Round Trip (part 1)

           

Round Trip

            Four thirty. Just enough time to get his things and go. Garrett went up to the small grey number pad that was located on the wall next to the garage door.

            Four…seven...nine…three…zero.

            The teenager looked around at the other houses on the street. He brushed his light brown hair away from his hazel eyes to survey the houses down the street. Nobody seemed to be home. Most of the cars that were parked in the street when their owners were home were nowhere to be seen Not even Mr. Whitaker’s brand-new, orange 2019 Corvette that he kept parked in the driveway as a means of showing it off. Little did he know, the woman who lived just a couple doors down had a Maserati in her garage.

But it might be better if he didn’t know that. Knowing that a woman made more money than he did would surely rub him the wrong way. Whitaker was nearly seventy—five years old, and too old to be having a mid-life crisis. (It didn’t stop him from buying that Corvette, though.) He was very set in his ways, in a sense. So basically, not a fan of progressiveness.

            For a moment, Garrett considered waiting until Mr. Whitaker got home so he could take the old man’s car. He’d deserve it for leaving the top down. But, if he did decide to wait, Garrett would have to find a way past his parents when they got home. He was trying to avoid them at all costs. It would be easier if he didn’t have to come up with a lie to get out of the house.

            As the garage door opened, his phone buzzed out of inactivity. Garrett took it out of his back pocket and slid the green icon from the left to the right to answer the call he was getting from his best friend, Elliot. Raising the phone to his ear, Garrett already know what Elliot would say. But he was adamant about the decision he was making.

            “I already know what you’re gonna say. Yes, I’m still leaving. I can’t deal with my parents anymore,” Garret hurriedly whispered as he ran up the stairs.

            There was a pause before Elliot spoke, “I…didn’t call to change your mind.”

Elliot sounded a bit unsure of himself, which was very strange. Usually, Elliot was a braggadocious teenager. He acted as if he owned the world. But now, he sounded as if he might cry.

            “Then why did you call?” Garrett asked him, becoming anxious.

            “You’ll text me while you’re gone, right?”

            Garrett smiled a bit upon realizing that his best friend would miss him when he was gone. At least someone would. And for the right reasons.

            “Yeah, buddy. I will. Every chance I get.”

            “You think…maybe…I can come, too?”

            “No can do, El. I have to do this on my own. Besides, I need you to help me out, but you’d have to be here to do it.”

            “What d’you want me to do?” Elliot asked, sounded a bit less sad knowing he could help his friend.

            “Some serious shit is about to go down,” Garrett explained. “I’ll text you when it starts happening.”

            Garrett stopped speaking momentarily as he emptied his backpack and darted around his room getting the things he would need to bring on his mission.

            “I need you to stay safe until then, and…let you’re uncle know to stay away from the group.”

            “WHAT!? Why?”

            “Because Ben is helping me get away from my parents. But he asked me to do something for him, first.”

            “…Eww…” Elliot snickered. “I thought you were too old for him.”

            “It’s not like that!” Garrett raised his voice despite trying to stay quiet. He knew his older sister was home, probably, sleeping, and he didn’t want to alert her to his actions. Or, any that he may have made in the past.

            “Lighten up! I was just joking. I know you two were…ya know...close.  Like with Adam.”

            Garrett cringed. He didn’t want to remember what he had done with either of them. What they had made him do, just to hear them say they loved him. Only to be thrown away for a younger boy.

            “Sorry….” Elliot said. “I didn’t mean to make you mad.”

            “I’m not mad, Elliot,” Garrett could feel the tears welling up and rolling down his face. “I just… Do you ever get the feeling that your life isn’t yours? Or like people only want you around to do what they want?”

            “Sometimes. But, I guess, that’s just what it’s like for us.”

            “It shouldn’t be that way. So, I’m changing it.”
            “What d’you mean?”

            “You’ll see. Just make sure your uncle isn’t around when it happens.”

            “Right, but why?”

            “Steven cares about you. The way an uncle should. But, he’s a part of the group. For your sake, I don’t want him around when the police get involved.”

            “Ya know, you could have told me you were trying to take the guys down.”

            “And the fun in that is where?”

            The two boys laughed while Garrett put his things into his backpack in just the right way to fit everything he was sure he’d need. He’d just buy the other stuff as needed. He had enough money saved away to complete his mission without the money that was mysteriously placed in his checking account by Ben, but an extra three million dollars can go a long way.

            Garrett hung up and tossed his phone on the bed. He gathered his charger and threw it into his backpack. For a moment, Garrett wondered if he should even bring his phone. He knew if anyone really want to know where he was, they could just track his phone through the phone company.

            ‘Maybe I want them to know where I am,’ Garrett sat on that thought or a moment. He had been planning on taking down the group quietly and watch the panic as the members were being taken into custody. For as long as he’d been planning this quest, he’d been okay with that being the conclusion. However, if it were possible to pull it off while keeping everyone in the loop, that could be much more satisfying.

