky or too swampish. We walked out of the woods where the trail broke from the land and ran onto a rickety wooden pier that floated just off the shore.
           My muddied reflection in the water stared back at me. I had only swum in the reservoir once, in August just before I started my new school. I knew the water was going to be cold, at least by Southern standards, but the cold water never bothered me. What did bother me was the mud. My mom had dropped me off at a sandy beach the day after we finished moving. It had me thinking the entire lake was going to be just as sandy, but as soon as I swum out, I nearly got stuck in the mud of the lake floor. Apparently, that entire beach was as manmade as the lake, with the sand imported from some place much nicer than the Dormcourt Triangle.
           The guys were being awfully quiet. From time to time, they’d talk about funny things they’ve seen on social media or our history teacher’s quacked conspiracy theories, but for the most part they were quiet. It wasn’t much fun, but at least we were hanging out. Floating out on the water was a boat. There was no one on it. It was driverless, bobbing by itself on the dark water. I pointed to it and said, “It doesn’t look like anybody is on it.”
           Ken waved his hands and shouted “Hello!” but nobody answered.
           “This is bad,” said Jake, “it looks like the lake took another victim.”
           I pulled out my cellphone. It still had service. “I got some bars. I can call the cops.”
           “No,” said Nick. “Let’s not get involved.”
           “I don’t want to do this anymore,” said Jake.
           “What are we doing?” I asked.
           “Nothing,” said Nick. He shivered and zipped up his sweatshirt. “Just, don’t worry about it. Maybe they’re in the cabin or someone didn’t tie it up to the docks right. Let’s just keep going.”
           They continued walking and I followed them. The boat didn’t look big enough to have a cabin. I thought we were just hanging out. Where were we going? The wooden pier section of the trail ended and we walked on land again into the woods. No-see-ums were everywhere, eating every square centimeter of exposed skin.
           We came out of the woods to a cleared, steep, grassy area. It was another section that was damned off by a manmade hill, an earth dam, as our science teacher Mrs. O’Connell called it. There were no-trespassing signs everywhere. A sign read:
Â
“Are we supposed to be here?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Nick. “Your dad and my dad both work for the power company. We won’t get in trouble.”
           “Um, if you say so.”
           We walked down the steep hill towards the bottom where there was a tunnel entrance that was cut out. The tunnel looked ten feet tall and made of concrete. The wall was square while the tunnel was circular, but flatter at the bottom. A stream of water poured out into a gentle flowing rocky creak. The tunnel was dark, and the sun was setting, making it even harder to see inside it. A rusty, metal door that looked in-between prison bars and a castle gate blocked off the tunnel. Rocky ledges almost as tall as me jutted out from both sides. Cold air gushed out of the tunnel and blew into us.
           “Okay boys,” said Nick, “time to earn your place on the team.”
           “What are you talking about?” I asked.
           “We all had to do it,” said Nick. “This tunnel is supposed to, I don’t know, prevent the lake from flooding or something. There’s no blades for power or whatever, it just opens up to the lake. To earn your place on the team, all new members must swim from it to the lake surface. Noah, you just transferred, and Ken’s our freshie, so time to earn your place.”
           I scratched my head. “Um, uhh, back at my old school, we just shaved our heads for initiation.”
           “It sounds fun,” said Ken. “Come on Noah, let’s do it.”
           I looked at the tunnel. It looked like a pain in the ass to get to. We’d either have to climb down the rock ledge or walk around through the stream. The gate didn’t look like it was locked, but the water didn’t look deep enough to swim in. “The water doesn’t look deep enough,” I said. “It looks less than two feet deep.
           “Um, it’s deeper inside,” said Ken.
           I looked at Ken. He had a dumbfounded, guilt-ridden look on his face. “How would you know?” I asked. “Isn’t this your first time too?”
           Gary punched Ken in the shoulder. Ken whimpered and rubbed his arm where Gary punched him. Gary said “His dad used to work for the power company too. Come on, let’s just go. It’ll be fun.”
           We walked down the hill and into the creek. The creek was inches deep, but in-between the ledges, the water was up to our necks. It got shallower in front of the gate, where Gary lifted a latch. The gate swung open with a creak that echoed into the tunnel. I walked inside. The water was up to my knees, but only up to my ankles near the walls. It was freezing inside of it. God knows how cold it’ll be once I have to strip down to my jammers.
           “How long is this tunnel?” I asked.
           There was another echoing creak. I spun around and saw my teammates had slammed the gate shut. All of them, including Ken, were outside and quickly wrapping a chain around the door handle. Gary clicked a padlock onto the chain, locking me in. I grabbed the gate door and tried to pull it open. It only made the chain rattle. I yelled, “What the fuck!”
           “I’m sorry,” said Jake. He had a somber look on his face. “I didn’t want to do this. It wasn’t my idea.”
           “Sorry Noah,” said Gary. He said sorry, but his voice wasn’t sad like Jake’s was, it was layered with anger. “We just can’t have a fag on the team.”
           I pulled at the door. With the locked chain, it wouldn’t open more than an inch. My soaked shoes splashed as I kicked at the gate. “You fucking psycho! Get over yourself. I’m not even attracted to you.”
           “Look Noah,” said Joe, “I don’t care that you’re gay, honest. But you’re making us unpopular at school. People are spreading rumors, saying we’re all gay like you.”
           “So fucking what! They’re just jealous we’re the only team making it to nationals. Which none of y’all would’ve made it if it wasn’t for me.”
           Gary pointed at me. Through the metal bars of the gate, he poked me hard in the chest. “Exactly. You’re overshadowing all of us. You just had to move here at my last year and overshadow me. How the fuck am I supposed to get scouted when you’re next to me?”
           “Are you fucking kidding me? Is that what this is about? That’s chicken shit. I hate to break it to you, Gary, but the more tournaments we make it to, the more opportunities you have to get scouted. Thanks to me y’all have more opportunities to swim and get scouted.”
           “This isn’t up for debate,” said Gary. “You’re lucky we’re being nice to you and not beating you up.”
           I kicked my foot towards Gary’s crotch but my foot was too big to make it through the bars. I stomped in the water. “How the hell is locking me up to rot in here nicer than beating me up?”
           “We’re just going to leave you in here until you agree to quit the team,” said Gary.
           “That’s not happening.”
           “Noah,” said Ken, “can’t you maybe, I don’t know, ask your parents to transfer you to some other school?”
           “No! We’re the only school in the area that’s making it to nationals. Do you want to win or not?”
           Gary growled in anger. “Alright Noah, that’s it. We’re going to leave you here for the night. We’ll be back tomorrow morning. You better agree to quit by then. Come on guys, let’s leave the fag before he butt-rapes us through the bars.”
           I kicked the bars again and again as they left. They walked into the neck deep section between the ledges and swam to the shallow stream. Jake was the last to swim away. He backstroked sloppily from having his clothes on into the pool, looked at me regretfully, and then waddled away into the stream before walking back up the banks of the earth dam.
           I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Shit, I got it wet. I wasn’t even thinking about it when I swam through the deep section of the stream. It was still working. The phone case did its job. The battery was still half full, but it had no bars. Fuck, the stupid tunnel was blocking the signal. I stuck my phone out through the metal bars of the gate and waved it around, but it was still not getting any signal. I dialed 9-1-1. The screen flashed red for a second before saying it was out of service. The sun was setting outside. It grew darker and darker until becoming total nightfall.
           I turned away from the moonlit outside and stared down the pitch black tunnel. On my phone screen, I scrolled through the apps until I found the flashlight app. The light that was normally for taking pictures came on. I walked down the tunnel into the darker recesses.
           The tunnel curved and bended, and before I knew it, the light of the moon and the sounds of the crickets outside were long gone. The only light came from my phone. The splashing of my feet echoed with every step. On the walls, water seeped in through the cracks. The tunnel came to a fork. I didn’t know where either one went. I did eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and went down moe, which happened to be the right tunnel. The water got deeper as I walked, going from my knees to my waist in the center. I huddled closer to the walls where it was still only up to my knees. There, chiseled into the walls, were strange markings.
