There was now another man in the room. He was wearing a green short sleeve shirt and shorts. His name was Rick, and he worked for the council in animal control. He drove around town and collected stray dogs and collected injured animals, but he was their animal ‘expert.'
‘Have you ever seen anything like this?’ Jim asked.
‘Never in my entire life. This behavior is very unlike them. The Wood Scorpion is not aggressive. I’m thinking there must be some chemical in the house making them act like this, or there is a nest right in that shower, but I’m surprised by the amount of them, you find many bodies?’
Jim was confused ‘whose bodies, the kids, we found two’ he said.
‘No, I mean dead scorpions. If you look, they are trying to stamp on them, and that shower of glass would have gotten some.’ He said.
That was yet another strange thing, there was a handful of dead ones, but the rest had killed, and then they just crawled away.
On the screen, the door flung open and shattered. They came stumbling out, fast and crashed into the mirror. He saw the boy's hand going straight at the glass it smashed in front of the camera.
‘Would they have died from the venom’ Jim asked.
‘I was given the blood test results and while these things are normally harmless the sheer amount of poison was much higher. So yes, they would have.’ Rick said.
‘And our conclusion is?’ Jim asked.
‘I want to go back and test that house and room, but I’m assuming the scorpions were exposed to an agent, maybe chemical, that made them hyper aggressive’ Rick said.
It was the least crazy explanation they could come up with, and for the sake of his sanity, he was going to cling to it. He just had to decide what he was going to tell their family and friends.
‘So, we’re saying no foul play; Rogers cleared’ Kim asked him.
‘unless he has a masters degree in zoology or chemistry, I don’t see how he could have done this, but we're not letting him go yet, we have to go back to the scene and find out more. Those lynch people might be using pesticide on their ‘organic farm.’
‘could that have caused this?’ Jim asked Rick.
‘it’s only as far-fetched as anything else, we have no way of knowing what caused this but at the very least we have to ensure it doesn’t happen again.’
The phone at his desk started to ring, Jim answered it.
‘Sargent Wilson’ he said.
‘Good, sergeant it’s Gareth Lynch’ a voice on the phone said.
‘What can I do for you? Everyone alright?’ he asked.
‘They are all fine, and the reason I’m calling is to let you know after a long chat, everyone has decided it’s best to put this horrible incident is the past, they won’t be pursuing any actions or helping with your investigation’ He said.
Jim was stunned, he hated this family. He was sure he just showed up and offered them a whole bunch of money to keep quiet, they were the type to believe they could buy anyone.
‘Is that so?’ Jim said.
‘it is, so you can release my brother’ he said.
‘We’re coming out there, let’s talk in person’ he said and hung up.
Kim saw the anger in his face ‘what?’
‘Gareth lynch thinks he can get his brother out of this’ he said.
‘Can he?’
‘I think he’s paid those kids off, but it won’t matter, have you contacted the parents’
‘I have’ she said
‘they’ll help no matter what’ he said
‘now let's go out there and get another looks at this crime scene and find a reason to lock up the brother. Maybe some parking tickets or something.’ What a prick this guy was.
Rick spoke up ‘can I come?
They went out and got in the car, Jim, Kim, and Rick. Heading out to the farm, with Roger locked up in the back seat. Maybe if they saw him, they would change their minds about letting him walk free. He just had to decide what to tell them about the scorpions. He’d do that once he’d decided what to believe himself.
Chapter Twenty
He felt his eyes were truly opened for the first time. Knowledge and the habits of these defilers came to him in waves. He realized they would all be soon leaving; he could see their actions played out before them and knew what they would do. It was logic, or rather they behaved exactly as they thought they should. Bree had a low opinion of most people. They were ‘sheep’ he could understand why she thought that they all did what was expected.
They didn’t live here like that family, they were free labor and Roger had used them, he’d hurt them, so now they would run away. He had gotten memories of Bree about their actions. They couldn’t walk out; they couldn’t use their phones. They would escape in Gareth’s nice new car. It was a BMW that was a brand of them. He could see in his mind a giant factory she had seen on tv. It was one of the most awful things he could imagine. Hundreds of defilers and machines, making cars, production lines and pollution spewing out into the air.
He saw through her eyes all the growth of humanity, as they called themselves, they were a violent life sucking cancer that had spread across the planet, and we’re choking it to death. He knew now about extinction, about the ozone layer. Every one of them had a car, lived in cities that produced trash and waste by the ton. They were killing the planet and seemed to be enjoying themselves as they did so.
His eyes had been so closed. He thought he should punish them for the sins they had committed in his grove, but he realized he must be one of the only of his kind left. The way they destroyed the planet, clearly nothing was trying to stop them. He’d stop them; they weren’t leaving this farm, he’d kill them all and hang their bodies from trees as a sign to the rest of the defilers, that this world was no longer there.
