Family Night

by Miller, Tim

  The gas station had been abandoned for a long time, but it remained boarded up. After a few minutes his phone rang, it was Julie.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Where are you?” She asked.

  “I’m here. I found a hiding place. I’ll lie low in case something goes wrong.”

  “Ok, thank you Ben.”

  “No problem. Hey, this wasn’t some ploy to get me alone at night was it?” He said, trying to lighten the mood. Though once he said it, she immediately hung up. He shook his head and sat the phone down.

  Finally he saw her car pull up and pull into the gas station. He watched as she shut the car off and killed her lights. She remained in the car for a minute, when there was a knock on his window. He turned and saw a face wearing the Guy Fawkes mask in the window. He jumped and screamed as it startled him.

  It took him a second to collect his thoughts when he reached for his gun. Before he could reach it, the masked figure swung a sledge hammer into the window, shattering it. Glass fragments stung and peppered Ben’s face as he tried to reach his gun. The car door swung open, and Ben tried to kick, but the masked man grabbed his leg, shoved a cattle prod into his crotch and set it off.

  Pain shot through Ben’s groin like he had never known. The shock went through his whole body, laying him out flat as he urinated and defecated all over himself. He could smell his own shit and piss as the masked man dragged him out of the car by his legs. Once out of the car, a black hood was placed over his head and he felt himself being duct taped by his hands and feet.

  His mind had gone fuzzy for a few moments, but his head was beginning to clear. Julie! Julie was still at the gas station. If this guy was the same as their killer, what did he have in store for them, or Julie? He became angry at himself for picking such an obvious spot to hide. Though at the time, it didn’t seem as obvious, but he hadn’t taken her seriously. Now here he was.

  He felt himself being dragged by the feet. Rocks and dirt cut into his back as he was dragged for what seemed like forever. After several minutes, he was lifted into some kind of vehicle and heard a door slide shut. It was a van.

  “Who are you? I’m a cop! What do you think you’re—“ before he could finish, someone pressed the cattle prod against his throat and gave him another jolt. The shock was so hard and unexpected; he bit half his tongue off mid-sentence. Blood sprayed all over his face as his severed tongue lay pressed against his face and the hood. The pain was at least as bad as the jolt to the groin. His tongue and half his face throbbed with pain as the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth. The van started to move as his mind faded until he lost consciousness.

  Chapter 12

  Julie pulled into the empty station’s parking lot. The place was all boarded up, and tall weeds grew all around it through the cracks in the pavement. She parked her car to the side, but there was no one in sight. After a minute of sitting in the car, letting the car run, she turned the car off and climbed out. She walked around the front of the building, still no one.

  As she came around the back, a small boy wearing a Guy Fawkes mask appeared from the field. She looked around, but saw no one else in sight. My God! This guy has kids helping him? The boy walked up to her slowly. He was wearing a black hoodie and black gloves. Once he was a few feet from her, he held out a small bottle.

  She looked at him and he shook it slightly until she took it. There was a little note on the side with one word.

  DRINK

  She looked at the boy and was about to ask him what it was, but remembered the man on the phone told her not to ask any questions. That bottle could have anything in it. Would he poison her? Why would he call her all the way out here just to do that? This was her only chance to find Sarah. Slowly she removed the cap and drank the contents of the tiny bottle. The liquid was sweet, but not familiar. Once she drank it, the boy put his hand out and she handed it to him.

  He took the bottle and stood there looking her up and down.

  “What? What do you want me to do? Where is—“ She began to feel light headed. Everything started to spin, and as she looked around, she no longer saw one boy with a mask in front of her, but several. Finally the drowsiness set in, she tried to fight it off, but it came on fast and strong, until she was out.

  When she awoke, her head felt like she had the worst hangover ever. As her head cleared, she saw someone in front of her. She blinked her eyes to clear her vision. It was a woman, Sarah. She was alive, but tied to some kind of long pipe, with her arms spread out over her head crucifixion style. Sarah was also naked.

