The jock screamed and pulled his hand back. He forced all of his weight to his feet, and balanced himself.
The boulder in Hunter's hands was too heavy to throw, but just the right size to let loose on the mechanic. He steadied it above Mike's head, slowly, meticulously.
"Look, I won't hurtcha, just don't kill me," Mike prayed.
"Save it for Satan, cocksucker."
Hunter let it drop. The boulder plummeted Mike down to the sharp rocks below.
"That's right you little bitches! Ain't so tough now, huh?" Hunter wiped his hands on his jeans. "Hey Judd, I'm gonna grab the law."
Hunter ran the long way through the woods to grab the cops. His arms were too weak to make the climb down to the tunnel, and after watching the scene with Mike, he was a little scared of the fall.
* * * * *
Without being able to move more than his neck, Mike looked down and saw his femur bone snapped in half. It pierced through his skin, and revealed the dark marrow inside. He went into shock after his adrenaline shut down.
* * * * *
Judd cut the girl's sweaty hands free. The two of them fumbled with the canine cap until it finally came off. Her brown hair was caked with blood and bits of brain.
"Karen?" Judd asked.
"Judd? Is that you?" Her voice crackled like an autumn leaf. "Are they dead?" Karen saw Lester on the ground, his throat shredded like pulled pork.
The stink of cheap cigars and fresh death-shit absorbed into their taste buds. Karen's tears transformed into rage as she kicked Lester's nose bone into his brain.
Judd watched as teeth dislodged from the gumline, and Lester's eyeball detached from his socket.
When she finished, Judd wrapped his arms around her. "Hunter went to get my Dad."
She tried to break free but Judd held on tight.
"I did what I did to stop 'em from hurtin' you. If we kill the other two." Judd squinted his eyes. "It'll just be murder with a motive, plain and simple. The big one's lost a lotta blood and the fat one's floatin' in the lake unconscious. You already made this old fart's face look like roadkill, let the cops do the rest."
Karen let go of the hate for a moment, and sunk into Judd's pudgy frame. She smeared grime and blood all over him, and he smiled down at her.
"Thank you so much, Judd." She kissed his cheek. "Will you hold me for a little while? In case they wake up?"
"I'll hold you as long as you like, Karen."
* * * * *
As good as his word, Judd held on to Karen until the cops hauled Mike and Earl away, and every single day since.
When the long days of summer came to a close, and fall's first wind blew through the trees, school started back up.
Karen was no longer just the little smart girl that intimidated bullies with her intelligence, she was known as the damsel that kicked a Satanist until his eye popped out.
In the midst of football games and homework, Judd made sure he had time to kick Tommy Doyle's ass every chance he could for making art projects on the wall of Playboy Tunnel, until the day the schoolyard bully painted over his so-called masterpiece.
Chapter VII
Dandelion Seeds
Tina flashes her eyes back and forth from the blades sticking out of her oldest son's fingers to his dilated eyes. Her mouth goes on autopilot. "You need to leave," she grips tightly on the towel covering her body, "I can't have you in my house no more. I'm sorry son, but you've gone shit-storm crazy."
She continues to watch his fingernails crack and bleed, holding the metal in place by the strength of his muscle, bone, and keratin.
Skaggs pets Tina's dollar-store dyed hair with his normal hand, weaving his grimy fingers through the thinning locks "Do you really want me to leave?" Skaggs softly whispers into her ear.
She curls back her lip until the smoke stains show. "Yes!" Tina stomps on Skaggs' bare foot. "Get your shit and get out!"
Tina punches him in the face. Her knuckles fold under pressure and her plan follies. Even though the mind is ready, her flesh is weak.
Skaggs smiles and tightens his grip on Tina's brittle hair. "I love you, mommy, but like you always say, you did this shit to yourself." Skaggs slams his mother's head into the door jamb. The hit rattles her brain, ringing her ears and blurring her vision. Tina feels Skaggs grip her hair tightly as he scrapes his blades across her face.
The pain brinks on treacherous, but her mind breaks through the agony. Her towel slides off her body onto the floor, leaving her vulnerable, but given the circumstances, nudity is the least of her worries.
