"The Hedge"

“The Hedge”

By Cody Williams

 

1.

            As the rays of sunlight peaked through the blinds, Frank Watkins opened his eyes. He looked over at the alarm clock with the green digital numbers reading 9:10. Frank yawned and stretched out his back and then sat up in his bed. He was wearing a white sleeveless under shirt and a pair of boxer sorts with blue and white vertical strips. Frank slipped on the pair of light blue flip-flops that he always had sitting by his bedside, and stood up from the bed. He reached over to the pair of blue jeans that were lying on the chair across from him and sat back down on the bed. Frank took the flip flops back off, sat them to the side, and slipped on the jeans.

            Frank pulled the pants up around his waist and buttoned them. He slipped on his pair of work boots and then walked over to the window and glanced out of it. The sky was blue without a cloud in sight.

            “A perfect day to mow the lawn!” Frank said with a smile. He loved to do yard work. He backed away from the window and walked out of the bedroom. Frank walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. He walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of Dasani water and shut it, and walked out of the side door into the garage.

            The smell of gasoline lingered in the air once he entered the garage. But it didn’t bother him. Not at all. Frank turned to his left to face the garage door. He reached over to white wooden table beside and grabbed a small black remote control. He pressed the blue button at the top of it and the white garage door slowly began to rise.

            Frank turned his back to the door and walked over to grab the Craftsman lawn mower. He knelt down beside it and grabbed the gasoline container. Frank quickly unscrewed the cap that was over the gas tank and tossed onto the concrete floor. He happily whistled the Andy Griffith Show theme as he poured the gas into the fuel tank of the lawnmower and placed the red gas container back down beside it. Frank picked the cap back up off of the concrete floor and screwed it back on.

            Frank could no longer hear the sound of the rising door but he noticed that the burst of sunlight that he expected to light up the room was not there. He stood up and turned around. There was something that wasn’t there before. He knew it wasn’t there. Sitting there where the driveway used to be was a large hedge.

 

2.

            The hedge was at least nine feet tall at the very best Frank could tell. He slowly walked out of the garage and up to the hedge. Frank looked over to his left to see how far down the hedge ran. It ran about 200 feet from where he was standing. He looked over to his right. That was another 100 feet.

            “I’ll be damned!” Frank said. He turned to his right while never taking his eye off of the hedge. He walked the 100 feet and turned to corner to see that the hedge continued to the end of his driveway but stopped before getting to the road.

            ‘I wonder.’ He thought to himself as he walked down to the end of his yard next to the road and peeked around the corner. The hedge did the same and extended the three hundred feet that the other side did.

            “Jimmy! I better call Jimmy! He’ll know what to do!” Frank said as turned again to face the garage and walked back inside. Jimmy was his only son. Frank just saw him the day before. It was Jimmy’s 20^th birthday.

 

3.

            Frank scrambled back into the house and over to the cordless phone that sat on the counter in the kitchen. He dialed Jimmy’s number and pressed the phone against his ear. Frank bit his bottom lip as he eagerly waited for Jimmy to pick up the other end of the line. After the phone rang three times, Frank could hear his son’s voice on the other end.

            “Hello?” His son said.

            “Jimmy! Look, I need you to come over.” Frank said eagerly.

            “Why? Is there something wrong?” Jimmy asked. Frank sighed and looked out the front window at the hedge.

            “No. Well, I don’t know. I just need you to come over. There’s something I think you might want to see.” Frank explained. There was nothing on the other end of the line for a moment. Frank could hear his son sigh.

            “Fine. I’ll be over there in a minute.” He told him.

            “Great. But, when you get here, don’t park in the driveway. Park on the side of the street.” Frank warned his son as he continued to gaze at the hedge.

            “Why?” Jimmy asked his dad.

            “You’ll see when you get down here. Just hurry!” Frank said. The line went silent once more before Jimmy finally sighed again and replied.

            “Fine.” Jimmy said as he hung up the phone. Frank placed the phone back into its receiver and turned to face the door again.

