Primrose & Brimstone

by Mueller, Jason

  Was the little boy lost, hurt, devastated or traumatized? As a father John’s heart went out to the child. He remembered his cell phone and realized he had no signal and was out here alone with a dead man and a missing child. He would spend a long night searching for Jeremy Cutler waiting for another car to come by and help him but he would never find him.

  HUNTERS

  “Oh my God,” Jackie whispered to her husband. “Look three shadow people!”

  Doug shook his head to confirm he was indeed seeing them but then remembered that Jackie couldn’t see him in the pitch dark.

  “I see them but I’ve never seen more than one at a time!” He whispered back.

  “Are you getting this?” Jackie asked knowing that as far as paranormal research goes the shadowy scene playing out in front of them was huge.

  Before he could reply, whispers behind them made Jackie turn around while Doug tried to focus on the figures before him.

  “What was that?” She whispered trying to find the source of the whispers. As she searched the inky darkness a low-pitched growl sounded from the darkened cemetery they were investigating. The growling caused Doug to look away from the screen of his video camera to see what had made the evil sound. He could see nothing in the inky blackness or on the green tinted night vision filter on the camera screen. He turned back to the original figures but they were gone.

  “Shit they’re gone!” Doug muttered.

  “I got a bad feeling.” Jackie whispered, her eyes still trying to find whatever had made the growling sound. Doug could hear the frantic tone in her voice.

  “Relax babe it’s nothing.” Her young husband said confidently.

  “What the hell kind of ghost growls?” Jackie demanded.

  “Probably a ghost trying to scare us silly.” He chided her.

  Ugh, she hated that tone of voice he used when he thought she was over reacting and being a girl. She was about to let him have it when out of the darkness another growl shattered the otherwise silent night. This time though it sounded much closer and much more sinister.

  “I think we should go,” Jackie said voice stammering in fear.

  “Um, yea let’s go,” Doug said not wanting to find out what was growling at them from the shadows of the old cemetery.

  They both turned on their flash lights and took off as fast as they dared. In the bobbing beams from their lights they could see shadow people flashing in and out of the feeble light. In a panic they raced for the car while the sounds of footsteps pounded behind them.

  Once in the car the two sped off toward safety, toward town and home. As they made their way down the country road and back to the interstate for their nearly ninety-minute drive, Jackie stared out of the window trying to make sense of the night’s events. But fear was building in her, there seemed to be shadows everywhere she looked.

  She turned to Doug. “What do you think that was?” She asked knowing what he would say.

  “Either an animal or a ghost trying to scare us.” He said nonchalantly now that he was safe.

  “You know as well as I do that most people believe that shadow people are demonic and that growling spirits are demonic also,” she responded thinking he could be so thick-headed at times.

  “Now Jackie, there is no such thing as demons. If there were demons then there would have to be angels and if they existed then there would have to be a God and a devil. There is no God!” Doug said smugly.

  “Whatever!” Jackie muttered continuing to stare out of the window as a shadow figure darted out into the road. Its ghostly image obliterated by the head lights as it ran in front of the car. Doug slammed on the brakes out of instinct. The car slewed as the brakes grabbed, locking up. The car came to a stop in the middle of the gravel road.

  “What the hell was that?” Doug panted.

  “A shadow person following us home I think?” Jackie spoke quietly, still trying to process everything.

  “They can’t do that?” Doug answered back unbelieving, “Can they?”

  “Can they?” He asked again when she didn’t answer, but kept staring out into the darkness searching the dark for more.

  “Ask them!” Jackie said frantically pointing out her window.

  Doug turned and saw a swarm of shadow people making their way toward the car flitting in and out of the darkness.

  “Would you please get us the hell out of here!” Jackie screamed, startling Doug into action. He slammed his foot on the gas pedal, and the car took off spitting gravel as the tires spun trying to get traction.

  They both breathed a sigh of relief as they raced away, but it was short lived as the shadow people could be seen following them, some running alongside the car keeping pace.

  “Oh my God what did we do?” Doug asked. This situation was not covered in any of the books about hauntings that he had read nor did this gel with his own intellect and beliefs. Every fiber of his being wanted to deny this was happening to them; but he just couldn’t.

  “Just keep driving and get us home,” Jackie offered not sure what to make of it either.

  “If we keep driving won’t they try to make us wreck again?” She asked rethinking her last statement.

  “Maybe, maybe not. But if we go home will they follows us there? Maybe we can lose them when the sun comes up? It should be soon.” Doug said glancing at the clock.

  “True keep driving!” Jackie agreed as another shadow person ran in front of the car, this time Doug never touched the brakes choosing to just barrel through the apparition.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the sky started to lighten in the east as the sun made its appearance. The shadow people made one last attempt; the passenger side window glass shattered. Jackie could feel a sensation of pins and needles as a black hand tried to grab her and then they were gone as the car topped a hill exposing a sun lit valley below them.

  Jackie and Doug drove the rest of the way home, neither one of them saying a word about the events of the night. They were both relieved as they pulled into the drive way of the little home they rented.

