by Glover, Dan
He was addicted to money. He still dreamed about growing up on the poverty-stricken reservation in South Dakota and how the army had thrown his family off their farm like they were nothing but squatters. He had promised himself that something like that would never happen to his family, even if he had to kill himself providing for them.
It wasn’t until Michelle found one of his old manuscripts hidden away in a closet that he had considered taking up writing again. Without telling him she had sent it off to a few dozen publishers. One of them expressed interest. Though the advance wasn’t much it was enough to encourage Tom to retire from the casino.
Writing full time had its advantages and its disadvantages. Everyone seemed to think if he was home, he was available. They didn’t seem to realize he was working on a new novel. Calli was the worst offender of all. She would contact him any time of day or night without rhyme or reason. Yet he couldn’t seem to tell her no.
"Tom, can you please come over and help me? My well water isn’t working."
She had formed a fast friendship with Michelle. At first, Tom thought Michelle was just being neighborly with Calli. The girl had bought the adjoining property after returning home, after her own marriage ended in divorce... the man who she had dumped him for over a hundred years ago.
Michelle invited her to dinner almost every night and afterwards they would sit together on the porch drinking and laughing while Tom was in his office trying to work. Calli was his first love and even though she was a middle-aged woman now he still saw her as the same teenager who he had been head over heals in love with in another life.
It was impossible to work when she was around.
Calli seemed to speak just loudly enough that her exquisite voice carried into his room even with the door shut sending waves of passion racing through his mind. He could see her naked in his arms the way she used to be when they were teenagers growing up together on a farm not far from there.
"I'll be right over, Calli. It's probably the jet pump gone bad."
She always texted him on his cell, as if she knew the danger of calling even though their relationship was strictly platonic... at least in the beginning. Over the months he found it impossible to resist her charms even though he told himself he was happily married.
Tom had promised his wife he was staying home tonight to work on his writing... something he'd been neglecting of late. He asked her not to invite Calli over knowing he would just sit and listen to the two of them talking. An odd look crossed Michelle's face. He wondered if she suspected the obvious.
Twenty Nine Katz wasn’t far. He reasoned that once he met with Roger and Yelena he'd be home well before Michelle went to bed... as long as he didn’t get diverted past Calli's place. Roger was alone when he knocked at the locked door to be let in.
"Come in, Tom. Sit down and let's have a drink. Yelena says she needs to talk to us. She's on her way."
Tom had been surprised to hear his old friend's baritone voice on the phone. He couldn’t remember Roger ever calling him. He wondered briefly how he got his number and why he was calling so late.
"What's this all about Roger?"
"Damned if I know. I was just getting ready to lock up when Yelena called. She said she has to talk to us both, tonight. I asked her couldn’t she wait until tomorrow but she was adamant. Sorry to be calling you so late."
"Oh, you know me. I'm up late every night with my writing."
The sound of a key being inserted in the lock caused them both to look up. The front door creaked open as Yelena walked in. Seeing Tom and Roger at the bar she hurried over.
"Please to give me one drink, Mr. Roger and one for each of you."
She laid a twenty dollar bill on the top of the bar.
"Keep your money, Yelena. This is on the house tonight."
Roger filled three tumblers to the brim with his best vodka before setting the bottle down in front of the old woman.
"Help yourself."
"Thank you so much, Mr. Roger. And thank you too for coming, Mr. Tom. I am so sorry I make you come out so late. I must speak to both of you. I got drunk with Allison last week. She said, come home with me tonight. It is so late. You may sleep there. So I did. She is such a wonderful friend.
"During the night, I think I have woken up. I hear glass break in kitchen. I jump up to rush in there to see what has happened. A clown is standing there. But he does not see me. Then I know I am in dream, not awake at all. I am supposed to watch. This thing has not yet happened but happen it will.
"Another clown walked into kitchen with my friends Allison and Lisa. They are tied with rope with gags in their mouth so they cannot speak. There is blood on the second clown. I have not seen what has happened but I know this blood is from the young girl Jem. There is so much blood I know she is no more.
"First clown said to second, we must go, it is getting late. The man will soon be home. I follow as they take Lisa and Allison to car and drive away. I know they are going someplace terrible where they will spend rest of their lives as captives."
"So you had a dream, Yelena, that's all."
Roger seemed a bit put out.
"But this was a special dream."
Yelena her glass again, downed it in a gulp, and refilled it.
"It was a dream of knowing."
"You're saying someone is coming to kidnap Lisa and Allison, and they'll kill Jem. Is that right?"
"Yes, Mr. Tom. Thank you. This is what I mean to say. We must be ready so this terrible thing does not happen."
"Do you know when this is going to happen?"
"It will happen soon... perhaps tomorrow night. That is why I called Mr. Roger and gave him your number, Mr. Tom. I must talk to both of you. You are Billy's friends. He will need your help if he is to survive and save his family."
"What can we do? I'll do whatever you say, Yelena. Just tell me."
"Thank you, Mr. Tom. First, we must make sure Billy has protection. Do you have a weapon?"