            ‘I couldn’t possibly tell him what it really was. He would think I was f*****g crazy’. Frank thought to himself. He stood there for a moment and a day dreamlike state. ‘I better go outside and wait on him!’ Frank thought. He walked over to the refrigerator beside the door and opened it. He got out a can of Pepsi and walked out the door back into the garage.

            Frank looked to his left to make sure that the hedge was still there and he didn’t just imagine it. It was and he didn’t. Frank, with the Pepsi in his hand, slowly walked out of the garage and over to the street corner beside the hedge to wait for his son to arrive.

 

4.

            Jimmy quickly drove down the street where his dad was and forced his cherry red mustang convertible into park. He had black hair that combed back and neatly groomed goatee of the same color. Jim pushed the sunglasses that were over his eyes up onto his forehead.

            “What the hell is that?” Jimmy asked as he looked at the hedge. He stood up, jumped over the door of his convertible, and walked over to the hedge. “How long has this been here? It wasn’t here when I was here last night!” Jim stated. Frank sat his now empty can of Pepsi down and stomped on it to crush it. He looked back up at his son and shrugged.

            “I don’t know. It was there when I got up this morning.” Frank stated. Jimmy looked around.

            “How long would you say it is?” Jimmy asked.

            “About 300 feet.” Frank replied.

            “It looks like it’s about nine feet tall.” Jim said as he looked up.

            “Yeah, at least.” His father agreed.  The two of them stood in silence for a moment. Jim looked inside between branches to see if he could see something with in them.

            “Hey dad! It looks like there is a little bit of room in there. Like the hedge is just boxing something off. Like it is hollow.” Jim said. He stood there for a moment more and looked over to his dad. “I’m going to go in.” He stated. Jim moved the braches aside creating a slot for him to slip through. Before he could go in, Frank grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away.

            “Are you crazy? You can’t go in there!” Frank said. Jimmy could tell by the look on his face that he was worried.

            “Don’t be silly!” James said as he shook himself lose and entered through the bush. Everything was quiet for a moment. Frank stood there and watched waiting for a sound. Any sound.

            “Do you see anything?” Frank called out hoping for an answer.

            “No I…” Jim began. Everything was silent for a moment. Something on the other side of that hedge let out a deep growl and bush began to shake.

            “Jimmy!” Frank shouted as he could hear the terrified screams of his son. The screams stopped and so did the movement in the hedge. Frank stood there for a moment in silence. “Jimmy!” He called out again. There was no answer. “Jimmy!” Frank shouted out again. He stood there for a moment more and then Jimmy rushed out of the hedge.

            Jimmy was breathing heavy. The white button up shirt he was wearing was now untucked from his pants and his hair was a mess. There was a gooey black substance on his shirt. Jim’s legs slowly gave out and he sat down on the curb with his back to the hedge.

            “What was it Jimmy? What did you see in there?” Frank asked him as he knelt down beside of his son and placed a hand on his shoulder.

            “I…I…I saw.” Jim started. He was shaking all over which was understandable.

            “What? What was it Jimmy?” He asked him again.

            “I...I…” He tried again. Before he could finish and long black tentacle arose from the hedge and swung at Jim’s head. Jim’s head tumbled off of his shoulders onto the ground beside Frank. Jim’s blood splattered onto Frank’s face.

            “Jim!” Frank shouted again with fear. The tentacle reached through the hedge again and wrapped itself around what was left Jim’s body and began to pull it into the hedge. “No!” Frank shouted. He reached out and grabbed his son’s body by the arm and began to pull him back towards him. The tentacle pulled back before finally letting go of the body. Frank pulled the body of his son close to him and embraced it.

            “Jim! I’m so sorry!” Frank said as tears began to roll down his face. The tentacle emerged for a final time and wrapped itself around both of them. Frank could fell slimy tentacle squeeze his arm.

            “No! No! No!” Frank shouted as the tentacle pulled the both of them into the hedge. Frank shouted out with one last cry of fear as the creature let out one final roar.

