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In Plain Sight

Appearances Can Be Deceiving.

By Luther KrossPublished 2 years ago 8 min read
1

"Are you sure this is it?"

Todd sighed. "Positive." He pulled up a note on his phone. "428 Elm Street, right?"

I nodded.

"Then, yeah, Josh, we're in the right place."

"Right," I said, my mouth going dry. I could feel my hands trembling ever so slightly. Despite sitting in Todd's passenger seat, staring out the window at 428 Elm Street's mailbox, I still couldn't believe what we were about to do. Ms. Wickersham was a pillar of our small community. She was the librarian at the elementary school for Heaven's sake.

"Are you chickening out on me, Josh?"

"What?"

"Well, are you?"

"Nah, man! Jeez!"

"'Cause if you are, I'm screwed. I can't do this alone, man."

"I know that," I said.

"Plus, it's your little brother's life on the line, not mine."

"I know," I said, huffing. "It's just-"

"Just what?"

"Are you telling me you don't have a single doubt about what we're about to do?"

Todd rolled his eyes. "Doubt? Nah, man. I ain't got time for that kind of lame crap. We're here. We've got the gear. And she's got what we came for. Simple as that."

"How can you be so sure?" I hissed.

Todd scoffed. "You sounded pretty damn sure when you called me and asked me to ride along for this. What's changed?"

I sighed heavily and slammed my hands down on the dashboard. "It's just-"

"Oh. Oh, wait. I see what this is. You're stuck on that 'frail little old lady' crap, aren't you?" Todd chuckled and rubbed his forehead.

"Well, yeah," I said softly, "I mean-"

"You gotta let that go, Josh. You gotta let that go right now, man. Your brother's counting on you right now, dude. If you don't come through-"

I put my hand up to stop him. "Yeah. I know. He's as good as dead."

"Yup," Todd quipped, nodding firmly. He pulled his pistol from somewhere near his seat, pulled the slide and checked the chamber. "You ready, brother man?"

My heart hammered in my chest as I produced my own pistol and checked it, the same as Todd had just done. I couldn't believe we were about to do this. I was about to break into a little old lady's house and wave a gun in her face. Am I really capable of this? I dropped my thumb onto the pistol's safety lever and flipped it to the off position.

"Let's do it to it."

"My man!" Todd said, shoving his door open and gliding out. We pulled the black ski masks down over our faces. Silently, we eased the car's doors shut, without latching them. Not only would it aid in a speedy getaway, but it ensured that we went undetected for as long as possible. Of course, once we started waving guns around, that would all go to Hell.

"Pst!" Todd hissed, barely audible. He waved his left hand towards the back of the house. We crept under the ledges of her living room and kitchen windows, making our way to the backyard. Unlike all the other houses in the neighborhood, Ms. Wickersham's backyard was enclosed by a privacy fence. The thing was at least six feet tall. I turned toward Todd to ask him just how he intended to get past the fence, when he popped his head around the corner of the fence and gave me a thumbs up.

When I got there I shrugged as if to say, "What gives?" Todd pointed to the gate set in the fence. It was a fancy number. Solid slabs of oak and wrought iron. It even had a keyhole. Not for a modern type of key, though. Looked more like it took a skeleton key. Todd pulled a flathead screwdriver from his pocket and went to work. Within seconds, the gate was open and we were in her backyard. I made a mental note to ask Todd how he knew about the lock…and when did he learn to pick such a thing?

Once we were in the yard, it was darker and much harder to see. The lights in the back of her house were all turned out and the fence blocked a decent portion of the streetlights. Todd, still in the lead, was the first to Ms. Wickersham's back door. He put his fingers gently on the knob and turned his hand, ever so slightly. To my shock, the knob turned. It wasn't even locked.

We crept through her kitchen, which opened on both sides into the living room. Using the layout to our advantage, we popped around the corners of the doorways simultaneously in a pincer maneuver. We had her surrounded, essentially.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly. "Well, would you look at that? Little Todd Harrington and Joshua Connelly. How have you boys been? How many years has it been now? Oh, my gosh. Why the last time I saw you boys, you were no bigger than-"

"Shut up, you old hag," Todd rasped in a voice, much different from his own.

