Post by Rinji on Feb 24, 2012 14:23:53 GMT -5
And so it Rained
By Jeffery W Bradford
If there ever was a single most-haunted human being, Seth saw her. She was on her knees, in the middle of the street as it rained in Gordan City. She was panting, her hand on top of the drain in the concrete. Her knees skinned to the point of bleeding and all of her clothes soaking wet. Her glasses were fogged and wet, impossible to see through, but somehow that didn't seem to slow her down. She still seemed to notice the blood from her knees floating with the water as it rushed into the drain.
Seth walked up to her in his raincoat, trying to get her attention.
"Hey, what are you doing out here? It's raining pretty bad, you need to get home." Seth yelled over the rainfall.
At first she didn't seem to notice him, but then she looked up to him.
"I j-j-just wanted to s-s-see whose voice I heard. For a moment I th-th-thought the sewers were talking to me."
"Do you want my rain coat? You're probably gonna get sick!"
"Th-th-thank you, but n-no, I guess I'll g-g-go home now." She turned and walked down the street, awkwardly stepping on the asphault as the rain continued.
"What's your name?" Seth yelled to her.
"S-S-Susan!"
----
Dead leaves hung from the body’s mouth. His eyes were wide open and staring into the gray, gloomy sky. The police report was written later that afternoon. It stated that the stomach was ripped wide open by a sharp, hooked object, perhaps even a great big claw or a scythe. The fingers had been peeled of their nails, all of which were found near the concrete patio about two hundred yards west of the creek where the body was found. He had been pulled by his legs, and obviously was very conscious while he was being forced.
The forensics team took their pictures, and their fingerprints, while Officer Marcus stood by, the crowd of people in the side yard, outside of the gate, wanting to know what happened.
“Alright people, lets move it so the police can do their work!” Marcus said, waving them with both hands, and obviously not getting anywhere with them.
“Officer! This has been the third body found this month. What the hell are you going to do about this? This is obviously the work of a serial killer!” Harold Black shouted.
“Yeah! How are we going to sleep at night, knowing that we could be pulled out of our houses, and disemboweled like all the others!” Samuel Stevenson said.
“Hey, leave this up to the police and the FBI, we can handle it, we’re doing our jobs!”
“Well that’s not fast enough!”
“Alright people! Disperse!”
Soon they all left the crime scene where fifteen-year-old student, James Albert Winston was found, murdered. Time of death anywhere from three in the morning to five in the morning. Though there are no suspects, the case still remained open.
Just as the body was bagged, it began to rain.
----
“Okay children, take your seats.” Mrs. Dandy said, as the kids took their seats. “For math today we will be starting complicated division with decimal p-“
“Excuse me.” The intercom came on. “May I have the attention of the school for one moment.”
Mrs. Dandy sighed and sat in her desk.
“I would like to announce a tragedy that has befallen our school today. James Winston, a student of the 8th grade was found dead close to his home today.” Many of the kids gave a gasp. “I would like to ask you to please give a prayer for him and his family, as they have suffered a terrible loss, and please show your support by telling the police anything you may know about his death. Thank you.”
“Oh my…” Mrs. Dandy said, looking at the children. Soon she regained her composure and went back to her lesson.
“Dude.” Benji whispered to James. “I knew that kid, he hung out with my brother back like three years ago.”
“Yeah, my dad told me they found his body in the creek behind his house. He and Seth’s dad were bitching out the police officers. This is fucking insane dude, first those two teachers, now this kid?”
“Yeah, no telling who could be next.” Benji said, then turned toward Laurie across the room who winked and waved. He blushed and waved back.
----
After school, Seth got off the bus with the other three. Then he stopped and looked at the gutter where he saw Susan.
“Seth?” James said. “What’s up?”
“There was this girl over there, that day when it rained. She stuttered a lot, God she was nuts. Saying something in the sewers was talking to her.”
“Yeah, sounds nuts to me.” Jordan said. “Crazy bitches should be committed, I don’t care how harmless they are. I don’t need to see them if all they’re gonna do is talk about dumb shit.”
The others rolled their eyes, but didn’t say anything. Benji went on to his house, while Jordan went ahead of Seth and James. James walked with Seth, not saying much. Soon James went to his house, and Seth went down a few blocks, when it began to rain.
“Great…” Seth said, picking up his pace. He turned onto his street, and was just about home, when he heard a shivering. He looked around, then he looked up the tree beside him. There was Susan, clamped onto a branch of the oak tree, shivering and chattering her teeth.
“Susan!” Seth said, taking a step back. “What are you doing up there?”
“Duskan.”
“Dusting?” Seth said, trying to talk over the pouring rain.
“My n-name is Susan Duskan!” She shouted down at him.
“Oh, well my name is Seth Black!” He shouted, trying not to sound weird. “Maybe you should get home!”
“I’ll be f-f-fine!” She said, hanging onto the limb, water pouring all around her as it slid off the leaves of the tree. “Just let me s-s-stay for a while. You c-c-can come see me! Come see me at m-m-my house, it’s the one with Duskan on the mailbox.”
He paused for a moment, and she smiled.
“Alright… when?”
“When it stops raining.” She said.
“Okay…” He said, then turned, and walked away. He glanced back, and saw that she was talking to herself, looking down at the ground. “Weird…” He said under his breath, and began to run home as the rain got stronger.
----
The air was very humid when Seth walked out his house at six in the afternoon. It was still cloudy but the rain had completely stopped. He went down the street, looking at mailboxes. The name Duskan was on the mailbox in front of the most run-down house on the street. He remembered when he and the guys were playing ding-dong ditch. This was the house that caught them. He was a mean, over weight man that lived off of disability claims, or so his dad told him as he picked them all up and took them home that horrible day.
Seth sighed, hoping the fat guy wouldn’t remember him from back then. It was a very slim chance, since it was around two years ago.
He knocked on the door, because he knew the doorbell didn’t work. It was crusted with dirt and basically lodged out of the wall.
“Wait a minute!” The fat man, David Duskan called out from his living room chair, sitting and watching a fishing show.
Finally the guy opened the door, wearing his stained undershirt and green boxer shorts. A cigarette in one hand and the other hand scratching his large belly.
“Yes?” He said, wanting to get back to his fishing shows.
“Is Susan here? She told me to come by.” Seth said, nervous.
“Is this some kind of fucking joke?” The man snapped at him, his eyes widening. “Well it ain’t funny!”
“What?” Seth shook a little at the man’s sudden hostile tone.
“You know what the hell I’m talking about. Susan’s been dead for three years. Now go away!” He slammed the door.
James opened his door, seeing Seth on the step.
“Dude! I need to use your computer, now!” Seth said in a very anxious tone.
“Whoa! Hey! Calm down Seth. What’s wrong?” James held his hands out.
“I can tell you while I’m doing this, please!”
“Alright, just calm down a little.”
----
“You mean the one who stuttered? She’s dead?” James sat in the chair beside Seth as he punched the keys of his computer. Going onto a search engine and searching “Susan Duskan Gordan City Colorado.” He clicked on the first site that came up.
----
Gordan City Colorado – January 5th, 2003 – Little Susan Duskan was found, dead outside of the residence of Thomas Virgil, a councilor at Lewis Elementary. Police noted that she was dropped off at that location, no location of death was determined. After thorough questioning of the father and other such relatives, no suspects were convicted, and the case today still remains open.
