The officers exchange suspicious glances before the officer who exited the passenger's door walks around the car and says to the other cop, “I'll go check it out. Why don't you and the son stay out here while I take the lady inside and ask her some questions?”
“Sounds good,” the other cop replies.
“Hell no!” Jenna exclaims. “I'm not leaving my son.”
The cop who exited the passenger's door, smiles at Jenna. “My name is Mike. I just need you to show me where the trouble is. Your son will be out here, safe with Officer Nicholson, alright?”
“What the -” Officer Nicholson gasps. A moment later, he's sent sprawling, face-first, onto the ground. Screaming and clawing at the ground, Officer Nicholson is dragged underneath the cruiser.
Mike drops to his hands and knees beside the cruiser and peers underneath. Before he can act further, Mike is splashed in the face by a gout of blood and viscera. Mike is stunned still for a second before he gathers his senses and scrambles away from the car. Shuffling backward on his heels and elbows, Mike quickly backs into Jenna's moving van.
Jenna clutches Bryce close to her as Mike stares up at her in total disbelief. In the next instant Mike is dragged violently underneath the moving van, his torso thrown between his legs as he's snatched backward by the belt.
Mike's screams of pain and surprise are cut off abruptly and a torrent of dark blood and shredded flesh shoots out from underneath the moving van. Jenna, unable to believe what's happening, stands unmoving and mute. For a few seconds, the only sounds are the labored breathing of Jenna and Bryce. Suddenly, the police cruiser shoots into the air, spiraling once before falling to the ground and crashing onto its side. The bloody, gruesome remains of Officer Nicholson lie spread across the ground.
Jenna inhales deeply, preparing to release a terrified scream. Her throat closes in shock as the moving van goes soaring into the air, turning end over end before slamming into the ground. Mike's mangled body is stretched on the ground in a pool of blood.
Jenna's arms lock tightly around her son and her mouth opens and closes, yet utters no sound. The beating of dozens of black wings grow loud as crows race from the woods toward the two fallen officers. The crows descend on the corpses, jabbing their beaks into the bodies and yanking out chunks of torn and bloodied meat.
A bone-rattling squawk near her ear as a crow rushes past her head jolts Jenna to her senses. Were Jenna a stronger woman, she would snatch Bryce off his feet and run off with him held tightly in her arms. Instead, Jenna sprints, half-dragging Bryce behind her as she makes a mad dash down the driveway.
Jenna is less than ten feet from the end of the long driveway when a black, luxury sedan rounds the corner. Not breaking her stride, Jenna races to the passenger's door and yanks it open. She shoves Bryce inside the car, then falls onto what little of the seat is left unoccupied by her son.
“What are you -?” the driver asks.
“Just get us the hell out of here!” Jenna demands, slamming shut the door and then wrapping both her arms around Bryce's shoulders.
The driver throws a quick glance over his shoulder before backing swiftly out of the dirt driveway and onto the paved road. Dropping his foot onto the gas pedal, the driver sends the sedan squealing away from the house.
The driver looks at Jenna before turning back to the road. “Where are we going, Jenna?”
“Anywhere but...” Jenna's words trail off as she realizes the driver somehow knows her name. Staring over at the driver, she finds herself looking at a man in his mid-fifties, dressed in a dark-colored business suit and bearing a familiar face. “Ian? What are you doing here?”
“I came to check on you,” Ian replies, smiling a little.
“You came to check on me?” Jenna yells, causing Bryce to flinch. Sliding a hand up and down Bryce's back, Jenna lowers her voice and continues, “When you showed up on my doorstep to tell me all about the house, you left out the part about something already haunting it.”
“I didn't think it would move so fast,” Ian mutters, furrowing his brow.
Jenna's eyes go wide and her jaw falls slack. Shaking her head once, she slowly reaches for the door handle, only to have Ian press a button locking all the doors.
Doing her best to maintain her calm, Jenna states in a low tone, “Stop the car and let me and my son out.”
