No Happily Ever After (The Fairytale Diaries #1)

by Amanda Gatton

  Chapter 34

  Faraway was in a state of both dismal bereavement and blissful celebration. Of course, the confirmation of Eric Prince's death, which everyone had feared might be the case, was heartbreaking. But it was difficult to be too despondent when six of the town's children had been returned alive. Six children that nobody had really expected to ever see again. Not only that, but the town's rash of serial killings was over, and their monsters had been eradicated.

  Chief Jiminy orchestrated a party in the town hall. The town was invited to come and commune with the survivors. And also to thank the rescuers. Detective Piper and the four students were revered as heroes.

  The atmosphere was downright festive. A local band set up and played the best performance they'd ever given. People danced and made merry. Most every adult including Chief Jiminy shared spirits and unwound, forgetting the events of the past month as though it had all been a nightmare. The only person there who wasn't in a purely childlike mode of joy was Detective Piper. Though, being the only outsider present, people scarcely noticed him roosting darkly in a corner, watching the festivities with those strange, beady eyes.

  The party went for hours before it finally began to wind down and revelers began to wander home. Piper caught a glimpse of Jiminy stumbling toward the rear exit, and he slipped quickly through what little of the crowd remain, to follow the old man out into the highway.

  "Oh, Jiminy!" Piper called, in his hollow voice. "Jiminy!"

  The chief staggered slightly as he roamed down the hall toward the back alley exit.

  "Chief!"

  Jiminy stopped short, slowly spinning to face Detective Piper. It wasn't that Piper had yelled exactly, but a shift had definitely occurred in the tone of his voice. A shift of authority.

  "Yes, Mr. Piper?" Jiminy asked.

  Piper's eyes narrowed briefly as the old police officer omitted his title when addressing him. But then he gave a wide, toothy smile. "Ah, yes, Mr. Jiminy. Now that the job is done here, I'd like to be on my way. So… About my fee."

  Chief Jiminy's face fell. His rosy lips formed a perfect "O" and his button nose scrunched as though he'd caught an unsavory odor. "Your… Fee?"

  Piper continued to smile broadly. "Yes, my fee. It's time to settle up!"

  Jiminy seemed to flounder for a moment, attempting to come up with a satisfactory answer, but finding none. "Uh, Detective Piper, you must understand. The man who agreed to pay your fee was also the guilty party. Who is now dead. How do you suggest we collect that debt?"

  "That is none of my concern, Sir."

  "B- Bu- But, Piper! I don't even know how that would work? If it would ever be possible to collect that from his estate. And if so, I'm sure it would cost a fortune in legal fees, and spend years tied up in probate court!"

  "Chief Jiminy," Piper said, his smile yet unfaltering. "Again, that is of no concern to me. The fee is due now."

  Jiminy's face reddened and he frowned indignantly. His eyes became slits as he glared angrily at the skeleton man. "Now see here, Piper," he said, spraying spittle as he muttered the detective's name. "Four kids led you to those beasts. Those kids are responsible for the rescue, not you. So how about instead of harassing me," Jiminy continued, patting his holstered weapon, ever so slightly. "You just see your way out of Faraway."

  Finally, Piper's smile faded and was replaced by a frightening frown and deathly stare. He reached into his curious patchwork blazer and then produced a slip of paper. He reached out with his long bony fingers and tucked the paper into Jiminy's breast pocket.

  "On that paper you will find the number of the bank account to which you will deposit my fee. I will extend the deadline for thirty days." Jiminy stammered angrily but Piper continued. "The fee must be paid in its entirety no later than thirty days," he explained again. The thin man gave one last short smile, and then brushed past the chief. His heels clicked on the worn linoleum as he made his way toward the exit.

  But then he paused, turning to look at Jiminy one last time.

  "Because I assure you, Mr. Jiminy… If you and your little burg stiff me, you'll wish to have the Bar family back. You know nothing of monsters, I can promise you that," he hissed.

  Detective Piper spun and stalked to the door, shoving it open, and disappearing into the night.

  Chapter 35

  Chief Jiminy roiled in silence over the miserable New Yorker's threats.

