The Scarlet Plan

by Rick W. Warren

  “I never saw Damon again after that day,” Convert said. “What do you think he has to do with all of this?”

  “We think Damon has returned. We think he killed Jack.” Jordan said.

  Convert sat in silence for a moment as he tried to get everything situated in his mind. Is this possible? Why Damon? “Did you by chance bring the picture you said you had of him?”

  “Yeah,” Trent said. “Sparks has it.”

  “Sparks?”

  “He means me,” Josh said as he handed a folded piece of paper to him. “It just his weird nickname for me.”

  “Hey,” Trent said smiling, “I’m not the one who almost caught my living room on fire trying to rewire an Xbox!”

  “Thanks,” Convert said taking the paper. As he slowly unfolded it, he knew right away that the guys were right. There was no doubt about it. Damon Marshall had grown up and returned to Galesburg.

  Convert looked up to see everyone staring. “It’s him,” he said, “he came back.”

  3

  Damon Marshall A.K.A the Cleaner walked the leaf filled streets of Galesburg as the sun began to set. He knew his role was to lay low until tomorrow when the plan finally took effect, but he was still impatient and frustrated. Even though he had Josh’s phone, he still had not found where they lived and hadn’t even seen any of them. If he hadn’t known better, it was as if they were in hiding. He knew they had to have been at school everyday, but he also knew that he couldn’t be seen around there and risk exposure. He had to stay in the shadows.

  The only thing positive to come of their first encounter is that the kids seemed too scared to do anything about it. He heard nothing from anyone. The Scarlet’s contacts in the police department heard nothing concerning him. Neither had the Actor or the Thinker. His interaction with them was still secret and after tomorrow it wouldn’t matter anyway. Still, however, it bugged him. No one got away and his pride was bruised. If he found them, he would still end them. If he didn’t see them by tomorrow, he would disappear and the encounter would become yet another legend of the barn. Witches no longer lived there, just a madman.

  By 4:30, the temperature was still seventy degrees. The warm weather had been a daily news story alongside the first playoff game. The game itself would kick-off at 7:30 and Galesburg moved up the trick or treat times to 4:00 to 7:00 just to accommodate the football game. It was going to be huge and they didn’t want children in the street. Damon smiled as he thought about the news. He knew the story would be much different on Sunday morning.

  As he continued to walk he noticed the various Halloween decorations. Some porches were littered with cobwebs and pumpkins while others had full displays in their front yards. He saw kids playing in leaf piles while other people were walking their dogs before it got dark. No one knew the madman that was among them. No one knew the true evil that was walking through their streets. For the people of Galesburg, Halloween was a time for fun. It was fun to tell scary stories and get candy, but then came November and things moved on. Damon knew this time was different. As he told a couple of the shadows a couple weeks ago, he was Halloween and this time the darkness would continue on long after November came.

  His knee was still a little tender, but his strength had come back. The voices continued to flood his mind as he made his way back to his motorcycle. He had just finished staking out Emma’s apartment. She was to be the gift and he was to retrieve her tomorrow. He enjoyed walking as he stalked his prey. It brought him to his feral nature, like a lion waiting to pounce.

  This Halloween was a special one to him. It was forty years. Forty years since he gave himself to the evil ones and let them guide his path. Forty years since he broke open the gas line behind the stove while his parents slept. Forty years since he got revenge on Ralph and James by burning down the McKenzie’s house. Ralph didn’t survive, but James did and he lived in the guilt and misery of thinking he had caused the death of his friend. Damon called that a ‘slow burn.’ He had hoped that eventually James would lose to despair and commit suicide, but then Jack got involved and gave James hope. Damon took care of Jack and tomorrow he would take care of James too. After tomorrow he would leave Galesburg behind for good and only disaster would be in his wake. He chuckled as he thought about Marie McKenzie looking at the three tombstones of the ones who mattered the most to her. That’s what you got for crossing him. Swift reckoning.

  Damon got on his motorcycle and headed north on 150 to get back to the barn. One more night and his work here would be complete. Forty years in the making and he smiled at the sheer genius of it all. As he rode, he saw a sign that said: Galesburg, Population 33,500. “After tomorrow,” he said, “they’re going to need to change that number.”

  4

  “So what does all of this stuff mean?” Mark said as he grabbed his sixth cookie. “Why are we sharing dreams and why does Convert have super strength?”

  “What about you, Pastor Aaron?” Jordan asked. “Is there anything unusual happening with you?”

  “Actually, yes,” Aaron said. “Emma and I know things.”

  All four of the guys stared at him silently.

  “What?” Trent asked. “You know things? What things?”

  “We know things that are about to happen,” Emma said.

  “And we know things no one else would know,” Aaron added.

  “Like what?” Jordan asked.

  “We both knew the exact time when Jack died,” Aaron said. “We knew when the restaurant we were both at was going to be robbed, I knew the car accident where Convert saved those people was going to happen, and I knew when to walk away from Clayton after I told him he wasn’t allowed at youth group.”

  “How does it happen?” Mark asked.

  “I think the best way to describe it is a thought that comes into your head, but a little louder,” Emma replied.

