Rogue's Hollow (16 page)

“Am I gonna go to prison?” He hung his head and began to cry. “Oh, shit. What have I done? I’ve messed it all up.” His tears turned into uncontrollable sobs. “It was just too much, Malachi. I flashed back to my sister and something inside me snapped. I didn’t mean to do it. I’m so sorry.”

“What do you mean? What happened to your sister?”

He shook his head and panted, beginning to hyperventilate. Travis had forced all these feelings and memories out of his mind years ago. It was far too painful. He tried to move on and forget that it had ever happened. Now, it was resurfacing all over again. So many nightmares and so many sleepless nights. So much guilt and pain. He thought that all this was behind him. How could this be happening?

Malachi could see him breaking. He desperately wanted to help his young friend. “Deep breaths, Travis. Take deep breaths and put your head between your knees so you don’t pass out.”

Travis hung his head down and sobbed. Eventually he raised his head, crossed his arms over his knees and rested his forehead on them. He stared at the ground with tears and snot dripping from his face onto the leaves under him. “Shit, Malachi. I really fucked up this time.”

Malachi didn’t want to give up. He needed to know the truth. “Tell me what happened to your little sister, Travis.”

He never looked up. Clenching his jaw, he closed his eyes and cried. “He hurt her for a long time. He’d wait until my mom went to work. Then he’d sneak up to her room.”

“Who?”

“My old man.” The memories flooded back to him fast and furious. Travis struggled to keep it together. “I could hear her yelling for help. A couple of times I went to help her. He smacked me in the face and kicked me out. I didn’t know what else to do. I was just a kid.”

“Did you tell your mom?”

“I tried to. I told her about it once. She questioned him and he denied the whole thing. He said that we were spoiled brats who didn’t want to follow his rules. As soon as she left for work, he beat the hell out of us both. After that, I kept my mouth shut.”

“How long did this go on for?”

“It went on for about a year, once or twice a week.” He covered his face and sobbed. “My baby sister, Holly. How could he do that to her? He was supposed to take care of her and protect her, not rape her.”

He hugged himself and rocked back and forth. “One night, she fought back. She ran from the bedroom and started screaming my name. When I got to the staircase I saw him rush up behind her and shove her. She flew like a rag doll. I tried to run up the stairs and catch her, but it was no use. She somersaulted and broke her neck, died almost instantly.”

Rocking harder, he cried, “She took her last breath in my arms and that fucking bastard said she deserved it. That she was an ungrateful little bitch.” Looking at Malachi for some form of comfort, he said, “She was only ten.”

He stood up and punched a nearby tree. “Oh, God. How could he do that to her?” Walking in circles, he ranted with rage. “Then, to top it all off, he made me lie about it. He made me say that Holly and I were chasing each other down the stairs when she fell. Like it was all my fault. Said he’d do the same thing to me and my mom too, if I didn’t cover for him.”

Malachi sat numb, in shock from what Travis had just told him. He knew that Travis’s home life was a mess, but he never expected this. “I am so sorry that you had to go through that, Travis. I know he’s your father, but the man is pure evil.”

Travis nodded. “You have no idea. He had anger issues and seemed to enjoy beating on us. Said he couldn’t control himself. He would win mom back with flowers and a roll in the hay. She always forgave him.

After Holly died, she never looked at me the same way again. She blamed me for losing her princess. She used to tell me that I was just like him. Just like my dad.”

He hung his head. “Bastard took off shortly after that and left us. Maybe she was right after all. I am a monster just like him. Look at what I did to this kid. I’m a freak, Malachi. I need to be locked up. I heard that’s where he is now, in prison. We can have a family fucking reunion.” He looked at Malachi, his eyes pleading for guidance, terrified. In the silence, he began rocking his body back and forth, almost as though he were trying to comfort himself. His sobs were long and groaning, like his heart was breaking.

Malachi took a deep breath and tried to focus his thoughts. This was wrong. This was so wrong that there was no possible way to right it. He didn’t try to comfort Travis. He sat idly by and let the boy mourn for what he’d done. It was necessary for him to realize the travesty that had occurred here today.

It tortured Malachi to watch his friend in so much pain. The kid was traumatized on so many levels. This reminded him of the post traumatic shock syndrome that survivors dealt with. He’d read about it in the paper. So many military men came back from war duty with horrific experiences. Something would spark their memories and they’d snap. He’d read accounts of a wife cooking dinner and the smoke alarm would go off, the ex-soldier would jump up from his slumber on the couch, grab a baseball bat and bludgeon her to death, fully thinking that he was under enemy attack and had to defend himself.

Travis had just experienced such an event. All those memories of his sister being abused were triggered when this punk attacked that girl in the woods. Adrenaline must have surged deep within Travis. And then, when the kid began to chase after her, Travis recalled his sister being killed. When he tackled the guy and he pulled a knife on Travis, he must have snapped. All those threats from his father had latently lain deep within Travis, just waiting for a trigger. And this was it. This was no self-defense death. The more that Malachi thought about it, Travis was taking out his aggression towards his father on this kid. This was a very old wound that had never healed. Today, the scab got scratched off and Travis reverted back to that scared little boy, fearing for his own life.

Malachi rubbed his head in disgust as he wondered what kind of parent would do something like that to his precious children. Malachi would give anything to have his son back. Travis’s father had managed to ruin both of his children’s lives. He was nothing short of a monster.

Malachi sat lost in thought, while Travis struggled with his own demons. He began fiercely rocking back and forth, sobbing, “Holly. Oh, God. Why, Holly? I should have been there for you. It should have been me. I’m so sorry.”

As much as Malachi wanted to be angry with Travis, he just couldn’t. This poor kid had been through so much. Abandoned by his mother and his father; forced to cover up a murder that wasn’t his fault. He was just starting to get his life back on track and now this. This would ruin him. Malachi took in the crisp fall air as his mind raced trying to figure out what to do next. He had to come up with a plan. Someone had to protect Travis. There was no way he was going to allow Travis’s father to win and take his friend away. Guilt at the thought of covering up such a gruesome crime flew out the window and he knew what he had to do.

“Travis, did the girl see you?”

Shaking his head, he sniffled and replied, “I don’t think so. She was long gone before I stepped out from behind the tree.”

“Okay. You’re going to have to help me.”

Travis wiped his nose. “Help you do what?”

“Clean this mess up. Let’s go get some supplies.”

Travis sat silently in the passenger seat as Malachi drove back to the mill. He helped load the things that Malachi handed him into the back of Rosie and they returned to the woods. As they approached the scene, there was a rustling up ahead. Travis about jumped out of his skin. Malachi stopped and then quietly continued walking towards the sounds. Maybe someone had come back. Maybe the girl had told her parents and it was them or even the cops coming back to get the kid.

Malachi crept closer. He didn’t see anyone around the body. As he came around a bend in the path, he saw that it was Baxter. He was lapping up the blood in a frenzied manner, completely oblivious to the visitors right in front of him.

Travis looked at the dog licking the blood off the dead kid’s body and said, “No, Baxter. Bad dog. Stop that!”

Malachi chimed in, “No, that’s good. Let him go.” He gave Baxter a pat on his furry head and encouraged him. “Good boy.”

They laid a large tarp on the ground and rolled the body over onto the plastic. Malachi grabbed a rake and scooped up as much of the bloody leaves and saturated dirt that he could and threw it on top of the body. As many times as he looked at the kid, he couldn’t get used to the sight.

Malachi had Travis help him roll the body up inside the tarp and he duct taped it as tightly as he could. He didn’t want to leave a trail as they drug the body out of the woods.

Baxter never missed a beat as he eagerly ate the bloody leaves left behind. Crunching them as though they were potato chips, and stopping occasionally to lick his lips. “Good boy, Baxter. Get ‘em all,” Malachi said with a pat to the dog’s head.

Travis and Malachi left Baxter to his clean-up work and they proceeded to drag the corpse towards Rosie, who was patiently waiting down an overgrown drive at the edge of the woods. Travis was stronger, so he took the lead. Walking backwards, he grabbed hold of the make-shift body bag and began to pull. It was heavier than he had anticipated. He struggled with the weight and began to sweat. He grimaced and grunted as he tugged at the kid’s feet discreetly sealed inside the tarp.

He wasn’t prepared for how difficult this task would be. A squirrel began to chatter in the woods and caught Travis’s attention. He wasn’t alert to where he was walking and stepped backwards into a small hole. Losing his footing, he quickly tumbled to the ground. As he fell, the body followed and landed partially on top of him. Travis couldn’t move fast enough to get the kid off of him. He felt like he was being attacked again.

The scene and Travis’s reaction made Malachi grin. “He’s already dead. I don’t think he can hurt you now.”

Travis jumped to his feet and leaned against a nearby tree trying to catch his breath. “I can’t do this.”

“Sure you can. We don’t have any other choice. Just rest for a moment and gather yourself and then we’ll finish up.”

Leaning against the tree, panting, Travis began to cry. “I’m so sorry.” He covered his face to hide his tears. “Why are you helping me like this? Why don’t you just call the cops and wash your hands of me? All I do is cause you trouble.”

Malachi sighed and sat down on a nearby log. “Our families have a long history together. We watched out for each other back then and we’ll do it again now. Beside that, I believe in you, Travis. You’re not a bad person. You’ve just made some bad decisions. We’ve got to get your rage under control. I believe that we can do it. You’ve got a lot to be angry about, that’s for sure. But it’s the past and you can’t live in the past. We need to focus on building you a strong future.”

“I don’t have a future. I don’t even recognize myself. What kind of a monster does something like this?” He pointed to the tarp covered body that lay in a twisted heap on the path in front of them.

Malachi nodded. “Yeah, this is bad. But you didn’t do it on purpose, son. You let anger and fear take over your rational thinking. We need to work on that.”

“You make everything sound okay. Like it’ll work out and I can actually be a good person.”

“You are a good person, Travis. Don’t talk like that.” He slapped his knees with his hands and stood up, wincing with back pain. “Come on now. Let’s get this outta here before someone sees us.”

Travis grabbed the tarp at the feet and sighed as he began to tug. As much as they tried to lift the body and carry it, Malachi couldn’t pull his weight and the tarp drug along the ground.

It took all the strength they had to heave the body up into the truck bed. Malachi wished that there was time to sit and rest for a moment to catch their breath, but there wasn’t. They must move quickly. He wiped his brow and asked Travis to drive.

Malachi instructed him to pull around back of the mill and park next to a small trailer beside the shed. Then they got into the truck bed and rolled the body up and over the side. It landed on the trailer with a sickening thud. Malachi grabbed some old blankets from the shed and covered the tarp.

“Travis, go and get us some water to drink.” Malachi stayed behind and reloaded the truck bed with a rake, shovel and a box of Lime. They gulped down the waters and headed back to finish the mission they’d set out to accomplish.

As they hurried back to the accident site, Malachi demonstrated how he wanted Travis to redistribute the leaves on the path to hide the marks left behind from dragging the body. Immediately, Travis went to work.

Baxter was still there, munching away. Most of the bloody mess was gone, but some had saturated down into the dirt. Malachi dug a small trench and sprinkled the dirt with Lime. He then turned the dirt over, dumping the blood stained area into the hole, adding additional Lime as he went. He saturated the entire area with the fine powder when he was finished and raked fresh leaves over it as a cover up.

He called for Baxter to come with him. The last thing he needed was for his dog friend to start digging. The Lime should help cover the smell, but Baxter had a special attraction to blood. He needed to keep him far away until the scent dissipated. This was private property that Malachi’s family had owned for decades. But folks still trespassed onto it, as those kids had done today.