           The markings were mysterious looking hieroglyphics. They didn’t look Ancient Egyptian or any other language I knew of. They looked alien, straight out of a sci-fi movie. Scary-looking monsters and horned demons were drawn all over. Then I finally found something chiseled into the walls in English:
Â
DAMNED BE THE DEMONS OF DORMCOURT
Â
DAMNED BE THE WITCH MEN AND THEIR BROOD
Â
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD
Â
MAY THIS CURSED VALLEY STAY FOREVER FLOODED BENEATH THIS NEW LAKE
Â
AND THE MONSTERS AND MONSTROSITIES STAY FOREVER SEALED IN THEIR CURSED REALM
Â
           I backed away. My phone slipped out of my hands and I juggled it like a hot potato until finally getting a grip of it again. I had to be more careful. The case might be waterproof, but if I lost it in the water I’d be screwed. I walked deeper down the tunnel.
           There was an eerie, phantom wail that flowed through the stiff air. It sounded almost like the call of a humpback whale. There was no way there could be any whales nearby, not even in the lake, so only God knows what it was. There was an occasional echo of another splash that wasn’t from me. My ears popped, and a low frequency humming entered them.
           The tunnel came to an end at a cavernous chamber with a deep, dark pool in the center. There was a concrete platform along the edges. I climbed onto it and stood out of the water for the first time in what felt like hours. Higher up, my phone lit up more of the cavern. There was another tunnel pouring water into the pool at the back. A drift blew into me from the ceiling.
           I looked up and saw a small concrete tube on the ceiling. It was unreachable. It was probably just built for air flow. I raised my phone up towards it, and a single bar appeared. My phone vibrated in my hand as it exploded with text messages:
Â
Mom: Noah, where are you? Are you staying at a friend’s house tonight?
Dad: Your mother is worried sick. Come home now.
Jake: Where R U? R U in the tunnel? We lied about us swimming out through the other end. UR gonna die come to gate now
Gary: Noah WTF this isn’t funny where RU?
Mom: that’s it I’m calling the cops please be safe
Joe: Oh God Noah the police are investigating I was interrogated I don’t want to go to prison plz come out
Gary: Fine U win OK just come out and tell the cops U got lost. We won’t kick U off the team I promise
Jake: Noah, you have to come out. Please, I am sorry. You are going to miss nationals. You worked so hard for it. Please come out, I’m begging you. We’ve been taking turns waiting outside the gate every day for you.
Â
           Miss nationals? Waiting every day? What was going on? I’ve only been down here a few hours. I checked the date on my phone. I couldn’t believe it. A whole week had passed. My battery was down to one percent. Even if I spaced out, there was no way the battery could have lasted for a week without needing to be recharged. I scrolled through more messages:
Â
Jake: Noah! I told the cops you were in the tunnel. I hope they find you.
Dad: Noah, I hope this message finds you. Your friend told me you were in the South Spillway Tunnel. I went to the police station, but the cops told me the FBI came as soon as they filed the search warrant and stopped them from searching it. The government is now claiming you are dead. I tried to go down there myself, but they wouldn’t let me, even when I told them I work for the power company. Please know that I love you.
Jake: Noah, they’re sealing off the tunnel! This creepy guy who said he was a detective told me you weren’t ”“”
Â
           My phone died. Pitch black darkness took me. The draft from above chilled my face while water from the tunnel at the back continued pouring in. I don’t know what to do. Do I go back where I came? I don’t know if I can believe they would seal off the tunnel, but even if they didn’t how would I go back there with no light? There were different tunnels I could get lost in.
           I walked towards the tunnel that poured water into the pool. I know the guys were lying, but what if I really could swim up through it and to the surface of the lake? It sounded like a suicide mission, but I was one hell of a swimmer. That does it then. I’m doing it. The guys are going to know I had to do it, and then they’ll be so blown away by how good I am for the team, they’ll be sorry they ever locked me in here.
           I stripped down to nothing but my jammers. I climbed into the tunnel. The cold water was like needles poking into my skin. My head bumped into the roof of the tunnel, it was only four feet tall, with water two feet deep. I crawled through it. Something scaly brushed past my shoulder. I continued crawling. At least I still had air, as stale as it was.
           My hands slipped off the concrete tube I was crawling on. I fell face first into a deep pool of water. I swam to the surface and found there was only two feet of air space between the surface and roof. In the darkness, I swam back and forth and found it was half the length of an Olympic swimming pool. My hands ran along the rocky and concrete ledges of the outer rim but I couldn’t find any exit. I swam towards the bottom.
           I swam deeper and deeper and still couldn’t touch the bottom. I could hold my breath really long. I don’t know how long, because no one timed it, and adults were always too scared to let me test it to the limits, but it was definitely a gift. One of the reasons I was such an unbeatable swimmer. I gave up and swam to the surface at top speed. On the surface I swam in an aimless direction through the darkness until I touched a wall. I held onto to the cracks and caught my breath. As I rested, my foot kicked through the wall.
           I bobbed down and with my hands and legs, found there was a water filled tunnel beneath the surface. Maybe it led to the lake. It’d be way too dangerous to swim through it, but fuck it, it might be my only way out. I swam through the tunnel. Swam as fast as I could.
           The tunnel seemed like it never ended. I kept swimming and swimming in total darkness. Most people can’t hold their breath for more than two minutes, and the world record is some mutant who can hold it for over twenty-four minutes. I can only hope I’m just as gifted as him. I grew tired as I swam. I’m not sure how long I had been swimming through the tunnel, because when you hold your breath and swim for as fast as you can, it feels like forever. I’m probably more than half way past my ability, which means there’s no going back now. It looks like I’m going to die down here.
           The darkness was ending. A tunnel of light appeared before me. I swam towards the light. The bright light became blinding until all I saw was a white void. My body was sucked into a tight tunnel that squeezed my skin.
An eternity passed by.
Time felt like it was never ending. I opened my mouth to give up, but water didn’t fill into my mouth.
           Finally, I was ejected from the invisible tight tube. The blinding white glare disappeared. I was underwater again. I was almost out of breath. Above me, I saw threads of sunshine. I swam to the surface and gasped for breath.
           All I could do was breathe. Breathe in and breathe out. Huff and puff. I blinked to spread my eye goo around so I could see more clearly where I was. I was on the surface in daytime, but it didn’t look like Dormcourt Reservoir at all.
           The lake was much smaller. I wasn’t far from the shore. All of the forested, northern mountains that made up the Dormcourt Triangle were replaced with strange, desert-like cliffs and rock formations like you’d find in a state like Utah, but unlike Utah, the rock was green. I swam to a beach made of soft, green sand.
           On land finally, I collapsed on my back. I closed my eyes and panted on the ground. It was a lot sunnier and warmer than it was where the guys left me. I didn’t know where the heck I was or what was going on. My heart started to return to normal. At least I made it out of there. Thank God. Phew. My breathing finally returned to normal. I opened my eyes.
           Standing over me was a scary masked figure. The face was completely hidden behind the mask, including the eyes. I couldn’t tell his sex at first because of his mask and unisex haircut, but I noticed he had a flat chest and an Adam’s apple so I guessed male. He was wearing an old fashioned, Medieval looking type of dress that stopped above his knees. A leather belt was tightened around his waist and carried a small leather purse with leather strings. He wore pants that were the same color as his draped shirt and had shoes that looked more like sacks pulled over his feet.
The mask was scary and creepy looking. It had no mouth. It was mostly white with large, black, glass eyes that had no transparency or even a reflection. Red rune-like lines were painted on the cheeks as whiskers outside an asymmetrical dot where the nose should be. A runic symbol dotted the center of the forehead. Fox or cat ears of the mask jutted out from his crop of dark hair.
           My fear quickly ended. He didn’t look scary or creepy at all. In fact, he looked like a total dork.
           The dorkiest, nerdiest, cringiest dork I had ever seen.
           He walked away from me. I sat up and saw him walk to a tarped wooden wagon that was attached to a single horse. The horse was huge, probably the largest breed there was, while the wagon looked lightweight and simply made. He climbed in and grabbed the reins. He was going to drive away. I jumped to my feet.
           “Hey you! Get back here! I want to talk to you.”
Â
Chapter 2
Â
The masked person let go of the reins and climbed back out of the wagon. He approached me and stood a few inches shorter than me. In a soft-spoken voice, he asked “Why are you wearing that tight breechcloth? It is most queer.”
