Lights danced in Brandon’s eyes. They were like fireflies floating on a summer wind. He’d momentarily forgotten where he was or how he’d gotten there, knowing only that he’d hit his head somehow. He remembered falling from a metal catwalk, or rather falling with one as it collapsed around him, but that seemed like a long time ago. Too long to explain why his head was hurting him now.
But then the fireflies flew away, and they left in their place the sight of a very large man in a welder’s mask, his tattered clothes splotched with dark blood. And what’s more, the masked man was searching in the shadows for something.
The Bludgeoner. He was picking up his sledgehammer. Coming back over to Brandon to use it.
“No,” Brandon mumbled. “This isn’t right.” Trying to regain his senses, he pushed himself halfway up on his elbows, but even that much movement made his head swim. This was worse than any injury he’d ever received on the football field, and he was a long way’s away from coach’s first aid kit.
Before he could push himself up any further, The Bludgeoner took one step over Brandon’s legs, shocking him into silence. The Bludgeoner stood over him, the eyes behind his mask cold and indifferent as he slid the hammer back and lifted it over his head.
“Wait!” Brandon shouted, realizing with sharp panic he wasn’t ready to die. But the hammer was already dropping, and so Brandon shut his eyes so he wouldn’t see it coming.
BANG!
With a sudden explosion, the weapon flew out of the Bludgeoner’s fingers and slid under one of the factory’s machines, leaving him staring at his empty hands. For the first time, Brandon knew how the psycho felt. He was just as confused, and had to look around for the source of the small explosion.
Off to his left, Roxy stood with her feet planted firmly on the ground. She was holding a shotgun, of all things, a wisp of smoke still trailing from the barrel. Almost stranger than that, a white and brown dog stood at her side, its body locked in attack position as it snarled at The Bludgeoner.
“Remember me?” Roxy asked, then fired the shotgun again.
The shot caught The Bludgeoner in his shoulder, spinning him around and sending him crashing into a large machine press. He made no sound at all as he slid down the machine and fell to the ground.
Brandon was too stunned to move. He stared wide-eyed at The Bludgeoner, then Roxy.
“What are you waiting for?” she shouted.
That was all he needed to snap out of it. Brandon scrambled to his feet and ran, glancing back only to make sure The Bludgeoner wasn’t following, and joined Roxy and her mystery dog.
“Thanks,” he gasped, still wondering where in the hell she’d gotten a shotgun. He had to admit, though, she looked pretty good with it.
“Any time,” she replied with a nod.
“Guys! Over here!” Eric called out, helping Christine and Stu step down from the machine they’d managed to climb up and over. “We need to get out of here right now!”
Roxy and Brandon simultaneously looked back at The Bludgeoner, who was already stirring even as his tattered shoulder dripped blackish blood.
“Jesus Christ with this guy,” Roxy grumbled. “Go ahead, I’ll hold him off.”
“Roxy, no,” Brandon protested, grabbing her arm. “We can’t just leave you.”
“It’s alright. I’ll catch up, I promise.” She glanced again at The Bludgeoner, who was getting up on one knee now. But Brandon was adamant, planting his feet and refusing to move.
“I’m not leaving,” he replied. Roxy was caught off-guard by how much Brandon meant what he was saying, the way he really seemed to care. If she had time to smile in that moment, she just might have.
But there were more important things at hand, like the fact that The Bludgeoner was already on his feet and moving toward them in crooked steps. He was torn up, his body a battlefield of seeping wounds. He was inhuman, she realized, but that didn’t mean he was unstoppable.
“Come on!” she bellowed, raising the shotgun and firing again. “You want more of this?”
The Bludgeoner roared in response, the sound reverberating through the factory like a thunderclap. It was the first time they’d heard him make a sound, and everyone was shocked silent, even Eric, Stu and Christine, who were halfway to the exit door.
Taking advantage of Roxy’s shock, The Bludgeoner lunged at her with his weapon, swinging it sideways at her with a great whoosh of air. But Roxy was quicker. She dodged the attack, stepping aside to let it pass right by. It was so close she felt the breeze on her face.
Just as she was about to bring up the shotgun once more, he struck again.
“Rox!” Brandon shouted, stepping into the way just as The Bludgeoner retaliated with a swift, brutal swipe of his weapon. It caught Brandon in his side, shattering his ribcage and sending a thousand bone shards exploding into his lungs and heart.
