Once all of the prospects were assembled in the bar, Prez motioned for someone to turn down the stereo and then everyone got quiet as they waited for him to speak. "Ladies, if you will please excuse us for a few minutes?"
Without question, all of the women stood up and left the bar and went down to the living room to wait.
As soon as they were gone and the door to the bar was closed, Prez called out, "Listen up everyone. Prospects, for those of you that are new, what is going to happen tonight is a loyalty test for you. If you puke or pass out that's fine. Look away if you can't deal with what is happening. Just know now that if you leave the shed before you are told to go or if you refuse to do what you are told, then you must leave, tonight, and you will not be allowed to return.
We will drop you in town or wherever you want to go within reason but I want to remind all of you that no matter what, you will never repeat what you are about to see or hear out there. Is that understood?" Prez asked.
All of the prospects answered yes and then just waited for Prez to continue. "Most of you know Dr. and Mrs. Allen because you have been doing guard duty at their house.
Well, in the shed is the psychopath who killed Mrs. Allen's family and stabbed her multiple times, injuring her to the point that she can never have children. That's the reason the Allen's are adopting the Carter children. He gave Mrs. Allen and Tasha a good scare at the mall today.
Thankfully they had Natalie with them and she called us to back her up. We have found out through not only Mrs. Allen but also through police records that he has a long record of breaking the law and is a suspect in several deaths.
Until now, he's had an uncanny knack of being able to escape prosecution mainly because the law is written in such a way that allows him to get away with so much. He let his younger brother take the fall for the crime of being the primary killer to Mrs. Allen's family when it was really him and only because his brother's face was the only one Mrs. Allen could identify.
His brother would have served 2 life sentences in prison but he was killed in a prison riot after having served only 4 years. Ted didn't even see fit to visit him in jail or to claim his body after he was killed, leaving him to be buried in the prison cemetery.
Anyway, he has made a direct threat to not only Mrs. Allen but now to our MC as well. We are going to end this threat before he actually hurts someone again. If you don't want to be involved with this, go pack your things right now and someone will drop you off in town, otherwise, follow me." Prez said as he turned to leave the bar. Prez caught David and Daniel and told them, "Since you have already decided to leave us, you are excused for this. Stand guard until we come back."
"Thanks Prez." Both David and Daniel told him and dropped out of line.
The two newest rescued prospects, Greggory and Carlyle looked at each other and then followed everyone outside. They all trooped up to the shed and went inside. Greggory and Carlyle followed the other prospects as they lined up against the wall.
They saw a man hanging by his hands from the ceiling and thought he was just a normal person until he began to laugh. The sound was maniacal. It was the kind of laugh that you heard in horror movies that made you shiver and you just knew that the person was crazy. But it was what he said that made them all stand up straighter and they all knew without a doubt that his man was evil and he deserved whatever was about to happen to him.
"Anyone care to trade places with me? This has always been my favorite part but normally, I'm down there and one of you would be up here. I love making them scream and bleed. Red is such a beautiful color, don't you think?" Ted said with that evil laugh.
Prez turned to the prospects and said "Do any of you think this man should be set free?"
"NO SIR!" They all answered in unison.
"Thor, would you like to start us off?" Prez asked.
"Glad to." Thor said as he finished wrapping his hands. As soon as he was ready, Thor stepped up in front of Ted and said "This is for making my woman nervous and making her cut her shopping trip short and for scaring my sisters." He hit Ted in the ribs about 5 or 6 times and Ted laughed only for the first 2 blows then he started to spit blood.
"Hey, Thor, save some for the rest of us." Knife called out.
"Gladly. I don't want to get all sweaty tonight. I have a different kind of work out planned tonight." Thor said and all of the men laughed.
"Can't say I blame you there, big man. She is very beautiful." Ted choked out which sent Thor into a rage and he roared then began punching Ted again. His arms worked like pistons as he drove his fists into Ted over and over again and everyone could hear Ted's ribs breaking.
"THOR! THOR! Save some for Booboo! We want him alive when they meet." Prez called out but stayed well away from his friend, knowing better than to get in front of him right now.
