Anna

Most of the news vehicles had left by early evening, a couple of the smaller market affiliates remained in the off chance of something salacious. Sitting in her room, Anna heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway followed by two car doors opening and closing.

“Hey Jerry,” she heard her mother’s voice call out.

Leaving her room, Anna moved down the hall toward the front door of the house where Darlene and Brenda were removing their jackets.

“Where’s Jerry?’ asked Darlene, looking up and smiling at her daughter as she hung up her coat.

Anna frowned. “Gone,” she replied softly.

“Gone? Out? His car was still in the drive,” Darlene said, looking back toward the door.

Anna slowly shook her head, eyes locking onto her mother’s, “Gone as in no more, he’s dead, I killed him,” she said.

“Oh my god, what happened?” Darlene gasped, eyes wide with alarm. Brenda too, her face reflected shock at the gravity of the news.

“I killed Caleb too,” she added, eyes downcast.

“No, no, no,” muttered Brenda, shaking her head slowly from side to side.

“Sweet mother,” breathed Darlene, eyes brimming with tears.

Anna made eye contact with her mother. “You know there is something inside of me, something evil,” she said directly.

Darlene pursed her mouth and nodded slowly, “Oh my child, my sweet child, I know,” she exchanged a quick look with Brenda, “That’s why we’re here, to help you, to help get rid of that awful thing inside of you,” she said stepping forward.

Anna raised her hand. “What do you mean that awful thing? The darkness in me, or me?” she asked eyes narrowing.

“The darkness of course, we need to do a ritual of purification to cleanse you of it. The marks your father so cruelly carved into you were to prepare the way for the thing in you, to bring it forward into the world. We were going to wait for the winter solstice, but with your father released, we can’t take the chance he’ll come here and finish what he started,” explained Darlene.

Anna could feel the darkness swirling slowly inside of her, waiting. Was that what Jerry meant? Was the ritual to get rid of this thing inside of her? Is that why the other killed him? “No,” she said, shaking her head.

Darlene’s smile never wavered. “Before you hurt anyone else, like Jerry, or that boy I heard about today in school,” she said, one step closer.

“No,” she repeated.

“You’re just confused sweetheart,”

“Please Anna,” said Brenda, “Let us help you, please honey.”

Anna shook her head, stepping back.

“Jerry,” she said.

“Don’t worry about Jerry,” soothed Darlene, wrapping her arms around Anna and pulling her into a hug. “The sooner we can get the purification done, the happier we will all be, you’ll see.”

Brenda nodded. “Come with us Anna,” she invited.

Anna didn’t know what to do, as her mother had said, she was so confused. She wanted to believe her father had tried to protect her, but that meant her mother was evil. If she believed her mother, it meant her father was mad. She felt emotion welling within her, the blackness seemed to rejoice.

Slowly she nodded as the older women began to get their coats back on.

“You’re going to be safe soon honey,” Darlene said, eyes full of love.

Together the three women walked out to the drive and got into her mother’s car.

Adam

Landing at the airport, retrieving luggage and getting the rental car ready was an eternity, precious minutes bleeding away. Jim drove the metallic cherry red Chevrolet Cruze while Adam navigated. Jim’s carefully laid out directions failing to take into account evening roadwork and the detour adding another fifteen minutes to their time.

The house was a modest size located in a nice neighborhood across I-95 in Delwoods, New Castle County, just north of Northwest Wilmington on Weldin Ridge Road.

It was dark by the time they arrived and they had to slow down quite a bit to catch an occasional house number. Finding the right one, Jim pulled up to the curb, “This is it,” he said.

Adam nodded. As they discussed on the plane, it was not going to be easy. Unbuckling his seatbelt, he turned to collect the bag Jim had removed from his luggage at the airport. Inside was a .38 revolver and three capped hypodermic needles filled with sedatives, and a scalpel with a plastic covering over the blade. Righting himself in the seat, Adam paused to look at Jim, “You sure?” slipping the gun into his jacket pocket.

The elderly doctor nodded, believing in his heart of hearts this was the only way to help Anna.

 Getting out of the rental vehicle, they walked up the drive to the house.

“This is it,” Jim said to Adam, knocking on the door.

Neither man saw Scott ‘Scoopy’ Talbot and his friend cameraman Barney Tate in the unmarked van parked across the street and up two houses. Scoopy and Barney were technically freelance journalists but worked fairly exclusively with independent WTDS-CA UHF Channel 16 out of Philadelphia.

All of a sudden, Scoopy’s eyes nearly popped out his head mid bite of his McDonald’s cheeseburger, “Barn, I swear to Christ, that’s him, that’s the fucking dad!” Scoopy said excitedly around a mouthful of food, his half-eaten cheeseburger falling to the floor of the van, a victim of his enthusiasm as he tried to spur the cameraman into motion.

Barney looked out the window at the two men walking up to the house, “Jesus!” he exclaimed, jumping out of the front seat into the back of the van, grabbing his camera, while Scoopy quickly pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.

Barney slid the side door open and adjusted the settings on the camera.

Giving a brief description of Adam and the location of the house to the 911 operator, Scoopy hopped out of the van, giving Barney a quick glace as they moved across the road toward Anna’s house.