Lost (29 page)

She was leaving. She was taking all the
children and going somewhere. The lake house? He’d heard the little girls’
excited chatter. He heard them all mention “lake house” more than once.

As he listened,
he had brief flashes, memories—fishing, a dock, and a small boat with a lot of
beer in it.

He geared up to
follow them. Somehow, he knew exactly where to go. He needed to be close.

Because The
Woman was getting closer.

Ethan hung up the phone after talking to
Julie Klevan and turned to Walt. “They’re going out of town.”

“Somewhere
safe?” Walt asked, looking concerned.

“She said they’re
going to a lake house.” Ethan shuffled through papers. “I already pulled
records. She owns a house up by Lake Chickahominy. I’m guessing we could get
there in about 45 minutes, maybe an hour.”

Walt nodded.
“But is she going to be safe up there? I’m trusting you here, E. If your gut
tells you this woman and her kids are in the middle of this mess, it isn’t just
our job to take care of… well… you know.”

Walt was silent
for a moment, but Ethan knew he was figuring out how to say what he needed to
say.

Walt found the
words. “We need to protect them as well, you know?”

Ethan looked at
his friend and ran his hands through his thinning hair. “You’re right. I know.
I just don’t think we should split up. We can’t watch their house
and
watch them at the lake. It’s just too far.”

Walt shrugged
and looked determined. “I think we’re gonna have to, E. Leaving them alone up
there… It’s just wrong.”

Ethan nodded,
trying to conceal the bad feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. “Okay.
We’ll do it your way.”

“Turn it up, Mom!” Carey yelled from the
back seat. He’d finally woken up.

“I got it!” Sam
said, leaning forward to turn up the radio. Sam usually sat up front with me,
but he had relinquished “shotgun” to Karie so she could be more comfortable.

“You better
have your seat belt on!” I told him, not taking my eyes off the road.

“I do now.” He
laughed, and the kids laughed along with him.

I just shook my
head. “Alright. I’m going to stop by the grocery store on our way to the house.
It’ll save us a trip later.”

“What’s for
dinner?” Jimmy asked.

“We haven’t
even had lunch yet,” Carey told him. “Sheesh. It’s a wonder you aren’t as big
as a house.”

“Hey, I’m a
growing boy,” Jimmy came back.

The kids were
all in good moods, and the party was set. I had rented a bounce house for all
the kids, and it was coming out first thing Saturday morning. We had stocked up
on burgers, hot dogs, and buns at Costco, and they were in the back of the van
in coolers. We had a deep freeze up at the house, so we had plenty of storage
for everything. I figured we would just keep it simple. I would stop and get
milk, cereal, bread, and cold cuts to last us the weekend—though I did need to
think about dinner.

“Mommy?” Maggie
asked.

“What, baby?” I
answered, looking at her briefly in my rearview mirror.

“Can we get
some fried chicken at the grocery store?”

Hmm… that
could work. Grab some chicken, get some chips and potato salad. Done!

“Good idea!” I
told her. “We’re gonna have fried chicken for dinner tonight.”

The kids all
nodded, and for a few minutes everyone was quiet.

“NO WAY!” Ant
said loudly.

Karie and Sam
turned around, worried something had happened.

“What’s going
on?” I asked, fighting the urge not to turn around too.

“There’s a
carnival this weekend, Mom,” Jimmy answered.

“Ohh.” I said
with feigned interest. I’m not a fan of carnivals. “I thought something was
wrong.”

“Oh! Can we go,
Mommy?” Jessie was practically jumping up and down in her seat belt. “Please?
Pretty please?”

“We live like
10 minutes from Busch Gardens, and you want to go to a carnival? Really?”

“Sam and Karie
can take us. Right?” Jessie looked at them with such hope in her eyes, that I
already knew the answer. “Please?”

“If Mom says
it’s okay, I guess so.” Sam shrugged.

If Sam and
Karie took everyone to the carnival, it would give me a few hours to prep for
the party on Saturday, and I could do it without kids running around and
screaming.

“If Sam and
Karie are okay with it, then it’s cool with me,” I told them.

The younger
kids all cheered, and Karie laughed. Sam was used to getting roped into things
like this. The kids chattered about their plans, and there was some talk about
corn dogs and funnel cakes. I pulled into the grocery store that was about 10
minutes from the house and parked.

“You guys can
chill out here, but it’s gonna get hot,” I told them.

Karie was
already getting out, as was Sam.

“I’m not
sitting out here in this heat,” Carey said, and Jimmy and Ant followed him out.

