2 comments/ 2874 views/ 2 favorites Spirit Ch. 00 By: sjmhmttep May 24, 2009 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Prologue Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on May 2009. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning! Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book One Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Prologue Shadow Appears Hello, my name Steven MacGraw. The Publishers of this blog site thought it would be a good idea to write this prologue for you people, to explain about my line of work and about my religion. By doing this, I will also be giving you readers some basic understanding of my feelings, actions, and thoughts. Let me start off with a little description of my general appearance when I am on duty. I have short, light brown hair, hazel eyes, and I am of medium build. I am five-foot-nine-inches tall and weigh approximately one hundred and ninety-five pounds. Right now I am thirty-five years old, but in a couple of more months I will be thirty-six. Usually, when I do field work, I wear a trench coat and a hat (just like the detectives wear in them old movies). That's my favorite because it gives me confidence in myself, and allows me to carry extra supplies and weapons. Sometimes my coat could be considered a backpack because I carry so much stuff in it. Now when I am at home, or I do religious work, I wear robes and a pentacle, shorts (for working out), or sometimes nothing at all. I will explain more of why in a minute, but first let me tell you about my job. I consider myself a finisher of things that should have, by all rights, never have gotten started. I work for the government under a man named Smith, but I doubt that's his real name. I also do some bounty hunting and freelance work from time to time. Working for the government, especially in the line of work I do, requires some secrecy and a lot of times codes. Everyone I work with out in the field has some sort of code name for themselves. Some for personal protection for their families even work under aliases, which is why I doubt Smith is the real name for my boss, though it could be. Honestly, I have respected his privacy to much to check up on it, though I am totally sure he knows everything about me, but I'm not worried because I have nothing to hide from anybody. His code name, however, happens to be "Twilight", and my code name just happens to be "Shadow". I started in my line of work when I was twenty, but even when I was as young as fifteen I had some adventures like going toe to toe with an actual big foot and taking it out permanently. (Of course, I got rid of the body where nobody would ever find it.) I've taken on a few psycho serial killers and fought with the undead here and there, but I try to stay away from vampires, poltergeists, and UFOs. The government has other agents out there to take care of those kinds of things, and besides, I have a full schedule already any ways. Though I have dealt with such things once or twice. People, who know me and know what I do (which is only a select few), sometimes ask me how I feel about doing my line of work. I explain to them that I have no real conscious about my job. To me it is just that, a job. I do what I do for the money and try to make sure that there is a minimal amount of innocent casualties as possible. Basically, I fix governmental mistakes and finish permanently what others can not or will not. In my eyes, I am not doing evil, but destroying the evil others started before it over runs amuck and doing major damage, sort of like a knight who slain dragons in the olden days. As for my religion, I am a pagan, who studies a little bit of Druidism, Shamanism, and I am a Rieki Master, but mostly I study the Wiccan religion. Wicca, known to many as witchcraft, is a growing religion in the world, and even predates the Christian religion. Paganism is a religion with many similarities and differences shared with Christianity. Similar with Christianity they both worship a divine entity. Christians believe in the almighty God, where pagans believe in a Goddess and a God, who are called by many different names. Christians believe that angels and saints were brought to earth and cast miracles. Pagans believe in the power of the elements of nature, such as: air, water, fire, and earth, along with all of Mother Earth's plants and animals have certain powers to perform these same miracles. Christians believe in the power of prayer, and that God answers them in the form of miracles. A pagan's form of prayer is called casting a spell, in which pagans ask the Goddess and God, along with the elements' help, for our miracles. So I say to Christians, "You cast your spells, and I will cast mine." Christians believe in the afterlife, where the eternal afterlife will be either spent in a paradise in heaven, or an eternity of torment in hell depending on how you lived your life, or if you asked Jesus to wash away your sins. Christians are more concerned with the afterlife then in the here and now. Pagans, on the other hand, believe in reincarnation, in which a single soul relives many lives. Pagans are concerned with this lifetime now because pagans believe they have to take care of the Earth, so in their next life they won't have to take care of their mistakes. Christians follow what is known as the Ten Commandments, which I personally have yet to meet a single one who has truly followed them to a tee, though they claim Jesus did. Pagans, on the other hand, believe in the Law of Three (or Karma if you prefer). What magic a caster sends out will come back to the caster three times stronger. Evil could destroy the caster, where as goodness will be blessed thrice. So I say, "Do what you will, as long as it harms none." Christians read the Holy Bible, or books written by people who interpret the Holy Bible, a book which contradicts itself and has been changed to fit the rule of kings, proof of which could be found in the British Archives. Well, pagans have their books too. They can be found in the new age sections of your local bookstores. If you go there to search for information, search your heart for the truth of what is written, for even I will admit that some who write claiming to be Pagan are not, and are just after getting your hard earned money for themselves. You know, it is a real shame there are so many frauds and tricksters in our world today that are out to make a quick buck, not only with religious books, but with many other things as well. I digress though, so let's get back to the point. Christians believe that everybody should be clothed at all times, and that to run around nude is sinful, for it promotes lust after other mens wives, etc. (But doesn't depriving one of something make them crave it all the more?) Where as pagans believe that clothing restricts the flow of magical energies, and that being nude is just a natural thing, which is why when I preform magical rituals I will either wear a robe with nothing on underneath, or go completely sky clad, though I could wear normal clothes (if the situation otherwise would be inappropriate), but the effects to me are greatly reduced. Some Christians claim that I worship Satan, a dark angel who was cast out of heaven and will be sent to burn eternally in hell when Jesus again returns to walk on Earth. Man, some Christians just want anyone who disagrees with them to suffer the fire of hell, as you sometimes hear them claim, "I hope you burn in hell." But I digress again. As you readers can tell by what is written here, I do not even believe in him, much less worship him. Now I turn the question back onto Christians, that they themselves worship the Devil. Do the Christians not believe in praying to God to protect themselves from the Devil, thereby in itself, giving the Devil power and worship? Think about it. In this blog, by providing samples of my daily life on this particular case, I hope to give the normal people, and even Christians, a new look at paganism. Maybe even open a few eyes to the truth from the lies that have been spread about my religion. As a pagan and for my line of work, I have found it absolutely necessary to constantly be in top physical condition. To keep my body in shape I workout a lot with weights and eat healthy foods. To keep my mind sharp I do a lot of meditating. Lastly, to stay sharp with the weapons and techniques I use for my line of work I am constantly practicing either at firing ranges, or specifically designed skill tests. You know what they say, "Practice makes perfect." I don't watch very much television, except I try to keep up with the news because sometimes new information on a case I am working on will appear. The music I listen to is either new age or orchestra, but occasionally I will listen to other types. Most of my free time is pretty much spent, but when I am not doing anything else, the rest is spent reading, either religious or non-fiction books that will help improve my much needed skills. Other than these types of entertainments, I hardly do anything else because I don't really have much free time as you can tell. People, who don't know much about me, really would think I was a pretty boring person indeed. I hope, by explaining to you readers about myself and my lifestyle, you will now have a little better understanding of who I am and where I am coming from. If nothing else, I truly hope you enjoy reading this, whether you believe in my religion or not. So keep an open mind and enjoy. This is Shadow returning into the shadows. Blessed be, Steven "Shadow" MacGraw Pagan Warrior To be continued. Next Chapter One "Reflections From a Prison Cell". Why is Jason Chambers in prison? Did he do it? Will he rot in a prison cell the rest of his life? File #: 3 Character Star Power: 5 Code Name: Shadow Alter Ego: Steven MacGraw Aliases: Could have new id for governmental jobs. Nick Names: None known. Allegiance: US Government. Sub-Groups: None. Rank: Government agent, with high priority clearance. Occupation: Government Agent. Known Relatives: Unknown. Birth Date: August 17, 1973 Birth Place: Unknown Height: 5' 9" Weight: 195lbs. Eyes: Hazel Hair: Light Brown Known Powers: Is highly proficient in the use of magic, and can astral travel. Equipment: Government issued, or magical supplies. Known Skills: Expert at hand to hand fighting, expert marksman with various hand guns and rifles, bounty hunting, detective, religious and magical knowledge, historian, and can pick locks. Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal. For More Info. See: The rest of this storyline. History: Sort of read already some about him in this prologue, and will learn more as you read along. Spirit Ch. 01 Jun 6, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter One Reflections From a Prison Cell Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on March 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... We met with Steven "Shadow" MacGraw, who broke the fourth wall, and gave us the readers an over view of just who he was, and what he does. Now we will go into a prison cell, and will be introduced to Jason Chambers. Chapter One "Reflections From a Prison Cell" The room was dark and only had one bed, two white sheets, a green blanket, and a toilet and a sink, which were combined into a metal contraption hanging on the wall. Along the wall laid orange prison coveralls, two pairs of white socks, a pair of white underwear, a cheap roll of toilet paper, a flimsy black comb, a white tooth brush with the bristles on it as soft as a baby's hair brush and a flimsy handle, a tube of cheap generic toothpaste, a black ink pen, and some sheets of blank white typing paper, all of which laid in a pile on the cold cement floor. The room only had one way in or out, the cold grey iron bars and the cold grey iron barred doorway. The rest of the walls were concrete stone. The only light shining into the room was from a distant light down the hallway that came through the cold grey iron bars to barely illuminate the interior of the prison cell room. On the steel slab hooked to the wall, with the thin mattress on top, which constituted poorly as a bed, a man laid, thinking about how he had gotten there, gripping the only book he had, which, of course, was the Holy Bible. "Dear Lord, what have I done?" He thought to himself, knowing it was to late. His mind wondered back to a month and a half ago when it had all started falling apart for him. Those three women who would have had their lives left to live, if only they hadn't run into him. He thought of the first woman, Michelle. She was in her mid-twenties, and was one of the prettiest things he had ever seen. Shoulder length, straight brown hair, green eyes, (oh, those haunting green eyes), and a body that men killed for, but didn't themselves kill. She was a mistake, oh yes, a big mistake. He never meant to kill her, no, not such a lovely creature as her, but she had a mouth that talked to much, and said all the wrong things. He knew this about her, and usually just blew it off, but not that night, oh no, not that tragic night. The pressure was on him that night. He lost his job at the factory, and had been drinking bourbon like water. He went to her only looking for some compassion, and instead, she verbally criticized and cut him down. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. * * * * Not noticing how drunk he actually was, he had stumbled his way to her apartment door and knocked. A couple of seconds later the door opened a crack, but a chain was in place. "Oh, it's you." She had said, as she closed the door back, took off the chain, and reopened it again, now fully. Now as he thought about it, if she wouldn't have taken the chain off, maybe, just maybe, it would've all happened differently, and just maybe he would've never killed anyone. After opening the door she invited him in, and as they sat down on the old soft brown couch, she started in on him. "Have you been drinking? Your breath smells like a brewery." She asked after sitting down, as her long brown hair slightly swished in the circulating fanned air, and her green eyes peered deeply into his. Now as he thought back on it, he could picture clearly the full beauty that her womanhood had been as she sat there on the old soft brown couch with her legs crossed, wearing the blue jean shorts, that revealed her smooth freshly shaven legs, and the white t-shirt tied in such a way to reveal her belly button. Thinking back now on how her fine body filled those clothes, and how erotic that vision of her in his head made him feel, only made him feel even more sorry, and more guilty over what he had done to her. Why couldn't he had seen it then like he sees it now? He guessed it was true what they said about hindsight always being 20/20, but at the time it happened he hadn't seen it at all. He couldn't see it at the time because he was quite literally a run away semi-truck that just plowed through a stop sign. A beast deep inside of him was about to rip apart whatever flimsy cage it was in, and be released upon this poor unsuspecting woman. "Yes... Yes, I have. I... I lost my job at the factory today." He said trembling slightly with anger at her as he said it. The monster inside of him began to rattle the cage. Sweat began to flow underneath his beige corduroy pants and fancy blue button up dress shirt. How dare her even question him about if he had been drinking. She drank to sometimes, and besides, what business was it of hers any ways? He thought to himself for the moment, but keeping his anger under control, even though the deadly fire of anger was already beginning to burn in his veins. "I told you the way you were acting there that you were going to lose your job. I told you. Taking two hour lunches, going in late, and goofing off a lot. They were bound to fire you sooner or later. Now you come here, to me, drunk, probably thinking that I'm going to have sympathy for your sorry butt, but you know what? You'll find none here because you're a sorry excuse for a man. So just leave right now before I call the cops, and have you thrown out " That was all it took. The bars holding the monster in broke apart. Suddenly, all of this rage had filled him and he reached out and grabbed her by her throat, choking her, and slamming her body into the nearest wall. "Why can't I get any respect out of you?" He yelled as he let he go, and threw her to the floor hard. The beautiful young lady had been stunned and couldn't believe what had just happened to her, as she laid on the floor gasping for air. He saw the white extension cord plugged up to the fan, and quickly pulled it apart. The beautiful young lady was now groggily trying to get up, as it slowly started to sink in for her what exactly was going on. Her hand was out reached trying desperately to grab the red phone on the coffee table beside the old soft brown couch, when he came up, and threw her to the floor again, this time pinning her down with his own body, as he began to hog tie her up, and as she tried futilely to fight it. He then drug her into the kitchen, and pulled out the biggest knife he could find out of one of the kitchen drawers. He stood her up over the kitchen sink, her bare stomach pushed against the counter with her head looking at the faucet. "You stupid whore, are you going to show me some respect ? " Jason had screamed at her, with the blade of the knife pressing forcefully against her throat. "Fuck you You bastard " She screamed at him in an act of final defiance. He slit her throat from ear to ear, and watched sadistically as the blood poured into the sink, and the signs of life left her eyes. Suddenly, guilt and realization hit him, like a run away train smacking into a concrete wall at full speed, and he began to panic. "My God What have I done? I'm going to get the chair for this No, calm yourself down. The police can't arrest you if no body is found." Leaving the now lifeless body hunched over the sink, with the blood still trickling down the drain, he quickly searched the house for some way to hide the body, he found a big suitcase in the closet. Starting to sobber up now, an idea hit him, like electricity turning on a light bulb in his head, that if he cut up the body and placed it in the suitcase, each body part wrapped in a garbage bag to keep blood from leaking out of the suitcase, he could take the suitcase and hide it somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Grabbing the suitcase, he went into the kitchen and opened it up on the floor. After a brief search in the cabinets he found where she kept the garbage bags. He laid them by the sink along with a hand saw, and began the difficult task of cutting her body up into parts, placing the parts into garbage bags, placing the garbage bags into the suitcase, and cleaning up all of the blood, and any signs of wrong doings. After finishing, he closed up the suitcase and began to leave with it when he noticed her house key hanging on the wall. Locking the door behind him seemed like a good idea, so he grabbed them and the now very heavy suitcase, and locked the door behind him as he began to go down the stairway. Luckily, no one was around as he made his way to his car parked just outside, and threw the suitcase in his trunk. Quickly glancing around to make sure no one saw him, he got into the car and drove out of town for about thirty miles. Finally, after going down some abandoned dirt roads, he found the perfect quiet location, and began to dig a deep hole with a spaded shovel he always carried in his trunk because he always used it whenever he got stuck in mud or snow, along with the couple of two by fours, and a bag of cat litter to get his vehicle free. After two hours of digging, which gave him a lot of time to think, he was finally finished burying the suitcase, and came to the conclusion that it would get rid of all suspicion if Michelle had decided to just move away. Even if she had some close friends, which he was almost sure she didn't, they wouldn't get really suspicious if she just up and moved away. Her job at the hospital, as a receptionist, would just assume she had quit after she didn't show up for about a week. They would probably mail her the final check that she had earned, where it would sit in her post office box until it got to full, and then her mail would be sent back to the senders after about a month. He wouldn't dare interfere with her mail because that would give a likely trail to him, and he didn't want to answer any government questions he couldn't possibly answer to their satisfaction. Though he could pawn her expensive things, sell her car to a dealer, and give away her clothes to Goodwill. The next day he did just that. Before disconnecting the phones and answering machine he checked it for messages, which there were none to his relief. No one was around as he emptied out everything in her house in mid afternoon. They were probably all at work, totally unaware of the gruesome murder he had just committed the night before. He had spent the entire morning gathering her clothes and taking them to Goodwill. Then he found all of her papers, and personal effects, which he trashed in a trash dumpster on the other side of town, but not before remembering her social security number to have all the utilities shutoff, which he did by calling them on a pay phone, and not revealing who he actually was. The afternoon was spent having some used furniture men come and pick up the furniture to sell to someone else. The rest of her stuff he sold to a pawn shop down the street from her apartment house. The car was the hardest thing of all to get rid of, but through some street work he found a chop shop, and sold it to them, so they could use it for the spare parts. He was sure they weren't working totally legal, but neither was he, and he needed to get rid of the evidence. Even the money he got from all of this would have to disappear. He stuffed the money into an envelope, and mailed it anonymously to the first charity he could find. Lying there in his prison bed he couldn't even remember which charity it was, just that he got the address scribbled quickly onto the envelope, slapped three stamps onto it, and mailed it off without drawing to much attention to himself. Of course, there was no return address on it, that would have been very stupid on his part, and he definitely wasn't stupid. After everything was gone, he went around to a couple of the neighbors and asked who the landlord was, telling them that he was going to marry Michelle, and that they were moving in together into his place. She, of course, conveniently was to busy right now visiting with her relatives, and preparing for the big wedding day. This was a cool cover story he thought because people would think she was all right, and later on if anyone came looking for her, he could say that she went back to Washington state to live with her relatives there. This is the story he used when he returned the keys to the apartment back to the landlord. Like he had figured no one had gotten suspicious of anything, and most of them even gave him their congratulations. He had pulled it off. Or so he thought. There was a week of feeling that he had gotten away with it before suddenly feeling like everything was beginning to fall apart around him. Apparently, a lady named Janet was close friends with Michelle, and had been on vacation for a week to go to her great grandmother's funeral and take care of some personal family affairs, which he suspected contained some time at a beach with her current tan looking fresh, and even peeling in some parts on the back of her shoulders. At least, that's what she had told him when she suddenly appeared at his doorstep wearing a cheap pair of sunglasses, a pair of white ladies sandals, a pink flower designed sleeveless sun dress, and matching hat in which her long black shoulder length hair was pushed behind her ears and down her back, and she was asking him about Janet. Thinking that this could be trouble, but that keeping to the plan should work, he told her that Michelle had gotten mad at him and went back to Washington state to live with her uncles or something. She seemed to accept this, and apologized for bothering him. She left, but something in the look on her face told him that she didn't buy it and would be back to cause more trouble. Sure enough she did come back to haunt him. A few days later he had gone to go get some groceries and when he returned home he found his place had been broken into and things all over the house had been moved around, as if someone had been looking for something, like clues as to where Michelle had went to. He knew right off it had been Janet, but the real proof was when he found strands of black hair, just like Janet's, on a nail in a pole to the stairs of the basement. She had bumped her head into it like he sometimes did when he went into the basement without remembering it was there. There was no evidence here he thought to himself, so he shouldn't have had to worry about her, but something deep inside told him different. If she had stopped with that he would have left her alone, but she didn't. That's when she began to follow him around everywhere he went. Whenever he left his house, he would see her somewhere close by acting like she wasn't following him, but he knew she was. Something had to be done to stop her. Apparently, it had worked semi-well before, and hopefully it would work again, maybe even a lot better this time around. He knew he had to kill her, if for nothing else, but to keep his already fragile sanity. On one of her attempts to follow him, he gave her the slip and followed her instead; straight to her own apartment. For two days straight he watched her apartment through the windows of a hotel room across the street. Maybe he had unnerved her or she felt that she would take a break from following him for awhile because she now hardly left her apartment. Through her own apartment windows he could tell she didn't have a boyfriend or husband, and from what he could tell no real close friends. Something about this plan bothered him, something just didn't feel right like he was missing an important fact that he should be made aware of, but he knew there was no other choice. She would leave thirty minutes everyday at two-thirty in the afternoon to go to the post office and check her mail. The fire escape window was always open to let fresh air into her apartment in the hot summer afternoons. That's when he made his move on the third day. He made his way quickly to her apartment window and let himself in. Luckily, no one saw him from outside. Once inside of the apartment he began looking around the house. He found an extension cord in a drawer in the kitchen, and a knife in the wood block on the counter, a big butcher's knife. This time though, instead of murdering the lady by the kitchen sink, it would be easier to kill her in the tub away from open windows. He quickly gathered a suitcase from her bedroom closet, garbage bags from her laundry room cabinets, and instead of a handsaw this time, the only thing he could find was a meat cleaver from the kitchen, which he hid under the sink in the bathroom. This lady likes to cook a lot. He remembered thinking briefly before he got into position to strike at her just when she would come in through the front door. He hid around the corner not far from the door and the bathroom, where he could get her quickly and drag her into the bathroom, without anyone happening to see him from outside through the windows. He had also shut the windows, and hoped that the walls were thick enough to muffle any sounds if she happened to get a scream out. A nearby neighbor might come to her rescue, and that just wouldn't do at all. He hoped he could keep her from making any loud noises. He remembered waiting ten minutes anxiously for her to return. The ten minutes seemed like an eternity. He remembered thinking that maybe she somehow knew he was here, and had gotten the police to get him. Several times he wiped sweat off of his hands on either his blue jeans or his old brown long sleeved work shirt. With the windows shut, it was getting to damn hot in the apartment, or was