-9-
1 THE RIDE
"How much farther, Neil?" Terri inquired absently, while curling a strand of her hair as they drove along the road.
"We should be there by dusk," Neil replied, his dark sunglasses reflecting the landscape, as they made their way along the highway. The drive to Haddonfield had proved to be tedious and long. Neil meant it when he said they were going to drive on through, and they had only stopped a few times along the way.
In the back seat, Justin sat alongside Danny, drinking root beer. Danny was in handcuffs and mildly sedated. Danny's face was ragged and worn. He hadn't spoken a word since they had abducted him. Why bother? There was nothing left to say.
Instead, all he did was stare ahead at Terri, with ever-growing hate. What I'd give to bash in that pretty little head of hers, he thought, as he wallowed in his regret and self-pity.
Man, he had fucked up. Big time. He had given everything up, for her. He had alienated his parents, and in the process of being so bull- headed, he had gone to that party. The realization came to him that if he hadn't attended the party, the lives of all the people that the cult had murdered there would have been spared, and he'd have been safe and sound with his family. And Gord, his poor buddy, his only friend, wouldn't have been butchered by Terri. Danny should have seen through her.
But it was all in the name of love. What crap. Danny felt harrowed, empty. There was a ball of ice where his heart had been, and he felt as if he would never trust another woman again. He had bared his soul to her; he had exposed himself completely to a monster.
There, you go, Danny ol' boy, he thought, scornfully. You've just learned two fundamental lessons in life:
One – if something seems too good to be true it is.
Two – some monsters can look like angels.
In the front seat, Terri was droning on in a tiresome useless banter. She was blabbering something about booze and I.D.
"…and I said, 'Give me a break, man. I'm 23 years old.' But the old fuck still wouldn't let me walk out with the bottle."
"And exactly why do I care?" Neil responded with sneer. "Do you care Justin?"
"Naw, man, zero degrees on the care thermometer." The two men laughed, and Terri's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.
"Oh, fuck off," she growled. "I'm just trying to break the silence on this shit-ass ride."
"Sometimes silence is a good thing," Neil smiled cruelly, and chuckled.
"Yeah, sometimes it's downright beautiful." Justin added, and joined Neil in laughing.
"Oh bite me." Terri pouted, crossed her arms, and angrily gazed ahead.
"You're 23?" Justin and Terri turned their heads in unison, as Danny finally broke his silence. Even Neil, normally indifferent, spared a glance. "You don't look 23. I had no idea."
"Why, thank you," Terri smiled and curled her hair, giving Danny that flirtatious glance that he remembered from the first day he had met her.
"Then again, you don't look like a sick twisted bitch, either. Or a junkie whore for that matter."
Terri's jaw opened in an "o" of outrage, and once again, the two other men roared with vicious laughter.
Terri, controlling her anger, replied coolly. "You're quick to judge, there, Danny-boy," she fired back while giving his cheek a gentle pat. "I seem to recall you shooting up right next to me."
"Just tell me one thing," Danny chose to ignore her retort. "How could you do what you did? Gord was your friend."
"Oh, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over your little pal there, Dan- o. In case you didn't notice, I didn't have to drag him up to the bedroom." To Terri's satisfaction, Danny lowered his eyes from her gaze. She pressed on, with a wide sarcastic smirk. "He left you puking your guts out to have sex with your girlfriend. Not much of a buddy if you ask me. No big loss there."
"Yeah, you convinced him to betray me, all right." Danny looked back up and met Terri's gaze once again. "You're pretty good at that, aren't you? Getting people to do things they wouldn't normally do. I'll bet the thought to screw me over never crossed Gord's mind until he met you. I can relate. I never thought I'd jab a vein, either. You shake your ass and throw a smile, and naïve dumb bastards like us fall in line. I bet if you had as many stuck on you as you've had stuck in you, you'd look like a God- damned porcupine!"
Justin snotted root beer out of his nose, as he broke into sudden laughter. Terri bared her teeth, and raised her hand to strike. Neil grabbed her arm, while maintaining his eye on the road.