  Tired, they headed for bed but both would sleep fitfully do to the nightmares of reliving the harrowing experience of the chase. Jackie woke up alone. Getting up, she headed to the shower lingering in the hot water for an extra few minutes. Feeling a little more awake, she dried off slipping her robe on and headed for the kitchen for coffee.

  There she found Doug sitting at the kitchen table down loading the video from the investigation of the cemetery the night before from the cameras to the laptop for analyzing.

  “Morning,” Jackie said as she made her way to the coffee pot.

  “Afternoon.” Doug grumbled.

  “Whatever!” Jackie came back. “Did you sleep Ok?” She asked wondering if he had been plagued with the same crazy hellish dreams she was.

  “Not really, I had some crazy dreams,” he said looking up at her with blurry eyes.

  “Oh geez babe you look horrible.” No longer put off by his shortness with her. “How long have you been awake?” She asked putting her arms around him, hugging him.

  “An hour, an hour and a half maybe.”

  “Go take a shower and go back to bed I can finish downloading the video.” She said planting a kiss on his cheek. “Now go shower you stink!” She said with a giggle.

  “Ok, not even going to argue.” Doug got up and headed for the shower.

  She poured coffee and sat in his chair watching the box on the screen count down to the finish of the first download when an idea hit her.

  She scurried to the bathroom dropping her robe on the floor. She stepped into the shower taking the soap from Doug. “Let me help.” She said huskily running her hands over his skin.

  She seductively washed him spending extra time where it was needed. When she was done, she dried them both off, and led him to the bedroom by the hand. Three hours later they were awake again both feeling a little bit better. It was getting to be supper time so Doug fired up the grill while J
ackie got the rest of dinner ready in the kitchen; they ate outside on the patio. Afterward they cleaned up the dinner mess and sat watching the sun go down off in the distance sharing a bottle of wine.

  “I really should go in and finish downloading the videos we took last night.” Doug said absently.

  “Let it be Doug! Something was definitely wrong last night. I don’t care about the video and I don’t ever want to go back to that cemetery again.” Jackie stated.

  “You can’t mean that!” Doug was surprised by her attitude. She had always been as dedicated to the research of the paranormal as he had. One of the things that had drawn them together was the fact that Doug was taken with her fearlessness. To now hear her basically giving up was unsettling to him.

  Sure the events of the night before were scary but they had escaped and no harm had come to them. They would have to get the window of the car fixed but that was a small price to pay. The shadow people had proven themselves to be intelligent spirits and that was exciting to his way of thinking.

  “Babe.” Doug started changing tactics. “I know last night was a little intense.”

  “Intense?” She blurted. “They followed us home, they almost killed us by trying to wreck us, and they smashed the window on the car Doug! Do you realize how much power that takes to break safety glass even for a human?”

  “Yes dear, I realize.” Doug muttered knowing he was not going to win this, at least not right now.

  “I’m going to go watch TV,” Jackie fumed as she walked into the house leaving Doug to his thoughts. She just couldn’t help herself, since the night before she had felt a sense of doom and she was scared. Just nerves she thought trying to make herself feel better, it didn’t work.

  Doug decided to continue to down load the videos and just give Jackie some space. Despite her fears, Doug felt like the evidence they captured might be significant to not only the paranormal community but bring some money and help out with the cost of ghost hunting because their menial jobs barely kept them afloat.

  As Doug worked, writing notes about the experience and letting the computer do its work with the video Jackie came into the kitchen for a glass of tea but never said a word to him but only looked at him disgustedly. Around 11 PM she went to bed leaving Doug alone.

  Around 11:30 PM he’d finished down loading all the footage and had grabbed a beer and was sitting on the couch watching Netflix. He started to get sleepy so he shut the lights off and headed to bed. He crawled into the bed; Jackie squirmed a little but didn’t wake up. He put his arm around her and was out.

  At 3 am a frantic scream jolted them upright. In the darkness of the bedroom they could hear guttural voices and see black shapes flitting around in the darkness.

  “Oh my God they’re here!” Jackie cried.

  And then the shadows lunged for them both; pulling Jackie from the bed and down the hall while unseen hands held Doug down on the bed. He struggled to free himself but it was no use. Jackie’s cries and whimpers would haunt him the rest of the night.

  When dawn came they both found themselves naked and bleeding, having been abused by the shadows. Both had been violated by their ghostly attackers. The physical damage would heal but neither were sure about the psychological damage.

  The two cleaned themselves up not really sure what to do beyond that. How could they report the attack to the authorities? They would be ridiculed and humiliated and possibly charged for filing a false police report. More importantly in their minds were the questions that they were left with. Would the shadows be back? Was it just a one-time thing or would the attacks continue?

  They nervously waited the long day out wondering what night would bring and what answers the coming darkness would bring with it. Darkness finally came bringing with it abject fear and dread. They sat silently in front of the TV watching comedies, fans of the macabre neither one of them felt up to watching anything intense.

  Around midnight they had both fallen asleep on the couch, exhausted from their two nights of fear, panic, and little sleep. Suddenly, the TV went blank, the white screen screaming static as if someone had turned the volume up full blast.

