Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1) (7 page)

Alton Tooney had been a handyman in the Black Forest area for over seven years. He, and his nephew Craig, had mowed lawns, fixed roofs and painted barns in the area the whole time. He was practically a fixture in the area. To his benefit, people didn’t really check the sexual offender registry. Seven years before, Alton had been released from prison after serving fifteen years for rape. There had been no time off for good behavior. Alton was a sexual sadist, he enjoyed the pain he caused others, but what he reveled in was their fear. He had raped several men while in prison. Alton was not a homosexual, he was not a heterosexual, Alton was only interested in hurting others. He received sexual gratification from this. Since his release, he had made a good living doing chores for the people in this small community of rich, religious folk until about a month before.

Alton had kept himself in check, and so had not been hampered by this past, by finding a recipient for his vices. His half-wit nephew Craig had been his only victim for seven years, and it tore Alton up. He wasn’t even sure it hurt Craig anymore, and Alton had taken to peeping into the windows of his customers and fantasizing about binding and raping everyone, while making the others watch. It was only a matter of time before he was able to find one alone, and take her to the dungeon he had prepared under his trailer park. This was where he forced Craig to do his bidding, but Craig didn’t even cry any more. It was pathetic.

A little over a month before, the cops had come calling. This uptight Christian bitch, who wasn’t even one of his clients, had checked the sexual offender registry and had begun hanging signs to “warn” people about him. The cops had almost caught him peeping once, and had searched his house, but not found the dungeon. They had begun doing weekly checks on him and Alton was fed up with it. But something had changed yesterday.

He had peeped on that meddling bitch, Kimberly Pile, but he knew he couldn’t take her. They would look for him first, so he had begun to peep on her. He was looking for some way to take someone close to her, to make her feel the pain, without Alton getting caught. Apparently, the little twat had seen him on the road yesterday and called the police. Corporal Danvers, of the Sheriff’s department had come to the trailer to serve him with one of those restraining orders. He had found the entrance to the dungeon, and had pulled his gun on Alton. But then the power went out and Craig had hit the Deputy with a shovel, the cop turned on Craig and fired his weapon. But nothing happened.

Alton had calmly walked up behind the cop and smacked him over the head with a bat, knocking him out. He planned to take him downstairs and get off, before the rest of the cops came to arrest him. But the idiot nephew then started bashing the cop’s head in with the shovel. He killed the only victim Alton had a chance to make use of. Alton had still dragged the Deputy’s corpse into the dungeon, and waited to see what he could do. But no one ever came. The power never came back on, and the phones didn’t work. He couldn’t even move the cop’s car, because it didn’t work. The rain had flooded the dungeon and they hadn’t even hung the cop up yet. So that bastard was just floating in the water downstairs.

When Alton had woken up that morning, the rain still hadn’t stopped, but he knew what he was going to do. That bitch’s house was only a mile and a half if he walked through the woods. He told Craig to grab rope, tape and a knife and the dim wit always did as he was told. They had trekked through the woods to the Pile home and here they stood, peeping in her window. She seemed to be alone, but he could see she had a shotgun out on the table. She was reading a bible; Alton could feel himself getting excited for the rage he was about to unleash on her. He sent Craig around the front of the house to knock on the door. He was even hoping the idiot might take a shotgun blast and be removed from his existence.

When he heard the knock on the door, he saw Kimberly Pile get up from the table, her hair finely cut, her makeup perfectly applied. She walked to the front door and Alton walked to her back porch. As he suspected on this hot wet day, she had the door open and the screen closed. Like most stupid people, she had locked the screed door. He just pushed his way through it and walked into the room where she was holding the shotgun on Craig.

Craig made a stupid move, and the bitch pulled the trigger. It was Craig’s lucky week, because once again, nothing happened and he grabbed the shotgun out of her hands. She turned to run and ran right into Alton, who pushed her back. Craig grabbed her arms from behind and she kicked out at Alton with all of her force. She missed his nuts, and instead hit his hip as he turned. He punched her square in the face and she fell back, unconscious. He was already aroused by the activity, but that fight had almost sent him over the edge. He decided right then and there that he was going to go slow with this one, enjoy every minute of it. He tied her hands behind her and slapped duct tape over her mouth and sat on her couch to wait until she woke up.

Sitting there, Alton began to have ideas of such cruelty that he almost climaxed waiting. He had a plan, a plan that included the death of his idiot nephew, the destruction of this meddling bitch and her being found out in the open. The fear this would cause would thrill him. He wasn’t a fool, he knew this would take him back to prison, but he couldn’t come up with a better way to go. He would be the bogeyman that they told stories about for years. It was the best ending of his so-called freedom, and he could return to prison, a place ripe with victims.

“Craig, get your dumb ass in here!” He called back to his nephew who was wandering through the house looking for valuables. Craig walked in from the hallway with that moronic look on his face he carried at all times. “Grab her feet, we are going into the rain.”

