The next day found David stuck the entire day in the office where the secretaries worked. He tried concentrating but was continually distracted by the ring of the phone and the voices of the two secretaries. He couldn’t see anyone from where he was sitting as his desk was facing the wall, and to his left was a wall and to the right was a couple of filing cabinets.
One of the secretaries, Ms. Hunt was quite rude to him when he arrived; then again, she was usually rude to any student who entered the office. Even her sagging face had a frown carved in it from years of being miserable. With her glasses at the tip of her nose, it always made the students feel that she was looking down on them even though she stood no more than five feet. Her short brown hair reeked of an overdose of hairspray.
She had worked at the school no less than twenty years. “No wonder she is miserable,” many of the students would joke.
David recalled a time when Dan Acher had In School Suspension. He was known as a school troublemaker, and had I.S.S. for throwing gummy bears out the window trying to hit Mrs. Tabal, a strict but very attractive teacher. While Dan was in I.S.S., Ms. Hunt stepped away from her desk, which gave Dan a chance to put laxatives in her drink. Of course, Dan wasn’t much of an expert on laxatives and ended up putting too much in to the point where she had to have her stomach pumped. He did accomplish his mission. The main thing he wanted was for her not to be there. His intention was not to put her in the hospital, but to keep her on the toilet.
Dan was suspended for nearly a month after that, and never used laxatives on anyone again. Instead he switched to Niacin, a supplement for the circulatory system. He would crush it up and stick it in people’s drinks. After a few minutes, that person would get all hot and itchy and not know what was wrong. He was never given the chance to get Ms. Hunt with this one. Every time that he sat in I.S.S., she knew to take her drink with her whenever she left her desk.
This was David’s first time in I.S.S., which made him a little nervous. He had heard how other students hated it. He even heard stories from Sarah who was there sometimes over small things. Maybe she would speak up to someone who was bullying her, and a teacher would overhear her and send her to the principal’s office. Maybe she would be five minutes late for class because she was searching for a pen in her locker. David was flabbergasted at the kind of things she would get in trouble for. She would use I.S.S. time as a chance to do some of her research, as David hoped to do soon.
He worked on Lauren’s essay all morning. It was a fairly easy essay, yet time consuming. As he worked on it, he felt a degree of lust toward her. He seemed to be aroused by the fact that she was having him do things for her like this. Around noon, both secretaries went off to lunch. This gave him the opportunity he needed. He snuck over to Ms. Hunt’s desk. He was glad that both women where wearing high heal shoes, for he would be able to tell when one of them approached. His only concern was Mr. Wood. He would have to just hope Mr. Wood didn’t suddenly pop in.
He moved the mouse to get a rid of the screen saver and viewed the desktop. He saw a folder titled “school records.” Unfortunately, Ms. Hunt seemed to use a computer from the dinosaur ages, so it took about five minutes for the file to open.
He clicked on a few more things and after doing a search; he found the students’ names and birthdays. It had taken him a total of twenty minutes to bring up the screen. It was too long to write everything down so he decided to hit print. He approximated that the list would be about 10-12 pages.
As the printer started, he heard the footsteps of high heels heading toward the office. There was no time to wait for the printer to finish its job. Just my luck, David thought to himself. He rushed back to sit down. He heard the printer stop as soon as Mrs. Haddock entered the room. Mrs. Haddock was the other secretary who worked in the office. Unlike Ms. Hunt, she was more pleasant and a little air headed at times. She was fairly attractive for her age with her dyed orange colored hair and curvy body.
As she sat down at her desk, David hoped that she would not see the printed sheets of paper. He could no longer concentrate on Lauren’s essay because his mind was distracted.
Ms. Hunt soon returned, and David had no idea how he was going to get those printed sheets. He felt frustration and discouragement well up inside him. As he thought about things, he became angrier that he was stuck here while Luke was let go. Luke was an athlete and if he had I.S.S., he would also be restricted in sports. His father was a pastor at the largest church in town, and he seemed to always get his way. If his son didn’t play in sports games as much as he thought he should, then Luke’s father would pull some strings to get him to play more. David saw his father a few times and didn’t even like the way he held himself with arrogance and pride.
