Kelly was flooded with a feeling of relief, for she’d managed to perform flawlessly in the village’s Autumn play, she’d been a huge success, remembering her lines and graciously accepting the standing ovation offered to the cast from the appreciative crowd. Afterwards, she had floated through the crowd with the utmost grace, accepting the congratulations and flattering comments in a way that she’d seen many times in her dreams. It was a magical afternoon where her hard work had paid off, and she’d impressed her parents, the audience, and a special young man named Taylor, who sat mesmerized in the third row, transfixed by her beauty. Kelly had tried to locate Taylor within the audience, but it wasn’t until the final scene that their eyes had met for a fleeting second, and she nearly fluffed her line, as her heart skipped. Taylor had circulated within the reception area after the play, but Kelly had been inundated with well wishers and excited audience members, she’d not been able to speak with Taylor, but she’d caught him staring at her twice from across the room.
The time had come for Kelly to leave the reception and change into her new blue dress, if Taylor was a little shy now then wait until he saw Kelly in her figure hugging dress with matching high heels. The Autumn Princess was a great look, but a little impractical for her to attend the party at night, she wanted to dance and convince Taylor that he should make her his girl. Kelly faced a fifteen-minute drive home, she’d allowed forty minutes to change her dress and her makeup; it would be tight, but if she hustled she would make it. Her plan was to return to the village and attend the after party, which she knew would go late into the night. As Kelly slipped into the driver’s seat of her new truck a leaf fell from her costume and nestled upon the gravel in the church parking lot.
Kelly was still lost in the play, the adulation and applause, the admiring looks, and the desire burning in Taylor’s eyes. A woman knows when the hook is in, she can see a difference in how a man acts, sounds, talks and walks. When he’s fallen but hasn’t yet realized, it is the most special time, the most perfect time, when all of your senses are alive and tingling with anticipation. Kelly was floating on air; she’d felt this special feeling and couldn’t wait to make her entrance wearing the sexy dress she’d bought months earlier. Her mind raced as she rehearsed what she would say, what words she would use, and how she would say them to Taylor upon their first meeting, how could she sound sophisticated, sexy and irresistible?
She placed her truck into reverse and moved her heeled foot from the brake to the accelerator, in a split second she thought she saw movement in her mirrors, catching a blur in the view from her rear window. Instinctively she stomped on the brake, sending the truck into a hard stop, and thrusting her lower back hard into her seat, causing her head to hit the restraint. She frantically scanned her rear mirror, followed by her side mirror, to see if she’d hit anyone or anything. The shape of a tall man appeared to her right through her side window, he was dressed in black with a hood covering his head and his face, she blinked her eyes and bringing into focus the shape before her. It was the stranger from the diner, turning his head to stare at her through the passenger window where he connected her eyes briefly with his annoyed stare, before hurrying away into the shadows as the approaching darkness started to close in on the Village of Autumn.
Shaken and annoyed with her lack of concentration, Kelly thrust her palms forwards banging her steering wheel in a display of frustration, causing the whole truck to shake. She glanced out of the passenger window but she was alone now, the stranger had gone. “Damn it Kelly, get your head out of the clouds and focus,” she scolded herself, as she often did when she was irritated with her own behavior. The drive home was uneventful as she drove with extra caution taking note of the fading light, and the slickness of the dark road surface due to an earlier sprinkling of rain. She pulled up to the driveway of her small rented house on the outskirts of the village; the driveway was not long, but it cut a path through dense trees. Kelly navigated the short narrow drive, before it opened up into a circular area in front of her house that she used to turn and park her truck. It was dark approaching the house, the truck’s headlights and a small outside house lamp affixed to the wall of the house, offered the only source of illumination.
Surrounding the small house was dense woodland forest offering protection for the creatures that lived within, it made Kelly nervous, and she usually hurried inside. She positioned her truck as close to her door as possible, and turned the engine and the truck’s lights off. She sat for a second and surveyed the darkened clearing. She glanced at the truck’s dashboard, as the illuminated clock informed her she was already five minutes behind her planned schedule. Kelly took a deep breath; she reached for the truck’s door handle and gave it a firm pull while pushing the door open with her elbow. Kelly stepped out of the truck and noticed something moving in the darkness to her right, she heard grunting sounds and a loud guttural noise emanating from just beyond the tree line. It frightened her so much that she remained motionless in the spot where she had stepped from the truck. She gripped her purse containing her house key while she weighed up her options; should she confront or run? The sound came again, this time it sounded comical, a deep wrenching sound that reminded her of a teenage boy being sick on too much alcohol.
