Dissension (14 page)

Instead of going to the kitchen, they crept towards the stairs, certain they’d find something up there.  They tip-toed through the house, hardly breathing as the wooden floor squeaked and squealed.  The boards bent with every step, threatening to buckle at any moment.

Anthony sighed with relief when they finally made it to the rickety staircase.  It was covered in a furry, maroon rug that masked their footsteps as they ascended.  The long, winding handrail disappeared into the darkness, easily concealing anyone waiting above.

Huddled closely together, they slowly made their way through the blackness.  Their hands gripped the splintered wood tightly.  The moonlight barely made its way upstairs and created a creepy glow on the shoddy wallpaper.

Anthony noticed black and white photos on the walls that had to be hundreds of years old.  He could hardly make out their faces in the dark but was sure they were all related to the same person by the unmistakable Clark nose.  Each picture seemed to be watching them as they walked by.

At the top of the stairs, hallways spit off in both directions and vanished into a black abyss.  They stood on the landing waiting for someone to decide which direction they should head in.  Both ways looked just as bleak, like you were walking into nothingness.

Anthony envisioned a headless Mr. Clark lurking in the dark, eager to take his revenge on any intruders.  He shivered at the thought and glanced around apprehensively.

“This way,” Mikey whispered as he headed to the left.

They followed behind him deliberately walking across the wooden floor, which seemed much sturdier than downstairs. They moved gradually in a single file line, wide eyed with sweaty palms.  In front of them lie two huge wooden doors that were left open which they assumed was the Clark’s bedroom.

A loud smashing sound and a bump sent a chill through the air and they all immediately stopped.  Anthony turned his head in time to see Mit slide across the floor.  Shards of broken glass from the vase he’d just tripped on exploded into the darkness. Mit winced in pain looking to Anthony who pressed his fingers to his lips motioning to be quiet. 

Frozen with fear, they held their breath afraid to even blink.  Anthony listened intently, but didn’t hear another sound.  He waved to Mit to follow him as they continued towards the room.  Mit tried to get to his feet, but the creaking of the downstairs floor made him stop in his tracks. 

“Someone’s here.” Anthony whispered, intently glaring at Steve.

The floor creaked again and this time they could hear the thudding of footsteps.  They were slow and awkward like someone was dragging one of their feet.  Another thud and a scraping sound echoed through the silent house.  It got closer and closer until it stopped at the base of the stairs.  They could hear the light tapping of someone wrapping their nails against the railing. 

Fighting the urge to run, they slowly moved towards the room hoping for a place to hide.  The tapping at the stairs stopped and everything went silent.  Anthony was breathing so hard he felt his lungs were going to explode.  He was lightheaded and dizzy and he shook with panic.  His feeling was contagious as they glanced at one another in complete hysteria.

They crossed into the bedroom and immediately noticed the giant jar resting on the dresser.  Mr. Clarks' head was suspended in it, floating in the greenish fluid.  His eyes were wide open and still held a look of surprise.  Glasses hung from his hooked nose and his mouth was fixed in a sort of crooked smile. 

They all gawked at the jar in bewilderment.  Then the sound of running on the stairs jolted them into motion.  Anthony dove and slid under the bed.  Mikey and Mit flew into the closet.  In a panic Steve circled in place before crouching on the far side of the dresser.

The running stopped and they could tell whoever it was had reached the top of the stairs and was heading their way.  Steve shivered as he stooped behind the dresser with his shoes sticking out.  Anthony motioned for him to come under the bed, but it was too late.  The thudding came to halt right outside the door.  Anthony flattened himself to the ground and froze.

“I know you’re here,” a man’s loud voice echoed in the dark.

Crossing into the room, he slammed the two large doors trapping them and shutting out the little light they had.  With a muffled knocking, he made his way across the room stopping next to the bed.

Anthony squinted trying to see, but the room had gone pitch black.  He inched closer to the edge of the bed hoping for even a drop of light.  Suddenly Steve’s unmistakable high pitched scream blared into the night as he yelled.

“Get off me!”

Anthony rolled from under the bed and came to his feet, but he couldn’t tell which direction Steve’s screams were coming from. He blinked and it was suddenly like someone turned on a flashlight.  The room illuminated and he could see everything. Steve was in the corner with a tall man standing over him, poking at him with a cane.

Anthony ran and dove at the man.  They both dropped to the floor as Mikey and Mit burst out of the closet. 

Suddenly the room light went on and Anthony was momentarily blinded by the brightness.  He threw his hands over his eyes and grimaced. Mikey grabbed his arm and pulled him.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Mit dragged Steve up as Anthony scrambled to his feet and lunged at the door.  Mit and Steve followed behind them, piling into the hallway.  Anthony was still seeing stars as his eyes tried to readjust.

