Chapter 6: Police Brutality
We arrived at the Poho police station a little while ago and Trish and Darry were calling our parents. I was standing a few feet away from them just looking at the bulletin board with the numerous missing person fliers. There were way more than at the rest stop and all of them disappeared around the same time, 23 years ago. I felt really bad for the families affected, to never really know what happened to your loved ones had to be the most painful experience ever. I felt even worse at the fact that I actually recognize some of the faces from the pictures. A lot of them were the faces of the poor souls stuck to the walls of that church. I felt horrible, I wanted so much to tell the police, but I had doubts that they would believe me. What were the odds that a young girl like me would solve multiple missing person cases all at once? Some cops are very prideful and want to be praised for solving cold cases. I knew that not all cops are like that and that the cops around here actually take time to investigate even the wildest claims. I just thought that since the first two cops had a hard time believing us, that the officers here wouldn't believe us either.
I watched as an officer brought in a man in cuffs and he was apparently a regular. The sergeant knew him by name and even asked what he boosted tonight. He was a well-known car thief. The officers took him towards the lock up and as he passed us, I noticed he took a look at Trish. That made me angry, but I let it go since we would be out of there shortly. Trish was telling mom to tell Dad to stop shouting and reassuring her that we were all okay. Trish was explaining that we did not want to wait for them, and we just wanted to get the hell out of there. Darry came up next to me and took a look at the fliers as Trish finished talking with our folks. She then joined us after hanging up.
"Dad." She said stretching the word dad out in a smug tone.
"Thought I wrecked the car." Darry said, knowing the Dad would think the worst.
I smiled as they started to engage in another insult contest, but that was short lived. A lady came in and said our names in a very worried tone. We looked at her and wondered who she was and how she knew our name. She said our names again and then made a bee line for us; the sergeant apparently knew her since he called out her name. She came over and shook Darry's hand, introduced herself and asked if we could spare her a minute. The sergeant at the desk came over and tried to get her to leave us alone, but the phone rang so he had to leave us but warned her to leave us alone. Before he left to answer the phone, he said that Jezelle liked to think she was the resident psychic and that she helped out on a missing persons case. She turned back to us and then explained her reason for being there.
"You don't have to believe I'm psychic… you don't have to believe a word I say, but I've come a very long way to see you." She said.
"You know… I'm not really sure we should be talking to anyone right now. Let's go." Trish said, gesturing for us to walk away.
"You found all those bodies… down in that cellar… I saw them too." She said making us stop in our tracks. We turn to look at her and I was more than a little freaked out. What she was saying was eerily similar to what the lady on the phone at the diner told us.
"How?" I asked in a whisper.
"Dreamed it. I dream a lot of things. You see the cats yet?" She asked and we just looked at her in shock and I guess our faces told her that we did.
"I saw you with all those cats too." She said.
"The diner… that was you, you called us." Darry said coming to the realization. I was surprised as well. Trish got in front of us and tried to lead us away for a little chat.
"Will you excuse us for a second?" Trish said, grabbing me and Darry by the arm.
Jezelle then grabbed us and sat us down on the bench saying that she needed us to listen and not talk. She told us that she would be lying if she said that she knew that telling us this would do any good. We didn't know what that meant, but she continued. She said that every 23rd spring, for 23 days, it gets to eat. Darry and I look at each other and thought the same thing, 'eats what?' Jezelle asked us not to make her tell us because we already knew. She said she doesn't like knowing these things and not knowing why she knows them. Against our better judgement, we wanted to know. Trish was looking at us with concern, her mother hen instinct must have been kicking in.
"You said it eats?" Darry asked in a shocked voice.
"Only certain things… from certain people." She said like she was on the verge of tears.
Trish stepped in and tried to get us away from Jezelle, but Jezelle held us back and told us something we would never forget. She told us that it eats lungs, so it can breathe and eyes, so it can see. Whatever it eats becomes a part of it. She explained that it dressed like a man to hide that it wasn't and that when we ran it over, we only hurt it as much as it could be hurt, and it could keep eating until it was fully healed. Apparently, one of us had something it liked and that it wasn't going to stop chasing us until it knew which one of us it wanted. That made me visibly shiver because somehow, I knew, that I was one of the ones it wanted. I pushed that thought away, not wanting to dwell on it for long. What I wanted to know was how this thing chose its victims and Darry seemed to want to know as well.
"How?" I asked.
"Never mind how." Trish said through gritted teeth. She really wanted us to drop it and get away from this woman, but we really wanted to know how it picked out victims.
"No, how does it find out, by trying to run people off the road?" Darry asked.
"It needs to scare you. There's something in fear; something it can smell; something that tells it if there's anything inside someone that it… might… like." She explained.
"You're telling us this thing is out driving down the highway… trying to freak people out so it can smell them?" I asked in a worried tone.
"Christ guys! Why are we standing here with her?" Trish yelled.
