Trinity

Chapter 1: The Dark

Eva's eyes blinked open, and she immediately wished they hadn't. A sharp, distant ringing filled her ears, and her vision was cloudy and unfocused. Letting out a soft groan, she pushed her hands into the cold, damp dirt beneath her and lifted her chest off he ground before falling once more and catching herself with her elbows.
Licking her lips, she could taste the metallic tang of blood, and she cursed, ignoring the pounding in her head and, with much effort, she swung her legs around her body to sit up. Holding a palm to her throbbing skull, she tried to remember what had happened moments before:
She was driving with her friends: Quinn and Brennan.
They saw these... things in the road. Three figures, their faces hidden.
Quinn jumped. Brennan yelled something. They took a sharp turn.
Looking up, she saw their car. The front was completely caved in on a tree. The passenger door was open in front of her, and she could see the inside of the car. Oh my god...
Immediately sobering up, Eva scrambled to her feet and climbed into the passenger seat. Brennan's head lay against the steering wheel, the airbag deflated beneath him. A thin trickle of blood ran down his forehead from his light brown hair, stopping at his chin. Looking in the back, she saw Quinn, though he seemed largely unharmed. He'd been sitting in the middle seat in the back.
Reaching over, she nudged Quinn's shoulder with her hand, and he jerked awake, his bright green eyes darting around in fear. "Wh- what happened?" He asked, his voice slightly slurred as he held a pale hand up to brush his bright red hair out of his eyes. "There was a crash and..." he shot up. "Who were those people? Are they here?"
Leaning her head out of the car, Eva warily looked around. They'd crashed on a road deep in the woods. It was the middle of the night, and the tightly-packed trees blocked out what little light fell from the thin crescent moon high in the sky. The forest itself was deathly silent— not like a normal forest was at night. The only sound was the faint shifting of the branches above their heads, and the undergrowth around them.
"I don't think so," she finally whispered, hesitant to break the silence. "Just... help me with Brennan."
Quinn let out an alarmed squeak when he realized his friend's condition, and unbuckled his seatbelt, climbing out of the car to the driver's side. Working together, the two managed to pull him out of the car and lay him down on the ground.
"How do we wake them up?" Eva asked quietly, placing her hands on her knees to lean over him.
"I dunno."
"Wasn't your dad a doctor or something?"
Quinn raised an eyebrow. "Just because my dad was a doctor, doesn't mean I am," he huffed.
The two stared at his prone form for a moment before Brennan let out a loud, grating noise, causing them both to jump and jerk their heads towards the forest, expecting something to come hurtling out of the dark.
They waited a beat.
Then another.
"Did they just snore?" Quinn grumbled, slowly crouching down and resting on the backs of his feet.
Eva set her jaw and nodded. "They totally did," she growled. "Asshole. I thought they were concussed."
Pulling her foot back, she kicked him in the side with her combat boots— not enough to hurt him, but certainly enough to wake him up. Brennan's body clenched up and he let out a pained groan. "Ugh... what the heck, Eva..." He groaned.
"Rise and shine," she muttered, leaning back on her hips and throwing a thumb over her shoulder. "Come help me unpack the car. If there were people around here, we can probably find them and get it..." she thought for a moment. "Actually, I think it might be beyond getting towed at this point."
As he sat up, Brennan's eyes went wide when he saw the accident. "Holy shit, are you both alright?" He asked, getting up, his eyes scanning each of their bodies for injuries.
"Miraculously, we're fine," Eva muttered. "I dunno how, though. You on the other hand..." reaching into her jacket, she pulled out a small handkerchief from one of the many pockets she sewed into it's insides. Reaching up, she brushed aside Brennan's light brown hair and gently pressed it to the small cut just beneath his hairline. He let out a short hiss when she pressed down and reached a hand up, but she quickly brushed it away. "Don't touch it," she said softly.
"Guys?" Quinn's alarmed voice rang out from the trunk of the car.
Eva glanced back at him. "What?"
"Our bags are..." he paused and chewed his bottom lip nervously. "They're gone."
"What?" She yelped. Turning to Brennan, she gestured to the handkerchief with her chin. "Hold this."
"But you said not to touch it!" He complained.
"Well now I'm saying you can," she said, taking his arm and guiding it to the cloth. Once he'd taken it, the two of them tromped to the trunk, her combat boots and his sneakers making small shifting noises on the pine needles beneath them.
Looking into the trunk confirmed Quinn's observations. Their three backpacks, along with all of their camping supplies, were nowhere to be found.
