《The Man behind the Mask》


 Chapter 1

    Spokane WA 1976


    Granite Elementary School


    It was chilly after school let out when Janey and Billy missed their bus home. Janey blamed Billy because of his weak bladder. But it wasn¡¯t his fault. He had filled up on water to ignore how hungry he was. They both hadn¡¯t eaten since dinner the night before.


    Their mom had to work two jobs after dad left them. But it didn¡¯t help as much as when their dad was still with them. He may have been an absent father but he brought home the bacon. Their mom missed him and Janey heard her crying late at night.


    With dad gone it only affected how often they saw their mom, or had food in the house. Other than that it didn¡¯t really affect the two siblings that he was gone. Their memories of him was that he was always somewhere else. Out of town doing construction for work or at the bar when he was home. It only bothered them that their mom was always busy and tired.


    Walking home would have been an option before, when they lived two blocks away from school. Then they moved to the Marlboro apartments to save money. If Janey was alone she might have walked it but not with Billy. It was just too far. And there were those kids who had gone missing from her school. The police said they were runaways but Janey didn¡¯t think so. The last kid that went missing was Billy¡¯s age. Kids that young still needed their hands held to cross the street.


    Janey watched her brother stomp circles into the snow before she grew tired of it, ¡°Come on we''re going to the office to call mom,¡± she said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t wanna,¡± Billy said as he stopped his pacing.


    Snow began to fall around the siblings as they had their stare off. Both had their arms crossed over their chests. Each one trying to keep warm. Their breath wispy plumes that they sometimes pretended were cigarette smoke..


    Janey stared daggers at her little brother trying to get him to listen to her. Billy stood there staring back at his sister. A smug look on his face knowing that she wasn¡¯t strong enough to make him. She hated that smug look. It made Billy look as pigheaded as their dad when he stumbled home drunk. She hated that. But learned how to deal with it from watching her mom.


    ¡°They might have candy canes,¡± she said, holding back her own smug smile.


    Billy always had a sweet tooth and Janey knew it. She had caught his sneaking frosting from her birthday cake last month. His candy from Halloween barely lasted three days after trick or treating. He was a certifiable fiend for candy and she used that knowledge to get her way.


    Billy¡¯s smug look slackened as his shoulders relaxed while thinking of the sweet minty goodness candy canes offered. But this was school. Why would they give kids candy canes if they wouldn¡¯t feed kids who ¡°forgot¡± their lunches.


    ¡°How do you know they have candy,¡± Billy said. His smug grin returned. He knew his sister still had candy left from Halloween. Its been over a month and his sister was still hoarding candy like Scrooge McDuck. He thought about sneaking some occasionally but she counted every piece before bed. Janey would only eat a single piece before hiding it back away.


    Squinting her eyes Janey thought on that, ¡°If they don¡¯t I will give you a piece of MY candy,¡± she said drawing out the word my.


    ¡°I choose then,¡± Billy said mimicking the way his sister spoke.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Janey thought about the candy she had left. Most of it was hard candy old people liked to give. She had few pieces she really liked but those were hidden in a different stash Billy didn¡¯t know about.


    ¡°Okay,¡± she said, trying to seem annoyed at letting him choose.


    Billy beamed with pride thinking he one upped his sister. She mimicked her mother and kept her arms crossed, her face stoic, and let Billy think he won. She let him gloat a little. When he started doing his annoying happy dance she put a kibosh on it. Grabbing him by his arm, the frog marched him up to the school door.


    The front doors were locked. That didn¡¯t stop Billy from getting in. He started by shaking them hard enough that the chain holding them shut jingled like the chains of a ghost.


    ¡°They¡¯re locked, dummy,¡± Janey said.


    Billy didn¡¯t let up. He was working himself up into a mini meltdown. Kicking the door, shaking it, and pulling on it until he was panting.


    ¡°It''s OK Billy. You can have some of my candy when we get home,¡± she said, placing her hand on his shoulder.


    Breathing hard, Billy took a shuddering breath. Trying to hide that he was on the verge of tears he wiped his face and turned to his sister.


    ¡°I really need to use the bathroom,¡± he said, his cheeks the color of apples.


    Janey thought he was lying, ¡°let''s go around the building to see if a side door is open.¡±


    ¡°Ok,¡± he said as he sheepishly reached out for his sister''s hand.


    Grabbing it she led Billy down the stairs and around the building. They didn¡¯t speak as they walked. Holding hands was enough. Each door she checked was locked and chained on the inside. The lights were off in all the rooms they passed.


    At the back of the building their noses crinkled from the dumpsters. They smelled sickly sweet and fetid. Flies swarmed while it snowed, the rotting garbage creating its own heat. Passing the dumpsters they found a door propped open with an old coffee can. The smell of baking cookies and warm spices wafted from the door. Janey pulled the door open a little further to peak in. Billy didn¡¯t wait and barged in.


    ¡°HELLO,¡± he screamed in the dark hallway.


    ¡°Don¡¯t yell,¡± Janey said as she followed Billy.


    The door behind them slammed shut making them both jump. Spinning around Janey went to open the door. The door knob wouldn¡¯t turn no matter how much she wrenched on it.


    ¡°Give me a hand,¡± she said.


    No one answered. Spinning around Billy was gone. She didn¡¯t hear him walk or run away. He was there and then gone. Mom was going to kill her if she lost her brother.


    She went into the darkness that smelled of cookies and spices in search of her brother.


    Spokane WA 2022


    Granite Elementary School


    ¡°Billy crawled out of the front doors of the school. His stomach distended, his hands covered in chocolate and blood, his mouth riddled with cavities. They said he was crying for his sister.¡± JJ said.


