The Pantheon (5 page)

“
Leave her alone. She’s mine.” She looked up. There was an owl in the tree. Had the owl spoken to her? No. That was stupid.

She waited. No more voices. Diana moved faster toward the truck. She was thoroughly freaked out now.

“
Hey, hey you.” Voices again.

“
Oh no, he can see me...”

“
Get out of here,” the first voice sounded angry. “Get out. This one’s on my turf!”

Who the hell was talking? Diana was debating her sanity when something hit her in the head. A rock? An acorn? The voice erupted into a scream, “Get out or I’ll kill you!”

She ran. Her feet reached for the path in the dark, but at her panicked pace she found only sticks and sand. Branches struck her arms as she guarded her face. All sense of direction that the night usually afforded her receded into the background behind fear and alarm. She charged through the pitch black night, the sounds of nature were cranked up to a deafening roar. There was no telling which way to go in all the noise. Which way was the party? The siren? The voice in the trees? She turned around as she ran in one last-ditch attempt to glimpse the source of the voice. A branch caught her foot. She fell.

Diana landed with her arms out. She felt the broken branches on the ground scratch her limbs. The palms of her hands stung from the scrapes and embedded grains of sand. She didn’t dwell on it for long. She rolled quickly, still looking for the source of the voices. She almost didn’t notice the shadow of a person sitting propped against the tree in front of her.

She assumed it was another partygoer, drunk and sleeping, away from the noise of the party, probably passed out there after wandering off in the dark. The sirens were getting louder. She could see the blue and red playing off the trees and after what she’d just heard behind her, she welcomed their presence. She crawled over to the other person in the dark.

“
Hey kid, we gotta go. There’s someone out here besides the police.” The figure didn’t move. As Diana’s eyes focused she could make out a male figure, though not much more. “Didn’t you hear me? Police? Crazy person in the woods! Come on!”

She reached out and grabbed his arm. The first thing she noticed was that the skin was hot and sticky. The second thing she noticed was that it was wet. As she tugged, already too late to stop her momentum, the face fell into a sliver of dim moonlight, casting stark shadows over what Diana saw were horrible, third degree burns. The eyes were wide and empty. And then the body slumped forward, leaden, and landed on her.

She screamed.

Diana tried to throw the heavy body off of her. She scrambled backwards in the dirt, unable to hear her own voice breaking.

“
Diana!” Astin’s voice broke through the noise. “What happened?” He jumped through the tangle of kudzu that stretched between the trees, choking the life out of them. The flickering yellow beam from his flashlight revealed the bloody, charred body and his sister covered in blood, kicking it off of her legs. The corpse was still smoking. Her screaming ceased and they both stood in silence for a moment, staring, until they heard footsteps approaching through the woods.

“
Oh, this isn’t going to look good,” Astin said as he lowered his flashlight.

The Olympia Heights police force had arrested seventeen of the hundred or so teenagers that had attended the party. Of those seventeen, fifteen were lined up on a bench in the police station with zip ties around their wrists. Astin and Diana Hill weren’t so lucky. They got the real handcuffs.

The police had them in the interrogation room for the last four hours. They told the same story to the police repeatedly and the cops changed who was the good cop or bad cop every five minutes. The whole night shift at the station was whispering with excitement about going to bust up a kegger and stumbling upon a murder.

Astin and Diana could hear the muffled conversation through the two-way mirror.

“
Mom’s going nuts. She’s gonna burst a blood vessel or something,” Astin was trying to make light of it all to raise Diana’s spirits, but it wasn’t working. She kept staring at cup rings on the table.

“
Who was that? Who do you think that was?” Diana asked.

“
I dunno Di,” Astin sat back down in his chair. At least they’d been brought coffee. He never stayed up this late. Astin took a long sip. “A guy,” he said finally.

“
A guy... Astin, I found a dead human being.”

“
Well he was dead before you found him. If he wasn’t he probably wished he was. No harm, no foul.”

“
Oh shit.” She put her face into her hands.

“
I’m more worried about who killed him. This guy’s dead. Whoever killed him is still out there.” Astin took another drink.

“
I-- thanks for that comforting thought.”

“
Diana, I gotta tell you about something else. I mean, something big that happened out there. Maybe I was going crazy, but--” Astin stopped mid-sentence and looked up at the security camera in the corner. Did it record audio? He didn’t want to risk it, so he shut up. “Nevermind. I’ll tell you at home.”

“
Astin, I think I heard whoever it was,” she whispered barely loud enough for him to hear if he leaned in close. “I heard at least three people out there, maybe more. They were right next to me, all around me.”

“
Diana...” Astin said, his smile fading. “You were the only one out there. They did a sweep. I didn’t see anyone on the path.”

“
I didn’t see anyone either, but I heard them, Astin. One of them threatened to kill me.” She didn’t mention that she thought one of those voices came from an owl.

“
Listen... I love you, but don’t tell them that. Voices without bodies... that sounds crazy.”

“
It was dark, maybe I just couldn’t see them?”

“
Right next to you?” He shook his head. The door opened. Astin gave Diana a warning look before Sgt. Thompson and his Lieutenant, a young guy fresh out of school, walked in. Mrs. Hill followed. She looked tired, stressed and she wasn’t wearing any makeup; that was a very bad sign.

“
Alright,” Thompson slid Astin’s coffee mug away from him. “I’m gonna give you one last shot to tell us the whole truth.”

