Casey,
Finally, I touched you tonight. The warmth of you body against me was everything I've ever dreamed of. It was magic, true magic. Your breath on my shoulder, the smell of your perfume, you were perfect beyond all my imagines. For one, all too brief moment, it was like I always knew it could be between us. You surrounded me, smothering my senses in your powerful presence.
Then he was there, the unworthy one. The one who couldn't possibly love you as I do, couldn't possibly feel as deeply for you as I do. He smelled of his cursed drink and groped at you unmercifully like a child. A raging hormone without a thought to the beauty he was soiling with his dirty, sinner hands all over you.
He had to be shown, Casey. I had to make him see the sin of his ways. I had to try to save his soul, to cleanse him of his evil thoughts and deeds.
I hope that I have not caused you too much pain. I had no choice. You will get over him, eventually. You will move on and when you're ready, I'll be there to save your soul as well.
Tennyson1987
The police were apparently very busy on Halloween night. A call to campus security told us that since we only suspected foul play was involved in our friend's disappearance, it would have to wait until all the emergencies were handled. At least an hour, maybe longer.
How could I sit there for the next hour knowing that Cappie was out there somewhere in danger ? I couldn't. I was rocking back and forth on the side of our bed, crying openly and clearly scaring the hell out of everyone else in the room, if the looks they kept giving me were any indication.
" Where would Dale have taken him, Rusty ? You know him better than any of us. " Calvin asked.
" I'm not sure. He's still living at the dorm. Maybe there. " Rusty offered.
" Is there anywhere else ? " Beaver had him by the shoulders. He looked like he was about to throttle the answers from my brother's scrawny neck.
" His band rehearses in a back room at the Student Christan Center. I'm sure it would be empty, especially tonight. " he said, stepping out of his reach.
Beaver looked almost as frantic as I felt. His hair was a scattered mess, his eyes wide and wild with fear. He was sweaty and I thought I noticed his hands shaking. Yep, exactly how I felt.
" I'm going over there. " he informed us as he stepped out of his Beaver costume.
" We should wait for the police. " Rusty said.
" Wait for the police ! " Beaver bellowed. " You want me to sit here and bite my nails waiting for campus security to get here and decided that there is a real threat and call the real police so we can wait another hour for them to show up before anyone even thinks about looking for him. "
Everyone shrank back a little from him. His voice was loud and booming and he was moving with great agitation around the small room. " He's my best friend. And if things were reversed, if I was the one out there in the hands of some crazy religious fanatic, he'd already be gone looking for me. "
We all agreed he was right. Cappie wouldn't even have hesitated before charging to the rescue of any of us.
I stood and tried to bring myself under control. " He's right. He have to go. We can't wait. God knows what Dale I doing to him. "
No one argued now. They just charged after me, as I tried to keep up with Beaver who was plowing along not caring if we had his back or not. His mind was completely focused on bringing his friend home. That was all that mattered to him.
The night air was cooler now than it had been earlier and I was eternally grateful that I still had Cappie's jacket on. I pulled it tighter around me. It smelled like him and I drew in the scent, taking comfort in his presence there.
Our troupe of wanna be heroes moved quickly down Greek row, past the student health center and the administration building with its looming, foreboding columns and massive, overshadowed windows. Everything seemed darker suddenly, more frightful. Danger seemed to lurk in every shadow, every quiet, unseemly crevice.
Rusty had my hand and he squeezed it reassuringly as I jumped at every leaf that turned over and every wayward noise the night had to offer.
I was completely terrified. Fear, guilt and grief mingled in my mind, fighting for dominance of my emotions. Fear was winning at the moment.
God, I prayed, please keep him safe until we get there.
I wasn't normally an overly religion person. I only attended services on special occasions and God was not the first person I turned to in my hour of need. But as we trudged along, drawing closer to our destination, I found myself in silent negotiation with the powers that be. I promised to pray regularly, to go to church every Sunday, anything if He just kept Cappie safe and unharmed.
