THE EVIL DEAD
novelized by JON M**G**TS
TENNESSEE WOODLANDS:1979
College student Ashley (Ash to his friends) a square jawed young man of 19 wearing a blue checkered shirt and brown pants was riding in the back between Cheryl and Linda, Cheryl (Ashley's sister) had red hair and still had the 1960 look of a few years ago and was very beautiful although not very popular, Linda (Ashley's girlfriend) had long black hair and a Michigan University t-shirt on was very beautiful with pale skin and amazing brown eyes. Also in the car was Scotty, Ashley's best friend, he had blonde hair and wore a brown shirt. Shelly (Scott's girlfriend.) was sitting next to Scotty and was an excellent example of a cool, free living girl.
They traveled down a twisting mountain road heading up into the mountains. Trees dominated most of their view. Never before had any of them seen anything like it before. Just trees, endless trees!
Ashley stared out the window with an awe struck expression on his face. He loved it here though he had never been there before. He liked the isolation and the freedom...It was great!
"So Scott what's this place like anyway?" Shelly asked from up front.
"Well the guy say's it's an old place right up in the mountains, and the best part is we get it so cheap!" Scott replied.
Up ahead and out of sight an old truck approached. It was red with a tray back nicknamed 'The Lazy Mary'.
"Why are we gettin it so cheap?" Linda asked.
The Lazy Mary began to come around the bend.
"I dunno it might be in real bad shape." Scott said. "We'll see when...."
Just then the steering wheel jerked right out of Scott's hand's sending them on a collision coarse with the truck, Scott over came his surprise and fear, blotting out all other sounds: The screaming of the others the sound of the truck horns and swerved barely missing the old 'Mary'.
"What the hell was that!?" Ashley screamed. "Are you tryin to kill us!?"
"Hey man it was your steering wheel! Not me!" Scott protested.
Shelly reached under her seat and produced a bottle of scotch and held it up.
"I suppose I had better do this now." She said looking at Scott. "To great friends!"
She took a swig of the bottle and passed it around to everyone.
Cheryl didn't drink, she didn't like it at all.
Ashley tried to hide the effect the alcohol had on him from Linda, muffling his coughs. Linda hadn't even flinched from the drink!
They approached a bridge. It was old and rickety and stretched far across the water. On the other side was a seemingly endless hedgerow. The bridge was missing a few planks here and there and looked generally bad.
"This is the bridge we're gonna cross?" Shelly asked.
They started across. All most immediately creaks and groans were heard from underneath, then they heard a sickening gut wrenching crack and an ominous splash.
"Shit the whole thing's fallin apart on us!" Scotty said.
"Don't let the noise fool you girl's, this thing's as solid as a rock!" Ashley said.
They made it across...barely. Ashley looked back just to make sure the bridge was still there.
They started down the hedge row, slowly...almost painstakingly. The bush and hedge were so thick and dense no-one could see a thing.
If they looked a little harder the might have seen the vines of the hedge move slightly, slithering after the car...
A banging came into ear shot. Ashley strained to hear he could not identify the sound, though.
They pulled up out the front of a cabin. The swing chair out the front hanging from the roof of the porch was banging into the front of the cabin.
A-ha! Ashley thought. That's what it is!
They got out and stood staring at the cabin in wonder and awe...IT WAS A MESS!
It had no visible paint job, the roof looked like it was made of grass, though, of course it was not. Dead leaves and twigs littered the ground ankle deep every where.
Scotty slowly walked to the door and produced a pair of key's and inserted them into the lock, at that moment the swing chair stopped dead still...
Scott stepped in and looked around. In the cabin was a main room with a kitchen and dinning room connected to it. There was a long hall with a back door at the end. There was access to two rooms down this hall. Out the back was a tool shed.
Out the front the others unloaded the car. Cheryl took out a box of art supplies, her passion, and looked around, wrinkling her nose...
That night Cheryl was sketching on her pad. She was sketching the clock on the wall.
The clock tolled six and the pendulum stopped.
"JOIN US..."