“This doesn’t make any sense at all dude.” Seth began searching again. This time he pulled up another site, but found nothing new.
“Maybe she’s not the same Susan. Maybe you heard her name wrong, or she’s lying.” James said.
“Why would anyone lie about something like that?”
“You got a better explanation?” James said, stern.
There was a long pause. Seth looked back on another local news site, but nothing else was there.
“I need to talk to her again. I need to see what the hell she wants with me. Because as far as I can see, I’m the only one who sees her.”
“Aww come on, this is like that dumb Bruce Willis movie. Where the kid-“
Seth held his index finger up, shutting James up immediately.
“Alright… at least I have one name.”
“You mean Thomas?”
“Yeah, I could ask him a few things.”
“Okay, well if you need me, you call alright?”
“Yeah, thanks man. Sorry I’m a little edgy right now. That asshole yelled me away from his house and finding out Susan was actually dead just kinda got me in a bad mood.”
“No sweat dude.”
----
Seth rang the doorbell of a house just a few blocks away from his street. A bearded man opened the door.
“Mr. Virgil?” Seth said, sort of recognizing him from school.
“Hello, how can I help you?” Thomas said.
“I’d like to ask you a few questions, concerning Susan Duskan.”
“Duskan… please, come in.” Thomas opened the door for him, letting him walk in.
“Thanks.” Seth walked into the house, standing on a tiled floor, with the dining room beside him; an old fashioned dining room with fine china plates in glass cases beside it. He walked into the living room, where the Price is Right was blaring on the TV. Mr. Virgil turned off the TV and sat in his chair across the room from the couch, where Seth seated himself.
“What would you like to know?” Thomas said, leaning forward.
“Well… I’ve been wondering about Susan for a while, you see, she and I were good friends. She use too… baby sit me.”
“Oh, that must have been horrible for you, seeing her go like that.”
“Yes, very. But I’ve been wondering, how did you know her?”
“I use to give her speech lessons. I’m sure since you noticed her speech problem.”
“Yes, she stuttered quite a bit.”
Thomas nodded, as if he was testing if Seth was telling the truth.
Then he leaned back in his chair. “I became good friends with her, we use to spend lunch time together, and I would give her a little extra help on her stutter. Whoever killed her must have had it in for me. Trying to frame me like that.” He began to gaze off into space.
“Yeah, about that. Do you know her cause of death?”
“No, but I can tell you that I never want to know. It was horrible enough discovering her with blood all over her in my front yard. Damn shame too, they had just moved into their new house after her dad got a big fat disability check. Rat bastard got away with a lot of money.”
“Oh… well do you know any friends of hers that she hung out with?”
“Yeah, she use to hang around with a girl named Betty Tyler. She’s in sixth grade, you might be able to catch her at your school.”
“Alright, well that’s about all I have to say, thank you for your time.” Seth walked out of the house, not feeling anymore comforted. It was getting dark, so he headed home.”
----
“Come follow me! We can have fun!” A girl said to Seth as she pulled him by the hand. The play ground was a desert all around them, and the swing-sets all swung with no people in them. “Follow me!” The little girl said again. Her blue ribbons waved in her blonde pigtails as she pulled Seth further along with him. The house she pulled him through had no windows, and no furniture, and the wall she ran into crumbled as she touched it. “I want to play in here!” She said, but then she walked up to the wall, hung her head down, and put her arms against it. Seth stood there, watching her do this. “Please.” She said. Then she lifted her head, showing the hole in her forehead, and the blood that had stained her beautiful dress. “Please, come play with me.”
Seth gasped, twitched, and sat up in bed. He looked at the clock, seeing it was four in the morning. Somewhat comforted by this fact, he lied back again, and thought about the dream that was fading in his memory, but somehow, he thought he’d figured one more thing out.
----
Betty Tyler was found the next morning. One nail carved straight lines down her chest, and blood was absolutely everywhere. The killer was merciful, he stabbed her with a straight-edge kitchen knife, the wound was clean, but after that it was all fun time. The police found her on the side of her house, strung up with metal wires by her wrists, naked.
----
“I’m sure of it, dude. These killings have something to do with Susan.” Seth whispered to James. “The guy I talked to yesterday told me that Betty was her friend, next thing I know, she’s dead.”
“Dude, that’s insane. There must be something bigger behind this.” James whispered back.
“Yeah, I may need your help tonight, I’m going to dig a little deeper.”
“Well dude, I would, but my mom grounded me yesterday.”
“What?” Seth whispered sharply.
“Yeah, she saw me on a porn site after you left, and I was just looking up Ball Pumps for my basket ball. Then I clicked on the wrong site.”
“Damnit…” Then he looked at Benji.
“Yeah, I’ll come along, where are we going?”
“I looked up the house where Susan’s father moved from, it’s a storage house now for some moving company, but apparently the last maintenance report was done a year ago, so it’s basically shut down.”
“Cool!” Benji said. “Want me to bring my gun?”
“Sure dude, I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Seth said, then paused. Then he looked back at Benji.
Benji nodded and all three of them snickered.
“Boys, could you please pay attention!” Mrs. Dandy interrupted them.
“Sorry.”
“Dude, where are you?” Seth said over the phone to Benji.
“Sorry man, I’m helping Laurie with her science project. She’s basically done with it, so I’ll meet you up there. It’s only a few blocks away from my house.” Benji had actually known that house rather well. When he was bored he would throw rocks through the windows, or even blow up little cracks in the walls with black cats.
“Alright, I’ll see you there.”
“Alright, be careful.” They hung up.
Seth took his flashlight with him, along with a small hammer and some little plastic baggies for any evidence he might find.
But once he made it to the house, he froze, and felt the biggest de ja vu he had ever felt. This house had no windows, and no furniture, it was filled with boxes and old junk from other houses. This was the stuff no one wanted, so it collected dust in this old house, forgotten by all. He was astounded that anyone could live in such a house. It was dark, very dark, and the cloudy day outside didn’t help it at all. It was too hot, so he took off his hat. When he switched on the flash light, he walked through the front door, and closed it. He took the side hallway first, he turned right to see the first room was completely filled with boxes, to the brim, so he turned and walked down the corridor, which was infested with spider webs and cob webs. Dirt from old boots and shoes tracked all over the carpet that was once green, but was now a greenish black. He opened up the next door and saw nothing but boxes filling up the linen closet. He closed it and opened the door to the next room, the room that he remembered the little girl had pulled him through. Then he had to close his eyes to remember the next part. He turned around and looked at a closet door. It was completely barricaded with boxes, so he had a hard time lifting them out of the way. Soon enough, he was able to inch the door open and squeeze through the cracked opening. There were no boxes in the closet. But why? He shined his flashlight all around the closet, seeing nothing in it, just cockroaches caught in spider webs and a burnt-out light bulb at the top. Nothing was on any of the shelves. Then he saw a little string sticking out of the wall behind where the shirts were hung.
Just then, the front door of the house opened. Seth turned around and listened for a moment, thinking it was probably Benji, but Benji wouldn’t have had time to walk all the way home and then walk here. Laurie lived closer to Jordan, who was clear on the other side. Then as if to answer his question, he heard big, burly foot steps walking into the house. When he saw another light shine down from the other end of the hall, Seth turned off his. Then he closed the door very softly, then pulled on the string, making the wall open up, and he crawled through the passage, then closed it.
