The Antique

by Peter Fang

  He took out a silencer and slowly screwed it onto the gun barrel. There was an opening in the tall evergreens that looked like a way in. He crunched down into a crawling position and shimmied through the tight space. Once inside the front yard, he hid behind a large tree and surveyed the surroundings. He did not see any cameras or motion sensors around the house, but he knew that they could easily be hidden away. A dim dining room light was winking at him through the leaves, but he did not see any movements inside the house. He checked the beacon again on his phone and noticed it was moving. He then saw a silhouette moving inside the house. He couldn’t tell who it was. Was that Craig? The shadow disappeared behind the large wooden front door, and he could hear the deadbolt turning. He trained his gun at the door, but the door did not open. The deadbolt clicked several times, like someone was trying to get the door open.

  Why would Craig have a problem opening the door? Unless it was someone else. Could it be Elise? Finley was dying to find out, but he could not risk blowing his cover, so he waited. He waited until the shadow moved away from the front door and wandered into the back side of the house. Finley waited until he was sure the shadow was not doubling back before he ducked below the window and followed the side of the house towards the back. He let his gun’s barrel lead the way until he reached the entrance of the back yard.

  There was a locked cedar fence door.

  He reached over the top of the door and felt his way around the door lock and felt a padlock. This mother fucker really did not want anyone to come in. Finley slid the gun underneath the door and swiftly climbed over. His suit ripped near the seams as he vaulted himself over.

  He quietly landed on the other side, making only a dull sound as his feet planted on the lawn. He picked up his gun and slowly inched forward to the backyard. There was a series of thunks as he got closer. It sounded like someone was hitting a drum—each beat a few seconds apart. He leaned over from the side and could see that a shadow was banging on the back window with a chair, though the window was not breaking under the stress. He could see now that the shadow was Elise, wearing only a large man’s shirt and in her underwear. She was trying to get out. Finley quickly ran over to show himself to Elise. She was startled by Finley and jumped back into a shadow, but slowly, she revealed herself. She screamed at Finley, pointing at the window. She then walked over to the door and yanked on the lock and shook her head. She was mouthing something to Finley, but the window was sound-proof and apparently was made of some type of security glass.

  Finley showed his FN Five Seven to Elise, and waved her aside. Elise jumped to the side and hid behind a wall. Finley aimed his gun at the center of the large window and pulled the trigger several times. The window cracked but did not shatter.

  “Fuck, hollow-point!” Finley swore. He swapped out the magazine with another one from his waist. This one had bullets with blue tips. He fired several more rounds around at the center of the glass and the bullets went through. The window was laminated with a film inside, making it extremely difficult to break. Finley took out his tactical knife to enlarge the hole; then he kicked the glass until the hole would allow a man through.

  Finley whispered into the hole, “Elise, are you okay? Where is Craig?”

  Elise shook her head. “They are dead.”

  “They? Dead?” Finley was both relieved and shocked.

  “Just get me out of here, please.”

  Finley did not say another word and he helped pull Elise through the window and landed on the lawn. Once she was out, she fled like a bat. Finley caught her with his arms and reeled her in. Elise was crying, but she managed to keep her voice low.

  “What happened? You need to tell me what happened to Craig.”

  “I killed them,” Elise said quietly. Her eyes were fixed in the distance.

  “Them? Who else was there?”

  “They are…twins! Twins!” Elise replied hysterically. “One of them was Craig, and the other’s name was Ake. They work for the Queen. They knew we were coming all along. It was a trap!”

  “Twins? Who is the Queen?” Finley finally realized how the whole operation was fucked up because no one realized there were two “Craigs” and apparently their employer was the Queen that was sabotaging their whole operation.

  “Elise, look at me!” Finley shook Elise to make sure her eyes were locked with his. “I don’t know all the stuff you are talking about, but I have to know exactly what happened here. You said they are twins, and they are both dead? Is there anyone else in there? Is the Queen here?”

  Elise shook her head.

  Finley nodded in relief, then he held her with his hand and straightened her up in front of him. “Elise, I’m sorry to do this to you, but we have to go back in. I need to see what happened. This completely changes our plan, and I have to report back what had happened to Ansen. I also need to help you remove any evidence that you were ever here, and then I need to call in the cleaners. You need to stay with me.” He saw Elise looking past him, so he shook Elise's shoulder again. “Elise, are you listening to me? You need to show me where the bodies are. Can you do that? You are safe now; no one can hurt you anymore.” Finley suddenly realized that Elise's clothes and hands were covered in fresh blood. She had a rag covering her right hand and it had dark stains all over.

  “Are you hurt? Where did you get hurt?”

  “They…they tried to grind my fingers, then I blacked out and the next thing I knew, I was standing over Craig’s body. They were both dead.” Elise looked down with a morbid expression that was both confused and frightened at the same time. “Also, I felt someone was in my head…someone was with me….even when I was unconscious, I felt her—I think it was that girl we met at the party, Maria.”

  “Maria? She is here?”

