Infestation: A Small Town Nightmare (4 page)

"That means a lot to me, ma'am." Marie
smiled. She started to get up. "I've really taken up enough of your
time, Mrs. Drake. I ought to get going now. Thanks for hearing me
out."

Annie stood with her. "It's nothing,
dear. Would you kindly let me know if you find out anything
further? I'd really like to understand what happened to my
Raven."

"I definitely will. Now you take care
of yourself and again… I'm very sorry for your loss."

"Ready?" Amy asked as her mother
approached. By then, a few more people were sitting around the
living room.

"Yes," Marie replied. "Pleasure
meeting you all," she said as they were leaving.

"Likewise," Dorcas
answered.

Annie went to the front window and
shifted the curtain. She watched as Marie and Amy slowly drove
away.

"So, how did it go?" Amy asked as they
proceeded down the street.

"Much better than expected. I think
she actually believes me—at least, she says she does," Marie
replied.

IV

"Do you mind turning that down a
little?" Marie asked as they were leaving Annie Drake's
neighborhood.

Amy reached over and lowered the
stereo. "Mom…" Her eyes veered over to the left.

"What in the world?!" Marie swerved
abruptly to the side of the road.

Dozens of onlookers had crowded the
front of a green townhouse that was surrounded by yellow crime
scene tape. A slim, straggly-bearded man was being hauled off by
two police officers toward one of several squad cars haphazardly
parked in front of the building.

"I don't know why I did it!" The man
cried before the angry-looking officer pushed his head down as he
was entering the car. "I swear, I don't know why! My God… what have
I done?!"

Marie and Amy looked at each other.
"Let's find out what happened," Marie suggested.

They quickly unbuckled their seat
belts and joined the large group of onlookers—most of whom were
visibly shaken.

"What happened?" Marie asked a young
man standing at the wall.

"The dude they just hauled away
murdered the people inside the house there," he said.

"What? How many people?" Marie
asked.

"A family of four," the man
confirmed.

"My God…" Amy's hands met her
mouth.

"Any children?" Marie probed
further.

The young man sighed. "Yeah… two
teenage boys."

"What kind of a monster could do such
a thing?" Amy cried.

Body bags containing the victims were
being wheeled out one by one.

Marie turned away, suddenly feeling
ill. Amy looked on as her mother found support against the
wall.

Amy went over to her. "Are you
okay?"

"Yes." She tried composing herself. As
Marie looked up again, she saw coroners wheeling out another body.
"I can't stay here a moment longer. Let's go!" she
urged.

Marie barely spoke a word during the
drive home. After pulling up onto the driveway, she quickly put the
car in park and hurried toward the door. Dave was in the living
room watching television when she walked right past him.

"Honey…" he called after her. Void of
a reply, he heard a door close.

Amy entered the house.

"What's with your mother?" Dave asked
her.

Amy went over and slumped onto the
sofa. "An entire family was murdered on Austin Lane a while ago. We
just left the scene," she said.

"What?" Dave's jaw dropped.

"We heard the guy confess to the
killings, but he said he didn't know why he did it."

Dave recalled Marie's recent dream. He
instantly got up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Amy
asked.

"I have to speak with your
mother."

Dave knocked at the bathroom door and
tried to turn the knob. "Honey, are you all right in there?" He
could hear quiet sniffling inside.

"Yes. I'm fine." Marie cleared her
throat. "I'll be out in a minute."

Dave reluctantly walked away. However,
he was waiting nearby when she resurfaced a few minutes later. She
glanced at him, then walked out into the living room. Dave could
see that she had been crying.

"Are you all right, Mom?" Amy
asked.

"Yes, sweetheart. I'm fine," Marie
replied.

Confident that her mother would be
well taken care of by her dad, Amy said: "I'm going by Sandy's
house for a while; okay?"

"Okay, sure," Dave told
her.

Marie sat down wearily in Amy's spot
as the teenager retrieved her headphones from the mantle and headed
out the door.

"Amy told me about the murders." Dave
sat close by. "I can't believe it."

Marie was visibly
heart-broken.

"In the past ten years, there's been…
what… two murders?" Dave continued. "And both, to my recollection,
were self-defense cases."

Marie quietly nodded.

"It's really happening; isn't it? Just
like you saw?"

"Yeah," Marie responded almost in a
whisper.

Dave could feel the anxiety building.
This is one of the times when he desperately wished that somehow
Marie got it all wrong—that her dream was nothing more than
negative entertainment while she slept. However, he knew he wasn't
getting his wish. The signs were matching up.

"The body of the young woman they
pulled out of waters at the dock wasn't a normal suicide either,"
Marie stated.

"Normal suicide?" Dave
grimaced.

"She didn't plan to end her life that
night. Amy and I had just left her aunt's house when we came across
the dreadful scene."

"You visited the girl's aunt?" Dave
was surprised.

"I felt I had to." Marie started
rubbing her eyes. "I know this is out of character for me, Dave,
but I couldn't let her family believe that she had killed herself
when I knew she didn't—not after I saw the vision."

"A vision?"

"This morning after you left for your
run."

Just then, the phone rang and Dave got
up to answer it. Seconds later, he handed the receiver to her. "For
you… it's Steven," he said quietly.