           “Queer? Fuck off, I’m on the swim team. I just swam out of the lake through this tunnel spillway thing. You’re the one with that stupid cosplay outfit.”
           “You talk very queer too,” he said. “Most queer. What village are you from?”
           “Will you stop saying the word queer like that? I don’t mind that word, but the way you use it is offensive to gay people.”
           “Well stranger, I am sorry to say that I have not been gay for a very long time. Not since my mother was murdered and my father taken by the wraiths.”
           “Uhh, sorry.”
           “Your apology is accepted. If that will be all, I must be going now.” He turned around. Wrapped around the back of his head was a white cloth band that held his mask. His hair was unevenly cut.
           “Wait,” I said. “Hold on. Don’t leave. Who are you?”
           He turned back around. “Voskoboynikov is my family name. I find many people, particularly the blessed ones of Thulthdignagon, often have problems pronouncing it, as I am sure it is very queer to them. So if it does not trouble you, you may call me by my Christian name, Pasha. It’s supposed to be pronounced Paw-sha, but some say Pash-sha. I do not mind either.”
           Maybe English wasn’t his first language, but he didn’t have an accent. “Are you from Russia?”
           “Do you mean to ask if my ancestors were? Yes. Something the townspeople of New Dormcourt won’t let me ever forget. And yours?”
           “The south,” I said. “I grew up mostly in South Carolina.”
           “Ugh,” he gasped in disgust. “The southerners were barbarians. I am so glad we learned of their defeat before this canyon was flooded.”
           “Look,” I said, “I don’t have time for this. I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand most of what you are saying. Can I please just use your phone to call my parents?”
           “Well I am sorry to you too, but I also do not understand most of what you are saying. I have cargo I need to trade. You are welcome to ride with me on my wagon back to the Valley of Thulthdignagon.”
           I rolled my eyes. “Sure. That sounds ”¦ fun.” I climbed into the wagon with him. He grabbed the reins and clicked his tongue, and the horse pulled us. Maybe this old-timey thing would make sense if he was Amish, but he obviously wasn’t, especially with that mask. This kid was a total freaking weirdo. It was hard to tell with his face covered, but if I had to guess, I’d say he was my age. “So, um, Pasha ”¦ oh, I forgot to tell you my name, it’s Noah. That’s um, I guess you called it a Christian name. I’m not Christian, so it’s just my first name. Well, I guess it is a Christian name, but you know what I mean.”
           “Of course you are not Christian,” said Pasha. “Nobody alive today still worships the old god. The new gods guide and protect us all. From great Krstgudgn to the exulted Bszldenumrtu.”
           I rubbed my hands on my forehead. Getting locked in that spillway was way too horrifying for any of this to be a joke, but Pasha was being such a joke it wasn’t even funny. Whoever was enabling this by letting him use this horse should be arrested. “Ugh. Pasha, how old are you? Are you still in high school? Look, I have it bad being outed as gay as it is, but guys like you get their heads flushed down the toilet.”
           “Are you a child of Jruckthokpk?” asked Pasha. He moved his head closer to my face. His mask had black dots above the large black eyes, making it look even more alien. “No, I apologize. You lack the horny hands of a wild man and look well groomed. Perhaps you are a blessed child of Thulthdignagon?”
           “Jesus Christ,” I said. “I take it you’re not popular around here?”
           “Was it the mask that gave it away?” Pasha’s voice was riddled with sarcasm. He sounded serious with everything else he said up to this point.
“About that,” I asked, “why are you wearing it?”
           The dirt road ahead of us was blocked off by a boulder that had fallen off from one of the tower canyon formations. Pasha yanked the right side of the reins and the horse pulled us around it through a brook and back on the road. “Please stop ridiculing me by pretending to be a fool. It is not my fault that I am cursed by Stkullontm. I didn’t choose to have those who see my face be taken by the wraiths.”
           This time I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. If he wasn’t, he was clearly delusional. Given how he was dressed, it wouldn’t be hard to believe. He stared away from me towards the smooth, striped, green canyon walls that surrounded us. I asked, “Is there something wrong with your face?”
           “Obviously,” he said, “I just told you I’m cursed.”
           “Like, do you have a scar, or a birth mark, or ”“”
           “No,” he said. “Please stop pretending to be a fool. I have deep appreciation for being allowed to live despite the fact that I should have been left tied up in the night for the wraiths.”
           “Jeez, looks like someone needs to see counseling.”
           He pulled the reins back and clicked his tongue. The horse stopped. The lake I had swum out of was gone. Around us were plants I had never seen before. There were trees that looked like giant mushrooms and cactuses that were covered in wiggling tentacle-like stems instead of needles. He asked, “Where are you from?”
           “I already told you I grew up in the south. I just moved to Dormcourt.”
           “Then I will take you to New Dormcourt. Perhaps you are a fool or drank too much of the Crossing Waters. Or both, since every sane man knows not to drink from that wretched waste.”
           “What do you mean?” I asked. “So, I’m the fool? Who even still calls someone a fool and not stupid or an idiot? That’s it Pasha, I can’t take this anymore.” I grabbed him by the front of his stupid outfit.
           “What are you doing?”
           “I can’t take any of this stupid Dungeons and Dragons crap!” I shook him. The horse neighed and the wagon rocked. Just as I expected, Pasha was a lot weaker than I was. “You’re going to drop this dorky cosplaying anime comic book bullshit and tell me where I am and what’s going on.”
           “Please. I’ll give you all of my coin and trading goods. Just don’t take the horse because she isn’t mine. In the name of Jruckthokpk, spare me.”
           I growled and shook him again. “No! No Jerk-throckle-pock whatever the fuck. My God, did you have your head shoved into a locker so hard it made you believe your stupid dorky fantasy world is real? Take that stupid mask off.”
           “No! You’ll be cursed by Urukon and get taken by the wraiths.”
           I shoved him into the back of the wagon. The horse stood on its hind legs, neighed, and took off. The wagon soared up and down as the horse ran. I jumped in the back of the wagon and sat on top of him. “That’s it, Pasha, that mask is coming off.” I put my hands on the stupid cat or fox ears of the mask and pulled it.
           “Please no! Please!”
           Beneath the mask, I heard Pasha start crying. I let go. His crying got louder. I crawled off him. There wasn’t much room in the wagon, so I crouched down on a sack that felt like it was filled with clothes. “I’m sorry Pasha.”
           Pasha stayed crying on the floor of the wagon. It went over a bump and I fell over, back on him. “Hey, um, Pasha, the horse is going pretty fast. Could you maybe slow her down?”
           He stayed laying down, crying. Tears dripped from beneath his mask and down his neck.
Great. Just great. I crawled to the front seat of the wagon and grabbed the reins. What the heck was I supposed to do? “Um, horse, slow.” The horse still kept running. I clicked my tongue like Pasha did and it didn’t change anything. The wagon went over another bump and I heard a crack. Crap, the wagon is probably not supposed to be going this fast. I pulled the reins back and the horse slowed down.
           The horse pulled us out of the green rock canyon and into a strange forest. Pasha stayed crying in the back while I stayed in the front in nothing but my jammers. I wondered if I could ask Pasha for some clothes. Even if they’re his stupid Renaissance fair clothes it’d be better than none at all. If it wasn’t for the tarped roof, I’d probably be sunburned by now.
           The landscape around us was so weird, it was like I was on an alien planet. Some of the plants looked normal ”“ spruce trees, birches, maples, ferns, a few swamp pinks here and there. But a lot of the vegetation were plants I had never seen before.
           Then I remembered:
Â
And the monsters and monstrosities stay forever sealed in their cursed realm
The town of Dormcourt used to be part of some strange cult that some people said worshipped demons.
The new gods guide and protect us all. From great Krstgudgn to the exulted Bszldenumrtu
Â
           My heart thudded. I looked around the woods. There was the sound of twigs snapping. A bush that looked like a coral reef wiggled in the distance. A call horned through the canyon that sounded like the dinosaur calls from the movies.
           A chill dripped down my spine. “Um, Pasha, could you please come up front and drive this thing? I’m really sorry I tried to pull your mask off. I won’t ever do it again, I promise.”
