Lychan Part 6
After a while, he rose from the floor. The morning sun shined through the cracks in the windows. There was no sound, only of the van coming…
After a while, he rose from the floor. The morning sun shined through the cracks in the windows. There was no sound, only of the van coming up the driveway. His head throbbed, and everything hurt in a compulsion of misery. Blurry and damaged, he managed to get to his feet.
That wasn’t just the alcohol.
Ricky made it to the couch as his head raged with pounding like drums. The front door swung open as Caelan and Ivan entered. “Who wants some donuts? Come on, better get some.” Stirring, Nick was heard upstairs.
“Where are the girls?” Ricky asked.
“Always with the girls,” Ivan chuckled. Caelan was silent. “Man, you danced crazy last night, you was cool man.” He hit his stomach in a brotherly manner. “They sure were nice, right?”
“Where are they?”
“They went home, man. I found your donut shop,” throwing him a greasy stained bag with two glazed donuts inside. Rick’s Donuts, written on the bag. Smiling, Ricky ate one. “You were gone, bro. Sorry, that’s what happens when you drink too much.”
“I heard them last night, here,” he said eating with his mouth full. “Come on, you’re tellin’ me they left? You must ‘a had a good time?”
“We didn’t do nothin’ man. We hung out, they went home. OK? Now get dressed, we’re going for a ride,”
“To where?”
“A festival,” Caelan said putting on his red flannel. Late August got cold sometimes. “In town, you wanna jacket? It’s kinda cold.” He threw him one.
“I’m exhausted, bro.”
Did they put something in my drink? Did they wanna smash these girls? What’s going on? I gotta get outta here. It doesn’t feel right.
“Well, then, let’s go,” Ivan said. “Nick! Let’s go, man!” he shouted upstairs grabbing a jacket from the closet. Ricky was a mess and so couldn’t easily leave now in the hustle and bustle of everything happening. And as he came to himself he realized his car was in the shop still.
Oh, right. Gotta play along, then. He moaned.
They all went out into the dreary morning. And as they went to the van, Ricky looked at the barn, the doors wide open from the breeze. The wind blew them open wide and swept the lock clean off, revealing the inside.
Ricky stepped forward and saw blood. Blood on the entranceway to the red barn and saw streaks of red on the back step. Some panties strewn across the brown dead grass heading towards the barn. He picked them up horrified.
“Ricky,” Ivan called.
But he hurriedly ran to the barn and petrified, looked inside.
Sheriff Dan Lewis came late in the afternoon to Harold’s door and knocked waiting for his other friends to arrive.
Harold answered, “How ya doin, Dan?” They shook hands firmly.
“Doin’ just fine. How ‘bout you? Work’s good?”
“Yeah, man as anything could be. These cars now, man. It’s all computerized. I’ll be lucky if I make it past next year.”
“Yeah, times change.”
“Too fast. Technology hasn’t even finished a generation and now they make more and more. Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. So, what brings you here, Dan? It’s been a while.”
“It has. Well, just got wind of your friend.”
“Who?” Harold asked concerned. Just then Haul came through the door followed by Bobby.
“What’s going on?” Haul asked. “Sheriff, how you doin?”
“I was about to tell Harold,” the sheriff said.
“Tell me what?” Harold asked suspiciously.
“Why don’t we sit down.” They all gathered around the table.
“Lukas Ryan was found last night. Killed.”
Silence. Nobody moved. Harold was hard as stone.
“I’m sorry, guys,” Dan said. “I don’t know what else to say.”
“You want some coffee,” Haul asked everyone. Nobody said a word except Dan. And Haul escaped to the kitchen.
“He was murdered. Slashed badly just like the other bodies.”
“All cut up,” Bobby commented. “Why do they look like that?”
“It seems like some animal but it’s always the same way.”
“How did it happen?” Harold asked.
“Lukas was coming home late after being out. It looked like someone broke in, and tore down the door with some pretty gnarly strength. I don’t know, it must be a whole league of ‘em.”
“Monsters in the dark…” Harold said.
“Harold, don’t start-”
“I’m serious. I saw ‘em.”
“I know it may seem strange-”
“Strange? It’s all strange regardless… Death is weird.”
“It’s not always some dark sinister thing like the movies,” Sheriff Dan assured.
“I’m not sayin’ it’s the movies, I’m sayin’ the truth, I tell you. I killed one!” Harold screamed.
Dan shuddered. “What?”
“This kid came to our fire on Friday. Brainless, over here invited him and I knew from the start somethin’ was up. He lunged at me and I killed him with silver bullets. His name was Thomas Conway. Remember the murders of that family years ago?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“I found him, he confessed to who he was,” Harold yelled.
“Are you confessin’ to murdering him?”
“Of a monster, yes! He was a wolf-man, alright! Just like the movies only stranger, more ferocious. Either way, he was gonna kill me! I was defending myself.”
“Did you see this, Bob?”
