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Apparition of Justice © |
| Written by r.e.potter | |
| Tuesday, 19 August 2008 | |
It was unseasonably warm he thought as he wiped the sweat from his brow, and flicking that sweat to the ground he gazed up to see the water tower that loomed just over the horizon. ‘It won't be long now he thought to himself.' The water tower was now abandoned, but at one time it had served the small town of Justice below, on this night however... it would serve a killer.
"I think I saw the dog run over this way Jimmy."
A ruse the deviant was using to lure the boy deeper into the woods, and it was a ruse he knew would be all too easy since the boy knew and trusted him. As he watched the boy scurry up the hillside on the overgrown path that lay out before them, he felt no pity. No pity for the boy, or the boys' family whose lives would be forever changed. No pity except for his own. Why did it have to be so hard, so complicated? It shouldn't have to be like this; trudging through the woods like a rabid animal. But in his mind he was not an animal, and he hated when such a thought would even cross his way. But regardless of how he felt; he was moving through the woods contemplating is next move, and like a wolf eyeing its prey, he knew that he would have to make that move soon, and being that wolf... he knew he would.
As they moved even deeper into the woods he could feel the satisfaction that would soon be his. He knew there was no way he would be denied his perverted pleasures tonight, not this night. Trudging on; they neared the water tower, the place he had chosen for his heinous crime, and now, he was all too eager to make that move. His plan had two possible outcomes, one that would be easy; and the other he concurred would also be just as easy. It didn't matter to him which one the boy would ultimately choose.
Standing now under the tower and a dog that would never be found, he knew it was time, and the first plan was set to motion. He would persuade the boy to partake in his selfish desires and then make him feel ashamed. He would then lay blame on the boy and then threaten him from telling anyone what had happened this night, it had worked before. But this night it would have to be the other. With his failed advancements; the boy started crying loudly and wanting his father, and as the boy tried to run, he grabbed him and threw him hard to the ground. He couldn't let his career be over as the towns finest and most beloved, and he couldn't put his family through the embarrassment if the truth were to come out that he be discovered for what he was, an animal. No, he couldn't let that happen, and he wouldn't let that happen. With a fierce back hand he caught the boy off guard and sent him tumbling back to the ground. Jumping upon the boy as he lay dazed and confused he began his sinful deeds, and a gentle giant the boy had once known, was now a monster. Crying and kicking did the boy little good as it only added to the thrill of the beast while he continued on with his perpetual pounding, and as the boy lay motionless, time stood still. But for the man, or even monster, time continued counting as he rolled on with his sinful desires.
When he had finished with his molestation, he began to curse at the boy, blaming him for making him do what he had just done. It was a tactic he had developed to tricking his mind into believing that his actions were just and in the right, and making him the victim, and in his sick and twisted mind, he was. It was a tactic he could live with, and even more importantly, would. As he looked up towards the night sky he noticed dark clouds moving in over head. A storm was on its way. He stood there staring upwards into the ominous darkness as drops of rain began there freefall upon his hardened face, and he felt the sting of the falling water. Opening his mouth to taste the bitterness of the rain; he recounted as a child standing in a pool as the preacher tilted back his head, and with a sprinkle of water on his forehead he was proclaimed to be a child of God. It was a day that had meant so much. Standing there feeling his conviction, he felt something else that brought him back to this time and place, movement from the boy. Gazing downwards at the boy, he knew what he had to do. Not even God would deny forgiveness this night. He was the victim. The boys realm back into the conscious world was brief as the thick hands of the killer tightly gripped the boys' throat and began choking the life away from him, a life that was full and rich only moments earlier was now in dire straits, and a life that was full of hope and promise moments earlier was now in deep peril, and a life that had just begun, was now over.
As he finished burying the boys' body in a shallow grave under the water tower he had prepared the night before; the light sprinkle of rain had become heavier. Throwing his hooded sweatshirt over his head now to block the rain he noticed the time that was on his watch, and he knew a search party would soon be on its way. He needed to hurry. Patting down the last bit of dirt on the grave, he wiped his hands clean on the pant leg of his trousers, and as the rain now turned into a downpour, he scurried back down the hillside... to be part of just that search.
