Into Eden: Pangaea - Book 1 (18 page)

Enoch chewed through Jesse’s ropes first. It took him longer than he expected, but once he got the hang of it he made good progress. Then he removed Seth’s ropes, depositing all of them on the barn floor by the door. If I can’t wake them, he thought, perhaps I can disguise them; so he set to work covering the two of them with hay, making sure that every inch of them was completely covered. Then he walked back to the door to admire his handiwork in the moonlight. What he saw was two mounds of human-shaped hay lying on the floor of the barn. This wasn’t going to do. Behind him he saw the flicker of a light. He turned and saw a candle in the window of the farmhouse. Oh, no! he thought. Like all farmers Homicide Harry was up before the crack of dawn. In a matter of minutes he could be out here checking on his most recent victims! Enoch dove into the hay and started to dig like he was going after the biggest, juiciest bone ever buried. In a matter of minutes he had covered Jesse and Seth in a mound of hay that would have made the Fog Mountains look small in comparison. Again he stepped into the doorway to admire his work. Sweet! No one would ever suspect that two people were buried under that completely innocent-looking mound. Time to step back and let the bad-guys sweat for a while.

Enoch trotted to the back of the barn to find a stall to hide in—just in case the farmer saw through his camouflage. In the last stall there was a small mound of hay, and he quickly burrowed in. Completely covered with hay, the dog started to get warm. It wasn’t all that bad in a haystack, really. A dog could get used to this. In minutes he was fast asleep.

Jesse lay on the floor, terrified. He knew that Enoch had covered him with hay, but somewhere far back in the barn he could hear snoring. Jesse knew that snore—Enoch’s snore. Sooner or later the farmer and his daughter would return, and when they did Enoch’s snoring would give them all away. He tried with all his might to shout a warning, but nothing came out.

Next to Jesse, Seth lay terrified. What had he gotten himself into? He hadn’t been on the road for one day with this boy and his talking dog and already they were awaiting an execution that was sure to be coming.

Not long after Enoch began to snore, Jesse could hear the sounds of footsteps approaching. Shut up, Enoch, shut up! Jesse thought, but Enoch just kept on snoring. In a moment, the footsteps stopped, but the snoring continued. Pleaseee, Enoch, Jesse thought, stop snoring! Suddenly, a scream, then running back toward the house as the girl began to yell, “They’re gone! They’ve escaped!” The snoring stopped.

In a minute footsteps returned, this time there were two sets of them.

“You stupid girl!” Elan yelled. “Now look what you’ve done! You didn’t give them enough of the spiney fish poison! Now they’ve escaped!”

“Yes I did! By the gods, I swear…”

Jesse heard a loud slap then a thud. But Elan was not done berating his daughter, “If you was a boy this never would have happened! They’s smarter than that! But they can’t have gone far. Grab a sword. We’re going after them.”

In a few minutes Jesse could hear the door of the farmhouse slam and footsteps as Elan and his daughter headed away from the house at a jog. He could hear Elan’s angry diatribe as he called his daughter every name that he could think of.

For a man nearly five-hundred years old, Elan of the house of Scribner could move pretty fast. The sword that he had stolen from Jesse the night before slapped against his leg as he jogged down the Southern Highway. He was confused and angry. Confused, because he couldn’t see any signs of them. No footprints. No evidence of them dragging their half-drugged bodies down the road. It was possible, he thought, that they may have headed in the other direction—back toward Whitehurst. If so, he’d just have to backtrack—and that made him angrier. Most of his anger, however, was directed toward his daughter. The girl couldn’t have given them enough spiney fish poison. Just couldn’t. How else could they have escaped? He’d beat her when this was over, and that thought gave him some measure of satisfaction. He’d been wanting to for a while, but couldn’t think of a good excuse until now. The stupid girl! He’d give her everything that she had coming!

A few feet behind the girl followed her father with the sword that they’d stolen from Seth the night before slapping against her leg. She was nearly out of breath. How could he keep up this pace at his age? she thought. She knew that he’d beat her when this was over. She could see it coming, but what could she do? She hated her father and loved him at the same time. She hated him for his continual belittling of her. The insults. The sudden outbursts of anger, and she hated him for the things that he did to her at night. But she loved him all the same because…well…he was her father. But mostly she feared him. He would do to her like they had done to all of the unfortunate travelers that they had met over the years if she ever gave him the slightest reason to. She knew that very well. But perhaps this time he’d just slap her around a little. Once they found the travelers his temper was sure to cool. Once they had taken them down to the river and drowned them her father would settle down. That small pleasure they both shared in common. After all, a girl needs to be able to experience things with her dad that was just between the two of them. Yes, Elan of the house of Scribner might not have been the best of fathers, but he was raising a world-class killer.

When the sounds of the footsteps faded Jesse tried again to move. Yes! He was able to move his right pinky! Hurrah! Now his left. Hurrah again! Not quite ready to participate in a race, but it was a start. In a few minutes he was able to wiggle all ten of his fingers and his toes as well. Things were definitely looking up. The paralyzing agent was starting to wear off. Above him Enoch had apparently seen—or sensed—his feeble movements and was digging hurriedly through the hay to reach him. Jesse was still mad at Enoch for his snoring, and tried to say, “Stupid dog!” but all that came out was, “Oupid Og!” Wow! Jesse thought. I can actually speak.

“I’m stupid?” Enoch countered. “You’re the one that’s laying here in your undies on the barn floor, passed out like some drunken sailor, and can barely speak in syllables. And you call me stupid? I don’t have to take those insults!” Then Enoch started to lick the souls of Jesse’s feet.