            Suddenly, the sound of a door slamming echoed into Garrett’s room. The sound made him jump, almost making him drop to the floor the way he did when his mother was angry with him. Or angry in general. She had a tendency to attack unprovoked. Virginia would often tell Garrett that he was allowed to visit Elliot’s house, or go to the park, among other things, but then cite that as an excuse to beat him until he crawled under his bed. The older Garrett got, the worse the beatings would be.

            “Shit!” Garrett whispered to himself. He’d have to move faster and plan the execution of his plot when he got to Tee Jay’s house when he got there.

            Garrett grabbed his backpack and quietly slid himself under the bed before mentally kicking himself in the balls when he realized, if his mom was home—and mad—that would be the first place she would look. But he didn’t have time to look for another place. He could hear the footsteps making their way towards his room. And in that moment, Garrett’s heartbeat slowed down just a bit. He’d realized the slamming door was the one to his sister’s room. Fortunately, she wasn’t as much of a bitch as their mother, but she could be when she was having issues with her boyfriend. Unfortunately, however, Josh had been at the receiving end of Norah’s frustration. Apples really don’t fall far from their trees.

            “Garrett!” Norah yelled. “I know you’re here! I heard the garage door open.”

            “Ugh…” Garrett slid himself out from under the bed, making sure to leave his backpack there. He didn’t want her to ask why all of his school supplies were dumped onto his desk, but it seemed to be full.

            “What were you doing under the bed?” Norah asked as she walked into the room, closing the door behind her. Garrett took note of that. He was planning to leave through the window, but Norah never closes the door behind her when she comes in.

            Garrett looked sheepishly toward the floor, “I...thought you were mom.”

            “Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Norah remembered several occasions on which Garrett had tried to hide under the bed when their mom was unleashing her fury on Garrett. And some times when it didn’t work.

            “Did you need something?” Garrett asked trying not to sound too direct or in any way set his big sister off.

            “Mom’s gonna be late getting home from work. She said we could order pizza. What do you want?”

            “Uh…I’m good. I was about to head over to Elliot’s house,” Garrett was surprised at how quickly he thought of that excuse, but he knew it put Elliot in a bit of a bind. He decided to let Elliot know about it and come up with an what to say if anybody came looking.

            “Cool,” Norah turned to walk out of Garrett’s room, her long, blonde hair swishing across her back as she left. “Just don’t bitch about being hungry later.”

            He thought about the times where he’d gone to bed hungry in the past thinking ‘It’s not like that would be a first for me.’ However, Garret’s father, Joseph, was a lot less harsh than Virginia. He would often pull Garrett out of bed and take him somewhere to get some food so the two of them could catch up while Garrett ate. On one hand, Garrett appreciate his dad for those times. But he wasn’t a stupid kid. He knew the main reason for Joseph did things like that was to make Garrett feel loved enough to allow his father to abuse him in his own way.

            Although obviously horrible, Garrett preferred that to his mother’s tantrums that usually resulted in bruises and welts and lots of blood. But, one thing he didn’t like about his dad forcing himself on the teenager was that it was abuse disguised as love. Sometimes, he wondered if anyone actually loved him. If anyone did, it wasn’t anyone in his family.

            Now that Norah was finally gone, Garrett could relax. He slid he backpack out from under the bed, pulling it onto his shoulders. This was the time to leave, if he had the balls to. Knowing his mom wouldn’t be home as soon as he thought made him feel as though he had all the time in the world. As Garrett knew, however, that just simply wasn’t the case. The more time he had to put distance between this house, the better.

            “At least I don’t have to leave through the window,” Garrett muttered to himself. Although, the Idea of doing so made leaving feel like a real escape, which is part of why Garett felt the aspect of leaving home would be so exciting.

Garrett picked up his keys and stopped.

            ‘I’m not gonna need these, anymore,” He told himself. ‘I never used them before anyways.’ True, Garrett usually just came in through the garage. At least, when his mom wasn’t home. When she was, he preferred to try to sneak in the back door. He didn’t want to be taken by surprise again and hit over the head with her umbrella. Or her purse. Or a frying pan. Anything she could get her hands on before her son walked really. Virginia liked to hide behind the back door for him while letting her anger over absolutely nothing involving Garrett boil over.

            He put his keys back down on his desk and took in a deep breath before letting it out. Just to make sure, Garrett checked to make sure he had his anxiety medication in his backpack. When he was confident that his Paxil was definitely in his possession Garrett made his way downstairs. Out of habit, he tried to walk quietly past his sister’s room. Norah was as intense as their mother, but Garrett could see her one day becoming just as hateful.

            ‘I hope she never has kids...’

            As Garrett reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard Norah call out to him from the kitchen. She was raiding the fridge while she waited for her pizza to come. Garrett always wondered where she put all that food considering she was a petite, short girl. Almost as short as her fuse.

            “You’d better get back before mom gets home! You know how mad she’ll be.”

            Garrett paused at the door, “Do you think Mom would miss me if I died?”

            “Nope,” Norah replied while stuffing the second half of a cookie she’d been eating into her mouth. “She’d probably be mad you didn’t let her kill you.”