Early the next morning the town was well aware of the amber alert that had been posted about little Jimmy Colten, and everyone from the town was out looking. People began gathering at the church hall and the local school to discuss strategies while the media begun arriving on the scene.
As a group of men had gathered by the church, Sheriff Jack Brown was instructing his posse at the hall what plan of action he thought was best to take.
"I count thirty heads here. Harry, take fifteen of the men and start looking for the boy on the north ridge off the lower canyon down through the swamps. The remaining come with me, we'll search the east end and up through the hills. Now we don't stop till we find him." Jack Brown was hollering out.
Before the assembled posse could move out; the priest of the church stepped forward.
"Sheriff Brown, the lord has come to me through prayer and I believe we need to look for the boy in the city. We must trust the lord at a time like this."
"Father, with all do respect, when it comes to missing children I trust no one but my own instinct, and my instinct at this moment says lets move out," Jack Brown said as he motioned with his arm to the men who were gathered.
"Then I'm coming with you."
"Father, it would be best if you stay here and direct the others that show up later."
"Jimmy is a member of this very church and I won't rest till he's found," the father was saying as he removed his sacred gown, but tossing it uncaringly onto the hedges that donned the entrance to hurry with the search at hand.
"Very well then; you come with me," Sheriff Brown finally agreed in a somber manner. But then turned his demeanor quickly back into a man with means and hollered out, "alright men...now let's move it."
As the morning turned to afternoon the men began moving deeper into the woods in the direction of the water tower. As the men of the party would talk of what they would do to the person responsible for the boys' disappearance, the father talked only of forgiveness.
"Father, if this boy is found hurt in any way, aint no forgiveness gonna help that sorry simple ass son of a *****, excuse my french." Billy Walden was saying as he spat out a stream of tobacco.
As they neared the water tower some men were beginning to argue that the search should move elsewhere, when suddenly...
"Look... over there, it's the boy up there on the hill."
As the group of men turned in the direction, they too saw little Jimmy Colten standing on the hillside. With his Clothes appearing torn and covered in dirt, they hurried in his direction. Standing back was Alex Manning, the town priest who had now fallen to his knees as if in prayer.
When the group of men arrived at the boys' side, they noticed him pointing behind them at the fallen priest, and as he pointed, he also began to speak.
"He did this to me, and God is waiting for judgment upon him."
As they turned back now in the direction of the fallen man in prayer, they saw him move up off the ground, and begin to plead with them all.
"Please, it's obvious the boy needs caring, he's been traumatized, and he's delusional. He doesn't even know what he's saying. Let's get him to a...."
"Hey, where'd the boy go?" Someone yelled out. The boy was now gone.
As they turned back towards the boy they saw that he was no longer standing there, and Sheriff Jack Brown began to bark out orders in a frantic chaos.
"Billy and Sam, stay here with father Manning, they rest of you follow me, he must have gone this way."
When they crest the top of the hill and moved down by the water tower, they noticed the freshly dug grave that lay before them, and with a shoe from a small boy lying next to it, they began to dig in a panicked rush. To their horror, they found Jimmy Colten lying in that grave with the same look of horror on his face he had the night before when the killer had put him there, and no one said a word for ten minutes, they could only stare at the grave that lay before them, and at each other.
As the years past; not much was spoken about that night, the night they looked in the eyes of the ghost of a child. Not in the town hall, nor the local barbershop where the retirees would gather to spend their long summer days. No, not much was said as the days continued on, but lives were changing. The family of the killer would relocate due to uneasiness and mounted tensions in the small community. At forty years old, Sheriff Jack Brown retired from the police force two months after that very night, and for James Colten, the boys' father, who never could stop grieving, well he committed suicide one month earlier. But as for Alex Manning, a man once revered, and a man once cherished as the local town Priest for the church of Christ in the small town of Justice, waits behind bars for his execution date and hears the words of little Jimmy Colten churning in his mind, and no matter how he tries, he just can't make it stop. "He did this to me, and God is waiting for judgment upon him."
It is even said, that on an unseasonably warm night, if you look to the east in the direction of the old abandon water tower, you may just see the ghost of little Jimmy Colten... standing on the hillside with someone's lost dog.
R.E.Potter
Copyright 2008 r.e.potter |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 13 October 2008 ) |
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