51: The Series

51: The Storm Chapter 16 Part 2

Lindsay woke up with Crook licking her hand and whining. She could smell it before she was fully awake and knew exactly what was wrong. Lindsay looked up toward the front door. She could see it looking through the door the same as it had during the storm.

“Wren!” she cried.

Wren was jolted awake, turned toward the door, and saw it looking in. Lindsay was now standing in the living room, and it was watching her. It let out a low moan, almost sounding sad. As soon as Wren stood, it ran from the porch and toward the trees near their house.

“I thought that you said it was gone,” she said, her voice shaking.

“It was. It was on the south side of the base this morning. I will call a team now, and they will not leave until it is gone,” Wren told her as he picked up his phone.

She walked into the kitchen and looked outside. She could see it in the trees at the edge of their yard. It stepped forward slightly into the light. When it did, she could see its eyes. She began to shake. She remembered those eyes. It all came back to her in a flood. It was the one she had seen the night she was attacked. That was the same one she had seen in her flashlight beam. There was no doubt in her mind that it had followed her. It was not only following her but had returned after being taken many miles away. Why? She sat down on the kitchen floor in the corner.

“The team will be here soon,” Wren said as he walked in. “Are you OK? What happened?” he asked, sounding near panic as he rushed to her where she was sitting.

“It’s him,” she said quietly, shaking almost uncontrollably.

“Him?” Wren asked.

“The night I was attacked, my light hit one of the trees before something charged at me from the side and knocked me into the tree. He is what I saw in the trees. He is the one that was there,” Lindsay told him quietly, her voice shaking almost as much as she was.

“Let me look,” Wren said, holding her face in his hands.

Wren stood and looked out the kitchen window to see it standing in the yard. He heard it let out another low moan. When he looked at it, all he felt was anger. The only thing Wren wanted to happen to it was for it to be destroyed.

“Is he still there?” Lindsay asked him.

“It is,” he said with anger in his voice.

“He won’t hurt any of us,” Lindsay told him.

Wren knelt beside her and asked, “How do you know he won’t?”

“He is the one that carried me into the woods. He stopped the bleeding. It is him; he has the same eyes. I will never forget those eyes,” Lindsay said softly. “I see them every night in my sleep.”

Wren sat on the floor beside her, wrapped his arms around her, and waited for his team to arrive. Crook had come to where they were and had squeezed himself between them. They sat for some time, with Wren standing only to look out the window every few minutes. Every time he did, he saw it still standing where he had first seen it in the yard. Finally, Wren could hear a truck approaching. He rose to see that it had heard the truck, too, and had backed into the trees. Headlights flashed across where it had stood as the first truck pulled in, and Wren could see it had disappeared into the trees.

Wren reached the front door before anyone on his team could even step away from their vehicles. He was furious that it had made its way back to his home. It should not have been back if his team had done things correctly.

“Find it! This time, do it right!” he yelled as he turned to go back into the house.

Randy quickly ran onto the porch before Wren closed the door and came inside. He looked around and followed Wren into the kitchen, where Lindsay was still sitting on the floor.

“Sheriff Gold, I want to apologize to you for this. Normally, if we relocate something, it doesn’t come back, and even if it does, it takes weeks for it to do that,” Randy said meekly.

“Randy, it is best if you go outside with the team right now. See if you can help them get it right this time,” Wren told him angrily.

Randy took several steps backward toward the front door before he turned around and rushed out. He was unnerved by seeing the sheriff the way she was. She was never upset by anything, much less frightened, and if she was afraid, that terrified him. Agent Gold, being this angry, was also something he had never seen before. He knew this would have serious repercussions for everyone involved.

“Linz, let me help you up and into the living room,” Wren told her as he began to help her stand.

She was not shaking as badly as she had been, but he could still feel her. They went back into the living room and sat down on the couch. Crook followed and hopped up next to them, putting his head in Lindsay’s lap.

“Why is he here? It has been almost a year since it happened, and now this. I don’t understand it,” Lindsay said.

“I don’t know, Linz. If I did, I would know what to do to make it leave and never come back,” Wren told her, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head.

“I need to call Dillon and make sure he’s OK,” Lindsay said, pulling away and reaching for her phone.