"Of course I do. I live on a ranch. I keep guns for my family's protection."
"Bring one to Billy. He will refuse it but insist he take it. Take something small. Something a woman can use."
"I can do that first thing in the morning."
"This is good. Thank you, Mr. Tom. Next, you both must go to Billy tomorrow night. Wait with him. Be ready. These men will come for Lisa and Allison. These are bad men. They want these women. They want the babies that they bear. They will expect the women to be alone and not to fight."
"But the tavern..."
"Phooey on tavern, Mr. Roger; if you do not do this thing, people will die, people you love. Go to Billy's. If I must, I will come and run the tavern. Do not worry... now, please get me a map and a pencil. I must tell you where to take these men once you capture them. It is important you do as I say. This I have seen in my dream."
Chapter 50—Going to Hell
"What are you doing here?"
The words escaped his mouth before he had time to think. Oscuro nearly had his hands on Allison. If only he had acted instead of spending a precious second relishing the look of incomprehension on her face at seeing him standing at the door. But this was totally unexpected. The man standing in front of him should not be here. A feeling of dread began twisting and pulling at his guts.
"I'm protecting my family, Alex."
The man stood very still with a shotgun trained on Oscuro's mid-section, his finger on the trigger, and a look of deadly concentration on his face.
The old man lay on the floor with a pool of blood issuing from a gaping wound on his temple. Oscuro had heard the glass break about the same time Allison slammed the door in his face. Sprinting around to the back of the house to help Kirk, he noticed the door standing open and a body on the floor, one of the women, no doubt. Only he was wrong.
"So you know who I am... I think we've met before... you're Billy."
"I know who you are and what you want. You're not getting it. Turn around and put your hands behi
nd your back, Alex."
"You would have already shot me if you were going to."
Oscuro sneered as he moved closer to this man who seemed oddly familiar. The kid from the asylum, that's who this was. An unwarranted confidence drove him onward. All he need do was take that gun away from this man-child and the night could yet be salvaged.
A crash sounded from somewhere inside his head. Suddenly his eyes were staring at the grit and dust bunnies on the black and white tile in front of his nose. Wondering what he was doing on the floor, he tried to rise up when another crash sounded and the lights went out.
"What are we going to do with them?"
Oscuro heard a voice talking but when he tried opening his eyes he realized he'd been blindfolded. Moving his arms or legs was useless as well. He could feel sticky duct tape binding them and though he involuntarily struggled to free himself he knew from his own use of it that to break free would be impossible. When he tried opening his mouth to speak he discovered it too had been taped shut.
"Yelena said to let them make the choice once we get there."
"I still think we ought to have called the police."
"That will be their choice to make, not ours."
Oscuro could make out three distinct voices and a body next to him. Kirk. He wondered momentarily if the old man was dead but he felt warmth emanating from him and the movement of breath. A sense of motion told him they were traveling in some sort of vehicle. A wave of nausea washed over him. He'd always been prone to motion sickness. Being blindfolded only added to his dilemma. He breathed hard through his nose knowing if he vomited he might well asphyxiate himself.
He shouldn’t have brought the old man with him. He saw it now. They had walked into a trap. Apparently he had been spotted while casing the old Victorian and the tavern where Allison worked. They had been ready for him.
If he had stuck to his plan of sneaking into the house through the cellar door he was certain things would have worked out better. He could have observed the comings and the goings and made certain Allison was alone. She was the only one he truly desired. He had let Kirk cloud his judgment with talk of how much stronger he was feeling.
He inwardly cursed the old man. He hoped his skull was crushed. Kirk had filled his head full of nonsense. The man was obviously not any older than seventy years... he had been embellishing the facts in order to lure Oscuro into doing his bidding. The man was every bit as insane as anyone he had ever met, and he had met a thousand loony tunes.
The kidnapping should have gone without a flaw. Oscuro was to knock on the front door as a distraction while Kirk went around back. The women would be no match for the two of them. He had worked out every eventuality in his head. They brought plastic ties to bind the two women and the girl if need be. The more he had thought about it, though, she would be a useless commodity. Better to dispose of her.
It had been his excitement over seeing Allison again that became his undoing. The look on her face told him she'd been expecting someone else besides him. He failed to take advantage of the moment of indecision. Instead, he had indulged in it, as if he had all the time in the world.
His head hurt badly enough that he wondered if his skull might be fractured. Otherwise, he didn’t seem to be badly injured. Whoever had taped him up had done a first rate job, however. Though he squirmed and wormed his wrists around he couldn’t work loose.
He wished he was home; not back at the carnival and its incessant traveling, but home in California, by the sea, with his father and his mother and his sister that he once loved so well. He wondered how it had come to this. There must have been a point when he could have turned right instead of left and somehow averted this disaster that had become his life.
All your sins will be forgiven in a twinkling of an eye. One of his women had told him that just before he throttled the life out of her watching as her eyes bulged and turned red and her tongue lolled from her mouth with froth forming on her lips. The words had somehow enraged him then but now they came back like a haunting melody.