  “Sarah!” Julie screamed. She tried to move but her arms were tied also. Looking down at herself, she too was naked. Her hands bound to a pipe in the same manner as Sarah’s. Sarah was crying and looking off into space, as if she didn’t know Julie was there. Julie looked around and to her left, there was a man tied to a pipe the same way they were. The man was naked and covered in blood. He looked unconscious.

  “Sarah!” Julie screamed again. “Sarah! Can you hear me?”

  “Meh!” The man to her left said. He was trying to say something but it came out as gibberish. He was looking right at Julie.

  “Ben? What the hell? What is going on?” Julie asked, but all Ben would do was mumble as blood ran out of his mouth. She looked around when a door from the right slid open. In walked a man wearing the same mask as the boy at the station. The boy was with him and also a girl. All were wearing the same masks and hoodies.

  “Who are you? Let us go please! What do you want?” Julie cried. The man stood before her looking at her.

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that Detective Castillo. I planned this all for you.” He said.

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re special. I knew it the first time I saw you. No one else has had this special ritual. Only you.”

  “What ritual you sick fuck! You’ve got kids here helping you. Me and Ben are cops, you have any idea how many will be looking for us?”

  “Yes, I’m sure. Your pal Ben said the same thing right before he bit his own tongue off.” The man held out his gloved hand exposing a folded tissue. He slowly unfolded the tissue to reveal Ben’s severed tongue. Julie screamed at the sight. He walked up to her with the tongue.

  “You’ve had a long night,” he said. “You must be hungry.” And he tried to shove the tongue into her mouth. She fought him trying to bite and struggle against him, pinching her mouth closed. He tried prying her mouth open with both hands when the girl took out a knife and slashed down Julie’s side. She screamed allowing the man to shove the severed tongue into her mouth.

  He held her mouth closed by the bottom of her jaw and pushing down on the top of her head. She made muffled, sounds trying to spit it out.

  “You can either chew and swallow it, or choke on it. It’s up to you.” The man said. They stood there that way for over a minute in a sort of standoff. The tongue was slick and salty in her mouth. It was too large for her to swallow it whole. She tried but felt herself gagging. Finally she began to chew.

  It was tough and bloody as her teeth sank into it. It took her dozens of bites through it before she was able to get some of it down. She still felt like gagging at the sickening taste. Bile rose into her throat and mixed with the rest of it. She was able to keep it down before finally swallowing the rest. The man let her go and stepped back.

  “There, that wasn’t so bad,” he said. “Now we can get started.”

  Chapter 13

  The Mask was smiling under his mask. She couldn’t see his smile of course, except for the one permanently on his outer face. Everything had gone perfectly so far. He was so proud of the kids. They had executed the plan better than he could have hoped for. He’d known Julie would bring someone with her. After checking out the area, the junkyard was the most logical place for someone to hide, and he’d been right.

  He didn’t care that he’d captured two police. No one would find these two, not until he was ready. Though he was disappointed she disob
eyed him. Her cop friend would pay for that, not that any of them were going to live anyway.

  “Now Julie,” The Mask said. “I thought I told you to come alone. You must think I’m stupid.”

  He could see the fear in her eyes, and it excited him.

  “I’m sorry! I was scared. He was just going to make sure I was ok. He wasn’t going to interfere or tell anyone. I swear.” She pleaded.

  “Well, I can guarantee he won’t tell anyone. Oh, how did his tongue taste by the way?”

  “You are sick!” Julie said. From behind them, Sarah was waking up.

  “Julie? Julie is that you?” She asked.

  “It’s me sweetie, I’m here. It’ll be ok, I promise.”

  “Now Detective, you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep though I’ll get to you two more later. In the meantime, I need to show you what happens when you don’t follow my rules.” He looked over to his daughter and nodded. She returned the nod and walked over to Sarah and cut her loose. Sarah tumbled to the floor crying. She sat up, rubbing her wrists and looking around.