The people of his time respected nature, they lived their lives and tried to live in line with the needs of the earth, now they treated nature as a thing in the way. It wasn’t the giver of breath and life; it was trees to be cut down and make way for new buildings to house the millions of them being born every moment.
It was daytime, so he crept from tree to tree, there was no one around, and he knew what he had to do. He made his way to the end of the farm. it was a dirt road, with a line of trees running down the side. At the end was closed gate and looking above he could see the cables. They would have been unknown to him in days past but know he knew they were telephone wires. They couldn’t call for help if they were broken. This area was too far away from the city, there were no mobile phone towers to blight the land.
There was a tall tree with its branches hanging above it, he went to the tree and placed his hand against the trunk. He knew if he climbed up and broke it, they would know. These cables sometimes broke from tree branches falling on them. He wanted them relaxed and unafraid. He felt the connection with the tree and with some sadness, asked it to sacrifice its limb for him.
The tree was aware in a way, they felt pain, they wanted to live, and as he connected, he could control it. He made the branch break off. It was big, heavy and if felt onto the wire with all its weight. The wire held for a moment and then snapped under the weight of the branch. He laughed. Now they would be alone; he just needed to get the cars. They also had power cables, but they were underground, and he didn’t know where.
He looked at the gate at and thought, surely soon another car would come, Bree had thought the police would come back. He went on the road and the closed gate. He took the large branch that lay on the road and lay it against the gate. He then moved to the side of it, on the outside.
It was too bright, the sun was all around him, and there was nowhere to hide. He let his feet sink into the soil and his hands as well. He found it, a perfect little bush. It was weak and only a seedling, but more than enough, He thought ‘grow, ’ and the power of life ran from him into the small plant.
It grew fast and strong, all around him, being guided in its growth by his mind. Soon it had grown tall,
and he was completely hidden from sight. Now when a car came, he would be ready, he had to strike and would have time, as they waited to clear the tree.
He waited in his hiding spot and thought of his plans. He would have to strike tonight. He couldn't wait any longer. They were trying to escape. He needed to not only stop them but make examples of them. The world had fallen apart; it was like the woke up and he was in hell, but he had the power to make something good. His grove would be a beacon of hope, a symbol of how life should be.
A noise came to him, and he turned from looking up the road to it. Vicky and Liam were walking up the dirt track. His sharp senses could see them, though they were far away. He spoke to her, and she looked bored, he knew these things now, and he could always tell a little of how they felt. Especially fear.
They would be checking the phone line. They walked up to the branch and the snapped cable. The branch was big and now was pressed right against the gate. He had moved it with a single hand, but for them, it would be the work of two.
‘well the phone line is ruined’ he said.
‘Why did that branch fall, it hasn’t even been windy’ she said.
‘Well, have a look for saw marks’ he said with a laugh ‘you know this has all just been a string of bad luck, accidents and one pervy guy’ he said.
She did indeed look at the branch, it was broken and had snapped off naturally on the weak points.
‘Should we move it, we won’t be able to get out’ she said.
‘I’m not doing it; you can do it by yourself if you want’ he said.
‘what a gentleman’ she said.
From his hiding spot, He laughed at her words and saw they both froze. He knew his voice to them sounded like a hissing sound, they looked around, fear rising, but he was well hidden. It was fun to scare them.
‘What was that?’ she asked.
He just turned around and started to walk back to the house ‘you’re a very suspicious person, has anyone ever told you that? He said.
‘Usually dodgy people, trying to hide things’ she said, following him.
The more he learned of the defilers, the more apt his name was. Once he punished these he would talk to the girl Bree; she could help him, he imagined the new world, with his kind as a guiding hand bringing people back into line. He could do it; his home tree could seed, all he needed was blood and bodies soon he’d have lots and lots.
Chapter Twenty-One
Bree sat in the lounge room looking out to the front window, as Vicky and Liam went to investigate the broken phone line. She knew it was him, how could he let them escape. She was torn in a way, she knew it wanted to kill them all and surely human beings, as a species deserved it. She knew how they treated mother earth and maybe this would change things. Vicky was nice to her though, and maybe she could save her. The others were like the bullies she’d had to deal with her whole life. Treating her like she was invisible and useless, laughing behind her back.
She’d been searching for something like this for so long, now she had found it. She knew she should embrace it and would. She would spend hours and hours searching for farms, organic places, people with stories of fairies and strange beings. Then she’d found the story of the French family. The ones they had talked about. They missed so much of the story though, and she’d read every article on it.
They didn’t read that the family was going to clear half the trees on their land for more grape vines, they didn’t read they had been found hanging with the vines of a fig tree. That was the thing that stuck out in her mind. She remembered tales her mother told her, of the old wiccans from back home in Scotland. They would offer a sacrifice to nature, hung, and bled out. The priestess would wear garlands of fig.