This was clearly a joke designed to spook her, and the boys were probably having a good laugh at her expense, as she quivered at the side of the truck. Now she was getting angry, this type of prank wasn’t funny at all, and she was in too much of a hurry to take this seriously. Kelly faced the noise and yelled into the darkened woods, “So you think this is funny huh? This is how you sick little boys get your kicks, well I hope the beast that’s out there comes after you, while you hide in the woods and frighten people ... idiots!”
Kelly felt better as she rummaged through her purse looking for her house keys. Kelly heard another grunt and managed to raise her chin to the unexpected sight that lay ahead of her. Tree limbs started to shake and the sound of rustling undergrowth held her rigid and rooted with fear. Her legs felt like steel poles and her heart started to pound as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She could see a dark rounded shape start to emerge from the brush, moving towards her from the shadows. Kelly’s eyes widened as her mind struggled to paint the picture evolving before her. This was not a childish prank, a large fur covered mass emerged from the darkness, Kelly instinctively moved backwards, but was blocked by the side of the truck. She could see powerful front legs covered in a dark thick matted fur connected to large rounded shoulders supporting a thick muscular neck. The head of the animal was long and pointed, it had large powerful jaws like a Bear, but its snout was longer, and its sheer size meant this was not a Bear. Kelly gasped as the animal snorted and approached, what should she do, run?
She had always been told to avoid eye contact, make no sudden movements, and calmly walk away in a non-threatening way. Her heart was pounding so hard she could hear blood racing through her ears, her breathing was loud and shallow, and she felt sick and faint, too weak to run. She glanced quickly at the approaching animal, it was close and she decided to calmly walk towards her house entrance, and safety. Kelly had turned her body slightly, she’d managed to take two steps before the beast lunged forward swiping savagely with its powerful front paws. The blow landed on the intersection of Kelly’s neck and shoulder, it knocked her to the ground and opening a deep fatal wound instantly. She fell to the ground and the beast took advantage of her vulnerable, defenseless, position. It was so quick, the kill was over in a matter of seconds, but the beast dealt Kelly a couple more blows before savagely attacking her throat with its powerful jaws. Warm blood dripped from its mouth as it licked the scent from its blood-covered nose. Within seconds of the attack the beast was gone, leaving the most beautiful Autumn Princess ravaged and lying in a pool of her own blood.
Taylor Reeves was disappointed that night; he’d waited for Kelly to return to the Church hall dance. Kelly had looked so sweet, so beautiful; that he couldn’t resist staring
at her, for he was certain that he’d caught her eye. Perhaps she was tired after the play. He knew she wouldn't be working because the diner had been closed for the night. Perhaps she already had a boyfriend and was out having fun, while he waited for her, “Loser,” he said under his breath shaking his head. It wasn’t until the following morning that Kelly’s body was discovered.
Annie had raised the alarm the following morning as Kelly had failed to arrive for work; Annie had become worried about her employee and friend. Sheriff Jones stopped to pick up a coffee from the diner before he made the short drive out to Kelly’s house. He was hoping to find a simple explanation for her absence from work. What he found sent chills down his spine, placing images into his mind that prevented him from completing a good night’s sleep for a week. Kelly’s body had remained intact, it was in better condition than the two boys, but a large animal had brutalized her where deep claw scratches were still visible and she’d suffered puncturing bite marks. What a way for such a sweet girl to meet her end, but the Sheriff was suspicious, could this be a clever convenient way, to cover up the tracks of a serial killer? Perhaps there was a psycho out there, killing for the thrill of it, and what better way to cover his tracks by making it look like some large predatory beast had mauled these victims.
Autumn was a small village where word spread quickly, the general store ran out of ammunition, and guns were flying off the shelves. This incident happened too close to the village, spreading fear and panic across its inhabitants. When Charlie Smythe started to share his observations, the night of the killing, the village’s gossip machine kicked into high gear. Charlie had seen Kelly enter her truck, and almost reverse into the stranger at the rear of the church parking lot. The stranger had been angry, waving his fist, and raising his voice at her, through her truck’s window; Charlie implied anger as a motive on the night Kelly was murdered. While the fanciful story had not been validated, and the connection to the actual murder was tenuous, this story seemed to resonate with the villagers, and they seemed to like it and believe in it. In a small village, rumor can become fact quickly, and the innocent stranger was quickly vilified using the weapons of fear and ignorance. The stranger could feel the rising tensions, the sideways glances, Mothers protecting their children in his presence, and the cold reception he would receive in this normally hospitable village. The whole atmosphere of the village changed to a chilly, anxious, fear induced place.