  “Have you learned how many cookies Mark is going to eat because I’m guessing twelve,” Trent said with a grin.

  “No, but I knew about the huge spider crawling on your shoulder,” Emma said.

  Trent immediately jumped up and started furiously brushing himself off. “Where is it? Get it off!”

  Everyone started laughing as they realized Emma was playing a prank on him. Even Trent laughed as reality dawned on him. “I like her, Pastor Aaron!” He said as he sat back down.

  “Well good, cause I like her too,” Aaron replied.

  Convert leaned in. “So what do we do now?”

  Aaron looked him in the eyes. “I think it’s time we went to the barn.”

  “All of us?” Josh said.

  “No,” Aaron replied. “Just Convert, Emma, and me.”

  “You can’t go there!” Mark said. “That guy will kill you!”

  Aaron looked at Convert. “I don’t think so. I believe you can take care of us. What do you think?”

  “I agree,” Convert replied. “I don’t think we have these gifts by chance. I think we’re meant to stop him before he hurts anyone else. Emma?”

  “I’m right there with you,” she said.

  “Marie?” Convert said with a tinge of worry.

  “I agree too,” she said. “Things have to be stopped and I think you’re the ones who can do it.”

  “So what’s our goal then?” Convert asked.

  “Citizen’s arrest,” Aaron replied. “We find him and hold him until the cops arrive.”

  “He might be hard to hold,” Convert said.

  “We’ll just need someone strong to do it,” Aaron replied smiling.

  “What about us then?” Trent asked. “What do we do?”

  “Stay home and stay safe. This guy is extremely dangerous and we don’t really know where he is. He could be at the barn, he could be in town, or anywhere else for all we know.”

  “We know where he is,” Josh said.

  “Ho
w is that possible?” Convert asked.

  “He has my phone. I lost it when we fled and he found it. I have a program that tracks it when it’s on and he has kept it with him because he has been using my Facebook page to look for us. We saw him just last week in our neighborhood.”

  “You did? You should have called the police,” Aaron said.

  “We thought about it, but realized that he didn’t know where we were and we didn’t want him to know exactly where we lived. Then our families would be in trouble too.”

  “I understand,” Aaron said. “That makes sense.”

  “That’s my, Sparks!” Trent said.

  “So where is he now?” Emma asked.

  Josh took his laptop out of his backpack and looked his phone up on it. “He’s back at the barn.”

  “When should we go then?” Aaron asked.

  “Noon,” Convert replied. “We’re gonna’ need daylight.”

  “Are you guys really going to do this?” Jordan asked. “You could get really hurt.”

  “We have to,” Convert said. “It all has to stop.”

  “Something still bothers me, though,” Emma said. She had been rapidly writing notes down the whole time. “What about the bomb? That wasn’t Damon. That was a shadow.”

  Trent’s eyes got wide. “You know about the shadows?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “It was one of the thoughts that came to me. We think one of the shadows put a bomb under a deck Convert built.”

  “That bomb was meant for you?” Mark asked. “We heard about a bomb, but we didn’t know where it happened. Is that why the cops arrested Eric the other day? They already let him go, though.”

  “You know him?” Emma asked.

  “Yeah, we know Eric Landon,” Jordan said. “He’s their leader of sorts. He speaks for the others. He’s always grinning. He scares us too.”

  “Yeah, the other day he told us that everything was going to burn.” Trent said. “Do you think he was serious?”

  “What do you mean by ‘He speaks for the others?’” Emma asked.

  “The shadows don’t talk unless they are allowed to,” Jordan replied. “They freak people out including the teachers. There are twelve of them and we don’t know what they’re up to. Do you think there is some connection between them and Drago?”

  “I don’t know,” Emma replied. “But my instinct says there could be.”

  “How do you know that Eric put the bomb under the deck?” Josh asked.

  “The homeowners talked to him before he did it,” Convert said. “Eric pretended to work for me. Someone scared the witnesses when they went to identify him at the police station. That’s how he got let off. Whoever helped him could be working with Damon as well. I met Eric the night that I spoke to you guys. He and a friend harassed me in the driveway here before the youth event. I had no idea how they knew me, but if they are connected to someone else behind the scenes then maybe Damon is part of everything that is going on too.”

  “Why you?” Trent asked.

  “Probably because I was a possible obstacle to get to Jack.”

  “But why Jack?”

  Convert looked at the table. “I still don’t know, but I hope Damon has the answer.”

  Jordan looked at his watch and saw that it was almost 5:30. They had to get home soon and get their stuff ready to stay at Josh’s house again. “I’m sorry, but we have to get going.”

  “No problem,” Aaron said. “Thanks for coming over.”

  “We miss you, Pastor Aaron,” Mark said. “I hope you’re back soon.”

  “Me too,” Aaron said.

  As the guys walked to the door they noticed the fireplace burning as usual. Above the mantle was a large decorative shield that had a strange language that they hadn’t seen before.

  “Cool shield,” Trent said. “What does it say?”

  “I don’t know,” Convert replied. “Jack never knew.”

