Chapter 3
The Discovery
By now, word had spread about Annie, and Zeta coming up missing, and the rest of the occupants had congregated in the sitting room for a head count, and to find out if there were more missing students,
"We got four missing." Brick said, looking back at Bonnie, who had a piece of paper in her hand, a list of names that had decided to come into the old mansion tonight,
"Well, that's all of them, K." Bonnie said, handing the list to Kim, and sitting down in a chair with a sigh,
"Four of them, M.I.A.," Ron said, looking down the paper, and reading the names of the missing, "Annie Platt, Zeta Flores, Jake Miller, and Rena Lawson."
"Yeah, I know," Kim said, "and they all had one thing in common, they all bunked on the second floor."
"I think we should get a search party together, and go look for them." Brick said, looking at Kim for some moral support,
"Right, good idea, Brick," Kim said, "I think that Ron and I should go and–," but Kim was cut off by Ron,
"No way, K.P., I think you should stay here with Monique and Bonnie, Brick and I will take the search." Ron said.
After a small argument, Kim caved in, and allowed Ron and Brick to search for the missing, but if anything was found, or if the missing were to show up, the two of them were to come back to the sitting room, and get the others.
Ron and Brick were walking the third floor, a maze of hallways, and locked rooms, several of the doors had to be broken open, so that they could look inside, it was just as bad on the fourth floor, no love up there, and the attic was as bare as Mother Hubbards Cupboard
"We're getting nowhere fast, Ron." Brick said, panning a flashlight around the cavernous hallwaythey had stopped near a room with a red door, Ron immediately stiffened,
"'Sup, Ron?" Brick asked, Ron grabbed Brick's wrist, and pointed the flashlight down to where he was staring.
On the highly polished teak floor, there were several red splotches, leading in a line, going under the mysterious red door
"What the hell is that, some of that wine you brought?" Brick asked, looking down,
"No, that's in the room that Kim and I are sharing," Ron replied, "the color's too dark, anyway, it looks more like blood."
"Are you sure?" Brick asked, looking back at Ron, the fear in the quarterback's eyes was plain,
"Not really, but there's only one way to find out." Ron replied, looking over at Brick,
"You mean?" Brick asked,
"Yep, we're going in." Ron said,
"But Kim said if we found anything suspicious to get back down to them." Brick said,
"I'm doing exactly what Kim would do if she were here." Ron replied, now checking the sturdiness of the door by leaning his weight against it,
"I think I could get it open with a good kick." Brick said, taking two steps back from the door, and readying himself to kick the door in, he pushed his right leg forward, and the door burst open, and banged off the wall, the sight that greeted them made Brick vomit straight away.
"Oh my God." Ron said, looking around the room, the four missing students were hanging from the walls, all of them, clearly dead, each one had been eviscerated,
"That is sick, and wrong." Brick said, straightening himself to an upright position,
"Help me get them off the wall, Brick, and we need to cover them up with something, the others don't need to see the bodies in that condition." Ron said, now grabbing the legs of Zeta's body, and pulling her from the wall, he laid her down on the floor next to an old pile of blankets,
"Help me out here." Ron said again, this time, Brick grabbed the body of Annie Platt, and covered her up with a blanket, leaving her head exposed,
"This is not good, this is not good at all." Brick said, helping Ron set the last body on the floor,
"Really, you think," Ron said, his voice was hard, "pull yourself together, Brick, I'm just as freaked as you are."
"And why are you not showing it?" Brick asked,
"Because we've got bigger things to worry about." Ron said,
"Like what?" Brick asked,
"Like who's next." Ron said, his voice deadly serious.
Kim was sitting in the large sitting room, talking to Bonnie, and Monique, when Ron and Brick burst into the room, both men were covered in blood, and looked as though they had seen a ghost,
"We found them." Brick said, shaking his head,
"Where?" Alan Platt asked,
"Third floor, follow us." Ron said, he and Brick leading the group out of the room, and to the foyer, when they reached the room, Ron turned to the group, and said, his voice somber,
"You're not gonna to like what you see."
"What's the big, Ron, it's not like their dead." Kim said, the moment the sentence left her mouth, she regretted it, Ron's look told her in an instant, they were very much dead,
Ron opened the door slowly, and allowed a few of the people assembled to enter the room, once inside, they spotted where Ron and Brick had laid the bodies, Alan reached for the blanket that was pulled over his sister's body, but Brick grabbed his hand,
"Don't, it's not a pretty sight." he said, Alan dropped his hand to his side, and stared at the well built blonde,
"How bad is it?" he asked,
"Bad enough." Ron said.
Later in the evening, Ron and Kim were sitting in the kitchen, having just finished dinner, they were talking about what Ron and Brick had found,
"Wow, I don't believe it." Bonnie said, looking at Ron, he had just relayed the condition of the bodies to them,
"How could someone be so sadistic?" Kim said, looking over at Ron,
"No idea, but it reminds me of the stories my Grandfather had told me when I was younger." Ron said,
"What stories were that, Ron?" Bonnie asked,
"Well, to know what I'm talking about, you have to go back to World War II, Pappy was a veteran, Army Air Corps, he was a pilot assigned to the 8th Air Force in the European theatre." Ron said, his eyes darkening,
"What are you talking about?" Bonnie asked, Kim had already knew the story, but let Ron tell it, because he had heard it more,
"My Grandfather was a Holocaust survivor." Ron said,
"Oh, God." Bonnie said, her face softened as Ron told the story his grandfather had told him,
"According to Pappy, he had been shot down over Germany, sometime around 1944, the Nazis found out that he was Jewish, and shipped him off to Auschwitz, he survived somehow, but over 6 million others didn't." Ron said, his eyes not meeting either Kim's, or Bonnie's,
"And he told you all of this?" Bonnie asked,
"Yeah, strange what humans do to their own, isn't it?" Ron said,
"More like totally gross." Bonnie said,
"Yeah, Zeta was the only one who seemed to put up a fight, several of her nails were broken off, and there were defensive wounds all up and down her arms." Ron said,
"You sure about that?" Kim asked,
"Yeah, I'm not likely to forget it anytime soon, K.P." Ron said, looking at his girlfriend, at that moment, a loud scream pierced the air,
"TARA!!!" the three of them said together. They tore out of the kitchen, and to the foyer,
"It's Josh." Tara said, as Kim drew level with her, Ron bent down, and prepared to examine the body,
"Is he,----dead?" Kim asked, but Ron answered that question real quick,
"GET UP, YOU CLOWN!!!" Ron said, striking Josh hard across the jaw with his open hand,
"OW!!" Josh exclaimed, rubbing his jaw, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!!"
"WE GOT PEOPLE REALLY DYING AROUND HERE, AND YOU GOTTA PLAY DEAD?!" Ron said, his eyes were burning a hole into Josh's face,
"I was only trying to lighten the mood around here, it feels like a funeral home." Josh said, still rubbing his jaw,
"Hell of a joke, Mankey," Tara spat, "Very funny."
"You know, Josh," Ron said, "you're gonna cry wolf one time too many, and you're gonna end up getting yourself killed for real, doesn't matter to me, but you might get one of them killed too," Ron jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the three girls standing directly behind him, "THAT DOES!!"