For the next seven minutes, they drove on along the dirt road until they arrived at another clearing-apparently the one mentioned in Robert’s journal. Further ahead lay a footpath that presumably led to Cave
Despite confronting a daunting challenge to break forth through the thick veil of clouds, the moon had somehow found a reason to not only smile but grin down on sleepy Ogre’s Pond. Sailing across the sky valiantly, it had grown more than three-quarters full when Sheriff Stack and his deputies began to fan out.
Allan and Dwayne closed in through the west. Sheriff Stack paired up with Craig, and they took the eastern flank of the wooded area surrounding the culprit’s domicile. The place boasted a frontal opening-set within the walls of a huge rock-as the main and only entrance visible. If there was a door to the entrance, they hadn’t seen it yet. Above the opening, there was a jutting sheet of roof. It was some
There was an illumination at the entrance, and it was different than the moonlight’s. Brian and Craig moved on to an erosion-made gully, where they achieved a perfect angle that afforded them a clearer view. They instantly realized the radiance was issuing from within the cave, powered by a set of lanterns hung along the inner walls.
There was no door, but they couldn’t see far into the cave, because the passage ran for just about four feet before jackknifing to the right, resulting in a cul-de-sac to an observer from without.
Lightning flashed in the firmament. Rain was approaching.
“Watch your steps as we move on,” Brian whispered to Craig when they were about to start wading through shin-deep brushes again. They would duck around trees and wend their way forward in the hope of finally converging with the other pair. “With the trees’ low-hanging limbs literally lashing out at one’s face, and their naked roots setting up traps along the path, you could fall easily and blow our stealth.”
Craig nodded.
Suddenly, a sharp cry slashed through the otherwise silent night. The voice was full of agony. On the heels of the pained voice was a crack of gunshot that echoed across the four corners of the woods. Then another. And another.
A moment after the gunshots had ceased, another crying voice carried through the trees, and it seemed to move in the direction of Brian and Craig.
They quickly dropped back to their knees in the ditch. And listened.
The first voice, which they now recognized as Dwayne’s, wailed for a while before going silent. That didn’t look good. Not good at all.
The other sound apparently came from Allan. What had happened to him? It was easier to assume the outcome of Dwayne’s cry than Allan’s.
In the vibrant moonlight, Brian looked aside at Craig and realized the middle-aged deputy had started to shiver. “We’ll proceed with caution,” Brian whispered, acting like nothing had happened.
“How about the others?”
“How about them?” Brian knew this was the time to do one of the many things a leader is held accountable for-instilling courage in his followers. Craig was visibly scared.
“But, Sheriff,” Craig breathed, “I mean… the horrible scream-”
“Whatever you do, Craig, in God’s beautiful name, don’t you let your fear get the better of you. Is that clear?”
Looking like a trapped rabbit about to be snatched up by an insensate hunter, Craig nodded.
“Because it does no good other than empowering you to lose focus. And losing focus does nothing good other than making you fail. Now, move that way.” Brian gestured a path for Craig. Another strategy to diverge a little bit as the progress continued.
Craig’s already wide eyes enlarged even further. “Are you leaving me, Sheriff?”
“I’m not leaving you, but we can’t stick together like this if we intend doing something effective to save our butts. We’ll be separated within the range of twelve to fifteen feet. Wide apart enough to prevent us from getting cut down together at once, but close enough to prevent your blood from over-flowing and bringing you cardiac arrest. Now, move.”
No sooner had Brian uttered his words than they heard a rustling movement along the brushes, advancing their way. Brian trained his gun towards the sound, ready to fire. He gasped when Allan appeared, looking and acting like he’d just seen a ghost.
Chapter 19
He stood in the doorway for a while, casting a darkly suspicious gaze at the boy, who was still snoozing. Apparently, he had gone through a screaming bout while still asleep.
Something wasn’t right, but that
Right now, he began to experience the level of polarity that had played between the impure blood of Ogre’s Pond and him for so long.
All of a sudden, his subsided shivering resumed.
What the problem was-what he had felt at the boy’s house and in his own chamber-no doubt, was the foul spirit of betrayal.
He was just about to scream in infuriation when the engines rumbled across the quiet night, the sound swelling from the woods towards his abode.
As lightning cracked the face of the sky, Allan and Dwayne crouched behind a huge log of wood in response to Dwayne’s observation.
“Do you still notice any movement?” Allan asked in a low, quavery voice.
“Not anymore. Maybe it was just a figment of my imagination,” Dwayne said, whirling his head around to scan the whole area, as if he found it hard to convince himself by his own words. “I saw it through the corner of my eye, after all. Might even be a trick of the light.”
An insect lost its bearings and buzzed right into Allan’s nostril. “Shit,” he muttered as he blew the critter out. “I hate this.”
“How did we wind up here by the way?” Dwayne said.
Allan was still fuming at the winged creature’s intrusion on his mucous membrane-like it was a sacred land that an infidel had just desecrated.
Dwayne added, “I mean, how exactly did Sheriff Stack figure out this place is the criminal’s hideout?”
“Robert Smallwood.”
“Huh?”
“The boy keeps the record of his nightmares.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I have no idea. And even for a boy his age, if you ask me, makes it weirder.”
“But what has that got to do with us hunkering down here with our asses getting wiped by the itchy brushes?”
“Well, he says he sees this place in his shitty dreams. The kid’s fucked up,” Allan said, and quickly added: “And
