The Avenged

by Charles Prandy

  My fingers were extended with each long stride. My legs felt light and strong. I was running fast in a straight line, almost as if a path had been created for me. Trees blew by in a blur.

  More voices came behind me.

  “Stop.”

  “There he is.”

  “I see him. He’s running.”

  “Over there.”

  They were coming in droves, and fast. Soon, I knew, the helicopter would be overhead and I doubted that I’d be able to lose it again. What made things worse was the thing that I feared would happen happened. I heard them barking. Multiple dogs, multiple dog voices. Their barking was almost conversational, as if they were betting on who could take me down first.

  There was no more time for thinking. All I could do was run. I ran as fast as I could. I didn’t want to feel razor-sharp teeth pierce through my flesh, so I continued running.

  I looked up ahead and noticed that the denseness of the woods was starting to thin out. A road must be near. I believed that it was probably Darnestown Road. If I could make it, maybe I had a chance. But what real chance? I’d be out in the open and exposed. The dogs would have their target set like heat-seeking missiles and they would shoot after me and wouldn’t stop until they’d taken me down.

  I burst through the woods like I was shot out of a cannon and quickly came upon the road. I turned left and ran down the center double line. The irony came to my mind. Months earlier, I had chased a coked-up Mexican down the middle of a road, pleading for him to stop, and now I was being chased by a pack of dogs who were probably telling me in their language to stop. I looked back and saw the first of the dogs, a large German shepherd, come through the woods, and then three more immediately followed. When they saw me, they flashed their teeth and licked their chops and then let out flurry of barks as they turned on their burst.

  The dogs came fast. It didn’t matter how fast I ran, the dogs ran three times faster and would be on me in a matter of seconds. I looked up to the sky and thought just the slightest of thoughts, you helped me once, can you do it again?

  The barking grew louder. I was scared to look back, as I knew that they were right behind me. I could hear their breathing and imagined their saliva dripping from their mouths in anticipation of taking off my arm.

  For the first time, I felt the fire building in my lungs. I didn’t know how much longer I could run at this pace. My legs were starting to feel heavy and my muscles ached. I was sweating profusely and knew that at any second, my trek would be coming to an end. Maybe the judge would win. They won’t believe my story and the bastard will get away with murder. Just as I finished my thought, I heard a dog snarling on my heels. But I also heard something else, a roar that was louder than the dog’s barks.

  Ninety-two

  TIRES SCREECHED AND A dark blue sedan slid to a stop. The passenger door flew open. I instantly recognized the car but couldn’t believe that it was there. Of all the cars in the world, of all the drivers, Pops was behind the wheel. He didn’t need to tell me to jump in, that was the natural reaction.

  “Hurry up, Jacob!”

  Once in the car I took breaths in gulps until my body slowly started to realize that I wasn’t running anymore. I was hot and extremely sweaty. The muscles in my legs ached and I could feel them start to cramp.

  “How…how…did you know I’d be here?” I asked.

  Pops didn’t take his eyes off the road. His hands were firmly wrapped around the steering wheel at the ten and two o’clock positions.

  “When it was reported that you had entered the trails, I started thinking of different areas that you could come out. I’ve been driving around for the past half hour, hoping I’d see you. And here you are.”

  My breaths were coming much easier now.

  “You might want to put your seat belt on, son. We’re not out of this yet.”

  “Pops—”

  “No need to say anything, Jacob.” He took his eyes off the road for the first time and looked at me. “I believe you. You and me were always straight with each other, and when you looked into my eyes, I knew you couldn’t have done what they said you did to Theresa.”

  “I loved her,” I responded. “Still do.”

  “I know, son. So do I. Now, we’ve got to get you outta here so you can tell the world what really happened.”

  “You know these roads better than I do. How do you suspect we do that? The police will have the whole area shut down soon.”

  Pops hesitated before he responded. “Did I ever tell you of the time that I was accused of stealing from a liquor store, and that me and my friend Harry had to outrun the police around these parts?”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “It was before I met Theresa’s mother. 1962, to be precise. This area wasn’t as liberal to us back then as it is now. These were all country roads back then.”

  Pops took a sharp right off of Darnestown Road and shoved the pedal to the floor.

  “My friend Harry and I stopped in to the local liquor store to buy a bottle of rum. You see, we had two hot dates that night and we knew that a couple of shots of the good stuff would loosen up all of us.”

  A stop sign caused David to brake hard, and then take a quick left. The tires peeled as they sped off.

  “The owner, Mr. Fleming, a white man who wasn’t too fond of us colored folk back then, said that we’d stuck a carton of cigarettes in our pockets after we paid for the rum. Of course we said that we didn’t, but that didn’t stop Mr. Fleming from calling the cops.”

  The road began to zigzag, which caused Pops to slow and accelerate from time to time.

  “We knew that even though we didn’t take nothing, if the police came up and saw us there, we’d have been taken to jail. So we hopped in my ‘58 Chevy Impala and got the hell out of there.”

  Another side road came up on us and Pops took a sharp right.

  “You said that they chased you?”

