Perilous Delivery

Chapter 4 First Victim

The following morning, both Caleb and Vanessa were tired, Pedro and Macrina had both asked to come sleep in their parents’ bed that evening. They had said that they had seen “the lady” coming. Stella had been growling and barking at various rooms, and whenever Caleb would turn the light on the room would be empty. They were fortunate to have gotten some sleep that evening, however, for the most part their sleep was sporadic at best.

Nevertheless, it was now Monday, and Caleb had to make deliveries. He woke up and took a shower. He liked to pray in the shower in the morning, it was like a moment of quiet in the chaotic world. He would leave the light off in the bathroom while he showered, that way he could just sit or stand there and let the water pour over him while he prayed. It was beautiful because there were no distractions in there, no cell phones, no social media, nothing, it was truly just himself and his God. A beautiful way to pray. Vanessa had actually taken up the same practice because of Caleb telling her about it.

This particular morning, as he stood, his head against the wall praying, steam slowly rising all around him, and the hot water pouring upon him, he couldn’t help but thinking about the strange night they had had at the Holden house. Between that and the children talking more and more about, “the lady” and the dog having issues, he was beginning to wonder what was going on.

In past generations, it may have occurred to him much sooner to think that some kind of haunting was behind everything happening. However, in the modern age, people are conditioned NOT to think such things. After all, even the way we speak of the paranormal is by saying that there was not a “logical explanation” which is fallacious since it assumes the unproven conclusion that paranormal explanations are inherently illogical. In any case, perhaps it was for reasons like this that Caleb had not yet considered that the problem was paranormal in nature.

Caleb finished his shower, when he got out of the shower, he was surprised to find that his towel was not on the hook, where he could have sworn that he had placed it, but was instead on the floor all the way by the sink. Though the bathroom was not large, it was nevertheless far enough to confuse him.

On this particular morning though, Caleb certainly did not have time to think about it. He stepped out of the shower, dried off, and then dried the floor, where he had had to stand, while drying off.

When he got out Vanessa had already prepared some oatmeal for everyone, and the toaster was just popping a bit of toast. Macrina came up to him, “daddy, can you butter my toast?”

“Oh sweetie,” Caleb looked down at his sweet girl, “I don’t have a lot of time this morning, I think you’re big enough to…”

It was no use, before he could get the words out, his little girl was looking up at him with her mother’s gentle eyes, and pleading, “daddy please. I try but it’s not as good when I do it.”

“Okay bunny.” He responded with a smile as Vanessa quietly grinned, looking in their direction, “I’ll do it for you.”

He spread the butter over the toast. Then gave the slices to Macrina, who thanked him in her sweet and childish voice, then ran to the table and sat in the spot that Vanessa had set for her. Pedro was already eating, having gotten his toast buttered by Vanessa.

As mentioned before, Vanessa happened to have some errands to run with Pedro and Macrina that day, but for now, they were together for a few moments before Caleb would go off to work. These were the times that Vanessa cherished the most. Even a small and simple meal like this was made somehow special because Vanessa knew how to pour her love into her meal preparation in a way that Costa Rican women seem to have as a super power. She was always pouring herself into everything that she did, and for her, the greatest reward was the joy in her family’s faces.

When he finished his meal, Caleb kissed Vanessa’s neck, and Pedro and Macrina both began yelling, “Eww, stop it!” Though in their hearts they loved seeing their father doting affection on their mother.

As he was walking out of the door, Stella walked up to Caleb whining.

“What’s wrong girl?” He asked her as he pet her head. She just looked up at him like she was nervous about something. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what was going on with her.

When he walked out of the door, Stella watched him leave through the window, then when he drove away, she walked over to where the others were and fell asleep.

Caleb had his first delivery, it was to a Samantha Q. It wasn’t a huge delivery, just a few items. He was tired as he walked through the aisles placing all the items into the cart for Samantha. Some tortillas, a bottle of hot sauce, olives, cheese. He was just getting finished when the app alerted him that there were a couple more items added to her list.

These items were a tad on the strange side. Duct tape, a set of knives from the home department, and socks.

