The Pear Tree

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. Jenny Saxton stared blankly out the window towards the lonely pear tree sitting at the far corner of the back yard. It was a gloomy day as usual, the rain would set in soon and she was alone and sad. She was always sad in this place, she hated it here with every fiber of her being and longed for home.

Jenny had tried to escape the house that she was now a captive in many times, and even though the house was a literal fortress, she had nearly succeeded on one occasion..... but then the bad man in the red hat had caught her just as freedom was in her grasp, and had dragged her back down into the darkness of that dreaded basement.....where he had hurt her once more.

Now.... Jenny just kept to herself and did her best to stay out of the bad mans way. It was almost like he had forgotten all about her, and as long as she did not try to escape.... he did not hurt her anymore.

After all..... he was now bringing new girls to the house to keep in his hidden torture room in the basement. Jenny never saw the other girls, but she could hear their screams and feel their suffering, drifting up through the darkness of the basement. The bad man would keep the girls in his little torture room for several weeks, hurting them nightly, and then they would just disappear. Jenny never knew where the other girls went or what became of them, but at least they weren't trapped in this house like she was or being hurt anymore.

Just then, she heard a car door shut and knew he was back. Jenny ran into the kitchen and hid under the table, her usual hiding spot. The table cloth reached nearly to the floor, so she couldn't be seen. She waited and listened. The front door opened and she heard two sets of footsteps hurriedly walk into the house. No one ever just came to visit, so she knew it had to be another girl. The footsteps stopped at the kitchen counter.

"Stand there" she heard the bad man say in his harsh ugly voice. She then heard him walk around the table to the refrigerator, no doubt getting the six pack of beer that was there waiting, which was his custom.

Jenny quickly leaned forward and slightly poked her head out from under the table cloth, hoping to get a look at the new girl. What she saw both surprised and shocked her a little at the same time. There was a girl alright....her hands were tied behind her back and there was duct tape stretched across her mouth. This.... Jenny expected to see.

What surprised her was that although the girl was a good deal older than herself, the two of them looked nearly identical to each other. The new girl could have easily been her big sister, except Jenny did not have any sisters.

What shocked her was that the new girl saw her as well, and was looking at her with scared pleading eyes. Jenny quickly ducked back under the table. What if the new girl told the bad man that she had seen her?? He would no doubt come looking for her. Jenny Saxton held her breath and just sat there on the cold linoleum floor shivering, trying not to make any noise.

Frank Beard was not in a very good mood... The air conditioner in his box van had just went on the fritz, and he still had over two hundred miles of hot Southern California highway to cover. Frank worked as a sales rep for a large janitorial company. His job required a lot of daily traveling and giving sales presentations for new products his company would be coming out with. For the most part, Frank loved his job. He was good at it, and had been the top sales rep at M&P Janitorial company for the last three years running. The pay was great, there was a retirement plan and the benefits and insurance were outstanding.

The job also allowed Frank to travel all over Southern California, which was a huge perk as far as he was concerned. He was a serial killer after all, and he was good at that as well. His job not only provided excellent cover for his extracurricular activities, but paid for them too. It really was a great job.

Frank liked girls..... girls with tanned skin, blue eyes, and long blond hair with bangs that were cut neatly just above their eyebrows. He was not particularly happy with the girl he had kidnapped just yesterday though. At seventeen.... she was a little older than he usually liked. However the dingy little bitch had actually been hitchhiking.... an easy mark he had not been able to resist.

Frank liked to hear the girls scream and see the terror in their eyes as he violated them, it's what turned him on. The new girl had just lay there letting him have his way with her, saying nothing and showing no emotion what so ever. She reminded him of his dead whore wife.

Frank Beard had remodeled his basement three years ago and had built a secret little room behind a fake bookshelf. He had firmly told his wife to stay out of the basement, he was turning it into a mancave, and he did not want her down there messing with things. In return, he had put in an inground pool in the back yard just for her. It was a fair trade off.

Then, not two damn days after he had abducted his first little girl, he had come home, walked into the kitchen to find his cunt wife and the little girl coming out of the basement door.

Shear anger had washed over him and he had simply reacted before thinking about it. Frank had grabbed a wine bottle off the kitchen counter and broke it over the little girls head. She immediately crumpled to the floor and just lay there, half way underneath the table, bleeding profusely from the head and twitching. He had then dragged his screaming wife out the back door by the hair of her head, and then proceeded to smash her face into the edge of their new inground pool. Then he had drowned her like the little filthy rat that she was.

