The Scarlet Plan

by Rick W. Warren

Jordan thought about the truth of the fact that all of their other classmates were too afraid to come here and it made him feel good too.

  “Well, Mark, believe it or not I think you’re right,” Trent said. “It’s pretty cool to explore something that no one else has.”

  They made their way forward and came to the point where they exited the woods and their path turned left. They followed it and after they passed all the remaining trees on their left they had arrived to their destination. There in the back of a wide-open field stood the barn. It was beautiful in its rustic quality and it still looked like it was in good shape.

  Mark turned back with a huge smile beaming on his face. “Well, what are you guys waiting for? Let’s go see it!”

  8

  The Cleaner sat as thoughts of evil flooded his mind. The evil ones spoke to him and they spoke to each other. They planned things. Revealed things. They guided him at times and commanded him at others. They were the source of his power. They were the reason he was here.

  The voices weren’t made up. They were real and yet only he could hear them. The evil ones came to him as a child. At first there was one, but then others followed. He never resisted their presence. He enjoyed their chaos. He invited them in and they have stayed with him since. Now they were many and although He was one soul in one body, he knew that he was not alone. His body was a temple. A temple for evil and there was always room for more.

  In every action he took, the evil ones were there. They brought him to the Scarlet. It was a great discovery indeed. The Scarlet had allowed him to flourish in what he did best. They allowed him to destroy and the evil ones gave him the power to do so.

  Some enjoy peace and quiet. The Cleaner despised such things. He was the exact opposite and he was only happy (if you could call it happy) when he destroyed. Love was no part of his life, only hatred. He had always hated. It was his very nature. He believed that hatred was the nectar that attracted the evil ones to him. They only fueled his rage. They gave him strength. They gave him purpose. What was the purpose? Power. The ability to do whatever he wanted to anybody he wanted to.

  The Cleaner sat in the upper loft of the barn, which had been serving as his current home. He was aware of the rumors that floated around in Galesburg about it being haunted. He knew of the supposed witch’s rituals that were to have happened here. He knew of the lies and he knew of the truth. He knew that the Scarlet had purchased this property a while ago. He was aware of its previous owner and he was very aware of that owner’s sudden heart attack. He should have known since he was the cause of it. He was aware of the Scarlet’s intentions for this property and he was excited (if you could call it excited) to see it come to pass. He had every intention to help make that happen.

  The Scarlet knew this area would attract him. They knew his connection to it and when they had brought it up to him, they were not let down. They had always been very generous in his compensation for all of his services. In this case, however, the job was its own reward. He wanted this job for personal reasons and the Scarlet knew what those reasons were. Therefore, with his eyes closed and his mind focused on the evil ones, he smiled. Da Vinci had his Mona Lisa. The Scarlet Plan for Galesburg would be his masterpiece.

  The Cleaner continued to listen to the evil ones until he heard a voice that was not familiar. He knew the voices of those who spoke to him. This was someone new. It was someone who shouldn’t be here. Someone was outside.

  He stood up and walked toward the east window that looked out upon the field in front of him. To his right he saw what he was hearing. Making their way to the barn was a group of four kids. In his estimation (and he was very good at it) they couldn’t be any older than thirteen or fourteen years old. The heaviest one out of the four was practically running while the others stayed walking. He kept talking about how cool this was and was telling the one in the glasses to make sure he got plenty of pictures. (That was going to be a problem.) The redheaded boy was making a joke about how he hadn’t seen “Mark” run this fast since Kastle Kreme was giving out free ice cream cones. The fourth kid next to the redhead was constantly scanning the area as if making sure it was ok to be here. (It wasn’t.) He seemed to be the most concerned for the well being of the others and told them that they should do what they came to do and make their way back home. The Cleaner didn’t like any of them already, but he felt even more disturbed by the fourth kid. Something about him seemed more threatening than the others.

