Pinewoods 8: Leo x Mike 5

There are dark secrets hiding in the town of Pinewoods, and Leo and Mike stumble upon an unsettling discovery.

-story focused

The soft breeze rustling through the trees had quickly become a familiar sound, as had the soft huffing of his breath. The steady pounding of his feet against the path throbbed along with his pulse, creating an almost hypnotic effect as he jogged through the sunlit forest. He could almost appreciate why Mike loved this so much. Almost.

Leo slowed down, panting as he hunched over. One hand on his knee, and the other against the rough bark of a tree next to the path. "Mi-- Mike..." His dry tongue ran along his lips as he wheezed out. "Just a moment, please..."

Almost immediately, he felt a strong hand rubbing his back as his running partner and boyfriend--the thought still sent a slight thrill through him, even after all this time together--came up beside him. "Easy babe, just breathe. You need to take a break?" The deer unslung the ratty backpack he was wearing, rifling through it for a few moments and finally pulling out a water bottle to offer to the lizard. "Drink slowly, alright? Don't wanna choke."

"Mmm." Leo accepted the water bottle gratefully, pushing himself off of the tree to instead lean against the larger mammal. He unscrewed the bottle cap and took a slow sip, feeling the cool water slide down his throat. Slowly, the pounding of his pulse began to quiet down, and the harsh wheezing of his breath began to grow slow and steady. "Thank you, Mikey."

"No prob, babe." With a carefree grin, the deer took the water bottle out of his boyfriend's grip and took a long swig from it as well. "You're doing pretty good. I'd say we've made it about half a mile further'n we did Monday."

"Joy and rapture." Despite the lizard's flat tone, his lips quirked upward in a soft smile at his boyfriend's praise.

They stood without talking as sweat on their bodies cooled and heartbeats calmed. The forest around them was at rest. Rays of sunlight striked through the dense foliage and colored small patches of dirt. Every now and then birdsong interrupted the low murmur of traffic in the distance and the rustling of leaves in gentle breeze. There was no one else in sight and it was easy to imagine that the world existed just for the two of them. The forest was rather small copse of deciduous trees and located right next to the campus on a hilly area. Tracks for running and biking had been built around its perimeter, but if one wanted it could be traversed with half an hour of hiking. On its other side it was hemmed in by the highway and the quarry, and beyond those begun the actual wilderness of mountains and pine trees.

The maple trees reminded Leo of a day early on in their relationship, when they had taken a road trip and ended up rolling in leaves. That had been the moment he realized that he loved this man, who had now circled his arms around him and rested his hands on his belly. Leo sighed and did not want to move, even though he could feel their sweaty clothes gluing onto each other.
"Are we gonna see your parents this weekend?" the lizard asked and played with the stag's fingers.
"Sure. Dad told that he's finished varnishing the cupboard and it's ready for transport. And mom's making dinner."


They had found a cupboard on flea market for cheap that fit perfectly in their kitchen between the counter and closet, and restoring it had been a hobby project for Mike and his father.
Leo sighed and looked into the distance without seeing anything. He was only child and his parents had been already in their forties when he had been born. Growing up he had never felt close to them due to their age gap, their interactions defined by stiff formality between two strangers who do not quite understand each other. When he told them that he wanted to major in history they had been unsupportive, preferring him to become a lawyer or doctor instead, and it was one of the reasons why he had chosen to study in such a small college as the Pinewoods one. What the school lacked in prestige it made up in being very budget friendly. Telling them that he was gay would be out of the question, and hiding that part of his life made him less and less willing to stay in touch with his parents. Their relations had grown from distant to downright chillly after he had moved to the town, and it still made him feel both guilty and indistinctly angry.

Mike's parents lived in the town, and during the last year had grown into a de facto family for Leo. They were working class and proud of their handsome son no matter what - and besides Mike's sister had already provided them with grandchildren so they were just happy that he was happy and in a stable relationship.
"Feels good to be here in the nature", Leo said.
"Yup. I used to run on stadium track all the time, but the constant uphills and downhills here are waay better for cardio!"
 "No you dork, I meant the tranquility of untouched nature, the trees, the birds, the effervescent greenery of life itself." Leo waved his hands around to encompass their surroundings.
"Untouched my ass, I can see plastic bags and candy wrappers from right here where we stand." Mike kissed the top of Leo's head. "You stinkybutt nerd."