"Easy, there, wildcat. Loomis wants him delivered unbruised."
"Loomis?" Danny sat up alert, immediately recognizing the name.
"That's right, Dan-man!" Justin turned to face Danny. "We're takin' ya to see good ol' UNCLE SAM! And Uncle Sam wants you!" Justin made with his best presidential pose, and pointed at Danny as if he were a potential new enlistee. He cackled at his own joke, apparently the only one seeing the humour it.
Danny, not amused, glared at Justin with contempt. "Justin, nobody thinks you're funny. And while we're all laying our cards on the table, I think you should know that I always thought you were a dink."
Justin's smile faltered. "Is that a fact, faggot? Well hey- why don't you laugh this off." He then grabbed Danny by the hair, and slammed his head into the doorframe. Danny's nose began to bleed with a spurt.
"Now that's funny!" Justin's familiar sickening grin returned, and he snickered.
"Justin, you fucking wanker!" Neil shouted, pissed off. "I told you, Loomis doesn't want him harmed!"
"Fuck that old bastard. What's he going to do, cane me to death? The way I see it, you should have been running the show a long time ago. Why haven't you muscled up the balls to take over? You've got enough of us backing you, man."
"You haven't a clue what you're talking about," Neil returned, quietly. "Pray you don't find out."
"Bullshit. I'll wedgie the old fuck with his own dirty depends!"
As Neil had predicted, they pulled into Smith's Grove at dusk. Neil got out first, and walked over to Danny's door. He opened it, and fashioned his gun to tell Danny not to mess around. Slowly, Danny got out of the car, and they made their way inside.
They passed two security guards at the front desk, and made their way down the west wing, past a series of cells. As Danny made his way down the hallway with the others, he noticed a small figure bunched up in the corner of one of the cells, and recognized him immediately.
"Stephen!" Danny called in exasperation.
The small boy looked up with tears in his eyes at the sound of Danny's voice. Immediately, he rushed over to the cell and hugged his brother through the bars. "Danny!" Stephen then broke into an uncontrollable sobbing fit, and hugged his brother tight.
"It's okay, bud, it's all right," Danny consoled his little brother as he knelt down to face the boy. A knot turned in Danny's gut at the implications of what finding Stephen here could mean. "Stephen…where's Mom and Dad?"
"I don't know Danny, I don't know! These bad men attacked us in Alaska, and when Mom went back to help Dad, more of them grabbed me! I tried to fight – I did! But they were so big, and so strong…" Stephen wept again.
Danny's blood went cold. For Stephen's sake, he tried not to show it. "It's okay, bud. I'm sure they're all right. Mom and Dad are pretty tough. I'm sure they got away." Danny managed a smile, but he didn't believe a single word he was saying. Jesus, he thought, his conscience nagging at him. Danny felt as if he could cry himself. This is all my fault. He thought, with growing grief. I should have been there…
"We'll get out of this, Stephen. If I've got anything to say about it. I promise."
"I love you, Danny."
"Same here, kid. Same here."
"Enough with the family fuckin' reunion," Justin interrupted, impatiently. "We're all touched. Really. But you've got an appointment with the Doctor, Danny. Fuck off, kid," Justin gave Stephen a hard push on his head, sending him down on his ass.
Danny clenched his teeth in rage and drove both of his handcuffed hands into Justin's face. Before Justin could recover, Danny wrapped the chain around Justin's neck and began to squeeze the air out of him.
"YOU PRICK! I'LL KILL YOU!"
Instantaneously, Neil and Terri were on Danny, trying desperately to free Justin from his stranglehold. Justin's face turned six different shades of purple, and they were almost too late. In the end, they pulled Danny away, and Neil held him back in an arm lock.
Terri went to check on Justin. "Hey man, are you okay?"
Justin tried to nod as he panted, and clutched throat. Abruptly, he stood up and slammed the butt of his gun into Danny's mouth. Danny's lip split, as the butt of the gun knocked out two of his front teeth.
