The Beast of Rose Valley

by J P Barnett

  Skylar went on. “The great thing about America is that we don’t have to settle for the failures of our fathers. I loved my dear old man, but I can do better than he did. We can all do better. We can capture this animal.”

  Cornelius certainly had to settle for his father’s failures, Shandi thought morbidly. So far, there had been no mention of Cornelius. Skylar’s own son had been ripped apart by the beast and yet Skylar still focused on his own fame and fortune.

  “And mark my words. It is just an animal. It seems more than that right now, but it isn’t. It’s an animal and it can be stopped. Just like any other animal. Maybe not with your standard issue law enforcement weaponry.” Skylar motioned towards Cam and Dub. “Maybe not even with the shotguns that you use to keep coyotes out of your hen house. But it can be stopped. I have the right tools for the job.”

  Skylar motioned behind him and Miriam stood up from one of the choir chairs. Unlike Skylar, who exuded smarm, Miriam just looked angry. She reached into one of the open black cases and pulled out an enormous weapon, too large for her small frame though she held it with confidence, the butt resting on her hip. Miriam clearly had experience with this weapon.

  A murmur went through the crowd. Skylar smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s not deadly. Not to the beast anyway. It’s just a tranquilizer gun. It’s used to bring down very large game.

  “Certainly, you’ll want to be careful. If you shoot yourself with this gun, you may find yourself taking a very long—maybe even permanent—nap. But this is an easy weapon to use. Especially for you. You are not city-folk. You know how to handle your guns.”

  A few “hear-hears!” broke out in the crowd, along with solemn nods. Shandi began to worry. She exchanged looks with Jake. Though the biggest follower of cryptozoology that she knew, Jake didn’t look comfortable with Skylar Brooks’ methods, either. Macy, on the other hand, looked completely engrossed, which unnerved Shandi.

  Cam didn’t look comfortable, but neither did he look appropriately appalled. When she’d learned that he intended to work with Skylar, Shandi assumed that meant that Skylar would advise him, not take over the entire operation. Surely Cam could see that Skylar lacked real credentials. He obviously spent a lot of money on expensive weapons, but that didn’t make him proper law enforcement.

  Skylar nodded at Miriam and she carefully placed the gun back into its box. Skylar looked back to the congregation. “I’m not here for your money. I will let all able-bodied people borrow one of these guns. If you return it in good shape, then there’s no need for payment. The only thing I ask is that I be the first to study this creature. To catalog it. To photograph it. I want to apply the scientific method to this problem. I want to make sure this thing ends up in the biology texts that your kids read at school.

  “I cannot do this without your help. We have almost 30 square miles to cover if we’re going to flush this thing out. We will need to work together. Leave no stone unturned. No cave unexplored. We will set up traps and cameras. We will find your beast.”

  Shandi startled when cheers broke out. The room bulged with people she had grown up with. Some of them her peers, some her teachers, and some her friends, yet they’d all seemed to have bought into Skylar. She felt surrounded by strangers. She could understand the fear, especially since they’d watched it take down one of the very people who was charged with their protection. Still, this course of action felt wrong, hasty, and a bit too mob-like for her tastes.

  The cheers died down and Skylar resumed: “I’ve been working with your Sheriff to make sure that we are as effective as possible on our hunt. He will now brief you on the particulars.”

  Cam stood and straightened his khaki button up. Before heading to the pulpit, he briefly glanced at Macy but not Shandi. If he had looked worn out at the press conference, now he bordered on “zombie.” Shandi sat close enough to the front to see the blood-red veins of his eyes, to see his face drooped from exhaustion. Concern welled in her. Had he slept at all?

  Cam started his portion of the speech. “Starting tomorrow afternoon at two PM, roughly twenty-four hours from now, we will begin a county wide manhunt. We will organize at the Sheriff’s Department, where each person will be issued firearms commensurate with their skill level. There will be no need to try out. I know each of you well enough to know what you can handle.