“What the, ugh…” He sighed to himself. These items were on three different sections of the store, he was almost done and this would not be convenient. He shrugged to himself. Then he moved on, got the last items, and moved on.

He drove to Samantha Q’s house. She had selected that she wanted her groceries handed to her, not left at her door. Caleb knocked, he heard commotion, then the door opened. A disheveled, chubby blond woman answered the door.

“Thank you!” She said as she opened the door and began taking the bags from Caleb.

“You are most welcome” he replied, handing her bags.

As he was walking away, she stepped out of the door,

“Hey,” she called out, “I think these might be someone else’s.”

She pulled out the odd additions that had been last minute on the order.

“No, they are right here on your order.” He replied politely, showing her on the app where it had those items.

“Oh…” Samantha stared at him, then looked at her app, sure enough, there were those items. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember…”

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it.”

Caleb walked away, marked the batch as delivered, then moved on to a new delivery. The rest of his day went on pretty much as normal. He noticed that he had more of those last minute additions than he usually did, but he didn’t think much of it. It didn’t make a difference to him, especially as tired as he was.

Late into his shift, he grabbed a batch, it was another huge one. Almost $100. This was way more than any batches he had taken before. Then he looked, it was for “Amanda B” again. He sighed to himself. He paused a moment, he considered calling support over it. This time it simply said to deliver to the door though, so, if it was a prank on that poor guy he had seen last time, this name had come up, he wouldn’t have to face it.

He drove to the store, shopped for the items, there were just a few. It was clear that the vast majority of the large amount for this batch was a ridiculously high tip.

When he finished shopping, he loaded up his Cruz, put the cart in the cart return, then drove away. As he was pulling into the neighborhood, the app’s connected gps started bugging out. It had him driving all through the neighborhood. He felt bad because the person had paid so much for this order, and now technical difficulties that he had never encountered before were getting in the way of their delivery. Still though, there was nothing he could do.

He tried to call the number provided for the customer, but when he did he simply got an annoying beeping followed by, “We’re sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service.”

Finally, the gps was normal again, and he arrived. He unloaded the groceries, set them on the porch beside the door. Then he snapped a pic to send to the customer. When he was leaving, he left a note saying that the customer’s number was disconnected. Then he drove away. Given how large that tip was, he was actually able to head home a little early, his work accomplished.

He got home and things seemed to be back to normal. Vanessa asked how his day of work had been, he told her about the thing with Amanda B, and the fact that he had had an unusual number of last minute additions to his orders, but also that he had gotten a really great batch. Then he asked how her appointment had gone and they talked about that.

After a bit they had dinner together. Then they had a family worship time, after which Caleb worked on some of his schoolwork. As mentioned previously, he was attending online classes for his graduate degree.

That night, he and Vanessa finished the night by watching some online videos on YouTube. Then they went to sleep.

Suddenly Caleb found himself walking through a large department store, working. He was placing items into a cart. He was perfectly happy. He noticed that there was a pretty young lady with shoulder length, black hair, and deep blue eyes. She didn’t have a cart, but every time Caleb would go into an aisle, she would be there. She started saying, “Hey, you again.”

He would laugh, she had a soft voice, she seemed very nice. He would smile politely. The fourth time or so that this happened, he joked, “Are you following me?”

Then suddenly her expression changed, she said, “Of course I am. I will go with you wherever you go.” Then she embraced him, her small thin body pressing against his strong frame. She was wearing a tight dress that was quite becoming.

He pulled back, “I can’t, I’m…”

“Oh I know,” she interrupted, “But come on, it’s hardly cheating, you spend all night with your wife, there’s nothing wrong if you spend the day driving with me.” She grabbed his hand and pulled it into her waist, her hand was cold like ice. He pulled his hand away, but she stood on tip toes and kissed him on the lips. Her thin red lips softly sliding between his full lips. Again though, her lips and tongue were so cold they almost burned in his mouth.

He staggared back, even trying to shove her away a bit. “Please,” he said, “I really can’t it isn’t right.”

“Oh baby,” she said, “You’ll soon know how wrong I can be.”