            ‘Good,’ Garrett thought to himself with a smile.

He opened the front door, happy to go through this door without being concerned about what waited for him beyond it. Garrett went around to the side of the house and got on his bike. The one that Benito had bought him for his fifteenth birthday. It had been his favorite bike for over a year.

 Most kids in his grade were getting their driver’s licenses and cars their parents bought them. But Garrett knew his parents would never do the same for him. He had his driver’s license, although he never told them about it. Benito taught him how to drive, automatic and stick. He was the one who took him to take is driving test. There was talk about getting Garrett a car, but both of them knew that wouldn’t be possible. How do you explain to your parents a man they did know you knew bought you a car? His mom and dad would lose their fucking minds. And his dad might even be a little jealous of Benito.

‘Maybe I should’ve introduced Dad to Ben,’ Garrett pondered as he pedaled his bike to Benito’s house. ‘I wonder how that situation would end up.’

Garrett imagined them getting along well, or them hating each other and making it harder for him to visit Ben. Of course, by this point, it was too late to see how well that would work for him. Ben’s funeral was two days ago. Garrett was afraid to go but went with T.J. anyway. Neither wanted to see someone they cared so much for lying in a casket. Even if he was the leader of a child sex ring that he ran with his friends. Garrett never thought he would cry so much, or care so much, about a man he knew was just using him. Well, he more so thought he was being used.

It had crossed Garrett’s mind several times before and after Benito’s death that if he was just being used, it didn’t make sense for Ben to continued to spend time with him now that Garrett was out of Ben’s preferred age range. Even Ben’s son, T.J. (who was spared the abuse by Ben and the Group), once asked Garrett asked if he was relieved that he was only being used by one man now that he was too old for any of the members of the sex ring they called “The Group”. Garrett wasn’t sure how to answer that. He didn’t like participating in the activities they had set up for him and the other boys. But now that he wasn’t being forced to even be around the men, he missed the attention he used to receive.

Coming up to the red light at the top of the hill, Garrett took a right turn into a small side street that led to the gate encompassing many multimillion-dollar homes. He stopped at the gate to let the security guard know he was there to see T.J. The guard picked up a small black phone in the booth that he sat in, waiting for people to enter or exit the premises. After a short conversation, the guard let Garrett in through the gate.

Garrett noticed that the guard was giving him a vaguely sad look as he walked his bike through the gate. He knew. And Garrett knew he did. Many of the activities the Group held were hosted at Ben’s mansion. The guards knew what happened there, as did some of Ben’s neighbors. People in this neighborhood liked to know their neighbors’ business, but no one liked to get involved. And, even if they did, they weren’t willing to spend their millions in a court case against Benito for something they had no proof for, no matter how opposed they were to his...misconduct.

Garrett had a lot of practice shaking off the awkward feelings he got from the staring guards, which he was glad for. He used to not like when people looked at him. Now, he just didn’t care. This applied to the feeling of being watched he got every time he rode his bike up Ben’s driveway. He knew that there were cameras along the long trail that led to the house. He also knew that Ben loved to watch him as he pedaled his way closer. No doubt imagining what he would have in store for his prey. Hell, Ben got off on seeing Garrett’s shocked and horrified face whenever he mentioned it involved being tied up or paddled. Anything that made Garrett nervous was exciting to Ben.

Garrett Sighed as he rang the doorbell. He looked straight ahead instead of into the camera in the doorbell. Being here again brought back of a lot of memories, both good and bad. He hoped things would go well with T.J. as they’d had some issues in the past ranging from T.J. not liking Garrett to T.J. being jealous of him. And eventually, Garrett discovered that Ben’s son had a small crush on him. That confused Garrett quite a bit. He was never really sure if he was attracted to men or not. He felt the same way about women. But, when he found out that T.J. liked him, he was elated. And scared. T.J. Was a lot nicer than Ben was, however, he had his own quirks that occasionally gave Garrett nightmares of an evil toy master trying to turn him into a puppet.

Roulette (Part 3)

KayZee was standing in front of the television in the living room, feeling a wave of panic rise in her chest. She’d heard stories like this one in campfire stories before. Usually ones similar to the urban legend of the hook. But, as she listened to the news anchors talking about a woman who escaped a psychiatric hospital where she was being held, KayZee couldn’t believe what she was hearing was real.

            “What’s wrong, KayZee?” Harper asked. “Did something happen?”

            Harper stood next to her friend trying to figure out what happened to put KayZee in a near catatonic state. Unfortunately, Harper only caught the end of the report. She didn’t hear anything about the escaped patient. Only the anchors urging watchers to call the police if they saw a woman, whose picture was superimposed on the screen next to one of the reporter’s heads.

            “No, seriously. What?” Harper prodded KayZee.

            “Oh, nothing. Just something on the news that’s kinda creepy.”

            “What? Did something happen back home?”

            “Not there… Somebody escaped a psychiatric hospital about fifty miles from here.”

