The Brothers Grimm - Pt. 3

[knobhobby]

(continued from part 2)

Jack laid himself face down on the floor as Amber took a couple steps back. “Don’t fucking move.” She thought for a second. “Braden, help me, what do I do?” she asked.

“Get his knife! Get me the fuck out of this chair!” he said.

Jack started to reach for the knife in his back pocket. Amber screamed, “DON’T FUCKING MOVE! I’ll shoot you! Uh, Chloe? Can you get his knife?”

Chloe reached into Jack’s pocket and pulled out the knife, then scrambled away from him.

“Get Johnny loose, then get Braden,” she ordered. “I’m pointing it right at your head,” she growled at Jack. “Don’t. Move.”

“I’m not moving,” Jack said into the floor. “I’m not gonna move. Don’t kill me.”

“I don’t know how these things work,” Chloe said, fiddling with the knife. “I can’t get it open.”

“You gotta push the thing to the side and pull. Push the thing,” Amber replied. “Johnny, help her!”

Chloe handed the knife to Johnny’s restrained hands and he pulled the blade out. Chloe took the knife back and started sawing at the rope holding his wrists together.

“How do I get my sister loose, asshole?” Amber asked Jack.

“There’s a key. It’s on the sill above that other doorway. The room she was in.”

Chloe finished cutting Johnny’s wrist restraints. “Give me the knife,” Johnny said to her. “Didn’t you hear him? Go get your key.” He started working on his legs.

Chloe got up and ran over to the door. She reached up and then jumped a few times, but at five foot tall, she couldn’t reach the sill. “I can’t get it!”

Johnny, finally free from his chair, ran over to Chloe to help her.

Braden yelled, “Bro, the knife! Get me out!”

“Hang on! Just hang on!” Johnny yelled back, reaching above the sill for the key.

Suddenly a knock rang out from behind the iron door. Everybody immediately froze. Silence filled the room. A booming baritone sounded from behind the door. “Jack! Supper’s cold. Darrell’s home and he was asking about ya. I know you said not to come down here to Pa’s old jail, but you said you would be back up by ten. Jack?”

Jack said nothing.

“Jack!” the voice repeated.

The door opened. Bobby’s gigantic frame filled the doorway as he stepped in. Nobody moved as he processed the strange scene laid before him. His eyes darted to and fro across the room, focusing finally on Amber with the pistol. Bobby looked Amber in the eyes and spoke. “I don’t know what you guys are doing in here, and it’s not my business. It looks like you’re really mad, but please don’t shoot my brother. Point it away from him. Please.” She pointed the pistol away from Jack and trained it on Bobby.

“Get on your knees,” she barked.

Jack turned his head, seeing Amber with Jim’s pistol drawn. She was standing, her long, blonde hair behind her back, her bronzed legs slightly apart, nude as God had made her, trembling with her finger on the trigger; in another context, he would have found that sight very titillating. He then noticed the white indicator of the safety, still engaged.

He scrambled to his hands and knees, and sprang forward to stand and lunge at Amber. She screamed, backing away. She aimed the pistol at Jack’s face and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. She pulled again desperately over and over until Jack wrenched the gun from her. “Bobby, get the boy!” he yelled at his brother.

Bobby thundered toward Johnny. Chloe screamed, running into the other room. Johnny stood motionless in the doorway. Bobby picked up Johnny with little effort and tossed him inside the room and began to step in after him.

“Close that door, Bobby! The latch! The latch!” Jack yelled as he struggled with the both the pistol and Amber, who was clawing and screeching at him, now a wild animal.

Bobby slammed the door shut and slid the iron latch closed. He grabbed Amber and placed her in a choke hold until she went limp. “What are you guys DOING down here?!” Bobby asked Jack.

“Just put her on the bed. Tie that strap to her leg. Stay next to her.” Jack stood up, his mind racing. He looked at Braden, still tied to the chair.

“Why did she fucking DO that?” Jack asked himself. “We were almost done!”

“You’re gonna kill us down here, aren’t you?” Braden asked.

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I don’t want to, but I don’t know.”

————————

“What the blue blazes is going on, Jack?” Bobby asked. “What do you mean about killing these kids? What did you do?”

“Sit down on the bed, Bobby,” Jack replied. Amber stirred a little, groaning. “Are you sure she’s tied?”

“I know my knots. I tied many a knot in the scouts, Jack. I do good knots.” The bed curled and groaned beneath his weight. “Where are their clothes, Jack?”

“Bobby... Buddy... Jim and I have been so lonely here lately, and, well... You know when you get urges and do those things with the Vaseline and the teddy bear at night?”

Bobby averted his gaze, ashamed. “You know about Mr. Fuzz?”

“Yeah Bobby, I know about Mr. Fuzz. Well, we don’t like to do that to teddy bears. We do that to pretty girls, Bobby.”

“They are pretty girls.” He looked down at Amber, who was shaking, alert, frozen.

“They sure are, Bobby. And we saw them, and took them to the house, and then you and Jim left, and then... I just got those urges like you do, pal. You understand?”

Bobby nodded. He was staring down at Amber. “Did you do... uh, you know... to her?”

“I did.”

“And now she wants to shoot you?”

“She wants to go home, Bobby. But if she gets home, you will never see me or Jim again.”

“What about Darrell? He can help us.”

“I’m not sure, Bobby. I’m in a lot of trouble. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I gotta talk to him, but I don’t see another way.”

Bobby couldn’t take his eyes off of Amber. She mouthed silently to him in desperation, “Help me. Please.” Bobby furrowed his brow, thinking, and then his eyes lit up.