One more punch to Ted's face broke Ted's nose and knocked out his front teeth.
"Jess, go bring a disposal van to the door, please." Prez instructed. "Carlyle, Greggory, bring a tarp and spread it out on the floor right here."
"Yes, sir." All 3 boys answered and Jess took off out the door while Greggory pulled a tarp off the rack on the wall and he and Carlyle spread it out on the ground near where Knife and Troll were lowering Ted's body down. Ted moaned a few times but never tried to resist, mainly because he was all broken up inside and even if Booboo didn't show up right away, he wasn't far from dying from his injuries.
When Jess stuck his head back in the door and let them know he had the van backed up to the door, the rest of the prospects loaded Ted into the back of it. "Ivan, drive an SUV and follow Jess. Carlyle, ride with Jess, the rest of you ride with Ivan. If any of the rest of you want to go, let's get going. It's cold out here." Prez said and everyone filed out of the shed. Most of the patched members went back inside but Thor, Knife, Digger and Snoop rode with Prez up to where they feed the black bear.
"Digger, I'm not sure if Booboo is still going to be roaming around so you may have to come back and dig a hole for him." Prez said.
"One of these days I'm going to dig a big burn hole up there so this won't be a problem in the future." Digger said.
"That would be fine except it leaves traceable evidence that way. That's why I like being able to feed Booboo. He doesn't leave anything but a stain on the ground, which washes away when it rains." Prez said.
Carlyle climbed into the front with Jess and sat quietly, without looking over his shoulder.
"You don't talk much, do you?" Jess asked.
"Learned a long time ago not to." Carlyle said then after a few seconds asked "Does this happen often?"
"No but often enough for me. But I will say, they don't do this lightly. When I first came here, I lost everything I ate all day when they would do this. But every man it happened to fully deserved it, especially the Carter children's uncle. This was tame compared to what they did to him. Now I can watch most of it without flinching. And they never do it without good cause. The person has to have done something pretty horrible for it to get to this point." Jess said.
"Why do they say this is part of a loyalty test?" Carlyle asked and Jess explained what that meant and Carlyle just nodded.
They pulled up to the parking area and Jess backed the van into place while Prez and the other SUVs carrying the other prospects pulled up. All of the prospects hurried to the back of the disposal van and pulled Ted's body out of the back and rolled him onto the bare ground.
"Strip him down and bring me his wallet. Don't want to leave any trace of who he was." Prez explained to the new prospects. They removed his shoes and clothes and threw them back into the van. Jess carried Ted's wallet over to Prez.
"Knife, call Booboo." Prez said.
Knife told Jess, "Bring me that big knife he had on his hip."
Jess hurried to bring him the Bowie knife and handed it to Knife.
"Nice blade." He said as he stooped down next to Ted. "Isn't it ironic that the same knife you used to kill Helen's family will be the same one used on you? I just have one question. Why? Why kill her parents and her sister like that? Why cut Helen up like that?"
"I told you. I like hearing women scream and making them bleed. I thought I had killed Helen too but somehow she managed to survive. When I saw her at the mall today, I thought I had a chance to finish the job." Ted coughed up more blood.
"Well, here is how she felt." Knife said as he plunged Ted's big knife low on his stomach and drug the blade across, nearly disemboweling the man. Ted screamed but only for a second before he began to choke on the blood from where his ribs had punctured his lungs.
"It hurts!" Ted said, almost in surprise.
"No shit, asshole." Knife said and then stepped away.
Everyone loaded back into the vehicles and after about 20 minutes, they saw a large black bear at the edge of the clearing but he was maintaining his distance from the vehicles as he lifted his head and sniffed the air. Prez called out for them to back up some more and to turn off their lights to just the running lights. They watched as Booboo approached Ted and after pushing Ted around a bit, began to feed and Ted screamed as the big bear began to consume him.
Prez told Thor. "Let's go home. Digger, come back in the morning and make sure there's nothing left."
"Will do, Prez." Digger responded.
A/N: I'd never leave you hangin' so don't worry, book 5 is done. Keep