Copyright 2014 by Cody Williams
Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS
A division of TTP Entertainment

Author's Note

A Lovecraftian Horror tale. I hope you all like it. I actually go the idea when I was mowing the lawn. There's a field down below my house. The owner of the property hasn't mowed it in a while and hedge like plant sprouted from the ground. I remember thinking "where the hell did that come from" and then "I wonder what's on the other side?". That's where this story came from.

Thanks for reading. I hope you all like it. Reviews and comments are welcome as always.

-CW

Reviews

[D. M. Anderson]

The idea is a good one, though the action throughout seemed almost technical in its descriptions. Every motion and action is written in detail, including actions that could have been glossed over in order to get the character to the source of the plot.
My only real beef with the story is that it spends so much time going into detail on the mundane morning activities of Frank and then barely describes the hedge and the tentacle creature. Make us fear that hedge. Make us recoil in disgust and horror from the monster. Spend more time on the confrontation between Frank, Jimmy and the hedge/creature. With the right kind of description, you could make the hedge into an antagonist even before the creature attacks Jimmy.
There's a good story here. Just needs more flavor.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading! I'll go back to it and take another look!

-CW

[5924]

this is amazing, your stories come from such simple ideas. it takes me ages to think of something

[Cody Williams]

Wow! Thanks for reading!

-CW

[dw817]

Now THIS is great, Cody ! I like this story.
It's ⊰ƑƛƔƠƦƖƬЄƊ⊱
Definitely interesting and I could see it all play out like a short and professionally produced movie.
Very well done ! You might be interested in watching the movie, THE MIST, which has a similar principle.

[Cody Williams]

I love that move! Darabont is a great director. Thanks for reading DW!

-CW

[Tania]

such an interesting and captivating writing .. great job :)

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading!

-CW

[potato]

It was very good. This was interesting to read. The only thing that I would say is that at one point, he calls his son James,instead of Jimmy. But other than that,it was great.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading!

-CW

[NoelHC]

It is a bizarre tale, I have a neighbor that has huge weeds between our houses, they are always spreading onto my yard. I can see where this story came from, for sure.
Lots of little problems as noted below.

First paragraph he puts on his flip flops, pulled his jeans over them, which is not easy to do, and then put on his work boots over them. Huh??? Skip the flip flops.

“A perfect day to mow the lawn!” It appears those boots were made for walking, as he "walked" 4 times in the paragraph.

he pored the gas "poured"

The description of his steps in filling the lawn mower seemed to be too much detail for a simple action everyone knows. Are you trying to reach a certain word count?

and peaked around the corner. "peeked"

The line "went" silent once

over his eyes up and on his forehead. Drop the "and"

bush began to spasm. Maybe "shake" instead

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Noel. I think I fixed it all. Thanks for your feedback. It's much appreciated!read moreThanks for reading Noel. I think I fixed it all. Thanks for your feedback. It's much appreciated!

-CW

[NoelHC]

Frank still put on flip flops, then pulled on jeans (hard to do that), and THEN put his workboots on without ever ditching the flip flops. : )
You cleaned up the easy stuff, but some of the other points remain to be done.

[Cody Williams]

I see. Okay, I'll take care of it as soon an I finish my lunch.

[NoelHC]

In my "real" I read hundreds of pages of technical specifications every day, looking for discrepancies that the engineers that issued it have missed. One learns to have a critical eye for those sorts of errors. Catching those errors after writing is something that every aspiring author needs to learn to do. On WC many reviewers will let them go by, but I think an editor at a publisher will reject a piece with a lot of mistakes. My advice on your writing is intended with that in mind. It is tedious work, and takes a lot of time to point them out. Readers appreciate a story that is easy to read.

[Dayran]

I'm always incredibly relieved when someone else is able to affirm what I saw. But a son ... I dunno ... they tend to go with what the old man wants ... not realizing that its important to be absolutely himself ... in the way he expresses himself. The son saw the same hedge? ... that grew out of nowhere? ... no wonder the father is in trouble. Nice ...

[Cody Williams]

thanks for reading Dayran!

-CW