Book of Secrets

Slaughter House

            “Thanks, you too, Edgar,” I said then striding towards the door as quickly, but as normally as I could, not daring to glance back at the odd skeletal-like boy. I stepped out into the chilled night air; the only light was from the flickering Stop & Shop sigh above my head and the slit of silver moon against the midnight black sky. I threw my bags into the passenger’s seat as I climbed into my old and rusted blue pick-up truck. The old truck coughed a roar when I started the engine, slowly pulling out of the shopping center and onto the dark abandoned road towards home.

The old radio blurted a Rascal Flatts song I knew far too well.

I set out on a narrow way

Many years ago

Hoping that I’d find true love

Along the Broken Road

The gentle song brought tears to my eyes. It was mine and my late wife’s song. She had died of brain cancer just a couple years ago, but I always got watery eyes when I heard that song, it brought back all the memories before she had been diagnosed.

A bright and wild light caught my eyes and quickly I dried them, staring up at the intimidating building that disappeared far back into the tree line. Its huge aluminum walls were ebony black with dim flickering lights lining the roof, like search lights. I could just barely make out the chorus of mad dogs barking in the distance from the center. Squinting my eyes to get a better look, I read the scratched and rugged print on the sign that stood sorely before the closed, barbed wire gates of the structure.

H.U.N.T. – Human’s Unknown Natural Talents

Experimental Test Center

CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC!

I drove past the metallic sign with goose bumps running up my arms. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound very pleasant. Hopefully, they’d keep whatever it was they were experimenting in, and the rest of humanity out.

The smooth paved road suddenly turned into a rocky dirt road, pebbles flying out behind the back wheels. The buildings of the small town where the shopping center was disappeared behind me and faded into a forest scene, nothing but tall looming trees all around me and one skinny dirt road going straight.

My truck bounced and jerked along the rough road, my hands straining to keep a tight grip on the wheel. Shadows casted by the moon reached out for me, sending my eerie night into a horror movie frenzy. Luckily, my cabin was just around the corner and my daughter’s smiling eyes would ease my chills.

I pulled into the long driveway, the lights of my cabin dimmed from the shades drawn closed. The truck rolled to a stop in front of the porch, the lantern above the stairs swaying in the ghost of a wind. I swiftly grabbed the groceries bags and climbed out, the stairs creaking from my weight as I climbed up them towards the front door. I tried the handle. Weird. It was locked. Our door was almost never locked. It was just my daughter and I out here.

I bent down to pull the spare key from beneath the door mat, unlocking the brass door handle and pushing it open before slipping the key back under the mat. The floorboards moaned once I entered the lit up home, the lights in the kitchen had been left on. A chill draft brushed along my face, making me shiver.  Blair must be in the kitchen having another one of her teenage girl midnight cravings. Closing the door tight behind me I walked towards the kitchen, pausing in the doorframe. I felt the blood drain from my face as I looked around the tiny, ghostly kitchen.

Blair always wanted a dog, but her mother was allergic and I hated them, so instead we bought her dog figurines, paintings, salt and pepper shakers, magnets, and etc., but the kitchen was stripped bare of any hint of them. Not only that, but the fridge was left open, apple cider spilt on the floor and had formed a puddle of golden-brown liquid. What caused the bags in my hands to drop to the floor were the crimson colored droplets that spotted the white tiled floor by the spilt cider.

            “Blair?” I called, bolting through the living room towards the stairs. Maybe she was getting a snack when she cut her finger on the corner of the fridge door, or maybe got a bloody nose.

            “Blair!” I yelled alarmed, checking the bathroom. Empty. I ran to her room, opening the door to find my nightmare come to life. It was blank, completely and utterly blank. The bright blue walls were dull white and the green rug was gone, along with anything else that was in the room. No bed. No dresser. No desk. No anything. Like nothing had been there ever before.

I ran to the window, jerking it open and yelling out into the woods at the top of my lungs, “Blair!” hoping that somehow she would hear me. That she would come back. But all that happened was a flock of startled birds darted into the sky.

Someone took my daughter. No one could just run up and disappear! It just doesn’t happen. I’ve lost too many people in my life already, no way was I going to let my daughter get killed by a bunch of sociopaths! One way or another, I was going to find her. And the people who took her were each going to have a bullet lodged in their brains. No one was going to take my little girl and get away for it alive.