death and consequences

During the coldest days of a winter that seemed to last forever a small mid-western town dug itself out of one of the worst snow storms in its history. The storm had lasted for almost two weeks and had dumped almost sixty inches of snow on the sleepy little town. For the first time they were able to get out and get the needed supplies that all were running low on and would need again soon since this was only a temporary reprieve from the raging winter. It was mid February so winter was reaching its climax before the coming spring.

While road crews were cutting trees off of the Main highway coming in to town one of them noticed a site that sent panic running through the town as fast as the word spread, the lifeless bodies of a man and a woman laying in a snow bank right at the edge of the road. At first they thought that they had probably frozen to death but that was ruled out as soon as they retrieved their bodies from the snow and found them slit from throat to crotch, but there was no blood in the snow. This was the latest in an on going murder spree in this area the total count was now ten. Mostly men but some were couples as well. The police were baffled by this one as well. With as many murders as had taken place they had no clues, no suspects and could find no connection between the victims, except that they all were from out of town. All of the victims were naked and had been gutted, but not a single clue as to where they had been abducted or why they were done this way.

The sleepy little town went back to its normal routine over the couple of months and things returned to normal for everyone except the police who were over run with federal agent trying to help them find the fiend responsible for the horrible crimes that still lurked in the back of everyone’s minds. The national attention had been intense for a while but had subsided now, to the relief of most of the citizens. As time passed and the trail grew colder even most of the feds left and all seemed to be normal again.

On a rather cold day for October the chief of police dropped his daughter, Angie off at the home of Randall Dawson, the town’s prosecuting attorney. She was to baby sit the Dawson’s children while the couple as well as her parents went to the state capital for a banquet honoring Mr. Dawson for his outstanding conviction rate. She was to watch the children over night so the couples could stay in the night to avoid the three hour drive home that night. She had never baby sit the children before and she had several assignments due and a couple of exams coming up in her classes at the university, and really didn’t feel she had the time but it was a special occasion and their normal baby sitter was unavailable, so she reluctantly agreed.

Darkness had completely sat in and the children were in bed, Angie decided to work on her home work. She pulled out her back pack and covered the coffee table with her books. She sat intensely staring at her books. Silence filled the air until she heard the sound a door creaking from the back of the house. Cautiously she walked through the kitchen to the back door checking to make sure it was closed and locked. It was both, so she turned on the lights and peered out across the patio and pool in to the woods but she saw nothing out of the ordinary and in fact she couldn’t see much of anything. More nervous now than before she walked back in to the living room, turned the T.V. on, with the volume low but loud enough she thought to drown out the sounds of the house settling and easing her worries. It didn’t work. Now she was jumpier than ever, with every sound her head jerked, with every creak she was off the couch searching for the hidden invader that in her head she knew was there. She decided that she should check on the children and walked through the kitchen and down the back hallway towards the bedrooms, hearing voices and noises more and more with every step. She reached the door and heard the unmistakable sound of people talking on the other side of the door. Horrified of what may be happening in the room, she burst open the door to find the two children laying there safe and sound in their bed, with their television on.

Relieved, she returned through the kitchen and back in to the living room. Suddenly, she felt a piercing stare from the hallway, leading to Mr. Dawson’s home office. She twirled facing the hall way to find a life sized statue of a mid-evil warrior standing at the end of the hallway, nothing else. Her heart was still pounding and her pulse raced, when the telephone rang.

It was Mr. Dawson calling to check on his children and to make sure everything was alright. Angie told Mr. Dawson that the children were fine and asleep and that they had been perfect angels for her. He thanked her once again for watching the children and told her they would be home around noon the next day and asked if there was anything she needed before he hung up. She was comforted while she was on the phone but she knew that as soon as she hung up she would be scared again so she asked if she could use a sheet or something to cover up the statue in the hallway.

“What statue?” asked Mr. Dawson?

“The huge one standing in the hall of a warrior or something” Angie replied.

“Walk in to the kids room Angie!” replied Mr. Dawson, with a tone that worried Angie.

“OK I’m there,” she answered almost in a whisper, as her voice had begun to fail her with the fear she felt deep inside.

“Now get the kids and get out of there, and we’ll have car there in a minute. We don’t have a statue.” He replied almost in a yell.

Angie grabbed the kids and went out the window. She crossed the patio and in to the woods that separated their yard from the neighbors. She raced through the woods looking back as much as forward to the neighbor’s house and waited until the police arrived. After the police went through the house, they came and took her back to the house to show them what she saw. When she entered the living room she pointed toward the hall way to show them the statue but there was nothing there.

The police went through the house checking all the windows and doors trying to find out where someone may have gotten in and went out. Room by room they searched, every window, every door was carefully gone over trying to find any evidence of it having been messed with to gain entry. Every window and door was locked, except the one in the children’s room that Angie had unlocked in order to escape. Not a single piece of evidence was found that anyone had been in the house. Angie protested that there was no way she had imagined it. The police assured her that they believe her and brought in dogs to search the woods. In the woods nothing was found either, the dogs couldn’t even find a sent at all.

