Nightmare in Mineral Town
Chapter 21: Mountaintop Murder
Jack wandered through the streets. It was almost dawn. He had wasted the night away. Mary had been let off of work by Anna, so at least for now, Jack was letting her live. She would probably die in the end anyway. Now or later, it did not matter. For now, he had returned his mask and cloak to his home and was now on patrol protecting the city…
Popuri snuck out of her house. She and Kai had spent the whole day together. Now, she was going to meet him atop the peak of Mother’s Hill to watch the sunrise with him. Outside, Kai waved at her from the street corner. Popuri rushed over and hugged Kai. He looked down at her warm bubbling face and couldn’t help smiling back. After their warm greeting, Kai put his arm around Popuri’s waist and they walked off together.
Popuri stopped suddenly and nearly dragged Kai to the ground. She looked at the gate in front of her, “Mommy says I’m not allowed to go in there.” She read the words carved in the sign over the gate, ‘Jack’s Property, No Trespassing.’
Kai sighed, “It’s okay. You won’t get in trouble. We are just taking a small shortcut through old Nasty Jack’s farm.”
”Mommy also says we aren’t supposed to call him that.” She tried to put on a stern face.
Kai took her hand and pulled her along, “Just come on!”
But unknowingly, somebody had seen them and was following after them. Jack followed them as the snuck through his farm and strolled casually through the woods. He hiked up the mountain after them. As he reached the top, he peered at the from behind a rock and watched them. They sat on the edge of a cliff holding hands together, staring at the first rays of the sun slowly peaking over the distant mountains.
Jack slowly approached them with scythe in hand. Since the whole experience with Anna was so disappointing, this was going to be his fun for the night.
Popuri leaned up close to Kai and kissed him quick, “I love you Kai.”
Kai reached slowly into his pocket, “I love you too Popuri.” He pulled out a blue feather and handed it to her, “Will you marry me?”
“Yes, of course I will. Rick and Mommy will be so happy for us!” Popuri put her arms around his neck and they shared a long kiss. They finally broke away and she looked down at her lap at the blue feather. She was just so happy.
Jack twirled the scythe around fast at Kai’s head. In one fair sweep, the blade went clear through his neck. Kai sat there for a moment, seemingly uncomprehending what happened. Slowly, his head rolled off his shoulders and landed in Popuri’s lap.
Popuri stared at it as the blood slowly flowed from the stump of his neck, dying the blue feather a deep red. In slow motion, she opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs.
Jack brought the scythe straight through her back. He kept carrying the swing through. Popuri’s body slammed into Kai’s, and their arms wrapped around each other in a morbid death embrace. With all his might, Jack ripped them from the end of his scythe, flinging them out over the precipice. As their dead bodies plummeted straight down, they managed to hold onto each other until they crashed into the rocky ground below. A shower of blood splattered across the rocks as they were flung apart.
Jack smiled as he watched, “And you had thought I was joking. I guess the joke is now on you, hope you liked the punch line.”
Chapter 22: The Greatest Pain Doesn't Hurt at All
Elli woke up to a lovely new morning. She always get up early so that she could get some work done before the doctor awoke. Especially now that they had Carter to take care of, she couldn’t very well just leave him there unattended. It really was a bit annoying to have to keep checking up on him during the night. But she loved doing it anyway. Helping patients was why she became a nurse in the first place.
Before going downstairs, she gathered up some supplies. Some bandages, some medicine, the basic stuff she needed to take care of Carter. She peeked into the Doctor’s bedroom and smiled at his sleeping form. Secretly she like him, but she’d never tell anyone. She glanced out a window as she headed down the stairs and saw Jack patrolling the city. Elli waved at him, but Jack didn’t notice.
Absorbed in her thoughts, Elli was not watching were she was going. A few steps across from the bottom of the staircase, she tripped over something. Elli went sprawling across the floor. She looked back to see what she had caused her to stumble. Her mouth opened and let out a scream...
The doctor woke up with a jolt. He heard somebody scream from downstairs, and it sounded like Elli. He leaped out of bed, grabbed his doctors coat from off of a chair, and dashed downstairs while putting the coat on. He came to see Carter lying out on the floor with one arm stretched out in front of him with Elli freaking out at the sight of him. He did his best to calm down Elli, “Elli, please. Carter has obviously awoken from his coma briefly and crawled out to here before he collapsed again. We have not been able to make him eat, he’s been living off of injected nutrients. It makes sense that he would not be strong enough to do much even in a fully conscious state, which I doubt he was in.”