The thought of his wife's final moments, flailing helplessly in the pool as her life just slowly slipped away made Frank feel better, cheered him right up. He decided to turn around and take the box van back to the shop. The company mechanics could get the air fixed and he would just take the rest of the day off. He stopped and made a U-turn right there in the middle of the road. Frank pulled his red M&P hat down firmly over his brow, and pushed the petal to the metal.

Jenny heard the new girl start to call to her from the basement almost as soon as the bad man had left for work. She really wanted to help the girl, but she did not want to go down into that basement.

"Little girl can you hear me, can you help me please... please? I know you're there... please" The new girl pleaded repeatedly.

Finally.... Jenny found her self standing at the top of the basement stairs, staring down into an abyss of darkness. She summoned all the courage she had left in her tiny little body, and then reached over on the side of the wall and flicked the light switch on. Slowly she started down the shiny hardwood steps.

There was a long hallway with berber carpeting at the bottom of the steps. Several darkened rooms aligned the hallway.... Jenny knew which one to go to. She suddenly felt sure that all the other girls had not disappeared at all, they were all down here somewhere in the darkness, watching her. She made her feet move forward.

Jenny found her way to the last door on the right and turned on the light as she stepped into the room. It was a large, nice looking room. There was an expensive pool table in the middle of the floor, and a small bar with a large flat screen tv hanging above it on the front wall. None of it had ever been used, these things were strictly for show and nothing more.

Jenny made her way to the back of the room where the large bookshelf stood, like every thing else in the room, it too was just for show. The bookshelf had hinges on one end and when she pushed the button in the back of the shelf, there was a clicking of the latch, and then she was able to swing the whole bookshelf open like a giant door. Behind the bookshelf was the actual door that led to the bad mans torture room. Jenny knocked lightly on the door; "Hello, can you here me?"

Jessica Cole sat on the edge of the little bed with nothing on but her panties and a large logging chain that was pad locked around her neck. She was cold, and her face was badly bruised and swollen from the beating the asshole that had abducted her, had given her the night before. He had wanted her to cry out and beg him, but Jessica had no intention of giving the son of a bitch that kind of satisfaction.

It was a small ten by ten room that she was locked in, with a black light that caused every thing to look blue. Other than the bed, the only other thing in the little blue room was a toilet in the corner. The logging chain allowed her to reach the toilet, but stopped short of reaching the door. Jessica had made up her mind already, when the rapist bastard came for her again, she was going to do everything in her power to crack his skull open with the top of that toilet. She could not believe she had been stupid enough to allow her self to have been put this position, but here she was. Suddenly she heard a knock at the door and a small voice say "Hello."

Jessica sat up straight on the bed, she had begun to think that she had only imagined seeing the little girl under the table in the kitchen, but she had been real, and now she was on the other side of the door.

"I'm here, I'm here" Jessica cried out. "Can you open the door??"

Jenny stood back from the door and then stepped forward again; "No, there is a pad lock on the door" she answered.

Jessica nearly panicked, but then gathered her sense's." What is your name??" she asked calmly.

"My name is Jenny..... Jenny Saxton" the girl quickly answered from the other side of the door.

"Do you live here Jenny, is that man your Daddy???"

"No.... he is a bad man, and he hurt me.... I have been trapped here for a long time, and I just want to go home." Jenny said, nearly crying now.

Jessica thought for a moment, " I want to go home too Jenny, if you can help me get out of this room, we can leave this house together... I can help you get home."

Jenny was suddenly filled with a hope she had not felt in a very long time. "I know where he keeps the spare key to the door, it is in a drawer in his bedroom." she said. " You promise you will take me with you if I help you get out??"

"Yes, I promise Jenny, go get the key, go now!!" Jessica cried out.

Jenny turned around and ran out of the room. Some how she just knew this was her best and probably only chance to finally escape the bad mans house, and she did not plan on wasting it.

Just as Jenny Saxton was starting her way down the steps into the basement, Frank Beard was leaving his work shop after dropping the box van off to be fixed. Frank was no longer in a bad mood what so ever, hell he was almost straight up giddy, as he started the twenty minute ride to his house. He could not wait to get home, he was going to take a butcher knife down into that basement with him when he got there. That little bitch was going to show him her terror, one way or another.

