Death in Disguise

"Hey Tommy! Tommy! I'm open!" Jason ran the field, the football thrown just out of reach. He fell to the ground, the ball bouncing off into the woods, Craig falling on top of him. "Damn it Tommy, we almost had a fourth down touchdown there."

"Yeah, well game is over anyways- the ball went off into the woods."

"It's just the woods, are you afraid of the leaves and worms?"

"More like, how the hell are we going to find it?"

"C'mon you fags, let's go find the damn thing." Craig was already walking towards the trees.

The two followed into the woods, the trees above with their fall colored leaves not yet bare- still securing the ground from the sunlight. They walked along, crunching the yellow, red, and orange leaves underneath them- some still wet from the rain.

"Hey dumbasses, the ball is right here," Craig said picking up the ball to reveal a hand lying in a pile of leaves. "What the-?"

"What is that?" Jason had come up close to look, but was afraid to get much closer.

"It's a hand, dumbass."

"Shut up Craig. You don't know what it is." Tommy stood back farther than the other boys.

"Then what it is? Huh? Scared as shit back there. You don't know what it is either."

"I know I'm not getting any closer to it. I need to get home anyways." Tommy ran off, leaving Jason and Craig standing there.

"Yeah, Tommy is right- I should go too." Jason began walking backwards a bit.

"And you're just going to leave me here with this thing? We have to see what it is. This could be someone's dead body. What if we found a murderer's victim?"

"Yeah, and what if that murderer is going to kill us right now? It's a hand sticking out of a pile of leaves." Craig picked a stick up, and began poking the hand. "Oh dude, c'mon. This isn't funny."

"It looks so real. It has to be someone's body. I'm gonna move some of the leaves."

"This isn't cool, dude. Let's just call the cops or something."

Craig didn't listen, as he used the stick to move some of the leaves in the pile. As he did, the hand fell to the ground. Maggots began to crawl out of it.

"Oh God," Jason was about to be sick.

"Shit. Let's get the fuck out of here!"

The two ran off, Craig throwing his stick on the ground. They ran out of the woods to the park, out of the park to the street, and down the street to Jason's house. Barging in the front door, all you could hear was their frantic cries for help.

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" Jason yelled as he walked in, hoping to find solitude. But no one was home. He grabbed the phone and quickly hit 9-1-1.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"There's a dead body in the woods and we found it and the hand fell off and there was bugs and please come quick there's a dead body..."

The police arrived soon after, and the two boys lead them to the same point they were before.

"It's right over there officer. You can see the flies buzzing around it." Jason was scared to get closer.

"Did anyone else see this?" the officer asked.

"Our friend Tommy did. But he was scared so he ran off. We thought there might be a murderer or something."

The officer walked off, leaving Jason and Craig standing there alone- both still shivering and breathing heavy.

"You think he's going to do something about it?"

"I don't know, Craig. He's looking at it now."

The sun had gone down now, and only left bits of light scattered here and there. The officer was looking at the leaves with a flashlight- but the boys couldn't see anything besides the flashing light moving around.

The officer came back, and lead the boys out of the woods.

"You boys did a good thing, tonight. It was someone's body, and I'm sure they'll be happy they were found. Let's get you boys home, though- I need to call for backup first and once they come in we'll make sure to get contact with your parents."

The boys sat on a park bench, not saying anything. When their parents showed up, the police spoke with them first. The boys were tired. They were scared. When a news van pulled up, they were even more scared.

"Would you boys like to talk to the news?" an officer asked them.

"No. We want to go home now." Jason muttered.

"In just a bit, let me see if they can't get you down to the station."

"The police station? But we didn't do anything wrong!"

"Can you just give me the boys' names? How old are the boys?" They could hear one of the journalist trying to get answers as the police worked.

"We've yet to talk to them. There has only been a body found, that is all we have to say at this point. There doesn't seem to have been any signs of trouble."

"Was anything found near the scene?"

"No, the body was under a pile of leaves. Nearby was the boys' football. We have investigators at work, and will update you when we have a chance."

The boys were put into a cop car eventually. Their parents were briefed, and met them at the station. Tommy was there too. No one said anything.

As they were walked in, they saw people sitting around in handcuffs. They began to approach a guy who was talking to everyone who walked by.

"Hey kid, kid- listen, you don't understand. That's a kill room! They're going to kill you in there! Gas you like the chambers of World War Two!"

They were all put into rooms. Small. Their parents by their sides. They told what happened. An officer wrote it down. They were set free.

"Hey man, you gotta listen to me! You got out of there but you gotta get me out! They're going to murder me! It's like that body they laid out in the woods! It's all a police cover up! They'll come back and gas you later!"

Jason didn't like what the strange man had said. How had he known about the body?

"You don't think that weird guy was right, do you guys?" Jason said to the other two as they walked down the street the next day.

"What weird guy?" Tommy said.

"That one guy that was yelling at us. He said the police were covering up killing that person."

"Don't be a dumbass, dumbass." Craig kicked a small rock along the sidewalk in front of them.

"He said something about the cops and covering it all up. I'm freaking out about this, guys. What if he was right?"

"What if he was? We don't know shit. You guys were the ones who found the dead body, anyways."

"Yeah, because you ran away like the shithead you are." Craig kicked another rock down the sidewalk.

No one said anything, as they approached the park. A police car sat parked there, crime scene tape around the area still up.

"Hey you kids- are you the ones that saw the body yesterday?" An officer yelled to them as they approached.

"Um, yeah." Craig yelled to them, nervous.

"Why don't you kids come here a minute? I want to talk to you about something."

They reluctantly approached the officer, who stood at the foot of the woods.

"I need to give you kids something."

"Please officer, don't kill us. We didn't do anything. We just found the body, we don't know if you put it there or not. Just don't kill us, please." Tommy broke down in tears.

"Kill you? Kid, I'm not gonna kill you. I was wondering if this was your football. We found it in the woods. Captain said we don't need it as evidence or anything, so you can have it back if you want it."

They all looked at each other, remembering the ball on top of the hand.

"No thanks, officer. You can have it." Jason said.