This chapter seriously fucks with a grown man's psyche. Hearing then seeing dead children will do that. So will watching them lead others to god knows where
*wda*
How was this his life?
Radcliff once again found himself standing at the scene of a tragedy specifically involving the Burgess 7, or rather 5.
Well 5 just became 3.
Freak accident didn't begin to cover it. According to reports, the twins were on their way home from the store when Caleb, the one never without his orange hat stopped to tie his shoe. His brother Claude held both bags while he waited beside him. A driver lost control over a bit of black ice and hopped the curb plowing straight into them. Their small bodies were pinned to the very building they'd just left with such force, the wall was now covered in spider webbed cracks.
They were pronounced dead on the scene. Probably had no idea it even happened. The driver did loose control but the ocycodone he'd been popping all day without a prescription didn't help his judgment or motor skills at all. The 22 year old's life now included at least 5 years in prison.
An open and shut case of wrong place, wrong time. Right?
Right?
Not likely. As he interviewed witnesses, bizarre things started to crop up.
For one how the boys behaved right before. They hung out on the drugstore for a long while just browsing. The investigator started to mention to the elderly pharmacist that just because the town's non-caucasian populous was rather small didn't mean racial profiling was okay, the man cut him off.
"Hush you ninny. The Whitmore boys came in every day after school rain or shine since they'd been youngins. Never had a problem once. Polite everytime, they said hi and asked me how I was. Always lookin for new comics. Caleb bought a snickers with a coke and Claude got a milky way with ginger ale whether the new issues arrived or not then they left. In and out 15 minutes tops. Today was so strange. The two of em milled about a good half hour before they left." Mr. Gladwell cleaned his glasses.
"No bags, they didn't make their usual purchase?"
"Well, they did but...they didn't take 'em out the store. Dropped two half eaten candy bars in the trash and never opened their pop. Left the latest 'Adventures of Silverstone' in the plastic on the counter. Both looked a might peakid too. What else struck me odd detective is they were concerned about time. Kept checkin their phones, waiting til 4:39. Walked out at few minutes before that though."
Back the hell up. Thaddeus Burgess High let out around 3:45 on Wednesdays and probably would have taken the twins about 20 minutes to walk to Gladwell Pharmacy. What were they waiting for-
"Claude noticed the time first, said they couldn't be late to meet Jack."
Not possible.
"Any other names you heard?"
"Recon Caleb smiled about hugging Pippa and Monty again. The girl that always wore that white hat. She died on Christmas didn't she? Lil Jewish boy passed after Thanksgiving. What on earth was he on about? Excuse me, I gotta get back to the counter. Be back in a few. Comin Mrs. Irving."
Are you serious? This Jack character again got linked to his little friends' deaths, however tangentially. The surviving Felder boy mentioned Monty had been babbling about a Jack telling him to let go right before he blacked out. Pippa's diary talked about how happy it made her to finally be with her 'brothers' Jack and Monty. Now two that just died seemed excited about seeing the three of them. Two of which were dead as doornails.
One of which had never been seen by any of the parents as far as he knew. Who, based upon secondary accounts and over heard conversations, was probably a man in his mid to late twenties by now.
"Why is this guy obsessed with these children? 4:39 is about the time the car ran those two over...Is this guy somehow orchestrating their deaths?"
Yep. Those thoughts sounded just as insane out loud as it did in his head.
While pondering, he noticed the last three kids behind the yellow tape. None of them looked horrified by the scene, not even the youngest. Eventually the trio just walked away like they'd watched a vaguely interesting street performance.
"Know I'm going to regret this."
Exiting into the alley, he managed to catch part of their conversation. And the distinct feeling he was missing a lot more than what had been said before he caught up to them.
"Did it hurt? For any of you?" Jaime asked the open air beside him then nodded. "Oh."
"I know it hurt when you died Jack." Sophie sniffled. Her teary eyes trained on the same spot next to her brother. Suddenly she started to giggle as if being tickled. "I give! It's in the past already! Put me down Jack! Uncle!"
Jaime and Cupcake laughed. Even harder when the ten year old seemed to LIFT OFF THE GROUND during her giggle fit. Uncle was the magic word apparently since her sneakers once more touched the sidewalk.
That...was a trick of the light. Or something. It had to be.
"In a few more weeks it will all be over. Wonder if my family will even notice when I'm gone." Cupcake frowned. She paused and looked to her left seemingly at nothing. "Thanks Pip. Race you guys to the park!"
With that the group hauled ass down the sidewalk. No one noticing the weird conversation. Not one head turned from the accident site, even when the Bennett boy shouted in frustration.
"Awe no fair! We can't fly yet!"
Radcliff swore he heard chuckling in the wind.
*wda*
A few days later, he sat at his desk the three incident reports on his desk. He couldn't get this out of his head.
That's another thing. Neither teen attempted to get out of harms way. In fact, they'd held hands and closed their eyes. For the third time, the cause of death wasn't what it seemed. Hypothermia killed them not the impact. Autopsy had no explanation.