it his nerves? He didn't know, but she was taking to long. He began to panic, and that's about the time the door opened, and he was half ready to lunge and grab her, and half ready to go through the fire escape window and run from the cops. Noticing it was just her in her black jogging suit, he decided on choice number one. She entered carrying her mail and closed the door behind her with her left white tennis shoe covered foot, as she began to look through her mail. She didn't realize anything was wrong until after he had lunged out and wrapped the cord around her neck. The mail flew out of her hands, and futilely she grabbed at the cord around her neck as he pulled her quickly into the bathroom. Having control over her, though she valiantly tried to fight and struggle free, he threw her into the tub, and still choking her he slammed her head repeatedly into the side of the metal bath tub until she was knocked into unconsciousness. After he had been sure she was out, he went under the sink to grab the knife, and then slit her throat's juggler vein wide open with one hand, and held onto her dark black hair lifting her head up with the other hand. As he cut, her body tried to fight it, but he managed to hold on, and watched sadistically, as blood ran from her open neck wound, and any signs of life left her body. He wondered to himself if he was beginning to enjoy this sick and twisted murder stuff a little bit to much. Maybe it was the thrill of getting away with it. Was this what serial killers enjoyed, and was he beginning to become like them? No, this was just something that had to be done in order to cover up an innocent mistake that he in his drunkenness had made. He didn't want to turn into a serial killer, but he didn't want to fry in the electric chair either. Spirit Ch. 01 After a few moments, he knew she was dead for sure, and began the task of cutting up her body, and sliding the parts into the garbage bags, and then sliding those same garbage bags into the suitcase. He worked thinking everything was going great, but he forgot to lock the front door. He heard a knocking on the door. Oh, shit He thought frantically, as he quickly rinsed the blood off of his hands. He shut the water off just as he heard the door open, and someone walk in. "Janet, are you home? It's Jaline Hey, you left your door open " She yelled out as the front door closed on its own behind her. She must have thought something was wrong finding the front door unlocked, and Janet's mail scattered all over the floor. "Janet, are you all right?" Jason had snuck out of the bathroom, and around the hall, as Jaline came towards the bathroom. "Janet, are you in the bathroom?" Jaline said as she approached the door to the bathroom, which was partly open with the light on. Really panicking now, Jason quickly looked for a weapon to take her out with. He saw a white phone sitting on a coffee table, and quickly disconnected the white phone cord from the body with the receiver still hooked on. Jaline slowly stepped to the bathroom door, her feet must have been feeling like lead inside her brown leather boots, sensing now that something was wrong. She pushed the bathroom door wide open, and said, "Janet, I'm coming in." Even though she must have expected something to be wrong, she definitely was not expecting the sight she saw before her now. A half cut up body, surrounded with blood, inside the bathtub, and a suitcase on the floor full of black garbage bags in the shapes of the missing body parts. Her breath must have now been trapped inside of her. Her woman's blue jeans and fancy white and blue cowgirl styled shirt must of, in that moment, now seemed to be on way to tight. Finally signs of the air being released and returned back into her body could be seen by Jason as he snuck his way up behind her. Jaline failed to realize he was even there, as she took in the horror of the grizzly scene before her, and the information slowly sunk home to her now slowly working brain. She was about to scream, Jason was for sure of it, when the phone cord in Jason's hands had found their target around her throat. The caged beast inside of him had found its way out again. "Stupid blond, you have the wrong number " Jason screamed as he slammed her to the floor and pulled on the cord with all of his might until she was unconscious as well. Quickly this time, he went and locked the front door, and then dragged her to the tub as well and cut her throat open, just as she was beginning to come to, like he did Janet's. This time he took no pleasure in the kill at all, but instead had a deep worry that someone else would come looking for Jaline, the blond stranger he had never known, but had to kill in order to protect his dark secret. After an intense hour of worrying if somebody else would come knocking on the door looking for either of the women, while he busily did his gruesome work, he finally finished. He had cut up the bodies, placed them into now two suitcases, and hauled them separately to his car's trunk. No one was around or saw him to his relief. He went back upstairs only long enough to clean out the bathtub, and lock the door, taking Janet's keys with him, which he had dug out of her front jogging suit pocket, as he had been doing his nasty bit of work. The long drive, to where the other body was, left him with time to think about how this had all gone from a smooth operation, to being shot all to hell. All because he had forgotten to lock Janet's fucking front door. He had no idea where this stupid blond bitch, Jaline, lived, though he thought she probably lived close by because she didn't have a purse with her. He didn't think she was married, but even though she didn't have a wedding ring on, that didn't exactly mean there wasn't a man in her life, or for that matter, another girl with the times we lived in today. After much personal debate, he decided he would just leave Jaline's things alone, because if he went asking around about where she lived, and tried breaking into her house, it might stir up way to much attention to himself, but he would sell and get rid of Janet's things tomorrow. Hopefully, no one would show up as he did so, looking for the blond. If they did, he would tell them he hadn't seen her, and they may just make her a missing person, which happened all the time in a city like this one. He would use the same cover story he used when he sold Michelle's things, for when he sold Janet's things, and hopefully a boyfriend or husband, who had been away didn't happen to show up. This time he thought it should really work, as long as the police didn't show up to investigate the sudden disappearances of the two women. He had finally arrived at the same spot where he had buried Michelle. He began to dig two more separate holes kind of spread out from the other one, in which Michelle's body was buried. While he dug he did a lot of serious thinking, and the more and more he thought about it, the more and more he realized how he had went into these last two killings without any sort of thinking or real planning. He didn't really know anything at all about Janet, much less the stupid wondering nosey ass bitch of a blond, Jaline. This had been really sloppy. He was now worried that he was bound to be caught because there was to many unknowns about all of this operation. It took several hours of digging to finally bury the bodies of the two women, and when he was through he went straight home, and fell right to sleep. The next day, he reluctantly went back and began selling all of Janet's things. Opting instead to see his flawed plan through to the end, instead of taking the cowards way out. About half way through this doomed venture to his dismay, though not at all really surprised, but rather half expecting it, was when the police showed up. They had arrested him on the spot, even though he tried to use his cover story. They told him that this wasn't the first time a lady had disappeared around him, and that a witness has evidence to prove it, and then read him his Miranda rights, thus shutting him up through the long drive to the police station, and through the booking process. * * * * He had no idea who the witness was, but if they had figured out about the first woman he had killed, Michelle, then they probably had enough evidence to convict him of all three murders. He was expecting to get fried in the electric chair, but he vowed to himself and to God, Almighty, that he would not convict himself, and that they would have to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt to get him. Sweat continued to pour down his face, as he kept praying to God to help and forgive him, and made another vow to never do anything like this ever again. He was still praying to God to help him, and constantly wrestling with the mental pictures of his disgusting crimes forever engraved in his mind's eye, an hour later, when the guards came to take him to the court room for his trail. * * * * Thirty minutes later, after a very reluctant trip to the court room, where he stood for trail, the case was finally brought to light in the courtroom. The two arresting officers were there, Deputy Mockery and Deputy Martin, who presented the judge with a file folder of the case and evidence. The judge, Judge Leroy H. Patterson, at least that's what the plaque said on the front of his podium, was a large husky black man looking to be about in his late forties or early fifties if Jason had to guess. He took the folder presented to him and started going through it. The evidence was simple. Other than what the police had gathered, there was only one witness to the crimes. It was an old lady, by the name of Mrs. Witherspoon. Apparently, she didn't actually see him murder anyone, but she told of how Janet had came to her with suspicions about how Michelle had disappeared, and then Janet herself had disappeared, and then to top it all off Mrs. Witherspoon then saw him taking all of Janet's things the day he was arrested. To Mrs. Witherspoon's old senile mind it must have been an open and shut case, but unfortunately for her, this was a court of law, and there was no real evidence here, just circumstancaul. Seeing an opportunity opening up to be free, Jason stood fast to his claim that Michelle went to go visit relatives in Washington State, and that Janet went there to go live with her. They both had given him permission to sell their things, and send them the money in the mail. Unfortunately, however, he had lost their address in Washington state in all of this confusion, but that the girls should soon be calling him at anytime to see how his progress was coming, that is if they haven't already. The judge quickly decided that there wasn't enough evidence to prove murder without leaving a shadow of a doubt, and to bring it before a jury trail, but that there was enough evidence, however, to convict him of grand theft. The judge took all of this into consideration, as he looked at Jason's clean record up until now. For a moment he thought long and hard on this, and then finally, he came to a decision. "Will the defendant, Jason Chambers, please rise to receive sentencing." The judge spoke, as Jason Chambers rose to his feet silently praying to God that this would work. "In light of this situation, I have come to a decision. Jason Chambers, I find you guilty of grand theft. Since your record is pretty clean up until now I will place you under house arrest and probation for two years. However, I am leaving this case open. If the women in question show back up, and contest to your story, the charges will hereby be dropped, however, if the bodies of the women are found, or sufficient evidence is brought to light that foul play was involved on your part, this case will be brought back into this court to be retried. Do you understand this ruling?" "Yes, your honor." Jason said meekly. With this Jason was to report to his house, where an officer would be there shortly to make sure he was there. He caught a cab after he got his things from the jailer, and began the long ride home with a mixed feeling of relief and regret. Next Fragmented Pieces, Book One, Chapter Two, A Special Night, will take us back to Steven "Shadow" MacGraw, and what he does on a night off from work. Coming home after a case, and on a special pagan night, he relaxes, and we are taken into how he casts a Wiccan circle. File #: 16 Character Star Power: 2 Name: Judge Leroy Henry Patterson Aliases: None Nick Names: None known. (Would you make fun of a judge?) Legal Status: Judge Allegiance: The U.S. Legal Justice System Sub-Groups: None. Rank: Judge. Occupation: Judge. Known Relatives: Wife, three kids (2 boys and a girl), and to many others to list here. Birth Date: March 14, 1964 Birth Place: Seattle, Washington Height: 6' 2 Weight: 345 lbs. Eyes: Brown. Hair: Black Attitude: No nonsense, but usually fair in his trails. Known Powers: None. Equipment: Typical Judge stuff, Judge's robe, gavel, podium, really nice car, and huge house. Known Skills: Legal proceedings and judge. Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal. For More Info. See: None, really, but if you want to know more about how real judges are feel free to search for that information. History: Judge Patterson is only a minor character in this particular story. He will appear here at the beginning and later towards the end there is going to be a minor mention of him, but other than that there are no real plans for him. He might be in other storylines, but as for now there is no actual plans for him to do so. Spirit Ch. 02 Jun 6, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Two A Special Night Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on March 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... We met with Steven "Shadow" MacGraw, who broke the fourth wall, and gave us the readers an over view of just who he was, and what he does. Then we went to a prison cell and were introduced to Jason Chambers, who reflected back on how he got there by killing three women. We now return back to Steven who has a night off from work. Chapter Two "A Special Night" Steven down shifted his small compact car from third gear into second, and made the turn into his apartment complex's parking lot. He quickly found a good parking space and backed up into it. Many of the safe driving courses that he took, talked about how backing up should be avoided, but if had to be done, should be done while the mind was still concentrating on driving, so it was better to back while still driving, then to back when first getting into the car. Many of accidents, from running over pets and little children to hitting other cars, mostly occurred when drivers jumped in and started backing up. Steven didn't see any fault in this line of thinking, so he began doing it as a practice as well. Besides if he was in a hurry to get somewhere, it was much faster to just drive forward, then to have to back up first. He set the parking brake and turned off the engine. As the engine and air conditioner died his mind wondered briefly back to his most recent case. As he got out of the car, closing and locking his car door behind him as he went, and began to climb up the stairs to his apartment, he raced through his thoughts on his most recent case. Disappointingly enough it had been just another man hunt for a deranged psychopathic killer. He had been doing quite a lot of these types of cases recently. In his opinion, they were boring, and a waste of his talents. He felt others should take care of these types of cases, but the higher ups felt differently, and so he was off on another man hunt. Nothing really spectacular happened on this case at all really. The perp didn't even put up any real resistance, but, of course, Steven didn't allow him to. Steven simply snuck up behind the mad man, and shot him in the back of the head. Of course, Steven wasn't just a cold blooded killer, he believed in up holding the law and in due process, but in that instant he simply didn't have any choice. It was a life or death situation. Either the ax wielding maniac with his ax raised high, or the terrified bound young woman he was about to make into mince meat. Steven in that split second, decided to permanently eliminate a hazardous threat. Sure he could have tried to wound the guy by shooting him in the arm or leg, but that wasn't a hundred percent sure thing. For all Steven knew the crazed maniac could have been high on drugs, such as PCP, or wearing body armor, or even just have a high tolerance for pain, and the maniac could have still managed to kill the woman, which Steven was desperately trying to save, and possibly Steven himself could have been slain. The young woman, of course, was a Senator's daughter, and the whole reason he was put on this particular case to begin with, and Steven just wasn't about to take any unnecessary risks to either himself or the young terrified woman. At that moment because he was not a police officer, but a government operative, and because of the political importance of the woman, he had the freedom to kill. He didn't have to worry about collecting evidence or search warrants, or even justify beyond a shadow of a doubt his actions, all he had to do was just rescue the girl. Although Steven himself knew it was wrong to kill, he did not hesitate or waver. After all he had trained all his life to eliminate any potential threat to society, and to him it was just a job. In this particular case he just happened to save the taxpayers' money on prison and court costs, or to allow this potentially dangerous individual the chance to be freed on some technicality and be allowed to harm more people, or even come after Steven, himself, for revenge because Steven was doing his job and showed a little compassion. Steven had read many police reports on revenge killings of police officers who were just doing their jobs. As Steven reached the top of the stairs, he decided to push all thoughts of work out of his mind. He was finally home after a week in the field, and it was time to relax, even if it was just for one night. "Tonight is a special night." Steven thought, as he put his key into the lock and clicked the front door to his apartment open. Pulling the key out he stepped inside, shutting and locking the door behind him as he went, after all there were a lot of crazy people in the world, and here recently he had to clean up after a lot of them. His apartment was a small one bedroom apartment. It had a kitchen, laundry room, living room, bath room, and a bed room. Each room had its own decorations and items. The living room was where the front door came into. Beside the front door was a tall coat rack. The living room itself contained a rather old blue sofa couch, a glass topped coffee table sitting in front of the couch with a glass candy tray on top in the center of it, a simple wooden end table sitting on one side of the couch with a small red lamp and a black cordless telephone with caller id and a phone book stuffed under it, a white swivel fan on a stand was on the other side of the couch, an entertainment center with a television, a dual video cassette recorder/dvd player, a stereo with a cd player, a tape player, and a record player. Underneath the entertainment center in its sliding doors were various tapes, compact discs, dvds, and video cassettes. Along one wall was a huge bookcase full of books, mostly on magic. In one corner of the room sat a bench press with weights. Several huge house plants were against the walls. Various pictures and posters, mostly pagan, hung on the walls. The kitchen, which was separated from the living room only by a counter, was small and it contained only the bare basics. A stove, a refrigerator, a coffee pot, a toaster, and a micro wave oven were all that was in here besides the cabinets, counters, and kitchen sink. A few small plants were on the counters. A computer desk and another telephone, usually used for the internet access, were halfway between the living room and kitchen. A door lead from the kitchen into the small laundry room, which only contained a washer, a dryer, and cleaning supplies on a shelf above the washer and dryer. The size of the laundry room was more of a closet size than an actual room. The bathroom was of simple design. It was decorated with just a tub with a shower, a toilet, a sink with a small cabinet underneath the sink, a mirror medicine cabinet, and a small wall storage cabinet for towels and wash rags. The door to the bath room was in a hallway leading from between the kitchen and living room into the bedroom. Two large plants and several posters hung on the walls were all that was in the hallway. The bed room had a small closet, a four-drawer dresser, a bed, an end table beside the bed with a lamp and an alarm clock on it, another white swivel fan on a stand, a few huge plants by the walls, posters on the walls, and a medium sized marble topped table in the middle of the east wall under the window. As he entered into his apartment, Steven took off his trench coat and hat, and hung them neatly on the coat rack beside the door. Walking into the kitchen, he placed the keys on the counter along with his pistol and shoulder holster, and continued into the hallway entering into the bath room. Turning on the bath room light, he took a moment to look at himself in the mirror. His face looked dirty and had a few days growth of a beard. His light brown hair looked greasy and was every which way. His clothes were dirty, and he could smell the stench of himself. "Yeah, tonight is a special night. Peace and relaxation. No work, only rest." He thought to himself aloud. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. It is also midsummer." He remembered this only after seeing the reflection of a poster calender hanging on the wall in the hallway. Snapping out of his daze and thoughts, he turned on the water in the bathtub, and put a stopper in. From underneath his bathroom sink he pulled out a cup full of sea salt and a smaller cup full of vinegar and added it to the tub's water, along with a small cap full of bubble bath. "This will purify and cleanse me for the ceremony tonight." He thought aloud again to himself as he started taking off his clothes and getting into the bathtub. As he started laying in the tub he visualized in his mind's third eye that negativity, tiredness, and sickness were leaving his body and renewed energy entered into him. The bad energy he visualized as snakes slithering out into the water and being destroyed and the good energy he visualized as electricity energizing him. Thirty minutes passed before he got out and started drying off, thanking the goddess and god and the element of water for their power assistance in the cleansing. It felt good to him to have bathed and soaked all that time. He really felt rejuvenated from the experience. Placing the towel around his waist he combed his hair, shaved, and brushed his teeth. He put his dirty clothes in the laundry room before he finally went to his bed room to stash his gun and holster in the closet, and placed on a robe and pentacle. Looking around his room he remembered that it had been a few days since he watered his plants. He took thirty more minutes examining, watering, and caring for his plants. After finishing he went back to his bed room to prepare for the ceremony he was going to perform tonight. It was getting a little hot in his apartment, so he turned on the white swivel fan in his bed room before looking under his bed, in which he found a folder and notebook. On both were written "Steven's Book of Shadows" in black ink. Flipping through them he found what he wanted and read for several minutes. After he finished reading from the folder and notebook, he looked up at the marble table in the middle of the east wall under the window. This was his personal alter dedicated to the goddess and the god. It was laid out with two statues made of wood, which he had made and carved himself a long time ago. One was a robust celestial goddess wearing a crescent moon upon her brow and forehead, hands spread, hair flowing around her head. She was standing on a sea shell rising from the sea. A glass candle holder was embedded in front of her, and embedded in front of the candle holder was a clear tumbled quartz crystal that was round and smooth. The other was a bearded and muscular horned god holding a spear in his upraised hand and a set of pipes in his lowered hand. Oak leaves curled around his face and trailed out from his mouth, and he had goat legs like a satyr. A bull and stag were on either side of him. A glass candle holder was embedded in front of them, just like the other statue of the goddess, but instead of a clear tumbled quartz crystal imbedded in front of the candle holder, there was instead a clear quartz crystal that actually looked like pointed crystals. An incense holder (censor) sat on the table slightly in front and in between the statues with another candle holder slightly before it. Two wooden bowls sat directly in front of the statues. The one directly in front of the goddess statue contained water, and the one directly in front of the god statue contained salt. In front of the bowl of water sat a silver chalice, which he saved several months for and had specially made, along with the silver wand with a tumbled clear quartz crystal on its top and magical symbols engraved in its sides, and a silver bell, all three of which were in a line from front to back of the table directly in front of the goddess statue and water bowl. In front of the god symbol and bowl of salt were two double edged knives. The first knife, closest to the bowl of salt, was black handled, called an atheme, was used to draw energy to cast the circle. The other knife was white handled and used to cut herbs and prepare spells, and was called a bolline. In front of the censor and candle holder was a third wooden bowl for offerings to the goddess and god, and in front of the offering wooden bowl was a pentacle made of wood about a quarter inch thick. It was round and flat with a five pointed star surrounded by a circle engraved on it. In front of the pentacle was a small black cauldron that when filled with water could hold up to a gallon. Beside the marbled alter table was a small straw broom, which was the first thing Steven grabbed. With the straw broom he swept the air around the whole area he was about to cast the circle in. This was not to actually clean up dirt from the area, but rather to remove negativity and harmful energy from the circle's area. After finishing he placed the broom back against the wall. Underneath the table, was a small chest, in which several candles (of all sorts of colors) and holders, along with other magical supplies, were stored when not in use. Since it was the Summer Solstice he pulled out seven candles and four more candle holders. The candles he pulled out were: a brown candle and a candle holder for the north to represent the element of earth, a blue candle and a candle holder for the east to represent the element of air, a red candle and candle holder for the south to represent the element of fire, a green candle and candle holder for the west to represent the element of water, a white candle for the candle holder in between the statues of the goddess and god to represent spirit, and since it was Summer Solstice he pulled out a green candle to place in the god candle holder, and finally a blue candle to place in the goddess candle holder. He pulled out the table from the wall, and placed the candles and candle holders in the proper places. Before beginning his ritual, he went to the kitchen to get some matches, some cookies in a wooden bowl for cake, and a container of orange juice for wine. The cookies and juice was for grounding energies after the ritual. He went back to the alter in the bedroom and placed the bowl of cookies and matches on the alter, and poured some orange juice in the chalice, and then returned the juice container back to the refrigerator before beginning the ritual. He was now ready to begin after shutting off the fan in his bed room, so that it wouldn't blow out the flames, or cause them to catch something else on fire. He lit the