           I looked back. Pasha sat up and grabbed a handkerchief. He turned his back to me, wiped the snot that was probably dripping behind his mask, and then turned back to me and crawled up front. He grabbed the reins and we wheeled through the alien woodland.
           We both sat quiet. I didn’t say anything, and Pasha would only occasionally click his tongue for the horse. I didn’t want to say anything that’d make me question reality any more than I already was. There was no way any of this could be some elaborate prank.
           I glanced at Pasha. He was staring at my stomach. “What is it?” I asked.
           Pasha glanced away. “Oh, nothing. My apology. I was just staring at your abdominal muscles. I don’t think I’ve seen lumberjacks who were as toned. You are most attractive.”
           “Um, thanks. I swim a lot.” I looked away and blushed. Great. He’s attracted to me and he’s either a delusional dweeb or a cursed demon worshipper. I wonder which one would be better. Hopefully it’s not the latter. Then again, if I’m still on Earth and he’s both gay and like this, he’s a goner. “Hey, um, do you have any clothes I could wear?”
           “In the back,” he said. “The grey sacks are mine and the tan sacks are the merchandise. You can borrow some of mine.”
           “Thanks.” I crawled to the back of the wagon. I found an outfit that was like his except it was tan in color instead of grey. It looked like something Davey Crocket or Daniel Boone would wear. I put it on. The pants were a bit tight on me but it still fit. It wasn’t the comfiest thing I ever wore but it was better than being in just jammers. I crawled to the front seat. “What’s with this frontier outfit? What’s it called?”
           “It’s a pullover frock. There’s no point in wearing a suit out in the wild. It would be hard to outrun the wraiths.”
           “Do I have to ask what the wraiths are?”
           Pasha pointed ahead of us. “Ah, New Dormcourt approaches. I’ll drop you off. I’m sure your family misses you dearly. Hopefully with their help, you’ll be cured from whatever it is the Crossing Waters have done to you.”
           Our horse-drawn wagon went down the hill. In the valley below us, there was a massive dome of coral that encased the ruins of a large city. Alien birds that looked like flying fish flew in and out of the dome through the countless holes in between the branches. Under the coral bars were multilevel stone structures that had fallen into disarray. Within the ruins of the large city was a large town of human-built wooden houses. The human houses were all Victorian in architecture.
We approached the entrance gate. It was an ugly dam of stones and wooden planks that clogged up what must have been a large gap in the dome, and was definitely built by humans and not whoever built the original city. A guard stood at the gate holding a rifle. He held his hand out and said, “Halt! What business do you bring to New Dormcourt?”
           “I have rescued one of your people,” said Pasha. “He calls himself Noah. I found him scantily clad near the Crossing Waters. He talks very queerly and I fear he may be demented. He must have drank too much of that fowl water. He needs to be returned to his family and nursed back to sanity.”
           “Pasha,” I said, “what the fuck?”
           “Watch your language,” said the guard. “Young man, is that true?”
           “Ugh,” I groaned. “No. You see, I’m on the swim team, that’s why I was just in my jammers. My teammates, um, well, they locked me in the spillway, I think that’s what it’s called, yeah the south spillway of Dormcourt Reservoir. I went through the end and I actually swam all the way to the surface through the tunnel. I know, impressive, what can I say? That’s where Pasha found me, and he acted like he was a demon worshipper from the legends, and ”“”
           “Stop,” said the guard. He held his hand up, “Please, stop.” He turned to Pasha. “Well, I do admit, he does have the look of someone who has been blessed by Thulthdignagon. You’re lucky he’s really daff or I would have you flogged for mockery. I’ll let him in and see if any of the families will own up to him. If not, I’m sure he could at least make a good dung scooper for the stable keeper. Is there anything else?”
           “Yes,” said Pasha, “I bring goods from the ancient peoples.”
           “Sell it at the trading post,” said the guard, “outside of the dome. I don’t want your mask slipping. We try to keep the wraiths out.”
           “Isn’t that what the dome is for?” asked Pasha, his voice inflected with sarcasm.
           The guard smacked him in the back of the head. Pasha yelped and rubbed the back where he was hit. The guard scowled at him and said “Don’t get wise with me. Go back to the other side of the hills where you belong before I have you tied to a post for the night.” The guard turned to me. “You boy, come inside. You might be our newest simpleton but at least you’re not cursed.”
           The gate opened. Inside I could see people dressed in suits and dresses that still looked old fashioned but different from the tunics Pasha and I were wearing. “No,” I said. “I’m, I’m staying with Pasha.”
           “Noah,” said Pasha, “go inside. You’ll be safer from the wraiths under the dome.”
           “Stop it with this wraith crap. Just, just take me to your place.”
           “If you want to stay with this cursed boy you’re more than welcome to,” said the guard. “Krstgudgn knows we don’t need another village idiot.”
           “Noah,” said Pasha, “please. Just go inside.”
           “No,” I said, “I’m already wearing your clothes.”
           “You can pay me back later,” said Pasha, “or not pay me back at all.”
           “Pasha! I made up my mind.”
           “Fine then,” said Pasha. “So be it. If you want to live in the hills with the cursed folk then you shall have it.” He whistled, and the horse pulled us away from the gate and towards mountain slopes covered in alien vegetation.
.
Â
By Chase TheQueerXX
Â
Chapter 1
Â
They say dark and mysterious things happen in the Dormcourt Triangle. Boaters go missing on the lake, hikers get chased out of the woods by monsters, cars get stalked by UFOs on the road. For me, I got outed on the first day I moved there. I made the mistake of not being careful at my new school. I thought I could finally be myself. I mean, my family just moved up north, they’re supposed to be more accepting and tolerant up here than the folks down south. It looks like people are just the same wherever you go.
           In math class, Mrs. DeMinci was rambling something about dimensions. A crumpled-up piece of paper pecked me in the back of my head and fell into my hood. I reached over my shoulder, fished it out, put it on my desk, and uncrumpled it. The message was written in all caps: UR A QUEER.
           I turned my head around. Scott was two seats behind me smirking and making some expression that said: Yep, damn right I wrote it. What are you gonna do about it, huh? Nothing.
           I turned back to the board and went back to copying whatever Mrs. DeMinci wrote. Scott was such an asshole. I so wanted to kick his ass. He’d probably beat me in a fight though. I mean, he’s not that much bigger than me, but he is on the wrestling team. I could get my teammates on the swim team to help, but I could never gang up on someone like that, even if they deserved it. I’m just glad the guys in swimming still support me. They don’t let me change with them in the locker room, but they know they’d never make it to nationals or even state without me.
           Class ended and I went to my locker. A short freshman I didn’t even know jumped in my way, yelled “Queer!” in my face, and ran away. Down the hall, he high fived a senior. This was getting absurd. I miss my old school where I was still closeted and popular. My friends back there would hate me if they knew, but there was a comfort in staying hidden like I did.
           I went to swim practice. I swam up and down the pool as fast as I could. The guys couldn’t even come close to my timing. I set a new record that I hoped to God I could replicate at the next match. “Thank God you moved here, Noah,” said my coach. “I don’t think our team ever stood a chance of making it to nationals like this. Keep it up, and you’ll be winning gold medals in the Olympics and be able to retire at the ripe age of thirty.”
           I sighed. Becoming an Olympian sounded awesome, but this school was getting so tough, I sometimes didn’t know how I could make it. I just can’t let them break me. Coach was right, I just need to hold on, keep playing my cards right, and this will all be over. I’m a senior, after all.
           I dried off in front of the pool and put my clothes back on, right over my jammers. If my teammates didn’t want me in the locker room, then I’ll just live in my swimsuits. At this point, swimming was all I had left.
           “Hey Noah.” Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around. It was my teammate, Jake. He looked like more of a nerd than a jock, but he had a hell of a backstroke. “Me and the guys are going to hang out at the reservoir. Why don’t you come?”
           “What’s the reservoir?” I asked.
           “Lake Dormcourt,” said Jake. “It’s a reservoir. You know, a lake that was made by damming up a river.”
           “Oh, duh. Sure. I’ll follow you in my Jeep.”