  “It says: ‘The remnant remains,’” Marie said from behind them. “This has been an heirloom passed through Jack’s family for many generations. It’s very old.”

  “I think it’s awesome!” Mark said.

  As the boys went down the steps to their bikes, the rest of them gathered on the front porch. “When did you find out what the shield said?” Convert asked Marie. “Jack told me he never knew.”

  “Actually we found out only a month ago,” Marie said.

  “From who?”

  “That’s something to talk about later,” she said as she made her way back inside.

  Covert turned his attention to Aaron and Emma. “Are we ready?”

  “I think so,” Aaron said. “I’ll pick up Emma tomorrow and meet you here. Does that sound good?”

  “You bet,” Convert said with some excitement. “Let’s catch the bad guy.”

  5

  That night Aaron and Emma went out to dinner again, while Convert worked on his truck to pass the time. He had a nervous energy over the notion that tomorrow was the day that they could catch Jack’s murderer and bring him to justice. The fact that it was Damon Marshall only heightened his desire to get him. Damon was terrible to them in school and it looked like he grew up to be a terrible person all together. A person like him could not be allowed to walk the streets. He had to be caught.

  Like usual on a Friday nights, the guys were together again playing video games and eating pizza. They were relieved to be able to see Aaron and Convert, but they were also concerned about what would happen tomorrow. As a matter of fact, they actually felt a little left out.

  “Man, I wish we could be going with them tomorrow,” Trent said.

  “Dude, are you crazy?” Mark said. “Drago wanted to kill us!”

  “Yeah, but we’d be with Convert! I’d love to see him pound that guy!”

  “That would be cool.”

  “Guys, we have no business going back,” Jordan said. “This is real stuff. Not a movie. I’m actually really scared for them.”

  “Yeah, but they could actually stop him, though,” Josh said. “Then we wouldn’t have to worry anymore about being found.”

  “I know,” Jordan said, “and a part of me wishes I could see it, but I’m still worried.”

  For the rest of the night they tried to forget their troubles as they popped popcorn and started watching a scary movie. It was the standard knife-wielding-psycho-stalking-his-victims flick. After about 20 minutes, Josh turned it off.

  “Sparks, what’s the deal?” Trent said with a mouthful of popcorn.

  “Don’t you guys realize that we’re dealing with the same thing that the kids in the movie are dealing with?” Josh said.

  “Yeah, but it’s make believe?”

  “I know, but what’s happening in Galesburg isn’t. The truth is far scarier than fiction.”

  They all sat in silence for a moment as they pondered what Josh said.

  “How about a comedy then?” Jordan said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Josh replied.

  The rest of the night was uneventful as the guys got ready to go to sleep.

  “Hey guys,” Mark said. “I wonder what we’ll dream of tonight?”

  “Hopefully something helpful for Pastor Aaron,” Josh said.

  “I’m hoping we can see the time when Mark tried to jump that bike ramp and totally crashed through the neighbor’s fence!” Trent said. “I laughed for days about that!”

  Mark swung his pillow at Trent’s head as Trent fell to the floor laughing.

  “I just hope we see an end to all of the bad stuff happening,” Jordan said. “We’ve seen enough already.”

  It didn’t take too long for the guys to fall asleep. All of them slept undisturbed until they woke up at exactly at 10:00 on Halloween morning. It felt to all of them as if they had just closed their eyes. They were so
surprised they had to look outside to make sure the clock was actually right and it was morning. The sun was out and people were outside doing their morning routines.

  “Dude, it felt like we went through a time warp or something,” Trent said. “I literally just closed my eyes. How can this be?”

  “Did you dream anything?” Mark asked.

  “No, did you?”

  Mark shook his head.

  “Sparks, how about you?”

  “Nothing. I didn’t even take my glasses off,” Josh replied. “What about you, Jordan?”

  “Nothing as well,” Jordan said. “The weird thing is that I don’t feel tired.”

  “Me neither,” Mark said. “What does that mean?”

  “I guess it means we aren’t helpful to Convert, Emma, and Pastor Aaron any more,” Jordan said disappointed. “It’s all up to them.”

  6

  Aaron pulled up to Emma’s apartment at 11:00. He couldn’t help, but feel a little nervous about what they were going to do. He suspected Damon Marshall was about as dangerous of a man as you could get and here they were hunting him down. Aaron was confident that Damon was always the hunter, not the hunted, and he wouldn’t take kindly to them finding him.

  Aaron walked up the sidewalk to the building, kicking piles of leaves as he approached the front door. He couldn’t believe how warm it was outside. He didn’t even need a jacket. Despite everything going on at work, Emma had made this week enjoyable and was the ray of light he needed to stay out of depression from all that had happened to him. He knocked on her door and she promptly opened it. She smiled threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Are you ready?” She said barely containing her excitement.

  “Yeah,” he replied. “Are you?”

  “You bet! I barely slept last night. We are so close to solving this! Jack will get his justice!”

  Aaron laughed as he closed the door behind him and walked with her to the living room. “Your enthusiasm always amazes me! Aren’t you ever afraid of anything?”