It wreaked a horrible, horrible stench. Seth tried not to cough, but he couldn’t help it, he put his hat over his nose and closed his eyes. He turned on his light, and his eyes widened, seeing blood spatters on the walls. Bloody weapons, a scythe, a bloody, kitchen knife, a rusty chain saw, and a hook.
“Holy shit.” He said under his breath. Then his heart sunk, as he remembered where the little girl had put herself. He shined his light onto the wall, and then lost his breath, as he saw the remains of the little girl, with the blue ribbons in her hair. He closed his eyes and put his hand against them. Then he heard the boxes being moved from the passage to the closet. Seth looked around quickly and saw a table with a white, blood-soaked cloth covering it. He quickly turned off his light and ducked under it. His hand touched slimy, and dry things on the ground, that wreaked a new and more horrible odor, but he forced himself not to cough, or breathe hard. He took out his inhaler, and breathed it in, and held it as long as he could. Thankfully, it was full.
The passage opened, and he heard hard breathing, and saw a flashlight shine onto the table cloth. The blood was so thick, it shined red, and was impossible to see through. Seth saw dirty black shoes step into the room, and walk up to the table. He heard glass being set on the table. Then the man dropped a shot glass onto the floor.
“Shit.” The man said, then bent over to pick it up. Seth held his breath again, almost seeing the man’s face. But he didn’t even see a silhouette, he picked up the glass and put it on there, filling it up, and drinking it all in three gulps. Then he walked around the table, and picked up one of the blades off of the wall.
“Yeah…” the man breathed, then he took a black mask off of the shelf beside him, and put it on his head, covering up everything on his face. Seth couldn’t get a good look at him at all, the flashlight was too damn dim, and the blood stained table cloth was in his way, but he peaked through a white part, and saw the man turn around. He walked over to the passage again, and gave a glance at the little girl’s remains on the wall, then shook his head and crawled out of the space.
Seth breathed multiple times on his inhaler. He couldn’t believe what was happening was real. He got up from the table as he heard the door shut. Suddenly he hoped Benji wasn’t out there waiting for him. He hurried out of the crawl-space, and opened the closet door once again. He rushed out of the room and back down the hall. But as he turned the knob on the door, his hand slipped off, he raised his hand, and as he was about to turn on his light, another light turned on behind him.
“Thought I heard someone in there.” A very deep, growling voice said.
Seth froze, and turned around, then his eyes widened as he saw a large, rusted blade right beside the man’s flashlight.
“I suppose it isn’t enough that one little girl has to wander into my house, a little boy has to follow in her foot steps, and end up right beside her on my wall…” The man chuckled. “I had other plans tonight, but I guess you’ll do just fine.” The man took one step toward him, then another.
Seth let out a scream from the top of his lungs, when all of his brain stopped freezing up.
“Won’t do you no good!” the man growled even louder, taking faster steps toward him. “We’re all alone!”
Just then, the door busted open, barely missing Seth by the skin of the hair. Benji stepped in, his gun already blazing shots. He fired off three bullets, one of them winged the man, and he growled in pain and surprise.
“Go man! Go!” Seth said, pushing Benji out the door, and they ran. They ran until their hearts pumped adrenaline, and their bodies became numb. Once they made it back to Benji’s house, they locked the door, and Seth began to cry.
It took Benji hours to calm him down.
----
Gordan City – March 13th 2006 – The bodily remains of seven people were found in the house on Walker Street. These remains included Sarah Stepford, a missing child who was presumed dead three months earlier. Evidence shows that the weapons found in the house were, in fact, used on the four recent victims of the killer the press called “The Hangman.” Even though no arrests have been made to date, the killer’s blood sample was found in the living room area of the ware house. The case still remains open.
----
Seth sat in front of the commissioner’s desk, while he typed on his key board. He held a cup of water in his hand, the ripples in the cup showed that he was still slightly shivering from the shock earlier that night.
“Alright son, you have helped us quite a bit in this case, and everyone at the station would like to extend you their thanks.” He attempted a smile.
Seth also attempted one, but soon gave up when it only made him shiver more.
“I can understand that you are not in the talking mood. Experiences like that are always hard the first time. Hell I remember my rookie days, almost shit my pants back then, and I was a grown man!” He snickered, then looked at Seth, who twitched. “Alright, well you drink your water, I need to go get some paper work finished, you drink your water and I’ll see if I can’t find any kid’s aspirin to calm you down. Alright, Champ?”
Seth nodded, slowly.
“Alright.” The commissioner got up and walked out of the office.
Seth looked at the computer on his desk, and leaned over to see what was on his screen. He saw the name “Susan” more than once on it. He got up from his chair and sat at the desk.
Interviews with Susan’s peers have shown that she and James Winston were in a relationship in fifth grade, whether or not this had anything to do with his death is non-confirmable. What we do know is that David Duskan, Susan’s father, gained four thousand dollars on Susan’s life insurance claim.
“Holy shit.” Seth whispered. Then he scrolled down.
It is clear that all of the murders following Susan’s, were, in fact, connected to her. Mrs. Romani was her favorite teacher in sixth grade, and Katie Watts was her baby-sitter for three years. However, a motive has not been discovered. Though the father is the primary suspect, there is no hard evidence that could support an arrest, merely three unpaid parking tickets, and a disturbing the peace complaint.
Seth scrolled back up to where the commissioner originally was, and walked back over to his seat quickly, as he heard the commissioner’s voice from down the hall.
He opened the door. “Hey little buddy.” He smiled, walking in with some cherry-flavored aspirin, another cup of water, and a doughnut. “Thought you should try and eat something, calm your nerves with a truck load of sugar.” He chuckled and handed them to Seth.
“Thanks.” Seth finally smiled.
“That’s more like it.” The commissioner sat down. “Alright we contacted your parents, they said they’re coming up here right away. So go ahead and eat, and try to get some rest while we clear a few more things up.
“Alright.” Seth took the aspirin and drank them down. Then he nibbled on the doughnut.
“Excellent.” The commissioner got up and went to his closet, getting a blanket. “This may not be extremely comfortable, but it’ll help. I’ll be back. You get some rest.” The man left once again.
Immediately, Seth could feel himself calming down, as he took a long, deep breath. So much stuff happening at once, he could barely keep a clear image in his mind. Soon he found that he couldn’t keep an image at all. He shrunk into his seat, pulling the covers all around him, and then there was the street in front of him.
He stood on the edge of the curb, and leaned over a little bit, but didn’t fall. Then he found he could lean as far as he wanted, and he didn’t fall. Though the skies were cloudy, the green on the trees and grass were no other color than green. Then it began to rain…
At first he saw Susan in the tree again, but then as he looked at the street, she was in front of the drain. She stood still, smiling at him, then she moved her bangs out of the way of her face, and let the rain fall on her face, splotching up her glasses. Then she pointed at the drains again.
“They talk to me!” She said, in an echoed voice. “The drains! They talk to me.” Then she got onto her knees, and looked into the drains.
Seth soon lost the image as he heard another voice.
“Seth?” He heard his mother say, then he opened his eyes. Seeing her in front of him, the look of fear clearly shown in her face. “Oh, Seth!” She embraced him tightly.
