Don't Shoot The Harbinger

by Ryan Green

  I begin by searching through the man's images, just like I thought I would find. Folders upon folders of pornography. Sorted by age, gender and physical characteristics. The man didn’t have a preference, he didn’t discriminate on who he would exploit for his own sexual gratification. But there definitely seemed to be a preferred theme here, children.

  I select all of the picture files and move them to the trash can. Are you sure you want to permanently delete the files?

  Absolutely.

  The video folder is more of the same. It's almost an exact mirroring of the pictures folder as far as categorizing. It made me sick and simultaneously broke my heart just to see the thumbnails. Thinking about these poor children being taken from their parents and their families and forced into this life of abuse. I select all of the videos and move them to the trash can as well. Are you sure you want to permanently delete the files?

  For the love of god yes, please erase them now and for forever. Do not ever let anyone lay eyes on these pictures and videos ever again.

  Every video file is deleted except for one.

  I open the video file and it is a group of people dressed in some kind of black cloaks sitting around a fire. The cloaks all have that same weird symbol stitched on them. They are circling around the fire pit and they are chanting “Azoth, for Azoth” and the circle opens up and there is a little boy standing over a young woman.

  The woman is lying unconscious on top of a table. I looked closer, she was tied to some type of symbol, it looks like a medieval symbol or a cross or something similar.

  The boy reaches into his cloak and he pulls a dagger out and drives it into the heart of the girl. Blood begins pouring out of her body but she doesn’t move, she doesn't wince, she doesn’t scream, nothing.

  From behind the camera I hear a woman's voice say “now slit her throat Blaine.”

  The little boy looks over at the camera and nods at the woman standing behind the camera as he slides the dagger into her neck and swipes across her throat. She immediately begins to gurgle and spit up blood.

  “Good boy Blaine , you did good.” The woman says as she walks from behind the camera and hugs him . All you can see is the symbol on the back of the woman's cloak as she approaches the boy and the cloak engulfs the boy's body as the woman embraces him.

  I can’t stomach looking through anymore of the computer files under those circumstances so I grab an external hard drive and copy the entire computer contents onto the hard drive. I know that I need to get the computer back to the man's house before anyone else goes by. But it is late and they can wait until the next morning.

  I went to bed that night and I slept what might have been the most peaceful night of sleep in my entire life. The next morning I slept through my alarm and when I woke up I called into work and told them that I was not feeling well. That’s why I stormed out of the presentation and I must have eaten something tainted.

  I drive back to the man's house and park a few doors down. I enter the house through the back door and the kitchen looks the same. I go down into the basement and the man's body is gone. The area where the man was lying has been completely cleaned up.

  The washer and dryer are gone, the steel chairs are all gone, all of the laundry is gone. I walk around the basement and it is completely empty. All of the contents of the house have been removed and everything has been cleaned.

  I go upstairs and the living room is empty. The bathroom is empty and the bedroom with the desk is completely empty.

  “How the hell could someone have cleaned out the entire house, removed a body and cleaned everything in the few hours that I was gone?”

  I exit the house through the front door and take the computer back to my car.

  I throw the computer in the trunk and drive home.

  “What the hell am I going to do with the computer?” I wonder to myself.

  I stop on a bridge section of Lake Cook Road and hurl the modem into the Des Plaines River.

  “That takes care of that” I tell myself.

  I am feeling relieved now that the modem is out of my possession but I can't wrap my mind around the fact that the house was completely cleared out since last night. It wasn’t until that moment that I truly knew that the cult that I was now dealing with was serious and that they were capable of almost anything.

  Maybe even more so of importance, I knew that the man I killed was not the person in charge of all of this and that I was not in the clear.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The waiter approaches the table and he has someone trailing behind him carrying two plates with them. The first plate is set down in front of Megan and a plate with the exact same items is set down in front of Blaine.

  “Duck a l'orange with a side of black truffle risotto”

  “This looks amazing,” Megan tells the waiter.

  “And we have picked a very special wine to pair with the dish as well. Shiraz from the Rhone Valley region of France. It is a fruity full bodied red wine that can stand on its own when pairing with the strong sauce of the duck. Many like to pair a light white with this type of dish but we prefer to go bold. We also have a Bordeaux we can bring you if you’d like to try that as well.”

  The waiter fills both glasses and places the bottle in a chiller in the middle of the table.

  “Why not, we’ll try both, we’re here to celebrate tonight.”