Elli took a deep breath and relaxed herself. It was a good thing then in a way. While it had scared her, this means that Carter was beginning to recover. “Doctor, will you please help me move Carter back into his bed?”
“Gladly I will.” Together, they managed to gently lift Carter off the ground and carry him back into his room of the hospital. Elli wrapped his head in new bandages while the Doctor reset up the medical equipment such as the IV that Carter had pulled loose.
That being done, Elli placed a hot water bottle under Carter’s head. He let out a long moan. Elli and the Doctor gasped as his eyes opened slightly, squinting from the light. Carter moaned again, “Where am I? I thought...” He paused for a moment, “I can’t remember what I thought.”
The doctor and Elli looked at each other. Elli nodded at the doctor, and he began to try and explain, “Your name is Carter. You are a priest in Mineral Town. You—“
Carter quickly interrupted him, “I don’t have amnesia. I’m in the hospital, I recognize it now. I was just dazed. What happened to me?”
Elli stepped in this time, “You were attacked by the murderer, but this time he failed. Be glad you are still alive. You were in a pretty bad condition.”
The doctor tapped Elli on the shoulder and she let him continue, “But what is important right now is not what your condition was, but what it is now. So I must ask you, how do you feel?”
Carter groaned, “My head feels like it is killing me. And I hurt all over. I feel so sore. I feel such pressure all over my body,” he paused again to think about it for a moment, “No, that isn’t exactly correct. My legs don’t hurt at all. None of my lower body hurts at all. I can’t feel anything at all down there.” A note of panic started to work it’s way into Carter’s voice
Elli looked at the doctor and they shared a worried expression...
Chapter 23: Fatal Faith
Lillia burst through her front door with Rick hard on her heels. She was in an utter panic. “Where is Popuri?” she screamed as loud as she could, “Please. You have to be okay.”
”Mom! Calm down. You have to calm down! Your condition.” Rick panted heavily. He was out of shape. How was she running so fast as sick as she was? He couldn’t even hope to keep up. She was going to be hospitalized if she didn’t slow down. “Mom. Please. Stop.” He panted heavily as she turned around the street corner. If Popuri was... it was too horrible to think about. She had never been missing before.
Jack walked up to Rick and tapped him on the back, “What’s wrong? You seem exhausted!”
Rick looked up and Jack and smiled. Here was his mom’s savior. Jack was enough in shape to stop her before she got hurt, “My Mom... Crazed. Help. Stop her. Sick.”
Rick could barely pant out the words he needed to, but it was enough for Jack. He nodded at Rick, strapped his scythe to his back, and ran off as fast as he could after Lillia. Rick did the best he could to walk after Jack, breathing heavily the whole way.
Jack found Lillia banging her fists on the Mayor’s door, screaming in a mania, “Where is Popuri? You have to find Popuri! Bring me Popuri! I want Popuri! Where is she? Popuri!”
Mayor Thomas opened his door and Lillia began to pound her fists on him, screaming the same thing over and over. The mayor cried for help and cowered away from the tornado unleashed upon him. He attempted to close the door as Jack tried to restrain the out of control Lillia. The mayor did his best to stop her, “I’ll send somebody out immediately. Just stop it. We’ll find her!” Thomas said it, but he didn’t believe it. He knew in his heart that Popuri was the murderer’s newest victim.
Rick stumbled up behind Jack and did his best to help him. The two of them managed to restrain the now mad Lillia. She arched her back and howled in rage. Suddenly, Lillia stopped fighting against them and stood their limp. They let go of her and stepped back a few paces to give her room. Rick helplessly watched his mothers eyes roll back in her head as she screamed one last time at the sky before dropping to the ground like a limp rag doll, dead.
Rick dropped to his knees and cradled his dead mother’s head against his chest. Tears rolled down his cheeks, “Her body just could take the strain...” he said quietly.
Gotz dashed down the road towards the mayor’s house waving, trying to catch their attention. He yelled out, “I just found Kai and Popuri’s dead bodies at the foot of Mother Hill. We now know the murderer’s next victim.”
