Soul factory
ISBN- 978-0-9850163-3-3
ISBN (ebook) 978-0-9850163-4-0
© 2012
William E. Belanger
Table of contents:
Chapter 1- Guy Henderson
Chapter 2- Paul Fitzsimmons
Chapter 3- Lewis Tillman
Chapter 4- Steve Hammond
Chapter 5- The waiting room
Chapter 6- Birth
Chapter 7- Growing up
Chapter 8- Back at the factory
Chapter 9- Bryan reaches out
Chapter 10- The search is on
Chapter 11- Tom Walker
Chapter 12- Life on the run
Chapter 13- Close calls
Chapter 14- Meanwhile…
Chapter 15- Amy, sweet Amy
Chapter 16- A long talk
Chapter 17- Imprints
Chapter 18- Marshal Bradley
Chapter 19- The chase
Chapter 20- The underground
Chapter 21- Back to you Dave
Chapter 22- Three the hard way
Chapter 23- Him
Chapter 24- The infirmary
Chapter 25- Dave is back
Chapter 26- Stairway to?
Chapter 27- Not God, Good
Chapter 28- Restoration
Chapter 1- Guy Henderson
Guy Henderson was on a boat, sailing in the middle of a beautiful lake. He looked to be about 10 to 12 years old and had what we could presume where his parents with him. The boat was a small craft, but not a cheap boat by any means. One would assume that Guy’s father or mother had a decent job.
Guy had a huge smile on his face; this was the life he thought. If only his mom and dad had let him bring Teresa Montgomery with them. She was the love of his life, the apple of his eye. His parents said he was too young for love, they didn’t understand. Teresa was amazing, they would be together forever.
Parents didn’t understand love. They had always been together. They were more like business partners than lovers. Business partners that occasionally kissed in the kitchen and even less occasionally made funny noises in the middle of the night. What did they know about love?
“No time to pine” Guy thought, soon they would be at the little island and he and dad could go on a treasure hunt while mom set up their picnic. He had been planning on this treasure hunt for a long time, ever since his parents told him about the vacation. He did all the research himself and had found out that a pirate ship was rumored to have docked on that very island. Why would you dock if you weren’t hiding treasure? That would just be insane right?
Guy poured over maps for the rest of the school year looking for the perfect location. “You gotta think like a pirate” he told his father numerous times. Greg Henderson didn’t know what the hell that meant but he would never tell his son that, it meant so much to him.
Dad piloted the boat to a small cove that Guy had found on the map. It was absolutely perfect, just like Guy had told him it would be. Maybe the little guy was thinking like a pirate after-all.
The family formed a small 3-person chain gang and passed all the essential supplies to the beach. Most of their gear was food; a good bit was treasure hunting supplies and the rest was sleeping gear. As they sorted through everything mom began to ready the picnic lunch. “Would you like to just eat now?” she asked. “That way you can treasure hunt longer and I will set up camp while you’re gone.” The guys nodded their heads that it was a great idea.
Everyone ate a delicious ham sandwich and chips lunch with lemonade to drink. Sara Henderson had made a wonderful picnic for her boys. Guy stared at his mom lovingly. She was a beautiful woman, still so young and vibrant. Guy felt bad that she had to stay home and be a mother when she wanted nothing more than to work a job. For some reason she wasn’t allowed to do that.
Guy shook his head. He would let Teresa work if she wanted to. Heck, he would stay home, that would be sweet. He could stay home and do puzzles and write crime stories and she could go to work. Why would anyone be against that? Guy shook his head again and looked over at dad. “Ready to go sport?” his dad asked him and Guy jumped up. “Well I guess that answers that!” Sara smiled while picking up the leftovers.
Guy and Greg shuffled off with their map, shovels and a pick. They also carried a large burlap sack in case they found some loose treasure. “Dad, we turn at the first ridge” Guy advised, steadily checking the map and keeping an eye on the route.
20 minutes later they were in a small clearing near the center of the island. This clearing was on every map that Guy had found. He had looked through almanacs, encyclopedias, a couple pirate books, and anything else he could find at his small school. It had to be the place, it was perfect. He told Teresa once that “if you think like a pirate you will always get the booty”. She slapped him and he couldn’t figure out why.
“We dig here” Guy told his dad, as he stuck his shovel into the sandy ground at the center of the clearing. The two got busy digging and within a minute or two Guy was clearly playing the supervisor role and letting dad do all the work. Greg knew it was going to go down this way so he had packed some lemonade to drink if his son ever let him take a break.
Their eyes got wide as saucers when Greg hit something solid about three feet down. “What the…” he muttered as he thumped the shovel against it again. Guy scrambled to his feet and grabbed the other shovel again to help out. The two frantically dug until they uncovered what they had hit…a giant piece of driftwood.
The two fell to the sand laughing. They both really thought they had something there for a minute. They shared some lemonade then decided to retrieve their “treasure” so mom could share in the laughs too. As they walked back to camp with their arms around each other they both realized that they did find treasure that day.