"Jesus!" Terri yelled. "Loomis is going to have your ass!"
"Fuck Loomis!"
Stephen began to cry again, as they dragged his brother away to see the doctor. He wept uncontrollably, fearing that he would never see his brother again.
And he was right.
Once they reached the doctor's office, they found Loomis reading over his desk. At their arrival, he tossed off his reading glasses, and rose to greet them.
"Ah, yes…Danny come in." He beckoned Danny to sit, when he noticed his bleeding mouth. "What happened here?" He turned to Neil for an answer. Neil scratched the back of his neck, and shaking his head, pointed to Justin.
"He tried to break loose when we got him here," Justin said, with his usual shark's grin intact. "I had no choice. I had to paste him one. You understand, don't you, old bean? I mean, I was just doing my job."
"Your job," Loomis mused, in contemplation. He glanced down for a moment, then met Justin's eyes. Gently, he smiled, and placed his hand on Justin's shoulder. "I understand . I understand just fine."
Justin smiled, relieved. Suddenly, he felt a deep cold piercing pain, as he looked down to see that Loomis had buried a six inch blade into his gut, burying it to the hilt.
"I understand that you can't follow orders." Loomis' teeth parted in a growl, and he ripped the knife upwards, spilling Justin's guts to the floor. The colour ran out of Justin's face, as he stared in dumfounded shock, then collapsed. "You've failed me for the last time."
Amidst his shock and horror, Danny couldn't help but think hatefully; It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
"Neil, Terri, take this trash out of here and call for the cleaners. Take a gas can and one of the spare cars, and make it look like an accident."
"Neil grabbed Justin's limp carcass, and dragged it out to the hall, leaving a blood smear along the white polished floor. Terri followed him, and the two left, only to be replaced by two rather large security guards.
"Its so hard to find good help these days," Loomis said with a smile as he patted Danny on the back. The door closed, and Danny found himself out of the frying pan and into the fire.
1 THE RIDE
"How much farther, Neil?" Terri inquired absently, while curling a strand of her hair as they drove along the road.
"We should be there by dusk," Neil replied, his dark sunglasses reflecting the landscape, as they made their way along the highway. The drive to Haddonfield had proved to be tedious and long. Neil meant it when he said they were going to drive on through, and they had only stopped a few times along the way.
In the back seat, Justin sat alongside Danny, drinking root beer. Danny was in handcuffs and mildly sedated. Danny's face was ragged and worn. He hadn't spoken a word since they had abducted him. Why bother? There was nothing left to say.
Instead, all he did was stare ahead at Terri, with ever-growing hate. What I'd give to bash in that pretty little head of hers, he thought, as he wallowed in his regret and self-pity.
Man, he had fucked up. Big time. He had given everything up, for her. He had alienated his parents, and in the process of being so bull- headed, he had gone to that party. The realization came to him that if he hadn't attended the party, the lives of all the people that the cult had murdered there would have been spared, and he'd have been safe and sound with his family. And Gord, his poor buddy, his only friend, wouldn't have been butchered by Terri. Danny should have seen through her.
But it was all in the name of love. What crap. Danny felt harrowed, empty. There was a ball of ice where his heart had been, and he felt as if he would never trust another woman again. He had bared his soul to her; he had exposed himself completely to a monster.
There, you go, Danny ol' boy, he thought, scornfully. You've just learned two fundamental lessons in life:
One – if something seems too good to be true it is.
Two – some monsters can look like angels.
In the front seat, Terri was droning on in a tiresome useless banter. She was blabbering something about booze and I.D.
"…and I said, 'Give me a break, man. I'm 23 years old.' But the old fuck still wouldn't let me walk out with the bottle."
"And exactly why do I care?" Neil responded with sneer. "Do you care Justin?"
"Naw, man, zero degrees on the care thermometer." The two men laughed, and Terri's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.
"Oh, fuck off," she growled. "I'm just trying to break the silence on this shit-ass ride."