Cheryl stopped upon hearing the voice and looked out the window. It was a deep dark voice that only she heard.
Suddenly her hand turned pale and began to uncontrollably sketch a book with a face on the front.
The cellar door (located in the main room.) started to rattle...
That night they all sat around the dinner table, talking, laughing and having a thoroughly good time.
"It barks in the cellar, It barks in the cellar....." Scott taunted sitting next to Cheryl.
"Scotty will you stop!" Cheryl said annoyed.
"Come on it was just a joke!" He said turning to the others. "She acts as if she a child!"
He looked back at Cheryl and saw her entire attention was on his crotch, her arm out-stretched and saw that she had just finished pouring a glass of water onto his lap.
His mouth hung open. He looked up at Cheryl dumbstruck.
Ashley stood up and tapped the side of his glass.
"Ah", he began. "I would very much like to make a toast for all this evening. Ahhh as a Greek friend of mine once said: Tis miss tu tarin...."
"Which means?" Linda asked. There was a long silence.
"Party down, yeah!" Scott said.
The cellar door, abruptly, burst open.
They all got up and ran over, confusion setting in.
"What is this?" Ashley asked.
"Maybe it's just an animal?" Cheryl said, sounding uneasy.
"An animal!? That's the stupidest thing I ever heard of..."Scott said.
"What ever it is, it's still down there...."Linda said.
"Someone's got to go down there..."Cheryl said.
There was a long silence.
"O.k. you cowards I'll go!" Scotty said.
He descended into the darkness...
5 minutes had passed and Scott was still gone...
"Linda get me a flash light." Ashley said.
Linda did so and Ashley descended into the cellar.
In the cellar Ashley looked around.
There was a leaking pipe over head and a dirt floor. The walls were utterly terrifying. They seemed to look like faces of evil and deceit.
Ashley heard a noise. He looked to his left and saw a door. He slowly reached forward and grabbed the door handle. He snapped the door open and stepped in....
Ashley slowly walked through the darkness. All of a sudden Ashley was entangled from behind.
He screamed and tuned to see Scotty smiling from ear to ear.
"Damn it Scott!!! What have you been doin down here, huh, jerkin off?! Come on let's go!" Ashley screamed.
"Hold on a sec. Come have a look at this!" Scotty said.
He led Ashley to a table.
On the table was an assortment of items: a reel to reel tape recorder, a single shot break barrel shot gun, a weird dagger and a book with a face on the front.
Ashley picked up the book and opened it. On the pages were horrific pictures and strange words.
The dagger had a collection of demonic skulls on the end.
"Hey this kinda looks like your old girlfriend!" Scotty said meaning the dagger.
They both laughed at that.
"I'll get the recorder, you get every thing else now." Scott said.
Upstairs everyone sat around talking. Ashley was trying to get the recorder to work.
"O.K. this is the tape I found down stairs..." He said turning it on.
"It has been a number of years since I began excavating the ancient ruins near Candar with a group of my college's. I believe I have made a significant discovery...Naturon Demonto...roughly translated: 'THE BOOK OF THE DEAD' . This ancient volume deals with demons and demon resurrection. The book is bound in human flesh and inked in human blood...the first few passages warn that these enduring creatures lie dormant but are never truly dead. These creatures are given license to possess the living through this book......"
Cheryl abruptly turned the recorder off.
"Hey what did you do that for!?" Scotty said.
"I just don't want to hear it anymore that's all..." Cheryl said.
"Oooooooooo" Scotty taunted.
"Scotty leave her alone man!" Ashley said.
"No big deal I just wanna hear the rest of it!" Scott said. He leaned forward and fast forward for a second then turned it on.
"Catooo natooo exti nivti onmni isly oxly Candar, Candar....."
Outside on a burnt out piece of ground a eerie glow began to appear....
Inside Cheryl began to tense up.....
"Shut it off....." She said.
The recorder continued.
"Shut it off!" She said.
The recorder continued.
"SHUT IT OFF!!!" Cheryl screamed.