The stranger was hungry and the only place that would serve him was Autumn’s diner. He entered the diner and scanned the booths; it contained some familiar faces and new ones. The old Indian Chief was ever present, as were the two gossiping ladies, but the diner was fuller than he’d ever seen it. He walked towards the kitchen looking for an empty booth when he was met in the aisle by Annie, armed with a fresh steaming pot of coffee, she smiled, and waved him to a booth at the back, near the kitchen entrance. Like the olden days in a tense western saloon from a cowboy movie, the buzz of casual conversation had stopped and an eerie silence descended upon the diner, as people watched the stranger enter, and take his position at the back booth. Once seated, the conversation resumed, followed by guilty glances, and the occasional head turn. Annie approached the stranger’s table as he flipped back his black hood, to reveal his disheveled appearance.
“Coffee?” inquired Annie with a smile.
The last booth at the back of the diner was probably the most private booth, and the most difficult to observe from the rest of the diner. The stranger nodded, glancing down at his empty coffee cup. Annie started to pour the black steaming coffee from her glass pot before sliding into the empty seat across from the stranger. “You OK with me being here?” the stranger inquired, keeping his eyes on the steaming coffee.
He lifted his eyes to meet Annie’s stare, “I know you didn’t do it, but I’m the only one in this village that feels this way. Tell me I’m not wrong. I saw how you looked at Kelly the other night; it was the same way that I looked at her. She looked cute, naïve, like an excited little kid, I could see that in your eyes, in your expression, you thought she looked nice.”
The stranger leaned in and whispered, “I didn’t do it Annie - I didn't do anything. Kelly and those boys, it wasn’t me. I liked the kid, she was cute and young, but I wouldn’t harm her, that's not me.”
Annie stared at him hard, trying to penetrate his eyes, and reach deep down into his soul, searching for the truth. Tears welled in her eyes, as she thought of poor Kelly’s infectious smile and captivating laugh. “More coffee over here Annie love, please…” Annie turned her head.
“I’ll be back for your order, but I’m a little busy today, short staffed.” Her voice trailed off where she struggled to hold it together. Annie took the pot and attended to the needy customer. Folded and lying at the side of the table was a previously read, dog-eared, newspaper. The stranger reached for it flattening out its pages across the table in front of him. The Northern Light newspaper reported the news around the local area; it covered the comings and goings, weddings, births, deaths, and anything of local interest. The existence of a murderous beast, or serial killer, was big news, and this little paper was not going to let this opportunity slip by. The headline screamed, ‘AUTUMN’S RAVAGE,’ in reference to the three inhabitants brutally savaged. The village of Autumn had seen something similar to this many years ago, but the old wounds from those memories were being re-opened by these recent events. The article walked through the possibilities, a rogue Bear, a murderous serial killer on the loose, characterized as the inevitable transient logger having his sadistic fun, or a heinous village person, familiar with the terrain and the people. The article played upon all of the villager’s fears, including the beast living among us. No wonder the residents of the village were on edge, casting suspicious glances at everyone, even a neighbor, if they felt they deserved it. His eyes fell upon the dark printed headline, ‘AUTUMN’S RAVAGE,’ as he caught movement in his narrowed eyes. Annie had returned.
She sat at his booth looking at the newspaper, “It’s the same headline they used the last time this happened, people around here will recognize the significance of that headline, when those poor girls went missing the last time,” Annie shook her head, “the people around here still refer to that time as Autumn’s Ravage, and I think it was this newspaper that started this horrible term.” Her voice was shaky, when she paused waiting for a response, but nothing was offered. There was an awkward moment of silence before Annie regained control, “So you want me to take your order or what?”
The stranger lifted his chin slightly, “Shepherd’s Pie please - Annie do people around here seriously think I ripped those poor people apart?”
Annie paused, weighing the magnitude of the question, “Yes. Yes they do, and you haven’t won them over with your sparkling personality, have you?” Annie turned away and walked towards the kitchen to place the order.
Greg Welch entered the diner looking for Annie; he was a fit man just shy of sixty years of age with a shock of white hair. Greg was the village pastor and had performed blessings on the bodies of Kelly and the two boys. He was angry and upset at the waste of young life and firmly believed a Bear had not caused the devastation seen on these young bodies. Greg came to the back of the diner where he saw the stranger holding his coffee cup with both hands; was he the one? The villagers certainly thought he was. Annie returned from the kitchen and saw the pastor standing in the aisle with a large pile of flyers. “Hi Annie, can I leave a few of these with you? It’s about time we stood up to this and demanded some answers, some assurance.”