A tear formed in his eye but the tape across his face forbade it to flow. He had been incarcerated both in jail and mental institutions but his jailors had always treated him humanely. Now, he wondered what sort of hell awaited him.
He sensed they were going to Kirk's bunker but for the life of him he couldn’t understand how anyone could know where it was. Did the old man have a map in his pocket? It would be just like him... always griping about being careful and then leading his captors straight to the one place on earth they thought was safe.
He damned the tape gagging his mouth. If only he could speak he might be able to explain how this was all a mistake. They hadn’t meant any harm. He was merely coming to visit his long lost sister, to surprise her. If only he could explain he might still set things right.
He felt Kirk's body rhythmically thumping against his. At first he thought they were traveling rough roads but soon it became apparent that the old man was having a convulsion. He might even be dying.
Chapter 51—Safe
"Allison! It's so good to hear your voice! Is everyone okay?"
He hated leaving without saying goodbye but they couldn’t take a chance on the two men escaping. The old one wasn’t in good shape... there was some talk of taking him to the hospital but both Tom and Roger were adamant that Yelena insisted they first go to a spot she had marked on the map.
Billy wondered what would have happened if Tom hadn’t arrived when he did and cold cocked Alex from behind. He didn’t know if he could have pulled the trigger on the shotgun or not. He had never shot anything in his life. Yet knowing what the pair of men had planned for his wives removed any sense of guilt he felt for having clipped the old man in the head when he tried entering the kitchen.
He hit him harder than he meant. At the time, however, Billy didn’t know it was an old man... the clown makeup obscured his features. It wasn’t until later that he realized the man was closer to seventy than to thirty.
"Oh my God, Billy, yes, we're fine. Where are you? We came downstairs to help you and the house was empty."
"On our way to hell or so Yelena says. We'll be home by morning."
"Is Alex with you? And Tom and Roger?"
"Yes, we're all here."
"What happened?"
"I doubt these clowns expected the welcome that they received. According to Yelena, your brother has been watching us for the last month. That's why we all felt so spooked. He knew I went to work each evening and you girls would be alone. That was their chance. They planned on kidnapping all of you."
"But why would they do that?"
"Do you really want to hear this, Allison? It's pretty ghastly."
"I need to hear it even if I'd rather not."
"They wanted your babies. And all the babies you would have for the next twenty years. They were planning to kidnap you and hold you as prisoners. These guys are right out of a horror movie."
"But what would they do with our babies? I don't understand."
"They abort them, Allison. They wait until they are about six months along and then they abort them and eat them. They've been doing the same thing to other women."
"No, I don't believe that. I can't believe Alex would do that."
"That's good then, Allison. I think it's better that you don't believe it."
"What are you going to do with them?"
"Yelena told Tom and Roger that we have to take them to a place she marked on a map. She told them there's a sort of bunker there. We have to get inside of it. There's something there, something important. We'll be there in a couple hours. I'll call when we are heading home. Until then, keep that gun handy. And don't open the door to anyone we don’t know."
Billy wasn’t sure what they would find but he steeled himself for the worst. The two men in the back seat were obviously psychopaths bent on hurting and killing as many people as necessary to feed their lurid lusts. Billy wanted to vomit when he thought of what might have happene
d if Yelena had not alerted them.
Death would be too good for them. Perhaps that's what Yelena was saying... that the choice would become clear when they reached the spot on the map. There was something there too horrible for words. Once they found it, they would know what to do with the two clowns in the back seat.
Billy thought of the last time he had seen his little sister... the love shining in her sickened eyes. Pearl Ann must have known she was dying. He would have given his own life to save her. Yet here was a man who would sacrifice his sister all for the sake of some demented plan to harvest babies.
He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Billy knew he wasn’t what anyone would call a good man... he had tried to kill himself. He had tried to kill his first wife. He had broken nearly every commandment in the bible. Yet he had never in his most fevered illusions dreamt of harming someone so sweet and so young and so fragile.
"Billy?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
"Thank you for saving my life. I love you."
"Hey, what are great friends for? But really, you need to thank Yelena. She's the one who warned us. See you all soon, Allison, and I love you too."
"Are your girls okay, Billy?"
Roger rode shotgun beside him as Billy drove down dark highways following Yelena's directions. Tom sat silently in the back seat with a sawed-off shotgun trained on their prisoners.
"Yes, thanks to you two. We'll always be in your debt."
"What are friends for, Billy? I'll stay by the car with our clowns while you and Roger check out the hole in the ground. If it's there, that is."
"I think it will be there, Tom. Turn up ahead at the first gravel road. Look for a dirt path sprouting off to the left about five miles ahead of us. That should take us to the bunker."
Roger seemed to speak with a certainly born of his long association with Yelena. Billy remembered him telling the tale of how he and Tom had found his wife Justine at the bottom of a ravine... right where Yelena said they would be. He shivered involuntarily thinking of how close he had come to losing his wives too.