"Steven?" Marie frowned. She
reluctantly took the phone. "Hello…"

Dave sat down and listened. It wasn't
a regular occurrence for any of Marie's relatives to call the
house. Recently, Steven had been reaching out more and
more.

"Uh…huh,"
Dave heard Marie say.
"I
don't know about that, Steve."
She added,
moments later.

Marie soon hung up from the call and
looked at her husband with great uncertainty on her face. "He wants
me to come over for a get-together they're having this weekend,"
she said. "He was initially thinking of having it at his house, but
he and Betty are renovating."

"What's this get-together for?" Dave
was curious.

"He said it isn't anything
special—just a dinner mainly and that he wanted to do it because we
haven't all been in the same room since Dad died. I know what he
means though. He means that
I
haven't been in the same room with them since Dad
died," Marie surmised.

"Are you going?"

"I don't want to, Dave. I really
don't, but Steven…"

"Then go for him, if not for anyone
else, since he's reaching out to you like this. Before you know it,
the time will have passed quickly and the visit will be history
until… whenever."

To Marie, it made sense; Dave always
made sense.

She sighed heavily. "Okay. I guess
I'll go then."

Dave reached for her hand and smiled.
"It'll be okay, honey. Trust me."

Their attention drifted toward the
television when they heard the one o'clock news announced. The
video of the Austin Lane killings was the highlight. Black body
bags were shown leaving the residence on stretchers.

Marie gasped. "That's one of the boys
in there." Her voice lowered.

"How can anyone do something so
horrendous?" Dave charged. "They're innocent, for God's sake!" He
slammed his fist on the arm of the chair.

Marie rested her hand on Dave's. She
didn't know anyone in the world that loved children more than he
did and was sorry that she was never able to give him more of his
own.

"I don't know why I did
it!"
They saw the accused killer declare
his guilt with apparent remorse or what one might think was a
future insanity defense.

Marie shook her head sadly. "He really
didn't know why he did it," she said.

The look in Dave's eyes was piercing.
"What do you mean he didn't know why he did it? He's a human being,
dammit! When we do things, we know why we're doing
them!"

"You still don't understand, Dave,"
Marie's calm return was somewhat sinister. "Powerful forces are
driving these people to do such things. I strongly feel that in the
moment, they are clueless as to what's happening or at least, if
they know, they cannot control themselves."

"Do you know this for a fact, Marie,
or is this conjecture?"

"What I do know is that a gateway has
been opened by which these entities came and somehow, some way, I
have to find out where it is," Marie replied.

"Do you mean an actual, physical
gateway?" Dave asked.

"No." She sighed. "It's a spiritual
gateway. If I can locate where it originated, then I'm assuming
that something can be done about it."

"How in the world will you do that?
Find out, I mean."

Marie thought carefully. "All I can
say is… if God showed me the problem, He'll somehow lead me to the
solution."

"God doesn't need man's help for a
solution, Marie. That's why He's God," Dave thought he should clear
that up.

"I believe that sometimes, He does.
Not that the problem can't get solved without man's involvement,
but sometimes God requires it. Right now, in this case, I don't
know which one it is."

(NEWS ANCHOR: "Within the
past twenty-four hours, police have indicated that there have been
four armed robberies, five reported cases of rape, and another
suicide in Foxdale. Folks, this escalation of crime and suicide is
unheard of in Bringham).

Marie, horrified, looked at Dave who
was pretty much gaping at the television screen.

"That solution had better come fast!"
Dave finally vociferated. "If it goes on like this…"

"I know." Marie leaned back quietly on
the sofa.

* * *

"I still don't understand why we had
to come here!" Amy grunted in the back seat as they pulled in front
of the white, split-level house with the perfectly manicured lawn.
The large yard was one of the most well-kept in the neighborhood
and Sylvia Stokes took great pride in that.

"We'll only be a while," Marie said,
feeling a degree of apprehension that she was trying hard to
conceal. She glanced at the car clock. "It's 6:15 now. I don't
suppose we'll be here longer than an hour or two max."

"Listen to your mother, honey," Dave
interjected. "Before you know it, we'll be walking back to this car
and heading home."

Amy sucked her teeth. "I guess we can
all go in there, be fake and pretend just as well as Grandma does.
Then maybe, when it's all over, we'll feel like we've accomplished
a great, big, amazing task, right?"

"Amy Adams! You suck your teeth again
and you'll be missing a couple!" Marie charged. Dave and Amy knew
her warnings were nothing more than laughable since she never
backed anything up. "I know my mother has never been much of a
grandmother to you, Amy, but in spite of that, when you go inside
that house, remember to be respectful. We cannot change people—only
God can do that. Leave it to Him."

Amy got out of the car.

"Take a deep breath in," Dave told
Marie.

"I'm fine," she replied.

Dave knew she was lying.
Marie hadn't been anywhere near that house or the neighborhood for
that matter for several months and he knew that walking through
those double doors just ahead would be one of the most
uncomfortable things Marie would have to do. Not only were the
people inside there considered
toxic
by Marie, but the house held
many memories of her beloved father.

"Let's go," she said. "Let's get this
over with."

Amy was waiting for them and they all
walked toward the front door together.

Dave rang the doorbell once and they
waited quietly on the porch, each one silently dreading the fact
that they were there. The door flashed open moments later. It was
Steven. "Dave, how are ya?" The men shook hands. "It's been a
while," Steven said.