Just then a loose branch broke through the window scaring Cheryl out of her mind. She got up and ran off. Shelly and Linda got up and ran after her.
"Damnit Scotty!" Ashley said. "You just don't know when you're taking something too far!"
"Don't blame me man you could of shut it off!" Scott threw back.
He got up and walked off...
"Let's stay up and listen to the storm a while..." Ashley said.
"O.K." Linda said. She paused briefly. "Let me check on Cheryl..."
She got up and walked away.
Ashley pulled a box out of his pocket and put it on his knee, closing his eye's. The box contained a necklace.
"Aha!" Linda said on returning. Ashley opened his eyes.
"Ooooh, stealing from the blind, huh?" He said. "Well this is for you."
Ashley handed the box to her.
She opened it.
"Oh Ash, It's beautiful....." Linda exclaimed.
And at that moment, she looked more special than anything else....
The strange thing watched from out side.
The thing had no name or sex, no limb's and no remorse....
The thing was best described as evil....just plain evil...
It moved past other windows to Cheryl's room....
"JOIN US." It said.
Cheryl heard the voice and got up.
She walked down the hall and silently opened the back door.
She began searching through the woods.
"Hello" Cheryl called. "I know your out there! I heard you!"
Sounds began to echo all around her. Eerie shadows moved and darted here and there. Cracks and snaps echoed through the woods. Groaning could be heard.
Silently vines began to snake toward her...
Suddenly they struck!
Entangling her....
Cheryls scream echoed through the woods....
She slowly crawled back to the cabin....
Her clothes torn and tattered...
She reached for the door handle and turned it, stepping through...
"What the hell did this to you?" Ashley asked. "Something in the woods?"
"NO! It was the woods themselves!" Cheryl screamed.
"What!?" Ashley asked confused.
"Ashley, will you drive me into town or not!?" Cheryl asked.
"Look, sure, sure I'll drive you into town, but listen to what your sayin!" Ashley said.
"I don't care how it sounds! I want to get out of here right now! Right now Ashley!" She screamed.
They walked outside to the DELTA 88 OLDSMOBILE and got in.
Scotty, Linda and Shelly watched from the door.
Ashley got in looking back and started the engine.
They drove off down the hedge row toward the bridge. Cheryl looked out the window looking for any sign of movement.
As they got close to the bridge Ashley stopped the car.
"What is it? Do you see something?" Cheryl asked.
Ashley grimaced and flicked on the high beam head lights.
Through the wind screen Cheryl saw that the bridge was gone....
Outside Scott was cutting wood with the axe.
Cheryl sat staring out the window while Linda and Shelly played a guessing game with cards.
Ashley sat playing the rest of the tape with an earphone in his ear.
"It has been a number of hours since I spoke the words from the book. I know now that my wife has become host to a Candarian demon...I dragged her out to the old tool shed and dismembered her dead corpse....I am leaving this place now, but I fear that what ever I have resurrected through this book is sure to come calling.....for me......."
Ashley put the recorder down, there was no more....
".....it's a seven of spades....."Linda said.
"Oh my god! You're right!" Shelly said.
"Really, show me the card!" Linda said.
Shelly paused. "Ahhhh, no."
"That's mean!" Linda said.
"Four of hearts....."
Shelly and Linda looked up. Cheryl was still staring out the window, she had said the right card.....
"Two of clubs...Ace of spades...."Cheryl began to drone off the cards. "Queen of Spades....." She began to roar the words. "Jack of Diamonds, JACK OF CLUBS!!!"
She spun and roared, floating up into the air, her arms limp at her sides, her head rolling limply from side to side!
"WHY HAVE YOU DISTURBED OUR SLEEP!?, AWAKENED US FROM OUR ANCIENT SLUMBER.....YOU WILL DIE!!! NIGHTMARE IS BEFORE YOU......ONE BY ONE WE WILL TAKE YOU, AHAHAHAHAH!!!"
Everyone stood around dumb founded.
She fell to the floor in a heap.
Scotty came in and looked around, still holding the axe.
"What happened to her?!" Scotty wondered aloud.
