The Chronicles of Beast and Man (9 page)

Marcy than prepared a quick supper of loose meat sandwiches and a can of corn as their side vegetable. The kids shared how school went that day, what kind of projects they were working on and what they learned. Once the kids expressed themselves, Matthew wanted to discuss the situation in Afghanistan with Marcy. She paused to interrupt a disagreement between the children. She had become very used to being sidetracked by the kids. She then went back to Matthew’s conversation. Matthew never cared to talk about such things until after watching the evening news each night. Marcy would simply nod and agree with whatever position Matthew might think was right at that moment. Watching her kids
and her husband sit at the table and eat as a family made her feel whole, but she also had someone else on her mind as well.

T
he month of October rolled in, as did another full moon. On this night most people were busy with decorations or planning for Halloween parties. Duane Ensig, on the other hand, was not most people. In recent years Duane had become what most would call “the town drunk.” It seemed that drinking had become the only thing he was capable of doing. As a matter of fact, when he woke up in the afternoon he immediately began drinking. He had felt like he had been dealt a bad hand, that he deserved a second chance. Despite this, he did not want anyone’s sympathy. He only wanted to drown his sorrows (and his emotions as well) in a sea of Budweiser.

Duane sat at the bar drinking beer after beer by himself watching ESPN, and occasionally making small talk with Eddie Prince. Eddie was the only bartender working that night, as he was most nights during the week. Eddie was not all that fond of Duane, but it was his job to serve. So he made small talk with him and tended Duane his beer
.
Eddie wouldn’t have been caught dead with him outside of work. If Duane were drowning, Eddie wasn’t sure if he would throw him a life jacket. Eddie didn’t hate Duane. That was just the kind of guy Eddie was, some might even goes as far as calling Eddie an asshole. Of course at work he put on a happy face to keep himself in line with his boss; that is until someone was an asshole to him. In that case Eddie had no fear of letting his true colors shine through.

It was around five minutes till one o’clock and Duane had just finished commenting on a new sign hanging above the bar, which read “Our beer is as cold as your ex’s heart”. After their brief conversation Eddie let him know that he would have to leave. Duane always hated closing time, it meant that he would have to go home to his small, lonely, wretched apartment. Eddie might not have been the best company in the world, but he was better than no one at all.

Duane stumbled out of the door and was greeted by a cold October breeze. He shivered for a moment and zipped up his jacket. He lived six blocks from the bar, but he wasn’t worried about making it home. Medusa was not the type of town where you had to worry about getting mugged or anything. Duane had read about the young girl that had been murdered a month ago, but he thought it was just a case of the kid being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He also figured it was a wolf or a coyote that got a hold of her. Wild life like that does not venture into town too often and Duane didn’t think he had anything to worry about. Plus after the fifteen or so bottles of beer he had drank he also didn’t care.

“Oh, piss, shit, goddamn.” Duane sang the curse words to himself. He had only finished his last drink five minutes ago, and already he wanted another one.

He then thought he heard a growling sound.

“Is someone there?”

The sound came again, and Duane sensed a presence. Without thinking he stumbled half in fear, half from intoxication. He took his attention away from the moonlit pavement and turned to see the beast. It was standing tall, looking down upon him, breathing in and out each repulsive breath that stained the air with its mist. Its dark red eyes were locked on Duane and it made no attempts to hide itself.

Duane clumsily attempted to run, but fell over flat on his face.

He struggled to crawl away.

He looked back to see the beast closing in on him. Frozen in fear,
Duane’s muscles refused to move. If he had been able to make his arms and legs move it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

The massive beast was on top of him within a second and he was dead before his mind had time to react.

Within five minutes it was all over, and the beast left Duane’s mutilated body lying in the ditch.

R
od was on the scene by five o’clock that morning. An emergency call was placed by a local farmer named Robert Price. The sight was very vile and hard to look at, even for the most hardened of detectives. Officer Blake Clancy took Mr. Price’s statement and sent him on his way. Both Rod and Blake thought that he had done more than enough just reporting the crime.

“Damn it, we haven’t even got back the results of the autopsy on the Parker case.”

Blake shook his head in disappointment.

“Who is under the tarp?” Rod asked as he approached the covered body.

“Looks like Duane Ensig.” Blake replied.

“No kidding? Well, at least it isn’t another kid.” Rod said bluntly.

A great deal of thought went through his mind at that moment. He wanted to look under the tarp, because he felt that it was his duty as Sheriff.

Then again what good was it going to do?

Rod had seen dead bodies before, and the state that the last one was in was something Rod decided he could go the rest of his life without seeing again.

He glanced over to Blake who appeared to be waiting for him to look.

Oh, Christ
. Rod thought to himself as he slowly lifted the corner of the blue light weight tarp.

It was a disturbing mess of mangled body parts. Exactly what Rod had expected to find, for a brief moment Rod felt his stomach begin to churn sickly.

Rod stepped back quickly.

“You about to lose your guts?” Blake asked sarcastically.

“Of course not!” Rod fired back.

“Okay boss, I was just going to say I thought I was going to when I saw it.” Blake replied in a calm manner. “You think a man did that?”