            “That’s only creepy if they were in for committing a crime,” Harper wasn’t concerned about someone escaping a hospital. Fifty miles away? What were the odds that they would end up anywhere near the cabin? Besides, Harper had learned through experience that people with mental illnesses weren’t all scary murderers as society would have everyone believe. In fact, her own older brother had Borderline Personality Disorder. He was still a pretty great guy.

           

***

            Mateo placed his duffel bag on the bed, making sure not to damage some of the things he’d brought. Most of the contents were his clothes, which he obviously wasn’t too concerned about. However, he’d had an idea for what he and his friends could do during their stay in the cabin. Mateo wasn’t expecting there to be much to do. He wasn’t even expecting there to be electricity. It was in the middle of the woods. Just in case this trip turned out to be the real-life version of the stereotypical slasher movie he brought his zombie knife. To be honest, it was more of a machete with a green handle. The tip of the blade of flat instead of pointed and the back end of it was serrated. His second most prized possession. His first being the bottle of vodka he took from his parent’s liquor cabinet. Sure, he’d be blamed for it later, but as long as this trip was in any way interesting, he was fine with that.

            Pulling out the bottle by it’s neck, Mateo held the bottle of clear liquid in front of his face, inspecting the contents.

            “How fucked up would it be if my Mom or Dad replaced the real vodka with a vodka bottle full of water. Wouldn’t be surprised. They have to know I’ve been taking shots of their good shit for years.”

            Mateo heard laughing coming from upstairs. It sounded like Miles. He’d know that deep bellowing chuckle anywhere. This reminded Mateo of a time when he went camping with Miles and few classmates in Junior High. One of the older boys in the class brought a flask full of whiskey and about five kids played a game called Roulette. That was the first time any of them had been drunk. One of the kids in the group, Vanessa, became more paranoid the more she had to drink giving them all away.

            “That’s a solid idea. A full bottle should be enough for a few games of roulette. Maybe more than enough. It all depends on how quickly we get wasted.”

            With his bottle of vodka in hand, Mateo walked back up the stairs to join his friends. It was already late—about eight in the afternoon. This would be the perfect time to play. Mateo hoped it would be as interesting as the first time.

***

            “Your parents are gonna be so mad you took that…” Jenna shook her head at Mateo. But, she was glad that he’d brought some liquid courage. Luka was going to need it. She couldn’t get him to relax around all of her other friends and it was starting to bother her.

            ‘Maybe I really shouldn’t have brought him along. But, he was invited. I guess he’s just really shy about being in other peoples’ houses.’

            “Yeah, they probably will. But, it wouldn’t be the firs time, nor will it probably be the last. Who cares about that? I brought it so we could play a game.” Mateo held up the bottle as if he’d one it on The Price is Right. “It’s something Miles and I played while we were on a school camping trip in Junior High!”

            “No…” Miles said, excited at the thought of playing what had since become his favorite game, despite only having played it once. His eyes widened as he thought of the fun he’d had the last time. Or, at least, what he could remember from that night. Miles had fewer shots than some of the other kids but reached a state of drunkenness faster because he was small for his age at the time.

            “Oh, yes, my friend!” Mateo had a look on his face that was borderline maniacal. It’s time to play… Roulette!”

            The others in the room who had never played Roulette before looked around at the others waiting for someone to explain Mateo’s rambling.

            “Oh, and you have to take straight shots. None of that pussy shit, chasing it with orange juice or whatever!”

            KayZee raised an eyebrow, “Pussy shit?”

            “Yeah, whatever. You gonna explain what we’re supposed to do?” Jenna asked. She was totally on board, feeling that getting Luka drunk would be the only way he would loosen up.

            “But, pussy shit, though?” KayZee rolled her eyes. “I’m gonna have to drink you under the table for that one…”

The Shadows' Empress (Part 11)

Jacob looked back down at the floor while he replayed the incident in his mind. He had a feeling Roland was now involved. And, the idea that this was true caused fear to rise and crash inside his chest like waves on a rocky beach. Jacob refused to lose anyone else. Especially not the way he lost his wife.

“Uh…Dad?” Roland gave his father a concerned look. “Are…are you okay? Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. Forget I even brought it up.”

“No,” Jacob said sternly with a level of finality which he almost never spoke. “I’ve been keeping this a secret for too long. Not even your grandparents know what really happened. And, to be honest, if I don’t tell you I’ll never be able to tell anyone.” Jacob wanted to tell his son everything. But, there is only so much weight a parent should put on their child’s shoulders. So, he left that last part up to Roland’s imagination.

“Besides…you really should know what happened to Helena.

‘What?’ Roland’s mind began to wander. Now, he was no longer concerned with what happened to his mother. Instead, he realized that he didn’t really know her, anymore. ‘Helena? Was that really her name? Something about it sounds foreign. Like, I knew her name, put can’t place it, and Dad just made one up.’

“To make things less complicated…everyone on my side of the family is a…well, we’re hunters,” Jacob said slowly, thinking about how pathetically cliché that sounded. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction. It’s a lot more ridiculous, too.

This confession caught Roland off guard and pulled his mind back to the present situation.