  Elise shook her head and replied, “No, she was inside my mind. I know she could see what I saw, and she felt everything I felt…I was trying to get out of the handcuffs, but it was too tight. Somehow Maria and something with Maria helped me––it changed me. I remember everything, but I don’t know how I could have killed them both so quickly—and I was not even afraid. But when she left me––it all drained away, and I panicked…” Elise shivered more violently. “Then the feeling of her made me realize she is my little sister. I need to find her!”

  “Elise, I think you are in shock. Can you show me where they are?”

  “I need to go find Maria!” Elise pleaded; then she turned and started running away.

  “Wait—Elise, you are not thinking straight. Elise!” Finley grabbed Elise and shook her again to get her attention. “Listen very carefully––I can’t let you leave. You hear me? We all work for Mr. Reed. If you leave now, they will hunt you down, and kill you, me, and Ansen. We have to find out what happened here. How did Craig know about this operation? Was there a mole? Was it one of Reed’s enemies? I––we have to find out, right now. After this is all over, we can go find Maria. Do you understand me?”

  Elise finally nodded her head.

  Finley continued, “Okay, you said you killed them? How did you kill them?”

  Elise took a deep breath and tried to focus her mind, then said, “While they were torturing me, I slipped my wrists out of the handcuffs, then just attacked them. I got their gun and shot them both, one in the head and the other in the chest.”

  Finley asked, “Good. Now, are you sure there were only two of them in the room?”

  Elise hesitated, then replied, “I only saw the twins. I guess––I am not sure. But I didn’t see anyone upstairs.”

  Finley pointed at the house. “Let’s go inside to find out what we can about these twins. We need to go through everything they have in the house and collect any information we can, laptop, cellphone, records. Then maybe, just maybe, we can save our asses with Mr. Reed. Are you still with me?” Finley stared at Elise to make sure she was listening.

  Elise nodded.

  Finley let Elise climb in first through the broken window, and then he followed. Once
inside the house, Finley pulled out a flashlight from his pocket and moved the beam around the space. He could see now that the back door was locked from inside with several layers of custom locks––it was nearly impossible to get out through the front door without the keys. Craig really put a lot of thought into his house of terror.

  He looked back at Elise and pointed in a general direction towards the back of the house with a questioning gaze. Elise nodded and pointed straight, then left, and then downwards.

  Downwards? There must be a basement.

  Finley scanned the ground that led into the narrow hallway and saw some blood stains. He wasn’t sure if those were Elise's or Craig’s. Finley pulled out his pistol again, this time with the silencer on. He pushed a button near the end and a red laser beam instantly hit the far side of the wall. He followed the sight and slowly moved down the hallway. Even though Elise had told him that the two were dead, you could not trust the words of someone that just lived through hell to think clearly. Better to be safe than sorry.

  They walked down the hall, almost reaching the end. Finley checked the corners and possible hiding places before moving forward. He rounded the corner and trained the gun quickly down another hallway to the left. There was an entrance door that led to basement stairs. They passed a small office; Finley leaned forward to check for danger and saw computer monitors and a closed circuit TV showing different angles around the house. If someone were watching this, or there were silence alarms, they would know that we are in the house. They reached the top of the staircase that was separated by a heavy metal door––the lock was broken.

  Finley inched in closer and then closer still until he could reach the door with his flashlight hand. He eased the door open and aimed the gun slowly around the corner and down at the stairs. There was the faint scent of medical rubbing alcohol emanating from the basement below.

  The staircase was made of heavy, pressure-treated oak wood planks, with stainless steel brackets securing them in place. It seemed very heavy duty and was built to withstand weight. There was a light source coming somewhere near the far side of the basement to the left. It was dim, but Finley could still see clearly that the room was barren; at least the space right below the staircase was. There was no sign of a body. He guided his flashlight down the staircase and between the steps to make sure no one was hiding behind the staircase. He looked back at Elise; then he pointed to his left and then his right with his finger. Elise replied with a left. Finley nodded back, then slowly descended the staircase, checking around the corner as he did and training his gun at different corners and behind the staircase. Elise followed closely behind, grabbing Finley's jacket with her hands like a lifeline. The first they saw was a large refrigerator. They slowly passed it, and then Finley decided to make sure, so he backed up and opened the refrigerator.

  “Fuck—” he gasped.

  Inside the refrigerator were human body parts. One appeared to be a half-eaten torso. Finley shut the door and covered his nose in disgust.

  There was a spasm of coughing coming from a room ten feet away. Finley looked back at Elise with a stare. Elise knew what Finley was thinking. I thought they were both dead! The faint light source was coming from a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, and the light’s pull string was gently swaying in the air.

  Finley felt the grip from Elise tighten on his suit. He reached back to reassure Elise and gently relaxed her grip with his free hand. He made a hand signal to tell her to stay where she was, and then he slowly approached the room. He trained his gun at the entrance to the room and slowly rounded the corner. He moved in quickly and cleared the room.

  There was one body on the ground face down in a pool of blood, but the other body was missing. Finley checked the corner, but there was no one there except a trail of blood leading to a closed door.

  Finley turned and whispered to Elise, “I thought you said you killed them––”

  Elise shook her head.