“Op it!” Jesse squawked as he opened his eyes. “Oo knoow I’m ikleish!”

Enoch didn’t stop, and in seconds Jesse was jerking his feet and legs trying to get away from the dog. Enoch kept it up until he got a kick in the nose, then sat back to let Jesse finish reviving. In a few minutes Jesse was able to roll over and pull himself up to his knees. He looked at Enoch with feigned contempt.

“Now say, ‘Thank you,’” Enoch said, smiling his pointy smile.

“Ank oo…” Jesse replied.

Jesse dug through the hay to reach Seth, who was already trying to free himself from the mound of camouflage. In a few minutes they were both on their feet, walking back and forth on the barn floor to remove the stiffness and lingering tingling sensation in their extremities.

“That’s it, boys! Walk it off! Walk it off!” Enoch barked as Jesse and Seth staggered back and forth.

“Shut-up!” Jesse replied.

“Well, I see that we can finally talk straight,” Enoch said, then gave him another pointy grin.

“Do the two of you always carry on like that?” Seth asked.

“Pretty much,” Enoch told him.

“Well, I think that we’d better be getting over to the house and finding some clothes before our friends return,” Seth continued.

Enoch peered out of the barn through a crack between the boards. “May be a bit too late for that,” he said. “Our hosts are returning.”

For a moment no one said anything. In the distance they could hear Elan shouting, but he was still too far away to make out exactly what he was saying. They could hear, however, “Stupid! Ugly! Should have been a boy!”

“He’s such a charmer,” Enoch joked. “Now I suggest that the two of you find a place to hide, and quickly!”

Seth hobbled back to the last stall where Enoch had spent the night. There wasn’t enough hay to cover a man, so he crouched down in the corner. Through the daylight shining through the cracks in the barn walls Seth’s white underwear could be clearly seen.

“Better hope they don’t come in,” Enoch said to Seth. “Jesse, you’d better find a place to hide, too.”

Instead of taking cover, Jesse moved like a man shadow-boxing, swinging at apparitions that weren’t there.

“What are you doing, Jesse?” Enoch asked. “You’ve GOT to get moving!”

Jesse didn’t reply, but continued to dance with his shadow. He pivoted, blocked, kicked and punched at the air. Enoch knew the moves. Some of them he had learned many years ago as an Atlantan legionnaire. Some he had seen the sword-master instruct Perez and Jesse. But the moves were not as fluid as they should be, nor as quick. The paralyzing agent still had a slight hold on him. Finally, Jesse stopped, and began to walk in place, taking in great breaths of air. Outside the railing and cursing was getting closer.

“After I kill those two,” Elan yelled, “I’m going to tie you to a post and whip you ‘till you…”

Jesse stepped out of the barn and into the road. Enoch walked beside him.

“Going somewhere?” asked Enoch.

Elan and his daughter stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the talking dog, then at the man standing before them in his cotton boxers.

Elan drew his sword, “Come any closer and I’ll kill you, Boy!”

Jesse took another step towards Elan. There was little more than an arm’s length between them now, and Elan raised his sword to strike, but before he knew what was happening he found himself lying on his back in the dirt road and the boy standing over him with the tip of the sword on Elan’s chest. To one side his daughter stood staring, her arms hanging limp at her side, making no attempt to draw her sword. Behind Jesse, Seth had come to the barn’s entrance and watched the scene in silence. Enoch was another matter.

“Kill him, Jesse! Kill him! Run him through! You’ve wanted to kill a murderer, now here’s your chance!”

Jesse’s heart was racing. He wanted Enoch to just shut up, but the dog continued to goad him, “Are you afraid? You’ve come all this way to stare evil in the face and now it’s staring back at you! Finish him now!”

Elan glanced over at the talking dog for just as moment, then began to plead with Jesse, “Listen, boy, I’m sorry for what I’ve done, truly I am! We’ve fallen on hard times and were acting out of desperation!”

Jesse said nothing, but glared down at the man.

“Look,” Elan continued, “take your stuff and be gone! We’ll never hurt another soul! By the gods I swear it!”

Jesse pressed the sword a little harder, the tip now just breaking the skin on the man’s chest. Elan was now in full-panic mode. Pleading was getting him nowhere. Perhaps he could bargain? “Listen, take the girl if you want. You can have her! She’s not bad-looking, really. She knows how to please a man. I can vouch for that myself!” Jesse pushed the blade just a little harder. Elan reached for the sword, and as he did, Jesse plunged it deep into his chest, and then withdrew it as Elan rolled on his side moaning, and curled up in a fetal position, blood spilling out on the dirt. Immediately, the girl began to scream, and then clamped both of her hands over her mouth as Jesse pointed the bloody sword toward her.

“Finish her, Jesse! Finish her!” Enoch yelled. “She’s a murderer sure as her father! If you don’t it’s just a matter of time before she’ll kill again! Their blood will be on your hands if you don’t!”

Now the girl’s fear was forcing her to say something—anything that she thought would spare her life, “It’s his fault!” She yelled, pointing at her dying father. “He maaaade me do it! I wanted no part of the killing! Can’t you see that?! You would have done the same as me! I lived in mortal fear of him every day of my life!”

Jesse weighed the first statement in his mind. Whose fault was it anyway? The second two were blatant lies. She clearly liked killing. Yes, he could see that. But Jesse would not have ever done what she had done. Not if he lived for a million years. And yes, she probably did live in fear every day of her life. But so have others and they didn’t beg their fathers to let them participate in murder. No, this girl was evil. He took a step closer, and as he did the girl fell to her hands and knees and began to weep.