A Dark Lesson pt. 5

After Debbie had been examined, and Joanna had taken some photos of the scars, Amanda took her to one of the few cots they had on the second floor of the Youth Center.  Within minutes Debbie had fallen asleep, and Amanda headed back to her office. 

Joanna was inside, Clare with her. 

“How old would you say the girl is?” Clare was looking over the pictures Joanna had taken. 

“She says she’s 18.  I don’t know for sure, though.  She has no ID.  I have a call in with a friend over at the Wheaton Police Department to look through some of their missing persons cases, but he says he doesn’t think she matches any of their current files.”  Joanna’s arms were crossed in front of her chest, her face tight and serious. 

Amanda cleared her throat, doing her best to announce her arrival.  Clare looked up and smiled. 

“How’s she doing?” Clare put the photos down on Amanda’s desk.  “She looks a little dazed.  Shock?” 

“I don’t know.”  Amanda shook her head.  “She needs to be seen by a doctor.  Joanna here did what she could, but our facility is set up for STD testing and flu shots.  She needs to be seen by an MD, and the police need to be notified.  They may need to do a rape kit…” 

Clare shook her head. “She wasn’t sexually assaulted.”

“How can you know that?” Amanda’s voice rose suddenly, and she clasped a hand over her mouth in surprise. 

“I know,” Clare held up one of the photos, “because for this particular ritual to work, the subject needs to be a virgin.  A complete virgin.”  She handed the photo to Amanda.  “This is part of a ritual to create the Three.” 

“The Three?”  Amanda glanced from the photo to Clare. 

“The Three are a, well, three women, usually between the ages of 16-18, who act as maidens for the goddess Sumthak, helping pave the way for her return to the earth.”

Amanda glanced at Joanna, whose face had grown white.  “Yes, that Sumthak.  The same one that had almost possessed me.” 

Amanda could feel the room shift around her.  This couldn’t be happening.  All of that, all of the insanity and the horror had been undone.  Bobby and the others had gone back, they had made it right.  Joanna had never been…

“ The fact that we all retain the memories of what had happened, of all the events that had apparently been rewritten is proof enough that Sumthak and her attempt at revival were not completely undone.”  Clare leaned against Amanda’s desk, sighing.  “That girl, Debbie, is a part of this.  I don’t know how, yet, but I do know that whoever did that to her chose her for a very specific reason, and we need to be aware that they probably are going to come for her.” 

Amanda’s head was swimming.  This couldn’t be happening.  She had buried that time in her life.  She had pretended it had never happened, because as far as everyone else in the world was concerned, it never had actually happened.  It was a fluke, a lost strand of time abandoned in the ether of history. 

Now it was back.  Now the memories were back, how Marie had ambushed her in the park, transforming into that… thing.  She could suddenly remember how it had felt when those tentacles had wrapped around her arms, her legs, lifting her off the ground, and then…

The dizziness became more intense.  She tried to speak, but before the words could leave her lips she collapsed. 

Then there was just darkness.  Peaceful, thoughtless darkness.

Tentacle University pt. 4

The man, Detective Marco Cruz, led Peter and Devon towards an unmarked town car, the only clue that it was a police vehicle being the white and green municipal plates, and the small red and blue light bar poorly hidden in the back window. 

“You seemed like you recognized something,” Cruz stopped at the car, turning.  “Mind telling me what that was?” 

Peter looked towards his feet, not speaking, so Devon spoke up.  “The bracelet on the body, the medical alert one, it looked familiar.” 

“Oh?” Cruz removed his sunglasses, revealing a pair of striking brown eyes.  “Where’d you recognize it from?” 

Devon bit his lip.  “Our roommate, Tim Masterton.  He got one just like that a few weeks ago.  He has a really bad shellfish allergy, had a bad reaction to something, and the hospital recommended he get one. He hasn’t taken it off since.” 

“Your roommate, you have any idea where he is right now?” Cruz asked.

Devon shook his head. 

“How about you?” Cruz’s eyes shifted to Peter.  “You know where he is?” 

“No.” Peter’s voice was barely audible. “He wasn’t in his room this morning. He has a girlfriend, though.  Thought he probably stayed over at her place.” 

“That girlfriend, could you describe her for me?” 