  Finley hesitated, knowing it could be a trap. But he had no choice. If the other guy was still alive, he would have to finish him off. He pulled the trigger and fired five rounds through the door. The bullets hit something solid behind the door and something heavy dropped to the floor. He slowly approached the door with his guns aimed in front. He reached out for the door knob and turned it slowly.

  The lights suddenly went dark.

  Finley quickly jumped back and clicked on his tactical flashlight and did a quick sweep around the room with his gun, anticipating an attack from behind. He looked for Elise, but she was not in the room. Suddenly, he heard the door open; he looked back and saw Ake shielding himself with a human corpse bearing down on him. The corpse’s face was a horrific bloody mess with its throat cut, but there were no limbs. The unexpected shock froze Finley momentarily before he pulled the trigger. Several rounds went into the corpse, but it didn’t stop it from slamming into Finley and knocking this weapon away.

  Behind the corpse was Ake, wounded but still alive. Ake picked up the gun and shot several rounds at Finley, hitting him in the left arm and leg.

  Finley dropped his flashlight and limped to a corner. He tried to move away but felt a blunt force hitting him on the side of his head. He felt blood dripping from his eyebrows and into his eyes. He tried to blink, but it made it worse.

  Ake kicked Finley in the liver.

  Finley whimpered and fell to the ground. Seconds later, the lights were back on. Finley saw a blurry image of Ake standing over him with his pistol pointing at him.

  “Nice pistol,” Ake observed in his hand. “What is this? A Glock? One of your rounds actually went through my meat shield and nearly missed my face.”

  “It’s an FN, you red neck!”

  “Elise, you’d better come out or I’m going to shoot your friend here!” yelled Ake, his voice gurgling as if something was in his throat. “Like I said, I’m the infected one, so you have to know where to shoot. You forgot to finish me off with a headshot. They didn’t teach you that at your training school?” He looked down at Finley's wheezing body and nodded. “You trained Elise well––her fighting skills are extraordinary. She took us down in less than a minute, and I still don’t know how she got out of the handcuffs...most impressive. But now I know what she is capable of; she is not going to surprise me again.”

  “You are wasting your time, asshole––she’s already gone.” Finley wheezed, struggling to right himself against the wall.

  “Shut the fuck up.” Ake hit Finley with the butt of the gun again. The force made Ake himself cough blood. Besides the wound on his face, there was another open wound around his chest, but he was still strong enough to bring down Finley. “I was watching you guys coming in through my TV, you see there? Say cheese!”

  “Elise, just get out of here,” Finley yelled.

  “I sure hope she doesn’t, for your sake. Elise, I hope you’re listening. This house is booby trapped. I could blow up this whole house if I just press a button on my phone.”

  “Either way, you are dead meat, so go ahead and press it and get it over with.”

  “I’d like to play a game with you and Elise. You see, I’ll give you guys a chance to kill me and get out of here alive, but this is all up to Elise. If she can take me out with a knife, then you two can live, but if I win, then I will have my way with you.”

  “Elise, don’t listen to him. He’s bluffing; there is no booby trap. Get the hell out of here!”

  Ake flashed a crazed smile at Finley. “Elise, if you even think about leaving this place, I’ll make sure I cut your friend up in pieces and feed it to the fish. I’ll have enough time to catch you upstairs and make you into my breakfast.”

  “So, you and that dead one were twins. You must be Ake. How do you like to see your brother’s neck slashed by a woman?”

  “Nice try…he’s always been the weaker one. He had the day job, and I did the dirty work for him while he watched. He got careless, so he deserves to die.”

  There was su
ddenly a loud sound outside the room. It sounded like something heavy fell on the ground.

  “What the—” Ake snapped his head towards the sound; it didn’t sound like something that Elise could do. Whatever it was, it was something very heavy. Ake walked over to a nearby monitor and switched on a security camera; an image of the basement appeared. He could see Elise sitting next to the refrigerator, bending down and her back facing the camera.

  “So, you and your brother are cannibals, sick fucks that like to torture and eat people.” Finley, tried to distract Ake.

  “Oh, it’s so much more than that. You have no idea—those bodies were not for us…they were for our queen…”

  “Queen?” Finley couldn’t help but ask the question, then burst into a hysterical laugh. “You guys are not only cannibals, but you two are sick pervs who fantasize about sex with your mother? Oh, yeah, I get it. Your guilt finally drove you two into the sick fucks that you are.”

  Ake snickered. “You would never understand. This was our queen’s wish. Elise is marked for death. She is one of the blood children that our queen was looking for. Unfortunately, the queen already had her mind set on another, so it’s free will for us at this point. If you would excuse me, I have a date with your girlfriend to finish the job. Maybe I will feed her liver to you.” Ake slowly staggered out of the room with the gun in hand. “Oh, Elise…remember me? I have to say that stab you gave me in my chest was incredible. You are the first subject that Craig and I had that has ever gotten away. Thanks for giving me a second chance to finish the business that my brother could not. You see, even though we are twins, most people don’t know that twins are still different, and my brother is the messier one…”