  “Sure enough, they did. As coincidence had it, Sherriff Anderson was pulling up to the liquor store right when we sped off. We saw old man Fleming point at our car and then Sherriff Anderson came chasing after us.”

  Pops turned left at the next side road.

  “So what happened?” I inquisitively asked.

  “I made a few turns, took a couple of side roads, lost Sheriff Fleming and then ended up right here.”

  I wasn’t paying attention to where we were headed, but when I looked out the front window, I was surprised to see where we were. A restored-looking farmhouse painted a pale yellow with white shutters next to the windows was in front of us. Over the years, houses had been added to the neighborhood, but the old yellow farmhouse was one of a kind.

  “But this is your house,” I responded.

  “Yep. Although back then it wasn’t.”

  Ninety-three

  THE ROOM WAS AS dark as a room could be, with no windows or lights. I stayed still, just like I was told to. I even tried to make my breathing quieter in case someone put a stethoscope against the wall, listening for any sound of human movement. Well, that was an exaggeration in my mind, but I still tried to be as quiet as possible.

  I heard their voices when they came into the house. Though they were muffled, I knew they were the police and they were looking for me. I told Pops that his house would be the first place the police would check. Pops suspected the same thing so he put me in a secret room in the house that only Pops and Mama J knew about.

  I heard Pops’ muffled voice, and then heard feet climbing the old wooden stairs. The stairs creaked when they were walked upon. Pops never got them fixed because he wanted to hear when someone walked up or down them. Especially when Theresa became a teenager and was prone to do what teenagers were known to do. “She could try to sneak out or sneak a boy in,” Pops would say, “but she wouldn’t make it far.”

  The feet stopped at the top of the staircase and I heard multiple footsteps walking along the top floor. There were probably at least two or three officers sear
ching the rooms, I thought. Someone came into the bedroom and I heard them open the closet door. I tensed and held my breath. There was no way the officer could have known that behind the wall in the closet, I sat in a room the size of a large walk-in closet, hoping that I wouldn’t be found.

  I had been to the house dozens upon dozens of times. I helped them move their heavy wooden bedroom furniture around and never once noticed that the ceiling fan had three cords hanging down from it. Most ceiling fans have two cords: one for the light and one for the fan. The third cord opened a small seamless door in the closet that led to the hidden room.

  After a few minutes, I heard footsteps going down the stairs. My nerves relaxed and I felt like I could breathe. I started to look around the dark room. I couldn’t see anything, but I was sitting on what felt like a leather-wrapped chair. The chair was actually pretty comfortable. Why do they have a comfortable leather chair in a hidden room? More importantly, why do they have a hidden room in the first place? I suspected that the room was probably built by the original owners, and that anyone who lived here had the luxury of having a secret room. But what’s with the chair?

  As a matter of fact, when I was rushed into the room and before the door closed, I thought I saw clothing hanging from the wall. I stood up from the chair and reached my hands out in front of me and felt for the wall. When I reached it, I walked along the wall until my hands ran into garments which felt like leather pants, maybe a shirt. I continued moving along the wall until I felt a chain.

  “What the hell is this?” I whispered.

  There’s got to be a light in here. I began searching for a light switch and found it hanging in the middle of the room. I pulled the cord and a red light turned on. If I wasn’t in my in-laws’ house, I would have thought that I had stumbled into a brothel. Full-body leather clothes with masks, whips and chains hung on the wall.

  “What kinda freaky mess is this?”

  Out of the corner of my right eye, I saw someone standing next to me, which made me jump. It was just my reflection from a large mirror behind the leather chair.

  “Jesus,” I pointed at myself in the mirror, “you almost caused me to crap my pants.”

  Who would have ever thought that the people I’d come to know, who were so sweet and innocent, were into the kinky stuff.

  Just then, the door opened and a flood of light filled the room. Pops and Mama J stood there staring at me. I stared back at them.

  “What can I say?” Mama J said. “I’m a dominatrix.”

  I looked back and forth at both of them.

  Pops nodded with the slightest of smiles, “She is.”

  Ninety-four

  TWO HOURS HAD PASSED SINCE the police left. At least, the initial officers who had searched the house left two hours ago. I peeked through the bedroom window and saw an unmarked police car parked across the street from the house. I expected that the police would have the house staked out. I would have done the same. I knew that the house phone would be tapped by now, as well as Theresa’s parents’ cell phones.

  The day was coming to an end and the sun was nearly gone. I sat at the edge of a king-sized bed. I let myself sink into its softness and then laid back. It felt like forever since I had laid in a bed. My body was sore and tired beyond belief. I wanted to take my shoes and clothes off and fall asleep forever inside this comfortable house that had so many warm and loving memories.

  I closed my eyes and my mind instantly began to think of Theresa again. She was alive and we were in our bed at home, naked and laughing, without a care in the world. Theresa pulled her hair behind her ears and blew me a kiss. I reached for the floating kiss, grabbed it and blew one back to her. Then she put her head against my chest and wrapped her arms around my body. We just laid together, in awe of each other, naked and enjoying every minute of our time together. I rubbed my fingers through her hair and she made little circles on my stomach with her fingers. Everything felt normal. Life had returned to normal.