“No!” Roxy screamed, her heart dropping into her stomach as she watched him crumple to the ground. Somewhere in the distance, she heard the others crying and screaming. She tried to tell herself that he would be okay, that someone as strong as Brandon could survive a hit like that, but she knew she was only lying to herself. The Bludgeoner had hit him with such force that he had to be pulverized on the inside.
Roxy’s face turned from horror to pure rage as she turned to The Bludgeoner and raised her shotgun.
“Take this, you fucking asshole,” she hissed, pulling the trigger. The shotgun fired once, then again, hitting the bastard both times directly in the chest. She squeezed the trigger a third time, but it only elicited the click of an empty gun.
And yet, The Bludgeoner was still moving. Dark blood poured down the front of him as he took an unbalanced step toward her. She took some small satisfaction in the pained way he moved.
“Run,” Brandon gasped at her from the floor, pain etched across his face. “Get … out of here.”
With one last glance at the dying boy who had once been her childhood friend, Roxy turned and fled toward the exit, her vision blurred by tears. Brandon’s sacrifice would not be in vain–she would make sure of that.
Roxy burst through the doors of the factory, lungs burning and eyes stinging, followed closely by Buck. The others waited just ahead of her, resting against a pile of discarded rocks and scrap metal, their faces pale with shock at the brutal scene they had just witnessed.
“Brandon … he’s gone,” Stu said, tears streaking his dirt-smeared face. Roxy joined them, her shoulders sunken in.
“Why did I bother coming back? I couldn’t even save him,” she said, feeling defeated.
“At least he knows you tried,” Christine offered. Roxy tried to take that in, to think that somehow made things better, but just then she couldn’t see it.
“Where’d you get the gun?” Eric asked. Roxy looked down at the now useless shotgun in her hands. Maybe it had been useless all along.
“I found Harry’s cabin. From the looks of it, he hasn’t been home in days. Maybe that psycho got to him.” She dropped the shotgun into the dirt and gave it a kick. Suddenly she realized Buck was growling at the others, the fur on his back bristled and raised. “It’s alright, Buck. They’re my friends,” she reassured him, but he didn’t stop growling.
“We’d better get out of here,” Eric suggested, nervously eyeing the factory’s door. But then Stu pointed to Eric’s right hip, just above his pants pocket.
“Dude, you’re bleeding,” he said, concerned. Eric checked himself quickly, feeling around.
“It’s not mine,” he replied with relief.
Buck’s growls turned to barks as he backed away from all four of them, baring his teeth. Roxy was about to ask what had gotten into him when she heard the factory door opening behind her.
The Bludgeoner emerged from the shadows like a monstrous apparition, his hulking form silhouetted against the crumbling factory. Even though his face was hidden behind a mask spattered with blood and grime, his cold, unfeeling eyes bore into them all the same.
Christine cried out at the sight of his weapon dripping with fresh blood; a souvenir of the carnage he’d wrought upon their friend. Buck continued barking viciously, ready to pounce.
“Stay back!” Roxy ordered Buck. She looked at the others, her eyes filled with fire. “I don’t know about you guys, but I say this ends tonight. We can’t let him take anyone else.”
“Rox is right,” Stu said, taking a deep breath. “We have to bring him down.”
As The Bludgeoner took step after menacing step toward them, the four teens steeled themselves for the brutal confrontation. Stu looked around desperately for anything he could use. His eyes fell on the pile of rocks and scrap metal they’d been resting on, particularly a length of twisted pipe that ended in a jagged tip. He grabbed the pipe halfway down and pulled hard, trying with all his strength to free it from where it connected to a larger hunk of metal. It was close to snapping, but it wouldn’t give.
He was about to give up when Christine joined him, the two of them giving it everything they had.
“He’s getting closer,” Eric warned. “We need to distract him.”
“How are we gonna do that?” Roxy asked.
Surprising everyone, Eric darted forward, his sneakers pounding the damp earth as he circled The Bludgeoner. “Over here, you freak!” Eric taunted, bending down and scooping up fistfuls of dirt to hurl at him. The Bludgeoner swung his bludgeon at Eric in a wide arc, trying but failing to connect.
“Holy crap, it’s working,” Roxy said. She turned back just in time to see Stu and Christine free the jagged pipe with one, final pull. Stu held it up like it was Excalibur itself, his face a picture of determination.