  “As you wish sir, enjoy your meal and I shall return shortly with your Bordeaux as well”

  “Judging by what you’ve told me so far I’m probably going to need two bottles of wine, aren’t I?” Megan asks Blaine.

  Blaine raises his glass to Megan “to us” he says and takes a large sip from his glass as he continues to speak.

  When I arrived home I saw a manila envelope waiting on my porch with that large symbol again drawn in what looked like blood. I knew who it was from there, there was no denying it at this point. I walk slowly up the stairs of the porch battling internally between anticipation and dread of finding out what it could possibly be.

  I open the door to my house and bring the package inside. I quickly close the door behind me so nobody walking or driving by can catch a glimpse just in case it's a severed hand or an ear or something from the man’s body.

  I opened up the package I looked inside and it is a blank dvd. Also inside of the envelope is a note that reads “play me.” I immediately walk over to my TV and insert the DVD into the DVD player. I sit down on my couch and press play.

  It is a widescreen shot of the man's basement. You see the man walking across the screen towards the stairs and then going up them. Almost immediately you see the man falling down the stairs and hitting his head on the wall. Then I see myself coming down the stairs.

  Having to watch and relive everything that followed brings me to a complete meltdown.

  “How the hell did they record all of that?” I ask myself.

  I see myself kidnapping and torturing the man then killing him. I see myself walking out of the house with the man's computer.

  Everything was recorded and they have it all. At the end of the tape a message scrolls across the screen. “You will cooperate or we will turn this tape over to the police.”

  My brain and body begins to shut down at the overwhelming amount of anxiety and uneasiness from all of the events of the last several hours.

  All I can think to do is lay down on the couch and go to sleep. I set the alarm on my phone for 5 PM and I crashed out immediately. I am awoken shortly after by the sound of someone knocking on my door.

  I spring up off of the couch and run to my bedroom to grab a baseball bat. I look out of all of my windows to see if anyone is surrounding my house. I open the front door and there are two police officers standing on my porch in uniform. “I’m sorry sir were you busy” the officers asked me.

  “I was just sleeping on my couch, I’ve had a long last couple days. I haven’t been able to sleep much at night.” I responded.

  “That’s w
hy we’re here sir” the cops respond.

  My heart drops into my stomach as I prepare to be arrested for murder.

  “We received a few calls about people wandering through backyards recently. Have you seen anything? We’ve just been canvassing the neighborhood because of continuous complaints. Your neighbor said they may have seen someone in your yard last night”

  “In my yard last night? Not that I saw. I had a pizza delivered the other night but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Last night I crashed out kind of early because I had a work presentation I had been working on for months.”

  “I thought you said you weren't sleeping at night lately?” the officers ask.

  “Well prior to last night I had not been.”

  “I see. Well if you remember anything or if you see anything new here is my card, feel free to give me a call.”

  “No problem officer. By the way my parents are cops around here, maybe you know them.”

  I tell them about Mother and Father and how they have been retired for several years now. They were partners but they got shot and had to leave the force. My parents used to love telling me that story when I was a child.

  “What did you say their names were again?” the cop asked.

  “Carrie and Brent Acadia” I responded.

  The first cop turns to his partner and asks him “Aren’t those cops who came up missing after their little boy was abducted like twenty years ago?” His partner responds “That’s a really fucked up joke.”

  “I would never joke about something like that. I’m...I ’m sorry but you must have the names mixed up” I tell them unsure of what they are talking about.

  “There was a manhunt for several weeks looking for that little boy. Then in the thick of it both officers went missing. You should look it up, I might be mistaken on the names I suppose. You have a good day sir.”

  I shut the door and grab my car keys off of the dining room table.

  “I need to get the hell out of the house for a little while,” I tell myself.

  I drove over to My parents house, out of everyone they would be the only people I could really trust. I knock on the living room door. I get no answer. I knock louder. Still no answer.

  I still have a key to my parents house so I use the key and enter through the front door.

  I walk through the door and Mother comes rushing to meet me at the door. She comes to the front door wearing just a robe and her hair is disheveled. She seems sort of embarrassed and she’s out of breath. She definitely wasn’t just sitting around watching tv.

  “Oh hi honey, this is some really bad timing” Mother tells me.

  “I don’t care if you and Father are having sex I just need somewhere I can relax for a little while and clear my head” I tell Mother as I storm past her.

  She tries to stop me from entering but I easily pass by her.

  Once I stepped inside I couldn't believe what I saw.

