12
There was no time for explanation. There was only time for action. All four of the guys were on their bikes and they pedaled as if their lives depended on it, because in truth they actually did. About fifty yards away running towards them was a knife-wielding madman straight out of a horror movie and they had to go back through the path in the woods they came from. Unfortunately for them, they had about another hundred yards to go before they could turn right to go into the woods. The path through the woods ran parallel to the barn, but the path to the woods ran perpendicular to it. The Cleaner was not stupid and he realized quickly how he could catch up. While they were trying to reenter the woods with their bikes, he would enter the woods now on foot and intercept them before they got out.
Josh was in the lead with Trent and Jordan next while Mark was in the back. He simply couldn’t keep up with them. Mark quickly looked back to see where the madman was and saw that he wasn’t there.
“Guys! I don’t see him behind us! I think he stopped,” Mark said.
Jordan looked back. “Keep going! We have to get out of here!”
At that moment they reached the entrance of the woods and turned right to follow the path out. As they were peddling as fast as they could, Josh looked up and pointed over to his right, “Guys! Look! There he is!”
To their horror they looked right and saw the madman running through the woods on an intercept route towards them. The blade of his knife was flashing in the pockets of sunlight and the look on his face was that of a feral animal. He ran with an agility that was unbelievable for a man that size. He easily leapt over logs and ducked under branches all while gaining speed on them. Judging by the angle he was taking, he would get to them by the time they got to the gate near the entrance of the woods.
“Oh no!” Mark yelled. “What do we do?”
“Keep pedaling!” Trent replied. “We have to get out of here!”
The gate was getting closer and so was the madman.
Jordan was so glad they left it open, but he didn’t know if it was going to matter. The way out went uphill and this man was going to reach them right as they start heading up it. A sobering thought entered Jordan’s mind. Could this really be it?
The Cleaner could see that he was gaining and he could tell that he would be able to reach the gate before they did. If he could swing it shut before they got there, there would be no escape.
“Please, God, help us!” Mark prayed out loud through tears as they saw the man gaining on them from their right.
“Your god won’t help you!” The Cleaner screamed. “I am your god and you will be judged by me!”
The guys were thirty yards from the gate. The Cleaner was ten yards away. With wild glee, the Cleaner could see that they were his and with doom the guys saw they were trapped. That was until the Cleaner stepped into a hole that in his lack of focus he hadn’t seen. His leg throbbed as he sunk down to his knee from sinkhole hidden in the brush. The momentum of his forward motion jerked his body hard and his knee twisted under his weight.
In a moment of elation, the guys watched as the madman fell right at the edge of the path. They saw that his left leg had sunk down into the ground and he howled in pain as his body abruptly pitched forward. They saw the fiery hatred in his eyes as they passed him and went though the gate.
They pedaled as hard as they could to get up the hill. Josh being first was able to reach the top and Trent followed closely behind him. Jordan was making his way up, but noticed that Mark was not right behind him. Looking back, he saw the exhaustion on Mark’s face as he strained to get up the hill. “Come on, Mark!” Jordan said. “Don’t give up! We’re almost out of here!”
At the bottom of the hill, he could see the madman doing whatever he could to get his leg out of the hole. Jordan could tell he was hurt, but he knew that they had to leave right now.
Mark couldn’t pedal anymore. He was halfway up the hill and he couldn’t move forward. “Help me,” Mark called out exhausted. “I can’t do it.”
Trent and Josh looked on in fear as they saw Jordan stop, get off his bike, and run down to help his friend. The madman was roaring in rage and he was beginning to loosen himself from the hole. Mark got off his bike and began to push it uphill. Jordan quickly grabbed the other side and helped him run the bike up. Trent ran down and grabbed Jordan’s bike, which was almost to the top of the hill anyway, and brought it up to the road. In short time everyone had made it to the top, but they weren’t safe yet. As they got back on their bikes, they looked down to see the madman had gotten himself out, but was limping badly.
They guys looked ahead and never stopped pedaling. They were all running on pure adrenaline and they knew they would not be safe until they made it home. As for the Cleaner, with the condition of his leg, he wasn’t going anywhere soon. Never before had anyone escaped him and the fury burned like lava inside of him. As the guys rode away to get back to the Henderson blacktop they heard a scream that sounded exactly like a savage animal. They knew, however, that it was no animal making that noise.
13
For Convert, the morning had been a blur. He kept hoping that he was still asleep and would soon wake up from this nightmare. He was not prepared for Jack to die. He was supposed to have more time with him and Marie as a family together. He thought about how he used to sit on the back porch with him and have the greatest conversations. That was all done now. There would be no more talks with Jack. There would be no more laughter with him. Convert was becoming more certain that he would never laugh again.
He felt as if he literally had a hole in his heart. He felt as if something inside of his body had broken. He felt a sorrow so deep that numbness took over instead. He found himself often staring into nothing, lost in thought. What about Marie? He thought. How will she deal with this? In truth, it looked to him as if Marie was taking this far better than he was.