           “Um, maybe you should ride with me,” said Jake. “Since my car has four-wheel drive.”
           “So does my Jeep.”
           “Yeah, but my car has all-wheel drive. It’s better.”
           “I don’t think so,” I said, “my Jeep is ”¦ uh, sure, fine, whatever. I’ll ride with you.” This was weird. Usually the guys acted like my gayness was somehow contagious, as if that would be terrible if it were true, and now Jake wanted me to ride with him. Maybe Jake is different, I don’t know.
           I followed him to his car, a ten-year-old Volvo. We rolled down the windows and cruised through hills that were sliced open long ago by dynamite. We came to a road where on one side was a cliff wall and on the other side was the calm black waters of the lake. Jake asked, “Do you believe any of the stories about this place?”
           “Which ones?” I asked. “I don’t understand why a lake would be haunted.”
           “It’s supposed to be because of all the people they flooded when they built the dam,” said Jake. “They didn’t want to move.”
           “I don’t know much about history,” I said, “but that doesn’t make much sense. I mean, I’m sure they had time to move as the water was filling up.”
           “True,” said Jake. He turned down a road that ran across the dam. A large, grassy, manmade steep hill taller than a football field sloped down the outside, with one concrete section that fed a river. “But people were pretty messed up back then. The town of Dormcourt used to be part of some strange cult that some people said worshipped demons.”
           I shrugged. “People are still messed up, if you ask me. Have you ever seen anything weird?”
           “Not so much saw,” said Jake, “as I did experience it. I was on the lake with my dad one time. We went fishing on our boat. It was foggy that day, at least, that day for us. It felt like we were only out for a few hours, but when we came to the shore, there were search parties for us. My dad’s watch didn’t change much at all, and I don’t think I was even out there long enough to go to the bathroom, but everyone said we were gone for days.”
           We came to a non-paved parking area. There was just Jake’s car, our teammate Gary’s car, and a pickup truck with an empty boat-carrying wagon. There were tall trees that shaded the entire area. Nailed to one tree was a sign that said the parking area was courtesy of the power company, on another tree was a sign promising heavy fines for littering and warning not to pick any of the protected swamp pinks, and another that showed how to identify invasive zebra mussels. Gary and three more of my teammates, Joe, Nick, and Ken, got out of the car. Gary was a senior like me, while Joe was a junior, Nick a sophomore, and Ken a freshman. Jake and I got out and joined them.
           Between the dirt parking lot and the wooden docks were picnic tables and charcoal grills. No one else but us was there. All of the picnic tables were vandalized with knife carved penises and swastikas. We left the park and walked along a trail that snaked through the woods along the lake. You couldn’t walk the shore for much of the lake because it was either too rocky or too swampish. We walked out of the woods where the trail broke from the land and ran onto a rickety wooden pier that floated just off the shore.
           My muddied reflection in the water stared back at me. I had only swum in the reservoir once, in August just before I started my new school. I knew the water was going to be cold, at least by Southern standards, but the cold water never bothered me. What did bother me was the mud. My mom had dropped me off at a sandy beach the day after we finished moving. It had me thinking the entire lake was going to be just as sandy, but as soon as I swum out, I nearly got stuck in the mud of the lake floor. Apparently, that entire beach was as manmade as the lake, with the sand imported from some place much nicer than the Dormcourt Triangle.
           The guys were being awfully quiet. From time to time, they’d talk about funny things they’ve seen on social media or our history teacher’s quacked conspiracy theories, but for the most part they were quiet. It wasn’t much fun, but at least we were hanging out. Floating out on the water was a boat. There was no one on it. It was driverless, bobbing by itself on the dark water. I pointed to it and said, “It doesn’t look like anybody is on it.”
           Ken waved his hands and shouted “Hello!” but nobody answered.
           “This is bad,” said Jake, “it looks like the lake took another victim.”
           I pulled out my cellphone. It still had service. “I got some bars. I can call the cops.”
           “No,” said Nick. “Let’s not get involved.”
           “I don’t want to do this anymore,” said Jake.
           “What are we doing?” I asked.
           “Nothing,” said Nick. He shivered and zipped up his sweatshirt. “Just, don’t worry about it. Maybe they’re in the cabin or someone didn’t tie it up to the docks right. Let’s just keep going.”
           They continued walking and I followed them. The boat didn’t look big enough to have a cabin. I thought we were just hanging out. Where were we going? The wooden pier section of the trail ended and we walked on land again into the woods. No-see-ums were everywhere, eating every square centimeter of exposed skin.
           We came out of the woods to a cleared, steep, grassy area. It was another section that was damned off by a manmade hill, an earth dam, as our science teacher Mrs. O’Connell called it. There were no-trespassing signs everywhere. A sign read:
Â
DANGER
DO NOT ENTER
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
 “Are we supposed to be here?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Nick. “Your dad and my dad both work for the power company. We won’t get in trouble.”
           “Um, if you say so.”
           We walked down the steep hill towards the bottom where there was a tunnel entrance that was cut out. The tunnel looked ten feet tall and made of concrete. The wall was square while the tunnel was circular, but flatter at the bottom. A stream of water poured out into a gentle flowing rocky creak. The tunnel was dark, and the sun was setting, making it even harder to see inside it. A rusty, metal door that looked in-between prison bars and a castle gate blocked off the tunnel. Rocky ledges almost as tall as me jutted out from both sides. Cold air gushed out of the tunnel and blew into us.
           “Okay boys,” said Nick, “time to earn your place on the team.”
           “What are you talking about?” I asked.
           “We all had to do it,” said Nick. “This tunnel is supposed to, I don’t know, prevent the lake from flooding or something. There’s no blades for power or whatever, it just opens up to the lake. To earn your place on the team, all new members must swim from it to the lake surface. Noah, you just transferred, and Ken’s our freshie, so time to earn your place.”
           I scratched my head. “Um, uhh, back at my old school, we just shaved our heads for initiation.”
           “It sounds fun,” said Ken. “Come on Noah, let’s do it.”
           I looked at the tunnel. It looked like a pain in the ass to get to. We’d either have to climb down the rock ledge or walk around through the stream. The gate didn’t look like it was locked, but the water didn’t look deep enough to swim in. “The water doesn’t look deep enough,” I said. “It looks less than two feet deep.
           “Um, it’s deeper inside,” said Ken.
           I looked at Ken. He had a dumbfounded, guilt-ridden look on his face. “How would you know?” I asked. “Isn’t this your first time too?”
           Gary punched Ken in the shoulder. Ken whimpered and rubbed his arm where Gary punched him. Gary said “His dad used to work for the power company too. Come on, let’s just go. It’ll be fun.”
           We walked down the hill and into the creek. The creek was inches deep, but in-between the ledges, the water was up to our necks. It got shallower in front of the gate, where Gary lifted a latch. The gate swung open with a creak that echoed into the tunnel. I walked inside. The water was up to my knees, but only up to my ankles near the walls. It was freezing inside of it. God knows how cold it’ll be once I have to strip down to my jammers.
           “How long is this tunnel?” I asked.
           There was another echoing creak. I spun around and saw my teammates had slammed the gate shut. All of them, including Ken, were outside and quickly wrapping a chain around the door handle. Gary clicked a padlock onto the chain, locking me in. I grabbed the gate door and tried to pull it open. It only made the chain rattle. I yelled, “What the fuck!”
           “I’m sorry,” said Jake. He had a somber look on his face. “I didn’t want to do this. It wasn’t my idea.”
           “Sorry Noah,” said Gary. He said sorry, but his voice wasn’t sad like Jake’s was, it was layered with anger. “We just can’t have a fag on the team.”
           I pulled at the door. With the locked chain, it wouldn’t open more than an inch. My soaked shoes splashed as I kicked at the gate. “You fucking psycho! Get over yourself. I’m not even attracted to you.”
           “Look Noah,” said Joe, “I don’t care that you’re gay, honest. But you’re making us unpopular at school. People are spreading rumors, saying we’re all gay like you.”
           “So fucking what! They’re just jealous we’re the only team making it to nationals. Which none of y’all would’ve made it if it wasn’t for me.”
           Gary pointed at me. Through the metal bars of the gate, he poked me hard in the chest. “Exactly. You’re overshadowing all of us. You just had to move here at my last year and overshadow me. How the fuck am I supposed to get scouted when you’re next to me?”