  There are piles of clothes everywhere, there are piles of people everywhere. They are kissing, they are groping, they are moaning, they are having sex on nearly every available surface and in every available room in the house.

  I look back at Mother in surprise and disgust.

  “I tried to stop you, ” she told him.

  “What the hell Mom!?” I exclaim.

  “Give me five minutes and I’ll meet you in your car and explain.”

  I ran out of the house back to my car and waited until I saw mother come walking out of the house in the same robe but now she was wearing sweatpants and a shirt.

  “At least she put some clothes on,” I tell myself.

  She gets in the front passenger seat next to me. “Where do you want me to start?” she asks him.

  “I don't know Mom, how about the giant orgy in your house. There were people literally fucking everywhere in there, on everything. In my childhood home Mom, what the hell? What the hell is going on Mom?.”

  “Your Father and I are swingers Blaine, we have been pretty much all of your life. Since you grew up and moved out of the house we’ve just been able to be more open about it.” Mother explains to me.

  “And you just have orgies at your house regularly? Have you been having orgies in the house the whole time? Like then I was a little kid and I fell asleep people were just fucking outside of my bedroom door?”

  “No, no, no, this is the first time. Since we were moving we thought it would be our last chance to host a party of our own. We’ve been going to everyone else's parties for most of our lives and we wanted to show some hospitality.”

  “Some hospitality? I get opening up your home for some drinks and what not but opening up your entire body to the neighborhood to come and”

  Mother cuts me off “to come eat a slice of pie or a mouthful of cake?” she says as she laughs.

  “Gross mother.”

  I am amazed at how openly my Mother can just tell me all of this information. She isn’t batting an eye, there isn’t the tiniest bit of insecurity in her voice. This woman really enjoys this.

  I am disgusted, not because of the sex or the idea of the orgy in general but because Mother is the center of all of it, and she loves being in that position. Not that she is unattractive or revolting or anything but it is just hard to picture your mother being the center of attention for all of these men and women to lust for.

  “My life is falling apart Mother and I finally come to you and Father for some comfort and understanding and I’m greeted with a gangbang on the dining room table where I ate all I meals as a child”

  Mother laughs “you should have called me first before you decided to stop by .”

  “I just really need somewhere to stay away from my house for a few days, Mom. I have a lot going on right now. I can’t exactly explain it. Can I just wait out here until you guys are done? I just really need to be here right now.” I asked Mom.

  “Absolutely honey. It might be a little while longer, you can’t rush these things but I will let you know then it’s safe to enter. Unless you want to come in Blaine. I will make sure your Father and I stay away from whatever room you try to occupy. It might be good for you to let out a little tension.”

  “You can’t be a serious Mom.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well I guess my first reservation would be that I’m not comfortable having sex with women that you and Father both just had sex with. Secondly, every person in there is like sixty, no offense or anything, but no thanks.”

  “Well, not all of them are that old. Believe it or not, there are some men and women in there around your age, but I get it.”

  She tries to kiss me on the cheek before she gets out of the car.

  I started to pull away “Mom, you probably just had twenty different dicks in your mouth, please don't try and kiss me, that's just really gross.”

  “Twenty is a bit of an exaggeration. There's maybe only nine men in there, besides I usually go after the women in these parties, she tells me.

  I am unable to get a response out before Mother gets out of the car and hurries back into the house.

  I am starting to realize that I really don't know much about my parents. I spent my whole life living with them but I never really made an attempt to get to know them. I'm always preoccupied with other things.

  Apparently I was too busy trying to exploit children, murdering young women in ritual sacrifices and being recruited into joining a cult as a kid. I never really took the time to understand that my parents were probably the most sexually enlightened people I've ever met.

  I wait in my car for another two hours until I see everyone finally start to spill out of the house.

  “Orgies really take that long to finish? I couldn’t imagine doing anything for that long let alone having sex and not just regular sex, sex with multiple people. Trying to give multiple people blowjobs or hand jobs or going down on multiple women for several hours just seems like work. That isn’t even mentioning the fact that there is absolutely no way in hell that
I could even stay wet or stimulated that long, what about you? Are you interested in trying that? ” Megan asks Blaine.

  “Umm, I, uhh that is not really the response that I was prepared to get after that part of the story but no I don’t think I would be into anything like that.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The waiter returns to the table with the bottle of Bordeaux that he just promised he would be returning with soon. He sets it in the middle of the table into a new wine chiller next to the previous bottle of wine.