Terror in the Field of

Berkeley High School

by Giovanni Guzman

“Hey, Carlos! Come look at this, man!”

“What? What is it?”

“Look, what the fuck is this? Please tell me you know what this piece of shit is. It fucking smells hella ugly. How the hell did this end up here? It’s creeping me out.”

“What do you mean?” Carlos asked.

“Stop asking questions and come look!”

“Wow! Oh, hell nah. Call the police, bruh. Hurry up!”

“Are you stupid? We can’t call the police. We shouldn’t even touch the damn bag at all.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Look, how ‘bout we just forget we even saw this shit and get the hell out of here before somebody sees us.”

“Shit I’m down for that. Let’s go!”

It had been one day and Carlos and Eric didn’t know what to do or say about the bag they had discovered. To them it was obvious that somebody had been murdered and who ever had done it had been stupid enough to just leave the body in the equipment warehouse like it was nothing. It was strange how nobody had noticed the bag, or else the team would have already said something about it. They decided to go practice and keep the secret to themselves and wait to see if someone else mentioned it. They didn’t want to get blamed for the whole mess.

“What’s up, team? Ya’ll ready to get this practice going?” Carlos said.

“Yeah, of course. But we’re just waiting for the coach ‘cause he’s running a little bit late today,” Emerson replied.

“I wonder what’s taking him so long. He is always on time. I bet if one us was late, he would already be screaming at us,” another teammate added.

Awaiting the coach’s arrival, the team decided to get the practice started. Knowing it was their last year playing soccer at Berkeley High, everyone worked extra hard. Nothing would make their year more satisfying than to bring home the NCS title. Of course it was going to take everything they had, as Berkeley High hadn’t won NCS in about eight years.

“Hey, Carlos, come here!”

“What’s up?”

“Hey, you think we should tell the rest of the team about that bag?”

“Ummm….I don’t know man. Should we?…I guess yeah, I think we should. Maybe one of them know what it is. Last night I wasn’t able to sleep for shit, thinking a body in there. We going to jail man, we‘re part of this now. I told you we should‘ve called the damn cops. Fuck, man, I‘m too young to go to jail.”

“Shut up! We’re not going to jail. Stop getting scared. I’ll tell you what though, le’s just tell them before coach gets here.”

“Alright ya’ll bring it in, I have to tell ya’ll something,” Eric said. Umm, so two days ago when Carlos and I where putting the equipment away, we found a smelly-ass bag that stinks like rotten and we think it‘s…well…actually we don’t exactly know what it is. All we know is that this bag, is big enough to fit Gio in there. Talking bout him, where the hell has he been? I haven’t seen him in awhile. Oh god…so does anybody know what that bag is or how it got here? It’s really stupid that that damn bag just appeared out of nowhere.”

“Describe it for us? Someone yelled”

“Well, like I said, it’s big enough to fit Gio in there and it’s black. It looks like one of them bags you see in movies after someone has gotten shot and they put the body in there. Ya’ll should go check it out, but don’t touch it or move it ‘cause trust me, you will go to jai, Anybody recognize it?”

Nobody seemed to recognize the bag. It was as if it had just appeared there magically. If someone knew what was in it, it had to be the coach. He was the only one left to ask. But then that meant that he had killed someone. It couldn’t have been him. He was way too nice to do such a thing. But then who else could have done it.

“Alright, listen up team. We only have four more games and we need to end the season in first place so we get a good spot in NCS. Now of course, one of those four games is Richmond. All I can say is that there is no other option but to win…”

“Hey, coach! Why were you so late today?”

“That’s none of your business Eric. Don’t worry about me just worry about yourself and your team. That’s all that should be in your head.”

“How can I coach? When there is a fucking big ass bag in there with the equipment that smells really bad.”

“Oh that bag, that’s not important I’ll tell you guys what it is later.”

Out of nowhere, Gio appeared, running late for practice. It was the first time he had appeared after a week of absence. Nobody had known what had happened or hwy he had been gone for so long, and why he had been gone for so long, and by the look on his face, he didn’t look well.

“Oh, well, look who decided to show up? Where the hell have you been idiot?” Carlos asked.

“Your mom is an idiot,” Gio replied.

“Hey coach my bad for the absence, lately I’ve been really sick and I decided to take a little break to get better.”

“A little break? More like a vacation. Start running some damn laps, Gio, before I kill your ass.”

“Hey coach? Me and Carlos have to ask you something that’s been bothering us since yesterday.”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Umm…so, can you tell us now what that bag is?”

“Oh, the bag, of course. Look, I wasn’t planning on telling you guys ‘til the Richmond game, but it looks like my surprise didn’t last,” the coach said, laughing.

“Coach, stop scarring us, why are you laughing? Oh damn it was the coach. Fuck he’s gonna want to kill us now so he doesn’t have any witnesses. OH SHIT.

“Shut up Eric, since when do you get sacred like that, I was just going to tell you guys that that I got new uniforms. Is that not something to be happy about instead of being afraid.”

“Damn coach, well where the hell did you get those fucking uniforms ‘cause they sure don’t smell like new?” Carlos said.

“Very funny. Just for that you’re not getting shit.”

“Nah, for real coach, you can go check yourself.”

“Okay, I will.”

The coach slowly walked to where his surprise bag was while the team practiced some shooting drills. To his surprise, he discovered that the boys where right the damn uniforms didn’t smell so pleasant at all.

“Wow! Wata fuck is this? This is not the bag I was talking about. Who the hell did this?”
Not thinking about it any further, the coach grabbed some goalie gloves and decided to open the bag. A bloody body lay there with several stab wound covering the flesh. Worst was the face. It had been disfigured enough so that it was impossible to recognize who it was.