“Come on,
girlies,” I told Jessie and Maggie.

“We don’t wanna
go in,” they whined. “Can’t we just stay here?”

“Nope, not
sitting out here by yourself. Let’s go.”

“Look?
Baskin-Robbins.” Karie pointed out to the girls. “Let’s go get a scoop. My
treat.”

The girls
scrambled out, sure that Karie was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I
told them it was fine, and if we weren’t done when they finished, to just come
find us. Karie took the girls, and Jimmy and Ant tagged along. That left Sam
and Carey with me. And away we went.

Sam grabbed a
shopping cart. “Okay. What’s on the list?”

“How about you
guys go to the deli? Get enough chicken for dinner tonight. Order cold cuts for
sandwiches, and grab some potato salad. I’ll get the rest.”

“Chicken, cold
cuts, and potato salad. Got it,” Carey said, and the two of them trotted off
toward the deli.

I went up and
down the aisles grabbing things we needed—some fruit, milk, cheese, cereal.

Oh, can’t
forget the toilet paper!

We probably had
some, but I wasn’t going to get stuck without any.

Might as
well go ahead and get some soda while the boys are here.

Bee and Anthony
were bringing up soda, and Ben and Amy were getting two kegs. I grabbed some
apple juice for the kids and some OJ for breakfast. I had picked up a bunch of
juice boxes for the younger kids at Costco, and I had stuff in the car to make
coleslaw. Some of the guys were bringing up chips and things for dessert, so I
think we were good to go.

I wandered over
to the deli to see how the boys were doing.

“What’s taking
you so long?” I said as I walked up to them.

“There was a
line at the counter. They’re cutting our stuff now,” Sam answered.

We just stood
around chatting until our stuff was ready.

“We got two
pounds of turkey. Is that cool?” Carey asked.

“That isn’t all
you got, is it?” I asked.

“Nope,” Sam
noted. “Pound of Black Forest ham too, but everyone seems to like turkey the
best.”

“That works for
me. You guys ready?”

Sam had already
put the fried chicken and potato salad in the cart. After grabbing the cold
cuts, we were ready to head up to pay.

“This is such bullshit!” Ethan Jeffries
was ready to throw his computer out the window. “All of this is stupid Stephen
King, Hollywood bullshit.”

Walt had
brought his laptop over and was busy reading something he’d found. “Hold on.
Maybe I found something.”

Ethan pushed
away from the kitchen table they were using as a desk and walked over to Walt.
“What’s up?”

“Okay. This
author… umm… Jonathan Maberry wrote three books—the Pine Deep Trilogy. And the
villain is a Ubel Griswold…”

“So more
Hollywood crap—” Frustration was evident in Ethan’s tone.

“Hold on. This
Griswold character is based on a
real
person, a… Where was it? Oh, here
it is… Peter Stumpp. This Stumpp was a real person, back in the late 1500’s.
Legend has it he was a... Get this! He was a werewolf.”

Ethan clapped
Walt on the back. “Okay! Now this is something we can work with.”

“Back in 1933,
an occultist named Montague Summers wrote a book,
The Werewolf
. He
printed an entire pamphlet talking about this Stumpp guy in the book.”

“So... can we
get a copy of this book?” Ethan asked.

“Already
ordered it. Found it on Amazon last night. Should be here today.”

“Man, you’re on
the ball. All I keep reading about is silver bullets.”

“I don’t know
if Hollywood’s too far off. Sounds like there’s been a few werewolf trials over
the years. And everything I’ve read says they used a sword cast of silver to
behead the supposed werewolf.”

“So... silver?
What about silver bullets?”

Walt blew out a
breath. “This is crazy, right? Are we crazy? A werewolf?”

Ethan sat down
next to his best friend, the man that had been by his side through training,
his time in uniform, his marriage, and his divorce. “Walt? Look at me?”

Walt looked up,
and Ethan saw the fear on his face.

“Walter, we
aren’t crazy. Can’t you feel it? There’s something out there. Something’s
hunting that woman and her kids. It’s on the wind, man, and we know what it is.
We
saw
it.”

Walter gave an
involuntary shudder. “Okay. Okay. Yeah. You’re right, E. I do feel it.”

July 19, 1993

“Okay. Listen up!” The lieutenant was a
big man, but he spoke quietly, with a sense of reverence. “We have another
one.”

The room got
quiet, and some of the men looked pale. A string of gory murders had hit
Norfolk, Virginia. The city wasn’t without its problems. What city with over 10
people didn’t? But these murders, no one knew what to make of them.

