Free Candy: Part 7
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Emma had been brought to what looked like an old abandoned office building. Small, weathered, and in the worst part of town. Redding drove the car into an underground parking garage as Kessel smoked another cigarette in the passenger seat.
The car pulled in and parked while the garage doors closed behind it. A few lights in the garage flickered, and weeds had sprouted out from the several cracks that littered the garage floor. Emma got out and followed Redding as he headed to a door that led into the building.
As the door opened, the inside of the building looked much more alive. The hallway was well lit, and bundles of cables ran along the tile floor. There were a few more people in the building, each one nodding at Redding and Kessel as they walked by. Emma got a few wide-eyed looks, but no one said a word to her.
Redding opened another door revealing the main hub of their makeshift headquarters. A few large boards filled up the far wall, each one was covered with news clippings, grainy pictures, and scribbles of frustrated notes. There was another wall that had several CCTV feeds, and a few desks arranged around the center.
Emma stood in the room, rotating around, taking it all in. What had she gotten herself into? There was no going back now, so she continued to look around. Redding had gathered some file folders from a nearby desk and beckoned Emma to the wall near all the video feeds.
"You want to know the whole story?" Redding asked as he fingered through the file folder. Emma crossed her arms and nodded. Redding nodded back, and pulled out a paper from the folder. It was an original picture of the van, standing next to it was a tall and thin man, with long wavy brown hair, a pointed beard, and aviator sunglasses.
"This is where it begins." Redding said. Kessel then shuffled over, reciting the oral history of the van as Redding pulled out documents in sequence.
"So this was the van in its innocence. First owner was a man called Chris Balefield. He would eventually be better known as Dark Lord Gryndkar, High Priest of the Black Willow Brotherhood. Yeah, the cult." Kessel said as Redding produced a new picture. It was Balefield and the van, along with a few shadowy characters in brown hooded cloaks.
"No one knows exactly what happened, but on August 25, 1978, their bodies were found in the woods of northern California. Mutilated and burned, and all in a pile several yards from the ominously unscathed van." Kessel continued.
"Somehow the van ended up being resold. It ended up being registered to a Mr. Greg Peelman of Utah. Mr. Peelman owned the van from '79 to '85, where in that time frame he committed at least sixteen murders. It is believed he used that van to transport the bodies from his secluded cabin to the potter's field in which they were discovered." Kessel continued as Emma listened with intrigued horror.
"Now, why the van wasn't taken as evidence, we will never know. It next turns up two years later, in Nevada. It was bought by a coroner's office, and used to transport bodies from crime scenes until early 1994. It was repossessed by the Reno police department after it was discovered that the coroner that won it was illegally selling body parts and organs on the black market." Emma had covered her mouth in shock as Redding produced photos of the office, including pictures of the van with the word "Coroner" painted on its side.
"Now, for reasons unknown to us, the van was sold at a police auction. No one knows how it got approved for sale, but it was there. It was bought by a man named Reggie Colton. Mr. Colton saw the van as a cheap vehicle perfect for his line of business. Robbery." As Kessel continued on, Redding switched to a different folder and pulled out Colton's police records.
"Colton and his gang headed up to Idaho, committing a few very violent heists before being killed in a shootout near the Idaho-Washington border. The reports state that their van had, well, broken down and they had tried to escape on foot. None of the gang survived." Kessel spoke with a dramatic cadence as he told the grim tale.
"In the last decade the van has found itself between owners. By the time it's been flagged in registration the driver and the van have disappeared. We've only recovered three of the last four owners." Kessel took a deep breath as he reached the end. He then lit another cigarette, took a long drag, and blew it out into the dim lit room.
"The machine is evil incarnate." Kessel said in a somber tone. Redding took over from there.
"Then, it attacked you and your friends. It had last been seen less than one hundred miles from here. We had been scouring the area, looking for any sign of it." Redding said.
"And now it's after me." Emma connected the dots. She took a moment to process it all. It was insane. She never would have believed it. She knew it was true, though. She looked up at Redding, her eyes determined.
"What's the plan?" Emma asked. Redding nodded and then reached in his pocket. He pulled out a pair of keys.
"Let me show you what we’ve got in mind." Redding said. The three left the main room and walked back toward the garage. It was a different part of the garage, with most of the lights either off or just not working.
As they entered the darkness, bright white light suddenly illuminated the area. Emma flinched, and blinked her eyes twice as she tried to adjust. In front of her was an intimidating sight.
A large, black, armored truck stood before her, resembling a sort of heavy assault garbage truck. It had large metal prongs folded up near the cabin, fencing around the window panels, and thick tires. It was quite a spectacle.
"Is this supposed to kill it?" Emma asked, slightly confused.
"Not quite. We want to impale it with these prongs, and get it lifted off the ground. If it can't move, it can't fight back." Redding said proudly.
"Then what? What do you do when you have it?" Emma asked with more urgency. Kessel responded.
"Smash it. Burn it. Melt it. Take anything that remains and store it in a vault two floors up from hell."
Emma nodded, satisfied.
"Here's the thing, though." Kessel said, scratching his head as he spoke.
"We need a way to draw it out."
Don’t want to miss anything on the site? Sign up for our newsletter HERE
Want more original short stories? Just search below:
