Darkness in Appalachia

David drove back to town with Howell once again in the passenger seat. He was talking on his phone with McCormick didn’t acknowledge David’s presence, though.

“I agree. There’s something off about that Ms. Elmore. The problem is proving it.” He was silent while McCormick spoke, nodding his head in agreement. “We don’t have anything to suggest that she has any link to the other victims and we can’t prove that she has been in West Virginia anytime recently. Unless we come up with something, we won’t be able to get a warrant to search her property.” More silent nodding. “We’ve already been told to head back to the local office. We’ll just have to try and find something in the paperwork to make a link and see if we can convince the higher ups that she bears watching.” He clicked his phone off and leaned back in his seat, staring out the side window as if lost in thought.

“You know, you could have rode with your partner if you needed to talk to him.” David didn’t try to hide his annoyance.

Howell didn’t even turn his head. “I would have but he’s a terrible driver. He enjoys trying to make me sick on these kind of roads. Besides, I want to keep an eye on you. Everyone around here seems to think that Ms. Elmore is something special just because she has money. It’s disgusting.”

David shrugged. “I’m not from around here. I didn’t even know about the Elmores until two days ago so there’s no reason for me to regard her as anything special. Besides, she may be wealthy by this area’s standards but she’s nothing compared to some of the people where I used to work.”

Howell finally turned his head, regarding David with a new look in his eyes. “That’s true. We looked over your record before we met. You used to work up in New York for a while, right? And Chicago before that?”

David nodded. “That’s right. And a lot of the people that I had to deal with had more money and power than Ms. Elmore could even dream of. She’s nothing special as far as I’m concerned.” He was lying through his teeth but if it made Howell more amiable it was worth it.

“Well, then what’s your impression of Ms. Elmore?”

David was silent as the considered what to say that would defer their suspicion away from her. “I think that she’s suspicious but I don’t think that she has anything to do with the case you’re currently working on. She seems to be more the type to do blue collar crimes. She’s a bit eccentric but my experience when that kind of person is that they will commit crimes to further their money and power but won’t get their hands dirty on other things.”

“That’s true. It could be that that’s why she seemed suspicious. And it’s true that there’s no evidence to suggest that she has been anywhere near the other scenes or has anything to do with any of the other people that we’ve connected to the cases. McCormick was just saying something similar on the phone.”

David risked looked at him out of the corner of his eye. “So, what are you going to do?”

“We’ve been ordered to return to the head office. We will continue to investigate her there and see if we can find anything after a deep background check. If we can’t, we will have to wait for more evidence to come to light or another body to fall that we might be able to link someone to.”

“That sucks.”

Howell shrugged. “Yeah, but that’s the way a lot of these cases play out. We’re stuck waiting for more information and bodies and the perpetrator just keeps doing what they do until we have enough. Sometimes, it can take years but we will eventually catch up to them.” He returned to staring out the window. “We can’t allow ourselves to get bogged down by one case or one suspect when there are so many that need to be solved.” There was a hint of anger in his tone but David suspected that it wasn’t directed towards him.

“That’s why I moved to this small town. Too many cases that we couldn’t solve and too many families that came begging answers years after their loved ones were killed. The most we have to deal with around here are some traffic stops and drugs. Violent crimes are rare and are normally cut and dry.”

Howell didn’t respond and they spent the rest of the drive in silence. Even so, David felt that the atmosphere had changed and he was no longer regarded as an enemy. He would just drop them off at the station and finish up the rest of his shift on patrol before heading out to Robyn’s. After checking to make sure that they left town, of course.

After Robyn had her tea, which she refused to admit made her feel much better, her and Walker headed out to the boundary. She followed him on the 4x4 and he made sure to stick to the trails as much as he could. To her dismay, the first area that he led her to was the part where the boundary came the closest to the house. They trail that they were on led straight to the weakened portion of the barrier so she didn’t need to walk through the woods to find it.

“This spot is the first one that I found. It’s not as weak as the other but I can feel that it’s not as strong as it should be.”

Robyn dismounted and approached, she could sense where the barrier was placed even though it didn’t have an affect on her. She could feel that it really was weakened but it would take her some time to discover what had been done to it. She needed to find out what that was, repair the barrier, and reinforce it so that the same trick couldn’t be used again.

She sat down and closed her eyes, blocking out any external distractions so that she could sense the barrier better. She trusted Walker to keep guard and alert her if anything happened that needed her attention. Fixing the barrier was almost like trying to repair a line of code in a program. She needed to go through it line by line until she found one that had been altered or deleted and fix it. It was time consuming and tedious work but completely necessary to keep her home safe.

It took at least an hour before she found the problem. It seemed that a human had passed through and then provided passage for an entity. They had performed a spell on this side of the barrier that temporarily opened a small door for something else to come through. It was a pretty simple procedure but neither her or any previous guardian had thought to protect against it since it was unusual for a human to be helping an entity. Unless they were a guardian themselves and the barrier would have notified her if another guardian had crossed the barrier. She focused on repairing the barrier and rewriting a section of it to prevent this from happening in the future.