Leo made a show of pouting and grumbling as he settled in closer to Mike, the buck's warm fur and strong arms wrapping around him like a comfortable blanket. "You're the one who smells like the bottom of a hamper..." He turned slightly to let his snout brush against the buck's chest, breathing in the scent of his boyfriend's sweat soaking through his t-shirt.
"You know you love it, babe." Mike grinned down to the lizard, pressing another kiss to Leo's smooth cranium. It was still a little weird how the reptile didn't really sweat all that much, especially after jogging a mile and a half on a summer afternoon. Still, it was kinda awesome, too.
"I know I love you." Leo flushed, both at how corny the line was and at saying something like that so openly. So freely. Little by little, the buck had coaxed him out of his shell, and he found himself taking the other male's hand or exchanging quick pecks on the cheek with Mike without any reservations. It especially helped that Mike's family was so accepting of their relationship, even if Mike's sister still teased them a bit for still being in that lovey-dovey stage.

"D'aww, love you too, ya nerd." Mike's grin widened as he picked the lizard up, as easy as lifting that cupboard, and spun around with Leo held in his arms.
"Mikey, put me down!" Leo gave the bucks chest a few token strikes, trying and failing to keep in his laughter. "I'm gonna get dizzy, and I won't be able to run the rest of the way! What are you going to do then?"
"Carry you." Mike came to a stop, panting a bit and pressing a kiss to the tip of Leo's snout. "That is, if you think you can't handle jogging a little more."
"I know exactly what you're trying to do, and it won't work." They both knew that was a lie. "Now, put me down so we can continue enjoying nature, you lummox."
"Plastic bags and all." Mike gave Leo a wink, and set the lizard down.

“Wanna get back to jogging?” Mike shook his shoulders and took some running steps in place.
Leo made a face. He felt a sharp twinge somewhere around his liver, and held his side. “Let’s walk for a while instead, okay?”
“Wuss. Pain is just weakness leaving your body.”
“I’m not weak I’m a ferocious dinosaur, rawr! You should fear my fierce reptilian physiology!” He bopped Mike’s shoulder.
Mike grabbed Leo and ran his hands under his shirt to tickle his sides. “I’ll show you fierce physiology!”
They twisted in a tangle of shrieks and laughter as the muscular stag teased the ticklish lizard, struggling to stay standing up as their bodies grinded and lurched.

Eventually Mike gave up, leaving Leo hanging from his neck and pressing his head against his chest. They huffed and chuckled softly in turns.
“Alright, my little thunderlizard wins.”
“Roar that’s damn right!” Leo stood up and kissed the tip of Mike’s snout.
“Let’s take a shortcut through the woods, it’s more interesting that way.”
Leo stepped back and feigned indignation. “You just want to make out with me in the bushes.”
“...maaaaybe?” The stag grinned.
“Not gonna happen, the last time my good shorts ended up ruined.” Leo crossed his arms, then turned towards the thicket of woods tail swaying behind his steps. He looked over his shoulder with a glint in his eye. “Unless I change my mind, of course.”

Leo parted the bushes and saw that the woods continued in a steady incline, boulders and dirt mounds making natural stairway snaking between tree trunks. The ground was covered in gnarled roots and mouldering leaves making their climb treacherous. Mike kept staring at the lizard rump bobbing before his eyes as Leo picked his steps carefully ahead of him. The russet deer admired how those lithe legs turned into taut, shapely buttocks that he had explored in great detail yet would not grow tired of them. The thought of sinking his teeth into that smooth plumpness covered in tough scaly skin made him feel flustered, and he stepped amiss. His foot slipped but he managed to catch himself with his hand. Leo looked around and asked if he was okay, but Mike just waved his worries away with a gruff gesture and blushing.