Any sense of cordiality Ian might have had instantly disappears. He turns his head to face Jenna and fixes his glacier-cold eyes on her. “You and I need to talk. Once you hear what I have to say – every word – then you can do whatever you want.”
“I don't want to hear anything you have to say,” Jenna shoots back.
“Not even about the boyfriend who abandoned you?”
Jenna regards Ian skeptically from the corner of her eyes. “What do you know about Derick?”
“I know he's had more than a few girlfriends.” Ian glances down at Bryce before looking up at Jenna. “Maybe we should stop at this fast food spot up here?” Ian asks, nodding up the road. “They've got a playground in there. We could eat and then Bryce could play while you and I talk?”
Curious, yet suspicious, Jenna grudgingly accepts Ian's offer and they make the drive to the restaurant in silence. Neither Ian nor Jenna orders much, but Bryce orders a full meal and devours it hungrily before being excused to run about on the restaurant's playground.
Sitting sideways on the red, plastic bench, Jenna arches an eyebrow at Ian. “So?”
After taking a final sip through the straw, Ian places his cup to the side and answers, “Derick has had a bunch of girlfriends. He uses women to have children.”
Scoffing and rolling her eyes, Jenna shoots back, “Derick and I never had any kids. The only kid I have is the one he left me with.”
“From his previous girlfriend,” Ian agrees, nodding. “She didn't work out.”
Shaking her head and narrowing her eyes, Jenna asks, “What are you talking about?”
“She wouldn't stay in the house. Derick needs someone who can raise his son in his house,” Ian replies, leaning back in the booth a bit.
“His house?”
Ian nods. “The house you inherited belongs to Derick.” Shrugging, Ian adds, “Well, technically, the house belongs to me.”
Folding her arms across her chest, Jenna huffs, “You're not making sense.”
“I'm Derick's son. One of them, at least.”
Jenna bites her lower lip and shakes her head violently back and forth as she suppresses the urge to hurl at Ian every profanity she knows. When she finally feels she can speak without being vulgar, she jabs a finger in the air at Ian and hisses, “You're a liar. You're a terrible liar.” Looking Ian up and down, taking in the sight of the man in his mid-fifties seated across from her, she continues, “You're probably twenty years older than Derick.”
A deep crease forms in Ian's brow. “You still think Derick is a person? After everything you've seen?”
A pit forms in the center of Jenna's stomach. “What?”
Ian is silent for a moment. Finally, he asks Jenna softly, “You do know that the thing in the house is Derick, right?”
“No...that can't be...that can't be right because...” Jenna stammers.
“When you met Derick,” Ian interrupts, “didn't it strike you odd that you two had so much in common? The same opinion about politics and religion? The same interests? The same...everything? You were targeted because you're related to the original owners of the house.”
Her mind enveloped in a thick fog, Jenna can only grunt, “Huh?”
Waving a hand through the air, Ian says, “Let's backtrack a bit. Back in the mid-eighteen hundreds, a family settled in the house you now own. They invited members of their own extended family to build homes for themselves in the woods surrounding the house. The thing is, that big, extended family wasn't alone. Among them was a long-dead ancestor who served as a sort of patriarchal figure.” Ian points a finger back and forth between himself and Jenna. “You and
I know him as Derick.”
Her head spinning, Jenna can only ask, “But...who? How?”
Ian holds up a hand. “Let me explain. Derick was, back in his living days, always a quiet kid. He was incredibly shy and he used to hide out in the crawlspace underneath his family's house. If the legends are true, he even earned the nickname 'Crawlspace' due to this habit. Anyway, at some point, he hid underneath the house and was bitten by a venomous snake. He attempted to crawl out from under the house, but his clothes got snagged on a loose board, and the snake bit him several more times before he managed to extricate himself. By the time he got out, he was so dazed and sickened from being bitten that he could only manage to stumble halfway onto his porch before falling over. His parents probably would have rushed him to receive medical treatment, except that his parents and siblings had all gone to church – something it is rumored that Derick hated – hence the reason he hid underneath the house. Anyway, by the time his family returned, Derick had succumbed to his wounds. What's worse, crows had begun to feast on him.”