The building was smaller than the ones that surrounded it. It was still and silent, a nonthreatening type of building. It looked so normal. A small pink and white brick building sitting between two large towering monsters, the Science building and the Library. Under other circumstances, I might have described it as quaint and unassuming. I had passed it many times and never given it the slightest notice. But now, with the thought of what might be going on inside its seemingly harmless exterior, it took on a frightening, eerie quality. And I knew that I would never pass it again without noticing it and remembering exactly how I felt as I stood on the front sidewalk, watching as Beaver tried the door.
It didn't budge, it's lock firmly in place. We moved to the back, Rusty in the lead taking us to the door he had used on the two occasions he had attended a practice session of Dale's band.
This door was locked as well, but not nearly as well made. With words like criminal trespassing and breaking and entering screaming in my mind, I watched as Beaver put his shoulder against the flimsy door and bull rushed into it.
The wood of the jamb splintered with a resounding crack, making us all glance around to see if anyone had noticed the sound. Campus security, perhaps ?
But no such luck. No one was anywhere to be seen. We were on our own, a petrified, unnerved group of people with nothing but our bravado and numbers to help us. None of us had even thought to bring a weapon.
It was in this moment that I wondered how Dale could have possibly gotten Cappie out of the house. Cappie was far bigger and stronger than Dale. He wouldn't have gone with him without a fight. But no one had seen any type of scuffle. Someone would have mentioned it. So how did little Dale manage to best Cappie and get him all the way across campus to the back room of this little building ?
The answer came to us, stepping into the hall, looking repulsive and ominous. There were two of them, both dressed in ghoul costumes, which only added to their gruesomeness. They each carried baseball bats, thumping the ends against the palms of their hands threateningly.
" Dale's purity pledge brothers. " Rusty whispered as he recognized them.
At least we knew we were in the right place, I thought offhandedly.
Beaver didn't seem to care who they were. He didn't hesitate a moment. He dropped his shoulder and plowed into the first one, before the ghoul even had a chance to react, without a thought for the bat in his hand.
Calvin did the same for the other one, although he admittedly had a little more trouble. He caught the butt of the bat against his back as the second ghoul dropped to the floor.
Spinning quickly, he barely got out of the way before Beaver delivered a kick to the head of both men, rendering them unconscious and out of the fight for now.
He took off down the hall without some much as a glance over his shoulder. As an afterthought, Rusty and Heath both grabbed the bats that now lay useless on the floor at the ghoul's feet.
Now we were armed.
" How many of these purity pledge brothers are there ? " Wade asked as he came up behind us.
" Five, including Dale. " Rusty said.
A shout came from beside me and I turned around to see Beaver being taken down by the two remaining brothers. These guys weren't concerned with bats. They like there friends were dressed in ghoul costumes and holding what looked to be tazer guns.
Beaver lay at their feet, twitching in a disturbing, convulsive manner. He had been about to round a corner and apparently these two were waiting for him on the other side.
Well, I had my answer as to how exactly they had gotten Cappie out of the house without a fight. The tazers. Once tazzed, two of them could have easily dragged a seemingly drunken Cappie from the party without anyone taking any sort of notice at all.
Heath and Calvin were in the lead now, advancing slowly on the ghouls. Caution dictated their steps as they came closer and closer together.
It was Heath that surprised everyone this time. He more or less leaped, quickly closing the distance between the two parties and swinging his bat wildly. One of the guns flew into the air, landing with a sickening crack of breaking electronics against the wall. The second swing of the bat brought one of the ghouls to the ground in a heap.
Calvin took the opportunity of surprise and rushed into the next one, but he wasn't quite fast enough and the tazer caught him in the ribs, dropping him like a sack of potatoes on the ground at the ghoul's feet.
The man looked down at him with a sickening smile before turning his attention to Heath, who was distracted in that moment by Calvin's shaking, twitching body.
" Look out ! " Wade shouted, elbowing past Rusty and I and stepping into the fray.
He blocked the gun with the side of his arm, deflecting it away from Heath, who looked like he was about to drop to the floor beside Calvin.
Wade, using the leverage from his charge across the small space, plunged his fist into the man's stomach, winding him long enough for Heath to rip the gun from his hand and deliver an elbow to the middle of his back.
The fourth ghoul now lay like the others, unconscious and no longer a threat.