"Sometimes silence is a good thing," Neil smiled cruelly, and chuckled.
"Yeah, sometimes it's downright beautiful." Justin added, and joined Neil in laughing.
"Oh bite me." Terri pouted, crossed her arms, and angrily gazed ahead.
"You're 23?" Justin and Terri turned their heads in unison, as Danny finally broke his silence. Even Neil, normally indifferent, spared a glance. "You don't look 23. I had no idea."
"Why, thank you," Terri smiled and curled her hair, giving Danny that flirtatious glance that he remembered from the first day he had met her.
"Then again, you don't look like a sick twisted bitch, either. Or a junkie whore for that matter."
Terri's jaw opened in an "o" of outrage, and once again, the two other men roared with vicious laughter.
Terri, controlling her anger, replied coolly. "You're quick to judge, there, Danny-boy," she fired back while giving his cheek a gentle pat. "I seem to recall you shooting up right next to me."
"Just tell me one thing," Danny chose to ignore her retort. "How could you do what you did? Gord was your friend."
"Oh, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over your little pal there, Dan- o. In case you didn't notice, I didn't have to drag him up to the bedroom." To Terri's satisfaction, Danny lowered his eyes from her gaze. She pressed on, with a wide sarcastic smirk. "He left you puking your guts out to have sex with your girlfriend. Not much of a buddy if you ask me. No big loss there."
"Yeah, you convinced him to betray me, all right." Danny looked back up and met Terri's gaze once again. "You're pretty good at that, aren't you? Getting people to do things they wouldn't normally do. I'll bet the thought to screw me over never crossed Gord's mind until he met you. I can relate. I never thought I'd jab a vein, either. You shake your ass and throw a smile, and naïve dumb bastards like us fall in line. I bet if you had as many stuck on you as you've had stuck in you, you'd look like a God- damned porcupine!"
Justin snotted root beer out of his nose, as he broke into sudden laughter. Terri bared her teeth, and raised her hand to strike. Neil grabbed her arm, while maintaining his eye on the road.
"Easy, there, wildcat. Loomis wants him delivered unbruised."
"Loomis?" Danny sat up alert, immediately recognizing the name.
"That's right, Dan-man!" Justin turned to face Danny. "We're takin' ya to see good ol' UNCLE SAM! And Uncle Sam wants you!" Justin made with his best presidential pose, and pointed at Danny as if he were a potential new enlistee. He cackled at his own joke, apparently the only one seeing the humour it.
Danny, not amused, glared at Justin with contempt. "Justin, nobody thinks you're funny. And while we're all laying our cards on the table, I think you should know that I always thought you were a dink."
Justin's smile faltered. "Is that a fact, faggot? Well hey- why don't you laugh this off." He then grabbed Danny by the hair, and slammed his head into the doorframe. Danny's nose began to bleed with a spurt.
"Now that's funny!" Justin's familiar sickening grin returned, and he snickered.
"Justin, you fucking wanker!" Neil shouted, pissed off. "I told you, Loomis doesn't want him harmed!"
"Fuck that old bastard. What's he going to do, cane me to death? The way I see it, you should have been running the show a long time ago. Why haven't you muscled up the balls to take over? You've got enough of us backing you, man."
"You haven't a clue what you're talking about," Neil returned, quietly. "Pray you don't find out."
"Bullshit. I'll wedgie the old fuck with his own dirty depends!"
As Neil had predicted, they pulled into Smith's Grove at dusk. Neil got out first, and walked over to Danny's door. He opened it, and fashioned his gun to tell Danny not to mess around. Slowly, Danny got out of the car, and they made their way inside.
They passed two security guards at the front desk, and made their way down the west wing, past a series of cells. As Danny made his way down the hallway with the others, he noticed a small figure bunched up in the corner of one of the cells, and recognized him immediately.
"Stephen!" Danny called in exasperation.