Jessica had sat waiting and praying on the little bed for what seemed like a life time. Finally, she heard something bang lightly against the other side of the door, then there was an ever so soft click sound, and then the door was open. There stood her hero, little Jenny Saxton.

"Sorry I took so long, I had to drag one those heavy bar stools over to the door so I could reach the pad lock." Jenny Said

Jessica looked thoughtfully at the little girl for just a moment, it really was uncanny how much they looked alike, but now was not the time to dwell on such matters. "It's okay Jenny, hurry and bring me that key ring, and lets hope to God the key to this padlock on my neck is on there too"

Jenny did as she was told and a moment later Jessica Cole was free. Her clothes were laying crumpled up in the corner beside the door, she grabbed them and quickly dressed herself. Then she grabbed Jenny's hand: "Let's get the hell out of here"

Frank opened his front door and automatically heard someone running up the hardwood steps coming out of the basement. He left the door standing half way open and quickly stepped into the kitchen just as Jessica and Jenny burst through the basement door. Jenny saw the bad man first.... she screamed and snatched her hand from Jessica's grasp and then dove head first underneath the kitchen table.

Frank was laser focused on Jessica. He moved quickly towards her, his hand drawn back over his shoulder as if he intended to back hand her. "Where the fuck do you think your going?" he cried out in a crazed voice, eyes bulging .

Jessica waited patiently for the asshole to get close, then she brought her foot up as hard as she possible could into his crotch. She felt a sense of instant satisfaction as the man fell to his knees clutching his scrotum. She bolted around him, but he grabbed her ankle and tripped her before she could fully escape his grasp. Jessica fell to the kitchen floor hard, smashing her nose against the linoleum floor. There was a loud ringing in her ears and she could feel warm fresh blood pouring down her mouth.

She looked over her shoulder and saw her abductor slowly getting to his feet.... quickly she got to her knees and then reached up and grabbed the kitchen counter and pulled herself up off the floor. There was a plastic dish drainer rack on the counter beside her with a butcher knife in it. With lighting speed she grabbed the knife as her tormenter closed in on her. Jessica did not hesitate for even a second.... she lunged forward with the knife and buried it deep in the mans stomach.

Frank stumbled backwards towards the basement door, staring in disbelief at the knife handle now protruding from his mid section. He reached down and grabbed the handle.... and slowly pulled it out of his belly. He then held it up towards Jessica, his own blood dripping from the blade. "I'm Gonna Cut Your Fucking Face Off Bitch!!!!" he snarled.

Just then.... Frank felt someone forcefully grab him by his collar. Suddenly the strong smell of chlorine invaded his nostrils. He looked back over his shoulder to see his dead wife standing there, dripping wet. She was smiling.... a big toothy grin. "I've missed you Frank." the wife thing gurgled.

Frank Beard tried to scream as he was being dragged down into the dark basement, where others were waiting patiently for their chance with him too..... but the scream just came out as a bubbling choking noise.

Jessica just stood there for a moment, her brain trying to comprehend what it was she had just witnessed. After a moment.... she is able to snap herself out of it, quickly looking around for Jenny. The girl is no where to be seen. She looks underneath the table....no one is there. She frantically calls out, but Jenny is no where in sight.

Jessica's mind could simply take no more, she had to get out of that house. She walked to the half way opened front door, stepped outside.... and just ran.

Detective Branson stepped out into the back yard of the Beard house and nearly gagged. The smell of death was strong out here. He walked over to his partner.... Detective Johnson who was coordinating the dig. " How many we got so far Brady?" he asked.

"Eight.... so far" was the answer.

" We found three in a dirt crawl space in the basement, four more along the fence line. Two of the girls along the fence are pretty fresh, we have already positively identified one of them as Misty Breedlove, the girl that disappeared from Deerbern two months ago. Ground sonar just found the bones of a young child under the pear tree as well, probably one of his early victims."

Detective Branson nodded and rubbed his neck. " Where was the perp located?" he asked, looking over at the pool.

"He was down in the basement, the Cole girl did a number on him with that butcher knife".....

Detective Branson just nodded again. Good..... he thought.

Jenny Saxton stood watching through the window in the bad mans room as the policemen dug her bones up from underneath the pear tree. For the the first time in a very long time, she had a smile on her face and she was no longer sad. Finally....she could go home.