           “Are you fucking kidding me? Is that what this is about? That’s chicken shit. I hate to break it to you, Gary, but the more tournaments we make it to, the more opportunities you have to get scouted. Thanks to me y’all have more opportunities to swim and get scouted.”
           “This isn’t up for debate,” said Gary. “You’re lucky we’re being nice to you and not beating you up.”
           I kicked my foot towards Gary’s crotch but my foot was too big to make it through the bars. I stomped in the water. “How the hell is locking me up to rot in here nicer than beating me up?”
           “We’re just going to leave you in here until you agree to quit the team,” said Gary.
           “That’s not happening.”
           “Noah,” said Ken, “can’t you maybe, I don’t know, ask your parents to transfer you to some other school?”
           “No! We’re the only school in the area that’s making it to nationals. Do you want to win or not?”
           Gary growled in anger. “Alright Noah, that’s it. We’re going to leave you here for the night. We’ll be back tomorrow morning. You better agree to quit by then. Come on guys, let’s leave the fag before he butt-rapes us through the bars.”
           I kicked the bars again and again as they left. They walked into the neck deep section between the ledges and swam to the shallow stream. Jake was the last to swim away. He backstroked sloppily from having his clothes on into the pool, looked at me regretfully, and then waddled away into the stream before walking back up the banks of the earth dam.
           I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Shit, I got it wet. I wasn’t even thinking about it when I swam through the deep section of the stream. It was still working. The phone case did its job. The battery was still half full, but it had no bars. Fuck, the stupid tunnel was blocking the signal. I stuck my phone out through the metal bars of the gate and waved it around, but it was still not getting any signal. I dialed 9-1-1. The screen flashed red for a second before saying it was out of service. The sun was setting outside. It grew darker and darker until becoming total nightfall.
           I turned away from the moonlit outside and stared down the pitch black tunnel. On my phone screen, I scrolled through the apps until I found the flashlight app. The light that was normally for taking pictures came on. I walked down the tunnel into the darker recesses.
           The tunnel curved and bended, and before I knew it, the light of the moon and the sounds of the crickets outside were long gone. The only light came from my phone. The splashing of my feet echoed with every step. On the walls, water seeped in through the cracks. The tunnel came to a fork. I didn’t know where either one went. I did eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and went down moe, which happened to be the right tunnel. The water got deeper as I walked, going from my knees to my waist in the center. I huddled closer to the walls where it was still only up to my knees. There, chiseled into the walls, were strange markings.
           The markings were mysterious looking hieroglyphics. They didn’t look Ancient Egyptian or any other language I knew of. They looked alien, straight out of a sci-fi movie. Scary-looking monsters and horned demons were drawn all over. Then I finally found something chiseled into the walls in English:
Â
DAMNED BE THE DEMONS OF DORMCOURT
Â
DAMNED BE THE WITCH MEN AND THEIR BROOD
Â
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD
Â
MAY THIS CURSED VALLEY STAY FOREVER FLOODED BENEATH THIS NEW LAKE
Â
AND THE MONSTERS AND MONSTROSITIES STAY FOREVER SEALED IN THEIR CURSED REALM
Â
           I backed away. My phone slipped out of my hands and I juggled it like a hot potato until finally getting a grip of it again. I had to be more careful. The case might be waterproof, but if I lost it in the water I’d be screwed. I walked deeper down the tunnel.
           There was an eerie, phantom wail that flowed through the stiff air. It sounded almost like the call of a humpback whale. There was no way there could be any whales nearby, not even in the lake, so only God knows what it was. There was an occasional echo of another splash that wasn’t from me. My ears popped, and a low frequency humming entered them.
           The tunnel came to an end at a cavernous chamber with a deep, dark pool in the center. There was a concrete platform along the edges. I climbed onto it and stood out of the water for the first time in what felt like hours. Higher up, my phone lit up more of the cavern. There was another tunnel pouring water into the pool at the back. A drift blew into me from the ceiling.
           I looked up and saw a small concrete tube on the ceiling. It was unreachable. It was probably just built for air flow. I raised my phone up towards it, and a single bar appeared. My phone vibrated in my hand as it exploded with text messages:
Â
Mom: Noah, where are you? Are you staying at a friend’s house tonight?
Dad: Your mother is worried sick. Come home now.
Jake: Where R U? R U in the tunnel? We lied about us swimming out through the other end. UR gonna die come to gate now
Gary: Noah WTF this isn’t funny where RU?
Mom: that’s it I’m calling the cops please be safe
Joe: Oh God Noah the police are investigating I was interrogated I don’t want to go to prison plz come out
Gary: Fine U win OK just come out and tell the cops U got lost. We won’t kick U off the team I promise
Jake: Noah, you have to come out. Please, I am sorry. You are going to miss nationals. You worked so hard for it. Please come out, I’m begging you. We’ve been taking turns waiting outside the gate every day for you.
Â
           Miss nationals? Waiting every day? What was going on? I’ve only been down here a few hours. I checked the date on my phone. I couldn’t believe it. A whole week had passed. My battery was down to one percent. Even if I spaced out, there was no way the battery could have lasted for a week without needing to be recharged. I scrolled through more messages:
Â
Jake: Noah! I told the cops you were in the tunnel. I hope they find you.
Dad: Noah, I hope this message finds you. Your friend told me you were in the South Spillway Tunnel. I went to the police station, but the cops told me the FBI came as soon as they filed the search warrant and stopped them from searching it. The government is now claiming you are dead. I tried to go down there myself, but they wouldn’t let me, even when I told them I work for the power company. Please know that I love you.
Jake: Noah, they’re sealing off the tunnel! This creepy guy who said he was a detective told me you weren’t ”“”
Â
           My phone died. Pitch black darkness took me. The draft from above chilled my face while water from the tunnel at the back continued pouring in. I don’t know what to do. Do I go back where I came? I don’t know if I can believe they would seal off the tunnel, but even if they didn’t how would I go back there with no light? There were different tunnels I could get lost in.
           I walked towards the tunnel that poured water into the pool. I know the guys were lying, but what if I really could swim up through it and to the surface of the lake? It sounded like a suicide mission, but I was one hell of a swimmer. That does it then. I’m doing it. The guys are going to know I had to do it, and then they’ll be so blown away by how good I am for the team, they’ll be sorry they ever locked me in here.
           I stripped down to nothing but my jammers. I climbed into the tunnel. The cold water was like needles poking into my skin. My head bumped into the roof of the tunnel, it was only four feet tall, with water two feet deep. I crawled through it. Something scaly brushed past my shoulder. I continued crawling. At least I still had air, as stale as it was.
           My hands slipped off the concrete tube I was crawling on. I fell face first into a deep pool of water. I swam to the surface and found there was only two feet of air space between the surface and roof. In the darkness, I swam back and forth and found it was half the length of an Olympic swimming pool. My hands ran along the rocky and concrete ledges of the outer rim but I couldn’t find any exit. I swam towards the bottom.
           I swam deeper and deeper and still couldn’t touch the bottom. I could hold my breath really long. I don’t know how long, because no one timed it, and adults were always too scared to let me test it to the limits, but it was definitely a gift. One of the reasons I was such an unbeatable swimmer. I gave up and swam to the surface at top speed. On the surface I swam in an aimless direction through the darkness until I touched a wall. I held onto to the cracks and caught my breath. As I rested, my foot kicked through the wall.
           I bobbed down and with my hands and legs, found there was a water filled tunnel beneath the surface. Maybe it led to the lake. It’d be way too dangerous to swim through it, but fuck it, it might be my only way out. I swam through the tunnel. Swam as fast as I could.
           The tunnel seemed like it never ended. I kept swimming and swimming in total darkness. Most people can’t hold their breath for more than two minutes, and the world record is some mutant who can hold it for over twenty-four minutes. I can only hope I’m just as gifted as him. I grew tired as I swam. I’m not sure how long I had been swimming through the tunnel, because when you hold your breath and swim for as fast as you can, it feels like forever. I’m probably more than half way past my ability, which means there’s no going back now. It looks like I’m going to die down here.