“Please don’t tell me we’re demon hunters…” Roland said incredulously. He felt that, even if his father told him they were, he wouldn’t believe it. As much as Roland liked the show, who would really want to live through an episode of Supernatural?

“Okay, I won’t. Because we’re not.” Jacob laughed at the absurdity. And then, frowned when he realized the truth wasn’t far off. “First of all, I understand that she’s pulling you into something that you shouldn’t be a part of. But, I’ll be damned if I let her take you. …I mean, I’ll probably be damned regardless. But, you know what I mean. Besides that, this is something that really should end with me. It’s not your concern.”

“Who is ‘she’? The Empress?”

“Empress? That’s what you call her?”

“Yeah, the Shadows’ Empress.”

“That’s more creative that what I call her,” Jacob had to give his son credit. It was like the kid was just as artistic as he was logical.

“What do you call her?”

“A bitch,” Jacob said without any kindness nor hate in his voice. Although, he began to hear up, which was something Roland had never seen his father do. “She’s the one who killed your mother, Roland. She took Helena from us! From me!”

The tears were falling freely, now. Jacob’s eyes were getting redder as he tried to keep himself from falling apart in front of his son. Meanwhile, Roland suddenly had more questioned he wanted answered. How did the Empress kill his mother? Why could he still not believe Helena was his mother’s name? …Where was she? Given the Empress may have killed his mother Roland had the idea that his mother’s body wasn’t in the casket that he saw being lowered into the ground when he was eight-years-old. Roland looked up at his father who was doing his best to wipe his tears away and failing.

‘I don’t think I’ll ask those questions just yet…’ Roland thought. It hurt him to see his father crying. Even more so when he thought about how this could have been avoided if he’d just figured things out by his own means. And, holy shit, did he have a lot to say to the Empress now. Part of Roland was angry that the Empress could have killed his mother. The other part didn’t exactly hate her as she had been helping him survive his nightmares. Which, for some people is an actual problem. Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death—basically dying in your sleep potentially because of bad dreams—was real. And, there was no telling what would happen to Roland if he died while he was asleep.

‘Maybe that’s how Mom died.”

The Shadow Man (Part 14)

There is no way that any family would be okay with staying in their house after a loved one was brutally killed in their bedroom. Officer Perez wasn’t surprised to hear that Jesse and his mother, who Perez had learned was named Camilla, decided to spend the next few days in a hotel room. Captain Mercer must have sympathized with them so strongly that he had the hotel room paid for by the precinct. Perez wondered if that was common, or if the Captain had finally gone soft. Jesse’s father Martin chose to stay in the house, and as the crime scene was thoroughly examined, he was cleared to do so. Officer Perez wondered if that was common, too. She had never spent the night in a house after someone she cared about was murdered in it. Maybe, Martin just couldn’t believe what happened. Or refused to…

Officer Perez was meant to be going home. However, even after her shift ended, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Jesse had told her about Olivia also seeing the “Shadow Man” Jesse referred to. Perez wondered if that had something to do with Izzy’s death. And if it did, what condition would her squad find Olivia in?

“This must be what a burglar feels like the first time they go to break into a house,” Perez said to no one in particular. She was alone, after all. She had remembered what Jesse said about the cave on the other side of the woods and felt there might be clues to Olivia’s disappearance there.

“I’ll just wait until I get past the trees to turn on my flashlight. Don’t need anyone catching me stalking through their backyard.”

Officer Perez brought her hand down to her utility belt, wrapping her hand around the textured grip of her state-issued Mag-Lite.

“A flashlight might be a better weapon against a guy made of shadows.”

This might have been true, but she brought her sidearm just in case the shadow person had more substance than she expected him to. To be entirely honest, she had yet to completely accept that what Jesse saw was, in fact, a shadow. People tend to see things differently than they appear when they are scared. It was very likely that he just saw a living person who was covered in the shade of the trees. But, Perez didn’t want to discount Jesse entirely. In her twelve years on the force, she’d seen some weird shit. This would be another of those things to add to her list of things she never thought she’d see.

Perez walked slowly through the woods, careful not to bump into any trees or trip over nothing like they do in horror movies.

“I’m far enough away…” she muttered while retrieving her Mag-Lite from her utility belt. The officer turned it on, sweeping the light from left to right and back again. Part of her was wishing a sign of Olivia, or this shadow man Jesse mentioned, would materialize in front of her; make her job easier.

“Oh, shit…!” Perez felt her heart jump in her chest. She was a bit more than halfway to the end of the forest, happy that she hadn’t walked into any spider webs, when she found a grey piece of fabric with pink and blue stars trailing down one side. Officer Perez had known what it was as soon as she saw it. The drawstrings gave it away.

“Is that a hoodie?”

Perez walked closer to the jacket draped over a bush that was low to the ground. Given what happened to Izzy she didn’t doubt there would be a trap near it. Or under it. Instead of picking it up, Officer Perez took several pictures with her cell phone. When you find a piece of evidence you’re not suppose to move it. Doing so could contaminate it with her DNA, making it more difficult to identify the real culprit.

