FracKture

By Jennifer Layman-Hendrickson

What should have been a new beginning for Drew and her mother quickly transforms into a battle to survive against an evil that knows no bounds and will stop at nothing to get what it wants. How can Drew survive and save her friends and those she cares about when the ones that are supposed to protect them are the ones she fears the most? Will God show them the way and save them, or will they all be destroyed before they can tell their story?

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483526034

Book preview

9781483526034

Chapter One

The world outside had its own rules, and those rules were not human

Michel Houellebecq, The Elementary Particles

The crevice in the forest floor seemingly insignificant began to brume with an odorous stench of sulfur that permeated the air. Thick fog slowly climbed out of the opening in the ground and seeped into the air…reaching its long tentacles across the forest floor…intent on escape. The peace in the serene forest was interrupted by a long, painful growl from deep within. A raven perched on a pine branch that stretched high above the crevice began screeching a desperate warning call to the forest inhabitants. There was a sudden and anxious scurry of squirrels, rabbits, and other rodents. The sky was aflutter with birds flocking in every direction. The wild forest animals were in a full blown panic!

Thunder exploded with a commanding declaration of rage as lightening lit up the gray skies of Stygian Cove. Drew awoke with a jolt. She had been up late last night unpacking her things, but still didn’t feel settled. This wasn’t her home and it never would be. Home was a long ways away in Jasper, Alabama. Drew felt a pang in the pit of her stomach as she thought about how difficult it was going to be to start over. This was her senior year in high school… supposedly the best time of a teenager’s life, but it felt more like a punishment. It felt like her life was falling apart at the very point it should be all coming together. She felt like crying, but was too angry…angry at her mother for making a rash and unfair decision, at her father who was nothing more than a sperm donor, and at her current circumstances. She glanced out her bedroom window and couldn’t help think that the melancholy weather was the perfect expression of how she was feeling.

She looked at her alarm clock and realized that her mom was working by now, so she knew it was safe to go downstairs to get something to eat for breakfast. She was glad that her mother was already gone because she didn’t want to have another argument over this move. She struggled with the way her mom just randomly announced to her that they were moving after seventeen years in Jasper, when all of her life her mother included her in every decision whether it was significant or not…they were always a team. Her mother justified the move by using the fact she had been offered a position as Deputy Sherriff of Stygian Cove, and that the job would give them both a better life. Drew’s dad had never been a part of her life, never paid a dime of support, was living who knows where, so she and her mother always had to make each dollar stretch as far as it could go. Her mom reassured her that the move and her new job were going to be the positive changes they both needed in their lives right now. It came with a house for them to live in, paid relocation expenses, health insurance, and a salary that would provide for them to live quite comfortably. Regardless, Drew still felt she should have been included in this decision. She was, after all, going to be eighteen and a high school senior…she wasn’t a child anymore. Drew wondered why this had to happen now, just as she was about to start her last year in high school. Now she was faced with her senior year in a school full of kids she didn’t know, in a town slapped in the middle of nowhere, on an island surrounded by a creepy forest. She wondered how she would get through this. She felt alone, isolated, and frustrated.

She went down stairs to go look for something to eat. As she entered the kitchen, she stretched, let out an invigorating yawn, and walked over to the counter where she spied a white piece of paper sitting out. She picked it up and read it.

Drew,

Left for work, didn’t want to wake you. Have a muffin

for breakfast! Try to finish getting your room unpacked.

We’ll get you registered at school tomorrow morning.

See you for dinner tonight!

Love,

Mom

Gee, can’t wait for that, Drew sarcastically said out loud to herself. She glanced over at the muffins and noticed that they were chocolate chip…her favorite. She didn’t want to eat one because she was so upset with her mom that eating one of those muffins felt like surrendering, but…she was really hungry! She let out an exaggerated sigh, grabbed a muffin, and poured herself a glass of milk. After devouring the muffin and chugging the milk, she left the kitchen to go back upstairs with a plan to fill the bathtub and drown her sorrows. She thought a good soak might clear her head, and perhaps brighten her mood and perspective.