“What if we just kept them down here like pets? Like Mr. Fuzz? Then you won’t get in trouble, and you won’t be lonely anymore.”

“We can’t keep them here forever, Bobby.”

“Why not? I’ll take care of them like the dogs, and I’ll feed them and clean up after them and everything.”

Jack sighed. He walked over to Braden’s chair and started dragging it toward the door. “Untie the girl and follow me down this hall. Be careful, she’s wiggly.”

“You be a good girl,” Bobby said as he untied the strap on Amber’s ankle. He put her in his lap and stood up, carrying her. “We’re gonna take good care of you. You won’t EVER want to go home.” He grinned and followed his brother.

They went past a stairwell and stopped at a set of bars installed across the hallway. Jack grabbed a ring of keys hanging about five feet from the bars, found a key and opened the gate. He dragged Braden past several cell doors and turned left into the last one, leaving him strapped to the chair facing the wall. “Put the girl in this one, Bobby,” pointing to the adjacent cell. Bobby set her down on a small bench and walked out. Jack shut the cell door and turned a key, locking it. He walked over to Braden’s cell and locked it as well.

“Okay, Bobby, let’s go upstairs,” Jack said. “We’ll get the others in the morning.” Jack locked the main gate and they disappeared up the stairwell. A door was shut and then locked. The lights turned off suddenly, and everything went silent and black.

“Amber?” Braden asked.

“I’m here,” she replied.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re gonna find a way out of this.” He sat there for a little while. “Goddammit!” he said.

“What?”

“I gotta fucking piss.”

Johnny had managed to grab the key before the brutish Bobby attacked him. His ribs hurt terribly, but he didn’t think they were broken. He heard muffled talking in the other room, then dragging, then silence. He got up and walked over to the bed where Chloe was sitting, cum-soaked and disheveled. He squatted down and unlocked her shackle. She pulled her leg up and started rubbing.

“Look, Chloe, I’m sorry I-“

“Fuck you!” she yelled. He reached down to hold her hand. “Don’t fucking touch me!” she screamed and kicked him. He fell down on his ass.

“What the hell, babe?!”

“Just stay away from me! Don’t touch me! Don’t come near me! Just stay over there! I can’t do this!” she screamed. Johnny moved over to the opposite wall near the toilet and sat down on the concrete. He picked up the knife from the floor, and began to flip it open and closed absentmindedly.

Then the lights went out. Chloe began to cry.

---

Jim was out front skinning a deer he had hanging from the bough of a tree when he heard the motorcycle coming up the long driveway. Dust kicked up behind it as it crunched down a mixture of dry red clay and small gravel. He looked over at Jack, who was sitting on the porch playing his guitar.

Jack stood up and set the guitar down, resting the headstock gently against the siding. He leaned against one of the pillars of the porch as the bike came to a gentle stop in front of the house.

It was apparent to Jack that the rider was a woman, and somebody he didn’t recognize. Her frame seemed pert and delicate. She stepped off the bike and engaged the stand, leaning it to rest. She pulled off her helmet, exposing a shock of medium length red hair. She crouched down to attach it to the side of the bike, and Jack noticed her hips were wider than he had expected from her frame.

She stood back up, looked at Jack and then Jim, and spoke. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. Sorry to show up unannounced. I would have called in advance, but I’ll be damned if I couldn’t find a number registered to this address.”

“You’ve been looking around in our public records, have you?” Jim asked defensively.

“I would say yes, but there isn’t much to see, to be honest. You gentlemen seem to enjoy your privacy. Say, that’s a nice size doe you got there. It’ll be good eating.” She turned her attention to Jack, who was descending the porch steps. “I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot. I’m not a government official if that’s a concern. Are you the owner of this property? I just have some questions about it.”

“That doesn’t concern me a bit,” Jack replied, “and yes, this is my property. Who are you?”

“Cora O’Connor. I’m a computer science professor at Blanchard State University.” She extended her thin, alabaster hand. Jack took her hand and shook.

“Jack.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Jack.”

“Likewise. What can I help you with, Mrs. O’Connor?”

“Miss O’Connor. And I’m to understand you have about 93 acres out here?”

“That’s right,” Jack confirmed, nodding. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’m not sure if it’s gone public yet, but one of my students, Jonathan Gable, hasn’t shown up for classes since Friday, and we think something has happened to him. I’m afraid he might be somewhere on your property, and I wanted your permission to take a look around.”

“That’s awfully quick to assume something bad has happened.”

“I would agree with you, yes; however this is completely out of his character, and his parents called the school concerned as well. Of course, I didn’t tell them anything I knew for fear of raising further concern, in case it wasn’t true.”

“I see. What makes you think he was on our land? There are clear signs posted and fences around every foot of our property line.”

“Well, you see, after a couple days of him not showing up, I got concerned for him and asked a friend for some location data from the local cell towers. Now the coverage around here is spotty, and the triangulation wasn’t as tight as I would normally like, but his last phone signal was somewhere on your property Saturday night.”

“You can scout the area if you’d like, but I gotta warn ya, it’s easy to get turned around out there. If you give me a few minutes, I can show you around, help you keep your bearing.”

“That would be great. I really appreciate your help and understanding. I don’t know what I would do if, God forbid, he was in trouble and I could help him, but didn’t. You know?”

“I can understand that,” Jack said. “Let’s get out of this oppressive sunlight for a couple minutes before we head out. I have to change into my boots anyway. You want something to drink?”

“I would love a drink. Thank you.”

Jack began up the stairs, and Cora followed behind him. “Hope you like lemonade,” he said with a smile, “I just made a fresh batch.”

END

[The Brothers Grimm, Book 2 coming soon.]