three candles on the alter and the incense in the censer, and then said aloud, "Let it be known the temple is about to be erected; the circle is about to be cast." He picked up his bell and rang it three times, and then placed it back in its original position on the alter. With the book of matches he went to the east candle and candle holder and lit the candle while saying, "Here do I bring light and air in at the east, to illuminate my temple and bring it the breath of life." He moved around to the south candle and candle holder and lit it saying, "Here do I bring light and fire in at the south, to illuminate my temple and bring it warmth." He moved around to the west candle and candle holder and lit it saying, "Here do I bring light and water in at the west, to illuminate my temple and to wash it clean." He moved around to the north candle and candle holder and lit it saying, "Here do I bring light and earth at the north, to illuminate my temple and to build it in strength." He then moved back to the east candle and candle holder, and then returned to the alter. Steven placed the matches back on the alter and picked up the atheme, the black handled double edged knife, and returned to the east candle and candle holder. Pointing the atheme towards the east candle and candle holder, he began to concentrate power into the circle. In his mind's third eye he envisioned a bluish white light emitting from the tip of the atheme that flowed into the circle's sides to form a sort of magical force field around the circle, as he began to walk south around the circle until he came back again to the east candle and candle holder completing the circled force field. After reaching the east candle and candle holder, he returned back to the alter. At the alter he picked up the bell and rang it three times before placing it back in its place. With the atheme still in his hands, he picked up the wooden bowl of salt, placing the point of the atheme into the salt and said, "As salt is life, let it purify me in all ways I may use it. Let it cleanse my body and spirit as I dedicate myself in this rite to the glory of the goddess and the god." Still holding the bowl of salt in his hands, he used his atheme to put three portions of salt into the water. He stirred the water with his atheme as he placed the bowl of salt back in its proper place. He continued to stir as he said, "Let the sacred salt drive out any impurities in this water, that I may use it throughout this rite." Placing the atheme back in its proper place on the alter, but still holding the wooden bowl of now salted and purified water, he returned to the east candle and candle holder and began working his way south around the circle, sprinkling the water and salt mixture along the circle's edges, until he returned back to the east candle and candle holder. He returned the wooden bowl of water and salt mixture to its proper place on the alter, and then grabbed the censer and walked it around the circle in the same fashion, letting the smoke trail the edges of the circle. He returned to the alter and placed the censer back into its rightful place. He again picked up the bell and rang it three times, before placing it back in its rightful place. After ringing the bell, he spoke aloud and said, "Let now the quarters be saluted and the goddess and the god be invited." He walked over to the east candle and candle holder with his atheme raised, and drew an invoking pentagram (five pointed star) in the air and said, "All hail to the element of air, watchtower of the east. May it stand in strength, ever watching my circle." He then kissed the blade of his atheme and walked over to the south candle and candle holder. He raised his atheme again and drew another invoking pentagram in the air and said, "All hail to the element of fire, watchtower of the south. May it stand in strength, ever watching over my circle." He again kissed the blade of his atheme and he walked over to the west candle and candle holder. He was now starting to sweat a little from the effects of all the work he was doing, the candles burning, and the heat in the apartment and not having the fan on. He wiped sweat off of his brow before he raised his atheme again and drew another invoking pentagram in the air and said, "All hail to the element of water, watchtower of the west. May it stand in strength, ever watching over my circle." He again kissed the blade of his atheme and he walked over to the north candle and candle holder. He raised his atheme again and drew another invoking pentagram in the air and said, "All hail to the element of earth, watchtower of the north. May it stand in strength, ever watching over my circle." Spirit Ch. 02 He kissed the blade of his atheme one last time, continued back to the east candle, and then returned to the alter. Above the alter he raised his atheme and for the final time drew an invoking pentagram in the air this time saying, "All hail the four quarters and all hail the goddess and the god I bid the lady and lord welcome and invite that they join with me, witnessing this rite I hold in their honor. All hail Let me share the cup of friendship with the four elements and the goddess and the god." He raised the chalice in toast to the goddess and the god and the four elements and poured some of the orange juice into the wooden offering bowl. Afterwards he took a drink from the chalice, and then placed the chalice back in its proper position saying, "Now is the temple erected. So mote it be " Steven hadn't planned any magical spells to cast for the night, because he really didn't need anything at the moment, but if he had needed to cast a spell now would have been the perfect time to do it. Magic was at its zenith on this night, and herbs were most purified and powerful, because this was the longest day of the year. He had good health, didn't need love right now at this point in his life, and had enough money to do what he needed to do, so he chose instead to meditate and reflect on what Summer Solstice was really about. He stated his thoughts aloud for the goddess and the god and the four elements to hear. "I cast this circle tonight in honor of Summer Solstice to the glory of the goddess and the god and the four elements. I also wish to reflect on the meaning of this ceremony. The great Oak King on this night is replaced by the great Holly King. It is a perfect time to harvest the fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I, at this time, want or need nothing, but guidance and to be used in your honor as you see fit for me. I will now meditate, and concentrate on what my future path will be." With his closing words he cleared his mind and relaxed his entire body, while he sat on the floor in front of the alter. For ten minutes he stayed in this state of mind. No thoughts or feelings entered into his mind. Finally, he snapped out of his meditation and felt great. He ate the cookies, only after placing a few in the bowl, and drank the orange juice in the chalice, only after pouring a little more orange juice in the bowl as well. After finishing the cookies and orange juice, he returned to the alter and raised his atheme in salute and said, "Lady and Lord, my thanks to you for sharing this time together. My thanks for watching over me, gaurding and guiding me in all things. Love is the law, and love is the bond. Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again. The temple is now cleared. So mote it be " With this he kissed the atheme blade again and walked with the atheme to the east candle and candle holder. Holding the atheme out, he walked from east to north, to west, to south, and back to east again, drawing back into the atheme the energies that created the circle. In Steven's mind's eye, he envisioned the atheme acting like a vacuum as he walked sucking up the bluish white light from the circle's force field like aura back into the atheme. Once reaching the east candle and candle holder again, he again walked around the circle this time snuffing out the candles with his atheme blade. He returned to the alter and snuffed out the three candles there. The incense would have to burn itself out. He pushed the alter back under the east window leaving the four corner candles and candle holders on top of the alter for now. He would take care of them properly in the morning, but for now he was very tired from the ceremony and work, and decided to change for bed and get some sleep. It had been a long day. Next Fragmented Pieces, Book One Spirit, Chapter Three, Technicalities, will take us back to Jason Chambers, as he is returned home, and dealing in private with what he has done. File #: 17 Character Star Power: 2 Name: Agent Smith Aliases: Twilight Nick Names: None. Legal Status: High brass government official. Allegiance: US Government Sub-Groups: None Rank: High brass government official. Occupation: Government Operative Known Relatives: Unknown Birth Date: Unknown Birth Place: Unknown Height: Unknown Weight: Unknown Eyes: Unknown Hair: Unknown Attitude: Serious straight to the point. Known Powers: Unknown, presumed none. Equipment: Any government issued stuff he needs. Known Skills: Leadership skills that involves getting and setting up missions, assigning people to those missions, and getting those people what they need to accomplish those said missions. Limitations or Weaknesses: Assumed mortal. For More Info. See: Steven "Shadow" Mac Graw History: Steven "Shadow" Mac Graw receives his missions and orders from this person, but has no real idea of who he actually is. Usually his orders come either by a phone call or through e-mail on computer. We have some minor ideas of who it could be later on, but it is not important at this time, or in this storyline. Spirit Ch. 03 Jun 6, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Three Technicalities Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on March 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... We met with Steven "Shadow" MacGraw, who broke the fourth wall, and gave us the readers an over view of just who he was, and what he does. Then we went to a prison cell and were introduced to Jason Chambers, who reflected back on how he got there by killing three women. We then returned back to Steven who had a night off from work, and was privy to see how a pagan circle was cast. Now Jason Chambers is released from prison, but placed on house arrest. We are about to join him as he returns finally to his home. Chapter Three "Technicalities" Jason Chambers just got to his house when the police cruiser pulled up. Fumbling with his keys in his blue jean's pocket, and looking at the locked house door, he heard the police cruiser pull into his driveway. Finally, he got his keys out of his blue jean's pocket, but instead of unlocking the front door, he turned around to see just who pulled up. Realizing it was a police officer, he let out a low moan, as the officer got out of his police cruiser, putting on his hat, and began walking toward him. Jason leaned lazily against the right pole of his porch as the officer approached. Jason slightly felt under dressed in his black "The Intergalactic Space Travelers World Tour" t-shirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers, as compared to the police officer's crisp clean, ironed, starched, and even creased in the right spots uniform. "Mr. Chambers?" "Yes." "I am Lieutenant Daniel Edwards. I am here to inform you, Mr. Chambers, that the police force will be in constant surveillance of your activities, and if or when we have enough evidence to convict you, we will be placing your sorry ass under arrest. This surveillance will be continued until we can either convict you or the women in question resurface again." The officer in front of him said all of this in a matter of fact tone, as if he was a newsman giving the weather report. No emotion what so ever flickered across his stern face. "I understand." Suddenly the officer's face in front of Jason filled full of emotion, surprising Jason just as a balloon bursting would. The mixed emotions of hatred and disgust shining in the officer's eyes, unnerved Jason some what, as the police officer leaned closer, but yet still didn't raise his voice. "Then understand this you sorry son of a bitch, I believe you killed those women, and I believe me and you both know those women aren't going to show up alive because you killed them. I don't like you, and believe you should be already fried in the chair, you sick bastard. You break even the slightest of laws, and we will be all over you like white on rice, boy. If we find the ladies' bodies we will be back and your sorry ass will be grass, and I will personally be the lawn mower. Good day, Mr. Chambers." The officer walked back to his car as Jason turned and unlocked his front door finally. The officer was already speeding away as Jason opened the door and stepped in. "What in the fucking hell was he trying to do, play the one man version of the good cop/bad cop routine to scare me straight? Boy, what a dumb ass prick " Jason said aloud to himself. He was relieved that the officer had left. The house wasn't in the best of shape, in fact, a lot of work was ahead of Jason. Sunlight streamed through the cracks of the curtains, which brightened the room up somewhat, but still left shadows here and there. During the time he spent in jail, police had torn his house apart, looking for clues to the ladies whereabouts. He looked around and thought about the mess, and finally decided it would have been better if he had just been robbed. "That's funny." He thought to himself. "I can't call the cops to report this vandalism because they were the ones who did it." His house had several rooms, such as a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, a laundry room, an office (that at one time had been his father's before one day he just up and left never to be heard from again), four bedrooms (though only two had ever been used by his family), two and a half bathrooms, and a huge basement. He had inherited the house from his mother after she had passed away from cancer. He had stuck by her side until the very end, and this house and the memories were all he had left of her. He thought a moment to himself, "Jason, if she can see you now, she wouldn't be too proud of you would she?" He remembered seeing her that last time. * * * * It had been a long drive, possibly the longest he had ever driven, even though it had been only a few blocks from where he had worked. He had stopped at a floral shop to buy a dozen red roses, to cheer his mother up, but even as he bought them, he wasn't totally for sure if he was going to be to late for her. The doctors had told him just the day before that she wasn't expected to last very much longer, and that she could go at any time. Her room was on the fourth floor of the hospital in the intensive care unit. Instead of taking the elevator, he decided he needed time to prepare himself, so he took the stairs all the way up to the fourth floor. When he finally made it to the door at the top of the stairs, he hesitated, and sat on the top step to catch his breath, and to build up his courage for the roughness he knew he was about to endure. When finally he gathered up his breath and courage, he went through the door and walked down the long hallway that seemed to stretch for miles, though it couldn't have been more than a few hundred feet to his mother's hospital room. He opened the door, and was slightly relieved when he saw his mother look up at him, though he could even see the pain in her eyes every moment she lived. He slowly walked towards her bed as he spoke to her saying, "How are you doing, Mother?" His mother, who had been a strong woman just months before, laid in bed, and weakly looked up at him smiling weakly, but he could tell that she was grateful that he had came. As he reached the side of her bed he spoke again saying, "I brought you some roses mom. They are red, your favorite, just like dad gave you when you two first started dating." Weakly she grabbed his arm, and he knelt down to hear what she had to say. In a weak and raspy voice she said, "Your...father...isn't here...now. He...doesn't care...about you, but...I do. You have...made me...very proud, and I...want you to...keep making me...proud...of you..." She then went into a violent coughing fit. "Save your strength, Mother." He had said still holding onto her arm. "Rest and take it easy." She finished coughing, but was still having trouble breathing, as she finished saying, "Make...me...proud." After saying that she let out a huge gasp of air, and her eyes glazed over, as her head tilted to the side. The monitor registering her vital signs and heart beat went from going up and down in rhythm into a flat line, and an alarm went off. He clutched her arm, practically screaming, "Mother No, don't go " He fell forward on her arm clutching it to his face, as tears came pouring down his cheeks, and he wept uncontrollably. He kept crying even after the nurses came in, but there was nothing they could do, and so they had left him alone in his grief. * * * * He thought of how she had probably saw him go to Michele's house and murder her. A woman who had been like a sister to him. She was probably the only true friend that he had ever had. They had grown up together practically as neighbors. His mom and her mom were the best of friends. Now his mom had probably watched as he snapped in an instant of anger, and just killed her. There was no taking that back. He could not give Michele back her life, just as he could not give his mom back hers. That was it, "Game Over" with no more continues, and it was his fault. He recovered from his thoughts, long enough to finally shut the front door, and walked into the living room. Laying on the floor was a busted picture frame, with four separate pictures in it. Even though the frame was bent and the glass cover cracked and broken, the pictures inside were all right. He picked it up, careful not to cut his fingers, and sat on the couch again drifting into his thoughts as he stared at the pictures through the cracked and broken frame. The picture in the upper left corner was of his mom and dad, shortly after they had gotten married. They were standing outside in front of this house when they first bought it. There was a "for sale" sign in the yard, and above it was a "sold" sign. The two of them were holding hands and smiling, while pointing at the sign. The picture in the upper right corner was of him as a baby. He was lying in his crib, giggling and smiling. The picture in the lower left corner was of his senior prom. His mom was on his left side, Michele was on his right side, with her mom on her right side. He remembered that Michele's father had taken the picture. Lastly, the picture in the lower right corner was of him at graduation from college. He had a bright future ahead of him then, and now that future was destroyed. No job, and probably could never get one again, with the suspicion of murder now on him. His best friend, and once more than that, gone forever. Killed with his own hands, in a fit of anger. Any other friends or family, which he never really had any, were now long gone or wouldn't have anything at all to do with him now after all this. If there ever was a time in his life that he felt lonely, this moment holding the broken picture frame, beat them all, hands down. He was truly alone, and he knew it. * * * * Michele had been very excited about the upcoming high school prom, so excited in fact, that was all she talked about to everyone. She told everyone of how she and Jason were going to go to the prom together, and that someday soon he would ask her to marry him. Michele was a straight A student, and a varsity cheerleader. Jason had also been a straight A student, and one of the top athletes in school. He did it all from track, football (starting quarterback), basketball (starting center), and even baseball (starting pitcher). Jason had sat for an hour in Michele's living room waiting impatiently for her to get ready for the prom. Her father had been sitting there as well, and they talked about how well Jason had been doing in all the sports he played. Jason though he liked to talk about himself somewhat, was getting really tired of the conversation, and was beginning to feel as if he had gone to hell. After forty-five minutes of this, his own mother had shown up at Michele's family's front door. Michele's mother and his wondered into the kitchen for lady talk. Still Michele's father kept talking about sports, and Michele still wasn't ready. Jason began to think this nightmare was never going to end, and he began to sweat in the tux he was wearing. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity to Jason, Michele came downstairs looking more beautiful than he had ever seen her before. The dress she wore was stunning. Her hair looked all long and beautiful, compared to how she always wore it braided up. She looked just like a fairy tale princess, but Jason viewed her more as he would an angel personally coming to save him from the depths of hell. Michele walked down the stairs like a queen. Jason felt his heart jump into his throat in nervousness. Both of them had big expectations for tonight, and now both of them were prepared to get them started on the way. Even though both were ready to go, his mother and her parents weren't quite ready for them to go yet. They insisted that they get photographed. Michele's father went to go get his camera, and both of their mothers had ushered them outside to stand in front of his car. The car (one of the fancy sports cars of the time, though he couldn't exactly remember what exactly) was a few years old, and had about 175,000 miles on the engine, but he constantly maintained the maintenance of the engine, and even just repainted it several months before the same yellow as it had originally been. Jason had just washed and polished his car up the day before, and it still shined beautifully that day. They posed for the picture, and soon after were on their way to the prom. Of course, they both were the prom's king and queen. They danced, ate, and they were the highlight of the prom. Afterwards, they even went to a moonlight drive to the lake. Though that night was pretty magical for both of them, it never really lived up to their expectations. They both soon realized that life wasn't quite what it was cracked up to be. Even the car was long gone now, and there was nothing left, but memories. * * * * Jason still clutched the busted picture frame in his hands. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead and hands as he sat there thinking about the past. He knew now his plans were ruined, and he didn't know how long it would be before the police discovered the truth. Jason felt his days were numbered. He swore to himself though, that he would not convict himself, and that the police would have to figure it all out on their own. Even as he thought about this he again looked at the picture, and again began remembering the past. Michele and Jason had finished college together, but somehow during that time they drifted apart. Something had changed in both of them. Jason wasn't sure of what, but there definitely was something that changed between them. They were still best of friends, and Jason felt that he could have told her anything, but the romantic interest that they one time held for each other was no longer there, at least, not for him. They both graduated from college and got jobs in different places, but still visited with each other from time to time. Eventually Michele's father got a transfer along with a raise and a higher position in the company that he worked for, and Michele's parents moved away. Michele had decided that she liked the work she was doing here and stayed, besides she had friends here, she had told her parents one night over the phone when Jason had been there at her place, and they were watching a game on television. He remembered back to a week before the horror of it all began. * * * * Jason came by as he always did. Michele was busy cleaning dishes from her supper when he showed up. She unlocked the door and let him in before going back to her dishes to finish them up. "How was your day at work today?" She had asked as she was drying a plate off and putting it into the cabinet. Jason had sat down, and used the remote to turn on the television as he replied back, "Well, it was just another day at the job I work. A two hour lunch break on the clock, and I left early because there wasn't really nothing to do." Not really surprised by this remark, Michele replied back while washing a fork up, "You know if you keep that up they are going to catch on, and fire you." While flipping through the channels, Jason sarcastically replied back, "No, that would be way to easy of an escape from that hell hole." Michele finished the dishes and drained out the dirty dish water. She quickly rinsed out the sink, and then made her way to the couch where Jason was, and sat down. "You know you have to keep working for the money until we save up for the move to the big city. In the big city, we'll get much better jobs. Ones we actually like. You have to make sure you keep your job." She started in. "Relax, it's all good, babe. No one knows or really cares what I do, as long as the work gets done." Jason replied back, finally finding a good game on the television. "You know we could save even more money though, if you moved in with me at mom's old place." "You know I can't do that. To many memories I don't want to remember. Not that they were bad, just no sense bringing up things that you can never go back to. I think you should sell the house and move in here." Michele debated back. "I have to many things for here, and besides it is familiar to me, and I would be lost here." Jason replied. "Look they just tied the score up. Turn it up, and let's watch this." Michele replied beginning to cuddle up closer to Jason. * * * * How right she had been. He didn't even realize how much he had needed the job, until the day he was laid off. He had saved some money, but he really wasn't prepared to look for another job, and probably wouldn't have found one that paid near as well as that one did, especially not now with all of this going on around him. Angered at the company because even though he was somewhat of a slacker, he still did more work than a lot of the other people did. How did they expect to get by without him there? He hoped they couldn't. To try and drown his sorrows, which really didn't work, he had went to the local bar, and was eventually kicked out for being to drunk. That's when the horror began. Snapping out of his daze, Jason placed the picture on the coffee table, and began to clean the mess that was his home up. He didn't want to dwell on that again. He had dwelled for far to long over it while he was in jail. It was more than time to get over it and move on. Jason flipped on the living room lights half surprised the electricity was still on. Thinking about the electricity he remembered that he hadn't checked the mail yet. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure he even really wanted to, probably full of unpaid bills, but he eventually decided to anyway. He walked outside to the street where his mailbox was and opened it up to find it full of mail, which was also a surprise because shouldn't the post office have stopped delivering mail here after a short while. He grabbed the rather huge pile of mail and carried it into the kitchen of his house, and laid it all on the kitchen table. He noticed that the kitchen was a complete mess, as he flipped on the kitchen lights. Pots, pans, dishes, and even silverware were scattered all over the kitchen floor. Drawers were thrown every which way, and food was dumped all over. He could smell the rancid odor of decayed food, and even see the roaches here and there, along with a mouse or two, though they were all trying to scurry out of the light. With a sigh, he said to himself, "Yeah, I've got a lot of cleaning to do." Sitting in a chair at the kitchen table, he began to go through his mail and sort it out. Junk mail in one pile, bills in another, and any letters in yet another. After sorting them, he looked around for his trash can, which he saw was dumped in a corner of the kitchen. After picking it up he looked around on the floor for his trash bags, and soon found them. After pulling one bag out, he set the box on the table, and placed the bag in the trash can. He immediately dumped the junk mail into it, and sorted through the bills. He only kept the most recent bills out to the side, and dumped the rest into the trash can as well. His cable had already been disconnected, and they were demanding their money. His telephone service was threatening to shut off, but he still had a couple of days left on that along with his electricity. The gas and water weren't quite ready to be shut off, but he knew he had to pay them soon as well. The insurance to his car, which was now impounded by police, was about due as well, but he wouldn't worry about that until he was free to drive again. Spirit Ch. 03 If the police would let him, he would take care of all of it in the morning, along with buying groceries with what little he had left in his dwindling savings account. He also knew he had to go to the unemployment office in the morning, and straighten that out, but that it would be several weeks before he would see any money from them. Now that he had gone through the bills, he looked at the letters. Some were from friends, mostly from work about how they were sorry he lost his job, but one was from Michele's father. He held the letter in his hands, and dread filled his soul. He stared at it for several minutes, before reluctantly deciding to open it. It read: Dear Jason, How are you doing? We are doing fine. I am writing to you because it has been awhile since we have heard from our daughter, Michele, and we were getting a little worried about her. I am sure nothing is wrong, but if you see her, could you tell her to write or call us? We have tried to call her several times, but have been unsuccessful in reaching her. By the way, how is work going? It's going great out here for me, and this weekend the Misses and I are going to go to the lake. We have bought a boat, and a camping trailer, and are eager to test them out. Well, hope to hear from both of you soon. Sincerely, Samuel Jason clutched the letter in his hands. How could he tell her father that he had killed her in cold blood? Did he know about him by now? How could he ever face Michele's parents ever again? He couldn't give the same lies to them as he did to everyone else. They would see right through them. Hell, if he ever came face to face with Samuel again, the old man would probably kill him right then and there. No questions asked and no warning given. Jason knew he was in deep shit. Still clutching the letter in his hands he walked into the living room, and plopped down on the couch. He was tired and had to think. He would clean the house up later, he thought to himself as he laid down and fell a sleep on the couch. Next Fragmented Pieces, Book One Spirit, Chapter Four, Astral Travel and Dreams, will take us back to Steven "Shadow" MacGraw, as he is sleeping and is visited by an old teacher with a cryptic warning. File #: 18 Character Star Power: 1 Name: Michele Branson. Aliases: None. Nick Names: None. Legal Status: Deceased. Allegiance: None. Sub-Groups: None. Rank: None. Occupation: Before being murdered by Jason Chambers, she was a college student, and working as a part-time waitress. Known Relatives: Samuel Branson (Father), Sarah Branson (Mother), and many others (to numerous to list). Birth Date: January 16, 1982. Birth Place: Carbondale, IL. Height: 5' 6 Weight: 125 lbs. Eyes: Green. Hair: Brown. Attitude: Usually was very serious and goal oriented. Was waiting for Jason to come around to become a serious relationship, possible even marriage, until Jason lost his job at the factory. This set her off, seeing her goals set back. In return, Jason killed her, though she was deviant even at the end. Known Powers: None. Equipment: She was renting her own apartment, and had a car. Known Skills: Waitress and college student. Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal. For More Info. See: Jason Chambers. History: Even though she was born in Carbondale, IL., her father soon got a good job in another place, and the whole family moved to become next door neighbors to Jason Chambers and his mother. Jason and her grew up together and were something of an item, even going to senior high school prom together. After high school, Jason's mother become very sick, and he spent his time taking care of her. Michelle went onto begin college. Her father got a job offer in Washington, and would have to move there. Michelle opted to stay in this town hoping that Jason would eventually be hers, and she rented her own apartment. Jason's mom soon passed away, and Jason seemed to become distant to her. She figured to give him some space, but he eventually started coming around again, and even got a factory job. They talked about distant future plans of moving into a bigger city together, and even marriage. Then things got bad the night Jason lost his job, and got drunk. Jason murdered her in a fit of drunken rage. Spirit Ch. 04 Jun 18, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Four Astral Travel & Dreams Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on June 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... Jason Chambers had killed three women, but because of lack of evidence was sent to back to his home under house arrest until more evidence can be brought forth. He thought about the past for awhile before falling asleep. Meanwhile, Steven "Shadow" MacGraw came home for a night off from work, and celebrated a pagan holiday by casting a magical circle. We now return back to Steven as he prepares for bed. Chapter Four "Astral Travel and Dreams" Steven had already picked up the ceremonial stuff and placed it away where it belonged. He had done a bit of house cleaning and laundry as well. Now he sat in front of the television watching the ten o'clock news. The heat in the house had started to become unbearable, so after the holy ceremony Steven had turned on both fans in his apartment and kept them running. He was happy to see that nothing unusual yet has happened while he was enjoying his night off. All the things mentioned on the news could be handled by other people who were supposed to handle those kinds of things, and he didn't have to mess with them. Steven waited until after the weather report was over, and then shut the television off. He was tired and would probably have another busy day ahead of him tomorrow, probably doing other people's work instead of in his special field, so as he weariedly yawned he decided to go on to bed. Before going to bed though he got one last drink of juice, and checked his magical sleeping things, which included a good working pen and a journal to write down his dreams in, a petrified piece of wood on his bed stand, and a cinnamon stick he had under his pillow. Both the petrified wood and the cinnamon stick would help him gain meaning from his dreams, and the journal would let him record the meaning of the dreams and allow him to look back on them later for reference. After checking the items, he knelt down beside his bed, and said a small prayer of thanks to the goddess and the god. It went something like this: Dear goddess of the moon, oceans, and the Earth, Known as Diana, and several other names. Dear god of the sun, woodlands, and animals, Known as Pan, and several other names. I thank you both for the many blessings that I have received, Both at work and tonight in the circle. May you guide me to doing your bidding and work, Also, I want to thank the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, For their help in helping me to fulfill your great work. With all of my heart I love you, And I hope I can bless you, In much the same way that you have blessed me. Finishing the prayer, he crawled into bed, and laid flat on his back underneath the covers. He then totally relaxed his body, and began to do rhythmic breathing taking a breath in for five seconds, holding it for five seconds, letting it out for five seconds, holding it for five seconds, and then repeating the process over and over again. After a few moments of this and with a slight mental push, his soul left his body, and he was astral traveling. In his astral form he could see himself laying in bed, as he floated around the room. He had done this hundreds of times, but he still enjoyed looking at his own body from outside of it without looking into a mirror. Quickly he decided to go to the astral gardens to meet some of his astral mentors that he had there. There were three of them that he normally met. All three had been long dead, but stayed in the astral realm to help those like Steven who ventured into the astral realm. All three of them had a working idea of how the world and technology of today worked, and the state of affairs of people today and in the future, despite coming from totally different societies with much less technology. One was named Grey Wolf, and he was an early native American shaman, who lived in the time before the white man ever came. In his time he talked to the animal spirits, did magical healing, scurried the future, astral traveled, performed ceremonies, and cast spells by smoking different herbs in his pipe. A second was a wise Oriental man named Yang. He once lived long ago in the orients teaching mental discipline and martial arts. He was very wise, speaking in riddles at most times, and possessed a great many mind powers, such as: telepathy, telekinesis, and even seeing the future. Many times Steven had consulted with him on how to use mind powers properly or for his wisdom. Steven could only slightly use such mind powers, and only with very great effort. He knew he would one day have to spend many years to perfect such talents, but now he did not have the time or patience. A third was a robed man who wore a hood over his face. Steven didn't know his name, but he did know that the figure was once a great druid priest and had great control over the plants and animals. He appeared on occasions to give advice on how to properly treat plants and animals, and sometimes even lectured Steven on how he mistreated nature at times. On some rare occasions he would teach Steven a few druid spells, but only when he thought Steven was ready for them. There was also a fourth who rarely appeared. She was an Egyptian princess priestess. Steven didn't know her name either, and she only really appeared when he was working on figuring out some ancient symbols, and she would tell him their meanings. Occasionally he would run into others here, such as Viking warrior, a mystical witch, a powerful warlock, etc, but usually those were only a one time thing, and the four mentioned above were the most common. He one time even ran into another pagan who was dying in the hospital somewhere in the USA, and that was a very sad astral visit, though he hoped to have eased their suffering somewhat with their visit together. Who knew what to expect or who would appear in the astral realms with each visit? It was always a surprise. Grey Wolf was the one that met him in the astral gardens today. He sat on the ground covered with a blanket, and smoked on a shaman's pipe. On his shoulder sat a hawk, and by his side, laying in the grass, was a large grey wolf. Steven knew this was his traveling companions, the animal spirits that protected Grey Wolf. Steven also knew there was a third companion nestled in the blanket with Grey Wolf. It was the cunning weasel spirit. As Steven approached, Grey Wolf looked up at him and spoke, "Steven, I have been expecting you. Come and sit down beside me, we have much to talk about." Steven approached and sat down in the grass beside Grey Wolf saying, "As always it is a pleasure to see you again Grey Wolf. How have you been?" Grey Wolf spoke, "Ah, I wish this was a pleasure trip that we could just visit, but I have grave news for you." "What is it, Grey Wolf?" Steven asked. "You seem concerned." "I am." Grey Wolf spoke. "An evil spirit from my past is coming to haunt you. Listen carefully to my tale, and watch as it unfolds before your eyes." With this Grey Wolf pulled a few more herbs out of his side pouch and placed them in the pipes bowl. The animals began to even pay attention to the tale as well, and even the weasel came out from under the blanket to sit on Grey Wolf's lap, so that she too could see the tale as well. Grey wolf began to speak, as images began to form from the smoke arising from the pipe. "Many moons ago, more than I could possibly count, when I was still alive, a very powerful and evil spirit came into our village. The spirit hid until the moon was high and killed many braves, squaws, and children. I consulted the spirits of nature, and with their help I developed a spell to trap the evil spirit. I made a clay pot with a lid, gathered several herbs, and prepared for his next attack. That night, which happened to be when the moon was new, it appeared to attack another squaw in our village, but this time I was ready for it. I placed the clay pot on the ground, put the herbs into my pipe, and began to smoke it as I said an ancient incantation of exorcism and entrapment for the evil spirit. The evil spirit was drawn away from the squaw and into the clay pot, which I immediately threw on the lid, and sealed the lid permanently shut with a special adhesive made from herbs and heated by fire. The clay pot I buried in the surrounding caves deep within, and placed the symbols of my people to warn that an evil spirit was placed within." Steven spoke interrupting Grey Wolf's story here. "That's an interesting story Grey Wolf, but what does that have to do with me?" "Patience, young one, I was getting to that before you interrupted me." Grey Wolf spoke. In warning the wolf at Grey Wolf's side let out a small growl of irritation, as Grey Wolf continued his story. "The evil spirit has called upon many dark friends, and has grown a lot stronger during his entrapment. It has waited a very long time, and has plotted out it's revenge every moment it has been trapped. He is freeing himself even now as we speak. You will be called upon to take care of it, this I have foreseen in the future. More I can't say, except that when you think you have won it will return again. My time here grows short, but I know that you will be able to handle the evil spirit." With that Grey Wolf stood up, and his animal spirit friends stood to follow. He turned to leave, but was stopped momentarily by Steven placing a hand on his shoulder. Steven spoke saying, "Please wait, Grey Wolf, is there anything else you can tell me?" Grey Wolf was about to say something when suddenly several black widow spider spirits came menacingly from nowhere and spoke to them, "Stay away from our friend. He is protected by us. You can't stop him or us." While Steven's attention was on the spiders, Grey Wolf slipped away into other parts of the astral plane. The spiders began to advance towards Steven. Steven realizing that Grey Wolf was gone and that he was in trouble decided to terminate this astral visit and return home. As soon as Steven's spirit returned back to his body and he awakened, he immediately turned on the lamp beside his bed, and pulled out his dream journal, and wrote down every detail that he could remember. It took him ten minutes to completely finish the journal entry. When he was finished, he decided to get another drink from the kitchen. This time though something that would help him go to sleep. He mentally narrowed the choices down to either warm milk or hot chocolate, as he walked towards the kitchen. On his way through the living room he detoured long enough to turn the television on, and changed the channel to the all news channel. Right now it was talking about the stock prices. Steven went into the kitchen and finally decided on making a cup of hot chocolate. He pulled out his kettle and filled it with some water from the kitchen sink. He turned on the stove, and placed the kettle on the burner to warm the water up. Searching the cabinets, he pulled out the instant hot chocolate, a spoon, and a coffee cup placing them on the counter beside the stove. He had to wait for the water to get hot, so he decided to go watch news in the living room. He sat in the chair and watched as the news was talking about another major airline crash, in which there were no survivors. After that they talked about a guy from Oklahoma who was America's most wanted because he had went on a killing spree after a convenience store robber gone wrong, and managed to escape. Steven didn't care about that because police could handle it. The kettle went off about half-way through the news story and Steven made his cup of hot chocolate. When he sat down again the weather report for the nation was on. The weather report was done about the same time Steven had finished his cup of hot chocolate. He shut off the television and filled the cup with water to soak in the kitchen sink. He went to bed to go to sleep, not doing anything special this time. He laid there a minute in the darkness before he decided to look at the journal entry one more time and turned on the light. He grabbed the journal and skimmed through it quickly one more time. He placed it back and shut off the light to ponder what it meant. While still pondering on Grey Wolf's meaning, Steven fell fast asleep. Steven's first dream of the night was a little out of the ordinary for Steven. It started out normal enough, but then got strange. Steven was walking through a mechanic place for semi-trucks. Mechanics were working on trucks here and there and Steven was helping one of the mechanics fix an engine in one of them. He would hand the mechanic tools that the mechanic would ask for. First a wrench, then a Phillip screw driver, and then finally an engine part of some kind. While the mechanic was working on the part, Steven looked around the garage area, and noticed that black widow spiders were beginning to crawl all over the walls. As Steven watched, the spiders began to start crawling ..over the mechanics and biting them. They would scream in agony before dying. Eventually all the mechanics were killed and the spiders had Steven surrounded and began moving in on him. Steven woke up shaking and covered in sweat, inspite of the circulated cool breeze coming from the bedroom fan. It took him a minute before realizing it was just a dream. He turned on the lamp again beside his bed and made another entry in his dream diary. After finishing the entry, he calmed down enough to go back to sleep and have another dream. This time he was in a house, which looked kind of old. In another room Steven could hear that fighting was going on. He walked cautiously over to the doorway and looked in. Two men were fighting. One was a really big guy in a wrestler's mask, and the other wasn't quite as big as the other guy, but was still pretty strong looking. The guy in the mask kicked the other guy in the stomach, and when the other guy bent over in pain, the masked guy forced his head between his legs. The masked guy then did a power bomb through a table, which is to say, he lifted him up in the air, flipping him over, and then slammed him back first through the kitchen table, which broke in half. The masked guy walked around the room for a moment to catch his breath before reaching down with one hand around the other guy's neck and picking him up. With one hand the masked guy picked the other guy up off of the ground apparently for a one-handed choke slam, but the other guy kicked him in the groin causing the big masked man to release the hold and bend over in pain. The masked guy was standing in front of a closed door as the other guy backed up a little. The other guy then kind of ran forward and kicked the bigger masked man in the head causing him to fly back, crashing through the closed door and down the basement stairs. Steven thought that it was over and began to walk forward when suddenly a hand shot up through the floor and grabbed Steven's leg. Steven was shocked as the hand began to pull him down. "No!" Steven screamed as he woke up again. As he realized it was a dream again, he began to wonder if he ever was going to get some good sleep tonight. He turned on his light, and looked at the time. It was two a.m. He pulled out his dream diary and wrote another entry quickly, before going back to sleep. In the next dream he had he was in a room with a concrete floor. His religious gear was there as well, except there wasn't an alter. With a piece of chalk he drew a circle with a six-foot diameter, and inside the circle he drew a five pointed star. He blessed a bowl of salt and a bowl of water placing some of the salt in the water. He went around the circle and blessed the outer layers of it with first the salt, and then the water. He then placed a candle at each star point and called to the four elements and then the goddess and god to enter into the circle. For a minute after that nothing happened, but finally smoke began to fill the circle. A lady stepped out of the smoke. She was the most beautiful woman Steven had ever seen. She turned her back towards Steven and looked out of the circle. She looked as though she was preparing to defend herself from something. Suddenly a flash of lightening hit the ground beside her, with a crackle of thunder. A muscular horned man stood clutching a spear beside her. The horned man stood with his spear ready to fight along side the woman. Steven began to realize that this was the goddess and the god. From behind Steven he could sense other presences as well, and he turned to look. Steven saw three elementals standing at their star points. One was water, one was fire, and the last was Earth. Steven could sense there was a fourth, but could not see it. It was the elemental of air, which Steven knew was there, but was invisible as always. Steven could feel their love for him, and sense their protection of him. Steven felt safe and secure here in the middle of the circle. Steven thanked all six of them for coming. The four elementals began to leave and then the horned god. The goddess turned and spoke to Steven saying, "Remember this spell. If you need our protection, we will come." With that she began to fade away as a loud ringing bell began to intrude into Steven's mind and he realized it was his alarm clock and he woke up. Steven shut off the alarm, and made the final entry for the night into his dream diary. Next Chapter Five "Trouble in New Mexico" where an evil spirit that has been trapped for many years is finally freed and about to cause havoc by taking control of a hoard of black widow spiders to go on a rampaging killing spree. File #: 19 Character Star Power: 2 Code Name: Grey Wolf Alter Ego: None Aliases: None Nick Names: None Legal Status: Dead Allegiance: Only to Steven "Shadow" MacGraw Sub-Groups: None Rank: Tribal Shaman Occupation: Tribal Shaman Known Relatives: Unknown Birth Date: Unknown Birth Place: Somewhere in the USA, along time ago. Height: Unknown Weight: Unknown Eyes: Green Hair: Brown Attitude: Patient and mystic. Acts like a teacher to Steven. Known Powers: Shaman abilities such as communicating with animals and nature, astral travel, seeing future events before they happen, mystical healing, spell casting by smoking different herbs in his pipe, etc. Equipment: A Shaman's pipe and Native American clothing. Known Skills: Shaman, hunting, gardening, and survival. Limitations or Weaknesses: He is a spirit now dwelling on the astral plane which Steven consults about on mystical things, so it is unknown what weaknesses he has. For More Info. See: Steven "Shadow" MacGraw History: A long time ago in the now present day USA, Grey Wolf was a shaman for his tribe of people. Exactly which tribe Steven has never quite figured out. After Grey Wolf passed away, he remained in the astral realm to guide others in mystical ventures. Steven is uncertain of how this came about. Before he did become this guide however, he trapped an evil spirit that was terrorizing his tribe into a clay vase. Sensing the evil spirits release he has come to help Steven stop this evil spirit again. Spirit Ch. 05 Jul 4, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Five Trouble In New Mexico Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on June 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... Jason Chambers had killed three women, but because of lack of evidence was sent to back to his home under house arrest until more evidence can be brought forth. He thought about the past for awhile before falling asleep. Meanwhile, Steven "Shadow" MacGraw came home for a night off from work, and celebrated a pagan holiday by casting a magical circle, then he went to bed where he astral traveled and then had a few prophetic dreams. We now go to New Mexico where the menace Steven was warned about is freed. Chapter Five "Trouble in New Mexico" The moon was full and bright in the New Mexico sky. Deep within a cave in the nearby hills at Sitting Bull Falls, New Mexico, way past where anyone today traveled to, in a half-buried side tunnel, a clay ceramic vase sat with a lid that was sealed to the top. Outside the small conclave where the vase sat were Native American writings and drawings on the walls that if translated would tell of the evil spirit inside the vase and warn everyone to stay away from it. Included as well was a story of the great battle with the evil spirit, and how it was captured, in fact, the same story that was told to Steven, and written by the same Native American shaman, Grey Wolf, who told the story, and placed the writings on the walls hundreds of years ago. Inside the small conclave, half-buried now, was the clay ceramic vase surrounded by several black widow spiders, and their webs. Several of the spiders were surrounding it on the walls, two spiders were walking across the top of the lid, and one spider was crawling around on the side of the vase. Normally black widow spiders did not travel or gather in great number together at all, but this was a special case. They all were answering to a calling. A calling emitting from this very vase. It spoke to them about doing it's bidding, and in return they would be highly rewarded. It was false promises by the spirit, but the spiders did not understand the concept of lies and betrayal, and even thought of the calling as emitting from what they considered to be a god. They would do whatever their new god asked of them, with no questions asked, and little if any regard to their own lives. They were utterly his dark army to command as he willed. Suddenly, as if a spider had accidently hit a light switch, the clay ceramic vase began to glow with a bright blue light. The spiders could not feel any heat on their legs from the vase, but was blinded by the light. The spider walking on the side of the vase began to feel a slight vibration underneath her legs, and quickly moved towards the top of the vase, as a small crack began to form in the vase's side. All the black widow spiders started to become restless, and paced back and forth. They were excited because they knew their new god was coming. The crack got bigger and bigger until finally smoke began to pour out of the crack in the side of the vase, and engulfed all of the spiders in the small conclave. After several minutes the smoke quit coming out and began to dissipate, the spiders now calm and waiting patiently for the new god's orders. They felt the dark blessings of their new god, and the spiders began to hear and obey a voice that began talking to them. It said, "For far to long man has controlled us, come, my brethren and sisters, and let us seek out our revenge on humanity " * * * * Joseph Sanchez was running blindly from the horror he had just witnessed. He didn't know which direction he was running to, leaving it up to his feet to just take him where ever, but he did know he had to get away, so he kept on running blindly as the shock and horror of it all filled his mind, and the stench of his own feces filled his nostrils, but went unnoticed by his thoughts. Joseph