  “I have spoken with Principal Steele and the superintendent of schools. We have all agreed that school should be closed until we can bring the beast to justice.”

  Several of the more rebellious teenagers whooped at this. Under most circumstances, Shandi would have taken the excitement to mean that they wanted to get out of school, but she suspected that in this case they wanted to get their hands on those tranquilizer guns.

  She shuddered thinking they might lose teenagers in this manhunt. No. Manhunt afforded this show too much gravitas. They now teetered on the brink of self-destruction.

  Cam continued. “Be prepared to stay out overnight. We will brief you with more particulars tomorrow afternoon. If you don’t feel up to the task, please stay in your homes. Contact the Sheriff’s Department if there are any sightings. Thank you.”

  Cam stepped down from the pulpit and the crowd erupted into a thousand different conversations. Shandi’s row stood almost in unison as Cam approached them. He walked directly to Shandi.

  “I talked to mom,” said Cam. “She’s agreed to let Macy stay with her. Do you mind taking her up there tonight?”

  Cam’s mom lived fifteen miles away in another town. Shandi expected Cam would try to get Macy somewhere safe, but she suspected Macy might object. And she did.

  “What? No. I’m staying here. I want to help. I can hand out water or something. Wes is staying. He’s going to get one of those guns and kill the beast!”

  Of course Macy already knew Wes’ intentions. Maybe from a text, or social media. In this rare instance, Shandi agreed with Cam.

  “No,” Cam told her. “You’re going to grandmom’s. End of story. I’ll keep Wes safe.”

  Macy could always be counted on to believe that her father could do no wrong. Shandi had no doubt that a promise of safety from Cam would be effective. Macy did not look immediately convinced, but she remained quiet. They could hope for no closer to acquiescence.

  When Macy didn’t answer, Shandi jumped in. “Sure. I’ll take her there tonight.”

  Cam nodded and disappeared into the crowd, not acknowledging Jake or Steve. Neither of them seemed to care, but it irked Shandi. She went out of her way not to show any outward affection toward Jake in public yet. She feared Cam’s reaction to their relationship more than anything else, and this type of behavior from him proved exactly why.

  Shandi turned to Jake. “Whadya say? Wanna come with me to drop off a wayward teen?”

  Macy looked defiant, but confused. “Hey! I’m not wayward.”

  “I’d love to,” Jake said with a smile, as Shandi pulled Macy in for a half-hug.

  Macy made a face. “Ew. Are you guys going to make out the whole way?”

  Shandi feared the fallout from telling Macy about Jake, but based on Macy’s body language she already seemed suspicious. Shandi hadn’t really dated since the divorce, and Macy loved Cam so much.

  “No,” Shandi replied. “Of course not. We’re going to make out the entire time you’re gone!”

  Jake’s smile broadened. Macy rolled her eyes.

  Chapter 34

  Jake felt a flutter of anxiety about what the next couple of days would bring. Despite knowing his connection to the beast, he didn’t know how to use that connection to benefit himself or Rose Valley. Once the whole town fanned out on the prowl, he feared that more people would die, ensuring an overwhelming amount of pressure to figure out how to communicate with Billy. But where to start?

  Macy insisted that they needed air conditioning for such a long ride, so now they rode back towards Rose Valley in Shandi’s Camry, Jake’s left hand interlaced with hers. It seemed unnecessarily dangerou
s and juvenile to be holding hands while cruising down the highway at seventy-five miles per hour, but Jake liked it nonetheless.

  Saving the beast presented a tall and unfathomable order, even if the order came from Shandi. Jake doubted that they could save this creature, but Shandi once again swayed his confidence in their ability to pull it off. Of course, it would be a lot harder now that the whole town would be out looking for the creature. Though Jake worried that Billy might kill people, he also feared that a few townspeople would accidentally kill each other. Arming a whole town with tranquilizers seemed like a monumentally bad idea.

  Shandi glanced over at him. He saw her out of the corner of his eye and turned to meet her gaze but her eyes turned back toward the road. She took a deep breath.