Peter shrugged.  “Pretty, brownish hair, big boobs. Her name was Lori Costello.”

Devon nudged Peter in the ribs.

“What? They were a pretty memorable feature.” 

The constant stream of questions was starting to get on Devon’s nerves.  He knew the detective was just doing his job, but the more questions he asked, the more it felt like he knew something, that all of this was just to double check something that had already been confirmed.

Cruz sighed.  “If I showed you a picture, do you think you could recognize her?”

Both guys nodded. 

Cruz motioned for one of the crime scene photographers to come over.  He stepped away from the car for a few minutes, and it seemed like he and the photographer were arguing.  Devon had a bad feeling.  Suddenly he didn’t want to look at that picture.  In fact, he would rather be back in his dorm room, back in bed, and as far away from Detective Cruz as possible. 

When the argument ended Detective Cruz, a digital camera in his hand, walked back to the car.  “I’m going to warn you guys, this picture is kind of… gruesome, but if you could ID the victim, it would help me a whole lot. You okay with that?”

“ID the victim?” Devon could feel the blood rushing out of his face. 

“The photo I’m going to show you, it’s from in there.”  He motioned the camera towards the old dorm building.  “When I said it was kind of gruesome, I was lying.  It is very gruesome.  If I wasn’t desperate to get a solid ID, and a solid head start on all of this I would never think of showing you something like this, but…” 

The two guys glanced at each other, and then both of them nodded. 

Detective Cruz turned the screen of the digital camera towards them. 

There, on the screen, was Lori Costello, or at least, her head was.  Her face was pale, the only color the blood splatter that streaked her lips and cheeks.  Her eyes stared lifelessly at nothing, and her features still held a look of surprise.  Not horror, but surprise.  Devon glanced down and could see the clean, bloody stump where her neck ended and attached to nothing. 

“Oh God.”  Devon looked away from the camera.  “That’s her.”

Peter said nothing.  He just turned away and vomited into the grass. 

Eye See You: Luke Connects pt. 2

His voice sounded young, with a slight squeak to it.

I had expected something deep and imposing. 

His voice was shaky and uncomfortable. It sounded like he wasn’t use to using it.

My opinion of him didn’t really matter, though.  He was the one who held all the cards. 

He held my life in his hands.

More importantly, he held Randy’s life in his hands.

I asked him what kind of deal was he thinking of.

“This game is getting boring for me.  I want to change things up.”

He giggled.

“How about I give you a way to save your precious boyfriend?”

He had my attention.

I asked him how.

“I’ll give you the details in due time.   Just keep me near, okay?” 

I agreed. 

The voice vanished, and the earpiece fell from my head and into my palm. 

It felt warm, and I wasn’t sure, but it felt like it was pulsing in my palm, as if it was alive. 

Ruins pt. 36

When we reached the top of the stairs we could see the garden.

It was huge, spanning most of the park.

Vegetables grew tall, hiding the heads of most of the people working among them. 

“Alana, I was getting worried!”

The voice was loud, friendly. 

A large man stepped out from the garden, his shoulders broad and strong, his arms thick with muscle.

The only sign of middle age was a slight belly the protruded from his midsection.

He was completely bald, the dark skin of his head reflecting the sunlight. 

When he saw us, he smiled, clapping his hand. 

“Welcome to our city.”

He opened his hands, motioning towards the bustling hamlet around us. 

Then he froze. 

“Doug…”

Marcus’s lip quivered. 

My blood ran cold.

Was this going to be bad?

Were we going to lose paradise so quickly?

Eye See You: Luke Connects pt. 1

It all started when I found the small, brown envelope resting against my door. 

It was light, and a little lumpy. 

When I ran my fingers over the enclosed form I could feel something hard.  It was either plastic or metal. 

I opened when I got inside. 

I tipped the envelope towards my hand, and a small Bluetooth earpiece and a note slipped out. 

The note read, “Put Me On.” 

I shouldn’t have.  I knew I shouldn’t have, but I did. 

I felt compelled to comply.

The second the earpiece was in I heard a voice. 

His voice. 

“Hello, Luke.”

The Unknown Sender was speaking to me.

Even though he didn’t identify himself, I knew it was him.

“I want to make a deal with you.”