Marked for Damnation
by S.A. Tadej
Copyright © 2013 by S.A. Tadej
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
For Megan
Chapter 1
Lexie Montgomery had been driving down the lonely dark country road for what seemed like hours before she felt it was safe to make a quick stop. Seeing a little roadside cafe she could stop at, she glanced out her rearview mirror and made an abrupt turn into the small gravel parking lot. She cut the engine and looked around. Aside from her car, there were only four other vehicles in the lot.
Lexie threw her keys in her purse, took one last look around and nervously got out of the car. Her legs felt unsteady and shaky as she made her way inside the cafe. “Sit anywhere you like, darlin’,” a husky voice said, startling her back to reality. Lexie looked up at the old man. He smiled at her, revealing that he had only two teeth in his mouth.
Lexie looked around the small cafe. There was an elderly man in farmer’s overalls sitting at the counter. Aside from him, the only other customers were a young couple, that looked to be about her age, sitting in a booth in the back. Spotting a seat near a window that looked out to the road, she quickly collapsed into it. She stared out the window and nervously bit her nails until the old man interrupted her. “Here you are, ma’am,” he said as he laid a menu down in front of her.
“Thank you, sir, but that won’t be necessary. I’m kind of in a hurry, so I’ll just have a coffee to go,” Lexie replied.
The old man retrieved the menu and nodded. He started to turn away but quickly changed his mind. “Are you all right, Miss? I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but it looks to me like someone did a number on you.”
Lexie felt the panic welling up in her chest as she realized how frightening her appearance must have been. She looked up at the fragile looking old man and could see that his concern seemed genuine. She forced a smile. “I’m fine. Thank you,” she said quietly, her voice shaky. “Do you have a restroom?”
“Sure do. It’s just back there,” he replied as he pointed a shaky finger to the back of the restaurant. Then he looked Lexie over again. “You sure you’re all right, darlin’?”
Lexie nodded her head and forced another smile.
“You know, I could call someone for you if you like,” the man offered.
Call whom? Lexie thought to herself. Everyone she was close to was gone. She let out a deep breath and shook her head. “No, I’m fine, really.”
The man stared at her a few more seconds and nodded. “Well, all right then. I’ll be right back with your coffee.”
Lexie glanced out the window again before getting up and walking to the bathroom. Once inside, she locked the door and walked over to the sink. Her eyes squeezed shut. She grasped the sides of the sink and hunched over it. Tasting bile, she bent over the sink and vomited until she produced dry heaves. Her arms were trembling and her legs were still shaking as she studied herself in the mirror. Her long black hair was completely disheveled. Her deep brown eyes were glazed and bloodshot. With all the frantic crying she had done, her eyeliner and mascara had smeared around her eyes. Her dark red lipstick was smudged all around her mouth and her left cheek displayed a huge welt.
Lexie turned on the water and grabbed some paper towels with a shaky hand. “I’ve got to calm down,” she whispered to herself. She took a few deep breaths and tried to fix her makeup, noting how good the cold water felt against her hot swollen cheek.
After a quick washing of her face, Lexie turned off the water and headed back to her table. A Styrofoam cup containing her coffee was there waiting for her, but the old man was nowhere in sight. Feeling as if she would pass out, she collapsed down in her seat and began sipping her coffee. I need to get back on the road, she thought to herself. She didn’t even know where she was going. All she knew was that she had to get as far away from “them” as possible.
As she began to rise from her chair, her pulse quickened and her heart caught in her throat. God, help me, please! There he was, sitting across the room staring at her, a devilish grin displayed sarcastically on his face. Her eyes darted nervously left to right, but there was nobody else there. Dead. They’re all dead. She felt it in her gut.
Her gaze fell upon him again and their eyes locked. Those piercing brown eyes. His eyes were what had attracted her to him right from the beginning. He had said and done everything right and she had fallen in love with him. That was until she knew “what” he was. She had fought well and narrowly managed to escape. But her friends - her friends were all dead now - and she would be next, that she was sure of. Thinking back on it all now, Lexie felt so stupid. He didn’t love her. Never did. It was all just a part of his sick game.
She had never believed in monsters. As a little girl, her mother had told her there was no such thing. But now, as she looked at him, she knew that her mother had been wrong. Monsters did exist. She had come face to face with pure evil and would never be the same again. And this wasn’t a nightmare; it was her reality. She wanted to scream and scream and scream until she couldn’t scream anymore, but no sound would come out.
Finally willing herself to action, adrenaline coursing through her veins, Lexie made a futile attempt for the door; deep down knowing she could never outrun him. As she reached the door and was about to pull it open, his arms crushed around her midsection and she felt his cool breath on her neck.
“Please, Devin,” she pleaded. She heard the whimper bubble up in her throat and she knew she was going to die.
Chapter 2
I ran down the stairs of the old farmhouse and into the living room where my mother, Angela, was sitting in front of the TV shaking her head. “So sad.”