Seeing the immediate danger over, Heath did drop to his knees beside Calvin, pulling his head into his lap and stroking the side of his face, softly.
Well, that certainly confirmed that mystery as well. I had suspected Heath was gay since the drinking game. The tender way he held to Calvin, whispering softly to him and trying his best to comfort him, said my suspicions were right no target.
No one else seemed to give them much noticed. If this new revaluation about their brother bothered them, they were masking it rather well.
Wade was bending to check on Beaver, who was being to come around, groggily picking his head up and looking around.
" Find Cappie. " he said, weakly before dropping his head to the floor once again.
Heath showed no indication of planning to leave Calvin alone and we left him there to look after our fallen comrades as we continued around the turn in the hall.
Rusty and Wade were leading the charge now with me, alone and terrified, bringing up the rear.
A closed door stood at the end of the dimly lit hallway. A sliver of flickering light shown from the creak beneath it. The flickering reminded me of candlelight and I suspected that was the type of lighting illuminating the ominous room before us.
Rusty paused long enough to press his ear to the wood of the door, listening for any hint of what was happening on the other side.
Apparently all was silent, because he shrugged and reached for the knob.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion suddenly. The opening of the door, the movement beyond, Even Cappie's shout as he recognized who was entering.
" Casey ! Get out of here ! " he bellowed from a small, rickety wooden chair in the middle of an otherwise empty room. Dale was nowhere to be seen.
Blood. I saw Blood. It came at me like a ghastly, repulsive thing, the bright redness of it obscene to my senses.
There was no thought as I ran into the room, brushing past Wade and Rusty before they could stop me.
I dropped to my knees beside the chair and ignored Cappie's protests as he continued to demand that I leave as fast as I possibly could.
His hands were handcuffed, the links laced into the rungs on the chair's back. The skunk costume was gone. His chest exposed, gleaming pale in the candlelight.
I noticed the sticky, unspeakable feeling of blood soaking into the knees of my tights. My only thoughts were of finding out where it had come from.
Looking Cappie over carefully, I could find no place that was bleeding. Several smears decorated his chest, but no open wounds. His left eye was swollen and bruised. His right shoulder, red and swollen, but he wasn't bleeding as far as I could see.
" It isn't mine. " he told me finally as he recognized that I was searching for.
" Then who's is it ? " Rusty asked coming up behind me.
" It's mine. " Dale's voice was low and grizzled, bring with it a harrowing, horrendous feeling as he stepped into the room from a second doorway off to the side.
" Stay away from her ! " Cappie yelled as he struggled against his bounds.
I stood, moving with deliberate slowness so as not to startled the clearly off balanced man.
His smile was alarming, an abominable, repugnant thing that spread across his features, turning the boy that had appeared harmless and almost unworthy of notice into a man, dark, menacing and dreadful.
I instinctively took a step back and Rusty moved between us, hiding me behind him protectively.
" Don't, Dale. " He said with a forcefulness I wasn't aware Rusty was capable of. " Don't come any closer. "
The laughter that erupted from him was more terrifying than anything we had encountered so far. It was a detached, maniacal sound that carried throughout the room and echoed back at us, mocking our fear and horror.
" Rusty, you silly little boy, do you really think you can stop me ? Look at you. Your pathetic, a weak, girlish excuse for a man. I have the power of God on my side. " He continued to come towards us, his steps slow and deliberate.
He drew his hand behind him, causing his cape to flourish around him with a rippling effect, encompassing Rusty in it many folds.
When it moved aside, Rusty was laying on the floor, his eyes closed and unmoving.
I screamed and dropped down beside him.
" See I told you. " Dale said quietly as he knelt on the other side. " I have the power of the Lord in my veins. He can move mountains. "
Rusty was twitching involuntarily like the others in the hall.
" This isn't the power of God, Dale. It's the power of the tazer gun you have hidden in your cape. " I said, standing, empowered by the relief I felt in knowing that Rusty would be okay.
Dale come to me, stepping over his friend's crumpled body in the process. He seemed even more repugnant and repulsive now. The knowledge of what he was capable of clouding my image of him, turning him into a dark, sinister figure, like the villain in an old horror movie.