  “We’re lucky... in a way,” said Shandi. “I thought for sure that Cam was aiming to kill Billy. But now we know the goal is to capture him. I don’t know if the tranquilizers will work, but at least we’ll have a shot even if we aren’t the first to find him.”

  Jake nodded. “Yeah. And we have an advantage. If I can just figure out how to use it. I don’t really focus on myself much, so he’s never had a reason to come to me.”

  “Yes, you’re very selfless,” Shandi teased.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah. I know. Maybe you don’t need to bring him to you, though. Maybe you just need to bring him somewhere you’ll both be. Subtle distinction, I know. I was thinking the schoolhouse.”

  Jake thought about that. It made some amount of sense. Billy Hargrove had never lived at the schoolhouse, but his son and granddaughter lived there. If anything meant anything to Billy anymore, it would be his family. Still, it seemed unsafe.

  “It puts people in danger, though. How old did you say his son is? 78? He can’t run or protect himself. He’ll be a sitting duck if Billy decides to kill him instead of reconnect with him.”

  “True,” she said. “He can’t, but we can protect him. We can get Steve. He’s a crack shot. You said so yourself.”

  “That’s assuming the tranquilizers work at all,” Jake remarked.

  “Hmm. Maybe we don’t give Steve a tranquilizer gun. Maybe we get him something stronger. Something that might even kill the beast. I know that’s not our goal, but we need to cover our bases.”

  “Okay. Yeah. That could work. Steve could even stay away, so that he wasn’t in immediate danger. He could shoot Billy before he even knew that Steve was there... if it comes to that, of course.”

  Shandi didn’t immediately answer, but she did nod before drifting back into thought. Jake assumed she was thinking about the same thing he was. The best plan in the world would be useless if he couldn’t make the beast come to them.

  After another mile of silence, Jake asked, “Do you think Karen will go along with it? You haven’t even told her that the beast might be her grandfather.”

  Shandi twisted her mouth up in thought before answering. “Yeah. Good point. I guess I don’t know. She was very willing to share information, but I don’t suppose she’s going to be keen on putting her father at risk.”

  “I guess all we can do is ask. Maybe we should have a backup plan.”

  “I think Steve has to be our backup plan. We can take a tranquilizer gun and try that first, I guess, but I’m not very hopeful.”

  Jake relaxed when she said this. He harbored his own reservations as to whether a tranquilizer would work. He needed to know that Shandi would be willing to kill Billy if they had to. After what Deirdre told him, he prepared for the possibility that either he or Billy would have to die.

  “This is insane, Shandi. Insane. Is this really happening?”

  She squeezed his hand and took the time to really look at him. “Yeah. It’s really happening. But some good came of it. You got me out of the deal. A fine catch, if I do say so myself.”

  Jake laughed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re a pretty good prize. Though I did have to die to get you, remember.”

  “Oh right. About that...”

  Jake waved his free hand. “Nah. I get it. There’s nothing else to tell. I died. Not a big deal, right? Is it really death if you come back to life?”

  “Medically? Yes. It absolutely is.”

  “Well, I guess that just makes me special then.”

  Shandi smiled. “I’m not sure that’s what makes you special, but something does.”

  “Macy would hate this so much right now.”

  “Yeah. She would. But she isn’t here right now. It’s just us.”

  Jake stopped on that statement. There had been so much to worry and think about that he considered for the first time that they would be together. Alone. Without Macy. Without any responsibilities until tomorrow afternoon. He suddenly got the very strong urge to ensure that he did not go home alone.

  He looked at her. She radiated so much more beauty than he’d ever realized. Not from her hair, or her eyes, or her smile, or even her perfect tiny body. Now he saw something more than that—her essence. The way that she embraced life and never wavered from a fight.

  “So, my house is kind of a disaster,” he said. “I had these crazy houseguests for a few days, and then some crazy lady killed me. It’s been a rough week.”

  Shandi laughed. “Poor baby. Does Steve provide housekeeping services?”

  “If he does, I’ve been missing out.”

