Chapter One
Mayor Warren leaned back into his office chair, sliding his glasses further up his nose and frowning as he looked over one sheet of many files of paperwork piled up on his desk. Taxes for the city, complaints and requests from many of its residents. As much as the man loved his job, he had to admit this was not one of its perks.
A slight tap on his door made him look up and Mayor Warren straightened, pulling at the edges of his crisp suit and smoothing it down to make sure it was free of any wrinkles. Although he set his face into a deep scowl, annoyed at being interrupted secretly he was relieved to have an excuse to leave the paperwork alone from the moment.
"Come in." He said gruffly. Terra, his receptionist eased inside of the office her nervousness plastered all over her face. The mayor fixed the young woman with a hawk-eyed stare "I told you I didn't want to be interrupted for the next hour or two."
Automatically a dismayed look spread across the receptionist's face, every employee of his all were terrified of him. "I…I know sir, but-"
"No 'Buts' " Warren barked "My order was my order and being that I am the mayor of Normal Valley and your employer I expect them to be obeyed when I give them, Is that clear?"
Terra blushed and bowed her head "It is, Mayor Warren… but there is a situation and…and" she stammered and trailed off, seeing the look on the Mayors face.
Didn't he just make it clear several hours earlier that he did not want to be disturbed? And yet here she was and she didn't look like she was leaving yet.
Suddenly he remembered something "Terra where's my coffee?"
Terra was caught off guard by that "…Sir?" the Mayor sighed "My coffee. The coffee that I asked you to bring me over an hour ago. Is it really this difficult for you to follow simple orders?"
The receptionist flinched at the biting note in the Mayors voice, "I'm sorry!" she gasped "Really, really sorry. I forgot let me go get it for you now." She turned and made her way to the door, more than relieved to escape from her pushy, oversized boss.
Mayor Warren narrowed his eyes and spoke in a acid tone "Stop. I didn't tell you to go anywhere. Now, I'm assuming you came in here when I told you not to for a reason, hopefully other than to showcase your incompetence. What was that reason." His beady eyes bore down on his assistant "And for your sake it better be worth my time."
Terra, flushed and at the same time infuriated by Warren's cold treatment of her clenched her jaw and took a moment to compose herself before turning around to face him, struggling not to show how shattered her nerves were at that moment.
"Oh yes. A few of the members of your Neighborhood Watch want to speak with you, sir."
Mayor Warren perked up just a bit with interest. That was a program he had decided to keep up with so he knew what was going on at all times in his town. Anything shady or suspicious seen by them, was reported straight to him so he could take care of it.
But not much went on in this town which was a fact Mayor Warren took pride in. But with every city there was that one flaw, that one imperfection, that one problem that could throw everything he worked for off balance. And that was something he would not stand for.
"Oh. And what is it that they want to talk about?" he asked slowly, careful not to reveal how eager he was to find out. Terra shook her head "I don't know. But they're pretty riled up; do you want me to send them to you?"
Warren nodded and flicked his hand towards the door "Yes. And after you do that get me my coffee but don't come back in here until I call for you."
Terra turned and quickly left the room returning a few minutes later with a large crowd of visitors.
Linda Crisfield, the head of the Neighborhood watch bustled into the room, her skirts switching about her meaty legs. "Mayor Warren!" she shouted in her overly loud voice rushing right up to his desk.
The Mayor leaned away from her subtly giving her a slight nod "Mrs. Crisfield. You wanted to speak to me, what about?"
Linda pursed her lips "What about, what about? You mean you haven't heard what's been going on around here lately?" her crowd of followers, mainly other women and, Warren noticed with some surprise a few kids. He frowned up at Linda, annoyed by the way she was addressing him, without the slightest bit of regard of his position. Everyone here were almost afraid to raise their voices over a whisper when they spoke to him yet here she was leaning over his desk and practically screaming in his ear.
An edge crept into the Mayors voice "No, Mrs. Crisfield. But I'd like to know once you take the time to tell me."
Linda went on like she didn't catch what he said or maybe she just didn't care. "Our children have been having these…dreams. Or these nightmares I guess you can call them. It all started for me with my little Roger, but I didn't think much of it of course, children do have wild imaginations." She trailed off and glanced over her shoulder at the group then went on "But, talking to the other moms I found of that all of their kids have been having the same dreams too!"
Mayor Warren scowled; he was not wasting his time to hear this ridiculous gossip. What did they expect him to do about some dreams? "All of you must be giving your kids too much sugar before bed. Mrs. Crisfield I am a very busy man and I have more important things to do than listen to you tell me campfire tales." He didn't bother to disguise the scorn in his voice and a surprised look came across Linda's face.
Behind her the group of Neighborhood Watcher's muttered amongst themselves until a voice spoke up "But Mayor Warren! You don't understand. What these kids are saying, it's scary. No, it's more than that it's downright disturbing! Oh you should hear the things they tell us about!"
A thin woman with waist length black hair took a timid step forward "She's right. The things they say, it's insane! It's not normal. It's almost like the things he does." She shuddered as she said the last part of that sentence, like she felt a chill. At once the others nodded their heads and exchanged horrified looks it was like him.
Linda was back into control and she gave her agreement. "Lucille's right. And you know how those kids love to go hanging around that creepers mansion at all times of the day."
More voices spoke up, tainted with a bit of anger. "That's right!" "I don't allow my child to go anywhere near that place."
Mayor Warren placed his hands on his desk, watching the people ranting on in front of him. "You're all speaking about that one, the man that lives in the mansion. You're saying that you think he's responsible for what's happening?" his beady eyes shone with a fierce light, it was no secret that he harbored a strong dislike for that man. Maybe people just didn't know how deep it ran.
Linda nodded her assent again "Who else! No one other than that freak would cause something like this. He can't be mentally sane you know, he must be doing this as some sort of sick trick, to get revenge on us. He's not safe to have around us, and our children."
Yet another woman spoke up from the group "You all heard what happened to Anna's kid, Timothy when he went poking around that house." Suddenly everyone quieted down and looked at each other.
Mayor Warren stared curiously at the lady who spoke "I didn't hear about this. What happened?" he wasn't pleased that he had to ask when everyone else already knew what was going on. He was the mayor, he should know before anyone else.
The lady ran her hands along her jeans and looked down sheepishly, having the attention on her now "Ah..well, Timothy was out messing around with some of his friends. They dared him to go up to the house and knock on the door so he did, and he didn't come back. They saw him go up the path to the house but they didn't go with him."
The Mayor nodded, processing all of this. "So he's missing." It wasn't a question. After a few more moments of silence he looked up, a smirk twitching across the corner of his mouth "Tomorrow I want you all to come back here. We're going to have a discussion and then…we'll be paying this circus show runaway a visit."