The scent of pines

The light was too harsh and too white when I entered the filming set. A woman pointed at a chair in front of a camera and told me to sit. I could barely hear her. I pulled my papers out of my breast pocket, where I had carefully tucked them in. Someone told me to start so I started. I could hear my voice tremble as I read my text.

“My name is Oscar Bailey. I was born in 1969 in the state of New Jersey.” I took a deep breath before looking at my paper again.

“Christmas trees are forbidden in my house. I hate the scent of pine trees and anything that could resemble it. When I was younger, I went to a school that was in the middle of a forest, with pine trees everywhere in sight.

The smell of it immediately takes me back to the years I spent there.

The first few years were nice, even peaceful.

Since we only got back home for the holidays and that school did not want us to just stay in bed and rot on weekends, we were highly encouraged to enrol in clubs and other activities that were available on the school campus.

There was a hiking club, a Dungeon and Dragon club, a writing club, a hockey club, and so on.

I had set my choice on the filmmaking club. The members soon became close friends and the club turned into us hanging out with a camera and laughing while writing our scripts.

It became close to impossible to integrate any new members but we did not mind.

There were five of us. Oliver Johnson, Otis Campbell, the twins Isaac and June Hall, and me.

We were almost finished with school when It happened.

One night, in October 1987, a student, Edmund Corcan was found in the woods. His friends had seen him during dinner and a hunter found him the next morning, before the sun even rose.

He couldn’t have walked all the way there during the night. I then saw some pictures that were published in the newspaper that day - school forbids them, judging that seeing it would only panic us more - and his clothes were ripped apart around his shoulders. His shoulders had been butchered by something that simply could not be human. The pictures did not show the rest of his body, his stomach and legs were out of the frame.

The authorities assumed that the thing that dragged him all the way there had taken a hold on his shoulders.

The curious thing is that his face was intact. He was perfectly recognizable.

I did not know him personally, nor did my friends. He was one of the athletes. One of the people who had chosen the school for its uncommon hiking and skiing classes.

My parents sent me there because of my asthma. They assumed the mountain air would be better for me than the one I was breathing in the city.

A lot of people were there for similar reasons.

All my friends included, except Otis. His dad wanted him to become a runner. He pretended to take extra running classes when he was in fact spending time with us.

He was the most talented of us. He was always finding the best shot and the best light, he also excelled at editing.

I don’t think he ever picked up a camera again after It happened.

Anyway, when we learned about Edmund, we got the day off, and the teachers had to decide how to deal with the situation. But gossip goes quickly in those kinds of places. Imagine locking 300 teenagers in an isolated place and imagining that you can keep a secret from them.

We all heard a bunch of different stories, each one stupider than the previous one.

My friend and I naturally decided to investigate.

We liked to go swimming in the lake at night when the weather allowed it, so even if going out of the building was forbidden we knew how to sneak easily.

It was even easier due to the general business that had set around the whole school.

After dinner, with our smallest camcorder and bags full of different supplies, we reunited at the hole we had found in the fence during our first year.

The night hadn’t set yet so we found our way to the path with ease. It was all covered with yellow tape. Once again, how did they think that would be enough to stop stupid teenagers?

We quickly passed them, careful not to rip them.

I checked my pockets one last time. My inhaler, a cereal bar, a torch and a whistle just in case we got lost. Which was very unlikely, we knew those woods like our pocket, and it was impossible not to after 6 years.

We went down the path, we felt like adventurers. Action and investigation movies were always our first choices during “film studies night” (we called them that but they were just an excuse to spend the evening together watching movies and eating popcorn).

The torches soon became useful, the sun was declining rapidly and the pines were so tall that it quickly became too dark to see.

We kept walking for an hour or so. We were chatting quietly, almost whispering and were filming everything that seemed “suspicious” to our overexcited teenage minds.

Then we smelled the scent. It was metallic, kind of like iron and sweet. Very sweet, yes, very sickening too. It was mixed with the smell of the pine trees around us.

We did not notice it at first, it came gradually but once it settled, it did not leave our nostrils. We could not smell anything else, we tried putting our shirts in front of our nose but nothing could stop the smell from flooding our senses.

Suffocating. There is no other word that can describe the way we felt at that moment.

June’s torch started to flicker, the batteries were new. Isaac switched his flashlight with hers. We gathered and formed some sort of circle, trying not to panic. We discussed the next move, Oliver and June were creeped out and wanted to go back to school. Isaac and I were trying to convince them to keep going. Otis was never really part of this kind of conversation, he too was scared of offending part of the group.

While June and I were arguing, Isaac shook my shoulder.

‘What?’ I barked, digging in my pocket to get my inhaler, thinking it could maybe help with my laboured breath.

As I was taking my puff, Isaac pointed his flashlight to a stream that we knew was running there. We had seen it thousands of times before. It was a normal stream. But that night, for whatever reasons, the water was a deep rich red.

Blood Red.”

I had to pause and take a breath, it was starting to be hard to breathe. I heard my paper falling on the floor and someone offering me a glass of water. It was like I was underwater, every noise around me was muffled. I closed my eyes and tried ignoring the hissing sound in my lungs, characteristic of an asthma attack.

I looked into the camera again.

“We started going back to the school, as quietly as possible. I don’t know how we stayed so calm. We formed a line and Isaac insisted on being the last one, making sure everyone followed well. At some point, we heard a branch crack, well above our heads. A second later, I felt the air behind me shift. And when I turned around, Isaac was gone. Un.. Unlike Edmund, we never found him again.

I don’t really remember anything about what happened after, just that they found us near the edge of the wood in the morning.

They sent us back home. We tried to stay in touch at first but I haven’t actually heard any news from them in years now.”

I swallowed and looked at the woman. “I’m done.” She nodded and thanked me, telling me that they would contact me again if they had any questions. She then led me to the exit.