When they arrived at the hospital to see Jack’s body, Convert wasn’t surprised to see that Aaron was already there. Jack had been a mentor and friend to him for a long time. As soon as Aaron saw them he came over to give Marie a hug and his condolences. Tears were in his eyes as he hugged her and she thanked him for being there. After that Aaron gave Convert a hug too. Convert didn’t expect it, but it was as if someone turned on the water faucet, because he hadn’t cried like that since back when Jack had visited him in the bar. At Marie’s request, she asked if Aaron would accompany them to see Jack to which he agreed and followed them in.
They saw Jack lying there and he looked so peaceful that they expected him to get up as if he was just taking a nap. The doctor told them that his death had been very quick. He took a singular knife wound to the chest straight inside his heart. Whoever had done this knew exactly where to thrust or they had gotten extremely lucky. The blade of the knife must have been long because the cut had gone at least ten inches deep. The damage destroyed the heart immediately and his death came quickly after that.
Convert was having a hard time controlling his anger as he looked upon Jack’s body. Why would anyone do this? He thought. How did Jack get in this situation?
Marie walked up to her husband’s body, brushed the hair off his forehead, and kissed it. “It’s how he left me last night,” she said looking up at Convert and Aaron. “And now it’s how I leave him until we meet again.”
It was crushing for Convert to see Marie saying goodbye to her husband. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Convert turned to his right and noticed for the first time a detective had also been in the room with them. Judging by the eye contact, the detective stepped forward and held his hand out for Convert to shake. “Hello, I’m detective Jacob Carney, and I’m here to help you find out how all of this happened,” he said.
Convert took his hand and Jacob reached out to Marie who shook his hand next and thanked him for being there. Jacob gave his condolences to Marie as well and expres
sed how important it was to him to bring Jack’s killer to justice.
“Could you tell me how he was found and what state he was in, Detective?” Marie asked. “Don’t worry about sensitivities. Just tell me straight about what happened.”
Jacob could tell by her look that she didn’t need any fluffy talk. She wanted the facts. “A couple of college students were jogging out at Lake Storey this morning before classes. As they were running, one of the ladies noticed something floating near the shore of the lake. They walked over and found that it was Jack’s body floating face down in the water. Immediately they called 911 and within ten minutes the police had arrived on the scene. Shortly after their arrival, they removed the body from the water and could tell he wasn’t a victim of robbery.”
“How did they know that?” Aaron asked.
“Nothing was missing. He still had his wallet, wedding ring, and watch still on him. He had a single knife wound in his chest and the size of the wound bled him out in the water quickly. From what we have seen, this was no accident or mishap, he was murdered and tossed into the lake.”
“Do you know exactly how long he has been dead?” Convert asked. “Or in other words do you have any idea what time this happened or how he even ended up out there?”
“Well, part of that answer is something I wanted to ask you about,” Jacob replied. “The examiners believe this happened last night probably around 10 to midnight.”
11:38, Aaron thought.
“What we are trying to figure out is how Jack did end up there?” Jacob continued. “The police officers earlier told me that your vehicle was still in the garage. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that is correct,” Marie replied.
“Jack did not go to bed with you, though?” Jacob asked.
“No, he didn’t. He walked me up to bed and kissed me goodnight, but then he went back downstairs and I fell asleep.”
“You didn’t hear a door open, a car pull up, or any commotion?”
“No. I was asleep and I didn’t wake up until morning. I saw that Jack never came to bed and I heard a knocking on the front door. The doors to the house were still locked. I saw no sign that anyone broke in.”
Jacob wasn’t the only one to be confused by this. Convert and Aaron both didn’t understand it either. Why would Jack have left? How did he get to Lake Storey and why was he there? Was he kidnapped? Did he go there on purpose? Nothing made sense.
The conversation lasted for a few more minutes and ended with Jacob’s condolences once again as he gave them his card with his contact information on it. The funeral home would be coming to take the body soon and those plans had to be made. Convert could see the weariness on Marie’s face. Her trademark smile was not there. Only grief.
Convert looked at Aaron. “I’m going to take Marie home. This is all too much. You’re welcome to come by anytime. I don’t really know what to do right now. All I want to do is cry.”
“That’s ok,” Aaron replied. “We shouldn’t pretend that this is good. This is terrible. Jack didn’t just die. He was murdered. We have a lot to cry about. I’ll see you later.”
With that Aaron gave Convert another hug and went over to Marie to give her a hug as well.
“He was always proud of you, Aaron,” Marie said to his surprise. “We both are proud of you. Keep up the good work.”
“This time isn’t about me, Marie,” Aaron replied. “This is about you and your well being.”
Marie smiled. “The time we are in is about something much bigger than you or me or even Convert. We all have a part to play. It looks as if Jack already finished his role and now it’s our time to do what God wills for us to accomplish.”
“Forgive me, but I don’t know what you mean,” Aaron said genuinely confused.
“I’ll be ok,” Marie said. “I will mourn my husband like I mourned my son, but I know that God’s plan never fails and I truly believe that Jack did not die in vain.”