He looked back to the room and the man was starting to get up.  He was slow to move and had obviously hurt his good leg during the scuffle.

They darted to the staircase almost falling as they flew down it.  They made it to the first floor, but it was too dark to tell which way to go.  In a panic Mikey tore off to his left and everyone followed. 

“Get back here,” a voice echoed from upstairs.

Anthony looked back as Mikey wrenched open the front door.  The man stood on the stairs shaking his cane at them. 

They dashed out into the cool night and to their alarm Mrs. Clark was making her way up the porch.  Steve let out a girlish scream and Mit stumbled backwards and fell to the ground.

Mrs. Clark glared at them, her devilish eyes seemed to glow red in the night.  Her expression wasn’t one of surprise, but more anger.

“I knew you boys had been sneaking around,” she stabbed her finger at them.

Anthony was frozen, his feet unwilling to move.  He wanted to run, run far away into the night, but his body wouldn’t listen.  This was one of those times his wings could come in handy.

“You’ve been in my room haven’t you?”

“No, no we haven’t,” Steve jolted. 

“Hold them right there Jackie,” the man yelled as he hobbled towards the front door.

It took every bit of will power, but Anthony forced his feet forward and he dove off the porch.  He ran past Mrs. Clark and headed for the fence.  Mit jumped up from the ground and tried to follow, but Mrs. Clark grabbed him by the shirt collar.  Her wrinkled, old hands had incredible strength and she snatched him off his feet as he ran by.

“Call the police Fullerton,” she screamed as the man stepped outside.

“Yeah call the police,” Mikey yelled back.  “We saw the head in your room we know you killed Mr. Clark.”

The man at the door suddenly began to laugh.  “Is that what this is all about?  You think my mom killed my dad?”

“Oh dear, oh dear,” Mrs. Clark whimpered as she released Mit’s shirt.

Anthony turned around at the sound of Mit’s screams.  He gently moved back towards the porch as Mrs. Clark hung her head and began to weep.

“She did kill him,” Mikey yelled enraged.  “We saw her, and now his head is in a jar in your room.”

Mrs. Clark began to cry hysterically.  Fullerton walked towards her and placed his arm around her shoulders.  He helped her up the stairs onto the porch.

“Look what you’ve done, just leave.”  He yelled back at them.  The door slammed behind them as they both vanished inside.

“What just happened dude?” Mikey finally said after a long silence.

“I don’t know, but I say we get out of here.” Anthony declared as he walked off into the dark.

Confused and tired, they trudged their way back to Steve’s house. They’d been expecting to uncover some devious plot, but something about driving an elderly lady to tears took the wind out of their sails.  They sat around Steve’s bedroom in a slump staring off in different directions.  Without any discussion of what happened they all fell asleep.

The next morning they all rode to the beach.  Now that the weather had cooled it was mostly empty except a few die hard sunbathers.  Anthony and his friends found an isolated spot and took a seat.  None of them seemed to make any sense of what they’d seen last night. 

“Did she say she didn’t kill her husband?”  Steve asked as he rubbed sand through his pudgy fingers.

“She looked pretty homicidal to me.”  Mit replied.

“I like adventures and all, but let’s never go there again.  As a matter of fact let’s never bring them up again.”  Mikey demanded.

They all seemed to agree that any further business with the Clarks was off limits.  In the back of each of their minds, a burning desire grew to find out what really happened.

THE MISSING

The wonderful fall weather blew through the courtyard bringing with it a horde of students, eager to enjoy the mild breeze.  Anthony and his friends were no different.  He sat with his back to a tree and his nose buried in a book.  He wasn’t reading; however, he was daydreaming about Nickie.

“Hey um Sticks,” Mikey shouted.

Anthony looked up from his book to find Sticks and Maxey strolling towards them.  Maxey looked around anxiously while Sticks grinned ear to ear.

“What’s up Mikey?  What’s up fellas?” Sticks said while nodding his head.

They hadn’t really seen him since the flying incident and had painstakingly tried to avoid him at all costs.  Anthony looked up and smiled.  Maxey glanced at the boys, her eyes resting on Anthony a second longer than anyone else. 

“Sticks, I uh gotta do that thing for um, you know,” Maxey turned and walked away at a horses pace.

“What’s with her?” Steve gawked after her stuffing chips into his mouth.

“You wanna tell us something Sticks?” Mit asked. 

“I didn’t tell her a thing, I swear it.  She’s just weird you know with Steve always eyeing her up and stuff.”

Mikey laughed.  “Figures, everyone knows Steve wants to marry her.”  Steve chuckled and continued eating.  Sticks grinned and then took the seat next to Mikey.

“How’s…how’s it going?”  He asked looking over to Anthony. 

“Still waddling around like a penguin.” Steve mumbled as he swallowed back the last of his sandwich.