  The Cleaner stepped back from the window. They couldn’t come into the barn. If they did, they couldn’t leave it either. Who knows they’re here? Would people know where to look for them if they had gone missing? Should they see him or should he hide? I do not hide! He began to get angry. This was very inconvenient and he hated inconvenience. He decided to close his eyes and ask the voices. “What do I do?”

  After a moment, The Cleaner’s eyes opened. He liked what they said.

  9

  Mark stood in front of the barn beaming. This was so cool to him and he felt so brave being here. In truth, there was nothing threatening about the landscape. The barn was actually kept in good shape and while there were long grass and weeds in various areas, they could see that someone still used this land too. They saw various pieces of twine, which was probably used for bailing hay and they could tell that it hadn’t actually been too long ago since the majority of the field had been mowed.

  “Well, for being a haunted place, the ghosts seem to be taking good care of it,” Trent said looking around.

  Mark motioned to the other guys. “Come on. Let’s get a picture together. Josh you can take a selfie of us can’t you?”

  “Sure,” Josh said.

  The four of them grouped together in front of the barn. Josh held his phone out in front of them as they smiled. Each picture they took required a different pose or expression, but they had a laugh doing it. After about five or six pictures, Jordan stepped back and said, “Alright guys, we should get going. After all we all have to get back to our homes anyway. My parents didn’t want me to be gone all day.”

  Josh looked at the pictures. “I got some good ones here. I’m ready to go if you are.”

  “Would it be ok to get one of just me?” Mark asked.

  “No problem. We should do it quickly though so that we can get going.”

  Mark posed flexing his arms like he was some sort of bodybuilder. Trent got a good laugh out of it as always, but Mark didn’t care. He felt like he genuinely accomplished something by coming here and that was good enough for him.

  Jordan, Josh, and Mark began to make their way back to their bikes when suddenly Trent spoke up. “Hey guys. Are we seriously going to come all this way out here and not look in the barn itself?”

  Jordan turned around. “What does it matter? It’s a barn. Who cares what’s in it?”

  “You don’t care to see at all?” Trent replied.

  “It’s probably a bunch of hay bales,” Josh said. “It’s not really that thrilling.”

  “They might be fun to climb on, though,” Trent said trying to convince them to stay.

  “Let’s go, Trent,” Jordan said getting irritated. “Sign or no sign, we probably shouldn’t be here. It’s someone else property.”

  “Let me just get a peek then and we’ll go,” Trent replied.

  Jordan was about to speak in protest, but Trent had already opened the door and went in.

  “Just wait by the bikes guys,” Jordan said to Josh and Mark. “I’m going to go get him.”

  Jordan began walking the forty to fifty yards back to the barn. This was the stuff that Trent did that made him mad. He just knew it was never going to be as simple as coming out here and going back home. Mark got his picture and that was all he wanted. Trent, of course, had to have more.

  As Jordan got to the door he yelled in at Trent, “Come on man. We need to leave. You said you wouldn’t do th
is stuff.”

  From inside Trent yelled back, “Jordan! You need to see this!”

  Jordan cautiously stepped into the barn. He did not like the sense he was getting from this place. He walked in and looked around. The floor was bare earth and stalls ran down both sides. There was a wooden ceiling extending for half of the barn nine feet above him, which had to be the floor of the loft, and he saw a steep staircase at the other end next to the back door. There were stacks of hay bales everywhere on both sides of the barn. There were ropes on pulleys in various areas, which were probably used for bringing hay bales up to the loft. Trent was almost at the other end of the building. He was staring at something that from Jordan’s point of view was blocked by the many blocks of hay.

  Trent just stood there staring and the look on his face didn’t bring Jordan any comfort.

  “What is all this?” Trent asked as Jordan approached him.

