Sequel to "The Evil That Men Do". Thanks to my beta readers Renee' and Lali.
Disclaimer: American Gothic characters and canon belong to Shaun Cassidy and Sam Raimi; plot and any original characters belong to me. No copyright infringement intended.
Wedged into a large pile of dirt next to an unearthed grave, the handle of the shovel glinted in the first hints of sunlight. Wood crackled and a crowbar was tossed out of the grave to join the shovel. Hinges creaked, then a ray of sun shone upon a figure dragging the recently deceased occupant out of the coffin.
Dawn had arrived in Trinity, South Carolina.
"Caleb Temple! I've told you a million times you can't go up there!" the Juniper House receptionist declared as an orderly hauled the boy over to the information desk.
"Caught him in the stairwell tryin' to sneak up to the patient floors," the orderly said.
"Please. I just need to talk to Doctor Matt," Caleb said, trying to shake off the orderly's grip on his arm.
"Honey, don't you understand that there's some dangerous folks here? And Matt Crower is not allowed visitors. I keep tellin' you that."
As if on cue, screaming drifted down to the reception area. "No! No! Get it away from me! No!"
The orderly shook his head. "Must be that new patient. They ought to change his meds or something."
"You see what I'm talkin' about?" the receptionist said to Caleb.
He frowned and pulled away from the orderly. "Doctor Matt ain't dangerous, especially to me. All I want to do is talk to him. I'm not goin' to help him escape or anything."
The receptionist reached for the phone. "This has to stop. I'm callin' the sheriff."
Caleb started to speak, then stopped. "Fine," he said, stomping over to a chair and throwing himself in it. He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at her. "Go ahead."
"Get it away from me!" Stan Drey yelled as he backed into one of the tables in the sanitarium's common area. The patient seated there looked at him dazedly and then returned to stare into the distance. An orderly shook his head in amusement and turned back to settling a patient in a chair by one of the windows.
"Aw, you scared of a little spider?" another patient taunted him. "'Fraid it's goin' to eat you up?"
Drey's head jerked up at that, staring at the man. Quickly he looked back at the floor. "Oh God! Where is it? Where did it go?" His eyes widened as he turned his head back and forth searching for the elusive insect while continuing to back away.
The other patient laughed, following as Drey stumbled over a chair and onto the floor. More patients joined in the laughter. He crouched down by a trembling Drey who had scrambled against a wall staring as the insect skittered across the floor. "Better be careful. You keep actin' like this, they're goin' to lock you in a room all alone in the dark. They'll put one of them straitjackets on you and..."
"Then you'll have some peace and quiet," a voice said as a foot came down and crushed the spider.
"Crower," the other patient snarled, standing up.
"Yes?" Matt Crower smiled pleasantly at him. "Did you want something, Riley, or were you just offering to move out of the way?"
"You're not causin' any trouble, are you, Matt?" an orderly called from across the room. "You just got some privileges. Don't think you want to lose 'em already."
"No, no trouble," Matt said as he helped Drey to his feet. "Right, Riley?"
"Uh, thanks," Drey said, watching in confusion as Riley mumbled something under his breath and walked quickly away.
"Matt Crower." Matt offered his hand.
"Stan Drey." Drey shook his hand. "Sorry. I've got a bit of a problem with bugs and, uh –" he shivered "- beetles."
"Kind of figured that," Matt said as they walked over to the windows.
"So what's the story with that guy?" Drey asked, inclining his head in Riley's direction.
Matt shrugged. "He's been here a couple of months. I don't know his story. Just your usual bully, I guess." He stared out the window.
"Well, he certainly seemed scared of you."
Matt shrugged again as he continued looking out the window. "I may have…a bit of a reputation."
Drey waited for him to explain, but Matt just stood there smiling as a patch of sunlight lit upon his face. Drey looked out the window to see what had captivated the other man. The sun burned brightly in the sky. Some patients sat in chairs scattered throughout gardens awash with colorful flowers while others strolled along the grassy paths, all under the well-trained eye of hospital staff walking the grounds. Drey looked back at Matt. "See something out there you like?"
"Everything," Matt replied without taking his gaze away from the outside. "I…just… haven't seen the sun in a long time."
"Been here awhile?"