knew that all those people, including the rest of his family, were dead. They were nothing but disgustingly bluish puffy poisoned corpses. It was hard for him to believe it, after all he had just been with just moments before and all of this morning. * * * * Joseph Sanchez had been working hard on waking up that morning. His wife, Sarah, had already gotten up, taken a shower, and had breakfast made and placed on the table for everyone. She yelled at him for the seventh time that morning, just as the snooze alarm went off again for the fourth time. This time though, he shut the alarm off for good, and went to go take a shower. He quickly showered and shaved before getting dressed and eating breakfast. Joseph had been excited that morning when he finally awakened. He had been planning for this day since last week, finally getting a scheduled weekend free after being bogged down way to long with no days off from the warehouse in which he worked as a loader with no help until recently they hired two new guys, and was excited and eager about getting up and getting out the door, though his wife Sarah had awakened first. Their two boys were already dressed, wearing black swim shorts, a black t-shirt with cartoon like characters of The Intergalactic Space Travelers from their latest musical album Electrical Fire In/On My Ear on them, and sandals. They were already eating breakfast. Their dog, Bear, a Rottweiler puppy, was under the table, and occasionally the kids, trying to be sneaky about it, slipped him some scraps under the table for him to eat. Their mother was to busy to notice, but Joseph did and slightly reprimanded them on the act, and then told the dog to go eat its own food. Joseph quickly ate, and got the family together. His wife, Sarah, had the boys quickly help her to clean the dishes, while Joseph packed some things into the family van. His son, Eric, was drying the dishes, while his other son, Robert, put them away, all after his wife, Sarah, had scrubbed them clean. He grabbed several lawn chairs, an older model radio, a cooler for the ice and sodas that he would get on the way out of town, and a suitcase full of towels and an extra change of clothes for everyone. The sun was beginning to rise about the time he had finished, and gotten everybody loaded into the van, including the dog. Joseph only made one stop at the store to fill up on gas and pick up drinks and ice before he left, and was on his way to Sitting Bull Falls. He had made his wife and sons stay put in the car while he got the things because he knew if he let his boys go into the store with him they would be begging him to get them candy or toys they saw, and they didn't have time for all that today. The trip to Sitting Bull Falls would probably take about forty-five minutes to an hour. Of course, like always when you have children in the car for far to long, there was fighting and bickering in the back seat and Joseph had to threaten to pull over a couple of times even though he really didn't plan on doing so. His only real fear at that time was that the road sometimes flooded over, and he hoped that wouldn't be the case today. It was about eight o'clock in the morning when they finally pulled up to Sitting Bull Falls. The summer weather was already beginning to heat things up. Joseph was relieved that the roads weren't flooded, and showed no signs of doing so, after all it has been pretty dry with hardly no rain this last week. With everyone's help Joseph and his family grabbed everything from the trunk and walked up the hill side toward the falls. They traveled some little ways up the falls from the parking lot area, and set up everything to the side of the river. The four lawn chairs set with two on each side of the cooler, the bag of clothes behind the cooler, and the radio was placed on top of the cooler, and turned on to an oldies rock station. Even though the oldies rock station usually played older songs, it sometimes played the newer ones too. Currently it was playing "This Is How I Feel" by The Intergalactic Space Travelers rock band, which was a funny song about breaking up, but the only thing the one guy missed was his video games. Joseph and his family enjoyed this band very much, and even the boys danced a little to the tune before running off to play. It was another scorching day in the desert heat at Sitting Bull Falls, in New Mexico. Joseph was glad he was wading through the water to cool himself off. Joseph and his family played in the cool refreshing water from the falls to cool themselves off from the oppressive heat. His wife, Sarah, was sitting on a rock, and splashing her feet around in the water fall. Meanwhile, his two boys, Eric and Robert, and their dog, Bear, who ran playfully here and there sniffing everything he encountered, were having fun playing and splashing around in the water. The two boys chased after the dog from time to time to try and splash him with water, while the dog would bark back at them, or they would find various sticks and played fetch with the dog. They weren't alone as several people surrounded them and were basically doing the same thing with a few park rangers walking around to kind of keep an eye on things. Joseph and Sarah had a chance to talk to almost everyone there, except for the park rangers, who were staying quite busy patrolling the area. There were two teenagers, Mark and Jenny, who had snuck down here from their parents to spend time with each other. They were in, what Joseph considered to be puppy love, and spent most of their time on the side of the falls cuddling with each other. Also, there was another family like theirs there. Leonard Thatcher, the husband and father, who worked for a trucking company, was just laying back in the water of the falls and enjoying his day off because he had to zero out his driver's logs. Millie, Leonard's wife, was playing in the water with their three-year-old daughter, Tiffany, who was running around and splashing gleefully. Their seven-year-old boy, Mike, sat on the edge with his feet dangling in the water, and throwing small rocks into the water. No one expected, or could have even predicted, what was about to happen next. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, a swarm a black widow spiders came out of nowhere, swarming over the park rangers biting them in thousands of places all at once, agonizingly killing them almost instantly, though the park rangers let out a horrified scream, and then surrounding everyone else. There were millions if not billions of them everywhere. All of this happening in what seemed to Joseph a blink of an eye, with no time to react, but instead watch in horrified awe. The swarm of black widow spiders did not move unless people started to move toward them. The ground on either side of the falls looked to be covered in a black spider web, with all of the black widow spiders huddling so close together. Leonard pulled his family into the middle of the water, in vain hopes that the spiders was afraid of and wouldn't come into the water. The two teenaged lovers followed suit. Joseph was already in the middle, and the rest of his family was on the other side of everyone else. Bear was barking frantically at the surrounding spiders, but would not really approach them, he would bark a little, then back up a bit whimpering because it could sense the danger they were in. Joseph stood frozen in terror and wondering what the hell was going on, as an eerie disembodied voice filled the air, coming from everywhere all at once. "I am power incarnate, and a god! You will kneel before me! I have been trapped here for over five hundred years by the tribes of natives that roamed these lands! For this injustice to me all will pay!" The disembodied voice screamed at them. "The Native American Indians are no longer here, why are you doing this to us?" Leonard asked in a trembling voice. "You did not free me, and for that all will pay!" Came the disembodied reply. "But we didn't even know you existed!" Screamed Leonard in protest as the swarm of black widow spiders closed the circle, swarming into the water. And began killing everyone. Leonard's last words were a horrid scream of painful agony. To Joseph's horror he watched as the swarm covered over his dog, two kids, and his precious wife. The spiders were coming from everywhere at once, falling from the trees, rocks, hillside cliffs, and just plaining swarming the water from the sides, turning it from clear clean looking water into a black almost dirty oily looking substance. The others, Mark, Jennifer, Leonard, Millie, Tiffany, Mike, Sarah, Eric, Robert, and even Bear as well were quickly covered by the swarm, like a dark wave, but slowly Joseph realized that the spiders spared him. Joseph stood too horrified to move. He watched as each person was covered in hundreds of thousands of black widow spiders, crawling even in their mouths, noses, and ears, as the person swatted uselessly to get them off. The spiders bit everywhere as the person would scream in terror and agony and then die. Each person's death etched permanently into Joseph's memory, as he looked onto what was left afterwards of their fat blue poison bloated bodies. Joseph's bowel movements could no longer contain themselves and both yellow and brown goo oozed down his legs. After everyone else died, and the spiders began to ease away somewhat, the eerie disembodied voice spoke again saying in a booming voice, "I temporally spare your life, so you can tell others of their coming death! The next time we meet, you will die! Now go!" The spiders moved to open a path for Joseph to pass through. As Joseph passed through, the spiders swarmed back together behind him, and watched as he left. As soon as Joseph left, the black widow spider swarm began moving on south wards. * * * * Joseph was still running, even through the now flooded street, as the Sheriff's car was driving up. Apparently all the spider's and dying people caused the river to over flow, and if Joseph would have been listening he would have heard even more people all up and down the river dying. The water flooding the road looked nasty as if a septic sewer system had over flowed. The Sheriff saw Joseph running, and something about how Joseph and the nasty overflowing water on the road looked bothered him. The man who was running looked terrified like a huge bear, or even a swarm of bees was chasing after him. Pulling up toward Joseph, the Sheriff rolled down his window and yelled out, "Stop right there!" Joseph paid him no heed. In his mind he didn't even realize that the Sheriff was even there, where he was, or that he was running, because he still saw all of those people dying. The Sheriff pulled over and ran after Joseph yelling, "I said stop!" As the Sheriff got closer he could smell, and even see, Joseph's own feces running down his leg. The smell was also mixed with the bad odor of sweat, which completely now covered this man, who must have been running as fast as he could. The Sheriff leaped at Joseph wrestling him to the ground, and then handcuffing him. The look of horror on Joseph's face made the Sheriff wonder if he was high on something, and having a very bad trip. Apparently something was happening, and the Sheriff felt justified in cuffing Joseph. Joseph looked up at him, now noticing the Sheriff for the first time. Madly Joseph screamed out, "They're all dead! All of them! There's nothing you can do to stop it!" "Who's all dead? Stop what? Did you do something?" The Sheriff asked, now convinced that this man was high on something, and briefly considered doing a field sobriety test. "Everyone at the falls! It spared me! It wanted me to be its messenger! Spiders, everywhere, thousands of them came from nowhere!" Stammered Joseph, who was now ranting and raving, as he began to repeat himself over and over again. "They killed my family! They killed my family!" The Sheriff, even though he didn't really want the awful smell in his car, reluctantly loaded Joseph into the car and closed the door. He decided that he would check out this man's story, and if it was true then he would cough up the incident to shock, but if everything looked all right, which the Sheriff was more than sure was the case, this man was going to the loony bin for sure. Looking one more time at the over flowing water on the roads, which looked to be nastier than usual, made the Sheriff wonder what could be making the water over flow. He briefly thought about it, but pushed it from his mind, after all, the water sometimes flooded these roads, and there was no telling what was on the ground when it over flowed like this. The Sheriff got into his police cruiser wishing he had a nose plug, and began to drive towards the Sitting Bull Falls parking lot. "What the hell are you doing? They'll get us too! They killed my family! They killed my family!" Ranted Joseph, who was slamming himself against the back of the Sheriff's seat, and continuing his chant of, "They killed my family!" "Calm down back there! I have to investigate the scene, and check out your story!" The Sheriff retorted. The Sheriff pulled into the Sitting Bull Falls parking lot and found a space to park. The parking lot was still full of cars, but the Sheriff couldn't see anyone else around. He spoke saying, "You stay here while I take a look around." Joseph tried to protest, but the Sheriff was already heading up the path toward the falls. Joseph slammed his body repeatedly against the patrol car's door in vain and screamed after the Sheriff, "No, don't go! They will get you, and then me! They killed my family! They killed my family!" The Sheriff paid no attention to him, but found it odd that he couldn't hear any other noise at all from anywhere else, as he went onwards. The Sheriff returned after a few moments, that the Sheriff thought that must of seemed to Joseph to be hours, since what he said seemed to be true. The Sheriff returned to his car and grabbed the radio through the window, not wanting to be around Joseph's smell or loud ranting. Hearing no protest in the back seat he looked into the back seat, and realized that the man back there didn't even probably realize he was even there. The Sheriff spoke into the radio saying, "Dispatch, we have a situation at Sitting Bull Falls. I need an investigative team here immediately. Also, all available ambulances, meat wagons, and any and all available units here immediately. I'll brief everyone of them when they get here." Meanwhile, Joseph in the back seat went catatonic, no longer aware of the world around him, just sitting there reliving the horrid grizzly scene over and over again in his mind. * * * * The investigative team arrived about forty-five minutes later, and everyone else about ten or fifteen minutes later. For the Sheriff, and possibly Joseph, though the Sheriff doubted it, it seemed to be an eternity. Joseph had gone delirious in his ranting and ravings now. Occasionally Joseph would mutter a "No!" or "They killed my family!" The Sheriff was sure that the man was unaware of the world around him though by now. The Sheriff had waited sitting outside in one of the many park tables near the parking lot thinking that it would take a hose to clean out his back seat, and trying to keep the horror of all those dead bodies out of his mind. Spirit Ch. 05 The team began pulling in their vehicles, and the Sheriff went to greet them. He gathered them around and started to brief them, as soon as everyone was there. "First off, this park will be closed down, at least, until we fix the problem. I want road blocks set up to keep anyone else out, and allow our cars in and out. Anything you see here today is to be kept top secret and confidential, and not a word to anyone, not even your families. I won't lie to you. What you are about to see are a lot of dead people. I pulled up and found that man in my car in hysterics ranting about a spider attack. I looked over the hill and there they were. It's your jobs to figure out what happened and bag and tag the bodies. I want teams to do the following: go through all the vehicles searching for identities of the bodies, and then towing off the vehicles, bagging and tagging the bodies, and getting the bodies out of here, and determining what exactly happened here, and if it is safe and will remain safe for future use of the park. We have a lot of work here people, so let's move out!" The Sheriff said, and then pulled one of the deputies aside to give him instructions on taking his car and new mental patient out of here and cleaned up. The team moved out, and began to go to work. Five-hours-and-thirty-five minutes later the bodies were all gathered, and the reports were filled. The spiders were gone, but the trail they left led north for awhile, and then disappeared. The reports were faxed on their way to Washington. The hire ups in the government decided to claim that there was an avalanche in the area and closed down the park, the bodies would be given closed casket funerals, and a team of specialists would investigate the area. As for poor old Joseph, he would forever spend the rest of his life in the psychiatric ward of the state mental hospital. No one outside of the government would ever know the whole truth. Next Chapter Six "Highway Murders"... A masked man is going on a killing spree on the open road. File #: 20 Character Star Power: 1 Name: Joseph Sanchez Legal Status: USA citizen, declared mentally insane. Allegiance: None. Sub-Groups: None. Rank: None. Occupation: Was a warehouse loader. Known Relatives: Sarah (wife, deceased), Eric and Robert (sons, deceased), plus several relatives from Mexico. Birth Date: September 16, 1976. Birth Place: Carlsbad, NM. Height: 5'11 Weight: 195 lbs. Eyes: Green. Hair: Brown. Known Powers: None. Equipment: He had a family, and owned his own home and many fine things, but currently he is a resident of a mental institution, and only has what they provide him with. Known Skills: Currently to messed up in the head to do anything. Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal. For More Info. See: None. History: Joseph had grown up in the United States after his mom came here from Mexico. He had a family consisting of two sons and a wife, and even owned his own home. After running into the evil spirit and his hoard of black widow spiders, which he watched kill his whole family and several others he has lost his mind, and is now institutionalized in a mental institute. Spirit Ch. 06 Jul 12, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Six "Highway Murders" Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on June 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit...We were introduced to Steven "Shadow" MacGraw who is a government agent and pagan, and we saw how he celebrated a pagan holiday, and enjoyed a night off from his work. We were also introduced to Jason Chambers who was imprisoned for murders (which he in fact did commit), but because of lack of evidence is under a form of house arrest now instead. Then we were taken to New Mexico, USA, where an evil spirit has finally been freed and took command of a swarm of deadly black widow spiders and went on a killing spree at Sitting Bull Falls. Chapter Six "Highway Murders" It was dark out after Tommy left the college and traveled home. The moon was full and the stars were bright as he drove down the highway. His headlights lighting up the two-lane highway as he drove. The college was thirty miles away from his home, and he drove this same route everyday that he went to school. The car was on cruise control. Tommy's right hand was on the steering wheel, while his left elbow rested on the door rest with a lite-menthol cigarette, about half way burnt down, between his fingers. The wind howled through his cracked window, as he flicked some ashes out, and then took a puff of the cigarette. His mind raced off to somewhere else, as his cd player played some rap music. He thought about some problems and writings he had to do for class and work he needed to get done when he got home. He had been very busy at school today. Even though it was summer, he was still taking a few classes so he could graduate a little earlier than if he didn't take them. In his first class, he had taken a math quiz, that he hadn't really been prepared for, and had probably failed. Then he had to wait two hours for his next class, so he had gone to the library to do some research for a research paper that was due for his next class in two weeks, but failed in his search for exactly the right material he needed for what he wanted to write about, though he did get a lot of information arguing against what he wanted to say, and took some of it in case he would have to switch and write the other side because of the lack of information he could find. When he finally got to the class that he was doing the research for, they went over notes on chapters seven and eight in the class's text book, but mostly he drew pictures on the paper, while the teacher droned on and on. However, for both of those classes he did have homework in, and he went over the list in his mind. As he thought, his eyes watched the yellow line dashes in the road fly by. Occasionally cars passed by, but they were few and far between. This late at night not very many vehicles used this particular highway anymore, preferring the new four-lane highway a few miles to the east, but for Tommy this was faster to get to his house. Ahead on the side of the road, even from this distance, Tommy could see a car pulled over with its blinkers on. Tommy snapped out of his day dreaming, tossed his cigarette butt out the window, and slightly pressed the brakes to disengage the cruise control. At first, Tommy thought it was probably abandoned, but as he got closer he realized there was someone in the driver's seat. He slowed down a little bit, and he thought momentarily of pulling over and offering some assistance, but quickly decided against it. You never could tell about strangers in this day and age, and there was no reason to endanger himself unnecessarily. As he passed the car, he gave a quick glance at the driver in the car. Was the guy wearing a mask? No, he couldn't have been. Suddenly, a nervous feeling came over him. Was that a woman's body in a dress on the side of the road just in front of the car? No, it couldn't have been. It must have been a bag of some sort. His mind had to be playing tricks on him. He tried to shake the nerviness out of his mind. His nervous feeling though, was intensified as the car shut off the blinkers, turned on the headlights, and began to follow him, running over the bag or whatever it was in the process. Something in the back of his mind warned him he was in danger, as he watched this in his rear view mirrors, but his outer mind convinced himself that everything was cool. Tommy continued to watch the car closely in his rear view mirror, but the car seemed to stay back some little ways behind him on the road. The two of them traveled in this fashion for a couple of miles. In spite of himself, Tommy began to feel a tightening knot in his stomach warning himself of danger. Something about the car and the driver unnerved him. Why doesn't he turn off the road and leave me alone? Should I stop and let him pass me? No, I would lose valuable time if it was nothing, and he could get me if it was something. I could turn off, but where would I go? Oh, I hate this! Tommy looked back in the mirror for his periodic check to see how far back the car was, and was terrified to realize that the car was beginning to catch up with him. The sinister car's headlights were beginning to grow closer. Maybe I should speed up and try to get away. No, if I'm wrong I could get a speeding ticket, and right now, I just can't afford one. Hopefully, I can just let him pass, and that will be the end of it. The sinister car began to get within ten to fifteen feet behind him now. The cars headlights were beginning to blind Tommy through his own car mirrors. Tommy began to adjust his center car mirror up, so he could still see behind him, but the lights wouldn't blind him, and scooted over a little from the driver's side door to keep the light from blinding him there. Still the car seemed to stay that distance back, as if it seemed to refuse to pass him by. Just pass by already, you stupid jerk. The lanes are clear to pass, what are you waiting for? Suddenly Tommy could hear the engine of the other car reeve way up. For a brief second Tommy thought his worries were about to be over. Good, he's finally going to pass me by. Instead of passing by, however, the car sped forward, and rammed into Tommy's car in the rear end. Tommy's car jerked with the hit and his body shook with the shock. What the hell is going on? As the sinister car backed up from the hit, it began to speed up again, but this time it did go around as if to pass by Tommy's car. Tommy was beginning to really panic now, and began to speed up his own car to try and escape this lunatic, but to no avail. The other car just sped up beside him, and now they were side by side. The other car's passenger side window was even with Tommy's driver side window. To Tommy's horror he looked over and peered inside the other car to the driver just to realize that his worst fear was true. The driver was muscle bound and was wearing some sort of wrestling mask. For a brief second both drivers' eyes met. A chill ran down Tommy's spine as he truly realized the trouble he was in. Tommy looked on in horror as he saw the other driver suddenly turn his steering wheel towards him, and both cars collided together. Tommy's senses seemed to slow down time making everything seem clear, but not being able to react fast enough to do anything about it. He's trying to force me off of the road! Tommy tried to fight for control with his steering wheel to try and stay on the road, but it was useless to try because both cars were now connected by the now entangled bumpers. Tommy looked over at the other driver, but to his surprise a beautiful blond haired woman's face popped up next to the passenger's side window, and she appeared to be laughing her head off at him. Was she the one in the dress I saw laying on the ground? Was this all some elaborate joke to scare me out of my wits? Do I actually know these people? Tommy's mind raced with these questions as his car was going off the side of the road. In his mind's eye he flashed back to the woman laying on the side of the road. Now he could see clearly the blood running from her chest. With sudden clarity he realized, No, she had a darker colored hair! They killed her! They are now going to kill me also! Suddenly, Tommy noticed that his headlights were just beginning to hit one of the few rare trees on the side of the road. He hit his brakes with everything he had. Panic filled him as both of his feet pressed down as hard as he could push on the brake pedal. With a sudden metallic ripping sound the other car sped forward and began to go into a spin, as Tommy's car continued straight forward towards the tree. Tommy's car had slowed down considerably, but he still rammed into the tree going at least twenty or thirty miles an hour. His hood caved in slightly, and body jerked forward, causing his head to smash into the steering wheel. The seatbelt jerked his body back into his seat. As pain flooded his body, he wished he had gotten a newer car with the inflatable air bags. When he recovered from the shocking impact of the crash, he looked around to see what happened to the other car. Blood began running into his eyes as he noticed that the other car had flipped over on its driver's side farther down the road. Maybe they are dead, but I can't take any chances. Now is my time to make a run for it! Tommy opened his car door and removed his seatbelt. Mentally checking his body, and despite everything hurting, he realized other than his head nothing was seriously damaged. Woozily he stepped out of his car and began to run away from the road. He ran looking back at the other car, and he noticed a woman's hand reach out of the passenger side door window, which was up in the air. "That was fun darling! Let's do it again!" She howled. Her laughter began to fill the air around