Skaggs tries to slap the old lady, but she grabs his arm on impact. The naked woman bites down on the back of his hand. Her heart speeds with adrenaline as her teeth latch on. Even a worn out waitress can still have some fight inside.
* * * * *
Sheriff Judd pulls into his parking spot at the BBQ Pitt. Only a couple cars remain from the previous evening, and they belong to patrons too drunk to drive home. Judd parks outside every weekend, just waiting for some idiot to make a mistake. This is the same for all the bars in Kobe, an officer is assigned to a certain hot-spot every Friday and Saturday night.
It's the worst feeling in the world to knock on the door at three AM to tell a mother her kid's dead, or even worse, tell a kid their mom's dead. Judd can count on his fingers how many times he's had to do it, but he wishes he could take every one of them back.
Good crime fighting isn't just about picking up criminals, it's also about prevention. Killing isn't something he's ashamed of, nor is it something he's proud of, it just has to be done. Making sure people have the ability to go out and party one more time is just as important as making sure some no-good junkie doesn't diddle a kid.
Most normal folks are getting ready for Sunday service. Judd doesn't put too much faith in the Lord. He does a good show of it, going to church once a month or so, more for political reasons than religious.
Judd believes God is more likely to be a kid with a chemistry set than the master of the universe. It's tough, especially as a sheriff, to think our creator planned any of this, the hatred, the belief systems, the plain screwed up situations people create for one another.
He strolls to the front of the restaurant and unlocks the door. As a silent partner and a brother to the boss, he's had an extra key for half his life. With all the business Zed's brought in, Judd's looking at a nice nest egg as soon as he retires from the world of justice.
* * * * *
Skaggs stabs his claw into Tina's platysma muscle. Her teeth let go of the back of his hand as she howls. He tries to slide her off his Tim Burton fingernails, but the muscles in her neck won't release his talons. Skaggs picks up his hatchet, lifts it high in the air and sinks the small axe deep into Tina's skull.
He presses down on the hatchet and finishes getting the razor blades out of her neck, slowly, trying his best not to dislodge the recent addition to his hand.
Skaggs drags his dying mother away from the doorway by the hatchet handle. Still alive, Tina gasps and quivers as Skaggs picks her up off the ground.
With all of his chemical-induced strength, he slams her head into the wall repeatedly.
* * * * *
Quinn stops packing his bag to listen. It sounds like a pair of shoes knocking around inside of a dryer. He opens his bedroom door and peers out. Slowly, with his backpack over his shoulders, and his taser in his hand, he creeps through the living room, closer to the steady sound of thuds.
Quinn stops short when he sees the slap marks of red smeared down the hallway walls. Skaggs pounds his mother's head into the wall in a strange rhythm, after a moment he stops and shakes his hatchet back and forth, up and down, to get it out of his hard working mother's skull.
Tina's flappy granny tits swing like bags of birdseed in the wind. The green towel sops up her blood unintentionally.
The Sunday morning blues.
Quinn's teeth chatter, his whole body tremors a little. Decisions race through his mind but th
e fear of death is too much for him. He grabs his mom's keys from the coffee table and sprints out the door, down the stairs, and to Tina's car.
* * * * *
Skaggs comes up with an idea.
He positions Tina's corpse so that her body is in the hallway, but her head is in his bedroom. He squeezes the door on Tina's neck like a vice grip.
King Arthur might've pulled the sword from the stone, but he never had to pull a hatchet out of a skull. Skaggs puts his feet against the door and uses his weight to pry the hatchet out. But it stays.
He leans back further... until...
Imagine you're a child. Spring has sprouted and dandelions cover every baseball field. You delightfully pick one up, you press your little thumb against the bulb, and sing;
'Momma had a baby and its head popped off'
Tina's spine snaps like a twig, her skin tears near the throat and opens the rest of the way. Finally, her head rips from her neck. Despite a geyser of blood, it's a clean rip.
Her lifeless body drops on the floor with a thud, as Skaggs falls back holding his hatchet.
Chapter VIII
Sweet Coffee &
Cigarettes
The BBQ Pitt is so quiet it's almost eerie. The bar's clear, the kitchen's empty, and the booths are vacant, with the exception of one.