Then he gasped… his eyes widened, as it all became clear to him. “The drains…”
“Son, what are you talking about?” Harold held Seth down to his bed, while he shook horribly.
“I need to go dad! The killer is going to kill again unless I stop him! The drains! The sewers!”
“Seth, you’re delirious, you just need to calm down, and get some sleep. You’ve had a really traumatic experience, and you need to rest your bones for a while.” Harold finally let him go when he saw Seth wasn’t struggling anymore.
“I’ll come back soon to see how you’re doing.”
Seth got up from bed, and began to make a rope out of his bed sheets and dirty towels off his floor.
----
There came a knocking at the door. Mr. McGregor got up from the couch and headed for the door, seeing that it was two in the morning. He opened the door to see that Harold stood out in the rain.
“Harold? What are you-“
“No time! We gotta go! My son went missing!” Harold said, panting.
“What? With a killer on the loose? Where do you think he went?”
“I’m not sure! He said something about a drain or something.”
“Damnit, I’ll be right out, gotta get my shotgun.”
As Mr. McGregor went into their room, Benji went back into his.
----
The police and FBI stood outside of the Duskan residence. Five squad cars flashed their siren lights and all of them were armed and ready. Three officers walked up to the door. Two of them pulled out their Glock seventeen’s, and the third beat on the door.
“This is the Gordan City police, Mr. Duskan! We know you’re in there!” They waited a moment. Then he beat on it harder. “Mr. Duskan! Come out with your hands behind your head!” He shouted louder. Then he signaled for the battering ram.
One man came to the door with the ram, and knocked the door down. All three officers came in, guns ready, but all of them froze, seeing the filthy house, and seeing an enormous amount of blood all over the living room floor. They all cringed at the horrible smell of it, and after a thorough search through the house, they exited.
“He’s not here!”
----
Seth walked up to the grill on the side of the road, and looked inside of it, kneeling down where Susan kneeled down when he first saw her. Then he looked around, seeing no one outside, and he lifted up the grill, setting it to the side. He crawled into the sewer drain, and placed the grill back in its proper position. He carried a hammer along with his flashlight, because it was the only thing he had as a weapon in his room. He borrowed it from his dad so he could nail a picture to the wall of his room, but he never returned it. At this moment he was glad he didn’t. He switched on his flashlight, and started to walk down the sewer tunnel, it was to his waist with water, but that didn’t bother him too much, he wasn’t wearing his good pants.
At first he didn’t see anything to note, other than a large box of doughnuts that still had one in it, but it was blue and molded. Then he came to a crossing of the tunnels. He turned from side to side, looking down each tunnel, until he saw something that caught his eye. There was a light on the side of one of the tunnels. It was very dim, but it was enough for his attention. He stepped up to the higher level of the tunnel, and walked, making squishing noises with his wet shoes. The hole was big enough to be a door, and the horrible stench was unlike the wet mildew of the sewer. This was the smell of horrible rot and festering. He walked into the door, putting his hat up to his nose. Then he saw markings up on the walls, they were very dim black splatter marks. Much like the ones he saw in the house, but they were old. He shined his light further down the hall, to see a light bulb on the top of the tunnel, a battery powered bulb that was stuck up there with duct tape. He stopped, trying to see if he could hear anyone in the sewers, but other than the dripping and far off machinery, there was nothing. Then he saw another door down the tunnel. When he neared it, the stench was even worse. But it was nothing compared to what he saw next. Two bodies, absolutely covered in blood.
“Holy God!” Seth said, seeing that they were the bodies of David Duskan, and Thomas Virgil. He turned away, coughing hard, and vomiting. David’s body was completely ripped and torn, his muscle tissue showing in his right arm, and his jaw bone showing through a hole in his cheek.
When Seth began to stumble away from the door, he heard the worst sloshing noise he had ever heard; like the crushing of a million rotten tomatoes. He turned back around, and saw Mr. Virgil Sethding above David’s body, a large butcher knife in his hand.
“You’re such a smart little boy, aren’t you?” Thomas said, stepping over David’s body and walking out of the passage. Seth stumble backward, his eyes wide.
“Wh-what?! Why? What the fuck?!” Seth found himself at a loss for words. The blood-soaked Thomas took another step toward him.
“Those jack asses took my little girl away!” Thomas blurted out. “I loved that little girl! But they took her away!” His eye twitched, his knuckles popping as he clenched his left hand. “I loved her! But this fucker moved her to a different school! Telling me I would never teach her again! They moved her to an expensive, private school! All because this asshole got a disability check! They had to fucking pay, because they turned her against me!” He spoke hard, almost as if his mind was challenged. “I came to her in her room, through her window. And she moved away from me! Scared of me! I confessed my love to her, but she was too brainwashed by her father and all of those people around her to show her true feelings for me! I couldn’t stand it! They all had to die, because they forced me to kill her!” He was crying now. Tears ran through the blood on his face. “Now, you have to die too. Because I know it was your doing all along! When she babysat you! You told her to stay away from me! Didn’t you!?” His neck popped as his eyes widened.
“No! You crazy son of a bitch! She never even baby sat me! I made it up!”
“DAAAAHH!” Thomas shouted at the top of his lungs as he came at Seth with his blade, but he slipped, falling flat on his back as he stepped in Seth’s vomit on the ground.
Seth took the opportunity and ran out of the passage into the tunnel.
“NAAAHH!” Thomas screamed as he clumsily got to his feet and ran after Seth again.
Seth got to the end of the tunnel and took a sharp turn and hid to the side of the opening. As Thomas came out of the opening, Seth swung his hammer hard, smashing it into the place where Benji had winged him. Making him cry out in agonizing pain, grabbing his wound, and falling against the wall.
“You mother fucker!” Thomas screamed in a high pitched voice.
Seth began to run once more, but his foot stepped hard on something sharp under water, and he cried out in pain as it stabbed into his foot.
“You little fucking bastard!” Thomas got to his feet, his insanity stronger than the pain in his shoulder. “You’ll never take her away from me again!” He lifted his blade up high, but then stopped, as he looked down the tunnel, and saw something that made his heart flutter with joy, and his pupils grow. Every single euphoric membrane in his system released endorphins into his system as he saw his true love at the end of the tunnel. Susan stood, smiling at Thomas, her arms open, waving at him to come to her.
“M-m-my love.” Thomas stuttered. Dropping his arm to his side, he began to walk toward her.
“Hold it right there Virgil!” The commissioner said at the end of the tunnel behind him. Thomas turned around fast, seeing him, and then his face screwing.
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Thomas charged at the commissioner. “SHE’S MI-“ He began to say, but the commissioner put two bullets into his chest, making him drop into the dirty water.
“Are you okay, boy?” The commissioner called to Seth.
“I’ve got something in my foot!” Seth shouted back, but then turned back to the end of the other tunnel.
But to his dismay, Susan was gone. All that was left was the rain coming out of the pipe.
----
Gordan City – March 14th, 2006 – Thanks to an anonymous tip, the police were able too locate Thomas Virgil, the man they knew as The Hangman. After a thorough search of the sewers, they found the severely mangled remains of David Duskan, and also what police believed to be the original killing room, until he moved to the house on Walker Street. Finally, after three years of investigating, the file of the Susan Duskan murder is closed.
