Shadows in the Dark (2 page)

“
Why the hell do you care?”
he replied.

“
I’m your mother. Of course
I care,” I said as I backed out of the driveway.

“
Well it’s none of your
business.” He pulled out his phone and put his earphones in. Not
even seconds after, his music could be heard from where I was
sitting. My fun had ended there.

The car ride continued to
be silent after that. And, to be honest, I wanted it like that. It
was very clear that my son didn’t want to talk to me, so I let it
happen. If this were the last time I see him, I would want him to
get what he wants.

After sitting in the car
for a while in silence, I got the urge to get my phone and check to
see if my husband were the one that had chosen the bad cup. With
one flick of my thumb, I flipped open the phone and dialed his
number.

“
Hello?” he
answered.

“
Hello, dear,” I said. “How
do you feel?”

“
What?” he asked
confused.

“
How do you
feel?”

“
What kind of damn question
is that? I’m at work, woman! I’m fine! Now leave me alone!” And
with that, he hung up the phone. For a second I took it that he was
lying. That he had told me he felt fine though he wasn’t. But then
I looked over at my son, who had started to cough, and saw that he
had started to lose color in his skin.

Without thinking, I
avoided the turnpike that would normally direct me to his school
and kept going straight. My son looked too queasy to even
notice.

“
So,” I started, “you never
did tell me how the coffee tasted.”

Set the World on
Fire

The body of Bob Garrison
sat in the corner, blood stained on the walls. Detective Rick
Burrow stood in thought, examining the body closely. I could tell
he was really into this case. Hell, I’ve known the man for seven
years. Officer Jackson walked into the room and knelt down next to
the body.
“Have you found anything yet, detective?” Jackson asked, studying
the body as well. Rick and I both hesitated to answer. Rick was the
first to speak.
“All we’ve found is the knife wound. There is no trace of the
killer or anything.” Rick ran his fingers through his hair and
sighed. It was obvious that this case was frustrating him. I, on
the other hand, am not the least bit bothered. We have gone through
worse cases than this. A man stabbed to death is actually a
pathetic attempt for a killer to become known. If he wanted to
become known, he could’ve at least left a trace behind. But there
was nothing. No footprints, no fingerprints, nothing.
“Have you contacted his family? Told them what happened?” I asked,
crossing my arms, not taking my eyes away from the body.
“Yes, I sent my partner to go tell them. Can’t help but feel sorry
for them. None of them expected this.” Jackson took a few steps
back and started observing the room, just to see if he could find
anything.
“Do you think it’s time to move the body?” I asked. Rick and
Jackson nodded their heads, not saying a word.

Slowly, I got some gloves
from my truck, put them on, and grabbed the body. It put up a
fight, being heavy and all. But I won and the body came up with
ease. “What’s that?” Jackson asked, pointing at something on the
body’s back. A yellow sticky-note stuck on the man’s shirt,
drenched in blood.  
“There’s only one way to find out.” Rick took the sticky-note and
started to read it. His expression changed suddenly.
“What does it say?” I asked. Rick didn’t answer, he just handed it
to me. I took it and read it out loud.
“My name is of no importance, not yet anyway. Check the air vent in
the back, so we can begin to play.” I read the note once more to
myself just to make sure that’s really what it said. Rick stared at
me, nervous.
Without thought, Rick and I walked over to the back of the room
towards the air vent. Rick tried opening it but it wouldn’t budge.
It was screwed in tight.
“I need something to open it,” Rick grunted, trying to open it once
more. Jackson ran out of the room and came back with a screwdriver.
Rick grabbed it and unscrewed the air vent. It fell with a loud
bang.
All three of us looked inside the vent. Inside was a small flap of
paper. Rick scooped it up and Jackson and I looked down at it. The
flap of paper was a photograph. A photograph of a little
girl.