Utter despair entered into Rick. Jack got down next to Rick and placed his hand on his back, “It’s okay Rick. I’m here for you. Just come to me if you need anything.” He was a little unnerved by the look in Rick’s eyes.
Suddenly a bright flame ignited in his eyes. Rick saw his solution. With unparalleled speed, Rick snatched the scythe from Jack’s back and pulled it close to him.
Jack stumbled backwards, “Rick, you don’t want to do this.”
The mayor hid behind his closed door and called out, ”Please Rick. They wouldn’t want you to end it this way.”
“To hell I don’t. This is my only hope. The blade is my only hope.”
Gotz took a step towards Rick with an outreached hand but quickly pulled it back as Rick swung the scythe at him.
”NO! You won’t take this away from me.” Tears poured down Rick’s cheeks, “Everything that mattered to me in my life is dead and gone. And I’m going to be gone with it.” He quickly pulled the point of the scythe across his throat, slitting it and coating the blade in blood. He fell down on top of Lillia. With his last bit of life in him, he kissed his mother on the cheek and wrapped his arms around her.
Chapter 25: Bittersweet Embrace
As Jack was leaving Gotz and Mayor Thomas, a commotion arose behind him. Somebody was running down the street, screaming something. Gotz moaned and whimpered, “not another one...” Foolish Gotz. There was not another death yet. There would be, all in good time, but not yet. But it did spark Jack’s curiosity enough to make him pause in the middle of the road to wait for the person, who appeared to be Elli, to arrive.
Elli stumbled up and shouted gleefully, “Carter is awake! He’s out of his coma!” She then glanced over at Rick and Lillia and stifled a gasp.
Jack didn’t notice, “Really? You mean it?” He was so excited. As soon as Elli nodded, he dashed away to Mary’s house. He had to go tell her. She’d be so excited. Jack couldn’t wait to see the smile on her face when he told her.
Elli reached out after Jack and tried to call him back, “But...” She saw he wasn’t going to stop, so with a sigh, she turned to address the Mayor and Gotz, “There is something more than that... And you, Gotz, were one of the people I was looking for.”
Gotz shuddered as he broke his gaze away from the morbid scene at his feet, “What do you want me for? And what do you mean, something more than that?”
Jack knew that Mary wasn’t in the library yet, it was too early in the morning. So at the front door of the house, he quickly rapped as loud as he could on the door with his scythe. A few moments went by, with nobody answering. Jack didn’t have time for this. He rapped on the door even harder, causing little bits of brown paint to flick off the door.
Finally Anna ripped opened the door, nearly bringing it off it’s hinges, “Stop it right now! You are tearing apart my door you... you... you Kappa!” She spat in Jack’s face.
Jack scowled back at her and brought the butt of his scythe hard into her gut, sending her sprawling across the ground. “Shut up you witch!” Jack stood there, towering over her, scythe raised and ready. He wanted to kill her right there, but then he remembered Mary. Jack slowly lowered his blade mournfully, and quickly ran up the stairs.
Anna howled angrily, “You can’t go up there!”
”Just sit and watch me witch.” Jack went into Mary’s bedroom. She was lying down on her bed, reading a book.
Mary sat straight up on her knees and looked at Jack in surprise. She leapt out of bed and excitedly asked, “Jack? What is it? What are you doing in my house?”
Jack took Mary’s hand and began to gently pull her across the room, “Mary, it’s wonderful! Carter has woke up from his coma!”
Overjoyed, Mary wrapped her arms around Jack’s neck, “Really? That’s so wonderful.” Realizing what she was doing, she blushed and dropped her arms to the side briefly before grabbing Jack’s hand again and pulling him along. “We have to go see him.”
Half dragged down the stairs and out the front door, Jack had only enough time to return Anna’s evil glare as they left. Mary started to turn left down the road, but Jack, seeing the crowd down at the Mayor’s house, dug his heels into the ground, bring her to a halt.
“What is it Jack?”
Jack had trouble finding the right words to say, but managed to compose himself, “Please, don’t spoil the good news. Trust me, let us take the long road back to the hospital.”
A tear rolled down Mary’s cheek. She knew that another one of her friends must have died. But she believed in Jack. She was going to enjoy the moment. Jack lightly brushed the tear from her cheek and without another word, they went to see the revived Carter, running hand in hand, struggling to lay to wayside the hurt in their hearts for loved ones lost.
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