C.D. Kester

Best Buds

​

​

“Purple Haze all in my brain,

Lately things just don't seem the same,

Actin' funny but I don't know why,

'Scuse me while I kiss the sky”

 

Jimi Hendrix was playing on the radio while the room was steadily being filled with an influx of smoke from the finest buds that Fairmont high had to offer. The CD began to skip, and the owner of the room, Jake, came over to smack it on the side until it steadied itself and continued to play the tunes. Jake was a sophomore, but because of his fine taste in various substances he routinely had friends from grades well above his, all the way up to seniors. 

​

Of course, many of these friends were just passing faces that came and went depending on how much stuff he was able to keep in stock at the time. That’s not who he was relaxing with on this Saturday night, though.

Tonight, he wanted nothing but good vibes, and nothing but his best buds. There was a good reason behind this, his friends didn’t know what they were getting themselves into, but they were about to find out. Jake passed the joint off to Hunter who puffed until he began to cough causing his face to go slightly red. 

 

Jake said, “Alright, guys. I’ve got a surprise for you”

 

Julio and Hunter looked toward him with as much wonder as they could muster behind their red and shiny eyes.

 

Julio replied, “What’s up, bro? Did you get a new pipe or something?”

 

Jake smirked at this and went into his stash box on the dresser next to his radio. It was one of those cylindrical containers that you kept your Pogs in. He turned it upside down removing the few Pogs that were on top to cover the rest of the contents. Underneath this there was a pipe that was red, yellow, and green. Rastafarian colors. Jake tossed the pipe to Julio who barely caught it, almost dropping it to the carpeted floor. 

 

Jake said, “You may not have seen this one yet, but that’s not exactly what I was getting at.”

 

Jake looked down into the tube and turned it upside down above the dresser, pounding the bottom until a baggie came out of it. He picked the baggie up and unrolled it, revealing six little pieces of paper that were connected along perforated lines.

 

Hunter passed the joint to Julio and looked at the bag. “You have some pieces of paper in a bag? Is this some kind of joke or something? I don’t get it.”

 

Jake smiled really big and handed it to Hunter to observe more closely. “Not just any paper my friend. That right there is six hits of the most bomb LSD that Fairmont High has to offer.”

 

Julio and Hunter looked at each other in amazement then back to Jake. 

 

Hunter asked, “What if your parents get home early? I know they don’t flip out too much about the pot, but if we start freaking out and go attack the couch because we think it’s a wildebeest or something, they may not be too happy.”

 

Jake walked over to his closet for another big reveal and opened the door while motioning to a bunch of camping gear that stood at the front, prominently.

 

“Oh, don’t worry. I got it all taken care of guys. I made sure that it was only us three because you can’t have any harsh vibes while you’re tripping. Someone wigging out and having a bad time can lead to the dreaded bad trip.”

 

He wiggled his fingers towards them in a menacing manner as he said these last words.

 

“We got all the camping supplies and munchies that we’ll need for the night of tripping.” He raised some cups of rice and ramen, “I hear that these bad boys can even look like worms and maggots while your brains frying, should make for a fun little trippy snack. We’ll go out into the woods and get totally set up before we take the hits.”

 

Julio considered this. As a thought jumped into his head, he raised a finger and asked, “What about a sober sitter? I’ve always heard that it’s good to have a sober babysitter in case things get too out of control. Someone thinking with a level head who can get help or steer you back in the right direction.”

 

Jake dismissed this with a wave of the hand. “Nah, that’s all baloney. Nobody really does that. Trust me, I got us super covered. There’s no way this night could go wrong.” He started tossing the camping supplies to them. “Here, help me start getting this stuff loaded up. My parents know that we’ll be out camping tonight at the Enchanted Oak Forest, there’s nothing to worry about! Let’s go have the time of our lives.”

 

The tent was set up and Hunter was lighting the campfire while Julio and Jake loaded up a bowl of sticky green bud in the pipe. As the tinder underneath the logs caught fire Hunter sat down beside the campfire with them to join the ceremonial smoking session to kick off the night.

 

Jake held the pipe and placed it in his lap while reaching into his pocket and pulling out the baggie with their tickets to the moon. He opened it up and passed out two tiny pieces of blotter paper for each of them.

 

Jake gave the instructions, “Alright guys, place the pieces of paper underneath your tongue and hold it there. That’s the spot that has the most absorption and it’ll go straight into your bloodstream.”

 

They did as he said, and he followed his own instructions as well. After letting it sit for a few minutes and staring into the campfire, Jake grabbed the pipe out of his lap and sparked up the bowl. As he started to blow smoke rings the boys heard a rustling somewhere out in the trees.

 

Hunter said, “What was that? Did you guys hear that?”

 

Julio responded, “I heard it too, is the acid kicking in already?”

 

Jake tried to calm them. “It’s not kicking in yet. It takes a while to get there. Just relax, guys. It’s probably just an animal or something. The fire will scare it away.”

 

Jake could tell that his words didn’t have much effect on the anxiety of his friends. That in and of itself started to worry him, just because of the direction that the trip could go. They smoked the bowl down and told stories about the school year until they all started to feel a little bit funny.

 

Jake looked towards his hands and said, “Uh, guys. I think I’m starting to feel it.”

 

He looked back to them to see that they were entranced by the flames of the fire. Laughing about this he stared off into the forest. The trees were breathing and pulsing. He got up from his seat and walked up to a big one that was close to the edge of the clearing. 

 

Looking down at the roots of the tree he couldn’t help but think about how it looked like veins that were pumping blood. It was alive, just like them, so was the earth. Their bodies needed iron, calcium, magnesium, all things that come from within the earth, because they were the earth, experiencing itself and looking back into where they had come from.

 

Jake was so lost in thought that he was caught off guard by the other boys calling over to him.

 

“Jake, watch out!!”

 

The boys were pointing at the tree that he had been looking at. He looked up to the tree in front of him that he had felt such a deep connection to. The largest limbs on either side were moving and almost looked like arms reaching.

 

A little woodpecker hole in the center had grown to a massive size. Jake tried to turn tail and run but was so scared that he tripped and fell onto the ground. The limbs smashed down on top of him, and his friends watched helplessly as the he was shoved into the hole of the tree. He went in feet first and was squirming and reaching out towards them as he inched further and further into the hole.

 

Jake screamed, “Help!! Help!!!!”

 

Suddenly, he was gone, the tree had consumed him whole. Hunter and Julio were astonished at what they had just witnessed. Before they had time to process, they took off into the night.

 

C. D. Kester is an author of fiction who does most of his work in the horror genre. He lives in Kingwood, Texas with his wife and two children. Kester recently published his first full length novel, Chasing Demons with Alien Buddha Press. His first self-published work is a novella titled The Bunker. He has also had many stories published in anthologies, ezines, and read in podcasts and YouTube videos. You can see his work at cdkester.wordpress.com and follow on Twitter @cd_kester (https://twitter.com/CD_Kester) / Instagram @cdkester (https://www.instagram.com/cdkester)

​

​

​

​