…

After minutes of trying to
get Rick back in the room, I finally gave up. The man wouldn’t
budge. I walked back into the room and saw Jackson kneeling down,
looking at the photo.
“Do you know who this is? Ain’t no doubt that I don’t.” His Texan
accent sounded stronger than usual. He smirked up at me, trying to
lighten the mood. It didn’t help much, but I did give him
credit.
“I have no clue. Here, let me see it.” He handed me the photo and I
observed it. The little girl had curly blonde hair. She was smiling
with a giant lollipop in her left hand with a dog leash in the
other. On the other end of the dog leash, a small German Shepard
puppy sat in the grass, staring at a butterfly. I flipped it over
to the back and saw numbers.
“Jackson? I think there’s a phone number on here.” I looked over at
him. He was in the back, observing the blood stained spot where
Bob’s body was. He quickly looked up at me in confusion.
“A phone number?” He had a what-the-hell face on. “Should… we call
it?”
“I guess that’s the only logical thing to do now, isn’t it?” I
smirked at Jackson, not receiving one back. I pulled out my phone
and dialed in the number. Sure enough, it was a phone number. Then,
the ringing stopped.
“Hello, detective. Having a good day? Now we can finally start to
play. We will meet soon, do not fear. But first, there’s business
that needs to be done here.”
The voice sounded menacing, and it was almost like a whisper. I
didn’t know what to do or say. So I just waited for the voice to
say something else.
“Please, detective, don’t be silent. That’s the one thing that
makes me violent. I think you should answer, that’s what I suggest.
It’d be smart not to make me more stressed.” I shuddered. I still
had no idea what to say. By this time, Jackson had already walked
over and was standing next to me.
“Detective, I swear to God that you should talk. Or you will lose
this case and I will take a walk.”
“Who is this?” I said suddenly. Jackson jumped in surprise.  I
heard a laugh on the other line. The man thought this was
funny.
“Oh, how I love this job. I love the stuff I do that I did to poor
Bob. The man begged for me to quit. But I just kept going, just a
bit. Now you’re next, there is no stopping. I’ll smile greatly
while your body is dropping. I can’t wait to meet you, it will be
fun. I think your death with be the best one.” The phone made a
clicking sound, and the voice was gone.
“What the hell was that?” Jackson stared at me cautiously. I looked
at him, breathing hard. Sweat started to drip down from the top of
my forehead.
“I think we have a big problem on our hands.”

…

I explained what happened
to Jackson and Rick. Jackson confiscated my phone so he could go
and try to trace the call. Rick sat in the truck, staring out the
windshield. I got into the driver’s seat and sat there with
him.
“When are you getting your phone back?” Rick asked, not moving his
eyes.
“Jackson said around tomorrow. He said that he needs to take it to
the station. The man gave me the creeps. He
rhymed.
” Rick shook his head and
sighed.
“What the hell is our world coming to? We’ve got killers murdering
innocent people for no reason. We have rapist. We have drug dealers
that don’t realize that they are just messing up their lives. Now
we’ve got some maniac rhyming over the dang phone. Sometimes, this
job is too much to handle.”
I couldn’t help but agree. There are times in this job that make
you wonder why you’re even in it. But after a while you remember
that you’re in here for the people. To protect the people from the
sick creeps that lurk in this city.
“True. But remember, without us, people would be the complete
opposite from safe.”
“Even with us, they still aren’t safe.” He took his eyes away from
the windshield and stared into my eyes. “We aren’t enough to keep
the creeps from doing the things they do. Even when we take one
down, another pops up. It’s like a never ending battle between the
bad guys and the heroes.”
I understood where he was coming from.
“Rick, just don’t think about it. This is a rewarding job, is it
not?” Rick nodded his head. “Yeah, it is. No doubt about that.” He
started tapping his fingers on the arm rest. “Can we just go do
something else? To take our minds off of this?”
I nodded my head and couldn’t help but smile.
“Sure. But there is one problem.”
“What?”
“I need your phone to call Sarah.”
Rick laughed and handed me his phone. I started up the car and we
drove off down the street. I dialed up Sarah’s number and waited
for her to pick up her phone.
“Hello?” Sarah’s voice came through the other end of the
phone.
“Sarah? It’s Eli. Rick and I are going to have a few drinks at the
bar. Okay?”
“Why are you using Rick’s phone?” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Jackson had to confiscate it so he could trace a call. It’s no big
deal.” Sarah hesitated to answer.
“Why did he have to trace a call on your phone?” I could hear Sarah
setting down her car keys on the other end of the line. She must
have been out somewhere and just got home.
“Some creep left a phone number behind and I called it, being the
curious idiot I am. Turns out the murder isn’t all the creep has in
mind.” Rick started to chew on his lip. This, of course, wasn’t
helping with the whole “forget about it” idea.
“And that’s no big deal?” The sound of a chair being pulled from
under a table and sat on came through the phone.
“Sarah, don’t worry. It’s fine.” I said, reassuring her. Sarah
sighed.
“Okay. Have fun at the bar.” She hung up the phone and I handed it
back to Rick.
“Thanks,” I said, putting my free hand onto the wheel.
“No problem.”
The ride to the bar was pretty quiet. I tried to start
conversations, but Rick would give me one word answers.
I pulled into the bar’s parking lot and Rick got out before the
truck could even stop. I guess the man wanted a drink pretty
badly.
Rick and I walked into the bar, eyes meeting ours as we walked over
to a table. Rick slumped down in a chair and I sat across from him.
I went for my wallet when Rick stopped me.
“No, it’s on me,” he said, getting up from his chair. He walked
over to the bartender and ordered us two drinks. He set them on the
table and gulped down his. By the time I was half way done with
mine, Rick had gone through three whole glasses. After an hour of
being there, we both were already drunk.
We were talking about usual things that two drunken dudes would
talk about. We talked about women, cars, and dreams that would
never happen. Somehow, our childhood came into conversation.
Several minutes passed by with many conversations that jumped from
one to another. I knew I wouldn’t remember them, but I couldn’t
care less.
“Rick… I think we’re drunk.” Rick looked off in deep thought. After
several seconds, he quickly looked back at me.
“I feel fine.” We started laughing hysterically. Then Rick stopped
and stared behind me, squinting really hard.
“That dude,” he said pointing. “That dude has been watching us this
whole time.” I looked behind me and saw a man leaning against the
wall in the back of the bar. He was wearing a hood over his face
and had jeans on.
“Hey!” Rick stood up and yelled from across the room. “Hey, what
are you looking at?” Rick threw his arms up.
The man only stopped leaning on the wall and started walking over
to us.
“Oh, this guy wants a piece of me!” Rick took a step and tripped on
the leg of the table. The man met Rick in front of our table and
got pretty close to him. He was just as tall as Rick, if not
taller.
He pulled Rick closer to him and whispered something into his ear.
Rick seemed to get furious. The man pushed Rick away from him,
making him run into the table behind us. The man started walking
away, but I got up from my seat and got in his way. Turns out, the
man was a few inches taller than me. He put his hand on my chest
and pushed me back into my seat.
He disappeared into the crowd and Rick sat back down, breathing
hard. His face was completely red.
“What did that idiot tell you?” I asked. Rick took another sip of
his drink and took a second to answer.
“He wants…” He took another sip of his drink. “He wants to meet us
behind the bar in ten minutes.”