For the first time since the investigation began Perez felt that she was on the right track. She continued on, looking for more clues as she walked.

“If this is here, then maybe Olivia left her watch on the sidewalk for Jesse to find. She’s left a trail! …Maybe. Don’t get your hopes up. This could have just been a coincidence.”

The Officer finally reached the end of the woods. She stood there for a minute, looking around cautiously. There was no man as far as she knew. But, this wouldn’t be the first time a suspect snuck up on her. Well, tried to. Actually, there was nothing there between the trees and the cave. Perez walked toward the cave, leaning against the left side of the opening as she peeked inside. There was nothing but darkness. And, the smell of iron floating out of the quiet, black hole that resided in the cave. She smelled blood.

The Shadow Man (Part 13)

Having to deal with the police twice in one day was exhausting. And, at this point, terrifying and confusing. How do you explain something to the authorities when you don’t even know what happened? Izzy was asleep in bed when everyone left the house. But, when they came back he was…gone.

Jesse sat on the couch in the living room, absentmindedly massaging his left arm. When he saw his father covered in blood Jesse jumped out of fright, smashing into the curio just outside of the kitchen door at full force. Now, the floor was covered in pieces of broken china and glass, while his arm had potentially suffered further damage. Jesse barely noticed. His mind was very far off, at the moment. He was in shock; eyes staring out of the window toward the moon, hand rubbing his arm, mind blank. Jesse might as well have been asleep.

Standing only about six feet away at the base of the stairs, Officer Perez wrote notes as she took Jesse’s father’s statement. Although, it was hard to make sense of the hysterical man was saying. No one blamed him, though. While she wrote down Martin’s recount of how he found Izzy in his closet, Perez made a note in the margin of her notepad the last time she glanced over at Jesse: Glassy eyes, refuses to talk, possibly in shock. She also made sure to write in her notes that all three of Izzy’s family members were with the police earlier in the evening when the boy was potentially killed. They all had an alibi.

‘Complicated circumstances. Good thing I like a challenge…’ Perez thought to herself. ‘But, they’re kind of an unlucky family. I feel bad for them. One kid survives getting hit by a truck and passes out on the sidewalk looking for his missing friend. Then the other son is found…like that.’ The officer had a flashback to twenty minutes earlier when she saw the young teenager sitting disemboweled in his closet with a petrified look on his face, while everyone did their best not to step in the puddle of blood surrounding Izzy. Many of the other officers called to the scene couldn’t stand being in the room, much less looking at a victim as young as Izzy who had been murdered so violently. It was all just too much.

Perez finished taking Martin’s statement and he went to sit with his wife. This time, she was the one who couldn’t stop crying. Her face was buried in her hands as she sobbed. Officer Perez and her captain glanced over at the broken family.

“You’re not supposed to bury your kids,” Captain Mercer said quietly so the family didn’t overhear something they already knew.

“Yeah, I’m guessing they’re thinking something similar, right about now.”

“It seems everything’s getting wrapped up here. The family’s going to spend a few nights in a hotel until we get the scene cleaned up. You wanna head back to the precinct and write your report so you can go home?”

“Uh, sure. Just give me a minute. I need to ask the brother a few more questions.”

Captain Mercer glanced over at the teenager sitting on the couch seemingly lost in thought. “Okay. But, I’m not sure you’ll get anything out of him while he’s in shock.”

Officer Perez and Mercer nodded at each other as the Captain walked out of the house, presumably to write his own report. After tonight, he felt the need to spend time with his own children when he left work. He’d instructed many of the other officers whom had children to go home and do the same. Perez walked over to Jesse, sitting down on the couch next to him.

“I’m sorry about your brother…” she said softly. “Losing a family member is difficult, but, it gets easier to cope with after a while.”

The officer watched Jesse, waiting for him to respond. He didn’t, and Perez was expecting that. Out of everyone, he’s been the most traumatized by everything that had happened since his return from the hospital.

“I know that you’re probably in shock, but if you can hear me…” she put a hand on Jesse’s should squeezing gently. “…you can call me if you need to talk.”

She sat there next to Jesse for a bit noticing that his eyes were still glazed over. Captain Mercer was right; there was no getting through to him in this state. However, Officer Perez had an idea about what was going through Jesse’s mind. She recalled the last time they had met, only about an hour and a half earlier. Jesse mentioned something about shadows.

“You think it was them, don’t you? The shadow…creatures?”

For the first time since he had seen his father covered in his little brother’s blood, Jesse seemed to be focused; his mind clearing of the fog that weighed almost as heavily as his brother’s passing. He looked into Officer Perez’s eyes, not sure if he heard hear correctly.

“How…did you know?” Jesse asked her. ‘What, can she read minds, now?’

“Because you told me about them, earlier,” Perez smiled at the teenager. “No, it wouldn’t make sense, but I can see why you’d think that. If these things have been bothering you for a while. Did Izzy know about them?”