    ¡°Then who found him?¡± Sam asked.


    ¡°The janitor did after he unlocked the doors,¡± JJ said, his tail swishing back and forth. ¡°They had to call an ambulance and rush him to the hospital. He fell into a sugar coma shortly after crawling out of the school.¡±


    ¡°Sugar comas are real?¡± Sam said as he rubbed his freshly shaved head. His calloused hands searched for any spots he missed.


    ¡°Yeah but it''s usually only for diabetes. This kid didn¡¯t have diabetes before he went missing,¡± JJ said as he watched kids begin to file out of the school. The bell still ringing as they rushed to their parents'' cars in a mad race to get home. The ones moseying around had their noses buried in their phones.


    ¡°That¡¯s crazy,¡± Sam said. ¡°How much candy did he eat?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s where it gets weird,¡± JJ said. ¡°He had zero food in his stomach during the autopsy, but he was severely dehydrated. Combine that with the janitor¡¯s report about him being covered in chocolate, well you know my guess.¡±


    ¡°Sugar coma,¡± they both said in unison.


    ¡°And you think it''s happening again?¡± Sam asked, his finger tapping the steering wheel of his truck.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know but Miss Theo thinks so,¡± JJ said.


    ¡°Lets go talk to their mom before we go barging in there,¡± Sam said as he started his truck.

 Chapter 2 part 1

    Before receiving his brother¡¯s journals on magic Sam googled everything. Don¡¯t know where a restaurant is? Google it. How do you fix a leaky faucet? Google it. Need someone¡¯s address? Google it and maybe you will find it. Magic made it easier in some ways.


    Searching for someone was easy with the use of magic. Take something they owned, attach it to a compass, say some magic words and presto blamo you have a tracking spell. Without an item they owned you had to use something else. Something that was meant to help find people.


    Referencing his brother¡¯s journal he thought about what he could use. Magic 8 balls were a no but a potential for divining answers. Bloodhounds were a no, would kill the dogs and still needed something with a smell. Google was a no, because you needed a physical object to cast the spell. After seeing an old phone booth at a gas station Sam had an idea.


    Phonebooks.


    The most useless item for today could be the phonebook. Sam couldn¡¯t remember the last time he even saw one. They just weren¡¯t used anymore. But getting one was surprisingly easy. Libraries still had them and just handed them out. Ignoring the weird stares Sam took as many as he could carry with him. His back hunched as he struggled with carrying them. You never knew when you would need a tracking spell.


    The spell transfers all the stored energy in the batteries into the phonebook, igniting it. As it burned the ash would be caught in a whirlwind of magic contained in the circle of salt. While chanting the person he was searching for name he would break the circle, having the ash be pulled toward the person they were looking for. Do it three times in different locations and you can triangulate a location.


    And that is how Sam and JJ  found themselves in a forgotten part of Spokane¡¯s graveyard, near dark, standing in front of a simple tombstone engraved with the words ¡°RIP Linda Conley 1948-2012 Doting mother of Jane and William Conley Now returned to her beloved children.¡± On either side of her tombstones were two smaller tombstones each emblazoned with her children¡¯s name. Billy¡¯s had his birthdate next to the year he passed. Janey¡¯s just had her birthdate.


    With his hands shoved deep in his coat pockets he breathed slowly  as his hazel eyes glazed over. His thoughts a million miles away contemplating the choices he made in life that lead him here.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The loss of his parents at an age where he was too young to ask questions. When he was old enough to ask those questions, nobody remembered or knew what happened. His brother, Daniel, might have known what happened to their parents. If he did, he never told anyone, or wrote it down. JJ for all his knowledge and insight even claimed ignorance about the subject. Sam had so many questions about his past and no one to ask.


    After months of combing through his brother¡¯s journal on magic and the occult he stumbled upon an idea. An item that would let him conjure up his dead brother and force him to answer all of his questions. A working Ouija board.


    The perfect tool to pierce the veil between the living and the dead. Not to entertain pretteens at slumber parties wanting to know if Johnny has a crush on Sally. Sadly this plan never came to fruition. Daniel was cremated, his ties to this world severed with fire. And without his body, Sam had no conduit to his brother¡¯s spirit.


    With the notes he made from his first attempt at conjuring up the dead and JJ¡¯s help they were ready for another attempt. A class C felony, a trip to a psych ward if he is unlucky enough to be caught and a whole lot of bad juju.


    With JJ as a lookout, Sam began to dig through the rick loamy earth. Worms, earwigs, and all sorts of creepy crawlies scurried out the dirt he dug up. Soil piled up around the grave the deeper he dug.


    His arms burned like fire as he dug as fast as possible. Each shovel-full became heavier as he struggled to throw it out of the pit. Blisters formed on the parts of his hands not accustomed to hard labor. The tip of his shovel finally thunking dully against the coffin.


    Reaching out of the pit, Sam grabbed his bag holding the tools he needed to commune with the dead. Grabbing a small hand broom from the bag, he gingerly began to clean the dirt off of the coffin until he had a spot large enough for himself and his tools.


    Reaching back into his bag he grabbed a battered speak and spell toy, placing it in front of himself. Sam marveled at his own genius for a second as he looked at the toy. Instead of using an alphabet to slowly spell out answers the spirit gave, the toy would let the spirit speak to him.


    With the hardest parts of the spell done, he climbed out of the grave and surrounded it with a line of salt. Then he placed 12 AA batteries along the salt line, each smeared with a drop of his blood, linking them to him. In the hand he cut he held the 13th battery, his blood making it sticky as he closed his eyes and began to speak his magic words.


    ¡°Bloody Linda.¡±


    ¡°BLOODY LINDA.¡±


    ¡°BLOODY LINDA!¡±