Revealing Glances: Unsettling Short Stories & Their Making

The Basket Stripper

I need everyone to read this. There's this thing out there killing people. My parents don't believe me and I think they've been convinced to send me away but it's all real and I've got to get this out.

Me and Dylan camped every weekend this summer at the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, and yesterday was our last one before school starts. We usually invite a friend each and I invited my friend Saira and Dylan invited our weird neighbor Matthew for a stupid reason I learned about later.

Matthew was withdrawn most of the day as we hiked and set up camp, but at night when me and Dylan tried to one up each other with ghost stories around the fire, Matthew said he had something that was one hundred percent scary and true.

He said his dad's coworker was killed by the Basket Stripper in this forest last week … and we fucking lost it. Saira asked if the Basket Stripper did bachelorette parties and Dylan said it sure sounded like a whole lot of BS and even I threw in a few jabs because, seriously, wouldn't you?

But I stopped when Matthew's face turned red and he began looking around like he was scared. He wasn't used to our humor and Dylan and Saira could be bullies sometimes, so I told them to shut it and asked Matthew to tell us more. Not because I liked him, because I didn't, but because I was interested in a new monster story.

He said the Basket Stripper's body is the size of a car but it has two long legs with fifty joints that creak like rusty metal when it moves. It also has a basket right on top of its body that's made of razor-wire and has three claws on the rim.

It hunts at night and creeps around like a silent spider, and when it finds its prey, it lowers its basket and scoops them up. The claws keep them in and stabs them as the basket goes up again, and then it starts to spin (the basket, not the whole monster).

It spins so fast the prey is shredded by the razor-wire sides, every part of them flying out until only the bones remain completely stripped. And then, the spinning stops and the bottom of the basket opens, dumping the bones in the body to be grounded up.

Matthew's dad saw it kill his coworker and leave bits and pieces of him all over the trees in this very forest last week, but when soldiers came instead of cops he pretended he didn't see anything. He only told his wife and Matthew and they're certain it's a military AI experiment gone rogue and it's being kept hush-hush until it's stopped.

I'll admit, Matthew got us spooked, but not too spooked. His parents are conspiracy theorists who believe in Bigfoot and aliens, so at the time it made sense they'd believe in something like the Basket Stripper and warn Matthew about it.

Dylan, being the idiot he was, said we should find it and take photos, and I swear Matthew nearly wet his pants. Saira was with Dylan, but I was with Matthew. Not because I liked him, because I didn't, but at the time I felt sorry for him for having the parents he had.

Dylan and Saira called us cowards and marched past the trees to explore (but probably to make out) and Matthew began trembling. Like literally shaking all over. I asked him why he came camping with us if he was this afraid of the Basket Stripper and he mumbled that Dylan told him I was going to ask him out.

I swear I was ready to strangle Dylan for being such an ass, and I said that out loud and Matthew looked at me like I'd just slapped him. He pushed up his glasses and got to his feet and left, and I just sat there near the fire feeling stupid and sorry and fucking furious. Dylan knew I found it weird how Matthew would stare at us awkwardly whenever we were in our front yard, but I didn't think he'd go this far to embarrass me. Dylan was my brother but I hated him so much sometimes.

I then remembered Matthew came with us and he didn't have a ride back or a flashlight and I didn't want him to get lost, so I grabbed my phone and ran after him. I called his name over and over and shined my light all around, but he didn't answer.