(This is the final part, here are parts 1 and 2.)
I crawled forward, pushing the door closed and listened for a moment as I heard Alex tell Maggie that he was going to round up the kids from outside with Ken and Laura. I sprinted up the stairs once I was absolutely certain they were outside, slammed the door behind me and turned the corner to find Maggie rocking Isabelle’s carrier again.
“We need to get the fuck out of here,” I whispered. Maggie tilted her head, puzzled, but caught on to my serious tone and bundled Isabelle up, strapping her in to her carrier. We swiftly walked outside and I nervously called out to Theo, tears still rolling down my cheeks. Theo ran up and I told him to say goodbye, that we had to leave. He protested a little, but pouted and said his farewells as I rushed him to the car. Maggie was close behind with Isabelle, apologized and mentioned that I was upset about my ex-wife as she walked past them, then strapped the carrier in and got into her own seat. “You have something to explain when we get home,” she said worriedly. I nodded, threw the car in drive and sped off the farmhouse property onto the road, rushing home.
I had placed Isabelle in her crib and asked Theo to watch over her while I talked with Mrs. Anderson, and he obliged begrudgingly, noting that he just missed Stella. I watched him walk to Isabelle’s bedroom and turned to Maggie, pulling her by her wrist to the far corner of the living room. “I know where Greg is.” I leveled with her. She looked at me in shock, waiting for me to release more details. “In the same place as Mary,” I added. Her concern shifted to anger as she pushed me back, wagging a finger in my face, “you’re insinuatin’ our spouses slept together?!”
“Shh!” I put my index finger to my lips, then pointed to Isabelle’s room, “No. Hear me out. I didn’t go to the restroom at Ken and Laura’s. I went into the basement. There’s a butchery down there–”
“Yeah, where I get my meat like the rest of the town, and?” she crossed her arms, squinting at me.
“And a walk-in freezer. I opened it and saw Greg and Mary. He had a tattoo of your name on his upper arm, Mary had her scar from when she was attacked by dogs a few years ago.” I placed my hands on Maggie’s shoulders, desperately trying–and failing–to hold back tears, “Maggie. They didn’t leave us. They had reasons to, but they didn’t actually leave us. I don’t know why they chose Greg and Mary, but they’re dead.” I sobbed, falling to my knees, gripping her hands. I could hear Maggie’s breathing become shaky, and she, too, fell to her knees embracing me.
We shared a tender moment together until Maggie’s phone rang, “Shit, it’s my ma. I need to pick up Gracie,” she looked at me with empathy as I continued to sob. “Mary…Mary…” were the only words I could mutter. I heard her call her mother back, explaining through tears that Gracie would need to stay a little longer. When she came back, I had finally calmed down enough to stop crying. “I’m not sure if they know that I went into the freezer.” I finally added.
“What are we going to do?” she asked rhetorically. “We can’t tell the cops, if they had any suspicion you saw the bodies, they will move them undoubtedly. And if they suspect you know, we’re next to be offed.” Both of our eyes darted to Isabelle’s room as the door creaked open.
“Dad? Isabelle is asleep,” Theodore whispered, “can I go play games?” I nodded and watched as Theo slowly closed the door and quietly entered his room, closing his door behind him. I looked back to Maggie, pleading for her help.
“I don’t know what we can do,” she admitted, “but we need rest. We can take shifts sleepin’, then I’ll gather up everythin’ I can, and you do the same, and we can stay at a hotel or somethin’.” I nodded, feeling dread wash over my body as I realized that the sun had set far behind the mountains and the night was swallowing the day. “I’ll watch first, we’ll switch off every three hours so that way you can sleep the most,” realistically, I wanted to be awake in case the figure returned.
I kept watch in Isabelle’s room, but everyone slept in the living room again. This time I had my gun in my hand, ready. I heard the wind rustle the grass outside, eventually being able to decipher between wild animals and wind. I periodically glanced outside, the light from the full moon helped illuminate the field surrounding my house. I would quietly walk between Isabelle’s room to my old bedroom, looking out into the dim grasslands. Then I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Maggie, who waved silently at me. It had already been three hours, though I’m not sure how much she actually slept.
I nodded and handed her my gun, entrusting this near-stranger with my life, as well as my children’s lives. I went to lay beside Theo, kissed his head and closed my eyes and rested in a twilight area between sleep and wake.