Annie looked at the familiar flyers, it reminded her of many years ago when a similar route was taken by the villagers. The flyers announced a meeting at the Church hall tomorrow night, to discuss the recent tragedies and to understand the course of action being taken. Greg would invite the Sheriff, and everyone hoped he would be sober and coherent. The security team from the mine would be there, and the Church hall would be packed with interested o
nlookers; some would remain quiet and observe, while others would be angry, demanding, and outspoken. The Sheriff would be on the hot seat, and the mine security team will ask probing questions that may be difficult to answer.
Annie smiled politely, “Sure Pastor Greg, I’ll put a couple of flyers up around the diner, I’m positive it’ll be a full house.”
“Thanks Annie,” the pastor handed over some flyers before leaving to distribute the rest.
The next day the parking lot in front of the Church hall was a busy place with cars jostling for a spot, and people filing into the hall expecting answers. Pastor Greg had enlisted help from the men at mining security, they seemed to be manning the door, and ushering people inside in an orderly manner. Sheriff Jones was already inside the hall pacing at the front of the stage like an annoyed caged animal. The quiet buzz of expectation filled the hall as the stranger approached the entrance, “Where do you think you’re going?” said a bulky man with his arm outstretched blocking the entrance. The tall stranger sized up the man wearing a black shirt matching a dozen more black shirts inside. Mine security was out in force today - so he smiled.
“I was wondering, like the rest of this village, what was going on, and what was being done about it.”
“Well, I guess you can just keep wondering, this is for locals only, get it?” Three sturdy looking guys wearing black shirts quickly appeared behind the man in the door well. The stranger smiled, nodded and turned away.
“I hate that guy,” said the man backing up his colleague in the door well, “don’t let him in and don’t let him return.”
When the doors closed the gloves came off, and the meeting turned prickly very quickly. Sheriff Jones was on the hot seat as Pastor Greg tried to keep it civil and the mine security guys kept the peace. “Can you at least tell us if it’s a Bear or a person killing these kids,” James Johnston’s question was directed at the nervous looking Sheriff, and met with overwhelming applause.
The Sheriff had not drunk in two days, he knew he had to be alert and on the top of his game, if he were to keep his job through these events. “I believed it to be a Bear…,” he was not allowed to finish.
“Believed, that suggests you’ve changed your mind.” A middle-aged fiery red head shot the question at the stumbling Sheriff, unable to operate at this speed.
“We’ve employed an expert who’s measured the bite marks and the wounds.” The Sheriff paused considering his next words carefully. “The evidence suggests that it’s not a Bear,” the room gasped, “it’s far larger than a Bear, perhaps two times larger.” This fell upon the audience in a hard way; they couldn’t comprehend what the normally drunken Sheriff was trying to tell them. A small man with a blue coat, situated at the back of the hall, rose to ask his question, “What animal from around these parts is significantly larger than a Bear?”
The question was directed at the Sheriff, with all eyes trained upon him, they waited expectantly for the answer. Chief Great Bear, the wily old Indian, stared at the floor vacantly, but strained to hear the answer. He knew the correct answer, but was not about to share his wisdom with a room full of people uneducated in the old ways of his tribe.
The Sheriff looked at the man with the blue coat, and with outstretched hands, and a shrug of his shoulders, reluctantly replied the only way he knew how, “I really don't know.”
A slim blonde haired woman rose during the ensuing noise, howling emanating from the crowd - her blonde hair was immaculately groomed; her cream blouse and white pearls, added a touch of class to the proceedings. The crowd fell silent out of respect, for the elegant lady was Brian’s Mother, who wanted answers, “My Son has died a horrible death, can you tell me with some certainty that an animal did that to him, and not some perverted drifter?” She remained standing as she finished the question everyone wanted to ask. The Sheriff stepped forward to answer but was quickly dismissed by a wave of her hand, “I want to hear from an expert, not the village Sheriff, no offence.”