Drew filled the big garden tub just deep enough that the water playfully teased the top rim without going over the edge. The steam danced like a happy spirit over the water’s surface. She climbed in and lowered herself slowly to allow her skin time to adjust to the hot water, until she was completely submerged. Immediately feeling her tensions ease, she sat back and put her head against the back of the tub, closed her eyes, drew in a deep, long breath, and let it out slowly. A deep awareness that her heartbeat was slowing as her muscles began relaxing, allowed a peacefulness to slowly take hold of her.

In a blissful state, there was suddenly a loud, booming knock on the front door that Drew disregarded as thunder… at first, but as she became more alert, she realized it was someone pounding on the front door. The pounding was so loud and hard that it made Drew’s heart beat with a sudden sense of urgency. She grabbed her robe while quickly wrapping a towel around her head, slid into her slippers and headed down the stairs to answer the door.

She couldn’t imagine what could possibly make someone knock with such intensity, but thought of her mother at work as panic began to take hold. She was midway down the stairs when there was such a loud forceful bang on the door that the glass in the window of the door shook. Drew let out a yelp; startled at first, but then angered because she didn’t like being frightened! She charged at the door with the intention of letting whomever it was know she was not happy about their pounding on the door like this!

She grabbed the door handle and jerked it open, quickly peering outside to see who it was, but was shocked to see no one there! She went out on the porch, down the steps, and into the front yard looking around…but saw no one! How could that be? The house on the left was too far away for someone to get to it that quickly without her seeing them and there wasn’t a house on the other side, just a field that offered no place to hide. There wasn’t any place someone could disappear to that quickly. The forest surrounded them, but it was too far from the house to provide quick cover.

As Drew stood out front of the house looking around, she felt entranced by the forest…it seemed all encompassing. The trees were tall, intimidating giants. She could sense that the old pines knew all the secrets of this place…all the things that no one was supposed to know, and they kept those secrets shrouded by their powerful branches. The trees formed a deep, dark wall of various shades of green and showed their power and unity as they swayed together in the wind, but every once in a while, the forest canopy was tussled by invisible fingers from the sky as an unexpected gust would blow through. To Drew, the forest seemed uninviting…hostile. As she looked out across the yard at the dense brigade of trees, she felt a sense of intensifying uneasiness, as if she were being taunted by a malicious energy. It radiated to her core…it was downright chilling.

Drew suddenly remembered she was in her bathrobe and scurried back in the house, quickly locking the door behind her. She rested against the door for a moment to allow her to calm down before heading back upstairs to get dressed. Any desire to return to her bath had disappeared. She drained the tub and threw on her comfy jeans and favorite T-shirt. She quickly ran a comb through her wavy, dark mahogany hair, which nearly reached her thin waist.

Deciding that it may just be a joke the local teens were playing on her, she gazed out her bedroom window which overlooked the front yard, her eyes quickly searching for whoever might be lurking out there. Maybe some of the local kids thought they would give her a scare to test her and see what she was made of. They probably ran around to the back of the house to hide when she opened the door. If that was the case, they would learn right away that Drew Moon was tougher than she looked, and didn’t scare easily….at least not by the things that normally scared most girls. Spiders, snakes, scary movies, and even the dark was no match for her. The thing that scared Drew more than anything else was humiliation. She had encountered that beast before and didn’t think she could survive it again. It was a creature of great destructive abilities often biding its time until its victims were at their most vulnerable and then it would pounce, destroying their dignity… devouring their confidence and self-esteem. Drew was shy, quiet, and usually kept to herself unless she was approached. She was not the type to go up to a group of kids hanging out and just jump into the conversation. It wasn’t that Drew was unfriendly or thought she was better than others were; she was terrified that she wouldn’t be accepted, or worse, that she would be humiliated.

As Drew looked out her bedroom window she saw nothing…not a person, animal, or even a single bird. She thought it resembled an abandoned ghost town…minus the dust, cactuses, and tumbleweed, of course. The house next door was about one-hundred yards to the left of her house, but seemingly deserted. She hadn’t seen anyone there…no cars, lights, or noise. She thought to herself that she could quite possibly be the only human for miles. The idea was both comforting and unsettling.

As Drew sat at her window, she noticed the rain had stopped, but the sky was still a dismal shade of gray. The forest trees were deviously smirking at her, so she glared back at them to show them that she would not be intimidated.