Eventually they reached the top of the ridge, and they stopped to catch their breath. Most of the view was still blocked by trees, but they could make out little bits of the campus buildings, and the mountains rising majestically on the opposite side of the town. The highway that ran parallel to them looked like a strip of licorice, made tiny by the distance.

“What the heck is that?” Leo said and pointed a little way to their right.
"Hm? What's what?" Mike followed Leo's pointing, seeing what looked like a clearing a short distance away. The two could see a few hints of debris scattered around the remains of a pretty big campfire. "Looks like a campsite or somethin'. Some of the frats take hikes out here for pledges or end-of-the-year parties."
"I see. Did your fraternity do anything like that?" Leo began to make his way over to the clearing, curiosity drawing him onward."
"Nah," Mike answered as he followed. "The prez was really spooked of the woods out here. Something about a camping trip gone wrong back when he was a freshie."
"Mmm, I see. I don't imagine that alcohol, dark woods, and a large fire make for a very good experience." The lizard wrinkled his nose a little bit as he kicked at the ashy remains of the campfire. He couldn't see any beer bottles or plastic cups left behind, which was a relief; at least whoever had been out here knew how to clean up after themselves. "Did he ever say what happened?"
"Nope."
"How very ominous." Leo blinked when he felt his shoe scrape against what felt like stone underneath the dirt and ash.

However, what he found when he pushed aside the ashes with his foot was metal. A mallet head, solid slab of iron with a hole going through it where the handle once was, singed and blackened by the fire.
“Huh, look at that. I wonder what that was used for.” Leo spoke to himself.
“I think for this. Come look!” Mike stood nearby in a patch of ferns and was pushing them aside.

What laid on the ground were remains of cell phones, their cases smashed with a heavy object and then snapped in two, laid discarded under the leaves. Leo could count at least five or six of them, all looking fairly new and expensive.
“What on Earth…” he muttered and turned the pieces in his hands.
“This looks shady as fffheck” - Mike knew that Leo didn't like him swearing - “maybe these were stolen? What do you think babe?”
“I honestly don't know.” He fiddled with the remains of one and pulled it open. “Look, there's the serial number visible here.”
“My friend temps at a phone shop, maybe he can find out who it was sold to if I ask him!”
“Maybe…” Leo had picked up the plastic bag they had seen earlier to collect trash in it, and he started filling it with the phone pieces.

As Leo worked he descended further into the ferns, where he suddenly froze. “What the fuck?” Clothes laid on the ground, hidden from casual sight. Blue faded jeans, a white t-shirt, and ratty sneakers were damp and smudged from exposure to elements, having clearly been there for a while. Mike poked them with a stick but nothing appeared underneath them besides soil and old leaves. “Look.” He pointed at deeper into the woods with his stick, where another strip of clothing hung limply from the branches, and another behind it. Ignoring Leo's protestations the deer strode confidently towards it, pushing the bushes aside with cracking noises as he passed. Leo felt suddenly cold in the pit of his stomach but hurried after his boyfriend.  They followed the trail of discarded clothing from the clearing, and were soon swallowed by the dimness of the dense foliage.

That was how they found their way to the Skull Tree.

The tree in the middle of the opening was dry and long dead. Its bark had sloughed off and the wood underneath had been polished to dull silvery sheen by time. Its trunk ended in a jagged crack somewhere around the midway point, its top part having broken off by storms and eaten up by the woods. Canine skulls size of a fox or a small dog had been nailed into it, here and there with little rhyme or reason to their placing. Each had had their jaws shut by a leather cord being meticulously wrapped around the snout, looping into the nostrils and then coming out of the eye sockets again. The only sound was the faint creaking of trees, the traffic and even wind having been swallowed by the oppressive spirit of the place.

“We shouldn't be here.” Mike whispered wide eyed and touched Leo's shoulder. Leo nodded and the two of them started creeping back slowly like frightened animals, not daring to turn around and run.