“Yes, I do. I think whoever it is killed him. Then mutilated the body to try and make it look like an animal was responsible.” Rod didn’t feel like he was lying because he still wasn’t completely convinced that an animal was responsible. “Don’t worry, we will catch this asshole.”

Blake nodded.

“Any word from the coroner?”

“Yeah, he should be here any moment.”

“Good.” Rod said as he walked to his truck, and quickly drove away.

“What in the hell was that?” Blake asked himself as he watched the tires on Rod’s truck spin wildly as he drove out of sight.

-

I know my parents do not approve of my relationship with Owen, but what can I say? There is something about him that I simply cannot resist…

Rod read Gabrielle Parker’s words carefully hoping that he might find something that could shed a little light on her murder. He honestly did not expect to find anything, but he still could not let the chance slip by. Unfortunately, so far he had only read about her teenage passion for Owen Kelly, her love of tropical flavored Skittles, and who her best friend was this week, and who she couldn’t stand the next week. None of this was helping the investigation; it was looking as if he was going to have to bring Owen Kelly in for questioning. He would do this not only because Owen Kelly was the only suspect he had, but just to keep up appearances. He could not let the entire town think that he had a murder on his hands and he was not even looking into possible suspects. This was especially true now that he had a second murder to deal with.

Oh god, poor Duane Ensig.
Rod had known him since he was a kid. Duane was ten years older than him, so they were never close or anything, but it still struck a nerve. Rod was well aware of Duane’s constant drinking problem. He had been seen by several officers stumbling around on his way home. He never caused a disturbance, he just enjoyed his alcoholic beverages a little more than the average Joe, in a manner of speaking.

Owen, Owen, Owen…how I love you Owen

Rod yawned as he continued to read, for a moment he debated on having Clara read Gabrielle’s diary instead. He pushed that idea out of his mind very quickly, it would be completely unethical to have a dispatcher handling possible evidence.

Afraid that he might fall asleep in mid-sentence, Rod placed the diary down to take a break. As he sat there thinking of the young Gabrielle Parker
and Duane Ensig, all he could see was their
dreadful, mutilated bodies. He could not even begin to understand a mind that could commit such horrific acts. Then again, Rod was still uncertain that whatever was responsible was human in the first place.

-

The rest of the month passed by very slowly. Rod spoke to Eddie Prince but he had very little to say. He had served Duane several drinks that night, one right after the other.

But when Duane left the bar at one, Eddie did not see him again. Eddie was the closest thing to a witness that Rod had, despite the lack of usefulness.

Eventually Rod also spoke to Owen Kelly in relation to the Gabrielle Parker case. A nervous Owen Kelly was also unable to provide any information that brought anything new to the case.

The terror from deep within the people of Medusa grew stronger with each gruesome fact that was whispered between them. Even if it were not
true in reality
, to most everyone in Medusa the Killer Wolf had returned. With this idea in everyone’s mind there came a new level of awareness that Rod Truex had never seen.

He moved swiftly and began to create a law enforced man-hunt, to take place under the next full moon. Simply setting up this task force of law men took a great deal of participation from not only his staff, but the mayor as well. Despite this being an official police action (Mayor Bobby Preston had to sign off on the entire act) he of course took very little time to agree to Rod’s requests. Bobby wanted the entire situation to go away just as much as anyone else.

John Austin had begun to badger Rod again he asked repeatedly
for statements. John only wanted something juicy, or exquisitely disturbing to put in the paper. Rod believed that this was all a plot to make John look better after years of looking foolish for his Full Moon Murderer incident. Eventually Rod sent Deputy Dolgen to speak with John and told him absolutely nothing, other than what he already knew. John believed then that there was something they wanted to hide.

In the weeks to come Rod
felt as if he were under a microscope. He had completely stopped eating his lunch at the Main Street Café. Instead he ate lunch with his mother, at her house. At times she wondered if there was a reason for his sudden lunch visits. She assumed more than anything that the murders had encouraged him to become a little closer with his family. Whatever his reason was, she did not question it, as long as he continued to do so.

Marcy had of course noticed his absence, she had hoped to hear from him, but knew he had bigger problems at the moment. She wondered if this would be a good time for her to end the silly affair. Perhaps if she could do it when Rod was out of reach, it might not be so painful. She thought about this a great deal, but every time she came to the conclusion, she simply could not do it. She hated herself for wanting this man so much, she hated herself for becoming attached. It was too much for her, she had to see him again, and she knew she would see him again.

Headline Gazette:

Return of the Killer Wolf?

Two unsolved murders within a period of two months. This reporter feels the need to stress that both murders occurred on a night when the moon was full. This is an obvious pattern, this killer is methodical and deranged. I for one see no end to the madness that has reemerged.

The first victim, a young girl, practically a child. The second a friend of the community.

Is this not proof enough?

I for one say that it most certainly is. I fear what might happen next and hope that we all can find a way to get through whatever situation is to come. I know that I am not alone when I say that I will be taking extra time each night to pray for ALL the people I love in my community.