The End
By Jeffery W Bradford
If there ever was a single most-haunted human being, Seth saw her. She was on her knees, in the middle of the street as it rained in Gordan City. She was panting, her hand on top of the drain in the concrete. Her knees skinned to the point of bleeding and all of her clothes soaking wet. Her glasses were fogged and wet, impossible to see through, but somehow that didn't seem to slow her down. She still seemed to notice the blood from her knees floating with the water as it rushed into the drain.
Seth walked up to her in his raincoat, trying to get her attention.
"Hey, what are you doing out here? It's raining pretty bad, you need to get home." Seth yelled over the rainfall.
At first she didn't seem to notice him, but then she looked up to him.
"I j-j-just wanted to s-s-see whose voice I heard. For a moment I th-th-thought the sewers were talking to me."
"Do you want my rain coat? You're probably gonna get sick!"
"Th-th-thank you, but n-no, I guess I'll g-g-go home now." She turned and walked down the street, awkwardly stepping on the asphault as the rain continued.
"What's your name?" Seth yelled to her.
"S-S-Susan!"
----
Dead leaves hung from the body’s mouth. His eyes were wide open and staring into the gray, gloomy sky. The police report was written later that afternoon. It stated that the stomach was ripped wide open by a sharp, hooked object, perhaps even a great big claw or a scythe. The fingers had been peeled of their nails, all of which were found near the concrete patio about two hundred yards west of the creek where the body was found. He had been pulled by his legs, and obviously was very conscious while he was being forced.
The forensics team took their pictures, and their fingerprints, while Officer Marcus stood by, the crowd of people in the side yard, outside of the gate, wanting to know what happened.
“Alright people, lets move it so the police can do their work!” Marcus said, waving them with both hands, and obviously not getting anywhere with them.
“Officer! This has been the third body found this month. What the hell are you going to do about this? This is obviously the work of a serial killer!” Harold Black shouted.
“Yeah! How are we going to sleep at night, knowing that we could be pulled out of our houses, and disemboweled like all the others!” Samuel Stevenson said.
“Hey, leave this up to the police and the FBI, we can handle it, we’re doing our jobs!”
“Well that’s not fast enough!”
“Alright people! Disperse!”
Soon they all left the crime scene where fifteen-year-old student, James Albert Winston was found, murdered. Time of death anywhere from three in the morning to five in the morning. Though there are no suspects, the case still remained open.
Just as the body was bagged, it began to rain.
----
“Okay children, take your seats.” Mrs. Dandy said, as the kids took their seats. “For math today we will be starting complicated division with decimal p-“
“Excuse me.” The intercom came on. “May I have the attention of the school for one moment.”
Mrs. Dandy sighed and sat in her desk.
“I would like to announce a tragedy that has befallen our school today. James Winston, a student of the 8th grade was found dead close to his home today.” Many of the kids gave a gasp. “I would like to ask you to please give a prayer for him and his family, as they have suffered a terrible loss, and please show your support by telling the police anything you may know about his death. Thank you.”
“Oh my…” Mrs. Dandy said, looking at the children. Soon she regained her composure and went back to her lesson.
“Dude.” Benji whispered to James. “I knew that kid, he hung out with my brother back like three years ago.”
“Yeah, my dad told me they found his body in the creek behind his house. He and Seth’s dad were bitching out the police officers. This is fucking insane dude, first those two teachers, now this kid?”
“Yeah, no telling who could be next.” Benji said, then turned toward Laurie across the room who winked and waved. He blushed and waved back.
----
After school, Seth got off the bus with the other three. Then he stopped and looked at the gutter where he saw Susan.
“Seth?” James said. “What’s up?”
“There was this girl over there, that day when it rained. She stuttered a lot, God she was nuts. Saying something in the sewers was talking to her.”
“Yeah, sounds nuts to me.” Jordan said. “Crazy bitches should be committed, I don’t care how harmless they are. I don’t need to see them if all they’re gonna do is talk about dumb shit.”
The others rolled their eyes, but didn’t say anything. Benji went on to his house, while Jordan went ahead of Seth and James. James walked with Seth, not saying much. Soon James went to his house, and Seth went down a few blocks, when it began to rain.
“Great…” Seth said, picking up his pace. He turned onto his street, and was just about home, when he heard a shivering. He looked around, then he looked up the tree beside him. There was Susan, clamped onto a branch of the oak tree, shivering and chattering her teeth.
“Susan!” Seth said, taking a step back. “What are you doing up there?”
“Duskan.”
“Dusting?” Seth said, trying to talk over the pouring rain.
“My n-name is Susan Duskan!” She shouted down at him.
“Oh, well my name is Seth Black!” He shouted, trying not to sound weird. “Maybe you should get home!”
“I’ll be f-f-fine!” She said, hanging onto the limb, water pouring all around her as it slid off the leaves of the tree. “Just let me s-s-stay for a while. You c-c-can come see me! Come see me at m-m-my house, it’s the one with Duskan on the mailbox.”
He paused for a moment, and she smiled.
“Alright… when?”
“When it stops raining.” She said.
“Okay…” He said, then turned, and walked away. He glanced back, and saw that she was talking to herself, looking down at the ground. “Weird…” He said under his breath, and began to run home as the rain got stronger.
----
The air was very humid when Seth walked out his house at six in the afternoon. It was still cloudy but the rain had completely stopped. He went down the street, looking at mailboxes. The name Duskan was on the mailbox in front of the most run-down house on the street. He remembered when he and the guys were playing ding-dong ditch. This was the house that caught them. He was a mean, over weight man that lived off of disability claims, or so his dad told him as he picked them all up and took them home that horrible day.
Seth sighed, hoping the fat guy wouldn’t remember him from back then. It was a very slim chance, since it was around two years ago.
He knocked on the door, because he knew the doorbell didn’t work. It was crusted with dirt and basically lodged out of the wall.
“Wait a minute!” The fat man, David Duskan called out from his living room chair, sitting and watching a fishing show.
Finally the guy opened the door, wearing his stained undershirt and green boxer shorts. A cigarette in one hand and the other hand scratching his large belly.
“Yes?” He said, wanting to get back to his fishing shows.
“Is Susan here? She told me to come by.” Seth said, nervous.
“Is this some kind of fucking joke?” The man snapped at him, his eyes widening. “Well it ain’t funny!”
“What?” Seth shook a little at the man’s sudden hostile tone.
“You know what the hell I’m talking about. Susan’s been dead for three years. Now go away!” He slammed the door.
James opened his door, seeing Seth on the step.
“Dude! I need to use your computer, now!” Seth said in a very anxious tone.
“Whoa! Hey! Calm down Seth. What’s wrong?” James held his hands out.
“I can tell you while I’m doing this, please!”
“Alright, just calm down a little.”
----
“You mean the one who stuttered? She’s dead?” James sat in the chair beside Seth as he punched the keys of his computer. Going onto a search engine and searching “Susan Duskan Gordan City Colorado.” He clicked on the first site that came up.
----
Gordan City Colorado – January 5th, 2003 – Little Susan Duskan was found, dead outside of the residence of Thomas Virgil, a councilor at Lewis Elementary. Police noted that she was dropped off at that location, no location of death was determined. After thorough questioning of the father and other such relatives, no suspects were convicted, and the case today still remains open.