A couple days later Mike got a call from his friend. He had identified one of the phones belonging to a local youth that had gone missing nearly two weeks ago.

When Leo heard about that, he insisted they go straight to the police. A quick phone call to the city PD and a few days later, and Leo and Mike found themselves sitting in a dimly lit, stuffy room deep in the bowels of the police station. The clock on the otherwise bare wall ticked with a steady, nearly maddening rhythm as the two waited.

"Babe, should we really be doing this?" Mike had tried to hide his fear behind his usual laid back demeanor, but Leo could easily tell that he had been spooked by their findings in the woods. Leo, too, had been disturbed by the implications; the smashed cell phones, the trail of discarded clothes, the tree covered in skulls like some kind of infernal altar, it all pointed to something very, very bad.

However, alongside the fear, a nagging curiosity had slowly bloomed. He knew that something had happened, and he knew that the question of what exactly it was would dig into his mind like a splinter until some kind of answer came to light. "We can't stay quiet about." Leo tapped his fingers on the worn table, tracing the few places on its surface where the varnish hadn't been entirely worn off. "Mmmf... how long have we been sitting here?"
Mike glanced to the clock. "'Bout ten minutes."
"What is taking them so long?" Leo took in a soft, hissing breath between his clenched teeth, and Mike instinctively flinched; Leo only did that when he was really annoyed. "You'd think the police would be a little more concerned about a missing person's cell phone being found out in the woods near a bunch of--" He was interrupted by the door swinging open. "Ah, finally..."

A male german shepherd in police uniform entered, followed by a female panther in ill-fitting blazer, tube skirt and sensible shoes. She had a laminated detective's badge dangling from her jacket pocket. Without introducing herself she sat at the table opposite to Leo and Mike and scrounged up a crumpled packet of smokes. The wolf dog had stayed by the door and cleared his throat. "Smoking is not allowed here." His baritone voice had a weary edge to it.

The panther tapped out a cigarette and lit it. She inhaled deeply and looked at the two eyes narrowed. "You boys are in a world of fuck." Smoke billowed out as she spoke, punctuating the menace in her low voice.
"I, I don't quite understand-" Leo stammered, taken aback.
"Shut it, pipsqueak." She motioned with here cigarette like a wand, drawing lines of smoke in the air. "Tampering with evidence is a felony. Does that get through to you two numbskulls?"
"Hey! We didn't do anything bad!" Mike tried to stand up, but the dog crossed the room with two steps and shoved him back down, roughly.
"Yea, we were trying to do the right thing!"
"What you two chucklefucks were doing was to complicate my case, and I don't take kindly to that." She snuffed the cigarette against the table and leaned towards them. "You are going to tell me the names of everyone who you've spoken about this, their addresses, their contact information. You're going to keep your traps shut and not speak to anyone else, not press, not friends, not mom or dad or girlfriends or whoever you fuck, understood?" Her voice had slowed from growl to glacial. Leo shied away from eye contact and kept staring at her badge as if it was a shield between him and the gorgon called Mercy Summers.

"Or what?" Mike was defiant, but Leo could hear that he was shaken too.
Mercy pulled back. "Or I will see that you're getting charged with aiding and abetting", she said matter-of-factly.
"I can't believe this! We don't even know what crime you're talking about!"
"Good, let's keep it that way. Names, bucko."
"You can't keep us here. We're not under arrest. We can leave any time we want." Mike crossed his arms.
"Like fuck you do until we say so. Officer Kowalski", she nodded towards the shepherd, "do the thing."

The large dog grabbed Mike's arm and slammed it down, holding it by the wrist and elbow pinning his palm flat against against the desk. Mercy lit another cigarette and hovered it casually over Mike's hand. "Names of your friends. Now."
Leo gasped and hid his mouth behind his hands, frozen and bewildered by the nightmarish turn their situation had taken. This couldn't be happening to them!
"Let me go, you fucking psycho!" Mike struggled in Kowalski's grip, but he may as well have been trying to escape an iron vice. He could actually feel the bones of his forearm creaking in the german shepard's grip as it tightened, keeping him in place and leaving him at his partner's mercy.