           The darkness was ending. A tunnel of light appeared before me. I swam towards the light. The bright light became blinding until all I saw was a white void. My body was sucked into a tight tunnel that squeezed my skin.
An eternity passed by.
Time felt like it was never ending. I opened my mouth to give up, but water didn’t fill into my mouth.
           Finally, I was ejected from the invisible tight tube. The blinding white glare disappeared. I was underwater again. I was almost out of breath. Above me, I saw threads of sunshine. I swam to the surface and gasped for breath.
           All I could do was breathe. Breathe in and breathe out. Huff and puff. I blinked to spread my eye goo around so I could see more clearly where I was. I was on the surface in daytime, but it didn’t look like Dormcourt Reservoir at all.
           The lake was much smaller. I wasn’t far from the shore. All of the forested, northern mountains that made up the Dormcourt Triangle were replaced with strange, desert-like cliffs and rock formations like you’d find in a state like Utah, but unlike Utah, the rock was green. I swam to a beach made of soft, green sand.
           On land finally, I collapsed on my back. I closed my eyes and panted on the ground. It was a lot sunnier and warmer than it was where the guys left me. I didn’t know where the heck I was or what was going on. My heart started to return to normal. At least I made it out of there. Thank God. Phew. My breathing finally returned to normal. I opened my eyes.
           Standing over me was a scary masked figure. The face was completely hidden behind the mask, including the eyes. I couldn’t tell his sex at first because of his mask and unisex haircut, but I noticed he had a flat chest and an Adam’s apple so I guessed male. He was wearing an old fashioned, Medieval looking type of dress that stopped above his knees. A leather belt was tightened around his waist and carried a small leather purse with leather strings. He wore pants that were the same color as his draped shirt and had shoes that looked more like sacks pulled over his feet.
The mask was scary and creepy looking. It had no mouth. It was mostly white with large, black, glass eyes that had no transparency or even a reflection. Red rune-like lines were painted on the cheeks as whiskers outside an asymmetrical dot where the nose should be. A runic symbol dotted the center of the forehead. Fox or cat ears of the mask jutted out from his crop of dark hair.
           My fear quickly ended. He didn’t look scary or creepy at all. In fact, he looked like a total dork.
           The dorkiest, nerdiest, cringiest dork I had ever seen.
           He walked away from me. I sat up and saw him walk to a tarped wooden wagon that was attached to a single horse. The horse was huge, probably the largest breed there was, while the wagon looked lightweight and simply made. He climbed in and grabbed the reins. He was going to drive away. I jumped to my feet.
           “Hey you! Get back here! I want to talk to you.”
Â
Chapter 2
Â
The masked person let go of the reins and climbed back out of the wagon. He approached me and stood a few inches shorter than me. In a soft-spoken voice, he asked “Why are you wearing that tight breechcloth? It is most queer.”
           “Queer? Fuck off, I’m on the swim team. I just swam out of the lake through this tunnel spillway thing. You’re the one with that stupid cosplay outfit.”
           “You talk very queer too,” he said. “Most queer. What village are you from?”
           “Will you stop saying the word queer like that? I don’t mind that word, but the way you use it is offensive to gay people.”
           “Well stranger, I am sorry to say that I have not been gay for a very long time. Not since my mother was murdered and my father taken by the wraiths.”
           “Uhh, sorry.”
           “Your apology is accepted. If that will be all, I must be going now.” He turned around. Wrapped around the back of his head was a white cloth band that held his mask. His hair was unevenly cut.
           “Wait,” I said. “Hold on. Don’t leave. Who are you?”
           He turned back around. “Voskoboynikov is my family name. I find many people, particularly the blessed ones of Thulthdignagon, often have problems pronouncing it, as I am sure it is very queer to them. So if it does not trouble you, you may call me by my Christian name, Pasha. It’s supposed to be pronounced Paw-sha, but some say Pash-sha. I do not mind either.”
           Maybe English wasn’t his first language, but he didn’t have an accent. “Are you from Russia?”
           “Do you mean to ask if my ancestors were? Yes. Something the townspeople of New Dormcourt won’t let me ever forget. And yours?”
           “The south,” I said. “I grew up mostly in South Carolina.”
           “Ugh,” he gasped in disgust. “The southerners were barbarians. I am so glad we learned of their defeat before this canyon was flooded.”
           “Look,” I said, “I don’t have time for this. I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand most of what you are saying. Can I please just use your phone to call my parents?”
           “Well I am sorry to you too, but I also do not understand most of what you are saying. I have cargo I need to trade. You are welcome to ride with me on my wagon back to the Valley of Thulthdignagon.”
           I rolled my eyes. “Sure. That sounds ”¦ fun.” I climbed into the wagon with him. He grabbed the reins and clicked his tongue, and the horse pulled us. Maybe this old-timey thing would make sense if he was Amish, but he obviously wasn’t, especially with that mask. This kid was a total freaking weirdo. It was hard to tell with his face covered, but if I had to guess, I’d say he was my age. “So, um, Pasha ”¦ oh, I forgot to tell you my name, it’s Noah. That’s um, I guess you called it a Christian name. I’m not Christian, so it’s just my first name. Well, I guess it is a Christian name, but you know what I mean.”
           “Of course you are not Christian,” said Pasha. “Nobody alive today still worships the old god. The new gods guide and protect us all. From great Krstgudgn to the exulted Bszldenumrtu.”
           I rubbed my hands on my forehead. Getting locked in that spillway was way too horrifying for any of this to be a joke, but Pasha was being such a joke it wasn’t even funny. Whoever was enabling this by letting him use this horse should be arrested. “Ugh. Pasha, how old are you? Are you still in high school? Look, I have it bad being outed as gay as it is, but guys like you get their heads flushed down the toilet.”
           “Are you a child of Jruckthokpk?” asked Pasha. He moved his head closer to my face. His mask had black dots above the large black eyes, making it look even more alien. “No, I apologize. You lack the horny hands of a wild man and look well groomed. Perhaps you are a blessed child of Thulthdignagon?”
           “Jesus Christ,” I said. “I take it you’re not popular around here?”
           “Was it the mask that gave it away?” Pasha’s voice was riddled with sarcasm. He sounded serious with everything else he said up to this point.
“About that,” I asked, “why are you wearing it?”
           The dirt road ahead of us was blocked off by a boulder that had fallen off from one of the tower canyon formations. Pasha yanked the right side of the reins and the horse pulled us around it through a brook and back on the road. “Please stop ridiculing me by pretending to be a fool. It is not my fault that I am cursed by Stkullontm. I didn’t choose to have those who see my face be taken by the wraiths.”
           This time I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. If he wasn’t, he was clearly delusional. Given how he was dressed, it wouldn’t be hard to believe. He stared away from me towards the smooth, striped, green canyon walls that surrounded us. I asked, “Is there something wrong with your face?”
           “Obviously,” he said, “I just told you I’m cursed.”
           “Like, do you have a scar, or a birth mark, or ”“”
           “No,” he said. “Please stop pretending to be a fool. I have deep appreciation for being allowed to live despite the fact that I should have been left tied up in the night for the wraiths.”
           “Jeez, looks like someone needs to see counseling.”
           He pulled the reins back and clicked his tongue. The horse stopped. The lake I had swum out of was gone. Around us were plants I had never seen before. There were trees that looked like giant mushrooms and cactuses that were covered in wiggling tentacle-like stems instead of needles. He asked, “Where are you from?”
           “I already told you I grew up in the south. I just moved to Dormcourt.”
           “Then I will take you to New Dormcourt. Perhaps you are a fool or drank too much of the Crossing Waters. Or both, since every sane man knows not to drink from that wretched waste.”
           “What do you mean?” I asked. “So, I’m the fool? Who even still calls someone a fool and not stupid or an idiot? That’s it Pasha, I can’t take this anymore.” I grabbed him by the front of his stupid outfit.
           “What are you doing?”
           “I can’t take any of this stupid Dungeons and Dragons crap!” I shook him. The horse neighed and the wagon rocked. Just as I expected, Pasha was a lot weaker than I was. “You’re going to drop this dorky cosplaying anime comic book bullshit and tell me where I am and what’s going on.”