“This doesn’t make any sense at all dude.” Seth began searching again. This time he pulled up another site, but found nothing new.
“Maybe she’s not the same Susan. Maybe you heard her name wrong, or she’s lying.” James said.
“Why would anyone lie about something like that?”
“You got a better explanation?” James said, stern.
There was a long pause. Seth looked back on another local news site, but nothing else was there.
“I need to talk to her again. I need to see what the hell she wants with me. Because as far as I can see, I’m the only one who sees her.”
“Aww come on, this is like that dumb Bruce Willis movie. Where the kid-“
Seth held his index finger up, shutting James up immediately.
“Alright… at least I have one name.”
“You mean Thomas?”
“Yeah, I could ask him a few things.”
“Okay, well if you need me, you call alright?”
“Yeah, thanks man. Sorry I’m a little edgy right now. That asshole yelled me away from his house and finding out Susan was actually dead just kinda got me in a bad mood.”
“No sweat dude.”
----
Seth rang the doorbell of a house just a few blocks away from his street. A bearded man opened the door.
“Mr. Virgil?” Seth said, sort of recognizing him from school.
“Hello, how can I help you?” Thomas said.
“I’d like to ask you a few questions, concerning Susan Duskan.”
“Duskan… please, come in.” Thomas opened the door for him, letting him walk in.
“Thanks.” Seth walked into the house, standing on a tiled floor, with the dining room beside him; an old fashioned dining room with fine china plates in glass cases beside it. He walked into the living room, where the Price is Right was blaring on the TV. Mr. Virgil turned off the TV and sat in his chair across the room from the couch, where Seth seated himself.
“What would you like to know?” Thomas said, leaning forward.
“Well… I’ve been wondering about Susan for a while, you see, she and I were good friends. She use too… baby sit me.”
“Oh, that must have been horrible for you, seeing her go like that.”
“Yes, very. But I’ve been wondering, how did you know her?”
“I use to give her speech lessons. I’m sure since you noticed her speech problem.”
“Yes, she stuttered quite a bit.”
Thomas nodded, as if he was testing if Seth was telling the truth.
Then he leaned back in his chair. “I became good friends with her, we use to spend lunch time together, and I would give her a little extra help on her stutter. Whoever killed her must have had it in for me. Trying to frame me like that.” He began to gaze off into space.
“Yeah, about that. Do you know her cause of death?”
“No, but I can tell you that I never want to know. It was horrible enough discovering her with blood all over her in my front yard. Damn shame too, they had just moved into their new house after her dad got a big fat disability check. Rat bastard got away with a lot of money.”
“Oh… well do you know any friends of hers that she hung out with?”
“Yeah, she use to hang around with a girl named Betty Tyler. She’s in sixth grade, you might be able to catch her at your school.”
“Alright, well that’s about all I have to say, thank you for your time.” Seth walked out of the house, not feeling anymore comforted. It was getting dark, so he headed home.”
----
“Come follow me! We can have fun!” A girl said to Seth as she pulled him by the hand. The play ground was a desert all around them, and the swing-sets all swung with no people in them. “Follow me!” The little girl said again. Her blue ribbons waved in her blonde pigtails as she pulled Seth further along with him. The house she pulled him through had no windows, and no furniture, and the wall she ran into crumbled as she touched it. “I want to play in here!” She said, but then she walked up to the wall, hung her head down, and put her arms against it. Seth stood there, watching her do this. “Please.” She said. Then she lifted her head, showing the hole in her forehead, and the blood that had stained her beautiful dress. “Please, come play with me.”
Seth gasped, twitched, and sat up in bed. He looked at the clock, seeing it was four in the morning. Somewhat comforted by this fact, he lied back again, and thought about the dream that was fading in his memory, but somehow, he thought he’d figured one more thing out.
----
Betty Tyler was found the next morning. One nail carved straight lines down her chest, and blood was absolutely everywhere. The killer was merciful, he stabbed her with a straight-edge kitchen knife, the wound was clean, but after that it was all fun time. The police found her on the side of her house, strung up with metal wires by her wrists, naked.
----
“I’m sure of it, dude. These killings have something to do with Susan.” Seth whispered to James. “The guy I talked to yesterday told me that Betty was her friend, next thing I know, she’s dead.”
“Dude, that’s insane. There must be something bigger behind this.” James whispered back.
“Yeah, I may need your help tonight, I’m going to dig a little deeper.”
“Well dude, I would, but my mom grounded me yesterday.”
“What?” Seth whispered sharply.
“Yeah, she saw me on a porn site after you left, and I was just looking up Ball Pumps for my basket ball. Then I clicked on the wrong site.”
“Damnit…” Then he looked at Benji.
“Yeah, I’ll come along, where are we going?”
“I looked up the house where Susan’s father moved from, it’s a storage house now for some moving company, but apparently the last maintenance report was done a year ago, so it’s basically shut down.”
“Cool!” Benji said. “Want me to bring my gun?”
“Sure dude, I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Seth said, then paused. Then he looked back at Benji.
Benji nodded and all three of them snickered.
“Boys, could you please pay attention!” Mrs. Dandy interrupted them.
“Sorry.”
“Dude, where are you?” Seth said over the phone to Benji.
“Sorry man, I’m helping Laurie with her science project. She’s basically done with it, so I’ll meet you up there. It’s only a few blocks away from my house.” Benji had actually known that house rather well. When he was bored he would throw rocks through the windows, or even blow up little cracks in the walls with black cats.
“Alright, I’ll see you there.”
“Alright, be careful.” They hung up.
Seth took his flashlight with him, along with a small hammer and some little plastic baggies for any evidence he might find.
But once he made it to the house, he froze, and felt the biggest de ja vu he had ever felt. This house had no windows, and no furniture, it was filled with boxes and old junk from other houses. This was the stuff no one wanted, so it collected dust in this old house, forgotten by all. He was astounded that anyone could live in such a house. It was dark, very dark, and the cloudy day outside didn’t help it at all. It was too hot, so he took off his hat. When he switched on the flash light, he walked through the front door, and closed it. He took the side hallway first, he turned right to see the first room was completely filled with boxes, to the brim, so he turned and walked down the corridor, which was infested with spider webs and cob webs. Dirt from old boots and shoes tracked all over the carpet that was once green, but was now a greenish black. He opened up the next door and saw nothing but boxes filling up the linen closet. He closed it and opened the door to the next room, the room that he remembered the little girl had pulled him through. Then he had to close his eyes to remember the next part. He turned around and looked at a closet door. It was completely barricaded with boxes, so he had a hard time lifting them out of the way. Soon enough, he was able to inch the door open and squeeze through the cracked opening. There were no boxes in the closet. But why? He shined his flashlight all around the closet, seeing nothing in it, just cockroaches caught in spider webs and a burnt-out light bulb at the top. Nothing was on any of the shelves. Then he saw a little string sticking out of the wall behind where the shirts were hung.
Just then, the front door of the house opened. Seth turned around and listened for a moment, thinking it was probably Benji, but Benji wouldn’t have had time to walk all the way home and then walk here. Laurie lived closer to Jordan, who was clear on the other side. Then as if to answer his question, he heard big, burly foot steps walking into the house. When he saw another light shine down from the other end of the hall, Seth turned off his. Then he closed the door very softly, then pulled on the string, making the wall open up, and he crawled through the passage, then closed it.
