Don't Shoot The Harbinger

by Ryan Green

  The same computer that saved my life as a kid is the very thing that is ruining my life as an adult … oh the irony.

  I hear knocking on my door.

  “Go away!” I scream at the door.

  “Blaine, there are some detectives here to talk to you,” Father tells me through the door.

  “There are detectives here? At my parents house? They want to see me? How much worse can this fucking day get?” I wonder to myself.

  I walk downstairs and outside where there are two detectives waiting for me. They are both in blue suits and wearing sunglasses.

  One of them was average height I would say probably around 5’9” 190 lbs or so, he had blonde hair and brown eyes. The other one was very tall, probably 6’ 7”. He wasn’t very muscular, maybe 210 lbs., I remember thinking he didn’t exactly fit the profile of most cops I had seen. He had dark black hair and brown eyes as well.

  These weren’t your dumb average patrol cops like the ones who visited me at my house. These are either real detectives who know what the fuck they are doing or these are members of that sadistic pedophile cult. Either way they tracked me to my parents house and now I put my parents life at risk.

  “Sir, can you come with us for questioning?” the detectives ask me.

  I follow them to a police car and get in the back.

  I see the detectives walk back over to my parents. Their backs are to me so I can't make out exactly what they are saying.

  “Hopefully you two can straighten him out a little bit and make him remember where he came from” Father tells them.

  “Yes sir, we will do our best,” the detectives tell Father .

  “Doing your best is not good enough. If Blaine does not come back completely convinced that joining the Order of Azoth is the best thing for him then you two will be dead next” Mother tells them.

  She begins crying and covering her face, she needs to paint a picture of pain and anguish for Blaine to see. She needs to lull him into a false sense of debt to her.

  The tall one gets in the driver's seat and the blonde one gets in the passenger seat.

  The car pulls off and I see Father wrap his arm around Mother trying to console her as she cries.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “The two detectives found you at your parents house and they took you away for questioning? Did they show you a warrant or anything?” Megan asks Blaine intently.

  “I guess I didn’t really think to ask them. I just wanted to get them away from my parents” Blaine explains to Megan “I was more concerned with keeping my parents safe at that point and that’s all I had going through my mind. I was going to make these guys pay for coming there.”

  “And you were completely sure that they were not actual police officers.”

  “Absolutely not. I had a hunch that they weren’t but in no way was I completely sure. My gut was all I had up to that point and everything I was starting to piece together seemed to be right on point so far.”

  They drove me to an office building a few blocks away.

  They get out of the car and the tall one opens the car door for me “Follow us Blaine.”

  I get out of the car and I follow them to the front of the building. I watch the blonde guy enter some key code that I can’t make out and he opens up the door.

  “Follow us sir” the blonde one instructs me.

  I follow them inside of the building. All of the windows are blacked out so you can’t see what is going on inside. There is a desk with a few chairs on each side of the table. In the corner there is a mini fridge, a coffee pot and a microwave on top of a folding table.

  I dropped my head in disappointment, and I accepted my fate now “If you guys are going to kill me just go ahead. I’m not joining your cult of homicidal fucking pedophiles” I tell them in defeat.

  “Sir, we are FBI agents. We assure you that we are not here to kill you. They found the body of a man named Donald Mabury dismembered and tied up in a couple garbage bags thrown into some brush by your house” they explained to me.

  “Donald Mabury, that name sounds familiar but I’m not sure I know him.” I tell the officers as flashbacks of me taping the man to a chair, choking him out then beating the man with a steel chair come flashing to mind.

  “He was a big shot in the company that you work for, did you know that?” they ask me.

  “Was he a fat guy with a ponytail?” I ask them.

  “Yes, that’s him” they tell me.

  “Yeah I met him for the first time yesterday at work. What does him dying have to do with me? Am I a suspect or something?” I asked.

  “No, no nothing like that, not in his murder. However, you were caught up in a case I was involved in several years ago and we wanted to see what you could remember” the detectives explained to me.

  “What kind of case?” I ask?

  “We broke up a pedophile network a few years ago. Your computer was confiscated in the process. We found out through detective work that you were being targeted by this man Donald Maybury specifically to help get material for trading. I guess when you got older he found a way to get you into his company to keep you close and keep tabs on you. You were taken away from your parents for several months and you were put into a juvenile detention facility. The judges were wanting to try you as an adult but your parents fought for you. They convinced the judge that due to your tough upbringing you were susceptible to manipulation and you couldn’t be held accountable for everything you did.”

  “And Donald Mabury was in charge of everything?” I asked them.