Judd sits with a warm cup of coffee in front of him, along with a large pile of sugar packets and empty cream containers. The red carafe waits in position for another pour as soon as the mug runs dry.
Zed slides in across from his brother.
"Mornin'," Zed smiles.
"Yup," Jud replies.
"How's the clan doin'?" Zed wears a red t-shirt and a ball cap that covers up his silver hair. Both pieces of apparel don the BBQ Pitt logo; a pig with a chef's hat eating a grinder sandwich.
It was created in a contest years back. The winner received a dinner for four at the Pitt. Zed was smart like that, he would utilize the resources of the town. Instead of spending, say, a thousand bucks for a pro to draw up a logo he simply gave away a free meal.
"My house is a fuckin' zoo," Judd sips his coffee, "I got three teenage boys and my wife's goin' through menopause. I solve crimes to relax. Shit, seein' your ugly mug's the best part of my day."
Zed smiles and puts a pack of cigarettes on the table, "Karen givin' you shit?"
"I'm married ain't I?"
"That's why I ain't. Better to be a free agent," Zed puts a lung dart between his slightly yellow teeth. "Katie ain't been at work in two days. I got her shifts covered, except for today, but I'm willing to bet Krystal will stay to help out. I told everyone I'd keep Katie's job 'til I seen 'er," Zed fires up the cigarette, "people've been talking crazy. They're gonna start lookin' again. Like the last time."
"Don't I know it."
"How the fuck you think we're s'posed to get outta this one, Judd? You talk to Curt?"
"I haven't. And I ain't," Judd says sternly.
"That's the deal then?"
"That's the deal."
"So what're you gonna do?"
"I think it's time to let him hang. Three," Judd holds up his fingers, "three years of this back alley bullshit, maybe not consecutive, but three none the less, Zed. Either it's gonna be him or us. I don't want to kill 'em, but..."
"He's our brother. He ain't never..."
"What? Never did wrong? No baby brother, that cocksucker ain't never done right. The night he killed Emmaline was the first time we saw it clear enough, but I'll be goddamned if he wasn't on the brink of it all our lives." Judd's coffee, cool now, slides down his throat, covering up his harsh words. "He murdered Emmaline before Austin was even old enough to crawl. He didn't deserve to grow up without a mom. I shouldn't have helped Curt. It went against everything I believe in. But last year? And again this year? It ain't about solving an issue, gettin' revenge, or a broken heart, Zed. This one's about a sick need to fill a void. I think he's killed more than the three we know about, too. Reckon he did some out of town."
"How you gonna take care of him?" Zed takes a drag from the cigarette.
"I ain't wrapped my head 'round it yet."
"Leroy ain't even been there a week. You remember what happened last time we had two alive at once?" Zed asks.
"That ain't a chance I wanna take either, baby brother. That's why I gotta wrap my head round it," Judd says, "we can't just clip him and think nuttin' bout it. We have to put it out in the open. Three murders at once? Or at least three missing person cases? Shit, one of 'em'll pop. Sure, Leroy was a piece of shit that we needed to get rid of, the system just would've made it worse. Katie? She was as cute as a button. She's got a mom and dad that're gonna come looking for her. How's our friend Mr. Leroy Brown?"
"I took his tongue out last night." Zed slumps down with his elbows on the table. Casual as can be.
"I imagined that was gonna happen. He ran his fuckin' mouth too much, in my opinion."
"He wouldn't stop bitchin'."
"You doing okay with the seasonin'?"
"You can't boil water, motherfucker, how're you gonna ask me how my cookin's doin'?" Zed ashes his smoke."I'm goin' out there tomorrow night to install the feeding tube. After that, we gotta keep him there for thirty days. You know that. To get rid of two bodies, we'll have to come up with a fuckin' whopper of a story," Zed rolls his cigarette along the edge of the glass ashtray before he puts it back into his mouth.