  “Now Sarah, I will need you to help me. My little girl here is going to hand you a tool. I will tell you what to do with it. Do you understand?” The Mask said.

  She nodded her head rapidly as his daughter handed her an icepick and stepped away.

  “First thing, go over to the guy, take the ice pick and gouge his eyes out.”

  “No!” She screamed, throwing the ice pick to the ground. “I won’t do it!”

  “Well ok then, if you won’t do it to him, then I’ll do it to your girlfriend here. I’ll gouge out her pretty brown eyes. Doesn’t matter to me either way,” He said as he walked toward the ice pick.

  “No!” Sarah screamed. “I’ll do it.” As she picked it back up.

  “Sarah,” Julie said.

  “It’s ok Jules.”

  “You don’t have to do this.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t even know him,” Sarah said. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

  Sarah walked over to male cop and held up the ice pick. The Mask looked on, enjoying watching her tremble. While he usually preferred doing the dirty work himself, there was a special pleasure in watching so called “normal” people try to do his work.

  Sarah cried as she raised the ice pick up to the man’s face. The guy had passed out but began to stir, looking at Sarah and trying to speak, but it only came out as a garbled moan. The Mask watched as she held the trembling ice pick up with one hand, holding the man’s eyelid open with the other. Moving the ice pick closer, and then she lowered it.

  “I can’t. I can’t do it.” She said.

  “No problem. I assure you, I’ll have no trouble taking your girlfriend’s eyes.” He said as he took out a pocket knife and unfolded it, turning toward Julie.

  “No! No! Please! Don’t do this!” Sarah cried.

  “Then do what I ask.”

  “Please don’t make me. Why? Why are you doing this?”

  He sighed and turned back to Julie.

  “Ok!” Sarah said. “Fine, I’ll do it!”

  This time, she grabbed the man’s eyelid, lifted and thrust the icepick into his eye. The eyeball made a popping sound as the icepick penetrated it. Blood and fluid sprayed her face as the man let out a howl unlike any The Mask had heard before. Sarah rotated the icepick around and withdrew it. She turned, looking at The Mask and went and pierced the man’s other eye. His screams continued as she rotated the icepick around and pulled it out. She turned around, threw the icepick to the floor, fell to her knees and vomited. After throwing up until the heaving stopped, she looked up at The Mask.

  “Now we are getting somewhere,” he said.

  Chapter 14

  Sarah sat on her knees staring up at her captor. The two kids just stood in the background watching the whole thing. She didn’t know who the guy was whose eyes she just gouged out, but it was the most horrific thing she’d ever seen or done. These people in the masks just kept staring at them. The kids were especially creepy.

  “Stand up Sarah,” the man said. “This is no time for breaks.”

  She just sat, staring at him. Her body felt paralyzed and didn’t want to move at all. Before she could, the girl walked over to her, and kicked her hard in the stomach. Sarah felt the entire amount of air shoot out of her lungs as pain ripped through her abdomen doubling her over onto her side. She held onto her stomach with both hands, gasping for air as the girl stood over her watching her.

  “Haven’t you had enough play time?” The man said.

  “Leave her alone you asshole!” Julie yelled. “You’re nothing but a fucking coward.”

  He turned toward Julie and walked toward her.

  “Well, you really are feisty aren’t you?”

  “Fuck you. You think all this makes you some kind of bad ass? You think you’re tough. You’re not shit. How tall are you even? Five-three? Five-five? All you are is a tiny, pathetic little man. When was the last time you even got laid? I bet you wouldn’t know what to do with your tiny dick.” Julie shouted.

  The man stood looking at her. Sarah couldn’t tell if Julie had pissed him off or not. She was worried that he’d kill Julie, or cause permanent injury. She noticed the kids were both watching Julie and their dad. Looking a few feet in front of her, she saw the icepick lying there. It was as if the icepick were speaking to her, daring her, tempting her to grab it and thrust it into the teenage girl standing just a few feet in front of her. No doubt the man would cut her to pieces, but the girl was just a kid. But she was no normal kid. She started to reach for the pick, but the girl turned around causing Sarah to pull her hand back quickly.