Wren picked her phone up and held it out of her reach. “No, if you call him now, he will freak out because you are upset. Let me send him a text from your phone. Oh, and it looks like he sent you a couple of texts after we fell asleep. He said he is fine, but I will send one to him anyway, just so you don’t worry,” Wren told her as he sent the text. Moments later, they heard the alert that Lindsay’s phone had received a message. Lindsay looked, and it was Dillon saying he was fine and having fun. She let out a sigh of relief.

“I told you that you don’t need to worry about him. He is fine,” Wren reassured her. He saw someone step onto the porch. He walked over to the door and opened it before they could knock.

“Sir, may I come in? I’m sorry to bother you both, but I need to know what it did, and then maybe we will know what it is doing and why,” Randy said.

“Come in,” Wren said, letting Randy come in and closing the door behind him.

“Sheriff, I’m sorry, but can you tell me what happened?” Randy asked nervously.

“It’s OK, Randy, and you don’t need to call me Sheriff and ma’am. My dog woke me up, and I looked toward the front door. He was standing there, just watching us through the door. He wasn’t doing anything. When I stood up, he didn’t move, but as soon as he saw Wren, he left the porch and ran toward the trees. While Wren called you, I walked into the kitchen, looked out the window, and he was just standing there looking at the house. He did let out a few sounds like moans. I don’t know why, but I just felt this sadness when I heard it,” Lindsay told Randy.

Wren had gone into the kitchen but had been listening to what Lindsay said. He walked back into the living room and handed her a bottle of orange soda, hoping it would make her feel a little bit better.

“Is there anything else?” Randy asked her.

“I’ve seen him before.”

“I’m sorry. Do you mean you have seen something like it before?” Randy asked.

“No, I mean, I have seen him before. Randy, I was attacked by something last year, and I remember him being there. He protected me and saved my life, and that was the only time I have seen him until tonight, but I know he is the one who was here this week. He is what scared the kids. I know he is,” Lindsay told him, her eyes welling with tears.

Randy looked at her in complete shock. He then turned to look at Wren. Randy had known the sheriff had been injured and then fired afterward, but he had no idea as to what had happened to her. Wren had kept the investigation into her attack as quiet as possible, and Randy had not been a part of it. He had dozens of questions but was unable to form a single word. Wren motioned for Randy to follow him. Wren unlocked his home office, and they walked in. Wren closed the door behind them.

“Alright, Randy, snap out of it. What can we do about this thing?” Wren asked. “As far as I’m concerned, it needs to be destroyed. It is like any other wild animal that loses its fear of humans and becomes dependent on them. That thing could rip into this house like it is made of cardboard.”

“Sir, when we moved it earlier, he was not in the best shape. He seems to be rather malnourished and weak. Normally, they are in a group, even if it is only two or three, but he does seem to be alone, which is very odd. I think it has a reason for being here. I don’t know, but I think it might be asking for help in some way. It might also be that it is completely alone and looking for someone it knows so that it won’t be,” Randy told him.

“Is it a risk? My son is out there camping tonight, only a couple of miles away. Are those kids in any danger?” Wren asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think so. It seemed to be actively looking for the sheriff both times,” Randy told Wren.

They walked back out to the living room where Lindsay was sitting. She looked at them and could tell they were trying to figure out what to do.

“What are you going to do with him?” Lindsay asked them.

“What do you want us to do?” Wren asked as he sat beside her and pushed her hair away from her face.

“He isn’t here to do anything malicious. I don’t know why, but I know he isn’t. I remember those eyes. Tonight there is a different expression in them. Something is wrong. If you find him, please help him and bring him back here,” Lindsay told him.

“Are you sure?” Wren asked with confusion. “It terrified you when you saw it tonight.”

“It didn’t terrify me; it overwhelmed me. There’s a big difference. All the bits and pieces I have been remembering in my dreams came back at once. It was like being kicked in the chest. I’m sure. Please take care of him,” Lindsay told him.

“Well, Randy, you heard her, so go find him and take care of him however he needs. I don’t like it, but after what I have seen this week, I trust her judgment more than my own on this one,” Wren instructed.

“Yes, sir, I will ensure everyone has the instructions,” Randy said.

“If he is hungry, try apples,” Lindsay said.

“What?” both Wren and Randy asked.

