Mystery's Choice (Vengeance Of The Fallen Book 1) (8 page)

“Get a hold of yourself, girl.”  Kim muttered to herself.

She stood and began pacing her room. Sighing, she walked over to the phone and picked it up.

“He doesn’t care and he didn’t believe you.”  She told herself, putting the phone back in the cradle.

She screamed when the lights went out in her room. She could see light coming under the door from the rest of the house, so she went towards it.

Kim bit back a scream when something touched her ankle, something cold and slimy. She took a deep breath and started walking, only to trip over a lump on the floor. Kim caught herself with her arms before her face hit the floor.

She gasped when laughter came from the darkness of her room. A cold slimy band grabbed her legs and began pulling her back further into the room. Panic filled her mind. Snakes. The floor of her room was a writhing mass of snakes. She could feel them slithering along her side and through her hair.

The light flared to life and she saw what was holding her legs. A serpent’s tail as wide across as her body firmly held her legs. Kim followed the tail around her room, her eyes widening in terror at the very human head on the serpent’s body.

The snake eyes peering out of the face watched her in myopic glee. Kim tried desperately to free her legs, but with every twist the hold got tighter and tighter until her legs broke and she screamed in agony. She could see the bones glistening in the light. The smaller snakes flocked to the blood from her legs, slowly, covering her entire lower body. Eventually her lower body was lost beneath them. She reared back in pain and saw the head leaning down towards her, venom dripping from its enormous fangs.

“Ssssuch tender meat,” it hissed.

Kim screamed. She choked, gasping for air as the serpent’s jaw distended and the giant mouth full of razor sharp fangs encompassed her head. She had the dim thought she could no longer feel her legs, and she was gone.

Moonlight desperately fought the thick shadows for small glimpses of the running cloaked figure. The soulless chants of the damned chased the figure down the deserted street.

Long, trembling fingers threw back the hood of the cloak revealing green eyes huge with fear, set in a pale, flawless face. A single crystalline tear escaped Abigail’s glowing eyes as she frantically searched the deserted street for sanctuary.

After catching her breath, Abigail continued her flight down the street, trying doors, banging on windows, praying to the God she had spent her life blaspheming for someone to help her. She began to weep when the door to a church opened and soft welcoming candlelight spilled out. God had heard her prayers and he would answer them.

As she stepped through the door, light caught in her golden hair, surrounding her bent head with a halo. Slowly, she approached the altar with the hope of salvation shining in her eyes. Abigail murmured prayers she had heard in the minds of those she had fed in the torture rooms over the years as she knelt on the altar steps, closing her eyes, she let out a breath she didn’t even realize she’d been holding; she was safe.

As she finished her prayers she sensed a presence beside her. The heavy scent of roasted flesh and feces assaulted her nose. Slowly, she opened her eyes and turned her head. Feral, yellow eyes full of death loomed over her. She cringed back when she saw bits of flesh rotted between razor sharp teeth as the small-winged beast growled at her. It licked parched lips in anticipation of the treat to come.

Abigail rose to her feet, begging for her life, promising everything.

“We have everything you have to give. Now you die!”  The beast said, its cracked voice like gravel scratching across metal.

Outside, in the alley, a rat scurried away as maniacal laughter and the first scream filled the air.

7

Sam Jeffries pulled his ancient, colorless pickup to a halt in front of the graceful, old church and wondered if he had the wrong address. Only one patrol car was parked out front. He jumped out of his truck and strolled to the front door. Pulling on the intricately scrolled iron door handle, he found it locked. Puzzled, he shuffled around back, hoping he had his wires crossed and there wasn’t any dead body for him to look at. All hope of going back to the station vanished when; the back door flew open as two uniformed officers came flying out.

They retched onto the cobblestone walkway and Sam turned his head away. It was then he noticed all the patrol cars surrounding the coroner’s van, and Sam seriously considered going back to his truck, it must be bad. The sound of soft weeping wafted through the air and the cops waiting around the coroner’s van all had blotchy faces.

Sam took a deep breath, opened the door, and gagged at the stench, which engulfed him. Blood dripped from every available surface, its metallic scent mixing with the smell of fresh death. As Sam approached the altar he noticed bits of gore clinging to the pews. Sam had to close his eyes as his gaze settled on the altar and the grizzly site atop it.

A woman’s jaw and part of her throat rested on the altar. Flies buzzed around the shiny length of spinal cord, which clung to the exposed brain stem.