Linda and Ashley started forward. They lent over her.
"Oh, Ash, what happened to her..."Linda said.
Oblivious to Ashley and Linda, Cheryl's fingers wrapped around a pencil.
All of a sudden Cheryl swung the pencil around into Linda's ankle, digging it in to the soft flesh, tearing it open blood pouring out.
She then grabbed Ashley by the neck and threw him into a wall.
Scotty without thinking ran forward and kicked Cheryl toward the gaping hole of the cellar. Hitting her with the back of the axe. Cheryl fell in the cellar Scott then locked up the chain and got away...
Ashley walked back from Linda's room, his head down.
Shelly looked out the window, wondering...
Scotty sat in front of the fire holding the ancient dagger he found in the cellar...
"Scotty....I think there's something out there...."Shelly said.
Scotty got up and walked over, putting his arm around her shoulder he led her away.
"Go to bed....get some rest...."Scott said.
She walked away.
Scott sat down on a sofa across from Ashley.
A few minutes later there was a crash from Shelly's room.
"Stay here..."Scott said.
He walked into Shelly's room and looked around.
He walked into Shelly's bathroom and looked around.
He turned and was grabbed around the throat by Shelly.
Shelly used a finger-nail to put a 6 inch cut across Scott's head.
She threw him out into the main room in front of the alarmed eye's of Ashley.
Shelly ran at Ashley and threw him into a wall.
Scott got up and pushed Shelly who landed in the fire. Her skin began to burn and char.
Scott went wide eyed and pulled her out. Shelly got up.
"Thank you, I don't know what I would have done if I had remained on those hot coal's burning my pretty flesh. You have pretty flesh, give it to us!!!" Shelly roared.
She ran at Scott and grabbed him by the throat.
Ashley slowly picked up the axe from the floor. But he couldn't move, He felt sick and scared.
Scott grabbed the ancient dagger from he table and cut her wrist.
Shelly let go and Scott ran over to Ashley.
Shelly then proceeded to chew her hand off.
Ashley was dumb struck. He held an axe across his chest.
"HIT HER! HIT IT!" Scott yelled.
Ashley couldn't move.
Scott grabbed the axe from Ashley and turned to Shelly.
He raised the axe and brought it down on Shelly.
In a frenzy he cut her up into pieces on the floor! Striking again and again!
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
When he stopped he dropped the axe on the floor next to Shelly's dismembered corpse.
There was a long silence.
"Scott...wwhat are wwe ggonna do...."Ashley stammered.
"We're gonna bury her...."Scott said.
Outside it was raining...
They dug up a patch of muddy ground and threw the bloody sheet holding Shelly into the hole and covered her with dirt.
Scotty put a cross into the ground and they hurried inside...
"The sun should be up in an hour or so, I think....."Ashley began.
"I'm getting out!" Scott said.
"Linda can't go any where with her leg like that!" Ashley said.
"Then leave her!" Scott said.
"What are you crazy!" Ashley said.
"I don't care what happens to her! She's you're girlfriend you take care of her!" He turned and walked out the door.
Ashley stared after him.
Then he got up and walked over to Linda's room and walked over to her bed.
He sat down in front of her, staring at her beautiful flesh her perfect face....
He reached down and pulled the blanket back to reveal her foot.
The bloody hole was now a neat little hole.
A black line seemed to come from the hole. The black line began to spread up her leg!
Linda sat up her eye's red!
Ashley turned and ran out of the room and out of the open front door stopping and standing next to the door frame, leaning against it.
Linda sat in the corner of the room watching him.
"Ash!"
Ashley turned to see Scotty limping down the road toward him.
Ashley helped him to a sofa. He was bleeding severely from every where!
Linda and Cheryl (still in the cellar) began to laugh.
"Shut up!" Ashley screamed.
Linda began to mock him: "We're gonna get you, we're gonna get you, not another peep, time to go to sleep....Ahahaha......"
Ashley ran over and grabbed her ankles, dragging her outside.
He dragged her outside into the woods. Linda's laugh echoing through the woods.
