Kingdom of Nightmares [F/Multiple]

Chapter 4 - The Job

Mom knocked on my door as I was getting dressed. I slipped on my right shoe and then my left before she decided to barge in. She was carrying a plate of small finger sandwiches. They weren’t for me because Mom never made me anything that wasn’t on the strict keto diet. Ever since I was slightly overweight in middle school, she’d been on my case to keep fit. Seeing as I stay in all day working on the computer or rarely venture outside for business—much less for casual outings with friends I don’t have—it was a wonder how I wasn’t more of a fat slob.

Maybe it was just the lack of food in the house.

“Daddy’s out front,” she said while shifting the plate to her other hand.

I grabbed my bag with the printed out sheets from Angeline’s email. “Don’t call him that.”

I squeezed beside her to get out of the room. She didn’t even try to make room for me.

“Have you gained weight?”

“I’m not having this talk!” I yelled over my shoulder. She followed me as I raced down the hall and out of the house. Dad was waiting for me beside my falling apart blue car. He had the keys in hand with a look of pure dislike on his face.

I grabbed the keys out of his clenched hand. “You don’t have to tell me. I already know.”

He frowned. “Then you should know that if you wreck this one more time I’m not going to let you have the keys again.”

I saluted him. “Gotcha.”

I looked up at Mom just in time to see her pull a face then cover it up with a blank one. She could fool everyone else, but I knew what she was hiding. She liked to make everyone believe our perfect family was all in place. I knew we were as broken as her fragile personality.

Throwing my bag into the font seat, I sat down and slammed the driver door shut behind me. The old car smell hit my nose. It was a smell I was surprised to miss. There was nothing in this world that meant anything to me besides my car. It was a wonder why I ended up messing it up all the time, but I’d like to think that it was just bad luck. With a curse on this town, I wouldn’t doubt everyone had bad luck lurking over their heads.

Dad leaned through the window

“Be safe.”

I smiled, leaning back with my hands on the wheel. “I’m always safe.”

The car revved as I pulled out of the driveway with a shaky jerk. Dad shook his head and Mom was scowling. I grinned the whole way down the street, not even scared that I might crash into the curb.

From the rear view mirror, I watched as my small childhood disappeared into the thick brush. Dad stood at the end of the driveway with his hands on his hips. He was the last thing to fade from sight. I let out a sigh when I was sure they couldn’t see me. The road ahead of me stretched on and was bare. Town was a couple miles away, but it would be a while until I made it to the center.

Though I could leave home whenever I wanted, I felt as if it was the wrong thing to do. Dad didn’t talk a lot, but his looks he gave were the worst. Fixing my car had been nice of him. He didn’t have to do that.

Mom was overbearing and I just wanted her to lighten up. I don’t think I was asking for much. Really, I wasn’t asking for much of anything.

My first set of business was to find the area of the first murder. North 18th. Great.

The first signs of town came into view. I shouldn’t really call it a town. It was a city with little over 20,000 residents. But there was something about Pavington that made it seem like there was a close knit of people living here. I don’t know whatever made me think that since I know no one who lives here. Well, except the ones I went to high school with and the ones working at the station. Other than that, there was no one closer to me than my parents.

Jacob use to be one too, but then he went missing.

I missed my turn.

“Shit.”

I made a rough turn without turning my blinker on. With a rough sigh, I pulled over to the side, checked to make sure I didn’t catch the eye of a cop, and slumped in my seat. The printed documents peaked out from my bag. I pulled them out and looked over them. The words jumped out from the page. Things like “wolf” and “unexplained disappearance”.

They were the same words I’d been seeing for the last few hours. Every web page that was on the murders and disappearances seemed to talk about the strange bite marks over the bodies. The only thing was that the murders were too frequent to be a wolf attack. They were too skilled to be wolves.

Jacob crosses my mind again. His face, his voice, and the corny jokes he would make. All of it was coming back. It was a hurling block of memories that made me feel like s**t. I didn’t want to think about him or how I might have been able to stop him from whatever he was doing.

I let out a choked laugh. There would have been no talking him out of anything. He did what he wanted and not even I could have convinced him otherwise.

I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes. I just needed a little time to pull my thoughts together.