The small boy looked up with tears in his eyes at the sound of Danny's voice. Immediately, he rushed over to the cell and hugged his brother through the bars. "Danny!" Stephen then broke into an uncontrollable sobbing fit, and hugged his brother tight.
"It's okay, bud, it's all right," Danny consoled his little brother as he knelt down to face the boy. A knot turned in Danny's gut at the implications of what finding Stephen here could mean. "Stephen…where's Mom and Dad?"
"I don't know Danny, I don't know! These bad men attacked us in Alaska, and when Mom went back to help Dad, more of them grabbed me! I tried to fight – I did! But they were so big, and so strong…" Stephen wept again.
Danny's blood went cold. For Stephen's sake, he tried not to show it. "It's okay, bud. I'm sure they're all right. Mom and Dad are pretty tough. I'm sure they got away." Danny managed a smile, but he didn't believe a single word he was saying. Jesus, he thought, his conscience nagging at him. Danny felt as if he could cry himself. This is all my fault. He thought, with growing grief. I should have been there…
"We'll get out of this, Stephen. If I've got anything to say about it. I promise."
"I love you, Danny."
"Same here, kid. Same here."
"Enough with the family fuckin' reunion," Justin interrupted, impatiently. "We're all touched. Really. But you've got an appointment with the Doctor, Danny. Fuck off, kid," Justin gave Stephen a hard push on his head, sending him down on his ass.
Danny clenched his teeth in rage and drove both of his handcuffed hands into Justin's face. Before Justin could recover, Danny wrapped the chain around Justin's neck and began to squeeze the air out of him.
"YOU PRICK! I'LL KILL YOU!"
Instantaneously, Neil and Terri were on Danny, trying desperately to free Justin from his stranglehold. Justin's face turned six different shades of purple, and they were almost too late. In the end, they pulled Danny away, and Neil held him back in an arm lock.
Terri went to check on Justin. "Hey man, are you okay?"
Justin tried to nod as he panted, and clutched throat. Abruptly, he stood up and slammed the butt of his gun into Danny's mouth. Danny's lip split, as the butt of the gun knocked out two of his front teeth.
"Jesus!" Terri yelled. "Loomis is going to have your ass!"
"Fuck Loomis!"
Stephen began to cry again, as they dragged his brother away to see the doctor. He wept uncontrollably, fearing that he would never see his brother again.
And he was right.
Once they reached the doctor's office, they found Loomis reading over his desk. At their arrival, he tossed off his reading glasses, and rose to greet them.
"Ah, yes…Danny come in." He beckoned Danny to sit, when he noticed his bleeding mouth. "What happened here?" He turned to Neil for an answer. Neil scratched the back of his neck, and shaking his head, pointed to Justin.
"He tried to break loose when we got him here," Justin said, with his usual shark's grin intact. "I had no choice. I had to paste him one. You understand, don't you, old bean? I mean, I was just doing my job."
"Your job," Loomis mused, in contemplation. He glanced down for a moment, then met Justin's eyes. Gently, he smiled, and placed his hand on Justin's shoulder. "I understand . I understand just fine."
Justin smiled, relieved. Suddenly, he felt a deep cold piercing pain, as he looked down to see that Loomis had buried a six inch blade into his gut, burying it to the hilt.
"I understand that you can't follow orders." Loomis' teeth parted in a growl, and he ripped the knife upwards, spilling Justin's guts to the floor. The colour ran out of Justin's face, as he stared in dumfounded shock, then collapsed. "You've failed me for the last time."
Amidst his shock and horror, Danny couldn't help but think hatefully; It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
"Neil, Terri, take this trash out of here and call for the cleaners. Take a gas can and one of the spare cars, and make it look like an accident."
"Neil grabbed Justin's limp carcass, and dragged it out to the hall, leaving a blood smear along the white polished floor. Terri followed him, and the two left, only to be replaced by two rather large security guards.
"Its so hard to find good help these days," Loomis said with a smile as he patted Danny on the back. The door closed, and Danny found himself out of the frying pan and into the fire.