  “As far as we know, yes. Unless there’s any new information that you feel would be useful to us” the detectives tell me hoping to get any new information out of me.

  “No, nothing that I can think of,” I told them.

  “Well then we’ll take you back to your parents. Your parents who protected you from that man and ensured that you didn’t spend the majority of your adult life in prison. Sounds like pretty great parents to me. Regardless of how they were able to take you in, the tall detective looks over at the blonde one and hits him in the chest. He does so in a way to suggest that maybe he said something he shouldn’t have.

  “Do you guys know my parents or something?” I asked.

  “Well we uh we talked to them a little bit before they went to grab you from upstairs at the house” the detectives explained to me.

  That seems like a fairly logical reasoning at that point in time and I know that my parents are the only ones that I can trust.

  “Well then if that’s it let us take you back to your parents” the tall detective says to me.

  “Do you have a bathroom here?’ I ask them.

  I went into the bathroom and I stared at myself in the mirror. I know who these men are, they are not FBI agents, they work for that cult. There isn’t a doubt in my mind and I knew what I had to do now.

  I walk back out into the area where the desk is.

  “Alright, I’m ready” I tell them.

  The two men start to walk out of the building in front of me leading the way just like they did on our way in.

  I immediately pull the weapon of the blonde man in the back out from his holster. I put the gun to the back of the man's head and I pulled the trigger. Immediately blood and brain matter spray from the hole in the man's previously intact skull all over my face and clothes. I wipe the blood from my eyes and I point the gun at the tall man.

  “You get in here now or you will end up like your friend here” I direct the tall man as I motion to the blonde man lying lifeless on the floor.

  The tall man walks back inside of the building. “You don’t want to do this , think of your parents” he says to me.

  “My parents are the reason I have to do this. I’ve put them at risk, you coming to their house has put them at risk. I know all of you are following me and I lead you right to my parents. Now I have to protect them” I tell the man. “Now get down on your knees.”

  The tall man stares
blankly at me. I lower the weapon and fire a shot into the man's knee cap. The blast drops the man to his knees and now he is on my level.

  “From this point on you will do exactly what I say, do I make myself clear?” I walk behind the tall man and put the muzzle of the weapon to the back of the man's head between the bottom of his skull and the top of his neck.

  “Now you will tell me everything that you know about the fucking cult that keeps following me” I demand the tall man.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” the tall man says to me.

  I take the butt of the gun and strike the tall man in the back of the head. He falls forward onto his stomach and I sit on his back pressing the muzzle of the gun into the back of his head again.

  “I will give you one more chance, tell me what you know” I shout at him as I slide my finger onto the trigger.

  “I’m not telling you shit. If this is what it takes to make you realize your potential then do it. Pull that trigger, I will die a martyr, your parents will love me” the detective tells me with his face buried into the cold concrete floor.

  I pull the trigger and I can see the blood soaked concrete floor peaking through from the hole that has been put into the tall man's head.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The waiter approaches the table and sees that the food has been cleared from both plates.

  “May I take your plates from you?” he asks.

  Megan can’t bring herself to find any words to respond.

  “Yes, we're done, thank you” Blaine responds to the waiter.

  “Is there anything else I can bring you at this time?” the waiter asks them.

  “Umm we should be fine with our wine and everything for now.”

  “I will have dessert for you soon then.” The waiter walks to the kitchen area again.

  Megan is still speechless.

  I make a sweep around the building to see if there’s anything I can use to help get rid of these two bodies, if not get rid of them at least to move them for now. I found a few rolls of duct tape in a storage room along with a couple rolls of old carpet.

  They must have torn the carpet up in favor of these grey concrete floors, I imagine the blood is easier to clean off of concrete than carpet for them.

  I lay the blonde man in the middle of a roll of carpet and fold the ends around him. I drag the body and the body starts to slide out as the carpet begins to unfold.

  “This is not going to work.”

  I lay the body on the end of the carpet and I try rolling it again. This time I’m able to get a good roll to completely secure the body in the carpet. I used duct tape and wrapped it around the rolls several times to make sure it wouldn't unravel when I started dragging it out.

  I go out to the men’s car and I open up the trunk of the car.

  Inside of the trunk I see four large black trash bags. I open the bags and inside of the bags I see a bunch of different clothes. Uniforms, nursing scrubs, business suits, they look like an assortment of costumes. These men must have been following me the last few days, they have every type of outfit you can think of.