  He paced angrily throughout the Faraway police precinct the next day, and everybody wondered what on earth could be the matter with him. But he didn't reveal the source of his evil mood to a single soul.

  Instead, he spent time in his office, obsessing over Detective Piper. He checked, and rechecked Piper's credentials. As Piper himself had touted, he had a sterling record. However, in retrospect, Jiminy realized that in his desperation to solve the town mystery, he hadn't done due diligence to actually check those credentials. And that day, in Piper's absence, he did check them.

  Only to find Piper had been a phony.

  In fact, near as Jiminy could tell, the man was a ghost. He seemed not to exist at all. Jiminy sat at his desk staring down at Piper's file, and raking his hands through his thinning silver hair.

  He had matching accounts of the fateful night in question from ten teenagers of sound mind and body. Piper had played very little role in the rescue. In fact, the fact that he'd involved more teenagers in the rescue was unfathomable. Criminal even. They could all have been killed with just a slight turn of fate. The more Jiminy thought about it, the more furious he became. This man had strolled into town, taken advantage of a delicate situation, and jeopardized the lives of even more of his citizens. Not only did he not owe Piper, the fool would be lucky if he didn't hunt him down, and shoot him.

  Jiminy slammed the file shut and officially considered his debt canceled.

  ***

  After a week, the chilling exchange with Piper was all but forgotten. Faraway settled back into the quiet routine it had once known, no longer smothering under the heavy blanket of fear. In two weeks, Chief Jiminy announced that he was retiring. A police lieutenant was appointed to replace him and in a whirlwind, the town celebrated and sent him off into his relaxing future, by the time week three had passed.

  After week four had come and gone, the majority of the snow had melted, and hints of spring appeared. The day past Piper's thirty day deadline arrived sunny, unseasonably warm, and cheerful. Everybody was out and about without a care in the world. Because of course, nobody knew there was any particular reason to care about anything. Jiminy was on vacation in Barbados, and he hadn't told a single soul about what he considered Piper's hollow threats.

  Which was why nobody knew to pay any particular extra attention to Cailyn Pure as she ambled along to school that morning. And so, it was practically a synch to jerk her into a black sedan, and swerve off around the corner.

  ***

  Cailyn, Ella, Nicholas, Aspen, Kimberly, and Stella all disappeared in the same order that they'd disappeared before. Except, this time, it happened so quickly that they were all gone before anyone noticed any of them missing. But, by nightfall on day thirty one, the entire town was in an absolute frenzy.

  Zoe, Jennifer, Hanley, and Giselle, who had basically parted ways after the rescue, found themselves shoulder to shoulder once again the next evening, at another town meeting. This time, the new police chief seemed capable and was flanked by FBI agents. They delivered hollow reassurances, however gave no real answers or much hope of any kind. The four comrades listened intently and bolted at the first opportunity.

  Outside, back on the streets of Faraway, the girls raced to keep up with Hanley's long strides.

  "Hanley. Hanley! Wait up!" Zoe called as they finally caught him and fell in step with him. "What are you thinking?"

  Hanley raked his hand angrily through his wavy black hair. "I don't know. I have no idea."

  The four accidental friends strolled together to a nearby playground. Without communicating a desi
re to go there, they mutually gravitated to a jungle gym, where they each took posts upon the cold, steel bars.

  "Did you guys feel like people were watching us at that meeting?" Giselle asked.

  "Yes!" Zoe exclaimed.

  "Like they're expecting us to get them back again," Jennifer murmured sadly.

  "Except, this time, we have no idea where they are!" Hanley pointed out desperately.

  After a pensive pause, he continued. "I just did not see this coming. Do any of you have any ideas? Because clearly the police have none. As usual."

  The group brainstormed by discussing the status of each party involved in the original crime. Cailyn Pure's estranged parents had been so overwhelmed with the joy of her safe return, that they'd recalled the fire that had once burned in their marriage and reunited. The parents took their daughter home and had fully expected to live out their own personal fairytale ending.