Just then Mr. Wood came in and called the secretaries in for a meeting. Now was his chance. As they closed the door to Mr. Woods’s office, David hopped out of his seat and was halfway to the printer when Mr. Wood’s office door reopened.
“Where do you think you’re going Mister?” Ms. Hunt said with a voice so cold that David could visualize icicles forming on the ceiling above her.
“I just need to use the bathroom.”
“The bathroom is that way. You were not heading toward the bathroom.” She glared at him with accusing eyes.
David wasn’t ready for this; he had to find a quick excuse. He found a gum wrapper in his jeans pocket that might just save him. “I just wanted to throw this away.”
Ms. Hunt bought it, but with an agitated tone she said, “Then throw it away and go to the bathroom.”
David left to go to the bathroom, and soon returned finding that both secretaries were in a meeting with Mr. Wood. He snuck over and seized the papers, as he heard the doorknob of Mr. Wood’s office turn. He dashed for his seat as the door opened and made it just in time.
After he got settled in and listened to make sure neither secretary was about to sneak up on him, he searched for the birthdays of the victims and found them in this order:
Jennifer Anne Alden 1/7
Trudy Marie Calihan 1/22
Eliza Rebekah Grant 2/15
He then noticed that there were other females who have their birthdays in between the birthdays of the murder victims. Traci Black’s birthday was on 1/17, yet she wasn’t murdered.
Out of curiosity, David then checked out the birthdays of the murderers and found a similar pattern as follows:
Jack Alan Dixer 1/1
Michael Kyle Johnson 1/16
Geoff Tom Zimmerman 1/18
David met with Sarah and Jevon after school and told them about his discovery.
“Hmm, that’s weird, it’s almost like they are going in order from the start of the year, yet are skipping people.” Sarah said with confusion in her voice.
Jevon chimed in, “I say we go to an office supply store and get some copies of this, so we can all look for a pattern on our spare time.”
“I agree.” David said with enthusiasm. “Three heads are better than one.”
They all walked to the local office supply center and made copies, and then walked Jevon home. Sarah and David walked together to different parts of the town, just to talk since neither felt like going home. David especially wanted to walk around for a while after being cooped up all day. It was a nice sunny day for once, and it seemed good to get some fresh air. Sarah’s dad was working, so she wasn’t worried about staying out.
“So, Sarah, what bugs me about that list is that Lauren’s birthday is next on the list.”
Yeah, maybe she will be one of the ones skipped.”
“I hope so. It’s confusing, that’s all I have to say.”
“I agree. I will try to figure out more tomorrow, maybe I’ll find a pattern.”
Just then they walked past a man who was sitting out on some steps reading a newspaper. He was in his later years according to his white hair, but only in his thirties according to his facial features with the exception of the neatly trimmed white beard.
He buried himself in the newspaper as Sarah and David walked past. “Man people are getting paranoid,” Sarah said, “to hide behind a newspaper every time someone walks by.”
“Yeah, people will give up their freedoms for security; it goes on everywhere. People are too afraid.”
They walked a few blocks and at one point, for no particular reason, David decided to look back. Strangely, the man reading the newspaper was no longer sitting on the steps. As he noticed that, he caught a glimpse of someone quickly moving into an alley about one block down. Passing it off as nothing he continued to walk and talk with Sarah.
After walking a few more blocks and taking a right, David was feeling a little uncomfortable, so he decided to take another glimpse back. This time he saw a man leaning on a hood of a car reading the newspaper. David remembered walking past that car, and at that time, there was no one there. “Sarah, don’t look now, but I believe someone is following us.”
Sarah didn’t ask any questions and they both quickened their pace and tried to take different streets to make sure he was following.
David turned around again and this time he made eye contact with their pursuer. “Crap, run for it!”
They both took off at full speed, and the man following them did not hesitate to make chase. They ran for two blocks and David now saw three more men chasing them and quickly catching up. David estimated that they would last another four blocks before they would be caught.
After two blocks, David noticed a “moving” vehicle parked at the side of the road with two men who were coming out of it carrying a couch. David and Sarah passed them in the nick of time, as the two men began to carry the couch across the sidewalk.