“This asshole is about to regret ever meeting us,” he said through tightened lips. Before anyone else could volunteer for the job, Stu ran at The Bludgeoner while he was still distracted, wielding the weapon. He let out a warrior’s cry as he reared back and ran the jagged end of the pipe into The Bludgeoner’s side, piercing it deep.
The Bludgeoner let out an inhuman scream of pain that echoed through the darkened woods. Christine couldn’t believe her eyes. Stu had managed to bury the jagged end of the pipe so deep into that monster’s side, she was surprised not to see it coming out the other side. But her brief moment of happiness quickly turned to terror as The Bludgeoner pulled it free.
“Stu, watch out!” Christine screamed, but it was too late. The Bludgeoner swung his weapon up into the air and then brought it crashing down. It connected with Stu’s skull with a sickening crunch, the impact so hard the bludgeon’s handle cracked.
Blood and bone erupted from the impact, Stu’s face deforming as his lifeless body crumpled to the ground like a discarded rag doll.
The sound that same from Christine was inhuman, like nothing she’d ever made before. It was horror mixed with intense rage. Even her friends, having just witnessed Stu’s violent end, were momentarily afraid of her.
Still screaming, Christine ran directly at The Bludgeoner, her eyes burning, and leapt on his back. The others stood in shock as she wrapped her arm around his thick neck in a chokehold and squeezed like she meant to rip his head off.
As The Bludgeoner struggled to reach back and grab her, his mask came loose at the edges, lifting up to reveal brief glimpses of rotten flesh. Even in her rage, Christine noticed. She pulled it free, wanting to finally unmask the killer, to expose him to the world.
The mask fell to the ground, revealing a hideous face that was little more than skull wrapped in muscle. The others were horrified, but Christine was unfazed.
“Finish him!” she screamed, her eyes locked on Roxy and Eric. They were shaken into action. Eric ran to them and picked up the twisted pipe Stu had died holding.
“For Stu,” he said as he swung the pipe. It met The Bludgeoner’s knee with a sickening crack. He dropped to his knees, his muscle-and-bone face writhing in pain. And yet Christine held on, continuing to choke him with all her strength.
Roxy moved in quickly, grabbing the bludgeon’s handle where it had broken from the blow it delivered to Stu. She snapped it free, then rushed forward and plunged it deep into The Bludgeoner’s chest, eliciting a monstrous howl from his sinewy mouth.
“Go to hell, you bastard,” Christine growled between clenched teeth, tightening her grip on his throat. Roxy drove the broken handle in deeper and deeper, straight into his blackened heart. The Bludgeoner let out a bloody gurgle, his veiny eyes shaking in his skull. Then, with one last sputter, he finally stopped struggling.
Christine released her grip on The Bludgeoner’s throat and stumbled backward. Her chest heaved, sweat dripping down her face. Christine and Eric stood there as well, their breaths ragged, eyes wide with shock, watching The Bludgeoner down on his knees, not moving. Finally, he collapsed to the ground and went still.
“Is … is he dead?” Christine whispered, her voice trembling. She stared at the lifeless body of the monster who had claimed the lives of so many friends, including Stu, the boy she thought she would spend her days with.
Eric approached The Bludgeoner’s body carefully and poked its side with the broken pipe, but it didn’t move. He gave it a good thwack. Still nothing.
“We did it,” Eric said, dropping the pipe. He stepped closer to Christine and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We stopped him.” Christine burst into tears, hardly able to believe their ordeal was over.
A flood of emotions washed over Roxy as she looked at her friends. They were battered, bruised, and covered in dirt and blood. But they were alive. So was Buck, who had stayed back as she’d commanded.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” she said.
Christine said her goodbyes to Stu, promising they’d come back with help and make sure he and all the others got the burials they deserved. Just the thought of telling his parents what had happened filled her with an intense anxiety. And yet they deserved to know what had happened there that night. Not only that, but to know that their son’s killer had met an even more gruesome end.
Christine, Roxy, and Eric walked away from the factory together, followed by Buck, who still kept his distance. Eric only glanced back at the Bludgeoner’s corpse once before they walked into the woods and out of sight.
If you’re enjoying Bludgeoner, let me know with a like, comment, or restack!
And if you haven’t already, subscribe for free to make sure you never miss an episode.
Suggested listening: