by Scott Blade
"I want you to dig," the intruder demanded.
"Why?" Shannon screamed while tears ran down her face.
"Dig," the intruder whispered.
"What for?" Sebastian begged.
The intruder pointed the gun at Sebastian's unborn son.
"Dig," the intruder ordered.
"Okay," Sebastian replied. He stepped in front of the gun, shielding his wife and Shane.
He looked over at the shovel with a grimaced expression.
He rolled up his shirt sleeves and leaned into his wife. He kissed her and moved toward the shovel. Shannon stepped back. The intruder followed her. He pointed the gun at her. He never lowered it, not even an inch.
Sebastian dug until he couldn't lift his arms, and then he dug some more. He was afraid of what the hole was for. It looked like a grave.
"Stop. That is enough," the intruder said.
He stepped closer to Sebastian and the grave. He knelt down and reached out his hand.
"Shovel," he said.
Sebastian handed the shovel up to him. The intruder stepped back and stabbed the shovel hard into the earth.
"Get out," he said.
Shane's father reached up to the sides of the hole and struggled to pull himself out of it. When he finally stood up on his feet, chunks and particles of dirt blew off of him and into the wind.
"Stay," the intruder said. He reached out to Shannon and grabbed her arm.
"Where are you going?" Sebastian asked in an alarmed tone.
"Stay!" the intruder replied, sharply.
The intruder took Shannon's arm and dragged her into the tree line and the darkness surrounding it.
After a few moments, Sebastian glanced over at the shovel. He thought about using it as a weapon. He began to inch towards it. Carefully, he moved closer and closer. He hoped that the intruder was not watching from the darkness.
Suddenly, Sebastian heard a noise. It was faint at first and then grew louder. The noise wasn't from the forest. It came from the beach, from the water.
Sebastian looked out over the bay. He saw in the distance a glimmer, a reflection off of something metal. He squinted his eyes. A small fishing boat drifted along the water. It coasted near the other side of the bay. He wanted to run towards the shoreline and jump up and down. He wanted to call out to the occupants of the boat like a marooned castaway seeing the first passing ship in months, but the intruder still held his wife captive.
Then another sound entered Sebastian's ears. This sound came from the forest. It was a scuffing sound like something was being dragged across the hard ground.
Slowly, he watched as his wife stepped out of the darkness. She had tear-filled eyes. She towed something behind her. It was tied to a short length of thickly knotted rope. As she came clearer into view, Sebastian saw that she dragged a large object like a mule plowing the fields.
Sebastian thought that it might have been a canoe.
The intruder followed behind her pointing the gun at her back. Then he pointed it at Sebastian.
"Stay!" he called out.
Sebastian watched in complete horror as his pregnant wife dragged what appeared to be a large wooden box, not a canoe. As the object became clearer to Sebastian, he winced in utter terror. He now knew what the hole was for.
His wife towed a coffin behind her.
Oh God, he's going to bury us! Sebastian thought.
Shannon stopped just shy of the deep hole that her husband had dug.
The intruder flipped the lid off of the coffin and half-shoved, half-slid the box into the hole with his foot. It landed perfectly on its bottom. The lid remained open, barely attached to the body of the coffin by a couple of loose hinges.
Sebastian saw that the intruder now held two guns. He struggled to adjust his eyes to study the second gun, which appeared quite large. Then he realized that it was not a regular gun. It was large and bulky with a cylinder top on it. The top looked like a jar. Then Sebastian recognized what the second gun was for. It was a nail gun.
"Lasher," the intruder whispered in his dark voice.
"Yes," Shane's father replied. He trembled at the thought of what this man planned for them.
"I'm here to rob you, and only rob you. I don't want to hurt you," he said.
Sebastian's fear subsided, but only slightly.
"Lower her in," the intruder whispered.
Shannon's eyes burst open as wide as they could. She began to tremble in overwhelming fear.
"What?" Sebastian shouted.
The intruder pointed the gun again at Shannon's stomach.
"Lower her in," the intruder said.
"Why?"
"I need you to have incentive to help me. She is insurance. That is all," he said.
Sebastian looked into his wife's eyes. She trembled.
"Lower her in or I will shoot her and she will fall in."
"I'm sorry," Sebastian said to Shannon.
"No! No!" she cried.
Sebastian, having no choice, took her by the wrists and carefully lowered her down into the coffin. Her legs lay out across the cold, wooden bottom.
Shane kicked violently inside her. He grew unsettled and upset from all of the commotion.
The intruder waited until she was completely inside of the coffin.
"Step back," he said to Sebastian.
Sebastian moved back towards the beach. He kicked up sand with the heels of his shoes.
The intruder gazed down in the pit at Shannon, who cried like a new born child.
Sebastian glanced over his shoulder towards the spot where he had seen the fishing boat. He saw the glimmer from the vessel. It was still out there.
Oh please, help us, he thought.
The intruder kicked the coffin lid shut. It flapped close over the top of Shannon and the unborn Shane.
Sebastian turned back in horror. The intruder jumped down on top of the coffin. With extremely fast reflexes, he nailed the coffin lid shut with six good shots with the nail gun.
Sebastian only had seconds to take advantage of the intruder's lack of attention on him. He looked at the shovel and back at the fishing boat. The boat seemed to move closer, but it was still far away. He decided to make a move for the shovel.
He was only inches from it, when the intruder intervened.
"Go ahead. Grab it," the intruder said, pointing the Colt straight at him.
Sebastian froze.
"Grab it."
Sebastian picked up the shovel.
"Bury her," the intruder said.
"What?"
"Bury her."
Sebastian looked at the pit with the coffin. Sluggishly, he walked over to it and began throwing dirt on top of his wife's coffin. He could hear her screams as the sounds of dirt hit the top of the coffin.
He shouted encouragements back at Shannon through the entire process.
He said, “It’ll be okay, baby.”
“Hang in there, baby. I’m going to get you out really soon.”
After she was completely buried, the intruder walked over to the mound of dirt and patted it with his foot.
Sebastian fought to hold back his rage.
The intruder motioned for him to walk over to the tree line away from the house.
"What? Why? I thought that you were going to rob us?"
"Walk and bring the shovel," the intruder said, motioning to the trees.
With little choice, Sebastian did as he was ordered. Before they disappeared into the darkness around the trees, he glanced one more time at the fishing boat. It floated away from the shore and off into the distance.
In the darkness, Sebastian could barely see, but he sensed that the intruder was still following him closely.
They walked a short distance.
"Stop," the intruder ordered.
Sebastian stopped. His eyes struggled to make out the ground in front of him. He was almost certain that it was not there.
"Lasher," the intruder said. He pulled a flashlight out of his
coat.
Suddenly, there was a bright light shining in Sebastian’s eyes.
"Follow the beam," the intruder commanded.
Sebastian stared directly into the beam. The intruder moved it towards the ground. The beam moved like a spotlight along the swaying grass. The intruder stopped it just beyond where Sebastian stood.
Sebastian gasped in terror. He laid his eyes upon a tombstone. It jutted out of the ground, slightly crooked. The tablet read:
HERE LIES SEBASTIAN LASHER:
A BASTARD LAWYER
"No!" Sebastian shouted. He turned back towards the source of the light. He heard the intruder laughing. The sinister laugh echoed in his ears and into his brain.
The beam from the flashlight moved to the intruder's face. He removed his mask.
Sebastian's heart pounded out of his chest. It was the most terrifying moment of his life. He stared into the intruder's eyes. They were not human eyes. In the darkness, they looked like large, black orbs.
The intruder pointed the gun at Sebastian's chest and then lowered it to his knees. He shot him twice in each leg.
Sebastian cried out in agony and fell back into a deep pit. It was a hole that he had not noticed before. He landed hard into a wooden box, another coffin.
The intruder stepped closer to the ledge above him. He revealed the shovel. He stabbed it into the ground next to the hole. He vanished out of Sebastian's sight for only a moment and then returned with the lid for the coffin. He tossed it on top of Sebastian's coffin.
"Help! Help us!" Sebastian cried out, hoping that someone would hear his screams.
The lid quickly muffled his pleas for salvation.
The intruder nailed the lid shut.
Sebastian stopped shouting and waited for the horrible sound that would come next. He waited for it and it came. It was the sound of dirt bellowing on top of the coffin's lid.
|||||
"I'm telling you that I heard gunshots," Gregory McBride said.
"We don't know what that was, dork," Bradley McBride replied. “Just go back to fishing.”
The brothers weren't supposed to be out so late. They snuck out with their father's boat after their parents went to sleep. Bradley, the older brother, feared getting caught. After all, their parents thought that Greg was an angel. So Bradley was the one who would get blamed and punished.
A deadly calm swept over the bay for most of the night. The gunshots interrupted that calm. The sound echoed in the boys’ ears like a banshee wailing across the water.
Gregory stared at the Lasher's private beach.
"Bradley, that is that lawyer's house," he said, pointing at the beach.
"So what? Mind your own business. We still have to finish this beer, and then go home before dad discovers that we snuck out," Bradley said.
Gregory looked at his older brother, and then he returned his attention to the beach. He squinted his eyes. He thought that he saw something on the edge of the coastline.
Gregory reached down and grabbed a pair of binoculars from out of the tackle box. He pointed them at the private beach. He gazed through the eyeholes, squinting hard, trying to see clearly in the darkness. He studied the beach.
Suddenly, he saw a tall, dark figure standing at the edge of the water and sand. Shocked, he stumbled and tripped back onto the boat, bumping into his brother.
Bradley fumbled around with his fishing pole, trying to catch it before it fell into the water. It was too late. His brother had knocked it out of his hand.
"Shit! Greg!" Bradley said. He slapped his little brother in the back of the head.
"Bradley," Gregory said.
"Greg, I had a huge fish on the line and now dad's favorite pole is drifting in the bay."
"Bradley, there is something on that beach," Gregory said.
"What are you babbling about?"
"The lawyer's beach. There is someone or something there," Gregory said,
Bradley swiped the binoculars out of Gregory's hand and took a reluctant look for himself.
He adjusted the sights. The beach was out of focus for him. As it came into focus, Bradley began to tremble. He saw it too.
On the edge of the beach, a man stood staring directly back at them. The man was definitely not supposed to be there. He wore a black ski mask.
"We have to tell someone, Bradley."
Bradley McBride set down the binoculars for a moment as if he paused to think clearly. Then he gazed through them once more at the beach. The man was gone. He searched around the area. He found the man. He stood next to what looked like a tombstone. Bradley watched as the man propped the tombstone up on top of a mound of dirt.
"Let's get father," Bradley said.
The boys started the boat's motor and began to return home.
|||||
Shannon Lasher's chest panted heavily. Her body was covered in sweat. Her air was running out. She was desperate to survive, to see her unborn son. She ran out of energy long ago. Her fingernails were blood soaked from trying to claw her way out of the coffin.
Inside her womb, something else clawed its way out. Something dark was happening. Shane kicked and struggled violently. As she fought to free herself from her tomb, Shane fought to free himself of her womb. Something traumatic happened to him, something evil.
Shane fought and kicked until Shannon's water broke.
She screamed and screamed. She was going into labor. Shane was coming out prematurely, but he was coming out.
Shane kicked and stirred. Then he kicked again. Suddenly, darkness overcame his insides. Within moments, I was conscience.
We had to escape. I had to live.
Shannon screamed more and more.
I squirmed and swam the inside of Shane. He, in turn, squirmed inside of Shannon.
A moment later, she went into full on labor. She pushed and heaved. The pain overwhelmed her. The pain was me. It was my birth.
Painfully, Shannon Lasher heaved and panted, trying desperately to push out her child. After great agony, she succeeded.
We emerged from Shannon Lasher's womb. Covered in blood, we were alive. Horror fused us together as one being. Shannon looked down at us. She could barely see anything in the darkness of the coffin. All she could see was our shadow rustling about beneath her waistline. We looked like an unnamable creature, a critter crawling up her wet legs.
Shannon's body grew numb from the pain caused by our birth. She neared death.
We did not cry like most newborns. For a moment, she feared that Shane was dead. He was born far too early. He was not dead. I kept him alive. We were alive.
Suddenly, a loud banging sound crashed above us. We heard voices. Someone was digging up the coffin. The cavalry arrived just in the nick of time.
Shannon's frail body fought to make a sound. She muttered, "Help me."
A sliver of light crept through the coffin's lid. The light fell across her belly, exposing my reptilian features to the world for the first time.
She used her remaining strength to lift her head up to look upon her baby, upon Shane.
"Shane?" she muttered.
"Shane!" she gasped.
She looked for Shane, but she saw only me, cradled in the darkness between her legs. She saw the blackness in our eyes. Her baby's eyes were huge, black orbs like a serpent's, like a shark's, like some unnamed subspecies born out of the depths of the ocean.
At that moment, I controlled Shane. I saved us.
"Oh God!" she said. "What are you?"
She looked on me with terror in her eyes. She looked at me like I was a demon.
Again she asked, "What are you?"
Those were her last words, her final words.
She spoke and then she was dead. Her heart failed. Her body failed. Terror killed her.
I was the abomination that stared at her in the darkness. The sight of me killed her. I was the evil thing that pushed my way out of her. I made my first kill. I drew first blood. I killed our mother.
A single
moment later, the coffin's lid flew open. Standing over me was a group of police officers wielding shovels. Just as a flood of red and blue police lights engulfed our coffin, my eyes returned to Shane's eyes. I allowed him to come to the surface. He cried like a normal baby. I left no sign that I existed. I hid inside him, nestled in my new home, my new life.
Most people are buried in a coffin. I was born in one. I was slasher. I was Shane's devil.
|||||
The ghosts of our past faded into memory.
Shane stared down at the skeleton of Gillard Shutter. He was filled with doubt. He doubted me, doubted my instincts, and doubted that we killed the right man. Shane had never doubted me before. He feared that we had made the wrong choice. He started to think that maybe Gillard was not the real StoneCutter.
I admit that it was possible that I saw him wrong, but I was sure that I saw a killer inside him––a killer like me. Maybe he was just the wrong killer.
We had to catch the new killer. We had to right our wrong. Perhaps, the StoneCutter had an accomplice. Or perhaps, it was just a copycat. Or maybe it was the real deal. Maybe he set us up. At any rate he had to die.
Gillard Shutter was dead now. It was too late for him. If Shane needed redemption, there was only one way to have it. We had to kill the StoneCutter again.
Shane's phone rang. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. The display showed a new picture of Ally. She was topless, but covering her breasts with her hands. She must have updated her Facebook picture at work. His iPhone synced the Facebook pictures of all of his contacts.
"New modeling pictures?" Shane asked.
Ally giggled.
"Anyway, I told you not to interrupt me today."
"Sorry Shane. It's important."
"Okay," Shane said. He listened astutely.
"Det. Sun Good called. She wanted to speak to you. They arrested a suspect in the new StoneCutter murders. She said that the FBI has some incriminating evidence on him," Ally said.
"Who is the suspect?" Shane asked. He could barely contain the excitement that we felt. In one day the FBI had done our legwork for us.
"She wouldn't say."
"Find out?" Shane said.
"I thought that you might ask that. So, I tried to find out. I used all of our sources in the police force, the county jail, I even called my ex-boyfriend––the FBI agent. No one is giving up the StoneCutter's identity," Ally said.