him. He looked to where he was running to, and a loud crashing sound of glass shattering could be heard behind him. As Tommy ran, another quick glance behind him told him that the man in the mask had broke out through the front windshield, and the girl had climbed out through the passenger side window, and that they both were in hot pursuit of him. "Look at him run, just like a stuck piggy!" The blond haired woman continued to taunt him. "Go get him boy! Go sick that stuck piggy!" Tommy's head throbbed with pain, as the blood in his eyes began to blind him. He tried to wipe at his eyes while he continued to run into the beginning of a small forested area of trees, but for some reason wiping at it only made it worse. He could still hear the haunting laughter of the blond woman behind him as he ran on. "Here piggy, piggy!" She continued to taunt. The thing that sounded funny to Tommy the most though was that he could just hear the woman running behind him. Too quickly he realized why, as the masked man popped out in front of him in the woods. She had been the distraction while the masked man had circled around incredibly fast to get him. Tommy was unable to react in time as the glistening knife quickly homed in on its target. Tommy stayed conscious just long enough to see the blond woman loom over him still laughing, and exclaiming, "Ah, look at the cute little dead stuck piggy!" * * * * Crystal Lewiston had been very busy today. She had gone to two of her summer college classes this morning, went to summer cheerleading practice this afternoon (Which amounted to a gossip exchange with her friends while they worked out with light weights and aerobics for a couple of hours, but she had to be there because this is what earned her scholarship for college, but, at least, they weren't getting ready for the big college football game this coming Saturday because it was off season, though the football players had to stay in shape too in the off season.), and this evening she had gone to hang out with her friends who lived close to the college, and they had gone to the mall and shopped (or rather, window shopped) for new clothes such as dresses, skirts, blouses, shoes, and even make-up. Now she was speeding towards home in her boyfriend's slick red convertible sports car, hoping to get home in time to spend a little bit of quality time with her boyfriend before retiring for the night. Her boyfriend, Josh, always let her drive his sports car, while he actually preferred to drive his sports motorcycle around everywhere. Besides they were engaged to be married, though they hadn't actually set a particular date yet, and she needed reliable transportation to drive around in. She had called Josh on her cell phone a little earlier today, and told him what she was up to. He had been a little bit upset with her, but more disappointed that he couldn't spend time with her, but he understood her wanting to hang out with her friends, and was happy to hear she would be home soon. She sighed as she thought to herself, Sometimes it's tough to be a nineteen year old freshman in college. She rested her left elbow on the driver's side door, and ran her hand through her shoulder length sandy blond hair. Her favorite boy band cd played in the cd player as she briefly remembered that she had homework to do for her classes, before she was brought back from her thoughts by the light pounding of rain drops beginning to hit her front windshield. At first, a few drops fell, and then suddenly a down pour, and she was forced to activate her windshield wipers so that she could even see the road ahead of her. A little ways down the road, through the darkness of the night and the pouring streams of rain, she could make out a couple of sets of lights. She wondered what they were as the lights began to get closer, and briefly thought that their positioning was rather odd. It appeared to her to be tail lights of cars, but they weren't moving as they began to get closer. She began to slow down now as it appeared that one of the cars was right in the road in front of her. Is there a traffic jam here? As she began to slow down she suddenly realized that the car in the road in front of her was on it's side, and as she came to a complete stop in the road, she realized that the other car had wrecked into a tree on the side of the road, and worst of all she recognized the car rammed into the tree. "My god! Am I the first one to come upon this wreck? Oh, my god! That's Tommy's car! I hope he's all right, and not dead, or all bloodied up! Should I call 911! Shit there wouldn't be any service out here! What to do, oh, what to do? I guess I should go check on things!" She screamed aloud to herself, as she hurriedly got out of her car after activating her hazard lights, and ran through the pouring rain over to Tommy's car to look into the driver's side window. To her relief and surprise no one was there, though blood was on the steering wheel. Tommy had been a friend of hers since early childhood, and even now they still were good friends and shared several classes together in college. She didn't know what she would do if she found him mortally wounded or even already dead. She would probably freak out even worse than she already was. "How odd." She said aloud. "He must be wounded somewhere around here, because police wouldn't have left the vehicles just blocking incoming traffic. Leaving the vehicles here like this could cause even more of an accident to happen. Unless another vehicle picked him up to go call for help, but he should have, at least, let some flares burn to warn oncoming traffic of the danger. Tommy? Are you here?" The rain was beginning to flatten her hair to her skull and soak through her skimpy blouse and short skirt. The slight wind in the air gave her the chills somewhat, as she walked over to the car in the road on its side. To her relief, there was no one there either, though the front windshield of the car laid shattered all over the road. Suddenly, the thought to look for signs of blood occurred to her, however, she found none by the car in the middle of the road, and decided to check Tommy's car again. Could Tommy and the people in the other car been victims of a hostage situation? Through the help of her boyfriend's red convertible sports car's headlights she could make out the darker puddles of blood on the ground, and a trail leading towards the forest, though the rain was just beginning to wash these signs away. Suddenly, in the distance, a strange maniacal female laughing could be heard. A sudden chill ran down her spine, and it wasn't from the cold rain or the wind. She jogged back to her car and opened the driver side door. Instead of jumping in and taking off, however, she reached under the seat to grab the tire iron that she and her boyfriend always kept there for situations of possible danger. The tire iron, they decided, was the best weapon to carry around simply because if pulled over by the police, they would just say that it was a tool for changing the tires, and in this day and age one couldn't be to careful. She wasn't about to abandon Tommy if he needed help just because she was spooked out a little, she could never forgive herself if that was the case. After all it could be more of a cry of pain from someone hurt than sinister laughing, and she could be the person that could make the difference in saving their life. Besides, if she left this scene, the law could go after her for abandoning someone in serious need of help. On the other hand, she wasn't going to take any chances either. The laughter seemed to get closer, and Crystal yelled out, "Who's there? Are you hurt?" Her hand tightened around the tire iron, which was beginning to get slick from the rain, as footsteps seemed to get closer from the darkness. The laughing began to get louder, but oddly it was in another direction from the footsteps that were closing in on her. The laughing made her extremely uneasy, and she was glad that as a child she had taken several martial arts classes, and was wielding the tire iron. Though the footsteps getting closer to her could be Tommy wondering around hurt, she was prepared to defend herself. She yelled out, "Tommy? Tommy is that you? Are you hurt? Tommy, let me help you!" Suddenly, a huge muscular shape of someone or something appeared in the darkness, causing Crystal to gasp a little in surprise. Could that be a bear? Could it have ate the people in the wreck? She cautiously moved around to the front of her boyfriend's car to draw the figure into the shining headlights, so that she could see who or what it was. As the figure approached the light, she began to realize it was a man wearing a wrestling mask. Behind her she heard the lady getting closer. May not be a bear, but I don't feel any safer now knowing that. Beginning to panic now, she decided to take no chances with such a huge man, and stepped toward him swinging the tire iron with all of her might. If he didn't mean to harm her, she would say apologize later, but better safe than sorry, and besides he looked like he could take out any bear she thought was there earlier. To her surprise and dismay, however, the huge man caught the swing with one hand, and didn't even look like he flinched. The sudden stop to the swinging tire iron caused her to slip and slide in the mud, and fall on her ass. For the first time, she now noticed the glistening, though already bloodied, steel blade of the knife in his hand as he came in and gutted her like a fish. As she laid on the ground with her body quivering and shaking in death spasms, the last thing she would ever hear in this lifetime, was the huge man telling the lady, "Look, she left us with a nice red convertible sports car! Wasn't that nice of her?" Spirit Ch. 06 Next Chapter Seven "Waking Up" will dive into both Steven "Shadow" MacGraw and Jason Chambers waking up and starting a new day in their lives. File #: 21 Character Star Power: 1 Code Name: None Alter Ego: Crystal Lewiston Aliases: None Nick Names: Crystal "Boom Boom" Lewiston Legal Status: Deceased (Murdered) Allegiance: None Sub-Groups: None Rank: None Occupation: College student and cheerleader. Known Relatives: Mother and Father and was engaged to a boyfriend (Josh). Birth Date: February 18, 1990 Birth Place: Sesser, IL. Height: 5' 5" Weight: 122 lbs. Eyes: Hazel Hair: Blond Attitude: A take charge personality, refusing to become a victim. Known Powers: None. Equipment: Her boyfriend's red sports car and a tire iron. Known Skills: Cheerleading, college student, and martial arts. Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal For More Info. See: None History: She was a honor college student and cheer leader, before being murdered. Spirit Ch. 07 Jul 21, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Seven Waking Up Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on June 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit...We were introduced to Steven "Shadow" MacGraw who was a pagan government agent who performed casting a magical circle, and even astral traveled some before finally falling asleep. Then we were introduced to Jason Chambers who had actually murdered three women, but the authorities didn't yet have enough evidence to convict him, though the placed him under a house arrest deal. Returning back to his home he had done some thinking about his past before passing out on his couch. While those two slept, an evil spirit was released from it's confinement and took over a hoard of black widow spiders and began a killing spree in Sitting Bull Falls New Mexico. Also, a huge masked man and a laughing blond woman went on a highway killing spree. We now return to first Steven, and then Jason as they are waking up. Chapter Seven "Waking Up" Version 1.0 "Shadow Rising" To Steven's annoyance the alarm clock blared that it was five-thirty in the morning, and time for him to wake up, to give him an hour and a half to be prepared for work. Reaching over to the night stand, half tempted to hit the snooze button and sleep another ten minutes, he shut the alarm off and groggily pushed himself up off of the bed. First stop was the toilet, where the light shining in his face helped to wake him up even more as he relieved the stored up tension from the night, and took a long piss. After finishing in the bathroom he went into the kitchen, and began running warm water into the sink. When it was warm enough he stoppered the sink and added dish washing detergent to the water. He washed his hands in the water while it filled up the sink, and shut the water off when it was full enough. Next was breakfast, which was a bowl of granola cereal in skim milk, and fruits, such as strawberries, blue berries, and bananas, which he sliced up and added to the bowl. He also poured himself a glass of orange juice. He ate that while sitting on his couch and watching the morning news on the all news channel. While crunching on his granola cereal and fruit, the newscaster was chiming on about how the local highway work was going to improve how the flow of traffic would run, and how much the project would cost out of the taxpayer's dollars. He also mentioned about how nearby residents would be relocated into new homes, but that some of them where not very happy with this decision. Steven listened to all of this, but wasn't really paying that much attention to the details of it because the road work wasn't near his side of town, and he wasn't even sure it was even around his town at all, or would even be effecting him personally in any way. The male newscaster switched the broadcast over to a blond female newscaster who now spoke. "Repeating our top news story from around the country tonight, there has been a rash of highway murders taking place in and around the Huntsburge County area. Apparently cars are being chased off of the more deserted highways, and their drivers and passengers are being brutally murdered. Police and authorities are advising that you shouldn't travel on the roads in that area unless you absolutely have to, and if you do travel on them to try and stay on the more populated roads. As of yet, the police have no suspects, and the total number of actual victims is uncertain at this time, but we will keep you updated on this as more information becomes available. Back to you Roy. How does the weather look in our area today?" Steven listened intently to that news story, quickly realizing though that the news didn't really reveal anything. He mentally stored the information away in his mind, thinking that it could come in quite handy later on, if, in fact, he was called in at a later time to go to work on that particular case. After a moment, however, he thought it better to see what the news about this particular incident was like on the internet news sources. More than likely, he would end up working on this particular case, even though there were suppose to be others, who were more qualified, to do this type of case work. Going to his computer he booted it up. While he waited for the computer to get started, he continued to eat his cereal and listen to the news, though now they were talking about sports, which he never did follow. The computer eventually came to the main window of his menu, and he double clicked on the internet icon, which would take him automatically to the internet home page. He finished his bowl of cereal and chugged down the last of his orange juice, and set the now empty bowl and glass on the desk. He quickly typed in the web sight address he wanted to go to. While he waited for the page to download, he took the empty bowl, his dirty spoon, and empty glass into the kitchen, and quickly washed the few dishes he had, drying them off, and placing them back into the cabinet where they belonged. He then drained and rinsed out the sink before returning back over to the computer. He scanned the web sight for the particular news he was looking for and quickly found what he wanted. He double clicked the print icon and printed off a copy of the story, which he would read in his free time later, maybe at work. He folded the couple of printed pages up and stored them in his wallet, which was sitting on the kitchen counter by his keys. He had pulled his wallet out of his pant's back pocket and laid it there last night before throwing the pants into the laundry. Backing out of the news section, after checking to see if there were anymore such interesting stories that might be a future case for him, luckily there were none, he decided to quickly check his e-mail to see if there was anything new that was sent to him since he was already here. There was no new important e-mails, just a lot of junk e-mails which he deleted, so he got out of the internet and shut his computer back down, just in time to catch the news program going off, but preparing to come back on repeating itself. Since both the news and his breakfast was now over, he sat back down on the couch, and used the television remote to shut the television off, and then began his morning meditation. With another remote for the stereo he turned on the cd player, and played a soothing new age song, and then placed both remote controls back onto the end table. Steven started his meditation by leaning back in the couch, and resting his arms to his sides, while his feet were relaxed in a comfortable position. In his mind he visualized a ball of pure energy being by his feet. Slowly he imagined the ball of energy moving up his feet, legs, groin, stomach, hands, arms, chest, shoulders, neck, and finally his head, and the ball floated off into space. As the ball of pure energy hit each part of his body, he would let it totally relax, until his whole body was totally relaxed, and his mind was totally cleared of thoughts. For ten minutes, he totally cleared his mind of all thoughts, and totally relaxed his entire body, allowing the energies of the universe to flow through him, and the new age soothing music to take him where ever it wanted to. After he finished with the meditation, he shut off that cd and ejected it, switching it to a more suitable cd for working out with. After getting that cd started and again replacing the stereo remote on the end table, he got up off of the couch to do some stretches, calisthenics, and ending with push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks. The exercises weren't enough to cause him to sweat, but it was enough to get him alert and woke up. However, he eventually went to the weight bench and did a few reps, which did cause him to sweat, even though the fans in the house were still going on high. After finishing with the brief workout, he looked at the time on the clock hung on the wall behind and above the television. It was 6:20 a.m., and time for him to get dressed and ready to go to work. If this had been a day off from work, he would have instead went for a run outside, and went up and down his stairs as well for awhile. He walked over to the bathroom, and began stripping down. Then he quickly jumped into the shower, washing his short light brown hair, and the rest of his body. Getting out of the shower he grabbed a towel and quickly dried off, afterwards wrapping the towel around his waist. He then began to shave and brush his teeth. After he finished that, he combed his hair, and put on some deodorant and aftershave. He then went into his bedroom to the closet, and chose out a nice pair of dress pants, a descent looking dress shirt, and a tie that fit the ensemble together. He laid them out on his bed after taking them off of their respected hangers, and placed the hangers back into the closet, shutting the closet door. Then he went to his dresser and grabbed some black dress socks, fresh underwear, and a white t-shirt from their respected drawers. He quickly dropped the towel that was around his waist and got dressed in the fresh clothes, remembering to grab his belt from the top of his dresser. He then went into his night stand and pulled out his holstered .357 Magnum and federal agent badge. He put on the badge and shoulder holster. He pulled out the shiny silver pistol, and a rag from the night stand drawer to polish the gun with. Quickly, he wiped down the gun and placed the rag, after folding it up again, back into the night stand drawer. He removed the clip for inspection to check and make sure it was totally full. He checked the barrel of the pistol to make sure it was clean. He replaced the clip back into the pistol, and then placed the shiny silver .357 Magnum pistol back into its shoulder holster. He then double checked his extra bullets to make sure he had plenty, and that all the bullet slots in his holster were filled, along with the extra full clip. After all, there was nothing worse in his line of work, then to walk into a gun fight and run out of ammo. Also, today, if work would allow, he planned on going to the firing range, after lunch, to practice his marksmanship. It had been awhile since he had actually practiced with his guns, and he might be getting a little rusty. After finishing up that, he shut the night stand drawer, and noticed that his alarm clock said that the time was now 6:30 a.m. He had about fifteen minutes before he definitely had to leave for work. He went into the kitchen and shoved his wallet and keys into his pants' pockets, and then headed into the bathroom to fill up his watering can for the plants. He quickly went around the house and briefly watered each plant, and shutting off any unnecessary power sources in the house, such as the fans, before placing the water jug back and grabbing his jacket and hat, while heading out the door to get to work. He felt this was all necessary since it wouldn't be the first time he went into work, and didn't come home for weeks. He locked the door behind as he went to head for work. After all, as the saying goes, "Another day, another dollar." In which Steven always jokingly added, "Which comes to about a penny after taxes." Version 2.0 "Anguished Dawn" Meanwhile, in another town, in fact, in the Huntsburge County where the news story about the highway murders were happening, Jason Chambers yawned and woke himself up. After a moment's thought he remembered he was now in his old house, which was now his new prison cell. He laid on his couch which he had fallen asleep on. Reaching out to the coffee table, in front of the couch, he grabbed his cigarettes. When he opened the pack he discovered there were only six left. He grabbed one and tossed the pack back onto the top of the coffee table, but it bounced off of it, and skidded off to the other side onto the floor. He picked up the lighter and lit his cigarette. He took a puff from the cigarette and tossed the lighter back onto the coffee table. It bounced once, but stayed on the table. He took another drag from the cigarette, and then flicked his ashes into the ashtray, which was already half filled with cigarette butts. He was still half asleep as he looked around for the television remote, and finally found it on the top of the couch behind him. He groggily turned the television on. He flipped through channels until he found a music channel playing music videos. He didn't really care for the song that was playing, but the lady singing was rather pretty and showing off her gorgeous body, so he left it there. He finished his cigarette and snuffed the butt out into the ashtray. While the song finished and the channel went to commercials, he got up and went to take a piss. On returning he made a pit stop in the kitchen to grab a bowl, a spoon, a box of some cereal, and the milk. He watched a few more videos while eating his cereal. However, instead of enjoying the music videos, which weren't all that great anyway, while he ate, he found himself thinking about how messed up his life was now. First, he got fired from work, so he had no job, and being fired the way he had been would block his chances of getting unemployment. Then the murders and jail time. Even if he got himself cleared of the charges, who would want to hire a suspected convict? He had no idea what to do next. Maybe he should fix the house up. That would kill some time and allow him to clear his head and think of what he should do next. Or...well, what else was there to do? So Jason finished his breakfast and began cleaning up the mess in the house. He had already decided it would be a full day of cleaning, house repairs, and yard work. Nothing like good old fashioned manual labor to clear the mind, and build one's self esteem. Quickly, he picked up everything around the house, putting things where they belonged, and throwing away the trash. After finishing that, he placed all the dirty clothes into the washer, not bothering to separate the colors and whites. He took the trash out to the trash dumpster. While outside he decided to go ahead and mow the grass, trim the bushes, and raked the yard, which took several hours, but it felt good to be outside again after being inside for so long. While he did the work around his house he finally came to the decision that he would ask if he could go and apply for unemployment, even if he wasn't going to get it, do some grocery shopping from money in his already way past dwindling bank account, and maybe with any money left over pay a few bills. Hopefully the cops wouldn't mind, after all he had to eat. As for the rest of his problems, he still had no idea of what to do. The girls were never coming back, at least not unless they came back as ghosts or zombies to seek revenge upon him. He could never face any of Michele's family again. Maybe he should put a restraining order against them, but in a way, wouldn't that be like confessing that he had actually did something to her? And besides, you needed a judge to issue such a decree, and the judge was definitely out to get him, so that threw that whole plan out of the window. Maybe he could hire some women to pretend to be the missing women. No, he didn't have the time, or resources, or even the money to pull off such a scheme, which would never probably work right anyway. Oh, it might work at first, maybe fooling the police, unless gthey did finger print testing or something, but he didn't think it would ever actually fool Michele's parents, and if they found out it was a lie, then it to would also be like a confession of guilt. After all, why would an innocent person try to replace someone they claimed was all right instead of having the real person show up. Besides the girls he hired would know of his guilt, and would probably try to black mail him, or he would have to kill them as well. No, he couldn't do that either. It was best just to wait it out, and do nothing. Keep claiming that they were all right, and should be calling at anytime. This would buy him some time, but that was all. Eventually, when the women didn't show up, the judge would probably smarten up, and issue an all points bulletin to find the girls in the state Jason had claimed they were in, if he hasn't already, but they would never be found, and eventually, even without the bodies, he would be locked up for a very long time. Maybe he should just run away, and leave the country, but that would really be admitting that he had done something wrong for sure, and for the rest of his life, he would be hunted like a criminal fugitive. No, he didn't know what to do. He finally finished raking up the leaves and grass in the front lawn, just as a police cruiser pulled up in front of his yard. A younger looking rookie cop stepped out and made his way towards Jason. As he approached, Jason could see his name tag, which read, "Reeds." "How are you doing, Mr. Chambers? I'm Tom Reeds, a deputy officer, and I was just checking to make sure that you haven't gone anywhere. You do know that you are not allowed to leave these premises don't you?" Officer Reeds asked. "Yes, I am aware of that, but I do need to do some running around town to take care of some things, and to get some groceries for around the house. Is there anything I could do about that?" Jason asked. At least, this cop wasn't a total prick, like the one that was here last night. "Well, in a week or so, you'll have one of those gadgets on your leg that won't allow you to leave your house at all without alerting us. You would already be in one, but we haven't got any to use on you right now, due to a minor disturbance here recently where a lot of people have been placed under house arrest. After you get that leg collar, you will have to find another way of doing these sort of things, and since no one else is living with you that might be difficult. Maybe some of your friends could help you out later, but I'm not doing anything now, and I can personally escort you around town just this once. Besides with me along, you'll have an accountable alibi for your own protection. How does that sound?" Officer Reeds replied. "That sounds great! Just let me put this away, and grab some things from inside. It'll just take a minute." Jason replied. This was a great break for Jason. It would probably only take him an hour to complete his business, and he would be able to see some of the rest of the town, and even talk to a few people. Hopefully, no one would recognize who he was, but it would be hard not to with the police escort. Oh, well, at least, he'd be able to get along for a few more days. Next Chapter Eight "Prime Suspect" Police are investigating some new murders in the area, and they begin to suspect Jason Chambers of doing them. File #: 22 Character Star Power: 4 Code Name: None Alter Ego: Jason Chambers Aliases: None Nick Names: None Legal Status: Currently suspected of murder by authorities. Allegiance: None Sub-Groups: None Rank: None Occupation: Was a factory worker, but got fired, and now unemployed. Known Relatives: Mother (deceased), Father (left when he was young), and he doesn't know or even talk to any others. Spirit Ch. 07 Birth Date: March 14, 1986. Birth Place: Artesia, NM. Height: 6' 3" Weight: 245 lbs. Eyes: Hazel Hair: Brown Attitude: During this storyline he is full of regret and remorse, but will fight for what he ultimately believes in. Known Powers: Unknown to him, but he does have some psychic abilities. Equipment: Took over his mom's house after she died, and whatever was in it. Known Skills: Factory Working, student, hand to hand and weapon combating. Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal For More Info. See: Michele Branson. History: Jason Chambers was born in Artesia, NM. At an early age his mother and father moved to another town and bought a house. At fifteen, his father left home, and never came back home again, though he left a note saying goodbye. His mother raised him herself since then, and he became close with their neighbors the Branson family, and especially close to Michele who he went to school with. After high school he began college, but his mother got very sick, and eventually died, causing him to drop out of college and straining his relationship with Michele. After a brief grieving period, he decided to stay in his mother's home and went to work in a local factory. Due to not taking his job seriously, and not working like he should have he was fired from that job. Being angry he went to a bar and got drunk. Thinking he could find sympathy from Michele he went to see her, though he was still drunk. Instead of sympathy though she let in on him, and he snapped killing her. He hid the body, and tried to make it appear she had left. Soon though a friend of Michele's named Janet came looking for her. To keep her from discovering the truth he went to her home and murdered her as well, but in the middle of this murder another girl Jaline came in and he murdered her as well. In the middle of trying to make it look like Janet had left as well, the police arrested him because a friend of Janet had evidence against him, but it was flimsy and instead he was placed under house arrest. He was remembering his past as he passed out on the couch, to wake up and have an officer escort him around town, so that he could take care of some personal errands. What else is in store for Jason? Well, stay tuned to this series and find out. Spirit Ch. 08 Aug 30, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Eight Prime Suspect Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on June 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... We were introduced to Steven "Shadow" MacGraw a government agent who we saw had a night off from work, performed a ritual pagan circle, astral traveled, went to sleep, and woke up to head to work. Then we were introduced to Jason Chambers, who killed three women and was in jail. Due to lack of evidence of the crimes he was placed under house arrest. He was then thinking back and eventually fell asleep, to wake up the next morning to due house work. Meanwhile, an evil spirit was released from its prison and began to cause havoc with a hoard of black widow spiders in his command. Also, a mysterious masked man and laughing blond woman began going on a murder spree on the highway. We will now join as the police department are beginning to discover the mysterious masked man and laughing blond woman's work. Chapter Eight "Prime Suspect" Deputy Officer Steven Mockery was on his way down the old highway to visit a dear old friend. In the lag time of not really being on duty, but not quite being off duty, he was still cruising in his squad car and still in uniform, though after a full days work the uniform wasn't quite as crisp and clean as it normally would be. In fact, dirt still clung to the knees in his pants where he had to chase after and tackle a young man, who had been pushing drugs on a street corner, harassing people around to buy them, which caused a few to call the law on him, and tried to run away when he showed up. Not only the drugs were found, but after handcuffing and searching the young man, he also found an illegal switchblade knife, which had been stashed inside his sock, and had blood stains on it. There had been some stabbing incidents recently, and this could've been the weapon used. Deputy Mockery had been on the police force for a little over three years now, and though not much happened usually in these small towns around here, he had already seen more than his fair share of crime and death during his tour of duty as an officer of the law. In fact, way more than he ever did while he served in the military. His dear old friend Alex and him had been friends since the second grade, having shared the same class that year. All through the rest of their school years together, they had kept a competitive edge with one another, but Alex always managed to make the honor rolls, where Steven had struggled just to maintain a C average. They even played football together in junior high and high school, and in their junior and senior years of high school helped their team win the state championship twice. Steven had tried his best to excel in football, in a vain hope to gain a college scholarship, but even there, Alex, and not Steven, was the one to get the college scholarship. Semi-disappointed, but not totally discouraged, Steven enlisted in the military, and went U.S. Army Infantry. Steven was determined to make the Army work for him, and earn his college degree the hard way. He found he excelled at it. Soon, on his first try, he managed to gain the Expert Infantryman's Badge, and then earned his Ranger status to finally go Airborne. Though he liked and excelled at it, at the end of his four year enlistment term he decided to go on to college, but being a Corporal he had to enlist in the reserves. He came home and attended his local community college and served in the U.S. Army Reserves. So far he had served a distinguished military career, but he had yet to see any military combat action, and most likely never would. Upon returning home, he had found out that his friend Alex had already completed college, and was now working as an assistant lawyer for a local law firm. Hearing about an opening in the local police force, while he was still attending college, though his grades weren't that great, Steven used his exemplary Army records to become a police officer, in which, he seen a lot more action then he ever did in the military. So after dropping out of college all together (for now), and going through the police academy training, which was fine by him, and reminded him a little of the army, he became a local police officer. Jokingly, with his friend Alex, shortly after being accepted, he had said, "I lock them up, and most times you'll try to get them out." Now after a little over three years of being on the force, his friend Alex was an actual lawyer for the local law firm he worked for, but rarely did he ever get a case in which Steven had been the actual arresting officer, though they still joked about it often. Who knows, maybe the drug pushing punk he had arrested today would end up being Alex's case. Though they both were often busy, they still managed to meet together everyday, Monday through Thursday, for an hour or so after work. They would sit on Alex's porch, and talk, while drinking ice cold lemonade, made by Alex's wife, Cheryl, and playing a game of chess, which eight times out of ten Alex would win, though Steven sometimes though rarely surprised him. On Fridays, which was Poker night, they would actually meet at Steven's house, along with some others, to actually drink beer and smoke cigars, while they played cards. On Saturdays, which was bowling night, everyone who played cards would meet again at the bowling alley in the afternoon, to continue drinking beer and smoking cigars, while they either bowled a game or two, or shot some pool. Occasionally, on Sundays, when they were both off from work, and the weather permitted, after church they would go play a round of golf together, though Alex was a lot better at the game then Steven was. In fact, Alex had started playing when he had joined the law firm, while Steven was serving his country in the military, and sometimes played during the week with either clients or other lawyers. Alex had coerced Steven into playing upon his return, but having a few extra years of practice over him usually always won. Today was just Tuesday, however, and it would be just another day of playing a quick game of chess on Alex's porch, or so he thought. Little did he know that all of that was about to change, and he would not get the chance to see his dear old friend and match wits with him today. From a distance still, he saw the car on the side of the road. At first, he thought nothing of it, but as a police officer, on duty or not, it was still his duty to check it out, and to make sure that no one was in dire need of help. So far from this distance the car appeared abandoned. As he got closer, however, he began to notice a body lying in front of the car. As he slowly began to realize what it was, he hit his lights, and radioed back to headquarters' dispatch about what he now saw. "Base this is Deputy Mockery. I was on my way home down the old highway, and I have run into a situation here. A car is on the side of the road, and what appears to be a body is in front of it. I have pulled up behind the car now. How should I proceed? Over." He pulled up behind the now obviously wrecked car, and parked, while waiting for a reply. A reply came back shortly that other officers were now on their way to his location. "Deputy Mockery, proceed with extreme caution, and be advised that Deputy Martin is on his way to your vicinity, and should be there in about ten to fifteen minutes, and others should be arriving in about thirty minutes. Investigate the area, and keep us posted. Over." "I copy that. Over and out." Steven replied back. Steven recognized Jennifer's voice and was glad it was someone familiar to him. Besides he had a slight crush on the gorgeously bodacious brunette. He had also worked with Deputy Daniel Martin many times before. Danny, as Deputy Martin liked to be called by his friends, when not on duty, was very serious about his job, and didn't take any bull from anyone. Steven guessed that was why he liked working with Danny, because they shared the same work attitude and ethics. Danny's father, Christopher Martin Jr., was well known in the community as being the Vice President for a major oilfield company, and to top it off made a fortune playing the stock market. He also knew that Danny had three sisters, and that he was the only son, though he was the oldest of them all. Though he was the only son, and the matter of carrying on the family name fell on him, he had already fulfilled that obligation by marrying his high school sweetheart, Margaret, and together they shared the blissful joys of parenthood by raising their now two year old son, Joseph, who was Danny's pride and joy. Little did Steven realize that he had been to busy thinking about other things during his drive that he missed something that the now alert Danny would soon find, which would not allow him to make it in those ten to fifteen minutes as promised. Now Steven surveyed the wreckage scene. He would look around and radio back any important details he could find, until back up arrived. First though, to check the body. Maybe, whoever it was, would still be alive, though from what he could tell, from the little bit that he had seen, he very much doubted it. Steven got out of his squad car, surveying the wreckage scene as he went. The civilian car was just behind a tree, but as Steven got closer to the front of the car, he noticed that the car had, in fact, been rammed into the tree, just as Steven had suspected. Also, from this vantage point he began to make out the legs he had seen. Apparently, it was men's shoes and blue jeans. Thinking that maybe the "dude" had hit the tree, and not been wearing his seatbelt, had been thrown through the front windshield, Steven glanced through the driver's side window at the windshield as he made his way around the vehicle, to find that the windshield was still intact, though it was cracked up in some places. Coming around now to the front of the car he confirmed this, but this time also noticed that the side of the car was scratched up as if another car had forced this one off of the road. The scratches looked rather fresh to Steven, for they showed no signs of rust setting in yet, and the paint from another vehicle still lingered onto the car as well. Finally, he made it to the very front of the car where the body was lying on its back. A couple of crows who had been snacking on the body were startled into flight, squawking loudly at the intrusion to their meal as they left. The man was most obviously dead, and had been for quite some time. The body now laid in a dried up pool of its own blood and bodily fluids, as flies swarmed around the body, and even ants were forming lines and carrying off pieces of the poor guy. The stench of the rotting flesh tried to overcome him, but Steven ignored the smell and took a closer look at the body. The victim had several cuts as if it had been hacked up with a knife. It also looked like the body had been dragged out from the forest, and then dropped and left. The victim's hands and arms were above his head, and his back was perfectly straight. Obviously he had been dragged by his feet. Even though the body had been obviously murdered, that was not what bothered or disturbed Steven the most. No, what bothered Steven was the length of time this scene had set unnoticed on the side of the road. How come no one reported this in before now? Sure this was a rather deserted section of the old highway, and he guessed if anyone did come through here at a normal rate of speed and wasn't paying much attention to detail might think that the car was just parked there, but he would think that someone would have noticed it way before now. Well, he had better report these few findings into dispatch, he quickly decided, as he pulled out a sheet of paper from a pocket notebook and a pen, and quickly copied down the license plate number of the car, along with its color, year make, and model. He then briefly wrote up notes on his few findings that he would obviously have to add on to the report, that he undoubtedly would have to fill out later and turn into the main office. "Well, we'll just see who this car belongs to. Maybe, with any luck, it was the killer's, and the killer had run off from the scene of the crime because of fear of being discovered." Steven thought aloud to himself, as if he was actually talking to the already decaying corpse. He quickly dismissed this first thought out of his head just as soon as he spoke it aloud because the car had obviously been forced off of the road. "Or, at least, maybe discover who the victim really is, because I don't want to mess up any of the evidence until the detectives get here. So I won't have to search the body in this obvious murder case. That makes my job a lot easier. I just sit here to ensure that the crime scene is undisturbed, set up crime scene tape all around the area, fill out my report, and just wait for the detectives to get here." Steven briefly wondered what was taking Danny so long to get here as he made his way back to his patrol car and radioed in his surveyed report of the grizzly murder scene, emphasizing that it was a case of obvious murder, and that detectives should be called onto the scene. Just as he finished up his report, and was advised to make sure no one contaminated the scene, by putting up crime scene tape around the area and making sure no one crossed over it, which Steven had already known he had to do, but the dispatchers had to make it official, Danny Martin chimed in with a report of his own. Steven was just about to ask about Danny when Danny's own words cut him off, and instead of keying the mike, he hung it back up and just listened to Danny's report. Danny had been driving with his eyes more alert than Steven's had been. He had surveyed the road ahead for the signs of where Deputy Mockery was now at. He never found them, but instead found a woman's dead body just off to the side of the road. Danny quickly pulled over to take a closer look, hoping that his eyes had been deceiving him, and that it was just a torn up bag of trash or something. His eyes had not unfortunately been deceiving him, however. The lady's body looked to have been cut up and then ran over. The body looked rancid, its guts spilled out everywhere on the ground, and the clothes it wore torn to shreds. Flies swarmed over the body lying in its own already dried up bodily fluids, and the smell of rotted flesh filled Danny's nose. Though Danny had seen death before, it had never been quite like this, and the sensory overload was just to much for him to take. He backed away from the body and immediately puked his guts out. So much for that expensive lunch he had, which was now being sprayed all over the ground. After a minute or two of shock recovery and breathing in fresh air, he managed to get back into his police cruiser just in time to hear Deputy Mockery's report on what he had found at the originally discovered crime scene. Covered in sweat from the mid-afternoon sun he turned on the cruiser's air conditioner and tried to cool himself off as he listened to Deputy Mockery's report. As soon as Deputy Mockery finished he had chimed in with his own report. After hearing both of the reports, Jennifer chimed in to tell them that Detective Jones would be to each of their crime scenes in about thirty minutes to an hour. The two deputies would have to secure the crime scenes they had found until then. Using his personal cell phone, after applying crime scene tape around the entire area, Steven called Alex and told him that he wouldn't be able to play chess today because he was still on duty, and promised that if and when he could he would definitely fill Alex in later on what actually happened here today. Unfortunately, it would be a long while before he could let Alex know what actually happened here today. Alex understood, explaining that it was no big deal, and that work came first, and as for what was going on he understood keeping the facts under wraps, after all he was a lawyer. They wished each other a good night with promises to meet maybe again tomorrow. After the phone call, Steven began to work on his report, while he sat and waited. Occasionally a car would go by, and it again would bother him about how long this scene had went unreported. Thinking thoughts about if something were to happen to him, how long before someone would find him. Some how this depressed him some, and he tried to work on his report, but kept going back to those depressing thoughts. Detective Richard Jones first arrived to where Deputy Martin and the mangled woman's body was. He pulled up to the squad car, which was flashing its lights, but not blaring the siren, in his unmarked car. Grabbing his instant Polariod camera and investigative evidence collector's bag, he got out of his car, and noticed that Deputy Martin had already reached the door of his car. "It's not pretty. I can't make myself look at it again. In fact, I lost my lunch right over there." Deputy Martin replied, pointing a finger in the general direction, but not daring to look. "That's all right Deputy. You've done a fine job. You're still green under the collar. The first few years of doing this, it is very hard to cope with death. I've been doing this for years now, so I've learned to overcome the nausea, but it's still hard to welcome the death that has come for others." The detective said patting the deputy on the shoulder. "Just sit in your squad car and relax. It'll be all over shortly. The meat wagon is on its way here even as we speak." With that out of the way, the detective began to take several pictures of the body, as the deputy went and sat in his squad car. Ten minutes later the meat wagon showed up, and the detective began to leave to find the other deputy. Before he could leave, however, Deputy Martin approached him one more time. "Detective Jones, is there anything else you need me to do? If not, I still have some of my lunch on my pant legs, and I would like to go home and change." Deputy Martin asked. "After the meat wagon gets loaded up there won't be anything left to do, go ahead and head on home. Take the rest of the day off, you deserve it. We're just about wrapped up here, and you are still suffering a little bit from the shock of it all. That's okay it happened to all of us on the force at one time or another. Just go home and relax and I'll let your superiors know, but just make sure you turn in your report first thing in the morning. Okay?" Detective Jones informed the young deputy trying to consol him. "Thanks Detective Jones." Deputy Martin said as he got in his squad car. He turned off his flashing lights, backed up slightly, and made a u-turn in the street to head back home. Meanwhile, the detective got in his car and continued to drive on to find the next deputy and his crime scene. He secretly hoped that the next deputy wasn't quite as green as Deputy Martin was. As the detective drove, he thought about the evidence he had found. The tire tracks that went right over the poor girl, which he suspected was already long dead before being ran over, at least, he had hoped so for her sake, which he had taken pictures of the tire tracks, and even made a plaster cast of the imprints on them. Spirit Ch. 08 Some shoe prints, which he had taken the same procedure for as the tire marks, even though he knew one set to be the deputy's. Even a sample of the deputy's vomit was taken, which he had moved around with a stick just to make sure that the deputy didn't throw up on an important piece of evidence. He didn't think the rookie deputy was covering up anything, but there were reported cases of it in the past, and the detective didn't want to take any chances. As for the evidence on the body itself the city morgue would take care of that, and he would compare notes with them later. Other than these few things there wasn't much to go on. There was no sign of a struggle at the crime scene, so the detective felt that the body had been brought there from somewhere else, and was probably already dead when carelessly discarded, and the car ran over the body. One thing bothered him though, why leave the body in the open to be found eventually, why not at least attempt to hide it by pushing it a little farther from the roadside? He guessed common sense tended to leave the common murderer, and that murder in itself made no sense. Maybe he was about to hide the body when he realized he was about to be discovered. He dropped the body and sped after the eye witness to his grizzly crime, hence explaining the next crime scene. He then either forgot about the body, or realized he couldn't hide the next crime scene so didn't worry about it. Either that or the killer was daring people to find him. He would definitely test out his theories at the next crime scene. He quickly found the other set of flashing police lights, and pulled onto the side of the road behind the other squad car. Pulling out his instant Polariod camera and evidence collector's bag, along with the photo of the tire prints, he walked up to the wrecked car and compared the picture of the tire tracks to that of the tires on the car. "Nope. This isn't the same car that ran that other lady over." He said to the deputy who was now walking over to him. "But..." The detective was now staring over at the skid marks in the road. He walked over and compared one set to the picture. "Yes, sir! We have a winner! This one is the same car. These two murders are related." The detective said as he began taking pictures of the skid marks, then the car, the man's body, and then followed the body's drag trail taking pictures of it all the way to where it ended, and the grizzly place where the young man back there was actually killed. Foot prints were everywhere and the detective followed them around, snapping pictures, until he got the basic idea of exactly what happened. He also made several casts of the foot prints, which thanks to the light rain last night and the muddy, but now dried imprints, was extremely easy to do. He found a strip of cloth on a branch, presumably the male killer's, though there was actually two, and the other was a female. In the road he found part of the driver's side mirror, shattered glass from a car window, and scratched paint marks from a car, which had apparently been flipped on it's side and then forced back up right again. The color of the paint was the same as the paint marks in the side of the car in front of the tree. He took a picture of where the stuff laid and then collected what was left of the mirror, the shattered front windshield remains, and a sample of the paint, and placed them in plastic evidence bags. The police had lots of evidence here to work with. There were even signs of another ghastly murder that took place beside the car, though there was no body just blood, which he also took a sample of, and put it in a small glass vial. Soon the meat wagon arrived there to pick up the other body. A tow truck also arrived shortly after for retrieval of the car, to be towed to the police impound lot, where a forensics team would go over every inch of it. The detective found he had gathered all the evidence he could for now, and that there was nothing left for him to do, but wait for the forensic's and the morgue's reports to return before making his assessments. The detective told the deputy that after he crime scene taped the area off a little better going towards the woods, just in case the detective had to return to validate evidence, he would be free to go. The deputy tried to question him about what he thought had happened here, but the detective told him that he wouldn't know anything for sure until the lab reports returned, so he could make his evaluation. The detective then left the deputy alone to finish his work, but before he could leave, the deputy stopped him long enough to ask, "Who do you think probably done this?" "Well," the detective replied, "We only have one known suspected killer in the area, Jason Chambers, but we still have to collect enough evidence to convict him, and we have to catch the lady helping him too, if it is even him." Deputy Mockery watched as Detective Jones pulled away. He was now eager to get his work done and leave, after all he had already been here for way more than an hour. As he