The Supernatural World of Vladimir and Viktor, Chapter 65

Tonight was coloring night at the Brooks home. Eddie had warned Dorothy to keep the boys away from the television and Internet and she was prepared. She pulled adult coloring books from a box of crossword and word search magazines and displayed them on the livingroom table along with a hundred colored pencils. Songs from the 50's played from her music collection on the computer.

It was exciting enough to pull the boys away from a picture puzzle on a nearby cardboard table that she had them work on through the afternoon. The setting sun left deep shadows on the snow fort outside. The coffee and the tamales Dorothy had fixed, made the whole event seem cozy and pleasant.

So when it came to bedtime the boys were more that willing to climb into bed to sleep. Dorothy settled into a comfy chair to smoke a Divino and read before finally turning off lights and heading to bed herself.

It was much later when Dorothy woke to the sounds of bigfoot cries in the distance through that of the wind blowing through the firs and spruces. They came closer, so she finally got up to check the cameras at her computer.

Viktor shuffled quietly into the room to look over Dorothy's should.

"What are the red dots?" he asked.

"Eyes of the bigfoots," Dorothy said. "They reflect off of the house light."

"They're coming into the light! What're they carrying?"

"A bigfoot body. They laid it on the table outside. I'm going to check."

"I'll come along and protect you."

"No! You stay in here with your brother."

"What's going on? Oh, wow!" Vladimir was now up and peering over Dorothy's other shoulder.

The boys would not let Dorothy go out by herself, so the three of them ventured quietly out the door with her in front.

The bigfoots noticed them and the commotion stopped. They soundlessly returned to the woods and the same red eyes watched from there.

Dorothy took that to mean she was expected to do something. So they approached the body on the table. It had been seriously injured and was now dead. A large red rock had been placed on the body – a chunk of argilite.

"Viktor, go back and grab me a sheet from the bathroom closet. A pretty one."

Viktor obeyed and returned with the sheet and Dorothy laid over the body up to its neck. Then she placed the argilite rock back in place on top of the sheet.

"Lara wrote that they imitate human ceremonies. They understand that much."

She spoked some words to the dead creature and finally pulled the sheet over its face. Then she directed the boys back to the house. The bigfoots returned to their deceased comrade and began to wail again.

"It's going to have to be buried in the daytime. I guess I'll call into town to rent a back hoe. I don't know if that rock is supposed to be buried with it..."

"It's a headstone," declared Vladimir. "There are three more of them at the edge of the woods. Those are graves back there. I bet that lady buried three others sometime ago and they saw her do it."

"And I can dig the grave," insisted Viktor, extending his long dragon claws. "If these claws can't dig a big hole in the ground, I can't imagine what can."

Dorothy nodded, "Okay. I guess we'll have a burial to perform in the morning. Right now, everyone back to bed!"

"So, what do you do, Andy?" Cheryl asked Andros at the bar.

"Actually, my name's Andros. Dean calls me Andy."

"Ah." Cheryl looked back across the bar at Dean and Renee. "Our friends seem to be doing well at their table."

"Yeah. Dean's needed to get out and socialize for some time. I'm just here to watch out for him."

"You're watching out for him?"

Andros held up the car keys to Baby.

"Oh, so you're designated driver," noted Cheryl. "I'll watch your alcohol intake for you."

"Thanks, but I won't be driving. Dean loves his Baby and no one else can drive it. What I do is, if he's sober enough I give him the keys and he drives us to a hotel where a couple of friends are. If not, then he sleeps in the front and I sleep in the back seat until the Dunkins a few blocks away opens and we go have coffee. Then he gets the keys and we go find out if any of us four got to bed tonight."

"Hmmm. Sounds workable," said Cheryl. "But what if he leaves with Renee?"

"Then I sleep in the back of the car and hold the key hostage if he doesn't keep me updated over the phone where he is. How about you two? Do you have a strategy?"

"Well, I live nearby and she parks in front of my place. We don't leave without each other, so your friend won't be leaving with her. The best he can do is set a date to meet later in a more open public place. Then, when we both are ready to go, we leave together and go to my place. And we have protection besides."

Cheryl revealed where she keeps her knife. "So what do you do?"

Andros reached down and pulled out his wallet and showed her his FBI badge.

Cheryl flipped the badge back to reveal Andros' drivers ID. "And you live in Memphis. So, Andros Pesti, what's an FBI agent from Memphis doing in Chicago?"

"Well, you know the new three-story brick place being built?" Andros confided. "We've been tracking its owner here from New Jersey. There's been some unusual disappearances associated with her and some gruesome deaths. It's something my unit specializes in, so here we are."

"Wow," said Cheryl. "That place is creepy. I've heard stories. They must be true."

"Stories?"

"Well, first, the work crews keep changing. Like every couple of weeks. The bar gets new visitors from there that often. Then they are gone. After a while former workers stop in looking for co-workers that disappeared. When some of the out-of-town crews left, not all of them returned home. And there is usually only one crew at a time, but the workers hear other activity going on but they can't find anyone.

"The weirdest was earlier today. The crew was in the basement when two guys for the owners came in and opened the elevator and some guy in armor stepped out and sliced their heads off. That crew won't go back there; they got drunk here and decided to travel back home."

Andros made a mental note to tell Sam that Captain Fyter had become a part of the local lore.

"That all sounds similar to what I've heard," Andros told her. "We're looking into it. Just you and your friend stay away from there. Don't go in. In fact don't even go near it, especially if someone that comes here suggests it. Some of them have a way of luring people into danger."

"Do what he says," interjected Dean from behind them. He and Renee had returned.

"Actually, get her phone number, Andy, and have her keep you updated," Dean continued. "We need to get back to the hotel and talk with Sammy and Jill."

"Okay," said Andros, and then asked Cheryl, "Are you guys headed home now?"

"We're probably hanging around for a couple more hours," Cheryl replied. "Maybe we'll hear more."

"Just don't mention Andy and me," urged Dean. "You can get hurt if the wrong person that knew you knew about us. Don't be too obvious. We don't want you girls to disappear, too."

"No prob," assured Renee. "We can take care of ourselves."

"We will stay away from the building and anyone interested in what we know, right Renee? Right?" Cheryl hoped to stress the seriousness with Renee.

"Okay, right." said Renee, but she did not really sound convincing.

Phone numbers were exchanged and Dean and Andros left to meet up with Jill and Sam.