It wreaked a horrible, horrible stench. Seth tried not to cough, but he couldn’t help it, he put his hat over his nose and closed his eyes. He turned on his light, and his eyes widened, seeing blood spatters on the walls. Bloody weapons, a scythe, a bloody, kitchen knife, a rusty chain saw, and a hook.
“Holy shit.” He said under his breath. Then his heart sunk, as he remembered where the little girl had put herself. He shined his light onto the wall, and then lost his breath, as he saw the remains of the little girl, with the blue ribbons in her hair. He closed his eyes and put his hand against them. Then he heard the boxes being moved from the passage to the closet. Seth looked around quickly and saw a table with a white, blood-soaked cloth covering it. He quickly turned off his light and ducked under it. His hand touched slimy, and dry things on the ground, that wreaked a new and more horrible odor, but he forced himself not to cough, or breathe hard. He took out his inhaler, and breathed it in, and held it as long as he could. Thankfully, it was full.
The passage opened, and he heard hard breathing, and saw a flashlight shine onto the table cloth. The blood was so thick, it shined red, and was impossible to see through. Seth saw dirty black shoes step into the room, and walk up to the table. He heard glass being set on the table. Then the man dropped a shot glass onto the floor.
“Shit.” The man said, then bent over to pick it up. Seth held his breath again, almost seeing the man’s face. But he didn’t even see a silhouette, he picked up the glass and put it on there, filling it up, and drinking it all in three gulps. Then he walked around the table, and picked up one of the blades off of the wall.
“Yeah…” the man breathed, then he took a black mask off of the shelf beside him, and put it on his head, covering up everything on his face. Seth couldn’t get a good look at him at all, the flashlight was too damn dim, and the blood stained table cloth was in his way, but he peaked through a white part, and saw the man turn around. He walked over to the passage again, and gave a glance at the little girl’s remains on the wall, then shook his head and crawled out of the space.
Seth breathed multiple times on his inhaler. He couldn’t believe what was happening was real. He got up from the table as he heard the door shut. Suddenly he hoped Benji wasn’t out there waiting for him. He hurried out of the crawl-space, and opened the closet door once again. He rushed out of the room and back down the hall. But as he turned the knob on the door, his hand slipped off, he raised his hand, and as he was about to turn on his light, another light turned on behind him.
“Thought I heard someone in there.” A very deep, growling voice said.
Seth froze, and turned around, then his eyes widened as he saw a large, rusted blade right beside the man’s flashlight.
“I suppose it isn’t enough that one little girl has to wander into my house, a little boy has to follow in her foot steps, and end up right beside her on my wall…” The man chuckled. “I had other plans tonight, but I guess you’ll do just fine.” The man took one step toward him, then another.
Seth let out a scream from the top of his lungs, when all of his brain stopped freezing up.
“Won’t do you no good!” the man growled even louder, taking faster steps toward him. “We’re all alone!”
Just then, the door busted open, barely missing Seth by the skin of the hair. Benji stepped in, his gun already blazing shots. He fired off three bullets, one of them winged the man, and he growled in pain and surprise.
“Go man! Go!” Seth said, pushing Benji out the door, and they ran. They ran until their hearts pumped adrenaline, and their bodies became numb. Once they made it back to Benji’s house, they locked the door, and Seth began to cry.
It took Benji hours to calm him down.
----
Gordan City – March 13th 2006 – The bodily remains of seven people were found in the house on Walker Street. These remains included Sarah Stepford, a missing child who was presumed dead three months earlier. Evidence shows that the weapons found in the house were, in fact, used on the four recent victims of the killer the press called “The Hangman.” Even though no arrests have been made to date, the killer’s blood sample was found in the living room area of the ware house. The case still remains open.
----
Seth sat in front of the commissioner’s desk, while he typed on his key board. He held a cup of water in his hand, the ripples in the cup showed that he was still slightly shivering from the shock earlier that night.
“Alright son, you have helped us quite a bit in this case, and everyone at the station would like to extend you their thanks.” He attempted a smile.
Seth also attempted one, but soon gave up when it only made him shiver more.
“I can understand that you are not in the talking mood. Experiences like that are always hard the first time. Hell I remember my rookie days, almost shit my pants back then, and I was a grown man!” He snickered, then looked at Seth, who twitched. “Alright, well you drink your water, I need to go get some paper work finished, you drink your water and I’ll see if I can’t find any kid’s aspirin to calm you down. Alright, Champ?”
Seth nodded, slowly.
“Alright.” The commissioner got up and walked out of the office.
Seth looked at the computer on his desk, and leaned over to see what was on his screen. He saw the name “Susan” more than once on it. He got up from his chair and sat at the desk.
Interviews with Susan’s peers have shown that she and James Winston were in a relationship in fifth grade, whether or not this had anything to do with his death is non-confirmable. What we do know is that David Duskan, Susan’s father, gained four thousand dollars on Susan’s life insurance claim.
“Holy shit.” Seth whispered. Then he scrolled down.
It is clear that all of the murders following Susan’s, were, in fact, connected to her. Mrs. Romani was her favorite teacher in sixth grade, and Katie Watts was her baby-sitter for three years. However, a motive has not been discovered. Though the father is the primary suspect, there is no hard evidence that could support an arrest, merely three unpaid parking tickets, and a disturbing the peace complaint.
Seth scrolled back up to where the commissioner originally was, and walked back over to his seat quickly, as he heard the commissioner’s voice from down the hall.
He opened the door. “Hey little buddy.” He smiled, walking in with some cherry-flavored aspirin, another cup of water, and a doughnut. “Thought you should try and eat something, calm your nerves with a truck load of sugar.” He chuckled and handed them to Seth.
“Thanks.” Seth finally smiled.
“That’s more like it.” The commissioner sat down. “Alright we contacted your parents, they said they’re coming up here right away. So go ahead and eat, and try to get some rest while we clear a few more things up.
“Alright.” Seth took the aspirin and drank them down. Then he nibbled on the doughnut.
“Excellent.” The commissioner got up and went to his closet, getting a blanket. “This may not be extremely comfortable, but it’ll help. I’ll be back. You get some rest.” The man left once again.
Immediately, Seth could feel himself calming down, as he took a long, deep breath. So much stuff happening at once, he could barely keep a clear image in his mind. Soon he found that he couldn’t keep an image at all. He shrunk into his seat, pulling the covers all around him, and then there was the street in front of him.
He stood on the edge of the curb, and leaned over a little bit, but didn’t fall. Then he found he could lean as far as he wanted, and he didn’t fall. Though the skies were cloudy, the green on the trees and grass were no other color than green. Then it began to rain…
At first he saw Susan in the tree again, but then as he looked at the street, she was in front of the drain. She stood still, smiling at him, then she moved her bangs out of the way of her face, and let the rain fall on her face, splotching up her glasses. Then she pointed at the drains again.
“They talk to me!” She said, in an echoed voice. “The drains! They talk to me.” Then she got onto her knees, and looked into the drains.
Seth soon lost the image as he heard another voice.
“Seth?” He heard his mother say, then he opened his eyes. Seeing her in front of him, the look of fear clearly shown in her face. “Oh, Seth!” She embraced him tightly.