In front of his computer at the station, he threw 'Jack Frost', 'children' and 'death' into Google for the hell of it. Not sure what he expected to find but this wasn't it.
A lot of sites about the legend of Jack Frost, the sprite that brought winter and nipped at your nose with his frigid winds. Plenty referenced the stop motion children's movies that featured him. Some were about horror movie versions. The one that got to him though happened to be titled Prayers for Saint Jackson.
/The world is filled with beings that watch over us, children especially. St. Jackson is the shepherd of the lost and broken of them. Young ones pray to him when past pleas have fallen on deaf ears. He guides the dead and dying to the world beyond even when they don't know he leads the way./
Sam didn't read much further, the eerie music playing on the site earned him too many weird looks.
"Hey, I'll be back Mark. Tell the Chief I needed a break."
"Will do." A hand waved from behind the adjacent monitor.
With a sigh he grabbed his coat and hopped into his little blue jeep. Driving on the back roads always cleared his mind. After a short while though, he saw that wasn't going to happen today.
At least twenty kids were just wandering down the shadowed rural road he picked for a drive. A few more appeared out of a thicket of trees to join their friends. The uniforms suggested they attended Old Forge Academy in the neighboring town of the same name.
All were following four kids in the lead with white hair, pale skin and blue clothing. Two were European in complexion: a smaller, mousy boy with glasses and a girl with a dancer's build and dark cap. Two were a faded brown color, identical boys, one wearing a blue hat similar to the girl's.
Exiting his car to get there attention, Sam waved his hands and shouted. This road would lead them home on a bus but at this point in the route Burgess was still much closer. They'd be exhausted before they were halfway there!
"What are you doing?! Town is the other way!"
Some stumbled breifly seemingly confused. Unsure who to follow. Blinking wearily, a few even turned to face him.
The young girl of the group with white hair glared at him, raising her voice to drown him out. His stomach knotted when he realized she wasn't talking. She was singing.
"Come little children I'll take thee away,
Into a land of Enchantment.
Come little children the time's come to play,
Here in my garden of Shadows.
Follow sweet children I'll show thee the way,
Through all the pain and the Sorrows.
Weep not poor children for life is this way,
Murdering beauty and Passions.
Hush now dear children it must be this way
To weary of life and Deceptions.
Rest now my children for soon we'll away,
Into the calm and the Quiet
Come little children I'll take thee away,
Into a land of Enchantment
Come little children the time's come to play
Here in my garden of Shadows..."
That same creepy song playing on the St Jackson website. If she were humming it, it would match the instrumental version to a tee. By the time she began to sing it over, they were all were walking at the same pace in the same direction again. Oblivious to the grown man frantically trying to get their attention.
"You should just give up." The hat wearing twin spoke.
"They can't hear you over the song." His brother added.
"Where would you take them anyway?
"The living can't console the dead."
WHAT?!
Literally two seconds ago, a considerable stretch of road separated Radcliff and the stragglers of the group. Now the demonic double mint twins were far too close for comfort. Wait a minute...
"The Whitmore twins?" They were almost unrecognizable. Brown eyes were now a piercing blue...
"Yes?" Both chimed.
Wow.
That's...
Not...
Disturbing...
"You can see us," Afro spoke first this time.
"so you must believe." His hatted sibling finished.
"Looks like you're freaking out though." Afro laughed.
"Are you okay mister?"
Um, no. Sam knew that acid he dropped in college would come back to haunt him one day. Yeah, this was a hallucination.
"You might wanna snap outta it."
"There's a truck coming."
On cue, a loud horn blared.
"Off the road dumb ass!" The irrate driver yelled as he went by
"Stop! Don't you see-!" The vehicle kept on rolling down the deserted street. Not a child in sight. "What the hell is going on?!"
For a moment, he kept staring at the green truck disappearing in the disstance. Until vibrations against his thigh brought him out of the daze.
"Sam where the hell are you? Been trying to radio you for an hour!"
"I-uh-what's up Sandra?" Still rather out of it, the detective massaged his eyes before trudging back to his jeep.
"A busload of students from Old Forge never made it back after a field trip here." Dispatch sighed. "The teacher's cellphone last pinged along Sailstone Road."
"Sailstone?"
The name of the back road he was currently standing on.
/Fucking hell. I'm losing my god damned mind./
*wda*
Yeah... I let Siren, my dark muse, influence this chapter. So, Sam Radcliff is slowly unraveling things. Now what'll come undone first? The mystery or his sanity?
FYI
Anybody (admin, various trolls and assorted asshats) wanna bitch and moan about copyrighted material, "Come Little Children" is a public domain work. Like most nursery rhymes (however creepy), nobody really knows who wrote it so no one has legitimate license. Not even Disney for it's partial use in Hocus Pocus.
All anyone is certain of is Edgar Allen Poe probably didn't write this, it's not in any of his published or unpublished works.
Reviews are like hugs! Sirensoundwave out