"I know it Zed. I'm gonna find their bodies. Katie and Curt. He's been calling me from the cabin all day. I haven't answered. Figure I'll go over there, kill him, and let the rest work itself out. I may ask someone to go over and check on him, say I ain't heard from him in a while, and they'll discover the gruesome details. I might even cut off good 'ol Leroy's hand, take it over to Curt's cabin and leave it in the closet, somethin' sick and twisted like that. Kill two birds with one stone."
"PR work?" Zed smashes his cigarette down and leans back in the booth.
"I'll spin it, I always do."
"That must be a helluva cup of coffee, for you to develop that plan so quick."
"It's all that sugar."
"You stickin' around for breakfast? Krystal's about to open the dining room any minute, and Robbie and Austin'll be here too."
"Nah. I'm gonna need to take a to-go cup for this coffee, though. I'm glad you take care of them kids during the day, give 'em a good job, keep 'em out of trouble."
"You thinkin' about letting 'em move out soon?"
"Not until they save some money up."
"I could give 'em a raise."
"No. Karen'll kill me where I stand if I let her little birds flee the nest. Johnny's a senior this year, and he's got a good chance of getting into school at Ohio State, unless he knocks up some chick. I swear that boy's hornier than a rabbit in heat. His computer should be in fuckin' quarantine, I got syphilis lookin' through the boy's browsing history."
"He's a teenager, the boy's gotta get them calluses," Zed chuckles, "it helps him get a better grip on the ball. I swear he used to suck something awful, shit now he's captain and startin' quarterback," Zeds says.
"He's the same way at his school work," Judd says, "struggles to get a B on the test, but he makes it happen. Fucking Austin on the other hand got straight A's, stoned out of his mind half the time. Like we don't smell that shit in his room. Rob's the same way. Neither of 'em give a shit. Neither of 'em wanna go to college. I can't really bitch too much, though, I think they'll end up takin' this dump over after you kick the bucket."
"Fuck off, I ain't dying for at least another half century," Zed slides out of the booth.
Judd chugs the rest of the coffee in his mug, and answers his cell phone, "hello?" He fidgets with the mug, spins it this way and that while listening to the caller on the other end. "Bayside again? Send one of the detectives or the deputies, I'm lookin' into the O'Malley case." Judd pauses to let the caller give him more details. "No shit? The head clean off, huh? Well, I'd better go check it out then." Judd hangs
up the phone.
Zed comes back to the table with a large to go cup.
"A new one?"
"Yup with all the shit in it already, better than takin' the rest of that cold thermos."
"Poker tonight?"
"Every Sunday. I'm closin' down the Pitt at five."
"Tell Jaybird to be here early, I gotta have a one on one before we start playing," Judd heads for the door. "See ya, hoss."
"Yeah, take care."
Chapter IX
The Benefits of
Being a Night Crawler
1993
"The dog's body was right there." Matt motioned to Devil's Rock, Kobe's historical monument to debauchery and devil worshipping.
"I heard when Judd found it, he pissed his pants." Clint picked up a log and tossed it on the fire. The embers intertwined themselves with the dry wood and ignited.
"Dude, Sherriff Judd Beosh's a badass." Haley chugged her beer and threw the can onto the coals.
Clint could tell it wasn't empty, girls do that from time to time. They pretend to drink a shit load, usually to impress some boy. As soon as three beers are in their blood stream girls act ten times drunker than they really are.
"He ain't no badass," Clint Retorted, "he's just a pussy with a badge," he opened a flask full of whiskey and took a pull.
"You're just a hater," Haley wrapped her slender fingers in between Matt's, "I think he's kinda hot."
"Slut," Clint chuckled and lit up a joint.
"Come on man, that's fucked up." Matt gave Clint a 'shut the fuck up, I'm trying to score', look.
"Thanks baby," Haley leaned into Matt and wrapped his muscular arm around her torso like a belt. He kissed her forehead while she nestled her nose into his chin.
Haley snickered at Clint. "I'm not a slut. He's a very handsome man. You're never going to be handsome, and you'll definitely never be remembered for saving a little girl's life." She wiggled Matt's hand off of her waist and stood up. "All you do is get drunk and act like a retard." Haley grabbed Clint's flask and took a swig. "How many times has Judd hauled your bitch ass to jail?" She laughed and tossed the flask back to Clint.
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