"It must've been the people we saw on the road," Quinn said, his voice laced with anger, though, as per usual, his face was largely expressionless. The only sign he was angry besides his voice was the fact that his light eyebrows, which would've been nearly invisible if not for the dark brown eyebrow tint he wore, were slightly furrowed, and his thin lips were slightly curled in a frown. "They robbed us."
"Well, we don't know that," Brennan said.
"Who else would it have been?"
Eva raised a hand, and hissed, "Guys!", and the two quieted. Looking at them both to be sure they had each quieted down, she crossed her arms. "Let's just see what's left, and we can try to make our way up the road from there, okay?"
Brennan nodded, reaching up to tie the handkerchief around his head. "I think I have a small flashlight in the center console," he offered. "Plus I have some twine, and..." he reached into the trunk and pulled the felt covering the bottom of the space off, revealing a small compartment. Opening it, there was simple supplies to change a tire: a car jack, a small wrench, and an extra bag of car screws. Next to that was a small first aid kit that was about the size of a smartphone, with the width of a deck of cards. Lifting up the first aid kit and the wrench, he smiled. "I can use these."
"What are you gonna use a wrench for?"
Brennan shrugged. "Self defense?"
Letting out a short, quiet laugh, Quinn lifted the hem of his large, navy sweatshirt to reveal jean shorts. Reaching into one of it's pockets, he pulled out a Swiss Army knife. "I've got this, and I think my journal and pen are still in the car."
Opening her jacket, Eva sifted through her pockets. "I've got..." she reached into one and pulled out a switchblade with a dark rubber handle. "...this, my pepper spray, and I put my dad's flashlight in the glovebox." Putting her switchblade back where it was, she gestured to the car. "Shall we?"
The three quickly broke apart, grabbing their respective items. Opening the glove box, Eva discovered that Brennan also had a small compass and a map, which she grabbed along with her father's heavy flashlight. It was made out of black metal, the kind security guards had, and could be used as a makeshift club. Weighing it in her hand, Eva nodded to herself and went over to the front of the car. Although it was largely caved in, the right half had dented in an upward slant, and she laid the map across it.
"Do you even know how to read a map?" Quinn asked jokingly, walking up next to her and nudging her shoulder as he leaned over the car.
She stared at the paper for a moment. "It can't be that hard, right?" She placed her index finger on a road running up through a forest. "We're probably somewhere around here, right?"
Brennan's large hand appeared and gently guided her finger down the map to the opposite side. Eva gave him a mockingly annoyed look. "You were close...?" He offered sheepishly.
"If you can't use a map, why don't you just use your phone?" Quinn laughed, pulling out his own and opening a map.
She pursed her lips, annoyed. "I can't, it's—"
"Dead?" Quinn said, grinning smugly at her.
Brennan hid a smile behind the back of his hand, and she rolled her eyes. It was a running joke between the three of them that she never charged her phone, especially in cases where she'd need it, such as this one.
Reaching a hand behind him, she slipped it up he bottom of his sweatshirt and placed it on his back, between his shoulder blades. He yelped sharply, and wriggled away from her reach. "Get out of here with your freaking icy hands of death!" He growled at her, stepping around to hide behind Brennan who happily wrapped an arm around him.
"Revenge is best served... cold!" She quipped, reveling in the ensuing groan from her friends.
Looking down at his phone, Quinn grumbled, "I don't have service."
Brennen pointed to the map with the arm still wrapped around Quinn, accidentally putting him into a headlock, and he let out a strangled yelp. "Oop, sorry!" He apologized quickly, before switching arms. "Over here there's a church. Maybe we can use their phone?" He said, pointing to a nearby emblem marked with a small nine-pointed star that encompassed a six pointed star. In the center of both there was a small triangle.
"Church of the Holy Trinity?" Eva mused, reading the small text above the marker. "That sounds Christian."
"But that star isn't," Quinn said softly. "I haven't seen it before."
"Does it matter? Aren't people in churches always nice?"
"Well, considering I've gotten cussed out of a church for kissing my girlfriend during mass, I can attest to the fact that they aren't always nice," Eva grumbled. "Here's hoping this isn't that kind of church."
"Oh..." Brennan mumbled, crestfallen.
Patting his hand, Quinn gave him a reassuring smile. "Usually they're nice, but there's always assholes," he assured him.
Eva took a final note at the direction they needed to go, and packed up the map, slipping it into a jacket pocket. Holding the compass out in front of them, she pointed into the woods with her flashlight, which she held in her other hand, away from the road. "Okay, we need to go that way."
As she began walking, Brennan reached out and took her hand. Glancing behind her, she found that he'd removed his arm from Quinn and was instead holding his as well, forming a small human train. Smiling slightly to herself, thinking of the "hikes" she and her old friends used to take through the playground in her hometown, she led them into the thick undergrowth.