           “Please. I’ll give you all of my coin and trading goods. Just don’t take the horse because she isn’t mine. In the name of Jruckthokpk, spare me.”
           I growled and shook him again. “No! No Jerk-throckle-pock whatever the fuck. My God, did you have your head shoved into a locker so hard it made you believe your stupid dorky fantasy world is real? Take that stupid mask off.”
           “No! You’ll be cursed by Urukon and get taken by the wraiths.”
           I shoved him into the back of the wagon. The horse stood on its hind legs, neighed, and took off. The wagon soared up and down as the horse ran. I jumped in the back of the wagon and sat on top of him. “That’s it, Pasha, that mask is coming off.” I put my hands on the stupid cat or fox ears of the mask and pulled it.
           “Please no! Please!”
           Beneath the mask, I heard Pasha start crying. I let go. His crying got louder. I crawled off him. There wasn’t much room in the wagon, so I crouched down on a sack that felt like it was filled with clothes. “I’m sorry Pasha.”
           Pasha stayed crying on the floor of the wagon. It went over a bump and I fell over, back on him. “Hey, um, Pasha, the horse is going pretty fast. Could you maybe slow her down?”
           He stayed laying down, crying. Tears dripped from beneath his mask and down his neck.
Great. Just great. I crawled to the front seat of the wagon and grabbed the reins. What the heck was I supposed to do? “Um, horse, slow.” The horse still kept running. I clicked my tongue like Pasha did and it didn’t change anything. The wagon went over another bump and I heard a crack. Crap, the wagon is probably not supposed to be going this fast. I pulled the reins back and the horse slowed down.
           The horse pulled us out of the green rock canyon and into a strange forest. Pasha stayed crying in the back while I stayed in the front in nothing but my jammers. I wondered if I could ask Pasha for some clothes. Even if they’re his stupid Renaissance fair clothes it’d be better than none at all. If it wasn’t for the tarped roof, I’d probably be sunburned by now.
           The landscape around us was so weird, it was like I was on an alien planet. Some of the plants looked normal ”“ spruce trees, birches, maples, ferns, a few swamp pinks here and there. But a lot of the vegetation were plants I had never seen before.
           Then I remembered:
Â
And the monsters and monstrosities stay forever sealed in their cursed realm
The town of Dormcourt used to be part of some strange cult that some people said worshipped demons.
The new gods guide and protect us all. From great Krstgudgn to the exulted Bszldenumrtu
Â
           My heart thudded. I looked around the woods. There was the sound of twigs snapping. A bush that looked like a coral reef wiggled in the distance. A call horned through the canyon that sounded like the dinosaur calls from the movies.
           A chill dripped down my spine. “Um, Pasha, could you please come up front and drive this thing? I’m really sorry I tried to pull your mask off. I won’t ever do it again, I promise.”
           I looked back. Pasha sat up and grabbed a handkerchief. He turned his back to me, wiped the snot that was probably dripping behind his mask, and then turned back to me and crawled up front. He grabbed the reins and we wheeled through the alien woodland.
           We both sat quiet. I didn’t say anything, and Pasha would only occasionally click his tongue for the horse. I didn’t want to say anything that’d make me question reality any more than I already was. There was no way any of this could be some elaborate prank.
           I glanced at Pasha. He was staring at my stomach. “What is it?” I asked.
           Pasha glanced away. “Oh, nothing. My apology. I was just staring at your abdominal muscles. I don’t think I’ve seen lumberjacks who were as toned. You are most attractive.”
           “Um, thanks. I swim a lot.” I looked away and blushed. Great. He’s attracted to me and he’s either a delusional dweeb or a cursed demon worshipper. I wonder which one would be better. Hopefully it’s not the latter. Then again, if I’m still on Earth and he’s both gay and like this, he’s a goner. “Hey, um, do you have any clothes I could wear?”
           “In the back,” he said. “The grey sacks are mine and the tan sacks are the merchandise. You can borrow some of mine.”
           “Thanks.” I crawled to the back of the wagon. I found an outfit that was like his except it was tan in color instead of grey. It looked like something Davey Crocket or Daniel Boone would wear. I put it on. The pants were a bit tight on me but it still fit. It wasn’t the comfiest thing I ever wore but it was better than being in just jammers. I crawled to the front seat. “What’s with this frontier outfit? What’s it called?”
           “It’s a pullover frock. There’s no point in wearing a suit out in the wild. It would be hard to outrun the wraiths.”
           “Do I have to ask what the wraiths are?”
           Pasha pointed ahead of us. “Ah, New Dormcourt approaches. I’ll drop you off. I’m sure your family misses you dearly. Hopefully with their help, you’ll be cured from whatever it is the Crossing Waters have done to you.”
           Our horse-drawn wagon went down the hill. In the valley below us, there was a massive dome of coral that encased the ruins of a large city. Alien birds that looked like flying fish flew in and out of the dome through the countless holes in between the branches. Under the coral bars were multilevel stone structures that had fallen into disarray. Within the ruins of the large city was a large town of human-built wooden houses. The human houses were all Victorian in architecture.
We approached the entrance gate. It was an ugly dam of stones and wooden planks that clogged up what must have been a large gap in the dome, and was definitely built by humans and not whoever built the original city. A guard stood at the gate holding a rifle. He held his hand out and said, “Halt! What business do you bring to New Dormcourt?”
           “I have rescued one of your people,” said Pasha. “He calls himself Noah. I found him scantily clad near the Crossing Waters. He talks very queerly and I fear he may be demented. He must have drank too much of that fowl water. He needs to be returned to his family and nursed back to sanity.”
           “Pasha,” I said, “what the fuck?”
           “Watch your language,” said the guard. “Young man, is that true?”
           “Ugh,” I groaned. “No. You see, I’m on the swim team, that’s why I was just in my jammers. My teammates, um, well, they locked me in the spillway, I think that’s what it’s called, yeah the south spillway of Dormcourt Reservoir. I went through the end and I actually swam all the way to the surface through the tunnel. I know, impressive, what can I say? That’s where Pasha found me, and he acted like he was a demon worshipper from the legends, and ”“”
           “Stop,” said the guard. He held his hand up, “Please, stop.” He turned to Pasha. “Well, I do admit, he does have the look of someone who has been blessed by Thulthdignagon. You’re lucky he’s really daff or I would have you flogged for mockery. I’ll let him in and see if any of the families will own up to him. If not, I’m sure he could at least make a good dung scooper for the stable keeper. Is there anything else?”
           “Yes,” said Pasha, “I bring goods from the ancient peoples.”
           “Sell it at the trading post,” said the guard, “outside of the dome. I don’t want your mask slipping. We try to keep the wraiths out.”
           “Isn’t that what the dome is for?” asked Pasha, his voice inflected with sarcasm.
           The guard smacked him in the back of the head. Pasha yelped and rubbed the back where he was hit. The guard scowled at him and said “Don’t get wise with me. Go back to the other side of the hills where you belong before I have you tied to a post for the night.” The guard turned to me. “You boy, come inside. You might be our newest simpleton but at least you’re not cursed.”
           The gate opened. Inside I could see people dressed in suits and dresses that still looked old fashioned but different from the tunics Pasha and I were wearing. “No,” I said. “I’m, I’m staying with Pasha.”
           “Noah,” said Pasha, “go inside. You’ll be safer from the wraiths under the dome.”
           “Stop it with this wraith crap. Just, just take me to your place.”
           “If you want to stay with this cursed boy you’re more than welcome to,” said the guard. “Krstgudgn knows we don’t need another village idiot.”
           “Noah,” said Pasha, “please. Just go inside.”
           “No,” I said, “I’m already wearing your clothes.”
           “You can pay me back later,” said Pasha, “or not pay me back at all.”
           “Pasha! I made up my mind.”
           “Fine then,” said Pasha. “So be it. If you want to live in the hills with the cursed folk then you shall have it.” He whistled, and the horse pulled us away from the gate and towards mountain slopes covered in alien vegetation.
.
.
.
TO BE CONTINUED
![[-]](https://gayspeak.com/images/duende_v3_local/collapse.png)
Capricorn
![[Image: 51806835273_f5b3daba19_t.jpg]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51806835273_f5b3daba19_t.jpg)
Sagittarius