She walked away from her window to the wooden desk that she had done her homework on since she was eight years old. She opened the top left hand drawer and pulled out a large sketchpad, and sat in the chair in front of her bedroom window. She stared at the blank page for a moment and then began to draw. Drawing was her passion, and was the one thing she had all to herself. She was very good, so good; in fact, that her guidance counselor at Jasper High had told her she would easily get a full scholarship to her choice of art school. Drew had a unique talent to draw whatever she saw. Her sketches were so detailed that her completed work often looked as if it were a black and white photograph. She loved sketching because it was the best way for her to express herself; she found it cathartic, often losing track of time when she drew because it was her escape…pulling her in to whatever picture she was working on. This particular sketch gave her an eerie feeling she had not felt before while working on any of her past drawings…an eerie feeling that developed into a deep, slow growing sense of dread.

Thirty minutes passed as Drew put the finishing touches on her work, scrutinizing it carefully. She captured the intimidating glare of the trees, authenticated the way they seemed to think and act in unison, and even encompassed the depth of secrecy that seemed to flourish in their shadows.

As she admired her accomplishment, her eyes were drawn to the center of it…to something at the edge of the forest tree line, and she let out a gasp! She noticed something in the sketch, something she didn’t remember drawing. She thought back to when she was sketching the trees and how she could sense their yearning to reveal things; things she may not want to see or know. Drew knew she would sometimes zone out when she was drawing so she figured that explained why she didn’t remember drawing it, but as she looked more closely she knew there was no way she would not have remembered drawing that.

In the center of her sketch, at the edge of the tree line was a large, dark shape…bigger than a human was, and bigger than any animal that could be on the island. She found it very strange that the figure was the only part of her entire sketch that lacked any sort of detail. It was not like her usual style of drawing. As she looked at it, she noticed that while the rest of her sketch was photographic in its clarity, the image was more of an obscurity…a darkness that somehow seemed to fuse itself into her sketch. Drew knew she didn’t see this figure earlier from her bedroom window, or when she was outside investigating the knocks at her door. She couldn’t understand why she would draw something that she hadn’t actually seen. She was an artist by site, not imagination! Drew looked the sketch over and pondered how this figure got into her drawing as her mind was assailed with questions. Was her past coming back to haunt her? Was history repeating itself? Why was this happening? What did it mean?

A thought spoke to Drew as clearly as the voice of someone standing right next to her, "You see me now…I am!" It sounded so convincingly real that she jumped, quickly spinning and looking all around her. If she couldn’t see it when she looked out at the forest, then why was it in her sketch? A feeling of nausea began brewing in her stomach. As she looked at the shadowy figure in her sketch, she felt taken over by an overwhelming aversion. She felt something she had never truly felt before…at least not since she was little…she felt scared. She walked over to her window and reached up, pulling her curtains closed, wishing her mother was home.

Chapter 2

The voices of the dead are piercing

Unknown

Wind chimes competed against one another in a melodious melodrama unaware of the grim scene that recently unfolded in this usually tranquil homestead. The wind was intermittent, but brisk and formidable. The sky was an ominous gray without a single cloud to soften it. Melissa walked across the property towards the big, rugged barn. The large country building was a massive asylum holding a horrific, unimaginable horror inside…full of gruesome indications of the heinous deeds that had been carried out on this peaceful family farm. As Melissa got to the barn doors, she felt the wind suddenly bite through her coat with a ravenous intensity, chilling her to her core.

Great. My third day officially on the job and all hell breaks loose, she said out loud to herself. She had no idea how much those words rang true, and the power of prediction that they held.

Melissa entered the barn and saw the sheriff, Burke Dunham, kneeling beside a body that had been covered with a gray tarp. He was writing in his notebook and didn’t seem to notice her arrival. Burke was looking very official in full uniform, including his hat. As Melissa walked towards him she was taken aback by the brutality that was evident inside the barn. Blood was splattered on just about everything. As she approached him, he sensed her presence and looked up at her, quickly standing up. Melissa couldn’t help but notice his blue eyes were in total contrast to his dark brown hair. She thought the scruffy five o’clock shadow on his face that had grown in from neglect truly complimented his features, adding to his rugged good looks.