"That doesn't sound like any name I've heard before." Mercy leaned in close to Mike, her stony stare driving itself deep into the buck and freezing him in place. He could smell the tobacco on her breath. "I don't have the time or patience to be fucking around with a pair of college brats. Names. Now." The cigarette moved in closer as well, close enough for Mike to feel the heat of it against the back of his hand.


"N-nobody!"


Slowly, Mercy turned her head to pierce Leo with her gaze. The lizard trembled, feeling a cold knot in the pit of his stomach as he looked into the panther's merciless golden eyes. "Say that again."
Leo gulped, his mouth feel dry and his tongue feeling numb as he forced himself to speak up again. "N-nobody. We didn't tell anyone." Technically, it wasn't a lie. When they'd handed the phone over to Mike's friend, all they had told him was that they'd found it in the woods while they were on one of their jogs. They didn't mention anything about the firepit, or the trail of clothes, or the skull tree. In truth, part of them had wanted to believe it hadn't happened, that it was just a nightmare one of them had had after a bad milkshake from the ice cream place across the street from their apartment. Just like this nightmare.

"Do you really think I'm going to believe that?" One of Mercy's brows arched up. "You think I'm that fucking stupid?"
"It's the truth!" Leo's voice cracked as the cigarette in Mercy's fingers inched closer to Mike's hand, and the lizard's voice gained a sharp edge of desperation. "Please, just stop...!"

The ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room after Leo's outburst. The four stood frozen for a long moment, the tension winding tighter and tighter like a spring. Finally, Mercy let out a disgusted sigh and put our cigarette out on the table in the space between Mike's middle and ring finger. "I don't fucking have time for this". Mercy stood, and tossed her cig into a corner of the room before tapping out and lighting up another one. "Here's what you chucklefucks are going to do. You're going to tell me everything, and I mean everything. If I even think you're leaving anything out, your asses will be down in lockup faster than you can say 'big fucking mistake'.” She took a long drag of her cigarette, and jerked her head at Kowalski.

The german shepherd grunted, and finally allowed Mike to shove himself away from the canine. He rubbed at his wrist, feeling the soreness beginning to settle in as he gave the two cops a sullen glare. "Isn't much else to say. "We found that phone out in the woods, looked up the serial number, and realized it belonged to that kid that went missing."
"For your sake, you'd better hope that's all." For the first time since he'd entered the room, Kowalski addressed Leo and Mike directly. His low voice was just as heavy as his gaze as he looked back and forth between the two.

Leo and Mike had nothing more to add and sat in sullen silence. Mercy made a tsch sound and motioned with her thumb. "Get out of here. Stay in town in case we want to ask you more questions, and don't get any bright ideas. Understood?" The boys nodded and scuffled out with officer Kowalski in tow. As they were entering the hallway they could hear Mercy shouting after them. "And don't forget, I know where you live!"

Leo broke down trembling on the steps outside the police station.
"Jesus Christ what was that?" he breathed out in a single world, looking miserable.
Leo hugged him, closing him in his warm embrace and patting his back, but even his touch could not calm the lizard down. "Shh, it's gonna be alright babe" he said in his most soothing voice, but the fear creeping from the edges made him sound hollow and false. It would not be alright, and deep down both of them knew it.

Leo looked up to him with a piercing stare, panic having made his eyes dilated. "We have to get out of here. This town, everything, right now!"
Mike shook his head. "If we leave it'll look suspicious and they will come after us."
"Why!? We're innocent!"
"I know we are, but who's gonna believe us? It's much safer to lay low and hope all of this blows over soon."
"Do you think that's gonna happen? For sure?" Leo looked forlorn, but Mike could feel that his pulse was slowing down.
"I'm here for you. Always." Mike tried to give a reassuring smile, but the cold fist clenching his guts made it come out as a grimace.
"...and I'm for you." The lizard rested his head on Mike's chest and stared at the police station with sideways eyes.
They were not happy, or even safe, but they still had each other.

(END SCENE)