Her flashlight cut through the inky darkness of the forest, and she felt herself growing steadily grateful to have Brennan holding her hand. She could handle herself fine, but the thought of walking alone in the forest was unnerving. As they walked, the total lack of sound besides the three of their steps became almost deafening. It felt like they were intruding somewhere they shouldn't be.
She was also concerned about the figures in the road. The other two didn't seem all that worried, although she could never really read Quinn and Brennan never seemed worried about anything, but she couldn't take her mind off of them. There were three, and she couldn't quite see them well in the night, despite the car's high beams. They seemed to be in all black clothes with their faces covered by white cloth on which she felt like she remembered a symbol. It was red, but she couldn't quite recall what shape it was in. It freaked her out, especially considering Quinn had suspected them of stealing their luggage.
That meant the three of them had been in their car. And even if they hadn't, someone had.
Eva shivered to herself before pushing aside a branch in front of her. Suddenly, her foot gave way and she let out a short yelp, letting go of Brennan's hand as she fell. She slid down a hill for a bit, biting back a scream, before abruptly reaching flat ground and pitching forward, rolling a short ways and feeling her flashlight roll out of her grasp, it's light bouncing sporadically across the trees above.
"Eva?" She heard Brennan's panicked shout from a ways above her.
"I'm alright!" She whisper-screamed back, picking herself up and dusting herself off, silently cursing at her decision to wear ripped jeans. She could feel cuts and scratches from branches beginning to throb angrily as she walked over to her flashlight. Picking it up, she shined it up at the small cliff until she found her two friends, who immediately shielded their eyes from the pale orange light.
"We'll come down to you!" Brennan shouted down, beginning to quickly pick his way down the slope with the help of a handheld LED flashlight, helping Quinn down behind him.
Taking her gaze off the two of them, Eva inspected the pathway she'd fallen onto. The dirt was certainly well trodden, which was strange considering there weren't any hiking trails around the church on the map. Following the trail ahead of her with her flashlight beam, she saw a tall object sticking out of the ground, followed by more at regular intervals up the path. She walked up to the nearest one, which was only a couple feet away, and inspected it.
It was made out of iron, and about five and a half feet tall. Sitting at the top was a large triangle of twisted wire made out of the same material. The object as a whole seemed quite old, with dark orange rust eating away at it's sides, and the black paint that had seemingly once covered it now only had some small flecks remaining.
Suddenly she saw a light appear around a corner ahead of her, and she instinctively turned off her flashlight, feeling as though she was trespassing somehow. Cursing to herself at the irrationality of turning off her flashlight whilst they were actively seeking help, she was about to turn it on when the first figure rounded a corner.
They wore a black cloak, covering all of their skin, and on their heads they wore a white cloth. On the front of it was a dark red triangle, the edges of whatever sort of paint they'd use to color the cloth dripping down slightly as if it was made from blood.
Shooting a hand to her mouth to cover a gasp, she inched back towards her two friends, filled with an irrational, primal fear. "Brennan, turn your light off, now," she hissed frantically in the dark.
She heard two gasps, and the tiny light above her flicked off. Stepping off the path as quietly as possible, Eva inched her way into the ferns flanking its sides and crouched as low as she could. The people from the road! She thought to herself frantically, watching as two identical figures rounded the corner and continued walking up the path.
They walked single-file, the one in the middle holding a long rod with a triangular lantern hanging from a sharp, serrated hook. It reminded Eva of the fish hooks she'd seen in her dad's largely unused tackle box. They all took each step in unison, though hardly made any sound on the dirt. It was as if they only drifted above the path, the only evidence they had legs at all under their cloaks was a subtle flutter of the black cloth, and the gritty sound of dirt being crushed under their shoes.
As they got closer, Eva began to hear whispering. She couldn't tell if it was one of them or all of them, but from what little of the classes she remembered from high school, she could tell it was Latin.
"Per tres deos, quorum voluntas super omnia est, oremus pro ultimo puero, ut se revelet et animam suam libenter tradat congregationi..." they repeated the words as they walked, one word each step and stopping every three steps to take a breath before continuing their prayer. At the end of the repetition, they waited nine steps— three breaths— before starting again.
Eva counted each step and repetition in her head, the sound of their breath like nails on a chalkboard, piercing through the deathly silence of the forest. Her own breath was out of order of the cultists, and she quickly became aware of how loud it was, and held the top of her shirt to her face in an attempt to muffle the sound.