Anthony smiled and nodded.  Sticks wasn’t a bad guy, he’d tagged along on a lot of their little adventures.  But Anthony grew up with the rest of them and trusted them with his life.  How much he could trust Sticks had yet to be proven.  He wasn’t ready to let him in his inner circle just yet.

Lunch ended and Anthony found himself in geography class.  Mr. Douglas lectured on some obscure topic while Anthony counted the holes in the ceiling.  When the class was finally over he started rethinking his run in with Maxey.

Anthony wasn’t sure if Sticks had told her or not, but she definitely had given him a look.  He had to go talk to her and see what she knew.  He figured school would be a bad time, if she made a scene he couldn’t chance his wings popping out.

After school though, he could head to her house.  If Sticks said anything, he could convince her that Sticks was suffering from heat exhaustion from too much training.  Maxey wasn’t exactly the sharpest and anything related to Sticks’ training she’d take seriously.  He could picture her now totally forgetting about his wings as she sprinted off to take Sticks’ temperature.

When school was out Anthony stopped Mikey and told him his plan. 

“I’m coming with you.  You can tell your mom you are staying at my house tonight; my parents are out of town.” Mikey demanded giving Anthony little choice but to agree.

Anthony reluctantly shook his head then called his mom letting her know he’d be at Mikey’s.  When he thought about it, staying at Mikey’s was a better plan anyway.  He didn’t live far from Anthony and it was a much shorter walk to Maxey’s place.  With Mikey’s parents gone they could use the front door instead of the 2
nd
floor balcony, which always ended with Anthony in the bushes.

As night fell, Anthony and Mikey covertly made their way to Maxey’s house.  They camped out in a bush at the corner, giving them a perfect view of the window that overlooked the living area.  The porch light was on, but there were no cars in the driveway.

“Ok, what now?” Anthony asked. 

Mikey laughed a little too loudly and Anthony gave him a look.

“This is your show,” he straightened up.

“You’re no help; I’ll knock on the door.”  Anthony stood and started towards the porch.  Mikey’s hand closed tightly around his wrist yanking him back into the bushes. 

“Look!” Mikey mouthed while pointing to the white Suburban that just pulled into Maxey’s driveway.

“It’s just her parents you idiot.” Anthony snatched his arm away.

He went to stand again, but dove to the ground as two men in grey t-shirts and jeans got out of the SUV.  The sun went down long ago however both men wore sunshades and beige baseball caps.  They were casually dressed, but something about their movement made them look official.

Anthony watched as the two men walked to the door and rang the buzzer.  Moments later Maxey opened it with a look on her face like she’d been expecting them.  She motioned for them to come inside.  They disappeared into the foyer and shut the door behind them.

Anthony stared at the open window as the men walked into the living area and Maxey sat on the couch.  One of the men walked to the window and stared out momentarily then closed the curtains.

“Dude, what was that about?” Mikey asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“No clue, but I think we better hang tight, those guys look serious.”

They both hunkered down in the bushes listening intently.  The wind rustled through the trees, but there wasn’t a peep from inside.  Anthony started to get impatient.

“I think I’m just gonna ring the doorbell.”

“Bro, are you nuts?”

Mikey barely stopped talking when the door suddenly burst open.  One of the men stepped out onto the porch and looked around, surveying the front lawn.  His eyes stopped on the bush that Anthony and Mikey were hiding in.  He leaned forward, focusing his eyes.

“Don’t move,” Anthony looked back to Mikey.

The mysterious man stepped off the porch and headed straight for them.  Anthony tried to make himself smaller, inching back into Mikey almost pushing him out of the other side.  The man got closer and stopped about five feet from the small row of bushes. 

He removed his shades and placed them in his pocket.  From the cover of the foliage, Anthony looked up at the man. His cold, dark eyes seemingly piercing the bushes, scanning like a robot for any signs of life.

They both lay as still as they could, praying that the man would turn and head back to the house.  He investigated a little longer and then as he was about to turn around, Mikey squirmed and made a squealing noise.  In a flash the man drew a gun from his back and trained it on the spot where the noise came from.

Anthony was frozen with horror, his life flashing before his eyes.  The man edged closer to the bushes.  If he took one more step he would’ve placed his brown hiking boots on Anthony’s head.  Anthony closed his eyes, bracing for the inevitable.

The man suddenly let out a raspy laugh.  Anthony clenched his teeth.  When nothing happened he slowly opened his eyes.  A huge, grayish possum erupted from the bushes a few feet from Anthony.  It’s long, pink, rat-like tail dragged through the grass.

Still laughing, the man put his gun in his holster.  He shook his head then headed back to the porch.  Anthony looked back at Mikey and smirked. 