  Doug and Jackie jerked awake as the lights flickered out plunging them into darkness except the white static screen. There in the shadows of the living room, they could see them. The black masses had returned. They came and stood around the young husband and wife as if they were waiting.

  They wanted to run as the fear welled up inside of them, but they were surrounded and could not even see the door through the mass of blackness that made up the shadows. The figures eventually parted making way for an even larger and darker mass that seemed to dwarf the other shadows.

  Doug was drawn to the yellowish orange eyes that shown brightly against the blackness of the gigantic mass. As he looked into the burning orbs, Doug could feel his soul being ripped from his being; the agony of it was beyond human words but in his last moment of sanity he wondered how he knew what was happening to him?

  Detective Thompson surveyed the scene before him. The young woman naked, her throat slashed and strange symbols and words cut into her flesh. The young man had set himself on fire in the kitchen. The knife used on the woman and a five gallon gas can lay next to his charred remains.

  Everything pointed to just an ordinary murder suicide. As a long-time homicide detective, he knew that often domestic squabbles would boil over in a moment of rage, but something about this case bothered him. Creepy he thought to himself, fighting the urge to leave the scene.

  Suddenly Thompson spun around thinking he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

  “Sorry guys.” He said sheepishly “I must have seen a shadow.”

  IDOL ME

  The sweat dripped off Jimmy Milford’s nose from the oppressive heat in the southern Florida as he carefully pinned the cobra down and grasped it behind the head. When he was sure he had a good grip, he removed the handling hook from the snake's head and held the eighteen-foot snake aloft carefully making a visual inspection of the snake. He meticulously surveyed the snake to make sure it was in good health and was free from sores or injuries.

  The snake struggled and writhed against him, but Jimmy was an expert having been catching reptiles and lizards since he was a kid. Jimmy loved this snake, he loved all snakes but the King Cobra was an awesome animal. Because of its length, it could rise and look the average man in the eye and still have enough body left on the ground that it could still propel itself forward and attack if it desired.

  King Cobra venom wasn’t nearly as toxic as some other snakes but the amount of venom the species could deliver was staggering. It could deliver enough venom to kill up to twenty people or enough to kill an adult elephant. The venom was a neurotoxin that if untreated would cause extreme pain and blurred vision and eventually the nervous system would shut down and the heart would stop beating.

  If one were to be envenomed and medical care and anti-venom were not available, the probability is high that the victim would die a horrible death. That’s where Jimmy and his facility came in, Jimmy was a supplier of venom for the process of making anti-venom. It wasn’t all that lucrative and it was fraught with danger as Jimmy had not only King Cobras, but just about every other major venomous snake known to mankind.

  Many of the other snakes were more dangerous than the King Cobra in toxicity. Their venom more potent, and more toxic had the ability to cause flesh to rot off the bones of the victims. Others were much more aggressive than the mighty King such as the Taipan for example which had no qualms chasing people instead of retreating like most snakes. But the massive King surpassed them all in Jimmy’s mind.

  Jimmy had hundreds of snakes and a small zoo of sorts for tourist to come and special area that would allow onlookers the ability to watch as he collected the precious venom. People stopped in from all over the world and it made Jimmy very proud especially when it was officials from countries where anti-venom made with venom collected at his facility was being used to s
ave lives.

  Jimmy took the snake's mouth and placed it over the collection flask while the snake bit at a latex cover. Yellowish venom dripped out of the hollow fangs that had unfolded from the top of the snake's mouth. This was equivalent to liquid gold for Jimmy.

  Sarah; Jimmy’s seven-year-old daughter came bounding into the lab carrying her Ball Python Smitty with her, the snake seemed to be enjoying itself as the two bounced along.

  “Hi daddy!” she squealed when she saw him.

  “Hey, baby, how are you? How was school?” He asked as he continued to milk the venom from the cobra.

  “Boring!” She called as she never stopped as she headed for the back door toward the tortoise habitat where Franky the giant tortoise lived. She loved playing with Franky, and Franky seemed to return the affection shown to it by the little girl.

  “Don’t you wish you had that kind of energy old man?” His wife came in next following the whirlwind that was their daughter.

  “I do!” Jimmy replied as he pulled the cobra from the collection flask being careful to not hurt the animal or its fangs. He walked back over to the large cage that housed the cobra, putting the snake back in its home. After two weeks of eating and resting, the snake would be ready to milk again.

  When all eighteen feet of the snake was safely put away Jimmy walked over to Marcy and gave her a quick peck on the cheek and gave her ass a playful squeeze.

  “You keep that up and you will get milked yourself,” She flirted back.

  “Bobby called.” She told him knowing the mention of his best friend would excite him more than squeezing her ass. Since college Jimmy and Bobby hadn’t seen each other but for a handful of times but the bond they shared was unchanged by the passing of the years.

  “Oh, yea? What did he have to say?”

  “He’s coming to visit next week, he’s home from Africa and wants to see you before you get old and die.” She giggled at the look on his face, Bobby always teased Jimmy about being married and tied down with the lab and zoo when he could be off working in the field with him like they had planned when they were in college. Plans had changed when Jimmy and Marcy had met, and soon Marcy was pregnant and his dreams of traveling the world chasing snakes was just not meant to be.