  The man just stared down Julie for a few minutes then turned back to Sarah.

  “Ok, are you ready to get up? Or do we have to do some more encouragement?”

  Sarah stood slowly. Behind her, she could hear the male cop moaning and sobbing. She couldn’t even imagine the pain she had just caused him. What scared her most was wondering how long it would be before someone was causing her pain. Once she was on her feet, the little boy walked over and took her by the hand walking her back over to where she had been taped up.

  Sarah didn’t even try to cover her nakedness. She’d been hanging there or caged naked for so long already, she didn’t even care anymore. The man walked toward her holding a roll of duct tape.

  “Ok princess, time to put the kids to bed. Put your arms back up.” He commanded.

  She stood there looking away. He took his knife and stuck it in her face.

  “I can tape them up, or cut them off, which will it be?”

  She put her arms back up as he taped them each back to the pipe, this time it was almost tighter than the last time. He backed away from her looking over his work.

  “There we go. That’s enough fun for one night. You kids behave.” He said as he walked out of the sliding door, the two kids following behind him. Once they were gone, she looked over at Julie who was staring at the other cop.

  “Jules? Julie?” She said until Julie looked at her. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to. He was going to hurt you.”

  “It’s ok,” Julie said through her tears. “You didn’t have a choice.”

  “You know that guy?” She said, nodding toward the man. He hung there limp, blood oozing from his eyes and mouth.

  “Yeah,” Julie said. “His name is Ben, he works with me. It’s all my fault. The guy said to come alone. I had Ben follow me, and they caught him somehow. I should have listened. I need to get you out of here.”

  “It’s ok Jules. You didn’t know. You had to try.” Now they were both crying. Sarah tried to choke back the tears. Julie had always been the tough, strong one, but now she needed to be strong too. She took several deep breaths.

  “We’ll be ok Sarah. It will be fine. I love you.”

  “I love you too baby.”

  Sarah tried to think positive, but couldn’t help feel like they had just said goodbye.

  Chapt
er 15

  Eddie was almost sad to drive home. It had been such a productive night and the kids had fun. He was so proud of how they had performed. This was a new experience for all of them and they had nailed it. Jeffrey was growing up so fast. He didn’t hesitate to use the cattle prod when it was time. Then Brandi, she kicked the woman in the stomach all on her own and hard too. It was just after 5 a.m. as he pulled up to the house.

  There was a strange car sitting in the driveway. He’d never seen it before. A sinking feeling hit him suddenly. They were getting home several hours earlier than planned, but they were all exhausted. He pulled the car into the garage and helped the kids into the house. Both were half asleep. He got them settled onto the couches and went back to the van. Reaching into his bag, he took out his mask and dug through his tools, deciding on a hatchet.

  Walking through the house, he didn’t put the mask on yet, he wanted them to see his face. Down the hall and to the bedroom, he slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open. There fast asleep was his wife, Margie, and some guy he’d never seen before. The guy was much younger than he, much more handsome too. He had a full head of hair, not the receding hairline like his own. He was tan and muscular, not pale and soft.

  Despite how mean Margie had been to him, he couldn’t stop the hurt he was feeling. They had once been deeply in love. He had tried his hardest to give her everything, only to fail in many areas both personally and professionally. As they got older, Margie had gotten more bitter. She began to blame him for not having more money, for not being happier. He’d shouldered it for a long time, striving to do better.

  It was just a couple years ago when The Mask called out to him. He’s seen it in a thrift store of all places. The thick, fiberglass Guy Fawkes mask had caught his eye. He knows it didn’t literally speak to him, but it spoke nonetheless. He’d bought The Mask and his life had never been the same since. Then gradually the mask had taken over more and more. As he stood in the doorway watching his wife in bed with this other man, another part of Eddie died.