She stood after she finished and stretched before turning to Walker. She told him what she had found and recoiled at the fierce growl that he let loose.

“The child. David said that he got her a month ago after killing her parents. Children don’t have much magical talent but, if she was scared and hurt, she would have had enough to do this. He took her because he was planning on needing to get through a barrier and wanted enough time to make sure she was completely terrified of him before he needed her to perform the spell. He probably spent time training her and punished her whenever she made a mistake.”

Robyn was horrified but she could feel that he was right. It made sense of why he hadn’t killed her with her parents and explained how he had been able to get through her barrier without detection. “But that means, he had planned to come across a guardian’s reserve over a month ago. He sought us out.”

Walked nodded. “Maybe not you specifically but he was probably looking for a guardian. This means that you are in a lot more danger than we originally thought.”

“How so?” She suspected the answer but didn’t want to put it into words.

“He’s had a month to plan before he found you and he might have been on the reserve for a while watching you. He could be anywhere.”

“So he’s been stalking me. Well, that does make sense.” She stared at the ground without seeing it. “Humans that get absorbed will give him some power but they will run out pretty quickly due to having little magical endurance. If he could absorb a guardian, he would have a lot more power to draw upon and it would last longer as well since we are used to using magic. He probably took enough humans to get him to the closest reserve and then planned to attack the guardian of that reserve before the humans power runs out.”

“And that means he will need to attack soon. He has to be using some kind of magic in order not to be detected while on the reserve. Even if it’s a basic spell, it will use up the humans he’s absorbed in probably less than a week. We need to get you back to the house and fortify it against him.”

Robyn shook her head. “That’s not going to happen. At least not until I check the other spot on the barrier. As long as it’s weakened, everyone within my reserve are in danger from outside forces. I won’t’ run and hide and leave all the entities to fend for themselves.”

Walker growled. “That’s what they are used to. In our home world’s, we had to constantly defend ourselves against other entities and humans.”

“And that’s why so many came here. They were tired of constantly fearing for their lives and just wanted to live in peace. I won’t let them down just to save my own skin.”

“But if something happens to you, they will be on their own anyways. They will be able to survive long enough for us to get a handle on this and the stronger entities have already offered protection to some of the weaker ones.”

She knelt down and looked him directly in the eyes. “This. Is. My. Job. This is what I promised to do when I became the guardian of this reserve and it’s the reason that so many of the stronger entities are willing to help. Because they know that I will put my life on the line to protect theirs. I can’t go back on that now just because I’m being asked to prove what I said. The barrier needs to be fixed and this entity needs to be removed for all of us to be safe.”

Walker met her eyes before turning away. “At least promise me that you will be careful. Stay at the house after dark unless it’s an emergency and always have someone with you as protection.” He felt a surge of fear for his friend but it was tempered by respect for her. Any other guardian would have run with their tail between their legs and forced the entities to protect them, but now that they had a guardian worth keeping around, she wouldn’t allow them to protect her.

She smiled at his retreating back. “I will. I was hoping that you would be willing to stick with me until this is done. You are a good fighter and you can smell anything long before it gets to me.”

He lowered his head. “I may be able to fight physically but I’m not much good to you in a magical battle. You need a stronger entity by your side.”

She came up on his side. “Nope. You handle the physical stuff and I will handle the magic. We will be able to hit him at both ends and, with your nose, we might be able to sneak up on him and finish him off before he’s able to get off a spell.”

He scoffed but was pleased by the faith she put in him. “Enough of this. Let’s get to the next spot so that I can get you home before dark.”

She had to backtrack to get the 4x4 but they were soon on the move again. He led her deep into the woods, sticking to trails as much as possible but she had to get off part way their to walk. He tried to stick close to her but kept getting too far ahead and having to turn back. Every time he lost sight of her, he felt a frisson of panic shoot up his spine until he found her again but he didn’t let her know. He just growled at her to hurry up and tried to slow down a little more.

When they reached the weakness in the barrier, Robyn had to stop and catch her breath before examining it. He sat with his back towards her, watching all approaches and determined that nothing would get to her while she was with him. He just wished he knew what was causing his hair to stand on end. There was no smell in the air that seemed dangerous and nothing that he could see but he still felt like they needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

“Don’t take too long on this one. We need to get back to the house and fill in everyone on what we believe is happening.”

“Unfortunately, this one is going to take longer to repair than the other one. There’s literally a hole ripped in it and it will take me some time to fix everything and close it back up.”

He growled. “Just do it fast. Something feels wrong here.”

She nodded without turning to look at him. “I feel it too but I think that it’s mostly because of this hole. It’s made us think that we aren’t safe and that’s making us feel uneasy.” At least, that’s what she was hoping.

She sat down and got to work. Searching out the areas that had been damaged and rewriting them. As she had suspected, there was a lot more damage here than at the last location and more areas that needed to be rewritten. She worked through as quickly as possible but knew that it was still taking longer than Walker was comfortable with. Sometimes, she would hear a low growl from him and knew that he was telling her to hurry up.