“What is?” I asked as I plopped down on the sofa next to my mother. She gave a nod toward the TV. The search is still on for 22-year-old Lexie Montgomery from Memphis, Missouri who disappeared nearly two weeks ago.
“Wow! That is sad,” I said as I bit my lower lip. In the past few months it seemed that every news story was reporting someone missing or dead. “I hope they find her,” I continued; although deep down I knew they would probably find her dead. What scared me the most was that each reported missing person or dead body was getting closer and closer in location to where I lived and the police didn’t seem to be any closer to solving it. In fact, they seemed completely clueless as to who or what was responsible.
“Not likely,” my mother responded as I stared at her. “Apparently she lived with three other girls and they were all found dead... all the blood drained from their bodies.”
Three. There was that number again. Why were the bodies recently reported always found in threes? I gulped hard as I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up from the mental image of what I had just heard. “That’s sick,” I said as I rose from the sofa. Not wanting to talk or even think about it any further, I leaned over my mother and kissed her forehead. “Well I gotta go to work. I’m closing tonight so I won’t be home til after dark.”
“Okay. Be careful, Nicole,” my mother warned.
I rolled my eyes. My mother was always a bit overprotective and in my mind I was over eighteen and could take care of myself. “In case you’ve forgotten, we live in the middle of nowheresville. A big crime out here is someone tipping a cow.” I laughed and my mother just glared at me, like she often did when she didn’t get the response she wanted. “Okay, mom. I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“Thank you,” she replied with one of her smug smiles – the same smile she always had when she won an argument. “Have you seen your brother?”
“Yeah, Tommy’s out in the barn working on his car.”
Tommy was my older brother, two years older to be exact; although, you would never know we were related by looking at us. I’m tall and thin with a porcelain complexion, pale blue eyes, and white-blond hair that falls to the middle of my back. Tommy is of average height and he’s thin but muscular. His complexion is much darker than mine, as is pretty much everyone’s, and he has brown eyes and dark brown wavy hair, which he keeps cropped short. We are as different as night and day, except that we have been best friends since I was born.
The rest of my night went by in a blur. I was so busy at the diner where I worked, that I had nearly forgotten about the horrific news story I had seen earlier that day until another one caught my attention. “Turn that up,” I yelled to Steve, the night manager, as I motioned toward the small TV above the counter. Hikers at the conservation area in Ozark County came upon a gruesome discovery today when they found three human skulls and what appeared to be teeth. Ozark County Police could only comment at the time that identities would need to be made based on dental records and would take time. In other news, police are still searching for Lexie Montgomery… I felt a chill go through my body as I remembered what my mother had told me about the poor girl’s roommates earlier that day.
“Hey! How about that coffee?” a man’s voice said, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I quickly composed myself. “Sorry, Earl. Coming right up.” I poured a cup of coffee and set it down in front of old man Earl. Then I heard the familiar bell that rang whenever someone entered the restaurant and turned my attention toward the door. “Oh shit!” I muttered under my breath. Walking toward me was my ex-boyfriend Jim. I turned to my friend Gina. “Take this next customer for me, will you? I’m going on break.”
“Nicole, wait,” Gina called after me, but I ignored her and walked into the back break room.
Jim took a seat at the counter. Gina glared at him. “Why don’t you just leave her alone, Jim?”
“A man’s gotta eat,” Jim replied sarcastically as he picked up the menu that lay in front of him.
“There are plenty of other restaurants in town.”
“I like the food here.”
“That’s bullshit, Jim. The food here isn’t even that good.”
“Well, I like it,” Jim smirked.
“I think there’s like anti-stalking laws or something like that that covers these sort of situations,” Gina remarked.
Jim just raised his eyebrows and turned his attention back to the menu he was holding.
Gina smacked her chewing gum hard as she stared at Jim, blowing a big bubble and popping it within inches of his face. She flashed him a sarcastic smile and turned to grab a coffee cup, placing it before him.
I filled the salt and pepper shakers on the long counter, the last of my closing outs for the night. Screwing the top on the last one, I pushed through the swinging doors to the back room to punch out. Then I grabbed the leftover food that would’ve been thrown out and wrapped it up to drop off at the local soup kitchen on my way home.
“Bye, Steve,” I called out to my boss as I headed for the door, careful to hide the wrapped up leftovers from his sight. For some reason we weren’t allowed to take the leftovers home or donate them to food banks. They were supposed to be thrown in the garbage. With all the starving people in the world, it was such a waste. So whenever I could get away with taking the leftovers unnoticed, I would – and I would take them straight over to the local soup kitchen, run by a lovely young lady named Melanie.
I fumbled through my purse, retrieved my keys, and unlocked my car door. I put the key in the ignition, but it wouldn’t start. I looked around and saw that the battery light was on. “Oh come on!” I said out loud. I looked back at the restaurant. The doors were locked and Steve would never hear me from the back office if I pounded on the door. And I knew that the diner phone was already set to go straight to a recording, so calling Steve was also out of the question.
