Tribulation Bay Chapter TWO

“I need the police here now!” Andrew barked into the phone at the 911 operator. “The crime is happening now. There are two people trapped inside a house with an insane woman coming after them.”

“And what do you want me to do about that?” The dispatcher balked.

“Send out a police car,”

“We can't do that--.” Indistinguishable sounds can be heard in the background much akin to a shuffle.

“We're sorry about that,” a different voice came out over the phone, “she will no longer be working as a dispatch.”

“Listen, just send out a couple of cars,” Andrew went into giving the address.

“A car is less than a minute away from that location.”

“OK,” Andrew looked around for Dawn, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Dawn stood just inside the door with her phone pointing towards the steps and was standing there long enough to get the verbal interaction between her sister and Doris. At some point Doris hurled herself from the top of the stairs at Clark welding a butcher knife, she zoomed in on Doris just long enough to catch the knife on video.

Meanwhile, Clark saw what was coming, dropped the box, and took a flying leap down the stairs, where Rachael was able to break his fall.

Rachael looked up in time to see Doris throwing the knife, she had less than a second to react. Pulling Clark into her, she dove away from the oncoming knife, which stuck itself into the wall behind where the were standing less than a second before.

“There is no end to a mother's love!” Doris screeched out in an evil, almost haunting voice, she reached out with open arms, a smile came to her bony face. “Come back to me and all will be forgiven.”

“Clark,” Rachael said, “I think we should get out of here.”

“I'm not completely sure what that is,” Andrew added, “but that's not your mother!”

“I know,” Clark looked up, and saw a police officer standing there.

“It looks like that woman's not of sound mind,” the officer said, “why don't you step outside and let us take over.”

“Come on,” Rachael took Clark into her arms and guided him outside.

“You too,” Andrew began to guide Dawn outside, where her sister already was.

“GET BACK HERE,” Doris screamed as she again welded the butcher knife and came towards the door where the officers were now standing. “NOW!”

“Put the knife down,” the officer cried out, then turned to his two way radio, “need assistance here. Officer in distress.”

“I think we should move farther away,” Rachael suggested, as she saw several officers rushing into his house, guns at the ready. “I think fireworks are about to start.”

“I am so sorry that this has to be the last thing you have to experience concerning your mother,” Carolyn guided everyone to the side of the van that wasn't facing the house.

“Officer down!” one of the officers cried out, as a series of shots were fired.

“Sadly, she had become such a monster that she had to be taken down as such.” Clark sighed.

“She wasn't really a monster, was she?” Dawn asked.

“She let herself go so far that she began to look like the Crypt Keeper,” Rachael responded.

“You took a lot of videos of her in some of her more creepy moments: Rachael's birthday party; several other moments, now this. Take a deeper look at them and you tell me,” Andrew said. “By the way, I think the police are going to want to take a look at the video you just took.”

“Video?” One of the officers, a Sergeant came to tell them that it was safe to come out responded.

“Yeah,” Andrew sighed, “my daughter took a video of the interaction between her sister and Doris, that's the name of the woman you just had to take down, just before you arrived.

“I can transfer a copy to your phone,” Dawn held her phone up.

“Do it,” the Sergeant responded.

Dawn made a few motions on the screen and the video was copied to his phone.

“Perfect. I can see that you were just leaving,” the Officer looked at the moving van, then Andrew, “do you guys mind sticking around for a while just in case we have further questions?”

“Not at all,” Carolyn was the one who responded.

“Honey,” Andrew barked, “I need to be in town in time for me to present my opening sermon--.”

“Which is on Sunday,” Rachael pointed out, “while it is early Friday evening.”

“I'm only asking for you to stay an hour or so,” the Sergeant said, “if that, not the next two or three days.”

“Oh,” Andrew said after thinking it over, “fine.”

Clark watched as the Sergeant walked back towards the house. “Sir, how long before we can enter the house?”

“I thought you guys needed to be out of here,”

“Only he needs to be there by Sunday,” Rachael nodded towards her father, “the rest of us can stay behind a few days.”

“I'm going to need to be there with him,” Carol responded.

“Fine, then Rachael and I can stay behind and deal with what needs to be done with the house.”

“Listen,” the Sergeant said, “I've got to get back to my men. All you need to know from me is that when we go out, you can go in.”

“OK,” Clark turned back to Rachael and Andrew, “now where were we?”

“I'm fine with staying behind with you,” Rachael leaned into Clark.

“There goes the notion of me introducing my entire family in one sitting,” Andrew scoffed.

“Aw, you poor boy,” Carolyn scoffed teasingly, as she glanced over to Clark's house, where they were taking Doris' corpse to the coroners van, “if that's the biggest thing you've got to worry about this weekend, you're in good standing.”

“Very funny,” Andrew glanced over to the events that were taking place a few feet away. He let out a sigh.

“Reality setting in?” Clark asked

“Why aren't you effected by it?” Andrew asked.

“About a week ago, I though I saw Mom died then. She lay on her bed motionless, not breathing. Just looking up at the ceiling. But all at once she came back to life after being

in what I thought was a state of death for several minutes.”

“And you're thinking that something came back with her?” Asked Andrew.

“No, something came back instead of her,” Clark said, “mom was always crass and heartless and resentful towards me for her giving birth to me so late in life,”

“As if you had a choice in the matter,”

“No. But before that moment, there were some scary moments with her, but there was a line she would never cross.”