finished setting up the crime scene tape, he thought to himself that even though he couldn't play a game of chess, that he could still visit his friend Alex for a wee bit and drink a glass of lemonade. He could already taste the lemonade now in his parched throat. The meat wagon had long finished and left already, and the tow truck was just finished and was taking off as well, just as he was finishing up. He jumped into his squad car and continued on towards his friend's house, which lead him farther down the road, as everyone else had turned around and gone back the other way. More alert now from all of the excitement, to his surprise and dismay, he soon found a second car which had run off of the road. He groaned, knowing that he wasn't going to be tasting that lemonade today, and quickly got on the radio to try and bring back the meat wagon and the detective, and get a second tow truck sent this way. After making sure that they were on their way back to his location, he grabbed the crime scene tape, and stepped out of his car to investigate. The car itself had been pushed rather far off of the road, and he probably would have even missed it totally if it wasn't for the fact of what he had seen just moments before. The car was banged up pretty good as well, as if it had been flipped over. The driver's side mirror was broken and the front windshield of the car had been completely shattered. In the car was a mutilated woman's body behind the steering wheel. Tracks led from the car to the road, a set of foot prints led from the car to the road, but that was it really as far as the deputy could tell. He quickly crime scene taped the area off, as he waited for the others to show up. The meat wagon showed up first, and together they waited for the detective to show up, while they traded some small talk about last baseball season, and how their favorite teams and players had done. The detective soon showed up to the scene. Having already crime scene taped the area off, the deputy suggested that he travel and investigate further up the road to double check if anything else was out here. The detective himself thought it was a brilliant idea and agreed, mentally he kicked himself for not thinking of doing this sooner. With the deputy off on his way, the detective opened the car door and took pictures of everything. He compared the tire tracks to the car, and quickly realized that this was the car that had been at the other two crime scenes. The woman had been killed at the other crime scene, placed in the passenger seat, drove here, and then dragged to sit in the driver's seat. Now this confused the detective somewhat. Why would the real killer even try to make it look like this woman had been on a crazy out of control drive? It didn't make any sense to him, especially since it was so sloppily done. He let the meat wagon take the body, while he took a few pictures outside around the car. He also made an imprint of the two tracks of footsteps from the car to the road, one of which was the deputies, and the other was the killer's. After the meat wagon had gathered up the body, and loaded it up in their vehicle along with the other two bodies, he motioned for the tow truck, that had arrived while the meat wagon was just finishing up, to come hook up to the car. After the tow truck had started hooking up to the car, Deputy Mockery returned shortly after, saying that he couldn't see anything else from the road. Having done all that they could, they wrapped it up. The detective would have a lot to ponder over tonight as he waited for his reports, and the deputy would have to settle on a glass of soda from his fridge, for he was tired and heading home. Next Chapter Nine "A Fresh Assignment" Steven "Shadow" MacGraw is assigned to investigate the mysterious going ons at Sitting Bull Falls, NM. Unknown to him, he is being sent to take out the spirit in control of the hoard of deadly black widow spiders. File #: 23 Character Star Power: 3 Code Name: None Alter Ego: Steven Mockery Aliases: None Nick Names: None Legal Status: Deputy Police Officer Allegiance: US Law Enforcement. Sub-Groups: None. Rank: Deputy Police Officer Occupation: Deputy Police Officer Known Relatives: He has a rather large family that includes a mother, father, two older brothers, and a younger sister, and several other relatives such as grand parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, but due to constant family bickering he chooses not to talk to them much. Birth Date: July 30, 1980. Birth Place: Gaylord, MI. Height: 6' 2 Weight: 220 lbs. Eyes: Blue Hair: Blond Attitude: Is both very down to earth, but also takes his job very seriously. Known Powers: None. Equipment: Standard Police Issue. Known Skills: Military and police training. Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal. For More Info. See: N/A. History: Born in Michigan, his family soon moved back to where the rest of their family was and Steven began to become friends with another boy named Alex. They became very competitive with each other always trying to out do the other. Alex usually excelled at school where Steven was good at most sports. Alex and Steven both helped lead their high school to state championships twice. Steven thought he was a shoe in for a scholarship to college, but instead his friend Alex had earned it. Disappointed, and not knowing how else to go to college, he joined the army. He excelled at it, earning the Expert Infantry Man's Badge and Airborne Ranger Status, along with going from a private E-1 to earning Corporal E-4. When his time for service was up, he decided not to reenlist because he felt that since he was serving during a peace time, he was only constantly training and not really making any sort of difference in the world. He returned home and decided that his army training would help him immensely make a difference on the police force, which he has proudly served for three years now. He moved a few towns over from his family and has his own bachelor's pad, spending his free time hanging out with his friends. Spirit Ch. 09 Sep 7, 2010 Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Nine A Fresh Assignment Current mood:creative Heavy Metal Thunder Productions Presents... Copyright protected on June 2010. The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental. Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience. Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Written by Stacy James Meadows With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke. Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... Jason Chambers was suspected of murder and placed under house arrest, while new murders were happening on the highways. Steven "Shadow" MacGraw had a night off from work, and we saw how he spent his free time, and woke up to prepare for work. We join him now as he goes into his work office. Chapter Nine "A Fresh Assignment" Steven "Shadow" MacGraw pulled up to the office parking lot in his small compact car. He pulled into the parking space that was marked with his name, and placed the gears in neutral and pulled the parking brake. He stepped out of the cinnamon colored car and in the same motion locked and shut the car door. He made his way through the front door and worked his way up the stairs to the third floor, and arrived at the office ten minutes early. Fumbling for the key, he unlocked the door, and entered his office; turning on the light and shutting the office door as he went. Besides just his normal office space, the office also contained a small latrine and walk in closet off to the sides. The latrine contained a toilet and a sink. On the sink sat a bar of soap and a water can for watering his various plants around the office. On the wall beside the sink was a paper towel dispenser. On the wall beside the toilet was a roll of toilet paper on a toilet paper dispenser. A metal waste basket sat on the floor between the sink and the wall. In a cabinet, underneath the sink, was stored more toilet paper, paper towels, soap, and a few pagan magazines, which had articles that described things such as casting spells, how to grow, take care of, and use herbs for general use or casting spells, special pagan holidays, and special things you could do to celebrate them, and all kinds of tips to help the environment along with several other things. The small walk in closet contained two light grey four drawer filing cabinets, which hardly had anything in them really because his line of work was kept confidential, a photocopier machine, which worked not only as a photocopier, but as the computer's specialized business printer as well, which was able to do multiple copies even in color, and on shelves above those were various office supplies, such as: pens, staples, paper clips, paper for the copier, markers, folders, etc. The office itself contained a glass topped table underneath the office's only window, a desk in the center of the room, a swivel roller wheeled and cushioned computer desk chair, which sat behind the desk, two wooden chairs, which sat in front of the desk against the wall, a small book shelf containing some work oriented manuals and video tapes, which sat at the end of the desk next to the wall in such a way that you'd have to go behind the desk to reach the shelves, a small magazine rack, which sat next to the wooden chairs, and contained business oriented magazines for guests to his office to read while they waited for him, which was very rare indeed, and another small metal trash can at the end of his desk. On the glass topped table, in front of the window, sat six plants. The first was an aloe vera plant. Not only was the aloe vera plant's sap good for healing burns, but magically it could be used in magical spells for protection, luck, and healing. The second plant was an angelica plant used magically for exorcisms of evil spirits, protection, healing, and visions. The third plant was a basil plant used magically for gaining love, wealth, protection, flying, or exorcism of evil spirits. The fourth plant was a sage plant used magically for gaining wisdom, protection, wishes, longevity, and even immortality. The fifth plant was a yarrow plant used magically for gaining courage, love, psychic powers, and exorcism of evil spirits. Lastly, the sixth plant was a mugwart plant used magically for gaining strength, psychic powers, protection, prophetic dreams, healing, and astral projection. Steven had decided on these plants to be in his office to help keep evil spirits out of this area, to protect his work space, and to allow only a friendly working environment here. Also, some of the plants could help inspire him in his work endeavors. On the desk sat a computer monitor and keyboard, with the main frame sitting on the floor underneath the desk, though it was also on some pillars of wood encase the floor was flooded for some reason. Underneath the keyboard was a desk calender. To the right side of the desk calender, just above the trash can, was a paper shredder, to destroy top secret documents with. In front of the desk calender was a name plate, which read, "Department Investigator, Steven MacGraw." Behind the name plate were seven medium sized stones called chakura rocks. There are seven main chakuras in the human body. These seven stones are used to clean, purify, and strengthen these seven chakuras. The first chakura is located at the base of the spine, basically at the groin area, representing the element of earth, with a psychological function for survival and grounding excess energy, and it controls the emotion of stillness. If this chakura is clogged it could lead to medical conditions, such as: obesity, hemorrhoids, and constipation. The stone known as "apache tear", a dark stone, is used to cleanse this chakura. The "apache tear" stone can also be used in spells for protection and luck. The second chakura is located approximately two inches below the navel, representing the element of water, with a psychological function for emotions and sexuality, and controls the emotions of desire and tears. If this chakura is clogged it could lead to medical conditions, such as: impotence, frigidity, and uterine or bladder problems. The orange stone, known as "carnelian" is used to cleanse this chakura. The "carnelian" stone can also be used in magical spells for protection, peace, eloquence, healing, courage, and sexual energy. The third chakura is located at the region of the solar plexis, just below the rib cage, representing the element of fire, with a psychological function for will and power, and controls the emotions of anger, joy, and laughter. If this chakura is clogged it could lead to medical conditions, such as: ulcers, diabetes, and hyperglycemia. The yellow-gold stone known as "citrine" or "tiger's eye" is used to cleanse this chakura. The "tiger's eye" stone can also be used in magical spells for protection, anti-nightmare, psychic powers, wealth, courage, energy, luck, and divination. The fourth chakura is located in the area of the heart, at the thymus gland, representing the element of air, with a psychological function for love and balance, and controls the emotions of love and compassion. If this chakura is clogged it could lead to medical conditions, such as: asthma and high blood pressure. The stone known as "rose quartz", a pink quartz stone, is used to cleanse this chakura. The "rose quartz" stone can be used in magical spells for protection, attracting love, healing, psychic powers, power, and lactation. The fifth chakura is located at the base of the throat, representing the element of ether and sound, with a psychological function for communication and creativity, and controls the emotions of expansion and excitement. If this chakura is clogged it could lead to medical conditions, such as: thyroids, colds, and flus. The blue stone known as "blue jasper" or "amazonite" is used to cleanse this chakura. The "blue jasper" stone can also be used in magical spells for gambling and success. The sixth chakura is located center, slightly above the eyebrows on the forehead, representing the element of light, with a psychological function for clairvoyance and imagination, and controls the emotion of dreaming. If this chakura is clogged it could lead to medical conditions, such as: blindness, headaches, and nightmares. The purple stone known as "amethyst" is used to cleanse this chakura. The "amethyst" stone can also be used in magical spells for peaceful sleep, overcoming alcoholism, healing, psychic powers, peace, love, protection against thieves, courage, and happiness. The seventh and final main chakura is located in the center on top of the head, representing the element of thought, with a psychological function for understanding and knowing, and controls the emotion of bliss. If this chakura is clogged it could lead to medical conditions, such as: depression, alienation, and confusion. The clear stone known as "crystal quartz" with it's smooth round surface, which could be easily mistaken for glass, is used to cleanse this chakura. The "crystal quartz" stone can also be used in magical spells for protection, healing, psychic powers, power, and lactation, and also, staring into the surface of the stone in meditation could reveal visions. When Steven first got this office, he felt that the plants and stones would bring harmony into his working environment. Since it wasn't outlandishly pagan, no one that didn't need to know he was pagan, wouldn't suspect that he was. In today's times, even though there was freedom of religion, and many pagans worshiped openly, there are still many die hard Christians who would go to great lengths to cause trouble for practicing pagans, especially since they thought they would be saving the pagans soul by converting him to Christianity. In Steven's line of work, it was better to present a friendly, nonthreatening, persona that got people to be helpful, instead of uncooperative. Having not been in his office for a week, because of doing field work, Steven went to the restroom and filled up the water can. He then watered his plants underneath the window. Surprisingly they weren't in to bad of condition after going so long without being watered. He then replaced the water can back in the bathroom, and then sat down behind his desk, and turned on his computer. While waiting for the computer to boot up, he laid back in his chair, and placed the chakura stones on the appropriate chakuras, while meditating for a few moments. After a few moments of meditation, in which he visualized each of the seven chakuras glowing and releasing the blockage in a stream of light connecting the chakuras, and going up through the top of his head and into space, he put the stones back into their place behind the name sign, and began surfing the internet for the latest news. Suddenly, he remembered the few pages that he had earlier that morning shoved into his wallet. Maybe the environment he had created in his office was actually working its magic on him and enhancing his thinking capacities. He pulled his wallet out, and retrieved the pages. As he suspected, it really didn't give much facts about the actual details, but instead, was kind of a warning for the general public to watch their collective backs. They basically told of a rash of murders that have been happening along the more deserted highways. People were being chased off of the road, and then murdered. Steven was slightly reminded of some of the more older and even some recent remakes of horror movies with such themes, and wondered if the murderer or murderers were huge fans of those types of movies. He imagined they were, as he folded up the papers, and placed them in a desk drawer. Closing the drawer, he placed his wallet back inside his back pocket, and then resumed surfing the internet. Midway through his news search, his supervisor, Mr. Smith, came knocking on his door. Invited in, Mr. Smith entered, and then sat down in one of the wooden chairs, with a fresh case file in the disguise of a yellow manilla folder stashed inside a newspaper, in his hands. "Shadow, we've got a new case for you to investigate. I think you'll find this one is more up your alley." He said, as he handed over the easily recognizable case file, in spite of the subterfuge of the disguise, to Steven. Steven took the newspaper with the yellow manilla folder stashed inside it, leaned back in his chair, laughing silently inside at his private spy joke of disguising the folder, separated the newspaper from the folder setting the newspaper on his desk to the side, and then opened the folder to begin examining its contents. He briefly examined the first couple of pages, with the small smile from his mental joke turning slowly into a look of concern, before asking, "What is this, sir?" Steven had been focusing on more closer to home cases. This case was a total surprise from out of left field. Nothing even remotely close to this was mentioned anywhere on television, newspaper, or even in the internet news sources, and with good reason. He couldn't believe it, that this was an actual case that was more up his alley, and more in his actual line of expertise. Mr. Smith stood up, pulling his pants up more, tucking in his shirt as he did so, and walked around behind the desk. On a clear spot of the desk, he leaned back and rested his behind, while keeping his hands free to point at various papers in the folder while he spoke. "The first two pages here are the police officer's report. Sheriff Holland was the first officer on the scene. All his personal information is enclosed as well. According to the report, as he drove up to Sitting Bull Falls, in New Mexico, he found a man running down the road from Sitting Bull Falls in complete hysterics. That man's name was Joseph Sanchez, and his driver's license, driver's record, credit report, financial records, psychological evaluation, and personal data are also all enclosed in the folder. The conclusion from his information by our department is that he was a family man who worked in the oilfields as a loader. He, himself, is currently in a mental institution awaiting to be evaluated further by psychologists to determine if he is insane or not." "So what caused Mr. Sanchez to run down the road hysterically, and what does that got to do with our department?" Steven asked, still not totally convinced that it was a case for him to investigate, though he knew he would have to anyway regardless. "I was getting to that. Apparently something happened at the falls that killed everyone there, including Mr. Sanchez's own wife, kids, and even his dog, except for Mr. Sanchez himself. Then he's running down the street from the falls, when he has a car parked in the parking lot, and it's at least forty miles from the nearest town." "How were they killed?" Steven asked, beginning a closer examination of the papers in the yellow manilla folder. "Well, that's the strange part." Mr. Smith said, as he leaned forward and flipped through the pages until he found the autopsy report, and stopped pointing to the conclusion of the report. "They were all killed by a massive overdose of black widow spider bites and poison." "But that's impossible. Black widow spiders are solitary creatures, and don't travel in swarms, colonies, or packs, especially not in bright sunlight." Steven said with a perplexed look on his face, as he stopped flipping through the pages and looked up at Mr. Smith for an answer. "That's the major mystery that the local authorities are baffled about, but there is one strange possibility. Our Mr. Sanchez, rambling in hysterics mind you, told the police that it seemed some entity or spirit was controlling the black widow spiders and even spoke to him." Mr. Smith said looking Steven right in the eyes. "My superiors in the Pentagon have declared this a top secret case, and they deemed that your special talents in these situations make you the best candidate for this investigation. Of course, local authorities are keeping the incident hush-hush for right now. They're saying that the incident was a rock slide, and have shut down the falls and confiscated all of the bodies for a federal investigation, until they can figure out exactly what happened." Steven's eyes dimmed in thought, as he suddenly recalled his astral travel visit with the shaman Grey Wolf, and the attack of the black widow spiders on his astral self, in perfect crystal clarity. "So will you take the case, Steven?" Mr. Smith asked, barging in on Steven's thoughts. "Or do I tell the higher ups to choose someone else? I know this is the type of case you like, so what will it be?" "Sure, it's been to quite for so long that I've been expecting something like this." Steven said shaking off his other thoughts. "Just let me look this over for a bit." "Sure thing, Shadow, but one more thing. If all else fails, and there is no way to stop this thing, whatever it is, my superiors have given me the permission to use deadly force. That means if you go in there, and find yourself in way over your head, you contact us, and give us the word to strike, or if you fail to report in after 48 hours, a tactical nuke will be released in the area. A possibility of an estimated 100,000 people will be killed, but the incident will be covered up as either a terrorist attack or accident at the Artesia, New Mexico oil refinery plant. The higher ups don't want anything that could possibly be this dangerous running around unstoppable." "I understand. One hundred thousand plus lives is now in my hands, so I can't screw this up." Steven replied coldly. "Good. Whenever you're ready to go, head on out, you know what you'll need. Remember to use the company credit card, and to conduct yourself as a federal agent, of course, as you already know, you don't have to follow the letter of the law, as long as you permanently stop whatever is doing the killing. Good luck, Shadow." With that Mr. Smith got up and left. Steven spent ten minutes reading through the folder, but he suspected his astral conversation with Grey Wolf told him way more then this file would, and he wasn't about to tell Mr. Smith about that. He wasn't totally for sure about Mr. Smith, but he imagined that Mr. Smith was one of those die hard Christians. Steven finally put down the folder and started ordering his plane tickets via the computer internet using the company credit card. He figured he could finish going through the case file more while on the flight. He then set up hotel accommodations in Carlsbad, New Mexico. No way was he going to stay at ground zero in Artesia, and with the oil refinery there, it probably stank as well. He scooped up his seven chakura stones, placing them in his pocket. He almost always left them here, but something told him that he would be needing them, and anything else he could get for this major confrontation. He finished punching up the tickets, and hotel accommodations, printing the flight schedule and hotel reservations, and then shut down his computer. Going into the walk in closet, he retrieved the printed schedule and reservations, folded them up, and put them in his back pocket. He exited the closet and shut the closet door. He then went to the desk and opened up the desk drawer to pull out a business envelope and a pair of scissors. Instead though he saw the papers he had stuck in the drawer earlier. Well, he wasn't going to be working on that case now, at least, not for now. He thought for minute about grabbing them, but in the end decided to leave them, and continued to search for what he wanted originally. Spirit Ch. 09 He then clipped a leaf or two off of each of the plants, and stuck the clipped off leaves into the business envelope, because he might have a need for them as spell components later on. He placed the scissors back into the desk drawer, and picking up the yellow manilla folder off of his desk as he slid the envelope with the leaves inside of the yellow manilla folder. He left the office, possibly for the last time, locking the door behind him as he left. Next Chapter Ten "Another Murder" The masked killer and his laughing blond girl side kick strike again. File #: 24 Character Star Power: 2 Code Name: None. Alter Ego: Sheriff Timothy Mark Holland Aliases: None Nick Names: None Legal Status: Law enforcement officer (Sheriff), Divorced. Allegiance: U.S.A. Law Enforcement Sub-Groups: Any pertaining U.S.A. Law Enforcement. Rank: Sheriff Occupation: Sheriff Known Relatives: Linda (ex-wife), Tommy (son), Judy (daughter), and to many others to list here, that he hardly ever talks to. Birth Date: September 6, 1962. Birth Place: Carlsbad, NM. Height: 6'3" Weight: 215 lbs. Eyes: Green Hair: Brown Attitude: Takes everything seriously, and doesn't really joke around. Known Powers: None. Equipment: Owns a trailer in the country, and any that the law enforcement will provide him. Known Skills: Law Enforcement. Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal For More Info. See: None. History: He was born and raised in Carlsbad, NM. After graduating high school he went straight into the police academy, and worked his way through the ranks to become a career Sheriff. He meet his now ex-wife while still in high school, and got married because of an unplanned pregnancy with his son. The marriage was a rocky one with constant bickering. Even though they also had a daughter together as well, they were constantly arguing all the time, though it never led to any violent outbursts. Most of the arguments were over either Timothy's job or his attitude of taking everything so seriously. Linda starting to get fed up with his bull all of the time, started having an affair on the side. After Timothy finally learned of this, and had time to think before confronting Linda about her affair, had came to the decision to get a divorce, especially since their children had already grown up and left the house. Timothy surprised Linda with the divorce papers, and after yet another long argument finally agreed to the divorce in which she kept the house and car, while Timothy got a trailer and moved to the country. Sheriff Holland was the first to arrive at Sitting Bull Falls to find Joseph Sanchez in hysterics and the dead bodies of the black widow spider swarm.