Just then, the power went out. The sergeant tried the phone, but it was out too. We all knew what had caused it, but we still couldn't believe it. We ran it over until there was nothing left. The emergency lights came on and we were instructed to stay where we were unless someone with a badge told us otherwise. Darry told Jezelle that we grounded it to dust and watched it blow away. She told us something really creepy, but not surprising. She said that she thought it had eaten too many hearts; for its own to ever stop. That bit of information was really unnerving to me. We waited for a few minutes, like we were told. Sergeant Tubbs came up behind us and told us to go with him to a holding room to wait out the lock down. We were fine with that, but Jezelle started to panic and told him he couldn't do that because he'll find us in there. She said he'll find us hiding in a room and starts singing the song 'Jeepers Creepers'. We all looked at each other and told her we heard it in the car hours ago. Jezelle said that it was playing on an old phonograph. Tubbs then told the officers to escort Jezelle to the Winnebago she was blocking the driveway with. The officers grab her to take her away while she's singing that song and said she heard it playing while one of us was screaming down in the dark. Tubbs threatened to lock her up if she didn't quit.
"What exactly are you doing here?" Trish demanded, obviously fed up with the woman. That same instant, one of the officer's walkies buzzed to life.
"Up top? Anybody on ground level? We have an 11-99. I repeat an 11-99." Buzzed from the walkie. One of the officers was about to answer, but the sergeant snatched it away and answered instead.
"This is Tubbs go ahead." He said.
The officer on the other end explained that they had a serious situation and that something was coming up the rear stairwell. A bunch of cops were running down the stairs as that was being said and they looked like they were ready to blow something to pieces. Tubbs looked back at us and told us to stay there. As soon as Tubbs went to follow the other officers, Jezelle told us that she was going to get us out of there and told us to follow her. Not knowing what else to do, we followed her to what was, hopefully the exit. As we ran, it seemed the entire station was heading to the rear stairwell with the alarm blaring. We couldn't here what the officers were saying but we could hear the gun shots. It sounded like they were firing in all directions but weren't hitting anything.
We managed to find the front door, but it was locked. We were trying to get it to open but it was no use. We were momentarily distracted by the gun fire but went back to trying to get the door open. Darry and I were beating on the door with all our strength, but it wouldn't budge. Darry commented that they must lock automatically if the power went out, to ensure there were no break outs, probably. Trish got angry and asked Jezelle how she didn't know that. Jezelle exclaimed that she didn't dream everything, and Trish said that this wasn't everything this was the way out. Jezelle said that it wasn't like watching a movie, that there were parts missing some-times. We heard more gun fire and became more desperate, even Trish started pounding on the doors with us. I was on the verge of finding the nearest window, smashing it, and taking flight, but I wouldn't abandon my siblings nor expose myself in a police station.
"There's no other way except the front." Jezelle said in a worried tone.
"Well, the front door is out! Why don't you dream up something useful?" Trish yelled as me and Darry give up on the door and slide to the floor.
"I thought if you knew what I saw then maybe you could change it! Why the hell do you think I'm here? Jezelle shouted.
Darry and I just sat there for a moment, contemplating what she said, until Darry spoke up.
"You know." Darry whispered.
I look at him in confusion. I looked at Jezelle and saw her react. She had a look of shame on her face. It was then I knew that she had not told us something very important. She knew something about what was going to happen and to who.
"You knew when you walked in." Darry continued as he stood up. I stood up with him and we both walk to Trish and Jezelle.
"You know who it wants… you know what it wants." Darry said while pointing a finger at Jezelle.
"I've dreamed this…" Jezelle said trying to defend herself.
"You know what's going to happen." Darry stated while we stood next to Trish.
"You three would run up the stairs and hide, but I don't know what happens to me." Jezelle said.
"Who hears Jeepers Creepers while screaming in the dark?" Darry demanded to know, while shaking Jezelle lightly and I wanted to know too.
Looking as if she were about to cry, Jezelle slowly looked at Trish, as if indicating that it was her who was going to be screaming in the dark while that song played. Somehow, I knew that was false, but I couldn't be sure. Trish and Darry both looked shock and I couldn't blame them. Darry grabbed Jezelle's face and asked if her dreams were ever wrong and Trish said that she didn't believe her. Jezelle tried to tell us that we didn't understand, but Darry kept asking if her dreams were ever wrong. She kept avoiding the question and Trish said that she didn't know if her dreams were wrong and that she didn't know shit. We stared at her for a moment before I picked up on something, the smell of earth. I knew we were in trouble.
"Guys." I whispered, too afraid to shout.
Just then, the creature we had been running from peeked its head out from behind the corner and looked straight at us. We all jumped and yelped; he was clinging to the wall like a spider. Jezelle yelled at us to get upstairs as the creature started crawling towards us. We didn't need to be told twice and booked it up the stairs and hopefully to safety. I hoped that Jezelle would be okay and that she would live through this horrible night. I followed Trish and Darry up the stairs without looking back, for fear that the creature was behind me. We kept running until we were on the top floor, only then did we stop. We walked around, looking for a good place to hide and found a set of double doors. We tried to see what was inside, but the windows were made of that frosted type of glass. Trish and Darry pushed the doors open and revealed a large interrogation room. The only thing in it was a table. Darry immediately ran to the window in hope of somehow getting it open, I saw that it was one of those windows that doesn't open; I just hoped we were safe in this room. While Darry was messing with the window, I stayed next to Trish as we explored the room a little, but she seemed drawn to the mirror and went straight to it.