  The abuse suffered at the hands of the Dark family by Ella Cinder and Nicholas Monarch had been fully exposed in their absence. With apologies from the authorities, they had each been placed with a new foster family. As an odd twist of poetic justice, Thelma Dark had been arrested, and her twin daughters had been placed in an orphanage in a distant town, as not a single foster family would have them.

  Kimberly Crimson had been returned to her mother, who finally appreciated the young lady that she'd become. Together, the pair mourned the loss of the little family's beloved matriarch and just quietly tried to move on.

  Aspen Briar and Stella Rampion as well returned to be placed in foster care. Her entire time in captivity, Aspen suspected that her parents were dead, but she didn't know for sure until the crushing moment when authorities had to inform her. Stella of course, had known her parents were gone, and once freed, she had her chance to tell them goodbye properly. And then to attempt to move on with her life, planning a tentative future without them.

  After analyzing the end results, absolutely nothing suggested why their schoolmates had once again turned up missing. Everybody was absolutely certain the Bar family had been the perpetrator of all the crimes surrounding the disappearances. And everybody was equally certain that the Bar family were fully and completely dead. They'd seen and touched each of their corpses. The new rash of disappearances made no sense whatsoever. The sun began to set, and dejectedly, the group of would be detectives decided they all needed to part company and head home.

  They walked, eyes downward cast down the sidewalk, preparing to go their separate ways at the end of the street.

  "Do you hear that?" Hanley said suddenly, coming to an abrupt stop.

  "Hear what?" Zoe asked.

  "Shh! Listen!"

  Each of them went still and utterly silent, straining to hear whatever it was that had given Hanley pause. At first, all they could hear was the gentle hints of approaching spring. The breeze tossing in the trees, the first song of the returning birds, and even a few crickets chirping. A quiet thud drifted on the air from someone's car radio in the distance. From somewhere far off, children could be heard yelling as they played in someone's yard, doubtless under the watchful eye of terrified parents.

  "Hanley, wh-"

  "SHH!"

  As if by magic, the rest of the group suddenly heard what it was that he listened so intently to. It was a haunting melody, so soft it was nearly imperceptible. It seemed to be some sort of whistle or flute.

  "You hear it?" he asked.

  The other three nodded.

  "What is that?" he wondered. "Where is it coming from?"

  They all stood stock still, looking around frantically, as the song raised the small hairs on the back of each of their necks. It was like a lovely thing that gave a sense of darkness just beneath the surface.

  Giselle gasped. She hopped off the sidewalk, into the street and dropped to her knees. She crouched on top of the grate, shivering as it made her recall the bars of the torture chamber cells. Bending over, she put her face up to the opening in the curb creating a drainage sewer and peered into the dark chasm beneath the street. "It's coming from down here!" she exclaimed.

  They all gathered round her, again quietly listening to the song. There was no doubt about it, the music came from somewhere far below.

  She looked back over her shoulder up at her brother. "Why is there music under the street?" she asked, with wide, frightened eyes.

  "They're under there," Hanley replied gravely.

  Jennifer's tender emotions got the best of her and she began to cry. His conclusion made no sense, but somehow, she knew he was right. Zoe put a comforting arm around her.

  "Let's get the police," Zoe suggested.

  "No!" Hanley said, dropping down next to his sister. "There's no time." He looped his fingers through the grate. "Help me lift this, we're going down."

  The three girls all uttered protests, but they did just as Hanley said, all the same. They had no weapons, no idea if they were correct, and no game plan. But the adrenaline coursing through their veins overrode any modicum of good sense. The four of them together easily lifted the grate and discarded it. Hanley dropped through the opening without hesitation, landing eight feet below the street. Then he reached up to help his sister in. Next, they carefully assisted Jennifer into the hole. Finally, extra care was taken to get Zoe down into the sewer with them. Her crutches and cast were gone, but she wore a brace, and her leg was still in the healing process.

  Once inside, the sound of the flute was much louder; strangely overwhelming. The song swelled and seemed endless. Hanley, Giselle, Zoe, and Jennifer were mesmerized by its strange, frightening allure. "Follow the sound," Hanley whispered. Around the chasm where they stood were four openings in the wall, almost as tall as a grown man. They drifted toward the eastern opening, from whence the tune flowed.