Before the police had finished hunting for the man disguised as a statue, Mr. and Mrs. Dawson returned home and comforted Angie and sent her home with her boyfriend who had arrived earlier. The ride home was a quiet one. Angie sat silent contemplating the tragedy that had narrowly been avoided and Ryan didn’t know what to say to comfort her and show his concern so he found it wisest to stay quiet. After he left her at her house he began his drive home. Looking down he realized that he needed to get gas or he would run out of gas before he got home and out there it wouldn’t be a good thing.

He stopped at the last gas station between town and his house which was about twenty miles outside of town. He filled his tank and went in to the station to pay and to grab a soda. He came back out and started down the road. He hadn’t made it two hundred yards when a car came upon him flashing its lights and honking the horn. With all that had happened Ryan was worried about what may happen if he pulled over so he just kept driving. The road was clear other than him and the car behind him and so he knew the driver didn’t just want to pass him. The car would get right up on his bumper and back off and then come racing back like it was going to ram him and then back off. He sped up trying to loose his pursuer but to no avail. Suddenly, the car raced past him and spun sideways in the road forcing him to stop.

As soon as the car had stopped, Ryan heard the back door of his car open. He looked back, to see the statue man racing from his car into the woods. He jumped from his car as the door to the other car opened and a woman stepped out. The woman said, “Thank God you’re alright. I saw that man get in your car back at the gas station and I was following you trying to let you know he was back there. I got worried that you may have a wreck going that fast so I tried to lay back but then he would raise up so I would speed up and he would lay back down. OH! Thank God you’re alright”.

Since cell phones didn’t receive a signal there, Ryan had to go on home to call the police. He notified them as to what had happened and the police went to where Ryan told them that the man had fled. They searched the woods, to no avail. They searched the woods the rest of the night and most of the next day and found absolutely nothing. How could it be that a man has now fled twice in to the woods and left no trace either place? Why had he first showed up with Angie and now with her boyfriend? It must be the cereal killer and this must be the next couple that he has chosen. They ordered a stake out on both of them and officers would go with them every where in order to protect them.

After a couple of days, the police picked up a man who fit the description of the statue man and started searching in to his background. He was from the same city as the couple they had found dead first, actually the third and fourth killed. The police felt that they had their man and called off the protection for the young couple. They began trying to connect the man to the other victims. One by one they made the connection and became more certain that this was their man.

Halloween night Ryan was at work, where he worked to pay his way through college, when he received a text message from Angie telling him there had been a change in plans that she wanted him to meet her at an abandoned house about a half hour away for a Halloween party that she and some friends had decided to have. They had chosen the house because there was a story going around that the house was haunted.

After work Ryan began the trip to the party. As he reached a desolate part of the road to the haunted house, there was a car turned sideways in the road with safety flares all around but Ryan couldn’t see anyone. He pulled up and got out of his car to try to find the driver and make sure that everyone was alright. As he walked around the car a man grabbed him from behind and placed a gun in his back and forced him in to the car. He was ordered to drive toward the house and then the man began to speak to Ryan.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I’ve been trying to get you where I could warn you about the danger you’re in but I know you’re not going to believe me so I decided I would have to show you. See I was the one who climbed in the back seat of your car and I was going to explain everything to you then but that woman followed us. I was the one who was at the Dawson’s that same night, I thought that with Angie babysitting there that you would surely be there, but you didn’t show and she noticed me.” Ryan started to interrupt and the man shushed him quickly and continued “See the problem is you’re still not going to believe me even once I tell you this. Angie is the danger. She won’t be at the party, right now she is with her dad to create the perfect alibi. She is in part the cereal killer the police are trying to find. They think they have their killer. No! That’s someone they set up. Angie was talking to these couples on line and in one ploy or another she tricked each in to coming to this house and then they were ritually murdered while she always made sure to have an alibi. You are the next one. I have been tracking her down since the first. She lured him to his death by striking up an online romance with him. The police refuse to even investigate her. You have the opportunity to avoid certain death. Just don’t go in the house.”

It got quiet and remained that way for several minutes. Finally, as Randy could see the house in the distance he glanced back and saw no one. He stopped the car and looked in the back seat, there was no one there. He turned the car around and headed back when he returned to the site where the car had been turned side ways in the road, there was no car, no flares no sign that anything had been there. He drove towards town until he reached the gas station and decided to call and see if Angie was at home. Her mother informed Ryan that she wasn’t at home. She went with her dad to the movies and wasn’t expected home until about mid-night or so.

Ryan decided that it would be safest to call the F.B.I. instead of calling the local police and fortunately the F.B.I. still had an agent in the area and he met Ryan at the gas station and they rode to the house. With state police back up, they raided the house finding almost a hundred people waiting to sacrifice Ryan. They were all arrested and after checking her computer so was Angie. While giving a follow up statement to police Ryan saw a picture of the man that had saved his live laying on the agents death he asked who the man was and was informed that he was the first of the cult's victims.