“No!” He yelled, thinking that she was talking about some kind of adultery, little did he know what she really meant. He tripped as he tried to back off from her and fell down onto his back. It felt painful where his back slammed onto the tile floor.

She leapt onto him, and said, “Listen, you’re going to take me where I want to go. I’m going to do what I want to do. If you want, I can make it fun for you.” As she said that, her hand slid down his chest and stomach, and she began to undo his pants. He grabbed her arms.

“Stop it, seriously!” Was all he could get out, weakly at that.

She continued speaking, as she moved her hips around on his lap, “as I was saying, I can make it at least fun for you. Or…” she paused, then suddenly she was gone.

He sat up, sweating, he looked around, then he saw the same girl, but now her hair was wet and messy, her mouth was bloody, her eyes bloodshot. Her beautiful white dress was now soaked and stained with brownish bloodstains. Her neck was bent unnaturally, and her arms hung broken and limp.

“Or…” she continued, “If you prefer, I can make it hell for you. I have already begun my work. You’ll know soon enough. I will continue and you can’t stop me. If you don’t want to have a little fun then fine, I’ll still use you. Just don’t try to get in my way. Since you care so much about your family… go ahead and think about them. I can do to them what I do to the others.” Her voice now grotesque and demonic, and accompanied by a sick gargling sound like someone choking as they speak.

With that he shot up in bed, drenched in sweat. “Oh thank God…” He blurted out… it had all been a grotesque dream…

He got up, walked into the bathroom, washed his face with cold water. Then wiped down his face with a towel. When he turned around, there was Vanessa, she looked terrified. Her big eyes looked like they would come out of the sockets from fright.

“What is it love?” He questioned with a concerned tone, as he hugged her.

“While you were sleeping…” she began with a pause, “I… I woke up and saw you, hovering over the bed by almost a foot.”

He was troubled, and they stayed up a few minutes, after they calmed down, and felt better, they went back to sleep. No more bad dreams.

The following day, Vanessa was showering after Caleb had left. Steam arose around her as she kneeled down in prayer while showering. She was still scared by what she had seen. She felt better though now that she was in the shower. The hot water pouring over her body was soothing. There was definite truth to something that an old priest had said when visiting last year. Sometimes taking a moment to physically comfort ourselves can be great spiritual medicine as well.

As the soap washed off of her soft brown skin, all her distractions and fears seemed to pour off of her with it. When she dried off and stepped out of the shower, she felt ready to face the day.

While she was getting dressed, she decided to check social media quickly before she would start instructing Pedro and Macrina on their homeschool classes, and checking their homework. The first few stories were normal. People uploading memes and such. Then she saw a news story, it was a local story, there was a man who lived just outside of Vancouver who had died. She clicked on it, then crossed herself as she read it.

The story was terrible, the police had been called to an address near Vancouver, the voice of a young woman on the very man’s cell phone had said, “Send the police, I have claimed my first victim. More to come. You cannot stop me. You won’t even believe it was me.” Then it had stated the address, and hung up the phone.

Police arrived to find a grizzly scene. They had stepped over some groceries that were still on the porch, then opened the unlocked door, to find a pot-bellied and barrel chested man, wearing what had been a white jersey style undershirt with cheese puff grease rubbed off onto it. However, it was now caked in blood. The man was found hanging in the living room, an extension cord wrapped around his neck. However, that was not what had killed him, it never had a chance to. That was just how he had been lifted up so that an assailant could rip open his stomach. Then his intestines and vital organs had been pulled out and thrown into a pile in the kitchen sink.

One incredibly disturbing detail was that there was not even a drop of blood in the room where this had happened. The room was pristine. However, when the police had opened the door to the master bedroom in the man’s house they found all of his blood.

On the wall, the blood was spattered into a grotesque scene, but on the wall they even found the words, “One Down”.

That was all the article mentioned. She crossed herself, said a prayer, and then returned to what she was doing. She couldn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. That night though, when Caleb returned home, he had heard the story on the radio. The strange nature of the story, and the disturbing nature of the murder had people talking.

Stay tuned for chapter 5