Trish tried to look through the mirror but couldn't. I looked back at Darry to see him still messing with the window before going to stand next to Trish. She looked at me as I stood next her, and she continued to look at the mirror. For some reason, I felt like I was being watched and decided to back away a little. By this time, Darry saw us standing next to the mirror and came over to get Trish away from it. He grabbed her and she struggled trying to say that she wasn't doing anything, but then I realized something. If this was an interrogation room, then the mirror was a two-way mirror meaning you could see into the room from one side but not the other. When I realized that, I began to panic and move closer to my siblings. In that same moment, the doors exploded, and the creature was in the room with us. We screamed and backed up; Darry having fallen down. The monster tossed the table aside to make it easier to get to us. I ran to hide behind Trish as she helped Darry up. The monster walked straight toward us as we got Darry to his feet. Darry backed us into the corner with me behind him and Trish in front of me, but still slightly behind Darry.
The monster walked up and grabbed my older siblings by the necks, choking them in the process, and pulled them towards him. I was left in the corner standing in shock and unable to do anything. The smell of earth was overpowering now and I could barely think straight. 'What is this thing doing to me?' I asked myself. I watched as this thing started to sniff my brother and sister thoroughly. Up and down, back, and forth, trying to figure out if either of them was the one it wanted. I saw it lick Trish's cheek and seemed to lose interest, he tossed her across the room roughly. She looked dazed and I wanted to run over to see if she was all right but was stopped by a strong hand wrapping around my neck. I was so focused on Trish, that I didn't see the creature coming towards me while still holding Darry. Now I was struggling to breathe as I prepared for its sniff test. Once again, it sniffed up, down, back, and forth between me and Darry, but seemed more interested in me than Darry. It appeared that it was really interested in Darry's eyes, but it acted like it wanted all of me. Somehow, I could tell that it wanted both of us, but at the moment could only take one and now it was deciding which one of us to take.
I was scared shitless and couldn't comprehend what was happening. The creature was holding us tightly and looked back and forth between us, before giving us a look that told us that it had decided who it was going to take. It tossed Darry aside, just like Trish and brought me closer to its face. I closed my eyes and tried to turn my head away as it proceeded to lick my cheek, just like Trish, only it seemed to enjoy what it was tasting as I heard what sounded like a purr. I opened them to see Trish and Darry getting to their feet and starting to run toward me. The two-way mirror then shattered as the creature wrapped his arms tightly around me and brought me to his chest, one arm around my stomach and the other around my neck. I grabbed its arm with both my hands in an attempt to get it to let go, but it was proving futile. I notice the glare of flashlights and look to see a line of police officers decked out in full SWAT uniforms and weapons. They looked just as shocked as we were.
I kept trying to break free, when the monster decided to lower its head, looking like a bow, but then I see spines raising up and then it brought its head back up and screeched the most unnatural sound I had ever heard. I was even more terrified by the threat display and struggled even more, but this thing was not letting up, if anything, its grip got tighter. The cops were stunned and were unable to do much since I was in the direct line of fire. I struggled to breathe as Trish and Darry break through the wall of police officers to see me being held by this creature. They looked like they were about to cry, just as I was, but then they did something I'll never forget.
"Take me." Trish said offering herself to this monster.
"No, take me." Darry said taking over.
I looked at both of them with tears in my eyes. They were willing to sacrifice themselves for me, that's the most honorable act anyone can do.
"You don't want her… you don't want her. Whatever you want you can take it from us." Trish and Darry agreed.
The monster stared at them, maintaining its iron grip on me.
"You don't want Karen, no you don't." Trish whispered.
"You hear us? You take us! You fucking let her go!" Darry shouted with tears in his eyes.
The creature screeched again, unfolding its huge wings. All the cops aimed their guns. It flapped once, as it was preparing for flight.
"Please let her go." Trish and Darry continued to beg.
I wanted to tell them not to do this, but this thing was holding me so tight that I could barely breathe let alone talk.
"Just think for a second, we won't fight you. You can take us. We are stronger you want us." Trish said in desperation.
The monster just stared at my brother and sister, almost contemplating their offer. They stared back, teary eyed and nodded.
"Drop her. Let her go and take us." Darry begged.
The monster was clearly unmoved because the next thing I knew was we were turning towards the window.
"YOU LET HER GO!" I heard Trish and Darry screaming behind us as we smashed through the window and into the night sky. I was screaming as loud as I could for my siblings even though I knew they couldn't help me.
"KAREN!" I heard them faintly and briefly saw them running after us.
"TRISHA! DARRY!" I screamed.
I wanted nothing more than to be back with Trish and Darry but was too afraid to do anything. I wanted to take flight, but my body wasn't responding due to my fear. I thought that my life would soon be over, but what I didn't realize was that this was just the beginning of my nightmare. And I swore to god that I heard the monster purring in my ear.