When he got back he lent over Scott. He was bleeding badly.
"Ash, there's a trail.....near the bridge......."Scott struggled to finish but couldn't....he died.
The thing in the basement began to laugh...
Ashley was suddenly kicked in the head from the side.
Scott's body fell off the couch as Ashley looked up.
The blade of the ancient dagger pierced his left bicep.
Linda licked the blood off the dagger and lunged forward.
Ashley rolled and Linda landed on the blade.
Ashley looked with no remorse at Linda's bleeding body.
He grabbed her ankles and dragged her out the back door....
Out in the tool shed Ashley put Linda on a table and chained her down. The hollow TINK TINK of the chains reverberated in Ashley's head. The CLACK as he attached them to the nails on the table would stay with him forever.
In the cellar Cheryl began to bang against the door of the cellar....
Ashley pulled aside a dusty rag to reveal a large lumber chainsaw.
The saw was red and had 50cm long blade.
It started up roar.
Ashley started toward Linda corpse and revved the large 2 stroke engine.
He lowered it to Linda's body stopping inches from her body.
He swallowed hard and tried to cut her pretty perfect flesh.
He let out a breath and dropped the saw on the ground.
He lent over her body crying.
"Linda......"
Ashley dropped the shovel and turned to Linda.
He bent and picked her up and lowered her into the hole.
He filled it in and turned to leave when he saw Linda's necklace on the ground.
He bent to pick it up when a hand burst through the ground and grabbed him.
Linda began to pull herself out of the ground.
She tore his leg open with her fingernails and dragged herself out.
Veins and tattered flesh hung off Ashley's leg.
Ashley bent and picked up a large sharp log.
He rammed it into her and hit her with it.
Linda began to convulse and vomit blood!
Ashley grabbed the shovel from the ground and cut her head off.
Blood sprayed all over him!
Over his face, in his mouth!
He grabbed Linda's necklace and ran inside.
Ashley grabbed the shot gun off the table and checked to see if it was loaded.
There was a clap, clap sound coming from Shelly's room.
Ashley slowly followed it.
CLAP, CLAP....
He slowly entered Shelly's room.
He walked over to the broken window near a cupboard and aimed at the cupboard.
Cheryl appeared at the window and grabbed the rifle.
Ashley broke free and shot her.
Cheryl saw the open front door and started toward it.
Ashley stumbled out of the room and hobbled toward the door.
He nearly had it shut when fingers got in the gap.
He hit them with the butt of the gun. They literally burst, blood going every where!
"Back door...."Ashley said and ran to it, closing it.
He leant against it breathing hard. "Shells, shells, where did I see that box of shells?"
Ashley cautiously opened the cellar door and started down.
He noticed the leaking pipe and saw it was leaking blood.
Ashley stared at it.
Violently it exploded!
Ashley was covered in blood.
He screamed.
Spitting and coughing he started across the room and was illuminated by a projector in the middle of the room. A gramophone started up, blood began to pour from the walls.
Voices started up as well: "We're gonna get you, we're gonna get you....."
"Shut up Linda!" Ashley said running to the work bench.
"....and dismembered her corpse......"
Ashley shoved some shells in his pocket and wiped the blood from his face with a rag.
"HIT HER! HIT IT!!!"
Ashley put the last shell in the gun and snapped the barrel shut.
He turned to walk out but stopped.
The whole room was sparking up: The gramophone slowed to a stop, the projector sparked and spluttered and the lightbulbs exploded.
Ashley was plunged into darkness.
He staggered and tripped trying to reach the stairs.
He tripped and landed in a pool of blood.
Light's began to flicker on and off, on and off, round and round Ashley's head spun.
Dark shadows began to dance all over the place!
Ashley looked around in terror, his breathing increased rapidly....
All of a sudden everything was illuminated and the light returned.
Ashley (disoriented) staggered to his feet and walked toward the stairs.
He cautiously climbed them....
At the top he looked around, no-one was in sight.
There was a whirring behind him and he turned.