“Laura Petrol,
26.” The photo showed a pretty, blonde girl, but the next one did not.

“Her body was
found in an alley, just like the last one. This one was behind a local pizza
joint… a Tony’s. Disemboweled, just like the last one. Organs missing… just
like the last one.”

Some of the men
shuddered. This was the third victim found, and whoever was doing this wasn’t
leaving any clues. Enhanced forensics testing was still in the works, and all
the techs could tell the officers working the case was some sort of animal hair
was at every scene.

“We need to get
a lid on this... now. People are getting scared. We need to give them a reason
to trust us again. Be safe, guys, but get this guy.” The lieutenant headed back
to his office.

Ethan Jeffries
and Walter Petterson each had about 6 years on the job at that point. Neither
of them was looking forward to the night shift. People got stupid when crazy
shit happened.

“God, I hope
tonight’s quiet,” Walt said getting into the passenger seat. He and Ethan took
turns driving. E was up this time.

“You know it
won’t be. City’s full of idgits, and they all come out at night,” Ethan said
putting on his seat belt.

They pulled out
of the parking lot behind the station and started their patrol.

Three hours later, Walter’s wish
appeared to be coming true. Things were quiet. Even though it was a Saturday,
the streets were empty. Though the clubs were still doing a brisk business,
people weren’t hanging around outside smoking or talking.

“It’s hot as
hell out here. Wanna stop for a drink?” Walt asked his friend.

Ethan just
nodded and pulled into a 7-Eleven. Both of the men got out of the patrol car.

As they made
their way into the store, Walter began one of his corny jokes.

“Hey. What does
a nosy pepper do?—”

Suddenly, they
both heard a strange popping sound coming from the back of the building. This
7-Eleven stood on its own, trees behind it, and the noise was coming from the
right, closer to the woods.

They looked at
each other, and both men unsnapped their guns. Ethan pointed to the left,
motioning for Walter to go around the other side. Ethan waited for the
high-pitched whistle that signaled his friend was in position.

There!

Ethan crept
forward and saw someone, back facing him, kneeling on the ground—kneeling over
something. Ethan took another step forward, straining to see what was
happening.

“What the
hell?” He wondered in a strained whisper.

And that’s when
Ethan saw it. Whoever it was wasn’t kneeling over something—it was
someone
!
Ethan saw a puddle of dark liquid spreading slowly around the body on the
ground, and he took a deep breath.

“FREEZE!
Police!” He yelled. His voice held a confidence he didn’t feel.

And then the
person kneeling on the ground stood up and slowly turned. It was a woman, a
very beautiful woman... with blood all over her face.

Ethan stared,
his mouth open.

“You are
talking to me?” She growled at him, and a sick smile spread over her face.

She moved
toward Ethan, and he saw his partner run quietly to the body on the ground. He
checked for a pulse Ethan knew wouldn’t be there. Walter circled around so that
he was further from the building. Both men had their guns pointed at her.

“Stop… right
there. Hands up!” Ethan tried again.

She laughed. It
was a thick, guttural sound, like she had something stuck in her throat.

“Look, I don’t
think you want to do this... officer.” She took another step forward.

“Oh, we’re
gonna do this,” Walter said roughly. “And we
will
shoot.”

“Go ahead. I
fucking dare you! Shoot,” she threw out at them. It was a game, and she seemed
to think she had the advantage.

It was a
standoff. Behind a run-down 7-Eleven, in the dead of night.

She took
another step toward Ethan and started to hunch over. Her head flew down, and
her shoulders twitched uncontrollably. Walter moved around closer to his
friend, and both men backed up.

“No, you do
not
want to do that.” Her voice was less intelligible than before, and blood was
dripping off her chin, which seemed to elongate, right in front of the men’s
eyes.

“Holy shit,”
Ethan whispered. He was frozen in place—his eyes wide in horror.

The woman
dropped to the ground, and it looked like she was having a seizure, but both
men could see her body changing, morphing into something. She cried out, but
not in pain. It sounded almost as if she was enjoying the horror her body was
becoming.

And then,
suddenly, all movement stopped. She just lay on the ground motionless. The two
men glanced at each other, unsure of what they had just seen.

Unexpectedly,
she jerked up and slowly stood. Her eyes were a luminous silver and seemed to
glow. Her face, though still very beautiful, seemed… different—neither officer
could explain how. But her hands!

She took two
slow, lurching steps toward Ethan. “I will kill you where you stand.”

Blood dripped
slowly down her arms, but… her hands!