Chapter 8

Glen returned to the cabin after taking a short hike around the property. They had been waiting three days for Amos and there had been no sign. Everyone’s nerves were getting frazzled as they waited. Glen, tired of staying in the house, had finally taken a walk. The trio said they would watch from the window in case something happened to him.

He opened the door and stepped in, shouting that he was back. He glanced at the couch and saw the Metchettes looking at him in fear and with duct-tape covering their mouths. He had barely processed that information when Amos stepped out from behind the door with the stun gun. Glen went down.

Glen woke on the floor and waited to get control before opening his eyes. Opening his eyes just a slit, he saw Amos standing above him about to kick him in the stomach. Glen curled into as tight a ball as he could. The foot slammed into his shins. Amos screamed in rage and went to kick his face. He tucked his face behind his knees. The kick glanced off the knees and smashed into his forehead. Glen felt like someone had just tried to scalp him.

He remained on the floor curled up to the best of his ability. Amos landed as many kicks as he could, but none of them seriously injured Glen. Finally tired from all of his efforts, Amos stepped away and stood in front of the Metchettes. He stated, “I’m going to cut off his balls and make him watch what I do to you. He’s going to suffer knowing that you are counting on him to save you and he can’t do a damned thing.”

Glen looked over at the trio and winked to let them know that he wasn’t really hurt. All three gave the barest of nods. They all had their hands free, but were sitting there as though they were helpless.

He looked over at Amos and almost laughed aloud. Gathering all of his strength, he extended his legs as fast and hard as he could. His left foot made direct contact with the side of Amos’ knee. There was a huge crack and Amos toppled like a tree cut down in the forest. Screaming in pain, Amos leaned forward to grab his knee. The Metchettes sprang forward with their knives extended. Each was trying to hit Amos in the stomach. The knives went into him with ease.

The three pulled out their knives as pools of blood swelled and discolored his shirt. They sat back and cut the tape around their legs. The twins stood up and ran outside. Cliff paused to cut the tape around Glen’s wrists. He handed his knife to Glen. Glen ripped the tape off his mouth. It took off half his facial hair in the processes. He shouted to Cliff, “Get the girls out of here! There are clothes behind the seat in your truck.”

Cliff ran out to the truck and joined the girls in it. The girls had just retrieved the key for the truck from the place they had hidden it. They handed the key to Cliff. In seconds they were pulling out. Four minutes later they were at the end of the road. Cliff stopped the truck and turned to the girls. He said, “Pull the seat back forward. Glen said he had put some clothes in there.”

Inside the cabin, Glen finished getting the tape off his ankles. Amos was rolling around on the floor in considerable pain. He was holding his stomach as blood continued to pour out of the cuts. Glen took stock of the situation trying to decide what to do next. Amos was screaming, “I’m going to kill those bitches. They’re mine and I’m going to kill them.”

Glen moved over to Amos and said, “No, they are mine and you are never going to see them again.”

“I’m going to kill all three of those bitches and I’m going to make you watch.”

Glen knelt down and rolled Amos over onto his stomach. Pressing a knee in his back, he grabbed the head of the man under him. He twisted it as hard as he could. The neck made a sickening popping sound as vertebra gave way to the forces placed upon them. Amos thrashed and stopped moving. Glen waited a second and then checked to make sure that Amos was dead. There was no pulse. He said, “You are never going to see them again.”

Glen got up and went to his truck. His shins hurt from where he had been kicked. Amos had hurt him a little and, as he walked to the truck, he wondered if he should head to the hospital. He decided that he would follow the Metchettes. If they went to the Sheriff, then so would he.

The twins did as suggested and found the cache of clothes. It was all simple one size fits all t-shirts and sweat pants. There was also a note. Cliff dressed while the Sandra read the note aloud, “If you are reading this note, that means that you have escaped Amos. If any of you are hurt, go directly to the hospital. Do not stop at the Sheriff. I will do the best I can to keep him from escaping. Glen.”

Wanda had finished slipping a T-shirt on and said, “That man. He really does take care of us.”

Cliff, glancing in the rear-view mirror, stated, “Well, I think he’s behind us in the truck. Let’s head to the Sheriff’s.”

Glen, seeing the truck ahead of him, gave him the emergency light signal they had agreed upon so they would know that it was him driving. He didn’t want them to end up fleeing him and possibly getting into an accident. He had cautioned them to take their time and not speed. They were going to be nervous and that wasn’t the best circumstances in which to be driving.

They had reached the main road when Cliff pulled the truck over to the side of the road. Glen slowed down as he approached them and stopped behind them. He was in time to see one of the twins scramble out of the truck. She got about five steps from the truck and doubled over, vomiting along side the road. He headed over to her to help. The other twin exited at the same time and started vomiting as well. Cliff and Glen reached the twins about the same time. Cliff helped one while Glen helped the other.

After a few minutes, both of them stopped. Sandra, with tears in her eyes, looked up at Glen. Her lips quivered and she had to take several deep breaths to get control of herself. Finally, she said, “I’m sorry. I just realized that my hands were covered in his blood and that it was all over my shirt.”

Wanda was sitting next to the truck softly crying. Cliff was trying to comfort her. She cried out, “I killed someone.”

Glen came over and sat beside her. Crushing her in a hug and rocking her like a child, he said, “No you didn’t. He was very much alive when you three left.”

Wanda sniffled and then asked, “He’s going to come after us again?”

Glen continued to rock her as he answered, “No. He and I had a little altercation after you left. He’s not going to bother you ever again.”

“He’s not?”

“Never again will he bother you.”