“Wild animal, Vern?”  Sam asked as he tried to avoid looking down.

“Either an rabid animal or an angry, insane boyfriend.” Vern answered as he pushed his glasses up, leaving a smudge of who knew what behind to grace his nose.

“So if it’s an animal attack why am I here?”

“Word is the victim’s description matched a perp on a case you were working on.” Vern said as he hefted his overweight frame to a standing position.

“What case?”

“Mine is not to reason why…” Vern said as he began to probe the top part of the head, the woman’s eyes looked surprised. Blood matted the blond hair to her head.

Sam whirled around and went to find his partner. Naomi Calabrese was squatting in the corner over a dismembered arm, carefully opening the hand to pry something from it.

“Hey, Sam” she yawned as he walked up to her. “Pretty gruesome, huh?”  Her brown eyes had shadows under them.

“Yeah.”  He touched her shoulder, “The baby keeping you up at night?”

“Yes, the kid thinks daytime’s for sleeping and nighttime’s for partying.”  She pulled a pendant from the victim’s hand, “What do you suppose this means?”

“I don’t know.”  Sam shook his head. “This is the woman the teenager told me about. The one who rescued her?”

“Sam, do you think this was done as some sort of revenge?” Naomi stood up, “I don’t think the girl you told me about would be capable of doing something this horrid, do you?”

“No. I think this was retaliation by the group who kidnapped Kim because the victim rescued her.”  Sam needed air, so he headed for the door. Naomi followed him.

“Sam we need to find Kim, she could be danger.”

Sam climbed in his truck, started it and waited for Naomi to climb in.

“Call dispatch and get the address.”  Sam said as he turned the corner and pulled into traffic.

Sam jumped out of his truck and ran for the door of the sprawling split-level ranch house, Naomi was right behind him. She grabbed his arm and motioned for him to wait.

“Sam if we’re wrong we are about to terrify the parents for nothing.”  Naomi whispered.

“We’re not wrong.”  He said.

“Okay, let’s ring the bell and calmly ask if we can speak with Kim.”

“Alright, we’ll do it your way.”

Sam straightened his jacket and smoothed his hair, and continued to the door. He looked back at Naomi and when she was ready he rang the bell.

A sleepy looking man jerked the door open halfway through the third ring. He squinted at the early morning light, and glared as his eyes adjusted.

“What could you possibly want at this time of morning?” he asked hostilely.

“I’m Detective Sergeant Jefferies.” Sam flashed his badge. “This is Detective Sergeant Calabrese.”  Naomi flashed her badge. “We need to speak with your daughter, Kim.”

The man was instantly awake and the glare intensified. “What’s this about?”  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Whatever it is she didn’t do it, she was here all night.”

“May we come in?”  Sam asked

The man stepped back to let them into the foyer. An equally hostile looking woman stood on the last step of a spiral staircase. She came down the last step.

“What could you possibly need to ask my Kim?” she asked suspiciously.

“Your daughter came into the station yesterday claiming she had been kidnapped when she snuck out of the house two nights ago.”  Naomi said in a calm, clear voice.

“She was here all night. I checked on her twice, once before I went to bed and once about three when I went to the bathroom.”  The woman was beginning to look concerned.

“Do you always check on her?”  Sam asked.

“No.” the woman sighed, a long-suffering sigh, “Kim is going through a phase. She’d recently dyed her hair, put holes in her body and started hanging around with a wild crowd.”

“Her mother and I set some rules.”  The man said, “Kim had always been a joy, no problems until about six months ago… it was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. She just changed. It took us a while to recover from the shock and we laid down the law. Kim didn’t like it.”  He took his wife’s hand, “It has been a war zone around here ever since.”

“That night we had a fight because she was grounded and she wanted to go to a party. I was checking on her to make sure she didn’t sneak out.” The woman continued.

“Well we were just at the murder scene of a woman who fits the description Kim gave us of the woman that rescued her. We believe her story and we want to put her in protective custody.”

The woman blanched and the man ran up the stairs two at a time.

“We will get to the bottom of this. And she had better hope she was making it up and she kept her bottom in her room like she was told to!” he yelled, “Kim!”  He disappeared at the top of the stairs.

A moment went by before the man came back down. “Kim!”

“Sydney, what is it?” the woman was crying.