Melissa! I’m glad you were able to get here so quickly. I tried contacting the mainland, but the phone and cell towers must be down from the storm. I guess it’s just you and me to deal with this mess for now. I have Luke and John both out on patrol to ensure the towns safety until we figure this thing out. I was able to radio the coroner and he’s on his way. He removed his hat, swept his forearm across his forehead, and looked at Melissa with a grim expression as he said, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, and I have never seen anything like this.

What happened? Melissa asked.

Honestly? I haven’t the slightest idea. The bodies aren’t like anything I’ve ever seen before, and I can’t figure out where all this blood came from. The bodies don’t have any visible injuries that explain the blood spatter, but then again…I can’t begin to explain what happened to this family. God, Melissa, these folks look like something out of a horror flick.

You said bodies? There’s more than one?

Yeah, there are three victims, Mr. Chancellor, his daughter Cassidy, and his son Chance. Cassidy’s body is under this tarp, Chase was found in the second horse stall towards the back of the barn, and Peter was found up in the loft.

What about their mother? Could she be involved in this somehow?

No…she died two years ago in a plane crash.

Oh, how awful, she said, and refocused on the victims and the horrible scene in front of her, Any possible suspects? What about a motive? Do we have an idea how long ago this happened? She’d been a cop for over ten years, and knew what questions needed to be answered. She knew the biggest, and most difficult question to answer was always the one question that everyone wanted answered the most…why?

I don’t even know how to begin putting this all together…the bodies look like they’ve been dead a long time. Strange thing is, the blood splatter is still wet, which indicates a fresh crime scene. It just doesn’t make sense, Burke answered with a sigh, scratching his chin.

Melissa quickly put on gloves and knelt down to get a look at the body covered by the gray tarp on the floor that Burke said it was Cassidy Chancellor. Melissa noticed the hay on the dirt floor around the girl’s body appeared to be undisturbed—odd. Melissa crouched down and slowly lifted the tarp to get a look. She made a soft, audible gasp, immediately taken aback by what she saw. The girls face was contorted in a look of horror and Melissa was stunned to see the texture of her skin. It had the expected pale and cadaverous lack-of-life color, but it looked…petrified. Her eyes were open wide, and though void of life, they held an unknown terror in them that made Melissa feel paralyzed for a moment. She couldn’t imagine how this happened. It wasn’t like any other body she had ever seen before, not even bodies that had been dead a long time. Melissa continued to look over the young woman’s body in hopes of noticing something that would make sense out of this twisted science fiction scene. It was obvious to her by the torn material and missing buttons that the woman’s shirt had been ripped open in the front. The skin on her chest, including both breasts, had no scratches, punctures, or any other visible injury. There was no blood on or near the body. Even more disturbing, there didn’t seem to be any signs of a struggle other than the condition of the girl’s shirt. There was nothing under her fingernails, and no defensive wounds on her hands or arms. It was as if the girl just dried up, and fell over dead. Melissa gently pulled the tarp back over Cassidy’s body.

She had to take a moment to collect her thoughts, and took out her camera. She began taking photographs for evidence. She went outside the barn to start at the entrance point, planning to work her way inside. She walked through the front barn doors, and as she pushed them open, shivered…not because of the cold but because she felt a deep foreboding in the pit of her stomach. Whoever or whatever did this was still out there! She took a couple pictures of the barn entrance as she entered, and a couple photos of the interior layout. She strolled over to Cassidy and pulled the tarp back so she could take a few pictures of her, gently replacing the tarp when she finished.

Walking back to the stall where Chase’s body was located, she noticed there was nothing covering his body. He was twenty-two, athletic and muscular… certainly capable of defending himself. It was disturbing to see him crumpled on a pile of hay in the back corner of the stall. It appeared as though he’d been haphazardly dumped like a bag of garbage. Melissa wondered how someone could come into this barn and do this to three members of this family without any indication of a fight or struggle.

She took a few photos of Chase from different angles, and stepped closer to him to get a better look. She noticed his condition was the same as Cassidy’s. He had the identical look of disturbed, twisted horror on his face. His eyes were open wide, and his skin was withered and dry, like a piece of beef jerky. There wasn’t any blood on or near his body, and no defensive wounds on his hands or arms, either. Other than some dirt, she didn’t see anything suspicious under his fingernails.