“Your strength amazes me,” Aaron said with tears in his eyes.
“It’s not my strength that sustains me. It’s always been God’s”
With that Convert and Marie made their way to the door. It was going to be hard going home with one less person there. Aaron followed them out. He wanted answers. He wanted to know what happened. A pang of fear jolted him as well. A murderer was out there.
He grabbed his phone and looked at his contacts. He scrolled through them until he got to a phone number that he just put in last night. Emma Ironside. Aaron dialed her number and waited for her to pick up.
14
The guys had been on their bikes now for about thirty minutes as they made their way back into Galesburg. Every car that passed them by they feared was occupied by the madman. They rode almost silently as their only objective was to get back home where they would be safe. The surge of adrenaline got them to where they were, but they were now on the edge of exhaustion. When they had reached Lake Storey and saw an empty shelter in front of them, Jordan began to pull over to it.
“Guys,” Jordan said. “Let’s stop here for a minute. I feel like I’m going to fall off my bike.”
“But what about the psycho guy?” Mark asked.
“He’s not chasing us,” Jordan replied. “I think he really hurt himself.”
“Yeah, and we didn’t see a car there at the barn either,” Josh replied. “I don’t think he could have come after us.”
They pulled over to the shelter, got off their bikes, and laid down on the picnic tables. Trent was unusually silent.
“Is everything ok, Trent?” Jordan asked.
“I don’t know,” Trent replied. “I was really stupid and this was all my fault. If I hadn’t have gone in the barn, none of this would have happened.”
Jordan walked over to him. “You know, the temptation for me is to blame you, but the truth is that this isn’t your doing.”
“What do you mean?” Trent asked.
“That guy was going to come after us either way. It didn’t matter if we had gone in the barn or not. Did you see the rage he had when he chased us? There was something wrong with the whole situation. Looking back we shouldn’t have gone to the barn, but we all made the decision to go. I will say this, though, even if we shouldn’t have gone to the barn, we didn’t deserve to die over it!”
“So you’re not mad at me?”
Jordan grinned. “I’m not any more mad at you than from anything else that you do.”
Trent’s demeanor changed almost instantly. The Trent of old was returning. “Thanks man! But seriously guys, what in the world just happened? Was he really trying to kill us?”
“I think he was,” Josh replied. “What did you guys see in that barn?”
“Well it was mostly hay bales except for that one section,” Trent said.
“What was in that?” Mark asked.
“Robes. Lots of robes. Like thirty or more all hanging on the walls”
“Robes? Why robes?”
“It wasn’t just robes. There was a partially covered table with strange language on the legs as well as ropes and knives”
“Not merely knives,” Jordon interjected. “They were daggers. With the same language on them as the legs of the table.”
“What do you think all that stuff was for?” Mark asked with his eyes widening.
“Sacrifice,” Josh said.
All three of them turned to look at him. “What?” Trent asked.
“Haven’t you seen in some scary movies when all those robed people gather around for their evil rituals and offer a human sacrifice. This sounds like all the stuff needed to do that doesn’t it?”
They looked at each other with no reply. Things were getting weirder by the minute.
“What in the world did we stumble upon?” Jordan said.
“And why do they have Drago guarding it?” Trent
replied.
“Drago?” Mark asked. “Why do you call him Drago?”
“Remember in Rocky 4 when Rocky fought that massive Russian boxer named Drago? The psycho looked just like him only a little older.”
“Yeah.” Mark replied. “He does look like Drago. You guys don’t know this, but Josh actually got a picture of him.”
“He did?” Jordan said shocked. “How did you manage to do that?”
“When I took a picture of Mark in front of the barn, he was in the background looking out the window at us.”
“He was?” Jordan replied with chills running down his back.
“Yeah. Let me show you.” Josh said as he reached into his pocket to grab his phone.
“Cool, Sparks,” Trent said. “Let me see it.”
Josh’s phone wasn’t in his pocket. He checked his coat pockets next and couldn’t find it in there either. With fear in his eyes he looked up and said, “Guys. I can’t find my phone.”
15
The Cleaner winced every time he put pressure down on his knee. In his fury to stop those boys from getting away, he lost sight of his surroundings. It only took that quick moment of carelessness to not see the hole in front of him. The pain had been instant and intense when it happened and he had watched in horror at they had managed to get away. He always got his victims. No one ever got away. That’s why he had always been successful and never got caught. No witnesses.
Now, however, things had gotten far more complicated. His knee was throbbing as he limped down the path back to the barn. He couldn’t dare to walk through woods in the shape he was in. He figured that he probably should get it checked, but he couldn’t just walk into any old hospital. He would need to see one of the Scarlet approved doctors in order to preserve his anonymity. The Thinker would know who to go to. The problem, however, is that he didn’t want the Thinker or the Actor to see him in any kind of weakness. If there was anything he did not want to be, it was weak. As he limped down the path, he decided that he would not be seeing anyone for the time being. He would ask the evil ones what to do. Who knows, maybe they could help heal his knee as well.
The Scarlet Plan Page 12