The rest of the vacation was fun. They swam and played in the sand and enjoyed their time in the sun. Mom made some excellent lunches and the guys collected fruit and sea-life for mother to cook. Guy was sad when it was time to get in the boat and head home but he was also excited. He would run straight over to Teresa’s house to tell her about the trip.
The ride home was uneventful and Guy couldn’t help but daydream about his girlfriend. He kept replaying the scene where he told her about their treasure hunt. He pictured her lips pouting when he told her they only found driftwood. He pictured the laughter they would share. It was going to be great.
They arrived home to a scene of horror. Teresa’s house ceased to exist. There was a pile of blackened rubble where it once stood. Guy’s parents tried to stop him but he broke free from them and rushed over to the rubble. He sat on the steps and cried.
The house had burnt down in the middle of the night while the family was sleeping. Nobody made it out alive. Guy would never forgive his parents. To him they were guilty for Teresa’s death. If they would have let her come with him she would be ok and his life wouldn’t be ruined.
Chapter 2- Paul Fitzsimmons
Paul Fitzsimmons was being chased. He ran like hell and they still had a bead on him. He went from the school to the park, to the woods and he could still hear them coming. Why wouldn’t they stop? He didn’t realize that Emily “belonged” to one of them; if he did he wouldn’t have kissed her on the playground. She had asked him for God’s sake, who can say no to a pretty girl?
Now he was going to get that kiss taken out of his ass if he didn’t run like he had never run before. The Malicious Mason brothers were on his tail and their goony friends were right behind them.
You know you go to a lousy school when there is a gang of bullies instead of just one. Paul had managed to stay away from these idiots for 4 of the 5 grades of school. Now here he was in 5th grade, 3 weeks from goin
g on to middle school and his life was going to end.
Stupid Emily. But she tasted so good. He would honestly take his beating and go back and kiss her again if he could. He had kissed two other girls but they were nothing like Emily. She was amazing.
The rock flying by his head at high velocity brought him out of his day dream and back to the cold, hard reality. The little bastards had a sling-shot! Whhiiiiizzz, another rock whistled by. This was getting bad. He had better come up with a plan and quick. The forest path was nearing a split and he could go one of two ways. One involved rocks, the other a creek. Both could slow him down or save him.
He chose creek. He knew the Masons couldn’t swim. They would always come down to the swimming hole and hang out in jeans on the shore. There were girls in bikinis and sometimes less than that in the water and the Masons were horn-dogs. There is no way they would pass up boobies if they had a choice so Paul knew they couldn’t swim.
Unfortunately the damn creek was only ankle to knee deep. Today it was somewhere in the middle and it was just enough to slow Paul down. The five caught up to him pretty quick and he felt a hand tugging on his shoulder.
One of the boys pulled him down and pushed him under the water. He could feel one of the Mason boy’s boots on his head. Paul was stuck; he might just die right here. Time slowed and Paul started to recap his life but all he saw was Emily. Stupid Emily had just cost him his life at the hands of some thick-headed hooligans and she wouldn’t leave his mind. I’m supposed to be thinkin’ of my mama and daddy, my little sister Shelly, all the fun times I’ve had but all I get is Emily. Damn, stupid Emily.
Emily stood on the playground with a slight breeze blowing her dark hair in front of her face. She wore a bright red sundress with orange and yellow polka dots. She was stunning. She certainly did not look like a 5th grader. Paul had admired her for a long time but never even bothered to approach her. How did she ever get mixed up with those goons?
Maybe she was a succubus, put here on earth to tempt men into trouble. It sure seemed to work in this case. Paul looked up through the murky waters and saw the boys who were murdering him for one last time. They had evil grins on their faces, they knew what they were doing and really didn’t seem to care.
As Paul’s life drifted out of him he opened his mouth and tried to yell “EMILY”. Instead the water filled his lungs and he succumbed. Once he stopped writhing the boys picked up rocks and loosely covered his body. With their low IQs they thought it was good enough to hide the body. Why would anybody think they had anything to do with it?
Emily would never understand why the boy had such a huge crush on her. She felt a strange attraction to him but she didn’t realize the full extent of it because it was never allowed to blossom. She ended up going on with her life and kept quiet about the incident. She always hoped that she would run into him again at the grocery store or video store. He was never there.
Chapter 3- Lewis Tillman
Lewis Tillman had the man dead to rights. He had all the evidence, he had witnesses, he had everything he needed to seal the case and bring justice to the man who had raped and murdered a family out of the blue. All he needed to do was put together the presentation to the judge and jury.
The accused man was the modern day equivalent of an evil genius. He was well educated, well spoken, and well versed in the law. He was the worst kind of enemy in the courtroom because he could take what you said, even the most damning evidence, and turn it against you. He was a horrible person and if the case wasn’t worked correctly the bastard would walk. It was rumoured that he had walked before. There could be as many as 15 families that were put under his knife but it was doubtful they could convict him on any but this one.
He had gotten sloppy. He left DNA and he left some prints. Normally that would be open and shut but this was no ordinary foe. This crazy bastard had shot a cop and gotten away with it. That’s how incredibly manipulative he was. He convinced 12 complete strangers that he had acted in self defence after gunning the man down in the middle of a gas station robbery.