A hefty gash run from the hairline above his left eye to his temple. Blood streaked the side of his face and I wondered how I hadn't noticed it before.
Cappie continued to struggle against the handcuffs that held him fast to the chair. I started as a sickened crash resounded through the room. From the corner of my eye, I saw that he had turned the chair over in his fight for freedom and was now laying on his side on the floor.
It was the movement of his arm that caused my next action.
It was an action that would stay with me for the rest of my life, a feeling I would never really recover from.
Taking a deep breath, I reached forward and pulled Dale into me, distracting him from what was happening on the floor behind him. The chair had broken in the crash. Cappie was rising in a carefully measured movement.
" I can't stop thinking about all those messages you wrote to me, Dale. Telling me how much you loved me. You were right, you know. You are the only man I could ever really love. "
" How stupid do you think I am ? " he spat. " What are you trying to do ? "
I leaned closer to Dale, intent on doing whatever I needed to do in order to keep his attention on me.
Out of the other corner of my eye, I saw Wade creeping into the room. He, like Cappie was moving so slowly my eye barely registered the movement. In his hand, he held the tazer gun that one of the ghouls had dropped in the hall.
Dale shifted against me, making to turn his head. I did the only thing I could think of, I took a step closer, fighting off the nausea growing in my stomach and kissed him.
Then everything seemed to happen at the same moment. Cappie rushed him, his shoulder cocked in front of him. It was with a yelp of pain from Cappie that his shoulder, the bruised, swollen one, connected with Dale somewhere around his knees and sent him toppling forward. I moved just in time to keep him from crashing against me, taking me down as well.
Then Wade was there, standing over Dale with the tazer gun pressed into the younger man's side, rendering him unconscious.
I staggered back away from the scene in front of me. Rusty still lay, unmoving with Dale in the same condition beside him. Wade wasn't taking any chances. He was still standing over Dale with the gun raised, ready to strike with his slightest movement.
Cappie was struggling back to his feet, awkwardly in his still cuffed position and I finally willed my feet to obey me long enough to get to him.
Straining as I helped him to his feet, my muscles ached and throbbed.
" Where's the key ? " I asked, examining the handcuffs carefully.
" In his right front pocket. " he said, squirming as he tried to relieve the pressure from his shoulder, which was now even more swollen and a more angry shade of scarlet.
Wade took little time in retrieving the key and handing it to me.
I unlocked the cuffs and tossed them as far away from me as I could. They landed in a dark corner of the room with a clang.
Then I was abruptly trying to steady myself as Cappie whipped around and grabbed me to him. I couldn't breath, he was simply not allowing enough room between us for my lungs to expand. I took a shallow breath and let myself sink into him, relief coursing through me like a drug.
He pulled away finally. " Are you okay ? " he asked, his voice shaky and so full of concern.
" I'm fine, what about you ? I wasn't the one that was kidnapped. "
" I'm alright. Just a little banged up. " He cast his eyes down at Dale. " I think you got the worse part of the deal though, what with the creepy kissing and all. "
Somehow, even in the middle of everything that was happening, somehow, he made me laugh. I couldn't believe it even as the sound escaped my lips. He truly was the most amazing person I'd ever met. Then he kissed me so soundly and completely it was as if he were trying his best to erase the memory of Dale's lips on mine from my mind.
He lead me over to Rusty and we both checked him out, making sure he was only unconscious and there was nothing more wrong with him.
Satisfied that he was really okay, we turned as the door opened and Beaver, followed by Heath and Calvin entered the room.
" Where are the others ? Are they awake ? "
Beaver didn't answer. He didn't say a word in fact. He simply walked to where we were standing, moved me gently out of his way and encompassed Cappie in a hug that lifted him completely off the floor.
" Hey, Man. Watch the shoulder. " he sputtered as he returned to the ground.
" The cops finally decided it was an emergency when I called them and explained what was going on. They showed up and took the others guys outside. "
The words were no sooner out of Heath's mouth than three campus security guards were entering the room.
We were all safe. Everyone was okay. I swayed a little with the euphoria the thought brought me. My entire body throbbed like one giant aching toothache as I allowed myself to relax muscles I hadn't even realized were tense.
It was over.