“
We don’t get a lawyer?” Astin was really getting fed up with all of this. “Isn’t that the law? And, as we’re minors, weren’t you supposed to wait for our guardian to get here before you started interrogating us? I know the laws. You might be a cop, but I’m a teenager. We know the laws too.”

Diana hid her face in her hands.

“
A lawyer is on his way. People take a moment to hop in their cars when you get them out of bed, son.” He sat down and leaned toward Diana, “If you wanna wait, that’s your right, but if you wanna talk now you can speed this up considerably.”

“
We told you.” Diana looked over her hands, glaring at Thompson. “Yeah, we were out in the woods after curfew. Yes, we were at the bonfire. No, we didn’t drink. You can’t get anything else out of us because there’s nothing else to tell you!” She heeded Astin’s advice in leaving out the voices. Now that she thought back on it, there had been nothing close to the path but low ferns. Nobody could have hid in them. She was going mad, it was as simple as that.

“
Don’t talk to him, Diana. You don’t have to tell him the same thing over and over.” Astin looked over at the Lieutenant. “What’s your name?”

“
Gutierrez,” he looked between the twins. He was wiry with buzzed black hair and a perfectly straight tie.

“
Okay, quick question. Does this guy hate teenagers?” He pointed with his thumb at Thompson.

“
Uhhh... no?” He knew he couldn’t answer that honestly and keep his job. Sgt. Thompson had a long history of ranting about ‘those damn kids and their backwards hats and hip-hop music.’

“
Because I’m trying to make sense of this.” Astin stood up. “I’m trying to figure out why he’s implying that my sister killed this guy when it’s pretty damn obvious she didn’t?”

Thompson got to his feet too, “Why is it obvious? It doesn’t seem so obvious to me. She was at the scene of the murder with his blood all over her. Sit down, kid!”

Astin didn’t.

“
She tells you honestly that she violated curfew. She tells you she tripped while cutting through the trees and landed next to the body. You find a torched corpse with no burnt trees, no burnt leaves around it. You find no lighter. No fire making tools. My truck is clean. I’m clean. She’s like, a hundred and twenty-five pounds tops, she couldn’t carry that body herself, but contrary to all evidence you wanna stick the only teenagers you can’t get a blood alcohol content on with murder charges and leave my traumatized sister covered in a stranger’s blood while some pyro-slash-killer runs around town. So I’m wondering if you have a vendetta against teenagers or if you’re just a moron.”

Thompson’s face was red. Diana looked at the Lieutenant and saw him smirk. He quickly put on a straight face and cleared his throat. He cut in before Thompson could decide how Astin would pay for that monologue. “Uh, sir, Mr. Soto is here.”

The family attorney was visible through the glass panel on the door. Thompson tore his eyes away from Astin and nodded. Thompson let Mr. Soto in. He was a short balding man with large glasses and a mean presence. Mr. Soto was mostly employed for double-checking loan contracts and managing Mr. Hill’s business affairs. He looked ready for a fight. “Sgt. Thomspon,” he said with a weak smile. “Do you have any evidence to press murder charges?”

“
Not at the present, no, just presence.”

“
Alright, and you interrogated the children before their mother arrived, Mrs. Hill has informed me.”

Gutierrez nodded behind his superior.

“
Then I suggest you don’t press charges for the curfew and let them go home. Miss Hill needs a shower and you know how these laws are. They’re meant to protect the children. You wouldn’t want it going on the record that there was any misconduct by the force.”

Ten minutes later Diana was in the bathroom changing into an O.H.P.D sweat suit so she could leave her clothes with evidence. Mrs. Hill was scolding Astin in the interrogation room while they waited. He was laughing. He was feeling pretty good about getting away with that much sass. Mrs. Hill slapped the back of his head, not caring that she was on camera. “You can’t talk to the police like that, Mister! They should throw you in jail for the night just to teach you some respect.”

“
Whatever, they know I’m right.” He sat back down and started drumming on the table with his hands. He had never been humble in his life.

Mrs. Hill was relieved to get Diana in the car so she could get her home, showered, and to bed. Astin, however, was in serious trouble the moment they all got in the car. Astin was laughing and muttering about “stupid pigs”, when Mrs. Hill slammed the door shut.

“
What?”

“
They let you off but you’re still in trouble with me.”

His mirth faded. He knew that look. Their mother was not someone to cross when she had that look in her eyes. “Sorry,” he croaked.

“
Oh, you will be, Astin Samson Hill! You will be.”

Astin knew he’d lost his guitar for at least a week.

“
Aid friends.”

-Delphic Maxim

iv.

His broad shoulders collapsed with every breath

as he lay on the floor, his shackles like ice.

Bound at the wrists and ankles, he fought his binds,

growing ever tired.

Each attempt to break free only weakened him.

The battle above was being lost without his might.

The clever enemy played their hand too well

and struck at strength first.

The greatest warrior had been locked away.

For a year the conquest had been too easy.

He dragged himself to his feet, his head kept down.

The cell was too low.

A normal man might have been able to stand

but he was nearly seven feet tall and broad.

He slammed against the walls, shouting to be heard.

The shackles fought back.

They threw him in the opposite direction,

Their bewitched strength stolen from his own display.

He hit the cold stone floor and crumpled, shaking,

lost beneath the earth.

He could feel the fight above through miles of dirt.

He stared at the slick molding walls in the dark.

Water ran in beads down their red clay surface.

Then he heard footsteps.

At first he couldn’t identify the sound.

The patter was too fast to be a man’s pace.

Feet skidded to a halt outside the jail cell.