This story is part 5 of The Pine Creek Murders, a 6 part series that started in The Girl In The House
David Webb swore to himself. They were lost. Their romantic weekend getaway ha started out bad, and it had only gotten worse. After a late start, He tried to make up some time by taking a back road through the Pine Barrens. Then his car broke down. With no cell phone signal, their only choice was to walk back to town. And the fastest way to do that was through the Barrens.
Although she complained a bit first, Ashley Morgan quietly followed him. There was no point in arguing over how he should have gotten his leaking radiator fixed before they left, or how they shouldn’t have taken a “shortcut.” They could do that later. As much as she hated being in the Barrens late at night, it made sense to walk through them instead of following the road. The shortest path between two points was a straight line, and this was the quickest way to get back to Pine Creek.
David smiled as they entered a clearing. They still had a ways to go, but at least he knew were they were. They had reached Lovers Lookout. He could tell Ashley was afraid, and he didn’t blame her. After all, it was here that two people had been brutally killed eight months ago.
Officially, the cause of death was mauling by a wild animal. Back in the day, the locals would have blamed it on the Jersey Devil, a creature that supposedly lived in the Barrens. But that was before six other people had been killed, and the rumors started spreading that Old Man Ullrich had returned from the dead to kill. Even though most of the murders had been in or near the city, the deaths of Will Tennet and Carole Piper nine months ago, as well as the death of Johnny Hendrix three and a half weeks ago were blamed on Ullrich. The fact that Ullrich’s first victims were killed near Hendrix’s house didn’t help any either.
The legend said that Ullrich had killed his family in their home, but the truth was that his oldest son, Jason, as well as his brother-in-law Lars Hetfield had been killed near Hetfield’s cabin in the Barrens. They had been spending the day hunting and were relaxing when Ullrich snapped. He grabbed his shotgun and shot Hetfield in the stomach at point blank range. Jason ran, and Ullrich chassed him through he Barrens. His first shot wounded Jason, hitting him in the leg. The second one was to the back. Jason fell, and his father stood over him before finishing off his son. After he killed Jason, he took the boy’s knife and carved the family crest, the same symbol he would later brand the rest of his family with, into their foreheads. No one knows how much time passed between their deaths and the deaths of the rest of the Ullrich family. The cabin would eventually be demolished and a house built on the sight, a house that was eventually purchased by Johny Hendrix.
David shook his head, clearing his mind. The Ulrich murders had been a source of fascination for him for years, but walking through the Barrens this late at night was a bad time to think about it. If both of them were scared, they would ever get out of here.
Ashley grabbed David’s arm as they heard a twig snap somewhere behind them. He laughed, hoping she wouldn’t realize that it scared him too. He said it was just a rabbit or something, but he wondered if it was he Jersey Devil, or Old Man Ulrich.
As they walked, pushing branches out of their way, they saw the moonlight reflecting off something metallic. He knelt down to see what it was and found a knife. A hunting knife.
Its blade was covered in rust. It was amazing that the moonlight had found some space that wasn’t covered. He picked it up and saw that etched into the blade, just above the hilt, were initials.
J.U.
David let the knife fall. Urban legend said that they had never found the knife that Old Man Ullrich had used to carve the family crest into the foreheads of his son and brother-in-law. That if this was it. What if, Twenty-Five years ago, Erik Ullrich may have been holding this knife.
He heard Ashley gasp as he stood. David turned towards her and saw an expression of shock on her face as she looked down. He followed her gaze and watched as her white shirt turned red
David caught her as she fell, his hand hitting the knife sticking out of her back. He looked into her eyes as the life slipped from her body, not noticing the black shape behind him as it knelt to pick up the knife he had found. Not feeling it when the knife, still surprisingly sharp, sliced into his neck, severing his jugular.
David fell to the ground as his blood flowed out of him. As he lay dieing, the last thing he saw before everything went black was Ashley looking back at him.
