She groaned, and turned back the way she came. Not noticing the large black shape move in unison further back in the trees.
Another twenty minutes or so pass, and she finds herself back amongst the buildings. Her pace had slowed to a stroll. She wasn't getting anywhere tonight. As she came out of the woods, into the clearing she found that dark clouds had formed in the distance. Great. A storm to top off her shitty day. She continued her slow stroll to the nearest building, running her hand along the faded grey wall that was likely bright white, at some point.
“You'll do just fine,” she nodded, looking up to find a cross still towering on the roof.
It was the town Church. Or had been, at one point in time. She noticed that it was also the best maintained building of the bunch, still standing strong, despite a few broken windows, and faded paint. She walked to the large doors, and pushed them open; wood and metal creaking loudly as she did so. She looks over all the pews, most of them broken, and finds the large cross that had once adorned the wall above the Pastor's podium had broken free from its rope, and splintered against the floor.
As she made her way towards the front of the Church, she noticed that the dirt built up on the windows made it fairly dark in the building. By the time she reached the front of the Church, the back half where she had entered from was nearly pitch black. Claire drops her bag on the podium, and unbuckles her sleeping bag, rolling it out on the ground, brushing away dust as she does so.
“Can't be too bad here for one night.”
Thunder rumbles in the distance; she grabs her backpack and plops down on the sleeping bag, resting her head on the pack. Maybe you should have blown the married man after all, she thinks to herself, before laughing at the course of the afternoon, that brought her to this point in time.
After a few minutes of tossing and turning, she laid on her back, staring up at the ceiling. As dark as it was in here, it still wasn't late enough to sleep. She was hoping to ride out the storm in her dreams, but that didn't seem to be a viable option at this point in time. Claire sat up and turned to her backpack, opening it up. After a moment of searching, she pulled out a small blue vibrator, that she had picked up along the way.
“You'll never leave me, or cheat on me will you?” She asked the inanimate object, petting it lovingly.
She pressed the button on the end once, and a low hum filled the air. A smile crossed her face at this sound, as she reached down, unbuttoning her pants. The creak of the large door interrupted her, though; and the slam shut made her jump as she sat there, pants unzipped and vibrator still humming in her hand.
As Claire climbed to her feet, she peered towards the entrance of the Church, but couldn't make anything out in the dark. Her pants fell a couple inches, sitting low on her hips, as she gripped the sex toy, her only weapon available to her at the moment. Something moved in the dark across the room.
“Hello? Are you the one that owns that cooler outside?”
No response.
“Do you know where we're at? Some guy told me this was the way into town, but there's nothing north of here. It's just a river. I could use a ride if you're heading that way?”
Still no response. She looked down at the vibrator in her hand.
“If you're in here looking for a free show, you can fuck off, alright? The only person getting amusement off this thing is me!”
And again, nothing. She can see the outline of someone standing there, but still too dark to make out. She scoffs, and raises a middle finger, shaking her head. By the time she starts to sit down on her sleeping bag, the blade of the axe glows red, and it spins through the air in her direction. It sticks into the cross on the back wall, and her arm, still holding up the middle finger, smacks against the wood as well.
Her mouth sits agape as she falls back against the preacher's podium, staring at the cauterized nub that used to be her arm. By the time young Claire turns her attention back to her attacker, the Horseman is crossing the Church towards her. It's heavy boots clopping on the wood with every step. She swings once at the killer with the sex toy, and misses. The Horseman reaches down, grabbing a fist full of her hair, and she screams out in pain as it lifts her off the ground.
“No! Please stop! Please!” She cries out, tears streaming down her face. She tries to grab at its hand in her hair with one hand, but only bumps it's arm with her stump, and is swinging wildly with the other. “Put me down!”
The Headless Horseman catches her hand swinging the sex toy as she tries to hit it, and rips the object away from her. It rears back, and jams the vibrator into her eye socket, cracking skull and pushing it up into brain, as it's hand hits the button and turns the toy on high, her head shaking and bouncing with the vibration.