  They wandered down a long, fetid smelling tunnel, the music growing ever louder. The sense of dread was overwhelming, yet they failed to realize how truly faulty their lack of planning was, and they traveled on. Waste water sloshed over their feet as they traveled deeper into the sewage system, yet on they went. After what seemed like ages, they emerged into a huge cavern. A shallow pool of disgusting water flowed into the center of the cavern, from several pipes that emptied there. Around the edge of the river of waste was a ten foot ledge where workers could walk if need be.

  And it was on that ledge where they found their classmates, chained to the wall. Seated on the ground next to them, and leisurely reclined, was the infamous Detective Piper, playing some sort of pipe instrument.

  When they appeared, Piper stopped playing. He grinned at them and stood, his brittle bones creaking eerily with the movement. His five prisoners struggled against their restraints and muffled pleas could be heard around their gags. They stared horrified at the four friends who'd previously rescued them.

  "Ah, there you are!" Piper exclaimed gleefully.

  "Let them go," Hanley demanded evilly. "It's over, Piper."

  The man tittered maniacally. "It is over, you're right!" he said. "But likely, not in the way that you think."

  Hostility radiated off Hanley as he stared into the wicked man's startling black eyes.

  "You see," Piper explained. "I was promised a reward for returning these children. And then your town STIFFED me. And so, now I will take back the service I provided. And YOUR deaths will be my interest payment."

  Ten hearts pounded in unison. The four rescuers, released from the spell of the terrible music, realized what a huge mistake it had been to travel unprepared into the sewer, as Piper unsheathed his gun.

  "Don't try to run," he said in a sing song voice. "Or I will shoot you in the back as you go. Then, I will murder each of your friends."

  Everybody stood perfectly still, staring at the man. It seemed likely that he would soon shoot them all anyway, yet everybody was mutually terrified to launch into any sort of action. Nobody knew what to do.

  Which, was exactly when, a strange mist formed behind Detective Piper.

  T
he ten teenagers watched in a terrified amazement as the mist swirled, solidified, and formed a tall woman dressed all in black. One of her arms snaked around Piper's waist, whilst the other wrapped around his neck. Her claw like hand rested on his face. In his shock, his gun slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor. The woman in black kicked it away.

  All eyes snapped to Aspen Briar, who began to fight violently against her chains and scream despite her gag.

  "Hello, dear one," said the ghostly woman in a voice that sounded like a desert wind.

  Piper trembled against the woman, his black eyes wide with terror. They made a fearsome pair, there under the murky light of the bare dirty bulbs overhead. Together, they painted a picture of pure, unadulterated evil.

  "Who are you?" Giselle wondered aloud.

  The woman smiled, and it was so wide and ugly, it seemed as though her face would crack from it. "Why don't you tell them, my darling?" she murmured. She moved her hand of Piper's face just long enough to point at Aspen. With the choppy motion of her pointing claw, Aspen's gag fell away, and the cuffs around her wrists suddenly released.

  Despite her sudden magical freedom, Aspen remained in her place next to Nicholas and cowered against him.

  "Aspen?" Hanley questioned, finally beginning to creep forward. "You… You know this creature?"

  Tears poured down Aspen's dirt streaked face. She nodded frantically. "She's my aunt. She's… She's magic…"

  "Obviously," Zoe Locke whispered, still gaping at the woman.

  "Now then," the woman interjected. She jerked Piper's head to the side and the man yelped. "I'd love to snap his neck, and free you all!" she informed cheerfully. "But there's just one thing. I'll need my dear niece to agree to come with me."

  Confusion buzzed among them all. Finally, Aspen mustered the nerve to take her face away from Nicholas' shoulder and she peered at Melanie. "Melanie," Aspen asked softly. "Did you… Did you make all this happen? All of it? It was you all along wasn't it?"

  Melanie cackled, her frail body quaking against Piper. "Impressive isn't it? I am exceptionally creative when I want to be."