A short, slimly built man, dressed in a black shirt, rose calmly from his seat, and walked towards the stage where he took hold of a microphone. “Good evening Mrs. Brennerman, my name’s Thomas Ivon, and I work for the parent company of the mine. I was asked to inspect the bodies and attend the meeting today. There is absolutely no doubt that all three of the victims were killed by the same animal, and in my expert opinion, there is no doubt in my mind that they were indeed attacked and killed by a very large animal. The victim’s wounds are all similar and consistent, but there is a mystery. I can’t categorically identify the animal from any of the measurements and hair samples that I’ve taken, and I’ve seen attacks on our workers from every type of predator, bear, wolf, dog, mountain lion, puma, all types of killers and scavengers, but never like this. You see these poor people, your Son ma’am,” he said respectfully, “were not killed for food, they were killed for sport and no other reason.” The hall burst into life with an outraged roar, with people pointing and waving their fists at the slim framed grey haired man. Thomas walked to the front of the stage, where the Sheriff took this opportunity to sit down, and let this man receive the brunt of the crowd’s frustration. “As far as I can see, this is an uncategorized animal, we’ve never seen or come across this before; this animal is very big and very powerful.”
Tom Jantz watched a large, powerfully built miner rise from his chair silently, all eyes fell upon the gentle giant. “What makes us safe now? What about our families, our children, fellow workers? Will this animal strike again? What about Autumn’s Ravage?” His questions were met with approval as the crowd burst into unanimous applause demanding an answer.
The crowd was starting to get visibly agitated but the Sheriff was totally ineffective. Tom Jantz was a commanding man with great presence and respect in the community; his black security shirt was freshly pressed, which fit his toned body with precision, “I think what Thomas is trying to say, is a message we don't want to hear. This is not a random drifter, killing people and covering his tracks to make it look like an animal, this is a different type of Autumn’s Ravage,” silence fell across the hall. “Our village is under attack, we’re being ravaged, but this is different.” Tom moved away from the side wall and closer to the crowd, “This is not a who done it, this is a what done it!” He stared at the room in a defiant way, inviting a question, or a response; nothing was offered.
Thomas couldn’t stand the awkward silence, and the palpable tension in the air, “The animal that did this is still out there, we need to find it and kill it, before it does this again.”
Brian’s Mother had taken her seat and sat down, resuming her crouched position. The man in the blue coat, spurred on by malt whiskey rose to ask another question, “So what is the Sheriff and you lot,” he said pointing at the black shirts, “doing to kill this beast?”
The Sheriff panicked and threw a desperate glance towards Tom Jantz. Tom approached the stage in a cool, deliberate, and assured manner of a confident leader. Tom’s black shirted staff watched the crowd, they needed calming and the Sheriff needed an answer to spare his inept blushes. Tom took a deep breath, “You deserve the best, and the citizens of this resilient village deserve the best solution we can offer, our expert here, Thomas, believes it was an animal, admittedly it is a beast of an animal, larger than we have ever seen. Who knows what type of animal these thick dense woods is capable of hiding. Clearly there are things out there that we don't know about, but I can tell you one thing, it’s picked the wrong village to mess with. If it's a beast then it needs to be hunted, located, and exterminated. I’m a security guy, and I know when you need a job doing right, you go and get the best person for the job.” Tom straightened his back to appear taller, he knew he had the crowd on his side but now he needed to sell them on the plan. “Some of you are mighty fine hunters, moose, deer, elk, fox, wolf, and even bear, but it’s different when you’re hunting something you’ve never seen before. We need to call in the specialists. The mine always looks after the Vil
lage of Autumn, and we’d like your permission to call in the finest hunters in the land, professional hunters, Barnes & Colder, from the big city.”
Tom waited for the crowd’s reaction, a few shouted “Yes,” some punched the air, and a steady round of applause echoed around the hall. The Sheriff smiled at the crowd, trying to act as if he knew about the solution in advance, and was part of the decision. Tom smiled and nodded to the appreciative crowd, as the black shirts prolonged the applause. Tom spoke above the noise, “It’s settled then, the mine will hire Barnes & Colder to kill this beast, and we will stop Autumn’s Ravage.” It was a popular solution, but a few in the crowd remained unconvinced; in their minds, the hooded stranger was the most likely cause of the deaths, and not some large fictitious beast. The meeting lasted for another forty-five minutes with a few more people brave enough to ask meaningless questions. The Sheriff continued to hide, while on full display to the village’s critical gaze. This was not his finest hour, and he came across as weak and incompetent. If this were a political debate then Tom Jantz, the head of mine security, would have won hands down, he was self assured, confident, in control, and seemed to have all the right answers. After the meeting, it was firmly established that Tom Jantz was running this village, and the congregation gathered at the Church hall were relieved that he was there. When the meeting petered out, and people started to stream away, the crowd seemed happy with the actions taken and the decisions made.
* * * * *
The Fifth Realm - Earth
Chapter 5: Reading is for Freaks.
Westtown, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 2014.
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”