“Please...puh – puh – puh...” the young woman stammers as her voice comes to match the rhythm of the vibrating.
Claire's mouth hangs agape, as she gags to death, blood pouring down her face. The Horseman pulls the toy from her eye socket and lets her body fall to the ground. He holds the vibrator up, as if examining it, before dropping it next to her. The Horseman makes its way to the axe stuck in the cross, and pulls it from the wood with little effort.
As the Horseman steps over her twitching body, and makes its way back to the entrance of the Church, it pauses turning back to the podium. Young Claire's body finally stops twitching, as she goes limp, her blood seeping out over the steps, like a gentle trickle. The Horseman does something wholly unexpected, and crosses itself, before exiting the building. The gentle hum of the vibrator echoing on the wood next to Claire's dead body.
CHAPTER X
There is a terribly uncomfortable feeling in the van, as it speeds down the road. Danny leans back against the wall, snoring when the tip of a strap on swings into the edge of his mouth. He snorts, waking up and smacks it away from his face. The others in the van look around at the various sex toys and clothing packed up in the van. Harold laughs at Danny.
“Fuck you, man,” Danny snaps, holding up a middle finger.
“What's up with all the sex toys and shit, Dougie?” Sam yells from the back of the van. She lifts up a dildo that rivals the size of the sledgehammer she brought with her. “And who the fuck is this meant for?”
“Hey! Put that down. It's a four-hundred-dollar dick!” Dougie yells back at her, looking in the rearview mirror.
She drops it almost immediately, and looks around at the various handcuffs, whips, and assorted toys. Caleb reaches in his bag between his knees, and pulls out some weed, papers and a folder to work on. He begins by taking a couple papers out, then starts to tear the buds up.
“Seriously, what sort of shit is your cousin into?” Katerina asks, leaning forward.
“He works for the Pleasure Chest downtown. Act like you've never seen a fake cock before.”
“But really, you couldn't have cleaned this shit out first?” Caleb asks, looking over at his pal.
“Man, he told me if I lose any of his shit, he'll get fired. So Sam I know you've got penis envy, but you can't take any of the strap ons out of here,” Dougie yells to the back, looking over his shoulder quickly.
“Eat me, bitch,” she leans her sledgehammer against her shoulder and puts up a middle finger, sticking her tongue out.
“Not even if you bathed yourself in orange soda, sweetheart!” Dougie quipped. “I will fuck one of them big ass holes in the side of your head, though!”
Everyone laughed, looking at the gauges she has in her ears. She shakes her head and scoffs, looking down. Tina smiles watching her then leans over, tapping Amir on the knee.
“You're in my Bio class, aren't you?”
“With Figgins?” Amir turned to her. He couldn't help but notice Kat watch their interaction, as he leaned over to talk with Tina.
“Yeah, I thought I'd seen you somewhere before. You're pre-med?” Tina probes.
“Sort of a family expectation, yeah. It's not terrible,” Amir shrugs. He exhales with this lie, and lowers his eyes to the floor
board of the van.
“Oh. My. God. You fucking hate it,” Tina laughs, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“I fucking hate it!” Amir exclaims, for the first time out loud. He leans his head back against the wall of the van. “It's the worst. But it's a well-paying career, and my dad is all about that. Plus, both he and my mom are Doctors, so they expect me to follow along.”
“What would you do if you weren't working towards being a Doctor?” Kat asks, plopping down next to him.
Harold grumbles as this pushes him out of his seat, but he slides down, anyways. Katerina didn't care. She wasn't about to lose this guy's interest to a girl that had a girlfriend. Amir shrugged, to the question and grew a look of great perplexity on his face, as he considered her question. Nobody had ever asked him that, before. Then he grinned widely, and raised his hands in excitement, busting a quick move before making eye contact with Kat...
“Musical theater!”
They all laugh, and so does he. College was a time for finding out who you were, certainly. But for some, it was simply just another stepping stone in the plotted course of their life that had been laid out years prior. Amir knew the expectations placed on him, and he accepted them albeit begrudgingly.