They both scuttled to their knees and watched him walk off.  The other man slowly stepped out of the house as Anthony gasped and dove back to the ground.

Maxey’s motionless body was slung over his shoulder.  She was bound at her hands and feet and duct tape covered her mouth.

The man glanced around surveying the front yard again and then made his way to the suburban.  He yanked the back door open and threw her in, whacking her head on the window as he did.  The other man took one last look out into the yard then hopped in and started the engine. 

Anthony took a deep breath as the SUV drove away.  It quickly disappeared into the night along with any trace of Maxey.  With a shaky voice Mikey spoke.

“She talked, she talked dude and they took her.”

“Who is they?”

“I don’t know, but they have Maxey, its cause she talked.  She blabbed about you and she’s gone.”  Mikey’s voice was in between anger and sheer panic.

“We don’t know what just happened, we know she was kidnapped, that’s it.” Anthony said in a defensive tone.

“We need to call the cops.”

Anthony eyed him skeptically.  He knew that calling the cops was probably the right thing, but how would they explain any of this?  Why were they at her house in the first place?  Why would someone want to take her?

“We gotta get out of here,” Anthony looked around nervously.

They waited ten more minutes, fearful that the white SUV would return.  When it all seemed clear they emerged from the bushes and ran the entire length back to Mikey’s house.

They bolted inside and slammed the door shut.  Mikey ran to the phone and dialed 911, but before it could ring Anthony snatched out the phone line.

“What are you doing?”  Mikey raised his voice.

“Just listen.  We don’t know what just happened we can’t go calling sounding like crazy people.”

“The hell we can’t.  This isn’t a game anymore Anthony.  People are missing, Maxey is missing.  Was I alone or did you not giant see those two giant guys drag her out of the house?”

“I’m not stupid, but what are you going to tell them?  You say the wrong thing and they’re gonna be throwing us in jail.”  Mikey sat the phone onto the counter.  He took a deep breath and started to think of a story.

“We’ll just tell them what really happened. We were walking by and saw someone drag her out of the house screaming.”

“Yeah, but where were we going?  I’m sure they’ll ask.” Anthony stared at him.

There was a moment of awkward silence as Mikey stared off into space searching for an answer.  He sighed and shrugged his shoulders.  Shaking his head he picked the phone back up.  He plugged the line in and with shaky hands dialed 911.

“Someone’s been kidnapped!”  Mikey blurted out in an attempt to sound composed.

Anthony rolled his eyes and walked into the living room.  He paced back and forth waiting for Mikey to finish his call.  He nervously fumbled with his hands expecting the worse.  As Mikey stepped around the corner he looked up anxiously.

“What’d they say?”

“They’re…they’re on the way here.”  Mikey stuttered.

Anthony threw his head back and gasped.  This was it he thought.  They were gonna find out everything.  This time tomorrow he’d be in some secret laboratory with doctors poking and prodding him.  His life was over.

Within ten minutes a patrol car pulled up outside.  The red and blue flashing lights shimmered into the living room like a disco ball.

The doorbell rang and Anthony jittered with nerves.  Mikey gave him a half-hearted smile and headed to the door.

“How are we gonna explain this one?” Anthony’s voice trailed off.

“I’ve got an idea, just wait in my room.” Mikey said.

Anthony smirked then took off around the corner.  Mikey watched him disappear then he slowly turned the handle and pulled the door open.  A female officer stood outside with a puzzled look on her face.  She was a quite a bit shorter than Mikey with flowing, blonde hair and a neck that looked better suited on a flightless bird.  Mikey laughed to himself as he pictured Steve trying to purposely get arrested.

“Are your parents’ home?” She looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

“No, I um called.”

The officer considered him for a moment and cleared her throat.

“Well, let me take your statement.  Do you mind if I come in?”

Mikey looked back to the empty living room.  He made a face then stood aside and let the officer come in.

She stepped into the living room while Mikey plopped down on the sofa.  He seemed uncomfortably calm for what had just happened and the officer made a note to mention this no less than three times.

Anthony leaned in listening hard from around the corner.  He could hear her mumbling something and then both of them laughing. Thirty minutes later her footsteps tapped toward the front door.

Anthony stepped from around the corner as he heard her patrol car crank up.  Once she pulled out of the driveway he walked into the living room.

“Well?”  Anthony looked at Mikey.

“I told her we snuck out so you could see your girlfriend.  And as we were walking by we saw some guys dragging Maxey out of the house.  She asked where you were.  I told her you fainted and were too embarrassed to show your face.”

Anthony sneered and hurled a pillow off the couch towards his head.

“You’re right, I guess I should’ve told them my mutant friend is being hunted and they took Maxey cause she has a big mouth.”

Anthony smirked and sat on the couch next to Mikey.  He folded his arms and buried his head.

“What are we gonna do?”