All Lewis had to do was present the evidence in a manner that could not be disputed. He had to turn the jury against the man quickly and swiftly and not allow him to retaliate until it was far too late. Lewis planned on using the 12 year old girl’s panties as the opening volley. If you don’t hate the man after evidence like that then you are not human.
Lewis spread out all the documents on his dining room table. He was sorting the order when a knock on the door broke his concentration. He answered the door and it was the mail-man. The man handed him a small package and went on his way. Lewis noticed it did not have a return address and he could not figure out what he might have ordered that was this small.
He opened up the padded envelope and pulled out an unmarked DVD. “What the hell is this?” he asked himself. He set the disc on his coffee table and set back to work.
It didn’t take long until the curiosity got the best of him. What was on that DVD? Did he order an adult movie in a drunken stupor one night and forget about it? He tried to shake the thought and finish up his work but it just kept nagging and nagging until he finally broke down.
Lewis returned to the living room and stuck the disc in his Blu-ray player. He turned on his flat screen and waited for the machine to boot up. A video started up without any menus. It was a grainy night vision affair and looked like it was in a bedroom.
The camera panned and there was a girl in lingerie tied to a chair. “What the...” he asked himself until the image focused and he realized what he was looking at. It was Gina. It was his fiancée Gina!
A garbled voice began “Tomorrow you will forget things, you will bumble over words, you will present evidence poorly.” A knife came onto the screen in front of Gina. The person holding the knife slowly twisted it and moved it back and forth as if imitating stabbing his beloved. “If you don’t do these things the girl dies.”
The screen went blank and Lewis put his face in his hands. The tears just started to flow without control. They had his Gina. What was he going to do? If he put this guy away his girl was surely dead. If he botched the case the man would go free and his career would be ruined but his girl might live. How does one even make a decision like this?
Only one person in the courtroom understood why or how Lewis had just disappeared over night. The defendant couldn’t help but smile throughout the whole procedure. The judge mentioned something about him looking smug but that just made him smile more. He was free and he had already had the girl killed.
When Gina’s mangled body showed up less than a week later the world turned its focus on Lewis. It made sense, she went missing, he went missing and then she turned up dead. Lewis tried to lay low and flee the country but was caught in Texas and gunned down by an FBI agent.
Chapter 4- Steve Hammond
Steve Hammond was having the night of his life. He had been promoted earlier in the day and he was at a party planned for something else entirely. Now it was nearly midnight, he was loaded, and his girlfriend, Shelly, was on her way. Things had just fallen into place recently but this recent stroke of luck and timing had him shaking his head. He was just given a nearly $20,000 raise and the first thing he did was run out and buy a $5,000 ring for his girlfriend. He wanted to marry her and tonight he was going to propose if she would ever make it to the party.
Shelly Phillips was about 5 hours behind schedule. At the last minute a potential client had called and asked for her services. This was at 6:45 on a Friday and her office generally closed at 7pm. You don’t tell a potential client that happens to be a millionaire that you are going to get drunk and can’t help him so Shelly took a deep breath and got to work.
Now, around midnight, she was finally on her way to the party. Steve’s friend Billy had just gotten out of a really nasty marriage and had won his court case against his psycho wife. The party was at the house that he had been awarded in the settlement.
She would normally go home and change
into something a little sexier but she didn’t need another hour of delay. She knew Steve was pretty loaded and would probably get himself into trouble if she didn’t get out there and tame him.
Shelly pulled into the neighbourhood at around quarter to one. She had to park about 5 houses down because of the sheer number of cars at the party. She hoped there was a lot of DDs there because it looked like half the town was getting blitzed at the guy’s house. She made the walk to the house and noticed Steve sitting on the curb waiting. She waved and he got up and stumbled her way.
Shelly was here! Steve’s drunken mind wanted to run up and pick her up and twirl her around. Steve’s drunken body wanted to fall onto the grass. The resulting scene was hilarious to those who witnessed it. Steve awkwardly half bear-hugged, half figure skater lifted Shelly and by a quarter twirl they were both on the grass. Shelly was clearly annoyed but didn’t want to get into an argument. Getting grass stains on a $400 business suit wasn’t really her idea of a good time but he was being so goofy and cute she had to come around.
Steve led her around the party so she could say hi to everyone. They all knew each other but it was customary to let everyone know when someone showed up. After the seemingly endless small talk they finally had made it through all the rooms of the place and the throngs of people in each one. Apparently nearly the entire neighbourhood was in attendance so nobody would really care about all the cars outside.
Steve took her outside to the back porch where he had been spending a good bit of his time during the party. All the smokers were out there and the turnover rate was good, nobody hung around too long so the conversation was always fresh. They sat down on a covered swing and Steve reflected on their relationship while she adjusted her skirt.
They had met 3 years ago by chance at a hockey game. He was in the gutter about a break-up and she was texting her boss. They collided and it was magical. Their collision was hard enough to put them both on the ground. Steve shook his head and was about to jump up and punch the idiot who had just knocked him over when he noticed the beautiful woman sprawled out in front of him.
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