I grabbed my purse off the passenger seat to find my cell phone, figuring I could call my brother to come help me. As I was dialing his number, a loud knock on my window caused me to jump in my seat. I looked out expecting to see Jim or Steve, but instead found myself peering into beautiful piercing brown eyes. It was there, sitting in my car after work, stranded, that I first saw “him”.
“Need some help?” the man asked as he grinned at me.
I rolled my window down halfway. “My car won’t start. I think my battery is dead,” I responded.
The man smiled at me again and I couldn’t help but smile back. “I’ve got jumper cables in my truck,” he said as he pointed to a shiny new black pickup truck parked a few spaces over. “I’ll be right back.”
I flipped the visor down and checked myself in the small mirror while he was gone. He’s pretty cute, I thought to myself as I reached for the tube of pink lipstick I kept in my purse. I quickly applied it and returned the tube to my purse just as he was parking his truck in the vacant space next to my car. I watched him jump down from his truck with jumper cables in his hands. His brown hair, short in front and long in back, tied back by a ponytail, was blowing in the gentle breeze. As I continued to look him over, I noticed how pale his skin looked against his black t-shirt. I thought it was strange for him to be so pale in the middle of summer, but figured he must work indoors or something and probably didn’t get much sun.
“Wanna pop the hood for me?” he asked as he stood outside my window.
“Oh, duh!” I said as I smacked my forehead and reached down for the hood release.
“Thanks.” He smiled at me again and walked to the front of my car. His movements were so graceful. When he walked it was as if he was floating on air. I waited as he hooked the cables to the two batteries. “Okay, wanna give it a try for me?”
I turned the key and my car roared to a start. I pressed my foot on the gas a few times as he unhooked the cables and slammed the hood closed. Then he reappeared at my window.
“Thank you so much, really,” I said as I flashed him a big smile.
He leaned down into my half opened window and grinned at me. “My pleasure. You can repay me by giving me your phone number,” he replied confidently.
I blushed and grinned back as I reached for my purse and quickly wrote my number down and handed it to him. He took the tiny piece of paper and read it. “Nicole, huh? I like that.”
He smiled ear to ear. “My name’s Devin.”
I made a quick stop at the soup kitchen on my way home and dropped the leftover food off with Melanie, promising to come back and help serve meals on my day off. We chatted for a bit and then I drove home.
I pulled into the gravel drive and cut the ignition. As I was getting out of the car, I noticed light coming from under the barn door. I slammed my car door shut and headed in the direction of the big barn. As I neared closer I could hear the blare of Tommy’s music coming from inside along with the familiar zip noise of his air socket gun.
My brother had always been into cars and loud music. Most of his free time was spent in that old barn which he had turned into a shop. He was the guy in town that everyone came to when they needed their cars fixed. He charged a decent rate and he really enjoyed doing it. It hadn’t taken long for him to make a name for himself in the small town.
I walked around to the small side door and walked in. I spotted Tommy’s legs sticking out from under the car. I walked over to him and lightly kicked his leg. Tommy rolled out on the creeper from under the car and looked up at me. “Hey, sis! What’s up?”
“Not much. Just got home from work. I wanted to see what you were up to. Thought maybe we could take the four wheelers out for a bit,” I shouted over the loud music.
r /> Tommy looked over at the clock on the wall. “Yeah, I guess I could use a break. Why don’t you go change and I’ll get them gassed up and ready to go.”
I looked down at my waitress uniform, a pink and white button-down dress that came just above my knee, and I laughed. “Yeah, I’ll be right back.”
The old stairs creaked as I ran up them to my room. Once I reached it, I changed into a pair of cutoff jean shorts and tank top, leaving on the chain with the medal of Saint Michael that I never took off. Then I ran back out to the barn. Tommy was already sitting on his quad revving the engine. I jumped on mine and started it up. “Try to keep up,” I teased as I smirked and took off in front of Tommy.
Tommy was quick at my heels. We rode our four wheelers through the large fields and up and down the deep ditches, splattering mud about as we did. Tommy soon gained the lead and I followed him over to the small pond we frequented. I parked my quad next to Tommy’s and shut it off. I looked over at Tommy and grinned.
“What?” Tommy asked.
“I almost had you that time,” I giggled.
“Yeah, well haven’t you heard? Almost doesn’t count,” Tommy teased as he climbed off, gave me a playful shove, and sat in the grass at the edge of the pond. I followed him and we sat in silence for a bit.
“So, did you hear about that missing girl on the news?” I asked. I just couldn’t get it off my mind and I wanted to know what he thought of it all. The stories seemed to touch me deep within my soul. For some odd reason I couldn’t explain, I felt I would soon be a part of it all.
“Yeah, mom told me all about it,” Tommy replied in a half laugh.
I felt my cell phone start to vibrate in my pocket. “Hang on. I’m getting a call,” I said as I reached into my pocket and retrieved my phone. I looked at the phone display but didn’t recognize the number. “Huh. Wonder who this could be.”
Tommy just stared at me.
“Hello?”