Jesse wasn’t sure if he really wanted to have this conversation. But, she knew it wasn’t his fault. She also knew that in situations such as this many victims’ minds replace what really happened with something that would be much easier to comprehend or deal with: a defense mechanism.

“Yeah…he’s seen one of them, before. It creeped him out. Olivia…saw it, too.”

The Shadows' Empress (Part 10)

Father and son brought the pizza and some soda into the living room, setting everything on the coffee table. Jacob and the twins immediately dug into their food as they watched their movie in the dim room. Roland, however, couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation he knew he’d have with Jacob when the movie was over. He spent so much time bracing himself for what he was going to hear that he barely ate any of his pizza, nor did he pay any attention to the movie.

Eventually, Roland decided he’d just not worry about what his father had to say until it came time for him to say it. Instead, Roland focused his attention on getting the box open. By now, he’d come to the conclusion that he had to find the other rooms in his dreams that were indicated on the map using the red symbols. Roland had been to one of those rooms already experiencing the vision that he figured must have been the “secret” the Empress was talking about.

‘So, if I find all of the secrets, the box will be unlocked?’ Roland asked himself. ‘I’m not sure if I really wanna find them given what was in the first one. But, I don’t think I have a choice.’

It occurred to Roland that he could fact-check his dad. All he had to do was go through all of the visions that were kept in those rooms, and he would see the truth. Something about that idea made Roland nervous. If his dad was willing to lie to him twice about the same situation he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. For a second, Roland wished he’d never asked. Why would he when he was going to figure it out on his own, anyway?

‘Experiencing the vision in that first room unlocked the first of seven locks, causing the first symbol on the box to disappear…’ Roland reminded himself. ‘So, will it still show up in the picture of the map?’ Pulling his phone out of his back pocket the he opened the gallery app and tapped the “Camera” folder that contained the photo he was looking for. He zoomed in on the picture and counted all of the symbols from the left side to the right.

‘Only six…’ Roland’s hypothesis was correct. The symbols vanished from both the box and the picture of the map. ‘At least that makes things easier.’

“Alright, you guys! Time to clean up!” Jacob announced as the lights as he rolled the dimmer switch to increase the brightness of the lights in the living room. Roland realized he had spent so much time up in his own head that he missed most of the movie and the credits were rolling. On top of that, he’d only eaten one slice of his pizza. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by his father.

‘Oh, well. I’ll finish it later, when I’m actually hungry.’

***

Roland sat at his desk, waiting for his father to finish tucking in Scarlet and Spencer. He really just wanted this conversation to be over. And, knowing the next few secrets that the Empress had left for him to find would probably hurt him emotionally as much as the first did, he couldn’t wait to go to bed so he could find them.

Glancing at the side of his bed, Roland checked to make sure the box was hidden well enough that his father wouldn’t find the decrepit treasure in it’s hiding spot. Who knows how Jacob would react if he noticed the box nestled between a few other small boxes that contained things Roland had collected over the years. The young man chuckled to himself as he realized that he’d hidden one box among boxes of other things he didn’t want anyone to know he had.

‘I’d be screwed on so many levels if anyone looked under my bed…’

There was a knock at his door, causing Roland to jump a bit in his desk chair.

“Mind if I come in, bud?” Jacob’s voice came quietly from beyond the Roland’s bedroom door.

“Yeah…” Roland’s heart began to beat faster. ‘Let’s get this over with.’

Jacob opened the door and closed it behind him before walking over to sit on his oldest son’s bed.

‘Good…’ Roland thought to himself. ‘He can’t see the box if he’s basically sitting on top of it.’

Jacob leaned back a bit, his arms behind him for support. He was quiet for a while, looking around the room. He wasn’t sure what to say. He decided earlier in the evening that he’d cross the bridge when he got to it. And now that he stood at it’s edge, so to speak, he found himself more worried about how Roland had felt about the situation as a whole. His son hadn’t eaten much during dinner, which showed Jacob that the subject of his mother’s death was really bothering him.

“First off, I just want you to understand something,” Jacob began, clearing his throat. He suddenly wished he’d spent some time thinking about what he was going to say. “When your mother died, you were too young to understand the situation, and I figured it would be best to just simplify things until you were ready to hear the full story.”

“When were you thinking I’d be ready to hear it?” Roland asked as he thought about how much parents underestimate their children.

“When you asked me about it. Which obviously is now…” Jacob looked down at the floor wishing Roland had just gone along with his original story.

Jacob stopped talking for a while making the conversation—or lack thereof—uncomfortable for the both of them so Roland tried to take lead of the narrative.

“So…I’m guessing it wasn’t really an accident?”

“It depends on how you look at it,” Jacob said feeling a little sad as he looked into the hazel eyes Roland had inherited from his mother. “I was involved in something… My whole side of the family was. And, I tried to keep it a secret from your mother, but no one could ever accuse her of being dumb. She found out about out it, anyway. She insisted on helping. But, that’s what got her killed…”

Roulette (2)

Harper slammed the trunk a bit too hard after finishing putting her bags inside eliciting a loud yell from Miles. “I said be careful with my baby!”

