Half of the bragging rights came with even knowing how to get to the Geek. You had to know how to navigate the hills of north Tustin. The two lane road that in some places seemed to only be one and a half lanes wound and forked and created switch backs up and down the rolling hillsides. Some offshoots would send you down into rounded cul de sacs. Others might give you a scenic tour around one of the peaks and then bring you back to where you started. Although there were plenty of street signs (on signposts which were sometimes overgrown with vegetation), you often approached them around a blind turn and were forced to make a split second decision. This was not an easy place to navigate for someone from out of town, especially before the time of GPS mapping and cell phones.
But when you learned to drive in the 1990’s in this part of Orange County, you knew the quickest short cuts to get to each of your friends’ houses. You grew up skateboarding and riding bikes down these suicidal slopes at breakneck speeds, and driving to high school every day felt like you were competing in a Formula One Race. You knew where your car might get egged if you drove too slowly, and you knew where you could park on Peacock hill above the undeveloped lot if you wanted to impress your girlfriend with the city view in the evening. You had getaway routes for when you needed to make a run for it after toilet papering someone’s house. And you probably had heard of the Geek. And the select few knew how to find it.
The other half of the bragging rights, the big half, came with actually having braved the Geek. The Geek was the name given to an abandoned road on the backside of Tustin hills that led from the inhabited part, down into the wilderness below. It began as a paved road that ran for a few hundred yards past the last house and street lamp. There was a chain that ran across the road blocking any cars from driving any further. As you stood at the bollards that anchored the chain into the ground and looked ahead, you would see the Geek turn from a paved road into a dirt path that hugged the hillside as it descended. Eventually it disappeared into the shadows of the pitch black woods as the base of the foothills.
Everyone who grew up in this area had heard about how in the 1970’s, a high school aged boy had been murdered in those woods. He was stabbed multiple times and found hanging from a tree. In the trunk of the tree just under his swaying feet, in a bloodstained etching were the letters G-E-E-K. The boy who died was a social pariah, an introvert whose only interaction with his peers was when he was being picked last during P.E. His academic prowess was not enough to earn him respect from his classmates and one Wednesday morning, he simply didn’t show up at school. It wasn’t until the following Saturday that a hiker discovered his body. There was never an arrest, nor was anyone ever even brought in for questioning. The tragedy was quietly swept under the rug in this otherwise unblemished middle-class community.
The boy’s soul was forgotten. But it was said by many that his spirit remained and dwelled within the woods. His apparition might be seen moving through the trees at night. It was even said that if you walked all the way to the end of the GEEK on the darkest of nights, you could still hear his screams as if his murder was happening again and again.
Of course, Rick and Shaun knew that the supernatural part of the story was all just bullshit to scare the kids. But they were proud to know how to get to the Geek, and they were amped on the idea of bringing their girlfriends there tonight.
“Turn it up”
Rick reached over and cranked the dial until the car speakers were blasting punk rock music from Lagwagon. Shaun drummed on the back of the passenger seat, and Megan, seated beside him, let out a laugh. Rick screamed out “You’re losing ground, carrying that torch, you’re not asking for much as she has…”
“Chill out Rick!” Sara was not amused by her boyfriend’s vocals. “Let’s just get to this stupid place and get it over with.”
“Don’t wig out cause you can’t handle the… Geeeeek! Muuuahahah” Rick loved to antagonize her. “But, lucky for you, we’re getting closer so it’s better if we turn off the music.”
“Sara, don’t let your asshole of a boyfriend scare you. It’s just a stupid road,” Megan comforted her.
“I’m not even scared, it’s just dumb.” Sara explained.
Rick turned off the tape deck and rolled down the window. The cool autumn air rapidly permeated the white Chevy blazer. They were making their last few ebbs and curves and quickly approaching the turn off that led to their destination. The street lamps were already noticeably more dispersed, and the darkness left a deep void between the intervals of light.
Within a minute, Rick had made the quick turn off, and slowly pulled to the side of the road when he reached the chain at the top of the hill. He cut engine and turned off the headlights.
The group got out of the car and huddled up around the chain. The residual light from the last street lamp gave the slightest indication of where the Geek began to dip down into the abyss. The only thing they could hear was a faint chirping of crickets from down the hillside.
“Oh, my God – It is freaking pitch black” Sara noted.
“Sara, that’s what we want,” Rick teased. “That’s the only way… we can hear him,” Rick said as he reached towards her with outstretched zombie hands.
“Such an asshole!” Megan huffed, not so under-her-breath.
“Get over it, Megs. Let’s get going!”
The teenagers stepped over the chain and slowly began to trod down the road. With every step, they were further from the light, further from civilization, further from safety. They could make out the shadowy silhouette of the forest a few hundred yards below. The asphalt abruptly ended under their feet and the road narrowed into a dirt path.
“Okay…this…is…creepy!” Megan admitted. She had heard all the stories and the urban legends. But actually being here, exposed to this darkness, the coldness this night was different. There was an emptiness, an uneasy feeling that something was very wrong. “Guys – I don’t like this. I don’t want to go any farther.”
Shaun put his arm around her shoulder. “Megan, we’ve only made it like fifty feet. We’re all together, and we have to go to the bottom of the Geek or it doesn’t count.”