"Come now, Todd," she said, "is all that really necessary?"

"Where are they?" Todd growled.

"Where are what, dear? You'll have to be more specific. Old age and all that."

"You know why we're here," I growled in my own imitation of the BatDad.

Todd pulled back the hammer on his pistol and drew a bead for the center of her forehead. A surefire kill shot. "I'm not playing with you, grandma. Tell us where you're hiding them, and we won't kill you."

She scoffed. "Now, do you really expect me to believe that, Todd?"

I cocked my own weapon and raised it, aiming straight for her black heart. "You know, she's right," I said. "Not a chance in Hell she's leaving here al-"

The old woman leapt from her chair like a lion with its claws ready to strike. She sunk her gnarled, bony fingers into the flesh of Todd's shoulders. He screamed and accidentally fired off a round that disappeared somewhere into the living room floor.

In a panic, I drew a bead on the old lady's back and sunk a shot right between her shoulder blades. She snarled and turned towards me. Her jaw had come unhinged and now hung nearly to her chest. Her long tongue snaked from her mouth, wagging as she hissed at me. She turned back to Todd, pulled her right fingers free of his shoulder and plunged them into his abdomen, just under his rib cage. She thrust her arm up into his guts and fished around for a moment, before pulling his beating heart free of his body.

She crushed the organ in her fist and tossed it to the side, but as Todd fell to the floor, he used his last bit of life to get off one final shot. Turns out, it would be his bullet resting in the old hag's heart, and not mine. But, it's a fair trade. He gave his life to take hers, and save others.

The old woman screeched and wailed, flailing about, knocking over her own knick knacks and furniture. I could see her skin withering and sloughing off of her body as she succumbed to the fatal wound. She died ugly. Todd did too.

As the old hag released her final breath in the form of a hideous death rattle, the ensuing silence left my ears ringing for a moment. But, they sorted themselves out in short order and I realized that I could hear something. It sounded like…crying. It was faint, but it sounded close. I stepped over the old woman's gooey, smoldering remains and made my way to the staircase just past the living room. At the back of the staircase, there was a door. This one had a padlock on it. Interesting, I thought, considering the lack of security anywhere else in the house.

Carefully, I crept up and placed my ear on the door. The sobbing was definitely coming from beyond it. "Hello!" I called, pounding on the door. "Hello!"

"Oh, God! Someone's here!" I heard a child call from beyond that door.

"We're down here! Please, help us!" another cried.

I lifted the hefty padlock in my hand, and looked from it to the pistol in my other hand. Nah. No way, I thought, dropping the lock and turning back towards the living room.

It didn't take me long to find the old woman's hanging collection of keys, and it was easy to pair the keys with the lock, seeing as they were both clearly labeled with the same brand name. Go figure.

By the time I got the lock open, the kids downstairs were shouting and cheering. Some of them were crying, but I wasn't certain they were all tears of joy.

I found Todd's stray bullet. It had come through the floor, just like I'd thought, and found its way into my brother's skull. Brian was dead, and Todd had killed him.

Truthfully, I don't blame Todd for Brian's death. It was out of his control. He hadn't intended for anyone to die, but the old hag. Besides that, he was a hero. He'd saved all of these kids from becoming lunchmeat.

Lucky for me, the keyring with the padlock keys also had a few others. I set about freeing the other children, releasing them from their shackles. They thanked me. Some of them said they were sorry for Brian. I reassured them it wasn't their fault. It was an accident.

Then, I set about the task of releasing my brother's body. I shed many tears as I gently laid him on the cellar floor. I said goodbye and told him that I loved him. In the distance, I heard the approaching sirens, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was finally over.

fiction
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About the Creator

Luther Kross

I am not merely an author. I am a conduit to the many worlds beyond this one. Step into the darkness, if you dare. Welcome to my little house of horrors. Here, you will find many a dark tale in just about every variety you can imagine.

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