  I take two of the trash bags out of the trunk and I close the trunk as I walk back inside. I go over to the body that's rolled up in the carpet and I unravel it. I strip all of the clothes off of the blonde man and throw my bloody suit into a pile. I walked over to the other body of the tall man and I stripped all of his clothes off as well. I took all of the clothes and threw them into the pile of clothes from the blonde man’s body.

  I dumped the trash bags full of new clothes onto the table and I sorted through them. I believe if I put a different set of clothes on them it will be harder for the police to identify the bodies if they are found.

  The first outfit that grabs my attention is a pair of gray coveralls. I take the coveralls over to the blonde man and I put the outfit on him. He looks like a mechanic or a shop person, something along those lines, that’s believable.

  The second body of the tall man I dress in a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt. Just a normal tall person walking down the street who got abducted and got his head blown off, then his body was wrapped in carpet and dumped somewhere. That will draw a lot less attention than a guy dressed in a suit with a fake badge on him.

  I drag the first body of the blonde man back onto the carpet and roll him up again. I tape the rolls of carpet and drag him outside to the trunk of the car. I have a little bit of a hard time lifting the body up and throwing it into the trunk.

  I walked back to the second body, I wrapped him up like the first guy. I tape up the roll of carpet and I drag it out to the trunk. The body is probably 20 lbs. heavier than the first one so it takes even more effort to get him into the trunk.

  I walk back inside of the building and take a look around. I see pools of blood on the concrete and drag marks going out to the parking lot where the car was.

  “Who gives a shit” I told myself as I got in the car and drove off.

  I spent the next two hours scouting out locations that would be perfect for dumping off two full grown men rolled in old shitty carpet secured with duct tape. Where exactly would something like that look fairly natural?

  I drove to the overpass where I dumped off the computer modem previously.

  “No there is way too many people around” I tell myself

  I drive around to all of the parks I know of within five miles and every single one of them are full of people. This isn’t something that I have ever had to put an extended amount of thought into.

  I get out my phone and I type “where are most abandoned bodies found” into the search bar. Before I press the search I get a feeling that my phone might be bugged or tracked or something by the FBI or someone. This is all very new to me and I am getting used to the idea of constantly being under surveillance. It takes a little bit of time to completely reprogram your brain into not automatically pulling out your phone for advice.

  I erase it, put my phone away and I keep driving.

  I find myself going back to my house. I pulled into my driveway and I sat there for a few minutes trying to gather my thoughts and reflect on the current situation. I turned the car off and I walked up my porch and I opened the door to my house.

  Once I enter the house I see that the TV is on. The TV is playing a recording and I sat down on the couch and began watching it.

  It's video footage of the building those two fake detectives took me to. I watch as I am questioned, then as I walk into the bathroom. I see myself walk out of the bathroom, I watch as I kill both of those men. I see myself roll the bodies and take them outside. I see myself walk back in, look around then leave.

  I turn to my old computer that has been sitting on the coffee table ever since I stormed out earlier. The desktop is still pulled up. I logged onto instant messenger.

  SoccerDude2k1 is online.

  He sends me a message.

  xXBlaineDamage88Xx: The body count is up to three on your end now. How much longer do you want to keep going?

  SoccerDude2k1: I have more people that are willing to die for our cause than people you are capable of killing.

  xXBlaineDamage88Xx: We’ll see about that. You brought my parents into this. You put their lives at risk and I will stop for nothing and no one to make sure you never have an opportunity to harm them.

  I received a picture message.

  It is a picture of my parents' house.

  SoccerDude2k1: Do you want me to keep going?

  xXBlaineDamage88Xx: Fuck you, I will find you and I will kill you like those other three.

  I received another picture message.

  It's a picture of my parents' living room.

  SoccerDude2k1: This can all end at any time, Blaine .

  xXBlaineDamage88Xx: This will only end when I kill every single one of you sick fucks.

  I start to receive picture message after picture message continuously.

  A picture of my Mother naked with a mask covering her face. A picture
of my Father naked with a mask on his face. A picture of several people dressed in cloaks in My parents' dining room. I receive pictures of several men and women surrounding my mother and father and they are tied down to the dining room table.

  xXBlaineDamage88Xx: I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU! I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL KILL YOU.

  SoccerDude2k1: You have already found us Blaine. All you have to do is come home. We will be waiting for you . You should have never left. It is time for you to come home, all of this can be yours.

  I stand up and I storm out of the house. I am heading to my parents house. I run every light I come to and I drive as fast as I can until I get there. I pulled up in front of my parents' house and I got out and I started screaming “I’m here you sick mother fuckers. Come get me, I am here, come do what you need to do!”