David stole another look back, and the four men chasing them collided with the two men carrying the couch. They were slowed down, but the four men quickly got on their feet and continued in pursuit, ignoring the cursing shouts from the movers.
David and Sarah rounded another corner and almost ran into a man. The man was dressed in rags and appeared to be homeless, especially with the cup of change he held onto. His face was filthy, and it appeared that he hadn’t taken a shower in months. His hair seemed to have enough grease in it that if someone were to ring it out, there would be enough to fry some eggs. Opening his mouth with his rotted teeth, he spoke, “Quick, into the basement!” He then opened a door leading down to a basement.
Both David and Sarah hesitated. However, David knew there was no choice if he didn’t want to be caught by their pursuers. They entered a basement which reeked of dead mice and rotting food. There was a mattress in one corner with a torn-up blanket, which had been used recently. David guessed that the man slept there. Other than that, the basement appeared to be part of an abandoned apartment.
The man followed them into the basement. “David and Sarah I presume?”
“Yes, how…” Sarah was cut off.
“That’s not important right now.” The man said with a little bit of snarl. “What is important is the Prince of Casavah has decided to cause havoc for your little town.”
“Who?” Sarah and David said in unison.
“Never mind who he is; it’s what he is doing. He has too much protection, and I can’t get to him. I sent for reinforcements but I think they are being restrained. They should have been here by now.” The man acted like he knew what he was talking about, yet David and Sarah were more confused than ever.
David finally asked, “Who are you sir?”
“I am just a messenger, and I tell you that you two need to be extremely careful.”
“We have heard that a million times.” David rolled his eyes.
“I doubt that. They didn’t tell you to ‘be careful,’ they told you not to investigate and try to figure things out…big difference. Plus, I have more. As you know you aren’t exactly dealing with humans here. It is something much worse.”
Just then, the doors to the cellar were pried open, and the four men were at the bottom of the stairs a few seconds later. However, they were not men. Even in their hooded cloaks it could be seen that their skin appeared lizard-like, and they had the face of a reptile. Angry yellow eyes gazed out of their hoods, as their 8-foot figures gazed down at the three of them. David felt himself freeze in fear.
The strange man did not seem afraid. He looked at David and Sarah and said, “Quick, up that stairway to the apartment. Get the hell out of here!”
Out of seemingly nowhere a ten-foot metal staff appeared in the man’s hands, and he approached the strange creatures. He started knocking them around a little, but soon they were able to grab the staff and attacked the man by clawing at him. David thought that there was no chance for this man. He was wrong. The man suddenly threw punches, which knocked the creatures practically off the ground. Next, he swung his staff over his head knocking two of the reptilians off their feet. These blows would have broken human bones, but the reptilians hardly seemed fazed.
David and Sarah made a run for it and exited the apartment on the opposite side from the basement. They ran as fast as they could, not sure where they were going.
After a while, they slowed their pace and began to walk. The sun was going down, and they decided to go to a local restaurant called “Stephano’s.” It would still consume most of David’s allowance to feed the both of them, but they needed to sit down and talk. It was after dinner time, so the place wasn’t as crowded.
After they put in their order, the first thing David said was, “Who the hell is the prince of Casavah?”
“You got me swinging.” Sarah said with bewilderment.
“I have met some strange people in my life, but that guy tops the charts.”
“Even stranger than me?”
“Well, maybe not that strange, but close.” David joked.
“Funny! I don’t know what to think. This is all coming from a homeless guy who sleeps in the basement of an abandoned apartment. Maybe he is messed up in the head.”
“I don’t know about that. He seemed to have some knowledge of what is going on, and, did you see him fight?” David exclaimed with a strong sense of awe.
“Yeah, it was like he was used to fighting those…those things. Yet, they tore up two cops like it was nothing.”
“I know. In some way, I feel relieved. He seems to be on our side, and has prior experience with dealing with those creatures. From now on, I’m going to call them Iguana men. They scared the living crap out of me. I wonder what he meant by sending for reinforcements.”
“Hopefully more beings that can fight the iguana men. Yet it seems like there has been some kind of problem. We need to figure out what we can do in the meantime.
The waitress brought their food. Both were starving and gobbled down their food without further conversation.
David walked Sarah home, and as soon as he returned home he hopped on his computer.
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