“She’s not in her room!  The light was on, the TV was on, and the window was open so we can refrigerate the neighborhood. She probably lit out when she heard them.”  He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He went into the kitchen and opened the garage door. Sydney whirled around his face almost purple with anger. “The Lexus is gone!”

The woman sat down on the steps and began to sob. Naomi went to comfort her.

“What year is the car?”  Sam asked Sydney.

“2010. SE Sedan. Antique Copper. 4 door.”  He replied stonily. “This is the last straw. She’s going to military school.”

“Sydney, no!”  The woman begged.

“I know you don’t want her to be so far away from us, but she is out of control and neither one of us has any idea how to reach her.” He came and sat beside her. “Margie, if we don’t do something we are going to lose our little girl.”

Naomi looked down at her sneakers and Sam went to the phone on the rosewood table by the door.

“I need to put out an APB on a car. Lexus SE Sedan, 2000, Copper colored.” Sam put his hand over the receiver. “What is the license number?”

The man looked up, closed his eyes in thought. “SXL 987”

“License number SXL 987. Thanks.”  Sam hung up.

“Officer what will happen when you find her?”  Margie asked.

Sam looked at Naomi, she answered. “We will put her in protective custody until we can figure out if her story is true. If it isn’t true, she will be under arrest for obstruction of justice. She could be facing one to four years.”

Margie buried her face in Sydney’s shoulder. He put his arm around her. “Just find our daughter; we’ll worry about the rest later.”

“We’ll do our best.”  Naomi said as she walked to the door.

“We’ll let ourselves out. Sam followed Naomi. “And as soon as we know something you will hear from us.”

“Thank you officers.”  Sydney came to lock the door behind them.

Sam climbed back into his truck, and looking at Naomi he said what was written on her face. “We aren’t going to find her.”

“Nope.”  Naomi looked up at the worried father standing in the door and shook her head. “We won’t find anything, they got her.”

“Yep.”  Sam pulled out into the street and cursed himself for not listening.

Seth looked at his bologna sandwich and put it down. He didn’t have any reason to eat it, he wasn’t hungry and it didn’t look overwhelmingly tasty. The phone caught his attention and he wondered if he should call her. Mystery hadn’t been doing too well in the two months since her father’s death. She hadn’t been eating or going to class. Her nerves were frayed. The news some kind of cult wanted her was wearing on her. Every time the phone rang she jumped. She slept with light on, when she slept.

In place of the slim, athletic looking girl he loved so much, was now a thin, overly pale, and haunted looking one. Her long, black hair, which she usually smelled like roses, now smelled like oil and was jagged and dull. Her clothes hung on her in a limp, wrinkled mess. Seth was worried, she was his whole world, Mystery had to be okay.

He was picking up the phone to call her, when he saw Patricia Clarkson crying. Her daughter, Shauna, had been kidnapped two months ago. No ransom. No nothing.

“Patricia, are you alright?”  He set on the edge of her desk.

“They just brought a girl about Shauna’s age into ER. She’d been in a boating accident. I was trying to fix her IV and she grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes,” her voice broke, “and she died.”  She started to sob.

Seth hugged her. “Shauna’s alive, Pat.”  He pulled her back and looked into her eyes, “You’ve got to believe.”

Raevanne rubbed her hands together in delight; the little blond was very grounded in her faith. It had been two months, and still she stubbornly clung to the ridiculous belief she could possibly win, that God would save her. She was thankful the Master was giving her time to break this one; Raevanne could sense they were almost there. Raevanne wiped the sneer from her face and softly pushed the wayward blond strands from the sleeping girl’s brow.

“Shauna, its time to awaken.”  She said tenderly.

The thick lashes fluttered up to reveal confused, sleepy blue eyes. Raevanne smiled as the confusion cleared and the girl pushed away from her.

“Why won’t you tell me where I am?”  She glanced around at the rock walls and candles twinkling all around her.

“It’s not necessary.”  Raevanne centered herself and dove into the girl’s thoughts.

Fear. Pain. Her parents’ faces floated through her mind. Shame. Doubt. Anger. Her parents had lied.

As Raevanne eased her way out of the girl’s thoughts a smile spread across her perfect face, they’d won.

“Do you love Satan, Shauna?”

The girl’s face scrunched up, “No!  I love Jesus!”

Raevanne sighed, “Very well”. She turned and opened the heavy wooden door, “Malcolm.”