“The crows,” Jenna mutters, thinking back to the events at her new house. “All those crows.”
“Derick's family couldn't bear to live in the house after what happened, so they moved,” Ian explains. “The thing is, Derick was still with them. At first, the family thought Derick wanted to hurt them, but it turns out he only wanted to protect his family and help them prosper.” A dark grimace grinds across Ian's face. “It didn't take long before the family found out that Derick could make their enemies 'disappear.' That family, the Klein family, banded together and formed a business. Their rivals met gruesome ends. The family began to acquire other businesses. Rivals and those who resisted wound up dead. The family grew in wealth and political power. They were a terror to the town. It wasn't long before the family decided to find a place where the whole clan could permanently set up shop.”
“The house,” Jenna mutters. “My house.”
Ian nods. “It's rumored the foundation of the house was set along with a ring that Derick used to wear around his neck.” Ian shrugs. “I think the ring was a gift from his grandfather or something. Either way, the ring was too big for his finger, so Derick wore it on a chain around his neck. When Derick died, his parents carried it around until setting it along with the foundation of their new house.”
“For the longest time,” Ian continues, “everything ran smoothly at the new house. Things changed somewhere in the nineteen-sixties, when four black guys showed up in town and -”
“Is it really important to point out that the guys were black?” Jenna snaps.
With a look of confusion etched on his face, Ian responds, “Yes. This was the Sixties and the people in the town,” Ian pauses and waves a hand around the area, “this town, were pretty conservative. They still are. Do you recall seeing anything other than white people ever since you arrived here? I know you came down here to register your son for school before you moved in. Do you recall seeing anything other than white people then?”
“Uh...no,” Jenna replies, casting her eyes downward.
“This town has never been a haven for diversity,” Ian continues. “Back in the Sixties, it was even less accommodating to anyone who wasn't white. When four black guys showed up, claiming that they had eliminated all the members of the Klein family -”
“Wait,” Jenna says, holding up a hand. “How many members of the Klein family were there back then?”
“About fifty,” Ian answers.
“And these four guys killed them all,” Jenna inquires, “even though they had the help of Derick?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Ian slowly shakes his head. “I'm not sure. It's said that one of the four guys looked pretty normal. Nothing special about him at all. One of the four had a dog with him – a Dalmatian, if I'm not mistaken. The last two guys were each carrying a sword strapped to their back, and they -”
“A sword?” Jenna interrupts, arching an eyebrow at Ian.
“Yeah,” Ian laughs. “That's what I heard. I'm not sure of the names of the first two, but the name of one of the sword-wielding guys was Joe, while the other was called Louis. From what I'm told, Joe seemed to be the leader, while Louis might have been his younger brother, or maybe just his younger friend.” Ian shrugs. “Either way, Joe told the townsfolk that they'd killed everyone in the woods and in the main house. Joe urged the people to head up there and destroy the main house – everything, including the foundation. He assured them that would end all their woes with the Klein family. Destroying the house would be a big job, but if the entire town was in on it, Joe figured it wouldn't take very long. After that, the four guys piled into a van and raced away.”
“So what happened?” Jenna asks.
“Despite that everyone in the town was suspicious, if not outright terrified of the Klein's and whatever it was they did in the woods,” Ian replies, “the townsfolk were not going to be told what to do by black people. As far as the townspeople were concerned, the black guys were the villains who rolled into town and slaughtered a bunch of white people. Rather than level the house, they let it stand. The main house didn't remain vacant for long. It wasn't long before someone showed up in town to buy that house.”
Jenna's mind works furiously to put the pieces into place. “The man who bought the house was a relative of the Klein's.”
“Right,” Ian agrees, nodding. “All Derick needed to do from there was to rebuild his family.”
“What happened to the guys who killed the Kleins?” Jenna asks.
Ian shrugs. “I can't say. They seemed to drop off the map. The local police called the state police and told them what happened. An APB was released, but turned up nothing.” Again, Ian shrugs. “I honestly don't know how they got away or where they went. Strangely, according to my research, the whole thing disappeared from the news completely about two days later.”
