It appears that I have bugger all to do this weekend and my actual book is on hold until I can edit it. I guess I'll be making progress with this. I echo what I said last chapter.

I hold no copyright.

Chapter 15

The car's door opened and it sounded as if I were not behind a wall, that the car was only inches away, that I was staring death in the face, and death had the face of an everyday man.

I could almost hear the man's footsteps as he cracked and crunched snow beneath his boot as he moved closer with every footstep.

It wasn't until the platinum haired Lucas moved around the fenced corner to the house that I realised how on edge I was.

"Thank god!"

"Hey, your dad's here!" I exclaimed.

Damien quickly bolted upright

"Thank God!" he said as he got to the front door and quickly pulled it open to an unsuspecting Lucas.

"Damien!" He exclaimed in shock, for once his smile faltered. "What on earth's gotten so… Oh. Hello Phillip and… Kenneth? What's gotten you so spooked?" He asked me.

"I can explain." Said Damien, "It's… It's." He faltered from the energy that he had before, looking solemn. "It's… Them, the… The Fanatics."

"The Who? Wait, you mean them!" He suddenly shouted in surprise, he recoiled slightly, watching Damien in horror. His smile had fallen, for once it had, and that scared me.

"Yes." Damien near whispered.

"Oh… Oh, no. And, they've gone after your friends?" He said, he didn't seem as scared as I thought he would be, I expected him to jump in surprise and be in utter disbelief. "This is very serious, but what of the police, why didn't you go to them."

"I did dad… they didn't believe me."

"PARDON! I… I" He quieted down, "… I will personally torture those bastards in the pits of hell." He spoke, in a lowly tone that was laced with venom more potent than a black widow's".

"Bring your friends; we will talk in the car." He said, still as furious as before. He then briskly turned and stomped towards the car, like a demon ravaging the white land below.

"Well, I guess we should follow him!" Burst Kenneth, as he swiftly manoeuvred around Damien, with the elegance of a decapitated deer.

I was shocked still by Lucas's tone; it was filled with the hatred of the outcast to the popular, with the anger of a betrayed friend and the vile intentions of the devil himself. I would have believed that his eyes flared to a bloody crimson and shone with the evil of a merciless predator, but that did not happen.

Instead, Damien approached me and placed a comforting arm on my shoulder and smiled down, not with Lucas's hellish fire but the warmth of a hearth, slowly burning an age old oak, a comforting warmth.

"It's gonna be fine now, come on, we made it this far and, as Kenny said, those Fanatics are stupid, overconfident, we're gonna be fine, if anything happens, we're in the daylight and in a place with a lot of people, we'll be fine." He assured and I complied, getting up and slowly following him.

It was not long until we were in the car, a well maintained Citroen Saxo that reflected Lucas's fashion sense in a bright red.

Although undeniably furious, Lucas drove with the care of a hunter stalking towards their prey, slow and thoughtful with every turn of the steering wheel and change of the gears.

"Explain what's happened?" He had said to Damien as he got into the front seat, and as they drove Damien did just that. He rambled on about the events that had transpired, the blond man from outside my hospital window, of Kenneth's claims that confused Lucas as to The Fanatics' motive. He explained of how he had seen them outside their house.

Lucas looked at him still furious but somewhat confused.

"I believe you but… Jack? I… I." he muttered.

"Jack?" Asked Damien.

"The man who was apparently watching Phillip." His eyes darted to the rear view mirror and he looked at me for a brief second. "He's the one who helped me get set up with our place!"

"M-maybe it wasn't him." I said.

"No." Lucas replied as we slowed at a stoplight, we were only a few minutes from the police station. "I knew he was a fishy guy from the moment I met him, too nice."

I decided to not comment any further.

Kenneth seemed unnervingly quiet; he was leaning against the window and just watched the world pass by.

The police department was near empty of people other than officers at the reception desk. For a small mountain town, where near to no crime was the norm, aside from drunken brawls, the lack of officers in the police station was a common sight.

Cars drove across the road from behind but none, aside Lucas's, drove into the police station's parking lot. Someone could be mugged there and the only thing that would happen was that it would be reported faster than if it occurred anywhere else.

For a man who could smile so, Lucas was comparable to a building on fire when it came to fury.

"You fuckers!" He exploded when the officers had explained that they had blown off Damien's claims. "You know that's against the law! You're fucking police officers you bastards! If you don't know, I'm Lucas Thorne, an investigative reporter! A well. Known. Investigative Reporter! So unless you want "South Park Police Officers don't follows Their Own Laws!" Printed on every fucking headline from here to fucking Los Angeles, I'd suggest you help us!" he screamed, his anger turned to that of an exploding volcano, swarming molten lava and a deadly cloud of incinerating pyroclastic flow.

"Ok! Ok! Jeez, I'll have a chat with higher ups," the Officer, a young freckled ginger man who was rather red in the face, said. "It ain't me who did that, Jesus" he muttered.