  She turned off on the main highway through Rose Valley. It wouldn’t be long now until she would drop him off at Steve’s. He had spent his entire life without Shandi, but now the thought of going another night without her seemed like it would be impossible to survive.

  He told himself to man up and stop being a chicken. He should have just outright suggested that he stay over at her place. Something held him back. He worried that he might lead the beast to her again, that he wouldn’t be able to stop her from getting killed.

  As she turned into the gates of Watermelon Ranch, she let go of his hand. The car rumbled over the cattle guard, as the rocks ricocheted loudly off the undercarriage of the car, creating an awful racket. Shandi pulled up in front of the guest house, put the car in park, and turned to him. He didn’t say anything or make a move to get out.

  She laughed. “Get going, boy. Pack a bag and get back out here. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  Jake’s face turned up in a silly grin. Perhaps that’s how a good relationship worked. Perhaps this presented the beginnings of their own hive mind.

  “Yes, ma’am!” he said as he hopped out of the car.

  He ran inside and threw a smattering of clothes into a backpack. He tried to go through the list of what he would need to lure the beast and decided that he only needed his mind and the knowledge of how to use it to lure the thing. Hopefully he could find the latter when it really mattered.

  After gathering all the essentials, he ran back to the car and dropped in next to her with his backpack in his lap. Shandi put the car in reverse and headed back down the long, rocky road to the highway.

  Tomorrow would be a huge day. People would likely die. Maybe even him. Or Shandi. Deirdre said he had to die to stop the beast. But he couldn’t accept that. Not now.

  As they made their way to her house, Jake wanted to wrap his arms around Shandi. To fall into bed with her. To laugh. To love. To feel alive. He didn’t plan for it to be their last and only night together, but just in case, he wanted to make it as memorable as possible.

  She caught him staring at her.

  “Whoa there, chief. First things first. We still have some planning to do.”

  Chapter 35

  Sitting in a cell at the county jail, Deirdre desperately wished she had studied law instead. She had wanted to cooperate, to turn the Sheriff to her cause. That plan was thus far not working out like she’d hoped. The days blurred together. Surely, they meant to either charge her with something or release her soon.

  The Rose Valley Sheriff’s Department had two jail cells that served as mirrors to one another across a narrow hallw
ay. One end of the hallway ended in what Deirdre assumed was a very thick brick wall. The other led out into the main area of the department, separated by a door that no one had bothered to close. Dub had told her that if she needed anything, she could always “holler,” but she didn’t think she needed to resort to that just yet.

  She decided that the next time an officer checked on her, she would request a lawyer. She should have already done it. She chalked it up to one more thing that she avoided because of pride. In her career, she had learned early on that confidence was important. A woman would not be taken seriously, otherwise. But now her hubris betrayed her at every turn.

  She had received the occasional roommate over the last couple of days. Mostly drunk teenagers. The Sheriff had no qualms about sticking men in the cell with her. It seemed inappropriate, but none of them had caused any trouble.

  Currently, there was no one in her cell, or the sister one across the hall. She had enjoyed the silence at first, but now it was gnawing at her nerves. She had learned from the last drunkard that the beast had killed a college kid from Missouri. The one before had mentioned that the beast had killed Bernard Jones as well, but the latter said that he had just died of a heart attack. Deirdre didn’t know which one was true, but if the beast had killed even one of them, that meant that the carnage would only ramp up from there.

  Deirdre didn’t know for certain how the beast would react as long as Jake was in a drug-induced coma, but she suspected that the beast would remain active. Jake would dream and his mind would meander. It might confuse the beast, cause him to do strange things or to become easily distracted. But it wouldn’t shut him down. He was out there somewhere, ready to prey further on the residents of Rose Valley.

  She stretched out on the bench and stared at the ceiling, drifting in and out of a fitful half-sleep until she jolted awake from shouts and scrambling elsewhere in the building. Probably some belligerent drunk. Who could blame someone for throwing a few back when their hometown was under siege by a monster?