She finished doing the repairs and then double checked to make sure that there weren’t any holes before standing and turning to him. He was standing at attention, staring into the woods with an intent expression.

“Is something there, Walker?”

He didn’t turn. “I don’t know. I can’t see or smell anything but my instincts are screaming that something is not right. We need to get out of here now.”

She nodded and began following him, moving as quickly as she could while scanning the woods for any threats. She had to physically prevent herself from breaking into a run and risking falling over something in her path. She broke out in a cold sweat, checking behind her and to all sides nervously and could see that Walker was doing the same. Neither spoke as they focused all their senses on their surroundings, and they were still caught by surprise.

Walker was slightly ahead of her when the ground between them suddenly heaved upwards, throwing her roughly to the ground. She heard a surprised yelp escape Walker and knew that he had been hit as well. She turned, placing the new earth wall at her back and scanning her surroundings for whatever had attacked them. She couldn’t see anything near her but threw up a shield just in case, knowing that he could just hide in the trees or attack from a distance if he chose. She began edging around the wall, wanting to meet back up with Walker on the other side so that she could rely on his senses as well as her own. A loud crash came from the path ahead and Walker yelped again. Robyn sped up, realizing that whatever was after them was trying to take Walker out before her.

On the other side of the wall, Walker was penned with the wall behind him and fallen trees to either side. Something had caused them to fall when he had tried to circle around to get to Robyn and he had barely avoided being crushed by them. He hadn’t completely avoided injury though. His back right leg had been caught by the second tree as he had jumped out of the way, severely limiting his mobility and ensuring that he wouldn’t be able to move quickly. He knew that Robyn would be on her way to him and hoped that she wouldn’t get caught in a similar trap.

Out of the woods, a figure materialized. It appeared human at first glance, standing just over average height and wearing normal clothing for a human. But upon closer inspection, he could see that it’s veins ran black, including the ones in its deep blue eyes. It’s hair was red, but a red that could never naturally appear on a human and there was something misshapen about the form beneath the clothes. The sight of it filled Walker with an instinctive disgust and a deep seated fear.

It smiled at him, a malicious smile that showed how much it enjoyed his fear. “Well, I was hoping to catch that guardian bitch out here but this is even better. She will taste much sweeter after I watching me devour one of her closest friends.” It’s voice was high pitched, almost childlike and was at complete odds with the look in its eyes.

Walker growled, for the moment beyond words. He tensed himself, preparing to leap as soon as it came within his reach. His eyes narrowed and his ears flicked forward, alert for any sign that the monster in front of him was about to make a move. ‘Stay back, Robyn’ he offered up prayers to any deity that would listen, ‘Don’t let this thing see you.’

It’s smile widened. “Look at you. Did you hurt your leg? Would you like me to help you with that?” It raised it’s hand and a branch from one of the fallen trees rose up and bashed him all along the right side of his body. “Oops. Sorry, I guess that was a little too rough. Let me try again.”

His next blow knocked Walker off his feet and he felt something crack in his side. The monster laughed and continued to beat at him with the branches as he struggled to defend himself. He appeared to be attacking from every angle at once and Walker felt more bones break before he stopped.

“Look at you. It seems that I have only made things worse. Well, I guess there is one more thing that I can try.”

Walker felt his body being lifted into the air, unseen hands grabbing and jerking him roughly upwards. His head was held in a vice like grip as he was forced to face the entity that was torturing him. He glared at him through narrowed eyes and bared his teeth, lost to instinct now and determined to fight until the death.

“Ah, you’re just about ready. Robyn will be here soon and I can finish you off then. Until she arrives, though, let me help you a little more.”

The hands that gripped him pulled in different directions, stretching him out until his bones dislocated and he howled in pain. The extreme shock had the effect of clearing his mind a little and he remembered that he could call his comrades, the other dogs for help. They would arrive too late for him but they could still get help for Robyn. He howled louder, sending out a distress call that would be heard for miles. Any dogs or entities in the area would recognize it and know that something was wrong.

“Quiet.” His mouth was slammed shut and held closed. “I know what you are doing but it’s pointless. No one will get here in time to help you or Robyn. By the time they get here, they will just become my next meal.”

Walker hung in the air, completely helpless but still willing to fight. He reached out mentally, hoping that by some random chance he would be able to connect with someone, anyone. He wouldn’t let himself and Robyn be taken without a fight.

The brush rustled to his right and he detected Robyn’s scent. His eyes darted that direction and he searched the woods for any sight of her, wanting one last glimpse of a friendly face before he died.

“It seems that she has arrived. Now, it’s time for you to come to me. Scream some more so that she can hear you.”

His mouth was released and he had to fight the urge to howl like before. It felt like something was reaching inside of him and pulling out pieces of his organs a little at a time, dragging it out to ensure that it hurt as much as possible. He could feel that he was loses pieces of himself a little at a time and knew that it was absorbing him. He became unable to see or hear, the only things in his existence a heavy darkness and the never ending pain.

\