Wanda relaxed. Sandra joined her twin and they hugged each other. A huge torrent of emotions flooded through them. They didn’t know what to feel. They were free of a monster. Should they be happy that he was dead? Should they fear Glen who had killed him? Should they be ashamed for stabbing the monster? Did they have murderous tendencies? The mix of emotions was overwhelming. They finally stood up and returned to the pickup truck.

Cliff closed the door behind them with a solid thud. The smell of vomit hung thick in the air and it promised to make him sick as well. He swallowed heavily before he turned to Glen and asked, “You killed him where he was, didn’t you?”

“Yes. He’s dead.” Glen answered. Glen looked Cliff in the eye for a minute. Cliff nodded and went back to the truck. Glen went back to his and followed Cliff as the young man drove off. They headed directly to the Sheriff’s office.

As they drove, Glen couldn’t help but consider himself a murderer. He hadn’t acted in self defense, but he wasn’t sure that the normal definition of that concept applied when dealing with an individual like Amos. As long as Amos lived, he would be a threat. Glen was convinced that the only way to defend oneself from Amos was to kill him. He had done that, but it didn’t prevent him from feeling horrible.

When they reached the Sheriffs office all four of them gathered together and went into the building. The deputy took one look at the blood and called out for the Sheriff. The Sheriff came out of his office and took a look at the four people standing there. He took a deep breath and asked, “Where is the body?”

Glen answered, “He’s in my cabin.”

The Sheriff turned to the deputy and ordered, “Get out to the Wiseman place and check it out. Get on the radio as you are going there and get two cars to meet you there. I’ll call the state police and send them out there as well. I’ll call the coroner as well.”

The deputy looked over at Glen and nodded in respect. As he passed by Glen, he whispered, “Don’t worry about a thing. I’m pretty clumsy when it comes to collecting evidence.”

Glen laughed and nodded back. The Sheriff went back to the desk and made several calls. The first one was to the coroner and the second was to the State Police. Glen, standing near the door, could hear sirens start up from several different places. The Sheriff made a third call to his wife, asking her to stop by a store and get four new sets of sweat pants and t-shirts. He hung up the phone and came out from behind the counter. He walked over to the door and locked it.

He turned to face the four people in his office. He cleared his throat and said, “Listen up everyone.”

Glen and the Metchettes turned to face the Sheriff. The Sheriff, sure that he had their attention, said, “Here is what we are going to do. I am going to interview each of you individually and without any record. I will then turn on a recorder and interview you officially. When we are done, it will be a clear case of self-defense. Are there any questions?”

Cliff’s face scrunched up as he asked, “Why the pretense?”

“I want to make sure that all of your answers do not lead to more questions. We want to get this behind you so that you can start living your lives free of any fear.” The Sheriff had a very good idea what had happened and he just wanted these people to get on with their lives. He didn’t really care to know if Glen had overstepped a few legal boundaries.

Glen nodded and said, “Thanks Sheriff.”

The Sheriff pulled Wanda into the office and closed the door. While they were in there, Helena knocked on the door. Glen opened it and let her in. She winked at Glen as she came in and then went to the back of the building carrying a rather large sack with her. After about twenty minutes the door of the office opened and the Sheriff led Wanda out.

Glen said, “Helena arrived.”

The Sheriff smiled and replied, “Good.”

He led Wanda to the back of the building and opened the door that his wife had entered. The two of them went inside. After just a few minutes, he came out and led Sandra to his office. Glen asked, “So how did he get in?”

Cliff said, “I think he was waiting for you to go out. He came in almost as soon as you hit the back of the property. He took us down with the stun gun. I came to, in time to see him position himself to be able to jump you when you came in. He had the stun gun and some pepper spray. I was really afraid that he was going to use the pepper spray on you.”

Glen sat there for a minute thinking about that. Things wouldn’t have turned out differently either way, but he had been lucky. He was sure that the pepper spray was in case he had come in the wrong door. It was better at a distance than up close.

After about twenty minutes, the Sheriff brought Sandra out and led her to the same room. He knocked on the door and then left when it opened and Sandra went in. Glen watched the proceedings curiously, wondering what was going on in the other room. The Sheriff came back and took Cliff into his office. Glen was left there alone. A woman came into the building, took one look at him, and left. The expression on her face was priceless. He smiled as he wondered what she had thought of finding him there. Most likely, she assumed that he was a criminal and didn’t want to risk getting attacked by him.

He waited patiently. After about twenty minutes the Sheriff led Cliff out of his office. He knocked on the door and then said something to Cliff that Glen couldn’t hear. The Sheriff left him standing in front of the door and came over the Glen. He said, “Come with me.”

They went into the office. The Sheriff seated himself behind his desk and looked at Glen. Glen didn’t wait for an invitation before seating himself in a chair. He looked over at the Sheriff and asked, “You want to tell me what is going on here?”

The Sheriff said, “You killed him didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. The Metchettes had already left the house when he died. They didn’t have any role in his death.”

The Sheriff was proud of Glen in his continued protection of the Metchettes. He would go to the electric chair maintaining their innocence. He had done well in selecting Glen to watch over them. He stated, “You were concerned that he was going to come back and carry out his threats against them.”

“Yes, I was.”

The Sheriff took a deep breath. This was the question that he didn’t really want the answer, but he had to understand for his own sake what had happened there. He asked, “How did you do it?”

“I grabbed his head and twisted until his neck broke.”

The Sheriff asked, “Did he resist or attack you in any way?”

“No. I didn’t give him a chance to resist or attack,” answered Glen truthfully. He was convinced that he was putting his head in a noose.