“I don’t care if it counts. I’m… I’m done…you guys can keep going, but I’m staying here.”
“Come on Megs! I promise I won’t even try to scare anyone,” Rick pleaded.
“Just go you guys. I’m fine. I’ll watch you guys from here.”
“You know what, I’ll stay with you here and we can let the boys go be macho men,” Sara said as she took a step back and stood next to her friend.
“Jesus, you girls are such scared-y cats!” cried Rick as he turned down towards the dirt path. “Come on Shaun, let’s go all the way to the bottom and see if we can see this douchebag “
Shaun laughed and began descending deeper and deeper into the darkness with his friend. The girls watched as the crunching of their steps along the dirt path began to fade. Soon they could faintly see their boyfriends as dark blurs as they neared the bottom of the hill. Their pace slowed until they were right in front of the woods, and then their motion stopped completely. A few seconds passed, and then a minute. Then another.
“What are they doing? They are at the bottom.” Megan felt a wave of anxiety overcome her.
“They are probably just trying to scare us” reassured Sara. “I’m sure they’ll be back in a minute. Don’t worry Megan. Then we can all go to my house and jump in the hot tub. My parents are out of town tonight…”
Suddenly the dark shadows at the bottom of the hill began to move again. Only they weren’t walking back up the trail. They were walking towards the woods.
“Oh my god, what the hell are they doing?!! SHAUN!! RICK!! COME BACK RIGHT NOW!!” Megan’s shouting echoed through the canyon below, but it didn’t seem to have an effect. She watched in disbelief as the two shadows disappeared into the woods.
“Sara, what in fuck’s name are they doing?!”
Sara wanted to console her friend but fear had overtaken her as well. “I don’t know Megan, but if they are trying to prank us I swear to God I’m breaking up with Rick.”
“RICK!! COME BACK TO THE CAR YOU ASSHOLE!!” Sara’s voice disappeared into the nothingness.
The periodic chirping of crickets counted away the seconds as the girls waiting for something to happen. Something… Anything! Minutes went by. After ten minutes had passed the boys were still nowhere to be seen.
“We have to find them,” Sara conceded. “Let’s go Megan, we have to go down there and we have to get them.”
“Are you out of your mind!?” Megan responded. “I’m not taking one more step!”
Sara tried to console her: “Look, I know you’re scared. I am too, okay? But Rick and Shaun have been gone for over 10 minutes now…in those woods. We have to do something. Just come with me partway. I’ll go to the edge of the forest myself and call for them if I have to. Megan, please. Just a little ways?”
“I hate you sometimes, you know that right?” Megan smirked.
The girls looked down into the darkness and slowly began to walk. One step, then another, and then another. The progress was painstakingly slow and robotic, and every step seemed to be more difficult, more forced. Megan could feel a clenching in her stomach. She looked down towards the ominous woods ahead. The girls had made it about halfway down the Geek, and visibility had already gotten even worse. The pit of her stomach felt sick, and she stopped in place.
“Sara, I’m… I’m sorry. This is the most I can do. Let’s call them from here”
In unison the girls called out for Rick and Shaun and waited for a response. Silence. Even the sound of the crickets was gone. “RIIIICK. SHAAAAAUN. RIIIICK. SHAAAUUN.” Nothing. A breeze picked up and whistled and bristled through the forest below.
“Okay Megan, just listen. I’ll walk to the end of the Geek and call for them there. If they don’t respond, we can walk back up to one of the houses in the hills and call for help, okay?”
“Sara, don’t leave me, please!” begged Megan. “It’s not right. Somethings not right. It feels bad here. It feels evil…”
“Just wait a few minutes. I’ll be back in a jiff” Sara reassured her.
Megan watched as her best friend left her side and walked the last hundred yards to the bottom of the hill. “Hurry Sara!” Megan called to her.
She saw her friend raise a thumbs up without looking back. She followed her movement until she had made it all the way to the edge of the trees. Megan watched her friend and could hear Sara’s muffled cries as she called out to the woods in search of the boys. No movement. No response.
Then Sara stopped yelling. “SARA, come on. Let’s get some help,” Megan yelled down to her friend. But Sara didn’t respond. She didn’t even move an inch. “SARA! Let’s GOOO!” Megan was getting desperate. But as she looked down at her friend, she could see how Sara seemed frozen in place, like she was fixated on something in the woods.
Tears began to well up involuntarily in Megan’s eyes. “PLEEEAAASE…SA-RAA-AA” Megan began to choke up as she cried out toward her friend. Megan tried to focus through the darkness to pick up on what was happening. Anything – some kind of indication of what Sara was doing down there. She was like a statue in the shadows, almost like a monk in a deep trance. And then she saw her begin to move forward towards the trees.
“SAAARAAA!!! STOPPP!!!” Megan was now sobbing as she watched her best friend methodically take step after step, past the end of the GEEK and into the trees. “SARAAAA! NOOOO!” Her breathing quickened, and she could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage. She looked back towards the car, with the hopes that somehow, her friends would be sitting up there, laughing and waiting for her. But the car was there, coldly resting empty on the side of the road where they had left it. Megan’s breathing became even quicker and more shallow as she looked back towards her friend. Then Megan then let out a terrified scream at the top of her lungs as she watched Sara slowly disappear, completely shrouded in the darkness of the forest below.