As the dim, flickering light of the lantern neared her hiding spot, she shrunk into the ferns as much as she could without moving her feet for fear of stepping on some hidden twig or leaf. She pressed the shirt tighter around her mouth as her breathing felt louder and louder, and she became painfully aware of the roaring of blood in her ears, silently praying they couldn't hear the sound of her frantically beating heart through their chanting.
The three figures passed in front of her impossibly slowly. They were close enough for her to touch if reached her arm out through the ferns.
One step.
Two.
Three steps.
Breath.
And the cycle began anew.
The chanting felt like a timer tick-tick-ticking down. They spoke each word rapidly but with perfect diction. She could hear the crisp sound of their tongues hitting the roofs of their mouths after each syllable, and the ragged, almost pained, breaths every three steps. Each word felt like it vibrated in her bones, becoming stronger each step forward.
It felt like eons before the three figures passed them by completely, and Eva was out of the ruddy glow of their lantern. She breathed a sigh of relief, easing back on her legs.
Suddenly she heard a snap from beneath her foot.
Shit.
The three figures halted, their whispers going silent. The ones in the front and the back stepped sharply to their left and right, and the one in the front stepped backwards to form a triangle. The two then pivoted to look in all directions, scanning the woods silently, their breaths now silent.
A sudden shifting sound sounded off from the other side of the pathway, and Eva, along with the three figures, jerked their heads in it's direction. All at once, the figures raised an arm and extended their fingers beneath the cloth. In only the dim light of the lantern, Eva could make out a strange creature sprint towards the noise she'd heard, and with a sharp scrape of metal-on-metal, she saw a myriad of blades flash through the air. There was a sharp shffft, then a cloud of weeds and branches flung up, sliced apart by whatever creature the figures had called. A smattering of them landed in the center of the path, slowly rolling towards where Eva was hiding.  She watched as one bounced closer and closer to her, nearly reaching the edge, before stopping. When she looked back up to where the creature had been, she saw nothing.
The figures reformed into their single file line and continued their chanting, finally disappearing a ways up the path.
The forest was silent once more, even as the dim glow of the lantern faded around another bend in the path. What was that thing? Eva thought frantically, straining her eyes in the darkness for any sign of movement.
She heard shuffling behind her and froze, tensing herself up to prepare to run. She heard whatever it was quickly getting closer and closer, apparently caring little if anyone heard it. Could it be the creature they'd seen? It must've known that whatever made the noise from before had run off.
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Grabbing the person's wrist, Eva yanked them down and struck them with an elbow, eliciting a pained groan as they fell into a heap in front of her.
She raised her flashlight to finish them off, but someone else grabbed her hand. Before she could shout out, the person behind her closed a hand over her mouth and wrapped her in a bear hug. "Eva! It's us!" Brennan's voice whispered in her ear.
Quinn groaned on the ground beneath her, clutching his stomach with both hands as he curled into a tight ball.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" She whispered as Brennan released her, and she leaned down to hoist the small boy up. "I thought you were another one of those... people?"
"They looked like cultists," Quinn grunted, slowly recovering from being elbowed in the stomach.
"How would you know?" Eva joked dryly, her voice shaking slightly. "How many cults have you witnessed?
"None, but I've played Resident Evil 4, and they would've fit in with Los Iluminados well enough," he grumbled. "Albeit a sect that really likes geometry instead of centipede crabs."
"Did you guys see that... that thing that cut up the grass?" Eva asked hesitantly.
Brennan nodded. "It looked like a person," he said. "They had swords." Looking up around at the path, he crossed his arms as if he was cold, despite the fact that Eva knew he always felt warm. "We should go, I don't like this. If we start now, I think we can make it to the nearest town by tomorrow."
"I agree," Eva muttered. "I wonder if we can count that guy with the swords as attempted murder?" She added absentmindedly.
The three of them slowly picked their way up the hill, lighting their way with Brennan's much smaller, LED flashlight. They walked through the woods away from the path as quietly as they could, stopping whenever any of them thought they heard a noise.
As creepy as the "cultists" were, there wasn't exactly a whole lot they could do other than avoid them. They hadn't done anything wrong (yet), and "There wasn't any law out there that said you couldn't be creepy in a forest and warship triangles", as Quinn put it.
When they finally arrived back at the car, Eva's jaw dropped in shock. Thick gouges had appeared in the metal, like some massive creature had run it's claws across the doors and what was left of the hood. Each of the windows had been smashed in, and there were clean stab marks in each of the seats. The headrests had all been cut down the middle, and the tires had all been slashed up.
To her side, she felt Brennan squeeze her hand tightly, and she saw Quinn raise a hand to his mouth in her peripheral. What could've done this?
As if summoned by the thought, she heard a shifting sound in the undergrowth, and a figure stepped out of the woods.