  Jordan looked over and a small panic began to creep up inside of him. He looked into a stall that wasn’t being used for hay. Instead, he saw robes. Hanging on hooks along each side of the walls were racks of robes. In the center of the stall were other objects such as ropes, wood, knives, and a table. The table had a cloth over it, but they could see on the legs that were visible many different designs and something that looked possibly like a language that both of them certainly didn’t know. This wasn’t an average table; it was something more ornate.

  “Something is not right about this,” Jordan said as he began to walk backwards.

  “They look like Jedi robes from a Star Wars convention,” Trent said.

  “This has nothing to do with Star Wars, Trent. There’s something going on here and we shouldn’t have come. Look at those knives. What are those for?”

  “Cutting twine for the hay bales?”

  Jordan looked at him shocked. “Are you serious? Those aren’t just knives. They’re daggers!”

  At that moment, understanding appeared on Trent’s face. He looked closer at everything. There were about thirty robes by a quick count and the ropes were brand new. As for the knives, they were just as Jordan said, they were daggers. Each blade was around ten to twelve inches in length and each had a finely crafted hilt. They also noticed that there were some inscriptions on them that exactly matched the ones on the table legs.

  “We need to leave right now!” Jordan said grabbing Trent’s arm.

  “I agree!” Trent said as he turned to go with him.

  10

  Mark and Josh were back at their bikes when they saw Jordan enter through the barn door to get Trent.

  “Why does Trent always do this?” Josh asked. “I think he enjoys making Jordan mad.”

  “Well, that’s the Trent we’ve always known,” Mark replied. “He’s always been driving us crazy.”

  Josh looked down at his phone and began to swipe through the photos he had just taken.

  “Hey, Josh,” Mark said. “Can I see the picture of me in front of the barn?”

  “Sure. Give me a second to find it,” Josh said as he continued to flip through the pictures. After a couple of seconds, he found what he was looking for and showed the phone to Mark. “Here you go.”

  Mark looked at it with a huge smile on his face. “Cool! Thanks for taking this, man. I think it’s awesome.” Mark was just about to hand the phone back when something in the picture caught his eye. “Hey, Josh, what’s this in the background?”

  “What do you mean?” Josh asked as he looked at the screen.

  “It looks like there is something in the window above the barn door,” Mark replied.

  Josh looked closer and saw what Mark was seeing. There was something in the window. Josh took the phone back and with a swipe of two fingers he enlarged the picture and zoomed in on the window. As soon as he saw it he gasped and quickly looked up from his phone and stared at the window on the barn.

  “What is it?” Mark asked anxiously. “Is something wrong? What do you see?”

  While still staring at the barn, Josh handed the phone over to Mark. Mark grabbed it and had to stop himself from screaming. It wasn’t something in the window. It was someone. Someone had been standing there watching them as they were taking their pictures. Wide-eyed, Mark quickly looked over at Josh and then at the barn window. No one was there now, but Trent and Jordan were still inside. Mark could begin to feel his heart beat inside his ears as his adrenaline began to pump. He didn’t think that he had ever been this scared in his life. He instinctually knew something was wrong. They shouldn’t have come here.

  “What do we do?” Mark asked in a panic.

  “We have to get them out of there,” Josh replied equally as scared.

  Mark felt frozen, but he knew they had to get them.

  Terrified, they started to walk toward the barn, which was about a football field’s length away. As soon as they moved, however, Trent and Jordan both bolted out of the front door running as if their life depended on it.

  “GET OUT OF HERE GUYS!” Jordan shouted. “GO! WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!”

  Mark and Josh quickly got on their bikes as Trent and Jordan were still about forty yards away. It was at that moment they looked and saw what they were running from. Emerging from the barn, shaking off dust and hay, was a man filled with rage. He let out an inhuman roar as he passed through the doors. His eyes were a blaze of fury and the veins in his muscles bulged as he firmly held the grip of one of the biggest knives they had ever seen.