“But tonight she did,”

“What do you feel?” Rachael asked

“Relief. Relief that the verbal, physical and mental abuse is finally over.”

Dawn, who was silent the whole time looked up. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words 'll never hurt me.”

“That's not true,” Clark said, “a cut will heal, a bone will mend. But sometimes the most critical wounds are the ones to the mind, the cuts to the persona. The things that forever mar an already fragile memory of someone.”

“Let me see your phone,” Rachael took Dawn's phone and called up the video she just took, she paused the video at the point where Doris flung herself down the steps towards Clark wielding the butcher knife. “You do realize that is the last time Clark saw her alive?”

“That image of her I'm going to be carrying around for the rest of my life,”

“Easy fix,” Dawn turned the video off, and the usual Apps took its place.

“Oh,” Clark said, “If it were only that simple.”

“Now don't forget Clark,” Carolyn stepped forward, “she's only looking at this from the perspective of a 16 year old.”

“Speaking of the perspective of an 16 year,” Clark looked at his phone, as he called his sister Laura's number up, “I better let Laura know what is going.”

“She is your sister, your older sister,”

“Yes, by 16 years. Despite being 37 years old, she has that childlike mindset.” Clark called up Laura's number, and put the phone on speaker. “Hello, Laura. Whatchya doin'?”

“Just watching some old cartoons, what's up?”

“It's about mom. She just died.”

“Did she pass away in her sleep as the angelic version of the angel of death guided her through a glowing door?”

“No,” Clark responded, “she used her last burst of energy to go full Crypt Keeper on me while waving a butcher knife until the police who were called in finally took her down.”

“Funny,” Laura said, “no, really, how did she die?”

“Laura, that is how she died. I'm sure the police will have a less colorful passage of events probably something cut and dry. But it IS how she died.”

“So, what are we going to do about the house?”

“Over the next couple of days, Rachael and I will be clearing any of my personal stuff out, I suggest you take any items you want. On Monday, close out any accounts with the Gas, Electric and her bank. By then too I should be able to make arrangements to have her cremated.”

“What's wrong with a proper Funeral?” Laura asked.

“OK, so tell me. How many of her friends and family did she still have? We're the last of her family, just you and me. Her best friend Valarie died years ago, so did... well, everybody she knew.”

“Besides,” Andrew chimed in, as he leaned into the phone, “a proper funeral can cost $7,000 – $10,000 or more. And that's without the price of a casket, which can be equally as much. But a cremation can cost just a little over $1,000.”

“So, unless you can come up with $10,000 for a funeral plus another 10,000 for a casket, and yet another 10,000 for a grave stone,” Clark demanded, “I'm going with the $1,000 cremation.”

“OK,” Laura responded, “where are you going to live now? Living there for more than a few days isn't an option, and my one little room in my group home ain't going to work out.”

“Don't worry about that,” Clark said, “I've got that covered.”

“Do you want me to come over to be with you,”

“Oh, now you want to come over to be with me, now that Mommy Doris is dead.”

“You know why I didn't want to stay in that house any more, even 12 years ago mom was getting to be a scary person to be around and I didn't like that.”

“So you left an 8 year old with a scary old woman who wishes he were never born!”

“It's not like that,” Laura protested, “and you know it.”

“Actually,” Andrew spoke up, “It was exactly like that, and we all know it.”

Clark looked up to see the Sergeant coming towards him. “Listen, we'll talk more about this tomorrow when you come over to get what you want from mom's stuff.”

“OK.”

“Just don't show up before 10:00 or so.” Clark hung up and turned towards the Sergeant.

“I just have one major question, which is for the coroner, so he knows how to prepare the body. ” The sergeant had a few papers for him to sign concerning the body.

“We're just going to go with a simple cremation,” Clark began to sign the various papers.

“I really have no other questions, the girl's video pretty much shows what went on just before we arrived, and we have clear footage from a few body-cams from when we came in.”

“And as soon as you go, we can go back into the house?”

“Yes. It's not going to be quarantined as a crime scene after we leave.”

“Which means, I can get on the road,” Andrew scoffed, “might as well wait for another hour for the rush hour traffic to die down.”

“We'll get there faster in the long run,” Carolyn remarked, then turned to Rachael, “and you'll be staying behind with Clark?”

“Yes,” Rachael smiled.

“I just realized something,” frowned Andrew, “how do you intend to get there. Neither of you has a car, and there's a lot of just...stuff you'll be wanting to take from there.”

“There is a used car lot a few blocks away, I'm sure I can get something for under a thousand.”

“Where is all of this money supposed to come from?”

“When I sell the house.”

“If you go through a realtor, that could take weeks, and that's if you're lucky.”

“I'll be going through one of those house flippers, they'll pay me a flat fee up front, minus a small fee for furniture removal. In fact, I already know who I'm going to call.”

“Well, you do what you need to do, just make it quick. Just get everything done before next Sunday,” Andrew paused, “I don't want you two to be unchaperoned for too long.”

“Dad,” Rachael said, “it's only for a week, and we are consenting adults.”

“Besides,” Clark flipped at the piece of costume jewelry that hung around Rachael's neck, “we are sort of engaged.”

“That's what I'm afraid of!” Andrew groaned.