  Then something unexpected happened. I saw someone out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and saw Nathan Hunt enter the room. I quickly jumped from the bed and leaped toward him, but passed through his body like a ghost. Nathan laughed.

  “You never learn,” Nathan said.

  Then he reached for Theresa and threw her over his shoulder.

  I grabbed the closest object, which was a lamp, and swung it at Nathan’s legs, but the lamp passed through as well.

  Nathan began to leave the room with Theresa on his shoulder.

  “Let her go, you bastard!” I yelled.

  “Too late for that buddy,” Nathan responded. He laughed as he carried Theresa away.

  My eyes shot open and the bedroom was dark. I was shaking and sweating heavily. For a moment, it felt like air escaped my lungs and I couldn’t breathe. It was only a dream, I told myself. I calmed a little and caught my breath. How long was I asleep? I had no clue what time it was or what time it had been when I dozed off, only that there was still daylight in the sky before I closed my eyes.

  Just then, the bedroom light turned on and Pops and Mama J stood in the doorway. Theresa’s mother was holding a plate with two turkey sandwiches stacked on one another and a glass of apple juice.

  “You must be starving,” she said as she sat next to me. Her voice was as loving as it always had been towards me. “Eat this. You’ll feel better when you’re done.”

  I didn’t realize how hungry I was until my eyes came upon the two sandwiches stuffed with turkey, lettuce and tomatoes. I inhaled them before I had a chance to think about it.

  “Slow down,” she said, “you don’t want to choke to death.”

  “Jacob,” Pops said, “what you saw in our hidden room, Theresa never knew about.”

  I raised my hand while still chewing on one of the sandwiches. “That’s none of my business.”

  “I know,” he responded, “but it’s something that we’ve kept to ourselves for a long time. The room was actually there when we bought the house, so naturally it was a great space to keep our little secret from Theresa.”

  “I get it,” I looked at both of them. “It’s just hard to imagine the two of you dressed up like that, you know.”

  We all laughed and I gulped down the apple juice. Mama J was right, I did feel better, more alert and energized. Even though the dream caused me to feel jittery and unnerved, the short rest was welcome and much needed. For the first time in a while, my head felt clear and I was able to think, probably because I was somewhere that I felt safe from the outside world.

  Mama J took my plate and glass and placed them on the bed. Then she wrapped her arms around me and lightly sobbed. When she pulled away, I felt dampness on my shoulder from where she had left tears.

  “Jacob, do you know who did this to Theresa? I didn’t believe for one minute what the papers said about you. You’re too good of a man to have done what they said you did.”

  I nodded. “I do.” It was hard for me to look into her eyes, but I did when I continued. “They were after me. It was the case I was working on, and apparently, I was getting close. They came to kill me and she just happened to be there. Normally, she would have been at work, but she asked another doctor to cover her shift so she could spend time with me.”

  Pops reached over and placed his hand on my shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault, son. Don’t carry that burden. It’ll only tear you up inside.”

  I nodded and agreed, but it didn’t mean that I could let it go.

  “So what options do we have?” Pops asked.

  “We don’t have any options,” I quickly responded. “These people are dangerous and I won’t allow you guys to get involved.”

  “We’re already involved,” Pops said. “They took away our beloved Theresa, and I’ll be damned if I let them get away with it.”

  I stood and turned to my father-in-law. “Pops, I’m sorry, but you can’t get involved. They nearly killed me and I couldn’t live with myself if they did the same thing to yo
u guys as they did to Theresa. I’m sorry, but this is something that I’ve got to do alone. This is personal between me and them now.”

  “Well then, if we can’t get involved, I guess we can’t help you get back to your lady friend who helped you at the church,” Pops responded.

  “Angela?”

  “Yep. She found me while you were on the run and told me where to meet her if I got you.”

  “She found you?”

  “Yep.”

  Ninety-five

  DETECTIVES STEPHEN HERNANDEZ AND Scott Piler of the Montgomery County Police Department sat in their unmarked cruiser across the street from Jacob’s in-laws’ house. Detective Hernandez was dark-skinned, with a shaved head, a thick neck and a thin beard. He was sitting in the driver’s seat. Detective Piler was his total opposite, with creamy white skin and red hair. He couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred and fifty pounds on a six-foot-one frame. Detective Hernandez, on the other hand, was round and closer to two hundred seventy-five pounds on a six-foot frame.

  The police radio chattered from time to time with voices from dispatch or other officers communicating back and forth with each other.

  “This is the part of the job that sucks,” Hernandez said. “I mean, we’ve been sitting out here for nearly six hours. The guy’s probably clear across town by now. No way he’d show up here.”

  Hernandez reached into the back seat for a plastic grocery bag where a couple of candy bars and water bottles were. He grabbed a Snickers and tore off the wrapper.

  “You sure you want to eat that stuff?” Piler said. “Stuff’s got enough sugar to last you all week.” He patted his partner’s belly. “Thought you were trying to shed a few pounds.”

  “I am. Haven’t you ever heard of the candy bar diet?”

  “Whatever. Five years from now, you’re going to be crying to me because you’ve got Type 2 Diabetes. And I’m going to bring this conversation back up.”