“Apples. He was eating apples that night. He likes apples,” she said, absently looking at the floor in front of her as she scratched Crook’s head.

“Uh... thank you, ma’am,” Randy said as he turned and left the house.

-

The night wore on as Lindsay and Wren waited for the team to finish when their home phone rang at almost precisely midnight. Wren picked it up, looked at the caller ID, and then answered it.

“Hello,” he answered. After just a moment of listening, he said, “She’s awake, so you get to tell her all about it yourself.” He handed Lindsay the phone and told her, “It’s Big Bob.”

She let out a sigh as she took the phone. “What did you do?” she asked Big Bob.

“What makes you think I did something? Maybe I’m just calling you to let you know that things went alright on shift,” Big Bob said defensively.

“Because it is midnight, and the only reason you would call me now is that you have already done something or someone is about to do something that I will not like,” Lindsay told him.

“OK, well, just so you know, I might have a complaint filed against me, but it was all an accident, I promise,” Big Bob told her.

“Get to the point, Bob. I have had a horrible night, and this is not helping, so get on with it,” Lindsay said.

“Well, if this is a bad time, I can just tell you late.”

“Bob!”

“OK, OK, Andy had a property damage call, and Annie was helping a stranded motorist, so I went out on a call about a suspicious person. I got out there and saw this guy just kind of staring at one of the houses, so I got out to go talk to him. As soon as I got to him, the guy took a swing at me, so I took him down and landed on him,” Big Bob began to explain.

“OK, so is he filing a complaint because you landed on him?” Lindsay asked.

“Well, probably not. After I got him down, I put him in handcuffs, and he kept kicking at me, so I put him in leg shackles, too. Annie got there just as I was getting him up, and he started saying all kinds of nasty things to her and about her. That distracted me, and I sort of dropped him,” Big Bob had continued.

“Dropped him?!” Lindsay exclaimed. Wren turned and looked at her.

“Well, yeah, but that didn’t hurt him. When he hit the ground, he started kicking at me again, and we were on top of an embankment, and after all this rain, it was slick. So, when he was kicking, he sort of started to slide down the hill. I tried to grab him, but then I slipped too and landed on him again. This time, I wound up riding him like a sled down the hill. Annie helped me get him back up the hill, and he was so mud-covered we used the water hose of the guy that called in the complaint to hose him off before I could put him in my car,” Big Bob finished.

“Un-freaking-believable,” Lindsay said, shaking her head. “Is anyone hurt at all?”

“Nope. Everyone is fine. The guy is all warm and dry and tucking in for the night at the jail,” Big Bob answered her.

“Just write the report before you leave and put it on my desk, so that I can read it on Monday. If Annie hasn’t left yet, tell her to do the same thing,” Lindsay told him, still shaking her head.

“We have both already done that. It happened earlier in the night. I didn’t really want to call you and wake you up, but I figured I should do it anyway. Which reminds me, why are you awake this time of night, and why has your night been so bad?” Big Bob asked.

“We had an uninvited visitor earlier in the night, and now Wren has a team scouring the woods,” Lindsay told him.

“Do you need us to come up there and help with anything?” Big Bob asked, concerned.

“No, but thank you. Everything is under control,” Lindsay told him. “I will see you on Monday.”

“Alright, but you call me if you need help up there. Max and Yuri are on now, but I will still be there if you need it. If you don’t, I will see you on Monday,” Big Bob said and hung up.

Lindsay hung up the phone and looked at Wren.

“Do I want to know what happened?” Wren asked her, looking confused.

“Well, depending on what mood the guy is in when he wakes up, the department might be sued because Big Bob used a guy as a sled on a muddy hill,” Lindsay told him.

“Wait. What? You know, I wish I hadn’t asked,” Wren told her as he hugged her. “Go lay down for a while. I know you won’t sleep, but maybe you will get a little rest.”

“I will do that and not even argue with you,” she said, walking to the bedroom, followed closely by the dog.

When she reached the bedroom, she didn’t go to bed. She lay on the bed with Crook cuddled next to her. She wrapped her arms around the hound and hugged him like a teddy bear. He licked her chin a few times before nestling his head under her chin and quickly falling asleep. She rested, listening to him softly snore and the commotion of what was taking place outside. She finally drifted off into a restless sleep.