Melissa walked over to the ladder leading up to the loft. She remembered Burke had said that up there in that creepy loft was where the body of Peter Chancellor had been found. She took a picture of the ladder, and began climbing. As she was just about to the top rung of the ladder, she smelled a sulfur-like odor. She immediately walked over to where the body was lying upside down across a few bales of hay, contorted and disheveled like a mistreated rag doll, and looking as though he’d been tossed up into the loft. Melissa took a picture, noticing an even stronger odor of sulfur closer to the body. She observed that the man’s facial expression and skin condition was the same as the other two victims, and took a few more photographs before climbing back down from the loft.

Intrigued by the sulfurous stench that greeted her up in the loft she walked back over to Chase’s body, wanting to see if she could smell the same odor. She didn’t smell anything as she entered the stall, so she approached the body to get a closer smell. She couldn’t believe she didn’t notice it the first time, because she did smell the same scent of sulfur! The odor around Chase was considerably weaker, however. She immediately went over to Cassidy’s body, and lifting the tarp took a long sniff, and found that though it was faint, the odor was present. She lowered the tarp back over the girl’s body, and went over to Burke who was standing near the barn doors, intensely writing in his notebook.

Hey, Burke, can I ask you a question?

Sure.

When you first arrived here, did you smell anything…strange?

If you mean that awful sulfur smell…yes, I did. It was the first thing I noticed when I entered the barn. I didn’t say anything to you because I was curious if you would notice it too. I can barely smell it now; it was a lot stronger when I first arrived.

What do you make of it? It is present on all three victims.

It’s puzzling, I have to admit. Maybe the person that did this used some sort of chemical to do this to the bodies? I honestly don’t know what to make of any of this. I hope the coroner will be able to tell us more, he took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and said, Well, shall we take a look around the outside to see if we find any clues out there?

I know that we have to, but, for the record, I don’t like the idea one bit, she quipped.

Yeah, me either. This whole thing is strange, and whoever did this is still out there. We’re going to have to be careful how we handle this with the town. People will be upset and scared…and we don’t need them panicking. The Chancellors were a very well-liked family.

As they walked around the outside of the barn, Melissa asked Burke about the Chancellor family. Tell me about them. What were they like?

Burke reflected on the family by telling her all about them. He told her that Peter was principal and superintendent at the Stygian Cove School. In his mid-50’s, he was a man who was very devoted to his job, evident by his passionate efforts to make the school like a second home for the students and staff. He had a welcoming open door policy for everyone, and the students and staff referred to him as Principal Pete. He was a very patient and kind man, and a dedicated father to Cassidy and Chase. He was just beginning to heal from the loss of his beloved wife, Sarah, two years ago. His brutal death made no sense to Burke, and he had no problem saying so.

He told her about Cassidy, who was 18 and had just graduated. He told her how she was planning to attend college on the mainland to study computer science, but had postponed her plans for a year to work at the school with her father, helping get a new computer system up and running. She was a very popular girl in Stygian Cove, and known to have a bit of a wild streak, but she wasn’t a bad kid. She didn’t have any enemies that Burke knew of. She was the stereotypical Homecoming Queen and Head Cheerleader. He said she was a beauty with boundless energy that had a true zest for life, and he couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt her like this.

He told her how Chase had just graduated from an accelerated college program at Yale, and that he had come home to spend some time with his Dad, sister, and girlfriend, Faith Costa, before deciding whether or not to accept an incredible job offer with a company in Los Angeles as a graphic artist. He was quiet, reserved, strong and athletic, but very intelligent and kind. He graduated Valedictorian from Stygian Cove High, and top of his class at Yale. He had a bright future and got along with everybody. Burke admitted it made him sick to think that a wonderful family like the Chancellors, who had already suffered the heartbreaking loss of their wife and mother, could be killed like this.

I am determined with this one. We will get to the bottom of this and bring whoever did this to swift, hard justice. Peter was a good friend…and a good man.

As they walked around the barn looking for any possible evidence, Melissa looked up at the depressing sky. She found herself gazing at the angry clouds and thought she heard a strange sound in the far corner of the field just beyond the tree line. She listened carefully to see if she could hear it again, but it was silent.

Did you just hear something? I thought I heard some sort of animal in the woods across the field.

"All I can