Bobby was too shocked. “Yeah… He-He was gonna kill Uncle Harold for sure. He was turning into some creature-thing. It was dark. It was hard to make out.”
“So, you didn’t see it?”
“You heard ’em, he saw it,” Harold said angrily.
“He doesn’t know what he saw.”
“Don’t put words into his mouth.”
“Even if I believed you, I could never convince the Feds of something like that. I got a lot on the line here.”
“Yeah, and what about the truth?”
“The truth…” Dan rubbed his face and sighed. “Nobody wants to believe that, Harold. Nobody.”
“I sleep better knowing there are real monsters out there that we can kill.”
“Forget you told me that. But right now, your friend is dead and time’s running out. When’s the last time you saw him?”
“The night before at the fire but Lukas was gone before the kid came.”
“Did he seem… restless? Like somethin’ was botherin’ him?”
“Well, we got in a fight…”
Haul chimed in, “It wasn’t violent though let’s make that clear.”
“Then what kind of fight was it?”
“It got heated,” Harold said quietly.
“Did you say somethin’ like, ‘I’m going to kill you one day, you bastard!’?”
Harold’s heart dropped like an anvil.
“I… I don’t remember. Where’d you hear that?”
“From Cheryl. He told her what happened.”
“I may have said that but we was drinkin’, man. Alright,” he said pleading. “You say a lot of things when you’re drunk that you don’t mean. Did she say anything about his spat with those boys?”
“Yes, she mentioned that,” Sheriff Dan said. “But she said that he started it.”
“He had it comin’.”
“Man, shut up,” Haul said annoyed.
“Harold, did you have anything to do with Lukas Ryan’s death?” The sheriff asked.
“No, man! Come on, we were friends. We just had a little argument, that’s it. I insulted him and he insulted back and he was gone.”
“I’m writing all of this down. I can’t miss anything.” He clicked his pen and jotted down notes on his small pad.
“Keep your mouth shut,” Haul said eying Harold who stood up. He paced heavily breathing angrily.
“We also have another problem,” the sheriff said. “Three girls are missin’. Roommates of two girls who were sisters, called this morning sayin’ they would be home at a reasonable time. The other girl was their cousin. With everything goin’ on, it was smart for them to call. We’re lookin’ for ’em, now.”
Then Steve Myer came knocking on the door. Bobby opened it.
“What’s going on?” Myer said. Dan informed him, filling him in.
“That’s crazy, man,” he started to cry. “Fuck, what’s being done?”
“We’re doin’ everything we can,” the sheriff said.
“Lighten up, Steve,” Harold said forcing back tears.
“Lighten up? Our friend’s dead, man.” He began to cry and excused himself.
“There’s a lot goin’ on, I know,” Dan said, “But I’m tryin’ to get down to the important stuff. What about these boys?”
Harold told him everything that occurred in full detail with Haul filling in some parts. Sweating with brilliance and articulation that would make anyone impressed, he made his story compelling, driving the sheriff to ask important questions and after he was done, he went to the kitchen to fetch some coffee.
“And that’s everything?”
“Every word,” Harold shouted from the kitchen.
“Well, that’s important,” the sheriff said writing.
“Oh, and Jedd told me, he saw ’em at his shop. The guys were in a black van. He says, he sees ’em from time to time for fixes but don’t always pay up. Says they’re trouble. But they were waitin’ for this kid. He said he was out of town.”
“How many again?”
“Three. And this new kid from Jersey, I think.”
The sheriff stopped writing and looked up. “I just pulled this kid over the other day who was from there,” Dan said with a smile. “You know where they live?”
“Jedd knows. Gave me where they are.”
“When we’re done here,” Dan Lewis said writing everything down on his notepad. “We’re heading over there, OK?” They all agreed.
“What about the Feds?” Haul asked.
“Forget about ’em. They’re occupied. Feds being here, it’s all hot, we can’t be doin’ what we’ve done in the past. I agreed to an extent, but we can’t be doin’ what we’ve done before.”
“You owe us,” Harold said.
“I can’t protect you, guys, no more. You gotta keep your mouth shut about that kid’s body.”
“Is that all you got to say?”
“It’s nothing personal.”
“It is to me.”
“You don’t get to come here and negotiate,” Dan said annoyed.
“Did you even get to find where that other kid went to,” Harold asked. “Tom Conway’s brother?”
“I did,” Dan said with a sigh. “So what? What’s he got to do with anything?”
“Did you find his name?”
“Yeah, it was Ivan.”
Harold’s eyes went bright and then he got up again. “How’d you know?”
“They had files from the old case. It was easy. Just looked at the birth certificate.”
“One of the kids, the leader of the pack. His name was Ivan.”
“Are you sure?” Dan asked suspicious but interested.
“Positive.”
“Well, we better get over there fast. We’re doin’ this by the book.”
“Whatever you say, Dan,” Harold said, amused with his boy scout approach. Having been there long enough and discussing everything, they left in a hurry.
To Be Continued…