Then he gasped… his eyes widened, as it all became clear to him. “The drains…”
“Son, what are you talking about?” Harold held Seth down to his bed, while he shook horribly.
“I need to go dad! The killer is going to kill again unless I stop him! The drains! The sewers!”
“Seth, you’re delirious, you just need to calm down, and get some sleep. You’ve had a really traumatic experience, and you need to rest your bones for a while.” Harold finally let him go when he saw Seth wasn’t struggling anymore.
“I’ll come back soon to see how you’re doing.”
Seth got up from bed, and began to make a rope out of his bed sheets and dirty towels off his floor.
----
There came a knocking at the door. Mr. McGregor got up from the couch and headed for the door, seeing that it was two in the morning. He opened the door to see that Harold stood out in the rain.
“Harold? What are you-“
“No time! We gotta go! My son went missing!” Harold said, panting.
“What? With a killer on the loose? Where do you think he went?”
“I’m not sure! He said something about a drain or something.”
“Damnit, I’ll be right out, gotta get my shotgun.”
As Mr. McGregor went into their room, Benji went back into his.
----
The police and FBI stood outside of the Duskan residence. Five squad cars flashed their siren lights and all of them were armed and ready. Three officers walked up to the door. Two of them pulled out their Glock seventeen’s, and the third beat on the door.
“This is the Gordan City police, Mr. Duskan! We know you’re in there!” They waited a moment. Then he beat on it harder. “Mr. Duskan! Come out with your hands behind your head!” He shouted louder. Then he signaled for the battering ram.
One man came to the door with the ram, and knocked the door down. All three officers came in, guns ready, but all of them froze, seeing the filthy house, and seeing an enormous amount of blood all over the living room floor. They all cringed at the horrible smell of it, and after a thorough search through the house, they exited.
“He’s not here!”
----
Seth walked up to the grill on the side of the road, and looked inside of it, kneeling down where Susan kneeled down when he first saw her. Then he looked around, seeing no one outside, and he lifted up the grill, setting it to the side. He crawled into the sewer drain, and placed the grill back in its proper position. He carried a hammer along with his flashlight, because it was the only thing he had as a weapon in his room. He borrowed it from his dad so he could nail a picture to the wall of his room, but he never returned it. At this moment he was glad he didn’t. He switched on his flashlight, and started to walk down the sewer tunnel, it was to his waist with water, but that didn’t bother him too much, he wasn’t wearing his good pants.
At first he didn’t see anything to note, other than a large box of doughnuts that still had one in it, but it was blue and molded. Then he came to a crossing of the tunnels. He turned from side to side, looking down each tunnel, until he saw something that caught his eye. There was a light on the side of one of the tunnels. It was very dim, but it was enough for his attention. He stepped up to the higher level of the tunnel, and walked, making squishing noises with his wet shoes. The hole was big enough to be a door, and the horrible stench was unlike the wet mildew of the sewer. This was the smell of horrible rot and festering. He walked into the door, putting his hat up to his nose. Then he saw markings up on the walls, they were very dim black splatter marks. Much like the ones he saw in the house, but they were old. He shined his light further down the hall, to see a light bulb on the top of the tunnel, a battery powered bulb that was stuck up there with duct tape. He stopped, trying to see if he could hear anyone in the sewers, but other than the dripping and far off machinery, there was nothing. Then he saw another door down the tunnel. When he neared it, the stench was even worse. But it was nothing compared to what he saw next. Two bodies, absolutely covered in blood.
“Holy God!” Seth said, seeing that they were the bodies of David Duskan, and Thomas Virgil. He turned away, coughing hard, and vomiting. David’s body was completely ripped and torn, his muscle tissue showing in his right arm, and his jaw bone showing through a hole in his cheek.
When Seth began to stumble away from the door, he heard the worst sloshing noise he had ever heard; like the crushing of a million rotten tomatoes. He turned back around, and saw Mr. Virgil Sethding above David’s body, a large butcher knife in his hand.
“You’re such a smart little boy, aren’t you?” Thomas said, stepping over David’s body and walking out of the passage. Seth stumble backward, his eyes wide.
“Wh-what?! Why? What the fuck?!” Seth found himself at a loss for words. The blood-soaked Thomas took another step toward him.
“Those jack asses took my little girl away!” Thomas blurted out. “I loved that little girl! But they took her away!” His eye twitched, his knuckles popping as he clenched his left hand. “I loved her! But this fucker moved her to a different school! Telling me I would never teach her again! They moved her to an expensive, private school! All because this asshole got a disability check! They had to fucking pay, because they turned her against me!” He spoke hard, almost as if his mind was challenged. “I came to her in her room, through her window. And she moved away from me! Scared of me! I confessed my love to her, but she was too brainwashed by her father and all of those people around her to show her true feelings for me! I couldn’t stand it! They all had to die, because they forced me to kill her!” He was crying now. Tears ran through the blood on his face. “Now, you have to die too. Because I know it was your doing all along! When she babysat you! You told her to stay away from me! Didn’t you!?” His neck popped as his eyes widened.
“No! You crazy son of a bitch! She never even baby sat me! I made it up!”
“DAAAAHH!” Thomas shouted at the top of his lungs as he came at Seth with his blade, but he slipped, falling flat on his back as he stepped in Seth’s vomit on the ground.
Seth took the opportunity and ran out of the passage into the tunnel.
“NAAAHH!” Thomas screamed as he clumsily got to his feet and ran after Seth again.
Seth got to the end of the tunnel and took a sharp turn and hid to the side of the opening. As Thomas came out of the opening, Seth swung his hammer hard, smashing it into the place where Benji had winged him. Making him cry out in agonizing pain, grabbing his wound, and falling against the wall.
“You mother fucker!” Thomas screamed in a high pitched voice.
Seth began to run once more, but his foot stepped hard on something sharp under water, and he cried out in pain as it stabbed into his foot.
“You little fucking bastard!” Thomas got to his feet, his insanity stronger than the pain in his shoulder. “You’ll never take her away from me again!” He lifted his blade up high, but then stopped, as he looked down the tunnel, and saw something that made his heart flutter with joy, and his pupils grow. Every single euphoric membrane in his system released endorphins into his system as he saw his true love at the end of the tunnel. Susan stood, smiling at Thomas, her arms open, waving at him to come to her.
“M-m-my love.” Thomas stuttered. Dropping his arm to his side, he began to walk toward her.
“Hold it right there Virgil!” The commissioner said at the end of the tunnel behind him. Thomas turned around fast, seeing him, and then his face screwing.
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Thomas charged at the commissioner. “SHE’S MI-“ He began to say, but the commissioner put two bullets into his chest, making him drop into the dirty water.
“Are you okay, boy?” The commissioner called to Seth.
“I’ve got something in my foot!” Seth shouted back, but then turned back to the end of the other tunnel.
But to his dismay, Susan was gone. All that was left was the rain coming out of the pipe.
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Gordan City – March 14th, 2006 – Thanks to an anonymous tip, the police were able too locate Thomas Virgil, the man they knew as The Hangman. After a thorough search of the sewers, they found the severely mangled remains of David Duskan, and also what police believed to be the original killing room, until he moved to the house on Walker Street. Finally, after three years of investigating, the file of the Susan Duskan murder is closed.
The End