“Can we shut up about fucking school, please?” Danny yelled out over the talking.
“What do you care? You haven't gone to half of your classes all semester,” Caleb jokes looking to the back of the van. He reaches a few of the joints he's rolled back, and Danny takes them. “Pass those out.”
“Exactly. I'm tired of school,” Danny agrees, taking the joints and handing one to Jackie, one to Sam and keeping the other for himself. He takes out a lighter and sparks his up, then passes the lighter on. “It's been nothing but a waste of time.”
“Is that why you've been here six years now?” Dougie asks, looking in the rearview. The others laugh, as the van quickly starts filling with smoke. Sam coughs hard, staring at the joint in her hand, as she spews smoke. She grabs her chest with her free hand as she passes it to Tina, who gladly takes a hit. Soon everyone in the van is smoking, except for Dougie, when Amir tries to pass it up to him. “Nah, man. Not 'til we get to the party. Do me a favor, crack your window.”
Caleb cranks his window down a couple inches, before taking the joint from Amir. The van speeds down the high way with smoke billowing out of the windows.
“Dude if you get pulled over, we're fucked,” Jackie yells from the back.
Dougie shrugs at this notion.
“Wont your cousin or whoever get mad if we have his van, and expensive baseball bat dildos smelling like weed?” Kat leans forward, talking to Dougie.
“As opposed to the ass and lube it usually smells like in here? I'm not sweating it. Few minutes driving with the windows down and some air freshener and it'll be all good.”
“Fair enough,” she nods, sitting back. Jackie extends a joint to her and she takes a hit.
Amir leans in to her, nudging her with his shoulder. She smiles at him, and playfully nudges him back. “Thanks for inviting me,” he says, leaning closer to her.
“You're welcome, I'm glad you could come.”
“I'm sure she'll have you coming more than once tonight,” Jackie quipped, making half the van laugh. Katerina kicks her friend across the van, who grabs her leg in pain. “Asshole!”
Amir laughs at this back and forth. He catches Kat looking back at him, and grins at her. She really was lovely to him. Kat bit her bottom lip, returning a half grin. She loved his overly white smile, and his habit of avoiding the banter the rest of them joined in on. Of course, she knew he had the same thoughts and ideas any warm-blooded man would, but he wasn't crass, and he wasn't rude. That was hard to come by these days.
“So where the fuck is this place?” Sam yelled from the very back of the van.
“I don’t know, GPS hasn't said anything in a while,” Dougie notes. He picks up his phone and checks it out. After a moment of trying to sort it out while looking back and forth between the road and the screen, he shakes his head. “Mother fucker...”
“What's the problem?” Caleb looks over at his pal.
“The fucking thing quit working. I need to get some gas anyways, I'll pull off at the next exit and we can ask there.”
“A man willing to ask for directions? I can't believe it,” Sam snidely remarks from the back of the van.
Dougie throws her a middle finger over his shoulder. Danny cracks open his bag, and pulls out a small baggy of cocaine. He uses the longer nail on his pinky finger to take a bump from it, and snorts it hard, his face twitching a couple times as it hits him. He holds up the bag, looking around.
“Anyone want some?” Danny asks. Katerina, Amir and Tina respond in the negative. But Caleb reaches back, grabbing the bag from Danny, over his shoulder. “Ow. Fucker.”
“Chill the fuck out,” Caleb scoffs, taking his keys from his pocket, and using a small one to take a bump from the baggy.
He passes it back, and Jackie uses her nails to take a bump in each nostril. She rubs her nose afterward, looking like she's going to sneeze, but it passes, and Sam takes it from her. Sam had already taken a dollar bill from her pocket, and rolled it up. She jumps up from her seat and turns, dropping a bit of the white powder on the seat. She leans down and takes a quick, deep snort, dragging the bill along the cocaine.
As Sam leans back, she extends it out to Harold, and he giddily accepts it. Dougie hits a bump in the road, though and Harold loses his grip on the bag, bouncing it around a couple times, before he spills it all over the place.
“Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!” He looks up to find the rest of the van staring at him. Danny looks particularly perturbed. “Heh. My bad.”
With great speed, Danny lashes out at Harold, striking him across the face with a hard left. Caleb reaches back to put a hand between them, and Amir helps as well. The girls watch and cheer on the violence, except for Katerina, who also tries to get in between the two.
“I'm going to fucking kill you!” Danny screams.
“It was an accident!” Harold retorts.
Harold scratches in Danny's general direction. It's clear he's not a fighter.
“Dan, sit down, man. It was an accident.” Caleb commands forcefully, but his friend is seeing red.
“Guys knock it off, come on!” Katerina screams out as well.
“Get back there and have them cut that shit out, they're rocking the van. I'm driving like a drunk!” Dougie yells at Caleb.
Caleb undoes his seatbelt and climbs back in between the seats. With one hand he shoves Danny back down to his seat, and grips his collar tight.
“I said knock it the fuck off! You hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you,” Danny growls raising his hands as he breathes rapidly.
Caleb looks over his shoulder to make sure Harold is calm as well. Harold has a look of utter fear on his face, and Caleb then looks between them. Kat and Amir sit between the two of them, as well.
“It was an accident. We've got plenty more drugs and booze. You need a time out. Tina trade spots with him. Kat, Amir, you two can sit between them, right?” Caleb inquires.
Kat and Amir nod, returning to their seats. Tina gets up, and moves as Danny sighs, trading spots with her.
“Treat me like a goddamn kid, man,” Danny complains.
“Hey. Act like a child, get treated like a child. Everyone was having a grand ol' time; having a blast, then you had to fuck up the vibe,” Caleb shrugs. “Now there isn't going to be any more fighting the rest of the night, got it?” He looks around at everyone who agrees. “Good. Damn. Can't take the kids anywhere.”
Caleb makes his way back to the passenger seat and buckles himself back in.
“Good job, bro,” Dougie notes, patting his friend on the shoulder.
“That took some nerve jumping in there like that,” Amir noted, grinning at Kat.
“Couldn't let the boys have all the fun, right?”
“Ugh. Typical male cha
uvinism, thinking only they can resolve the conflicts. News flash, women are just as capable of stopping wars as men are!” Sam hissed across at Amir, who stared back at her in confusion.
“All – alright.”
Harold stares at the floorboard, looking very much like a scolded puppy, before looking up at the others. There's an awkward silent tension amongst them all at the moment. He looks over to find Danny staring directly at him.
“I'm going to kill you,” Danny mouths to him.
Harold turns away slightly, as Dougie turns the radio on to break the tension.
CHAPTER XI
The police office was more of a dungeon with a desk, than anything resembling an up-to-date department. The walls were faded brick, and the two individual cells were hardly enough to hold an average-sized man. The one desk sitting in the room was so littered with paperwork – and paper footballs – and paper airplanes, that it was hard to make out what color the furniture was.
There was hardly room for the radio to sit on the very edge of the main desk. A very small desk with an old computer and printer sat off in one corner. The thing must rarely be used, as it had collected an impressive layer of dust. And in the far corner, a fresh pot of coffee brewed on a small stand. The coffee seemed to be the most cared for thing in the building.
Young Deputy Michael Hadley, in his early thirties, leaned back with his feet propped up on the desk. His large-brimmed hat was lowered over his eyes, as his head rested back on his hands. He was in decent enough shape, with hair just starting to grey around the edges. His goatee was trimmed up, but thick; his tan uniform still relatively pressed from a day of not doing, well, anything.
The old Sheriff strolled into the room, his eyes lowered to the ground. Williams had walked these halls so often over the years, he was certain he could do it blindfolded. When he came up to the Deputy sleeping on the job, he paused. The poor kid took the job expecting it to be easy. They all did. The old man made his way to the coffee pot, and grabbed a Styrofoam cup, pouring himself a straight black shot of that sweet caffeine.
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