"You'd better, bastard. I'll be laughing at you when you fucking burn! you hear! I'll be giggling with fucking delight!" He roared, the volcano had gone through its damaging, maddening eruption and was on the slow process of dying down to become dormant once more, but I feared that it would not become extinct for some time, or at all. Lucas's fury shocked me still, as if I had stared into medusa's eyes.

Lucas stormed over to one of the many empty chairs that littered the sides of the room and sat down, his head resting on his clenched arm and I thought of an all powerful king, instructed his subordinates to act on his own feudal purposes.

"Damn, well at least we definitely have one thing in common." Kennet whispered to Damien, nearly out of earshot as we followed to the same set of chairs.

"And that is?"

"Bat-shit insane dads!"

Not even ten minutes later a man dressed in a style reminiscent of a detective from the 30's, fedora and all. He had sharp, royal features and a rough unshaven stubble on his chin. Slightly grown brown hair peeked out in small tufts from underneath his hat.

He smiled at Lucas, his olive eyes gleaming with recognition.

"You must be Thorne, right?"

"Yes I fucking am! And I demand to know why on earth that my son's claims were disregarded!"

The man pulled out one of the many chairs and sat down opposite him.

Kenneth and Damien didn't speak a word, Lucas had the authority of a renowned leader and his anger was something only a moron or a hero would interrupt.

"Listen... Lucas, right? Names Mark. For at least a year now we've had the same lying bunch fuck us off with claims that this small gathering was watching them, every time a new place, a new belief of this gathering. We've just learnt to not give a damn when that type of person makes that type of claim, immature, I know, but it saves a damn lot of time and stops a lot of overtime pay." He remarked with a chuckle, my mind flashed with the thoughts of the resident Goths doing that. Recognition also befell Kenneth.

"That doesn't mean you cannot do your job! When someone makes a claim like that you're obligated to follow by the damn law!"

"I know, it's bad, it's shit, we just don't get much crime here, it's ironic just how many people want to big time cops here though! Damn near everyone that joins the force, can't say I'm not among them."

"You're avoiding the point!"

"Right, right, anyways, between you me and these three, I can get your problem solved, I know who the hell you're talking about. Even though we disregarded your son's claims, doesn't mean we didn't still keep his notes on the man's description. Perfectly fit local nut-case Jack Calhoon."

"I know, I've met him."

"Seemed like a nice guy at first, right?" He chuckled "Sicko got himself booked for ten years for rape, came out and got "reborn", with the local Christian cult."

I had no idea who he was talking about, no matter how long I had lived in the town; my introvert nature only got me so far.

"Real fucking psychos! Listen, these shit heads have been stirring bullshit for years, to be honest, we've always wanted a way to book 'em. They have their hands with the mayor though, one word and suddenly our funding goes poof, and who gives a shit about a small county police station?"

"Right?"

"But you, a big time reporter, listen; I'll strike you a less than legal deal."

"With three kids in the room."

"It does nothing but help them." None of us spoke.

"What is it?"

"We deal with this cult, a head on run in and arrest 'em all. You're claim is good enough to compile enough evidence and just do that. Then, if the mayor spins any shit, you call the bitch out in any and every headline."

Lucas turned to Damien, who shrugged, Kenneth who beamed a grin and me, and all I did was tap my feet and tap my fingers on the cast of my broken arm.

"Sure, why not? you guys fine with that?" Lucas said. To get nods from Damien and Kenneth and landing on a slight one with me, who was I going to tell?

Mark glanced to my broken arm.

"How'd that happen."

"He was snuck up on by some guy at school, beat the hell out of him." Damien replied, glaring at the man.

A sly smile fell upon Mark's face.

"And you only know who did it?" He asked me, I only nodded in response. "How about we say it was one of those fanatics, they snuck up on you, beat you up and broke your arm? There's no security cameras in South Park High, I know that."

"What! Why?" Damien suddenly said. Kenneth was confused and Lucas was… strangely monotone.

"More evidence, less of a chance for that bitch mayor to get on our ass."

"Don't you already have enough evidence on these guys?" Asked Kenneth.

"Yeah, but a beat up kid! That'll piss of the entire town if the mayor reduces the funding when we stopped those types of assholes." He said it with the charisma of a spokesperson promoting free speech. It was hard to say no.

And I didn't. I felt the pressure of the situation, like the air had become as thick as a jungles and I could feel my palms and brow cake with sweat.

"Thank you very much Mark, how about you come around my place sometime, catch a beer!" Exclaimed Lucas, now back to his perpetual grin, as we left the building, Mark smiling happily behind. I don't know why but Kenneth Damien and I all held the same feeling of uneasiness, when we looked into each other's eyes we all saw a similar feeling within the other. Confusion, nervousness and slight dread against an unknowable force.