The clock on the wall began to wind back ward!
The pendulum banging back and forth, back and forth! CLANG! CLANG!
Suddenly it stopped.
Ashley heard a noise coming from the back door.
He walked over and opened it to find darkness.
The thing rushed at him with incredible speed, Ashley quickly shut the door and turned.
The shutters began to bang against the side of the house banging and banging!
Then they stopped.
Ashley saw the wall mounted mirror next to a window and walked to it.
He looked at the reflection.
He slowly reached forward to touch his reflection......his hand sunk into the mirror!
Ashley let out a scream.
A shadow flashed past the window. Ashley turned and shot it, shattering the window.
Nothing was there.
Ashley backed up to the front door, leaning against it. Reloading the gun as he did.
His breath was long and deep.
TAP, TAP, TAP.
Ashley looked up.
It was as if he heard foot steps.
He shook his head. He smiled. My mind's playing tricks on me. He thought.
TAP, TAP, TAP.
Ashley looked up alert.
Fear crossed his face once more.
He reached down to his pocket and took out Linda's necklace and stared at it remembering....
That's when two hand's burst through the door behind him, entangling him!
The necklace went flying across the room.
"JOIN US!"
Cheryl was trying to kill him!
Ashley pulled free and fell to the floor.
Cheryl poked her head through the hole and stared at him.
"You undead son of a bitch!" Ashley screamed.
He raised the rifle and fired.
The shot put a gaping hole in Cheryl's head.
Ashley got up and grabbed a cabinet and pulled it in front of the door.
Behind him, Scott sat up straight.
Ashley was grabbed from behind and held up against a wall, losing the rifle. He stared into the hurt face of Scotty. He was held up off the ground by his throat.
Outside Cheryl banged on the door.
Ashley's life was slipping away, slowly, agonizingly....
He raised his arms.
He put his hands on either side of Scott's head.
Cheryl was succeeding in breaking through the door by now she was half way through.
Ashley poked his finger's into Scotty's eye's causing a thick red liquid substance to come out.
Scott's hand's came to his eye's, screaming madly!
Ashley then reached down and tore a piece of timber lodged in Scott's leg out causing a great deal of blood to come out.
Scott wailed and fell to the floor...
It was then that Ashley saw the book, the strange book he found in the cellar. It was sitting on a pedestal near the fire.
Ashley walked forward.
Cheryl burst through the door beside him but Ashley overpowered her, in the process knocking the book off the pedestal landing near the fire. The edges began to char and burn. Immediately Scott and Cheryl began to smoke.
Ashley ran to it but was tripped by Scott laying on the floor.
The book was just out of Ashley's reach. Then he saw Linda's necklace and grabbed it.
Mean while Cheryl was getting a pike from next to the fire and moved toward Ashley.
Behind Ashley Scott bit deep into Ashley's leg!
Ashley let out a scream of agony.
He then threw the necklace holding on to the end at the book trying to reach it.
Cheryl hit Ashley across the back with the pike as hard as she possibly could.
Ashley screamed. Trying again to reach the with the necklace. He tried in one last desperate attempt to reach it, but Scotty began to drag him backward.
Ashley gave up....Then he looked up and saw the book hooked on the end of the necklace. He quickly dragged it in. He grabbed it and threw it into the fire.
Everything stopped. Cheryl frozen ready for the final blow. The pike dropped tip first and landed next to Ashley's head and stayed.
Cheryl's hair began to fall off, her flesh coming off in shreds!
Scotty began to sink into the floor, decomposing into nothing.
Cheryl stood still for a second then, suddenly, demonic hands bust out of her sending blood into Ashley's eyes and across his face!
She then fell to the floor exploding on impact covering Ashley with blood....
Ashley lay still for a few minutes not moving an inch. Then slowly he got up...looking around in shock he looked behind him to see the clock ticking normally....he held up Linda's necklace and smiled...
He walked out side and shut the door behind him.....
Out the back the thing rose...it flew at tremendous speed at the house, through the back door through the front door straight at Ashley....
His scream echoed through the woods.....