“To the basement?” Craig smiled like they were going to see a pony.

“No, not to the basement, idiot. Now that basement is full of water and a floating cop, ain’t it? You are so stupid.” Craig just looked down and followed his uncle’s lead as they took Kim out into the rain. The pouring rain was enough to wake her and she began to struggle. Alton always loved the struggle of his victims, it was like foreplay. The next house was about a hundred and fifty yards behind them, so he would go about seventy-five, rape her, make her watch him slowly kill the dimwit and then gut her like a pig next to a tree.

As she struggled, Craig dropped her legs. Alton slapped her in the face, “Oh keep struggling you little bitch, I like it that way. I am gonna do you in every hole, then my idiot nephew is going to do the same, and we are going to leave you naked and tied to a tree so everyone can see. You will learn to mess with Alton Tooney.”

Alton wanted her to know it was him, her fear was almost to the height of its possibilities. He grabbed her hair in one hand and an arm in another and listened to her try to scream, it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. He found what he was looking for, a clearing within ear shot of the next house, but far enough that they wouldn’t find this mess for a while. He dragged her up against a tree and threw her roughly down onto the ground. “Hold her feet, moron.”

As Craig held the woman’s feet, Alton stuck his knife under her blouse and slowly cut it from her body. Her sobbing and gasping were delightful; this was working out better than Alton could have hoped for.

Walking up to the door of the target store, Adam could see that it was double locked. The store had strong locks on the doors and a gate pulled down and locked behind that. On top of that, they had apparently managed to get all of the carts inside before locking up. Target, it seemed, was a bust as far as their purposes went. It was not flooded, but there was nowhere to go to truly get out of the rain. For the moment, the overhang was providing some shelter, but it wasn’t much as the occasional gust of wind would splash them with a strong spray. Adam felt like he was on the beach during a tropical storm.

“The high school?” He asked, turning toward Cal.

Cal shrugged. “I don’t see any other option.”

Each member of the group sort of sighed and steeled themselves to head into the torrent of water and wind again. Ellen began the walk out front on point and Cal just smiled. Adam knew that his old boss liked anyone who showed initiative. They all fell in line and moved out toward the highway.

Ted stared out the back door into the rain. It had been pouring for almost twenty-four hours. It would be dark soon. He really didn’t want to look the same way out the front window, where Kate was, she might notice that he was also growing concerned. Where Kate was worried something had happened to her husband, and worried she would never find her son in all of this, Ted was worried about something else. Ted looked at this rain in a traditionally dry area, and knew what that meant. It meant flooding, it meant washed out roads and bridges. Without the power or communications, he was worried they would be stranded here much longer than he had provisions for. Rich had run through the rain back to his chapel to collect some clothing, some more food and some gear to get through the nights and days. He hadn’t returned yet.

Ted was surprised to see all three dogs rise, almost as one and stare into the rain. He saw the hair on the back of their necks stand up, and as one body, they ran full sprint into the woods behind his house. He opened the door to try to stop them or call them back, but they were gone into the trees without a trace. He turned to see if anyone else had seen that and saw his ten-year-old daughter with a look of abject horror and rage. He stepped toward her to see what was the matter. “Sweetheart, what’s up?”

She ran a dead sprint, as fast and suddenly as the dogs had right out the door he had just opened and into the woods. Rich had just come in and had seen her run.

“Max! Come back, it is not safe!” Ted called, as Kayla and the rest of the family came up to the window. He and Rich both stepped out into the rain. “I will get her; I have never seen anything like that. Did you see the look on her face? She looked pissed, I have no idea what is going on.”

Ted and Rich ran into the woods in the direction his daughter had just disappeared, shouting for her and knowing how muffled the rain was making their calls.

Alton finished his undressing of this uptight whore with a nick of his knife cutting her bra open and exposing her large breasts. What was it about these uptight broads? They always had a great rack, he chuckled softly.

Putting his head right up to her ear, he said, “Oh let me cut you out of these panties, and then the fun begins.” The bitch was whimpering quickly, sobbing and shaking her head. He looked up into her eyes, but she wasn’t looking at him, she was looking past him.

“Umm, Uncle Alton?” Craig stammered.

Alton turned to see a skinny pre-teen blonde girl staring him down. If this had been a grown man, Alton might have grabbed a weapon. She had murder in her eyes, it was a look Alton understood well.

“Well, lookee what the storm brought us Craig.” He turned toward the little girl, twirling the knife in his hand. “Have you come to give Uncle Alton some dessert? Uncle Alton is going to hurt you. You know that don’t you?” He moved closer to her with each word, and she just stood there, saying nothing. He was about three feet away from her and was just about to reach out and snatch her by the hair, when she spoke.

It was a simple word. She spoke it low, and curtly. All she said was, “Now.”