"Seems like forever sometimes. I'm not really sure how long. It's been months, I know. They don't exactly give you clocks or calendars in isolation."
"Isolation?" Startled, Drey looked over the other man with a practiced eye. Matt certainly didn't seem like a threat and he'd seen plenty of dangerous people during his time with the state police. "What'd you do to end up in here?"
Matt turned to look at him and smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Tried to kill the sheriff."
"So you cuttin' class now?" Lucas Buck broke the silence as he glanced over at Caleb in the passenger seat of the Crown Victoria.
Caleb continued staring at the windshield.
"And you're goin' to Juniper House even though you've been told not to?"
Caleb sighed heavily and turned to look out the passenger side window.
"Just what exactly do you have to talk to Doc Crower about? You need to talk to anyone, you talk to me."
Caleb rolled his eyes and sighed again.
"Miss Holt know you're doin' this? Not really proper behavior for a responsible guardian. 'Course, if you don't care that she could get in a lot of trouble for…"
"You…leave…her…alone." Caleb emphasized each word as he glared at Lucas through narrowed eyes.
Lucas observed him for a moment. "I'm not the one doin' anything, boy. You're the one skippin' school and tryin' to break into Juniper House." He parked the car outside the school. "Makes it look like she's not doin' her job. If anything happens, it's your own fault."
Caleb's face crumpled as if he was about to cry. He wrenched open the door, flung himself out of the car and slammed the door – hard. "I hate you!" he declared, then he turned and ran up the sidewalk and into the school without looking back.
"You talking about Lucas Buck?" Drey asked.
Matt nodded.
The state cop leaned back against the window as he studied the other man. Matt didn't look like a killer to him, but if there was one thing he'd learned as a police officer it was that looks could be deceiving. And apparently Matt had only attempted to kill Buck, so technically he wasn't a killer. "Well, no wonder that other guy was afraid of you. I don't imagine there are many people around who've tried to kill Buck and lived to tell about it."
"Sounds like you've heard of him."
"Heard of him?" Drey repeated with a harsh laugh. "How about dealt with him? How about almost getting eaten alive by – " he shuddered "– beetles because of him? How about spending months in rehab and undergoing plastic surgery to repair the damage? How about ending up here terrified of bugs on account of him?"
Matt crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like typical Lucas Buck," he said. "I'm almost afraid to ask though – eaten alive by beetles?"
Drey shuddered again and held up a hand. "I can't talk about it. You saw how I was with that damn spider."
"Seems like you'll have to talk about it at some point," Matt said. "It's the only way to deal with it – and the only way you'll get out of here."
"Oh no," Drey said. "I'm in here voluntarily. Nobody committed me. I can leave whenever I want."
"Uh huh."
"No, really," Drey insisted. "After all the surgeries and physical therapy, I went back to work, but then I'd question a suspect and a spider would be hanging in the corner of the room or I'd check out a crime scene and there'd be a roach on the floor. I'd lose it." He shook his head. "It was embarrassing. The higher-ups basically told me to take a leave of absence and get my act together."
"Well, you're lucky then." Matt sighed. "I don't think I'll ever get out of here. Even if the psychiatrists all think I'm no longer a danger to the community, Lucas Buck will never let that happen."
"Come on, he may carry the badge and have influence in certain areas and be a complete and total asshole, but he's not all powerful. You really think he could stop you from being released if you made a full recovery?"
Matt smiled and shook his head. "You haven't been in Trinity as long as I have."
"I wish to God I'd never set foot in it," Drey declared. "But isn't there someone on the outside checking on you, trying to get you out? What about your family?"
Matt thought briefly of his wife and daughter, glad at the moment that they weren't alive to see what had become of him. "They're dead," he said simply. "And I haven't seen anyone from town. They don't let me make phone calls. I don't even know if I'm allowed to have visitors. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was still in isolation."
"Well, that's not right," Drey said as they walked over to a table. The two patients sitting there playing cards glanced up at them with a scowl on their faces. When they saw Matt, they quickly scooped up the cards and scrambled away from the table.
"Say, is there anybody you want to send a letter to?" Drey asked as they sat down. "My sister's supposed to come visit today and see how I'm settling in. You can give me the letters and I'll pass them on to her."
Matt looked at him thoughtfully.