|
© Elicia Clegg 2011
Chapter One: Sunday 2011
*****
"I found them," November Webb said a bit too enthusiastically loud as she jerked her head to the left and pointed for her sister to look. She felt her stiff shoulders slump in relief. Finally she was able to relax enough to stop fidgeting with her hair clip which itched and poked the back of her skull.
The moonlight shown down brightly at this hour, reminding them both they were running out of time. November stared at him with utter contempt and resolve. He walked stiffly, his leg hurt, and his neck throbbed as he had to hunch down to hold on to the small child's hand. The moonlight hit the back of his incongruously disheveled cloths that hung from his body and made him look even more like a monster.
"It's about dammed time. It's already ten o'clock," her sister December said the moment November enthusiastically announced it. She looked up from their notepad and smiled. They had been circling the same ten blocks for nearly three hours and both were started to worry they had miscalculated and wouldn't find him.
November, with a mad hatter's smile lingering on her face, tilted her head and swallowed back all the hatred she was feeling. She shook her head as if to knock herself back into reality and turned to her sister.
"I guess it's time." December continued as she took her cue and climbed over the passenger seat to the back section of the stolen car. She brushed her fingers in-between the ghastly covered seats, finding, and then pulling at the looped knot which would allow her access to the trunk.
A wave of cold air smacked her in the face as she dislodged the semi-stuck cushion and exposed an oddly clean trunk. The breeze carried with it a strange odor, and for a moment December couldn't help but have second thoughts even though she knew she shouldn't. He was a bad man and had to be stopped, more importantly they had to save the five year old child his hand clutched at this very moment in time.
"How long do you need?" November asked. Her left eye darted to the side of the street; she lightly tapped the brakes and did one last U-turn. As she circled the street she kept a keen eye on the target while also looking at the rearview mirror at her sister.
"Fifteen minutes tops." December said with conviction as she looked down at her watch and sucked in the thinning air deeply. "Is that going to be too long?"
November slightly grumbled, this wasn't their usual suspect, he was strong, mean, and worst of all, insane to a degree even they had not encountered before. Yet she wouldn't have her sister see her fear and so she relented, "I think I can handle that."
December not only knew, but felt her sister's anxiety which always grew in the short moments just before they looked into the eyes' of a grossly obscene human. There was nothing she could do to calm her outside of getting it over with, much like pulling the bandage quickly rather than slowly from the healed wound.
As she shifted her body through the small passage her fingers lightly touched the side panels of the vehicle. Her feet brushed passed the threshold and then she stopped abruptly and twisted her body back into the main cabin. "I almost forgot."
December shifted her body and leaned through the passenger and drivers side seats. She quickly looked down and pressed number 101 on her Zune which she already had plugged into the cars stereo system. She smiled, feeling her nerves begin to soothe as the haunting sounds of Jim Morrison's deep voice filled the car.
"Awake....shake dreams from your hair..." She breathed in his ominous words and held her eyes shut for a few seconds. She often felt there was a hidden message in his words, masked by the music and just waiting to be found.
"Must you sister?" November sighed even though she too enjoyed the melody and the way the words reverberated throughout the car and her mind, both of which made her feel alive, which in turn kept her anxiety at bay.
"I must." She said smiling at her sister, kissing her cheek in a teasing manner, and then moving seamlessly toward the trunk.
"Hey wait. Where is the bug juice?" November asked as she approached their destination once again
"Right there on the floor board." December pointed toward the juice she had placed on the passenger's side. "It is the sweet kind so she won't taste the sedative."
"Are you sure?" November asked as though she was stalling and in a way she was. They knew he hitchhiked, that is how he found his victims, and yet right now, he seemed to be standing, staring out into the nothingness without any intentions of leaving the spot he now stood on.
"Yes I am sure, I tried it last night on myself."
"Of course you did," November said in a disapproving, older sister way while she rolled her eyes.
December shook it off and confirmed their plan, "Okay, fifteen minutes. Five for the girl to fall asleep, five for me to establish our alibi, and another five for me to wake back up."
December was halfway through the seat, already feeling the cool air from the trunk when her sister spoke another time. "What if he pulls the gun on me before you wake up?"
December didn't like this question, nor did November. Chills raced down December's back as she envisioned the man pulling a gun on her sister. She nearly faltered as she paused and turned her head back toward her sister. "Should we not do it?"
"No, no, we have to do it. I'm sorry. I am sure it will all be fine. Now hurry. I see some traffic coming up behind us. I don't want to lose him." November's voice was barely audible. She popped her neck and swallowed in deeply thinking it odd how her throat felt so raw as though she had not drank anything for days. | 
Soul Distortion