            “Calm down, dude! Your ‘baby’ is fine!” Harper climbed into the front passenger seat happy that she didn’t have to sit in the back, for once. She glanced back at Miles and gave him the finger before sitting back and putting on her seatbelt. KayZee had already started driving away when Harper realized she forgot her favorite headphones. The cordless ones that were grey and had flashing blue lights on the ear cups. ‘Crap…Now I have to listen to Jenna talking shit about people at school.’

            Fortunately for Harper, Jenna pretended to be asleep almost the entire ride to the cabin, only giving herself away a couple of times when she started smiling. To be honest, she was loving the fact that Luka and Mateo were sitting close enough to each other. She kept waiting for them to start talking to each other, but it never happened. Mateo had fallen asleep only a few minutes after the group began their trip, and Luka had his earphones in listening to music the whole time. He must have been trying to avoid Mateo and just gotten bored, electing to continue playing his same favorite songs on repeat.

            “Uh…that’s no fun,” Jenna whispered to herself.

            “What isn’t?” Miles asked.

            Jenna glanced at Miles, suddenly getting the best idea shed ever had in her life. She quickly took out her phone opening the texting app. Miles stared at her confused. Jenna was shady sometimes, and apparently this was one of those times. Which meant Miles wasn’t going to like where this was going. Jenna furiously typed something into the text box, then stared blankly at the headrest in front of her, holding her phone tightly in her hands as they rested on her lap. Miles felt his phone vibrate. He never turned the ringer on. He got annoyed at the sound when he’d receive several Twitter notifications at once.

            Looking down at the screen, he read the text message that he’d gotten. It was from Jenna. ‘The fuck is she planning?’ he thought. The message read: “Let’s play Roulette”.

            Miles looked at Jenna, who was still acting as if she couldn’t turn her head to the left. His eyebrow raised involuntarily as he looked back down at his phone. By now, he knew not to say anything about this out loud. ‘What the hell is Roulette?’

            “I don’t have a revolver, Jen…” Miles sent his own message to Jenna who looked down and read it.

            Miles watched her Jenna type her response so quickly he wasn’t sure he’d be able to understand it when it reached his phone.

            “Not Russian Roulette. This is different. Its like truth or dare, without the dare.”

            “Where’s the fun in that?”

            “You have to ask a question and if someone knows the person is lying they figuratively take the bullet. I brought vodka, though. So, if someone gets called out they have to take a shot of Belvedere. All the fun you could ever want.” Jenna finished the message with a winking emoji which Miles stared at for a few minutes. He felt that it was weird for her to send the emoji when her face was so stoic.

            “You’re crazy…but it does sound like fun.” He felt a large smile spread across his face. He wasn’t sure what Jenna was up to, but there was alcohol involved. Any reason to party was good enough for him. And Miles loved to party.

***

            KayZee pulled into the driveway of her parents’ cabin, and everyone except for her was impressed at the beautiful building. The house stood two stories tall and was surrounded on all sides by huge, bare trees collecting snow on their branches. Harper wouldn’t stop talking about how much she loved the paint color; brown on the outside with white window and door frames, and shutters. The sun room built off to the side that didn’t get much use in the winter was also painted white. Mateo, thinking the walkout basement was the front entrance, walked directly towards one of the sliding glass doors.

            “Hey, KayZee! Why are your front doors made of glass? Isn’t that dangerous, or something?”

            “Because those aren’t the front doors!” Harper yelled. “Stupid…”

            “Oh…” Mateo picked up his bag and joined everyone else at the real front door as they funneled in.

            Harper grimaced at the mounted heads of a wolf, a buck, and a bear above the fireplace. She hated that people hunted animals for sport but understood the point of hunting for food. Even if she didn’t like it.

            “Uh…so, does your dad hunt, KayZee?” Harper asked, bumping into a wooden coffee table.

            “Nope. He just thought they looked cool, so his friend gave them to him,” KayZee replied. “My dad just likes to show off. Anyway, there are three bedrooms upstairs, two downstairs, and there’s a murphy bed in the basement. I’ll let you guys pick where you wanna sleep.”

            “Dibs on the basement!” Mateo said much too loudly before running off the wrong direction.

            “It’s the other way…” KayZee stated.

            Mateo ran across the room to the other side of the house where the stairs to the basement were. The lights were off, and even with the floor-to-ceiling windows, it was rather dark. He turned the light on, half expecting there to be a masked murderer standing at the base of the stairs with a bloody chainsaw. Of course, there wasn’t so Mateo walked down the stairs to check out the basement, excitedly pulling down the murphy bed and placing his bag on top of the mattress. Pulling the bed down revealed a shelf at the top of the large, wooden case that housed bed sheets.

            “This is awesome!” Mateo began to happily jump up and down. “It’s like Scooby-Doo! Without a secret room to get dragged into.”

            Miles stared in the direction of the basement stairs. “The funny thing is…he doesn’t like basements. He’ll probably end up sleeping on the couch,” He chuckled. ‘Or on the floor next to my bed.’