She’d come here hoping she would find something and she had. The day that the bees attacked her she knew. They had come to her with such purpose. She thought she was more attuned than most people and felt the rage of nature as they attacked. She’d only picked some flowers, but now she could see her sin. She’d killed them, for no reason. It wasn’t food; it was just a whim.
Her mind drifted back to the night it had come to her and then again. It was him, she now knew, and it was beautiful, so strong and pure. It looked in the darkness like a tall and thin man carved out of wood, with branches like antlers coming from its head and arms. His eyes, when they had looked right at her were those of a person.
When she had shared her memories with him. He also shared all his with her. She could understand what it thought, the rage and pain it felt when nature was hurt and how it had come to be created. She saw him as a young boy, in England or Scotland. It was cold, and the countryside was very different from Australia, many more rolling hills, and thick forests.
He was an orphan boy and was given to the priestess and priests. They looked like druids to her. They stood around large stones and trees and seemed to believe in the power of nature. She saw as they led him to a tall tree, a fig, they tied him to it. He was calm, and she realized he’d been drugged. A priestess pulled out a stone knife of some kind and simply passed it across his throat. He coughed once but didn’t struggle as the blood poured down his bare chest. His eyes, the same ones that had looked at her that night closed as he died from the blood loss.
He felt something placed in his mouth and knew it was a seed from a fig tree, with runes carved into it. He had died that day, his memory faded, but he knew what they did. Still, see remembered when he woke for the first time. It was like waking from a dream and not knowing where you were.
So much of who he was, was gone, he woke and opened his eyes. He had no idea who long he’d been laying there, days? Weeks? His body had changed, He was more a being of nature than a person. His body was still that of a boy, small and short, but his arms were the vined ones she’d seen in her room.
They had made him, but they respected the power, he was the law giver, the hand of justice, he kept their people following the old ways. She saw how it was; people respected trees and nature, only killed what they needed to, only cut what they had too and asked if they could. It was a better world and one she wanted to go back to. The human race in its full perversion had been shown to him. She felt his disgust as he learned all that people had none, how they had turned the destruction of nature into a heartless mechanical process. There were also millions of them, he couldn’t understand a number so high, in his world there were thousands of people, but now they had spread like a plague, to cover the entire world in a thick blanket of humanity.
He recoiled at her knowledge of factory farms and slaughter houses. In his world animals were killed when needed for meat and then with respect. Now they were killed by professional murders and sold cut up and packaged. No one hunted for themselves; they just bought it at the market. She could see what he planned as well. He would take these people on the farm, at first, he’d just been the hand of nature’s revenge, but now he knew the scope of the human races crimes, he’d have to do something about t.
She could see his plans, and in fact, her mind was still connected with his in a way. If she thought about it, she knew. He would take the bodies of these ones and make more like him. Humans had done too much evil. Too much for him alone to punish.
He needed a lot more brothers and sisters. She had to decide which side she was going to be on. Her whole life she’d been the outsider, the freak because she’d viewed the way people lived as wrong. Now she knew it was wrong and she could do something to stop it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jim drove fast towards the farm, he was angry, fuming angry really. He hated these lynchs, and now he got to have a front row seat to see how they operated. Right now, they were in the process of buying their way out of jail time for the older brother, Roger, and a public stink for the company.
Lynch wine was everywhere; it was a good basic wine. Most bottles went for between 5-20 dollars, the lower end but high-volume sales, they even had a cask version he liked, not that he’d tell his parent or anyone else.
A scandal like this would cost them a lot more n sales than anything else, their name and brand would be tainted and linked to creepiness and perversion forever. It would cost them millions.
Finally, they pulled in front of the gate to the farm. He looked at the clock on the front dashboard it was 4:13. He looked out the front window, and there was a massive branch in the way. He could see it had broken the thin black phone line, that lay in the dirt of the roadway. It now lay up against the gate. Blocking it. Another annoyance, he looked to the back seat, Roger and Rick, their nature guy, sat in the back.
‘were moving it’ Rick said.
‘No mate, Roger can do it, it’s his farm’ he said.
‘’I’ve got a bad back’ he said
Jim just glared ‘well this will make it worse, get out.’
He got out, quickly, with some cuss words and climbed over the iron gate, with no style at all. Soon he took the huge branch and with a lot of effort, slowly dragged it to the side of the road. Roger pulled the gate open, and he drove through. He stopped to let him back in and drove on.
As he passed the branch on the side he heard a massive thud and another, the car rocked to the side, and he heard a loud pop, followed by a rush of air.
‘What was that?’ Jim said.
Jim got out and looked. On the side the branch was on, both of his tires were ruined. They had driven over the branch, or rather long parts of it stuck into the tires, the front tire was ripped full and the back, hissed as it slowly deflated. Large holes ripped in the black rubber.
The others got out of the car, to come to have a look.
‘did you even move it; did you do this on purpose?’ he asked.
Spriggan: Dark horror fantasy Page 7