  11

  Jordan and Trent began to make their way towards the front doors of the barn. Jordan’s heart began to beat a mile a minute as they were leaving. They should not have come here. They saw things that they weren’t supposed to see. In the very depth of his being he knew this to be true. Trent kept up with him. It looked like Trent finally saw the gravity of the situation they were in. Were the rumors true? Did witches use this place? What did those symbols mean? Why were there so many knives?

  They were halfway through the barn when they heard something behind them. Actually, it wasn’t something; it was someone. With loud footsteps that shook dust off of the stairs each time another step was taken, they saw the backs of large work boots through the gaps of the stairs where the risers should have been. Not only did they hear his pronounced footsteps, but they could also hear the voice of a man chuckling as he made his way down.

  Fear instantly entered both of the guys’ minds as they watched this man descend the stairs. Every fiber of their being said to run, but a mixture of fear and curiosity held them fast. It was like watching a car wreck. You couldn’t take your eyes away. The man reached the bottom step and turned right to face his two intruders. He was the spider, this was his web, and he had just caught a couple of flies.

  As the man turned to face them, Jordan and Trent could not help but to simply stare at him. Never in their lives had they seen a man as ominous as him. He was a man that radiated evil even though there was a smile on his face. It was like looking at the face of a stalking lion or something even worse like a dragon.

  “Did you boys get lost in the woods or something?” The man said with a humorless grin.

  Jordan and Trent just stared at him. Even Trent was at a loss for words.

  “Do you like my barn? Was it everything you had hoped to see? I guess, in this case it was even more, huh? You know what I love?”

  “What?” Trent said to the surprise of Jordan.

  “I love the looks on your faces. They are the looks I live to see. I imagine this morning you and your idiot friends were having a jolly old time talking about how cool it would be to explore the old McKenzie barn. You were probably laughing about it and trying to see who would be the bravest. You probably thought twice about it with the legends and all and then you decided to trespass anyway.”

  “We didn’t see any ‘No Trespassing’ sign when we came here,” Trent replied.

  “
SHUT UP!” The Cleaner said through clinched teeth. “That’s your problem! You have no respect! You do what you want without permission, but yet you have no power to back it up!”

  “We are really sorry!” Jordan replied. “We were wrong for coming here and we won’t come back ever again.”

  At that the Cleaner leaned his head back and laughed. “Finally one of you is making sense. What you just said is very true. You will not return ever again. The funny part is that you think you will ever return home again either. You should have listened to the legends about this place. You should have respected them. That would have kept you away. That would have kept you safe. As you now see, something worse than legend actually lives here and I guard things that you should not have seen. You have created a problem that I must now take care of. Another mess for me to clean up. You didn’t think when you woke up today that this would be your last day. Your faces say it all. I’ve seen that look hundreds of times and it never gets old.”

  The Cleaner began to walk towards them and as he did so he pulled out of the sheath attached to his side one of the biggest knives they had ever seen. This wasn’t a joke. He was going to kill them.

  At that moment, the paralysis of fear wore off and the flight mechanism kicked in. Jordan grabbed Trent’s arm and screamed, “RUN, TRENT!”

  As soon as they turned to run towards the front door of the barn, the Cleaner yelled out what sounded like a barbarian war cry and started to run after them. They were fifty feet away from the door with the man quickly gaining on them when something caught Trent’s eye. There was a rope on a pulley that was attached to a support post underneath a platform holding up about thirty bales of hay. Without thinking, he quickly jumped up, grabbed the robe, and with all his strength swung himself toward the front door. As soon as he did it, the other end of the rope that was tied to the post went tight. “Jordan! Help me!” Trent said.

  Out of instinct Jordan grabbed the rope with Trent and with all their might they pulled on it as hard as they could. In an instant, the post broke and the weight of the hay bales collapsed the section of floor causing the tumbling bales to blindside the Cleaner knocking him onto the ground and burying him underneath. The Cleaner roared with anger as he wildly swung his knife trying to unbury himself. He got out quickly but it did, however, give the guys enough time to get out of the door.