…

Rick and I finished our
drinks in one gulp and stormed out behind the bar. A dumpster sat
in the dark corner, hardly noticeable. The man was nowhere in
sight.
“Ha! Looks like he didn’t show up after all.” Rick stumbled over to
the back door of the bar and was about to go back inside. Suddenly,
the eerie sound of a bottle breaking flooded the back ally. Rick
and I quickly looked back and saw the man standing next to the
dumpster.
Something about him seemed different. He seemed more menacing than
he did in the bar. His hood covered more of his face, not revealing
anything behind it. It was like a black hole of nothing. His fists
were tightened into a ball as if he was ready to cause serious
pain. But this didn’t seem to bother Rick.
“I don’t know what you were looking at, buddy. But you were staring
at the wrong guy!” Rick ran over to sock the man in the face. But
he was ready.
The man quickly dodged his fist and kicked him right into the
dumpster. Rick fell to the ground, getting the air knocked out of
him.
“Rick, come on. I don’t think this guy meant any harm.” I tried to
tell Rick to stop, but he just got right back up and went right
back at him.
He threw his foot up, trying to kick him in the stomach, but the
man caught his leg and bashed his elbow into Rick’s knee. Rick
cried out in pain.
Gasping, Rick fell back to the ground and didn’t attempt to get
back up.
“You think you got the best of me? Well, you’re wrong!” Rick tried
crawling away, but the man slammed his foot into Rick’s ribs. Once
again, Rick cried out in pain.
I took a deep breath and walked over to the man, ready to fight. I
put my fists up and got into a fighting stance.
He looked over at me, letting some light get through his hood, only
revealing his smile. His evil smile.
I threw a punch, but he blocked it. I threw another. Then another.
All of a sudden, a sudden pain ran through my body. The man had
struck me in the stomach.
I felt like puking, but I only spit and got back into my fighting
stance. He threw a punch, but I victoriously blocked it. But the
victory didn’t last long, because he quickly threw a punch again,
socking me in the side of my jaw.
My head jerked sideways. I started stumbling over sideways but I
ran into the wall. I looked over and saw the man holding another
bottle, spinning it in his hand.
I could still see his smile, watching me like a pair of eyes.
“Look, we don’t want any trouble,” I said. “Let’s just resolve this
like civilized people.” I stepped away from the wall and started
walking over to the man. “This doesn’t have to end badly.”
“Oh, Detective, that’s where you’re wrong. Now I must leave, and
you’re coming along.” Before I could respond, the side of my head
was smacked with a bottle, knocking me unconscious.