Jenna is silent for a moment. “Did the guy who bought the house ever manage to rebuild the family?”
“In a way,” Ian answers. “He allowed Derick to possess his body so that Derick could seduce and impregnate women who would give birth to new members of the family.”
Jenna leans across the table and whispers to Ian. “That thing inside the house can possess people?”
Ian's eyes lock onto Jenna's. “That's what it does. It has managed, over the decades, to impregnate a large number of women. It won't be long before the family is back together.”
“How?” Jenna inquires. “The guy who bought the house back in the Sixties must be pretty old by now.”
“Derick possesses the body of all his male heirs,” Ian tells her.
Jenna shoots straight up in her seat. “But you said that you're Derick's son. That must mean that -”
“...One of the people who Derick possessed is my father,” Ian finishes.
“No,” Jenna says, turning her head and waving a hand though the air. “This is all too much. There is no way you'd be able to remain sane if all that were true.”
Ian nods toward the playground where Bryce rushes around happily. “Despite all the crazy stuff you're saying you saw, Bryce seems to be doing okay.” Ian looks directly at Jenna. “You seem fine too.”
Jenna looks over her shoulder out the window at Bryce. Turning slowly to face Ian, she whispers, “You didn't come to save me. You came to save Bryce.”
Ian props his elbow on the table and rubs the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb. “When Derick has control over me, my body shifts and takes on his appearance. He looks a bit older – roughly the same age as the woman he's pursuing – but he still looks like him instead of me.”
Her voice barely audible, Jenna asks, “What?”
“When a woman is impregnated by someone who is possessed by Derick, part of Derick is passed on to the child,” Ian explains. “The part of Derick that is passed on makes the child immune to the trauma of witnessing supernatural events. That's why Bryce hasn't been rende
red catatonic by what he's seen.” Ian looks up at Jenna. “That's why you haven't been rendered catatonic by what you've seen. I'm sure you were taken by surprise at first, but you seem to have recovered nicely – and rapidly.”
Her throat nearly closed from shock, Jenna manages to push out, “You're Bryce's father, aren't you?”
Ian inhales deeply, then exhales sharply. “I don't have any control over Derick when he's in possession of my body. All those 'business trips' he told you he had to go on were times when he released control of my body.” Ian shakes his head. “I can't say why, but Derick can't control a body indefinitely. He's certainly grown stronger, though. Each child a woman bears for him seems to increase his strength. Soon he'll have enough women and children under his control that he can rebuild the family.” Ian shakes his head. “I don't know what he's planning, but I imagine it's not good. I don't have any proof, but I think he wants revenge on the townsfolk who never found and punished the people who killed his family.”
“Wait,” Jenna says, raising a hand to scratch her head. “You've already said that you're related to Derick. You implied that I am, as well.” Jenna's eyes meet Ian's. “That means you and I are related, right?”
“Distantly,” Ian agrees. “Derick seems to know just how far apart is far enough to avoid inbreeding.”
“Let's stop him,” Jenna says, sliding out of the booth and rising to her feet.
Taken completely by surprise, Ian asks, “What?”
“You and I can destroy the house,” Jenna says, grinning down at Ian. “That would eliminate Derick, right?”
“Uh...” Ian stammers, “...yeah, that's right. I just didn't expect you to -”
“...Want to save my son?” Jenna's grin shifts to a warm smile. “Want to save our son?”
Ian slowly shakes his head. “You don't know what you're up against.” Pulling his phone from his pocket, Ian waves it in the air a little. “I stay in contact with all the other members of the family, trying to figure out what they're next move might be. Let me be clear: They hate me. The only reason I inherited the house is because I'm the only child who grew up to be a lawyer, so managing the house fell to me by default. Nobody in the family trusts me anymore, which is why it was demanded that the house be turned over to you. I'm pretty sure they suspect that I'm not only interested in leaving the 'family,' but that I'd like to destroy it once and for all. They'll kill me for that.” Ian inhales deeply. “They'll kill you, too.”
Forsaken Repose: The Restless Dead Page 2