Alton reached for her and saw the pitbull clamp down on his outstretched arm. Any thought he had of fighting it off was stopped by the other dog that tore into his leg. A huge shepherd jumped over them and ran full steam at something behind him, he heard his nephew scream at just the moment when the pitbull let go of his arm. Alton reached to stop the blood spewing from the gash in his wrist, not having time to stop the huge gaping maw and gnashing teeth of the pit bull as it snapped its teeth into his exposed throat. The dog shook its head and ripped out the majority of the soft tissue in Alton’s neck. Alton Tooney, convicted rapist and sexual sadist, died before he hit the ground.

Ted had run right into the clearing to the strangest sight. He saw a woman naked and tied up to a tree. He saw a man reach for Maxine, but before his rage could even rise in his throat, his daughter had mumbled something and the three dogs had attacked the two men. It was the most brutal attack he had ever seen, and he had served in four war zones. There was no way around it, he had just witnessed his ten-year-old daughter order her dogs on two unarmed men. He was petrified and weirdly proud, all at once.

He realized right away how ridiculous the situation was. The men seemed to be actually in the process of raping a woman, and for all he could tell, somehow his little girl had known, had run to the woman’s rescue and had unleashed the hounds of hell on her attackers. Then it was over. He saw Max reach down and pat the pit bull, which at that moment was cleaning the blood off its fur. The Shepherd had ripped the innards out of the other man, who sat on the ground, holding his own entrails, dying in front of their eyes. The dogs were as docile as they had been vicious just moments earlier. The rain itself was cleaning their fur.

He was standing there stupefied as Rich inched past him and untied the woman from the tree and took his coat off to cover her. His little girl was back to normal that quickly also. She walked up and threw her arms around her father’s leg.

“It’s okay, Daddy.” That little angelic face looked up at him and smiled a calm smile, “I saved her.” Then Maxine and the dogs started a slow walk back to the house.

Rich was helping the woman walk in the same direction, back toward the house and passed within a foot of Ted, who was just standing there stupefied.

“Come on, buddy,” the pastor offered, “We can figure it out back at the house.”

The man who was trying to push his intestines back into the gaping wound the dog had created looked up and reached a hand out for help. Ted had seen what they were up to, anyone with two eyes could see it. And there was nothing he could do for the man. He turned and walked back to his house. Whether from the rain muffling the sound, or because the man no longer had an intact diaphragm, Ted never heard a peep out of the man as he walked back or any other time. Ted didn’t know it, but Craig Tooney died within moments of watching Ted walk away.

Ted walked into his living room and saw his wife doting over her daughter, while Kate and Natalee were attending to the woman Rich had brought in. Beth looked at him with a look of query and all Ted could do was shrug. He walked over to his daughter and knelt down so that he could look her right in the eyes.

“Maxine,” he said, trying to wipe away the fear and confusion he was feeling, “I need you to tell Daddy about the dogs and how you knew to save that lady.”

Kayla looked up at her husband, and was forming a rather serious angry retort, when their daughter spoke. Everyone in the room went silent, except for the continued sobbing of the woman.

“They are my friends, Daddy, I told you that.”

Ted was seeing more to the picture than he had before, he knew there was more. “But they are more than that right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Princess says she is in my pack, and Rex and Snickers joined after that. We are like a family, like our family, only different.”

Ted looked out at the dogs on the porch, where they lay, just like before they ran to the woman’s rescue. “Honey, how does Princess talk to you?”

Max looked up at him like these were very strange questions. “In my head, Daddy. Dogs can’t make words like you and me. Don’t be silly.”

Ted was having a hard time with this, but no one else was talking, or even moving. “And Princess told you that the lady was in trouble.”

“I don’t know how to say it, is it important?” Max was clearly done with this line of questioning.

Kayla spoke up, “please answer your father’s questions, sweetie. We need to know.”

Max thought for a minute. “It isn’t words. It is smells, and sounds, and feelings. It wasn’t Princess, not at first. Snickers smelt the fear, and the bad guys, they smelled like, well, like bad. Do you know what I mean?”

Ted nodded. “Okay honey, will you do Daddy a favor and tell me if you need to go, or if the dogs, your pack, let you know anything else?”

Max looked completely bored, like this was a crazy approach, “But they send me these messages all the time, I mean all the time. Do you want me to tell you all of them?”

Ted hugged his daughter, he didn’t know what was going on. “I guess just the important ones.”

Max squeezed him, “It’s okay daddy, I will protect you. My pack is strong. There are more dogs out there, they are wandering and have no pack. Is it okay if I add them to the pack?”

Ted peered into this tiny girl’s eyes, “Can you control them baby?”

Max just laughed at this, “They are me, Daddy.” She wandered back to her room. Ted looked back out at the dogs and a large Rottweiler walked out of the woods and lay down on the porch next to the others.

Ted called out, “Maxine?”

The sweet voice of his only daughter called out from her room, “Her name is Queenie.”

Ted looked around at the rest of the people in the room, who bore the same incredulous look on their faces that Ted assumed was plastered across his.