I feel a cold tap on my shoulder and jolt forward, hyperventilating. Maggie is crouched beside me, “nothin’,” she whispers. I stand, rubbing my stiff neck after sleeping on the lumpy couch. She hands me my gun back, “I ain’t gonna sleep on this last shift,” she gathers some diapers and clothing for Isabelle, then grabs clothing for Theo, setting everything on the table. She finds some luggage in my hallway closet and begins packing. I nod, thankful for her assistance, and head out to Isabelle’s room to take a quick peek. Nothing unusual arises, so I silently approach my bedroom and freeze. I rub my right eye from blurred sleep-vision and step back. I watch my curtains wave in the breeze and realize my window is open. I try to cry out for Maggie, but my throat bubbles, and a dark figure around the door swiftly leaps forward, swinging and clocking me in the leg. I shout, holding my leg in pain, “Maggie!”
The tall figure stands before me, broad and strong. I see the ever so faint glimmer in his right hand–a knife. I hold my leg, now in agony, as I feel a warm and wet sensation engulf my pant leg and hands. Maggie sprinted in, noticing the tall man standing before me. As I adjust my eyes, I realized the person that was arched over me is Ken, barely fitting through my bedroom’s door frame. Gritting my teeth, I begin to dig my elbows into the carpet, trying to reverse crawl away from him. I faintly heard Isabelle and Theo’s screams outside, but the screams began to fade.
“Benjamin,” he grumbles, slamming his knife down into my thigh. I scream, hoping my kids and Maggie are gone. This is it, I wailed through a clenched jaw as I think to myself, my kids are now orphans. Maggie will lose the only other person who could ever fully understand her. I will never watch any of them live on ever again. Ken stomps my chest down, “I been watchin’ you almost every night. You were the perfect candidate, your body is the perfect amount of leanness. Your muscles ain’t overworked, but ya ain’t fat by any means. Alex scoped you out since you moved in.” His boot moved up to my neck, “Usually, we like to take them live. Laura may very well have t’settle.”
His boot squeezed against my windpipe, choking the air out of me, “And then Mary decided t’leave. She was much easier to catch. She was small, and weak. She ain’t got a lotta meat on her, that one there.” He pushed down harder. I tried to wrap my hands around his ankle to push him off, but it was no use–he was too heavy and strong. “Turns out, she ain’t taste very good. So, we went after good ol’ Greg next. Alex helped me take that one down this week,” Ken warned, leaning down to look into my eyes, “that wasn’t deer for dinner.” He smirked, pulling his knife from my thigh. I tried letting out a wail of pain, but it only came out as a soulless exhale. Every sharp ridge and sliver of metal tore away at my skin as it was slowly wrenched from my thigh muscles. As the room began to grow darker, I heard the loudest noise that I had ever heard. My ears rang, my eyes crossed, all of a sudden there was a great pressure on my entire body.
Someone was shouting, but I couldn’t make out the voice. Theo? Did he see this? I inhaled painfully, gasping for air, trembling in shock. I heard the shout again, then felt the great pressure roll off my body. “Ben? Ben! Answer me dammit!” I finally could make out the voice, it was Maggie. I looked up and noticed her shaking my shoulders, a rifle on the floor beside her. I was in pain, but joy washed over me as I met her eyes. “Ben! Thank heavens, the kids are at my house, locked up, I got security alarms. Came back with the rifle, couldn’t find the pistol,” she shoved Ken’s lifeless body to the side, then wrapped a blanket around my leg. “We’re gonna go to the hospital, I already called the sheriff.” I nodded, her voice was the second most beautiful thing I heard since my brush with death. Later, I would learn Theo’s voice was the most beautiful to hear.
“Could have warned me first,” I chuckled, hissing through my teeth.
She wiped her tears, smiling down at me, “funner this way.”
Soon after the incident I had to take physical therapy to walk again, I enrolled Theo and myself in therapy–in fact, my therapist is the one that suggested writing down and sharing my experience to help “release” that part of my life–and Maggie and Gracie moved in with us out of and away from that state. The sheriff’s office performed an investigation, ruled Ken’s death an act of self defense and used our case to further investigate Laura, Alex, Lakeside and the entire town. Turns out Ken and Laura had been running a cannibal shop for years, which was mainly supplied by the older folks. People started complaining about the degrading quality of meat so Ken hunted newer folks in town with the assistance and loyalty of his nephew Alex, whom I had no idea they were even related. Laura admitted to forcing both Greg and Mary to write their goodbye notes before murdering them in cold blood. Laura and Alex ended up getting arrested, both on numerous counts, and were sent to prison.
Maggie and I are in our own therapy sessions and are taking things slow, but we have bonded over this trauma–plus Theo is over the moon about her, which is all I can ask for. Gracie and I are still workin’ on our bonding, but things are lookin’ positive. Maggie and I have gone out on a few dates, but we aren’t lookin’ for marriage. Neither of us are ready for that step of life just yet.