Getting Lucky - Getting Lucky – Chapter 138
I heard some more scrapping and movements. I thought about returning to the house and letting them know, but one girl was busy cooking and I didn’t want to disturb them. I might be overreacting anyway. It was probably just an animal, and if I freaked them out over nothing, I’d just be causing unnecessary trouble. After thinking about it again, it had to be an animal that got in. In that case, I’d do them a favor and scare it away. The girls probably didn’t like dealing with varmints, even if they were cops.
Upon making that decision, I undid the latch carefully and opened the door. I glanced around one last time at the eerily quiet alley. I hadn’t heard anything from neighbors nor seen a single car drive by since we arrived. It was a small town. After living with all the girls in the mansion, and constantly having people demanding my attention, it was a nice change in pace.
Taking a breath, I held up the cell phone and proceeded down into the cellar. It was dark and had a strange oily flower scent. I also felt like I could smell leather. That’s when I heard some kind of muffled noise. It was like a humming or a groaning. I searched around in the dark, and after a little bit, I finally found a string and pulled it. The lights came on, and my eyes froze.
There was a room built into the cellar, and the room contained a single large bed. That bed was covered in chains, and strapped to that bed was a partially nude man. He had his mouth gagged and was struggling to speak. There was also a camera stand with a camera on it, and several overhead lights pointed at the bed. It reminded me of the sex room at Reggie’s place, but thanks to the cellar origins it had a slightly creepier feel to it.
“I’m sorry, I disturbed you,” I stated, reaching for the light.
“Mm! Mmm!” He shook his head desperately.
I really didn’t want to approach him, but I felt like it was my duty, so I walked over to him and undid the gag. He spat it out and looked at me desperately.
“Help me! I’m the sheriff! Those two crazy women broke into my house and chained me up down here.”
“S-seriously?” I blinked.
“If you don’t believe me, check my pants over there! My badge is in the pocket.”
I didn’t want to do that either, but it didn’t seem like I had a choice. I walked over and fished through a pair of pants. True to his words, there was a sheriff badge in there and an ID with his picture on it.
“Free me!” He cried out. “Get me out of these chains.”
“R-right!”
My luck did kick in. These women were crazy serial killers. If I hadn’t heard the noise and investigated on my own, then they probably would have killed me in my sleep or something. My only concern was that Farah was upstairs with them. Just because she was a terrorist didn’t mean that she should die as a serial killer. I wasn’t that callous.
I immediately looked around and after a little searching and with some direction from the sheriff I was able to find the keys. I undid his restraints and he pulled himself from the bed. He quickly grabbed his pants and outfit.
“So… naked, uh?” I asked, trying to fill the awkwardness.
His face flushed. “They didn’t do anything to me. I think they just wanted to embarrass me for a bit or let me freeze to death.”
“Why?”
“The hell if I’m supposed to know!” He yelled in a harsh whisper. “They’re just crazy! Look, I have the guns locked up in the police office. I need you to go upstairs and get the key to the police office. You need to help me stop them.”
“Me!” I cried out, causing him to hold his hand over his finger, so I spoke quieter. “Isn’t there someone we can call for this?”
“I’m the sheriff!” He growled in irritation. “I’m the one you call for this.”
“Wh-what about the neighbors?” I asked. “Should I fetch them?”
“There are no neighbors.” He responded. “They’ve been using those cop uniforms to isolate and trap all of the people in town. They’re all in the holding cells in the back of the police station. That’s one more reason we need the key.”
“How do you know?”
“I heard them talk.” The man said, putting his hand on my shoulder after finally dressing. “If you don’t help me, then all of those people are screwed. Will you help?”
Part of me felt like there was still someone we could call, but I had no clue who to call either. We could wait it out, but anything could happen at that time, and they still had Farah too.
“I don’t know…”
“You just need to go upstairs. Tell them you need to go to the police station. Just make something up. Whoever leads you over, we’ll jump them together and take the key. Okay? Look, the town of Brookdale is depending on you.”
I slowly nodded. “O-okay, I’ll do it.”
“That’s a good guy.” He let out a breath of relief, patting my shoulder. “I’m going to stay hidden, but I’ll be close. If you get in trouble, the secret word is pancake.”
“Pancake?”
“Just go with it?”
“Y-yeah, okay…”
I followed him back up the stairs until we were in the alley again. He gestured for me to go, and I walked ahead of him, leaving my cover. I once again looked over the quiet town. Now that I knew why there was so much silence, it had taken on an ominous and dangerous feel to it. I walked to the front door. From the side of the house, the cop gave me the thumbs up before taking cover. I reached for the doorknob when it suddenly opened. I was surprised to be face to face with the sheriff, or should I say the woman who was masquerading as the sheriff?
She raised an eyebrow. “You were taking a long time. Did you get what you need?”
I handed the phone back to her. “Um, yeah, here it is.”
She went to grab the phone, but then her other hand darted out and grabbed my hand, preventing me from withdrawing it.
“There aren’t more of you coming to town, are you?” She asked, her voice strangely quiet.
“What do you mean?” I asked nervously.
“Your phone call… there aren’t more people coming into town, right?”
“Not at all!” I declared. “I was just calling my… um… girlfriend to let her know what the delay was about.”
“Y-you have a girlfriend?” A voice came from the side.
I jumped as I saw the other girl staring at me. In her hand was a kitchen knife which she was gripping tightly. She seemed somewhat agitated.
“It seems all the good ones are taken.” The sheriff imposter sighed.
“I finished supper.” The girl huffed. “Although, maybe you should just let your girlfriend make it!”
“Um… no, your food is fine.” I quickly pushed my way in.
When I saw Farah already sitting at the table, I breathed a bit easier. The two girls glanced at each other in bemusement.
“I guess he’s hungry.” The sheriff stated.
“Starving!” I declared, sitting down. “I want to try your cooking.”
The girl with the knife blushed. “It’s not that much. I-I made it myself.”
She pulled something out of the oven and then using a long two-prong fork, poked and dropped a big lump of meat onto the table. The meat looked greyish, and I couldn’t determine what animal it came from. I had just been trying to move on, but now that I was inside, I remembered just who I was dealing with.
“M-made it yourself?” I asked, poking the meat. “J-just what is it?”
She smiled. “That’s my little secret. It will tell you that he put up a heck of a fight, but you can’t eat the finer things in life without a bit of struggle, can you?”
“Wh-what?” I stared at her.
The sheriff imposter sat across from me. “We did the butchering ourselves. There is a farm nearby, and it’s much fresher food than the grocery store variety. Have you ever killed your meat, Rick?”
As she asked that, she stabbed a slab and then slapped it on her plate.
“I-I haven’t… you know my name?”
“Farah here told us your name.” The sheriff explained. “We haven’t introduced ourselves. How clumsy of us. I’m Abilene and this is my sister Natalie.”
“Abilene,” I nodded before turning to Natalie. “Natalie.”
She blushed as she sat too, but she gestured with the fork. “Eat! Eat! Before it’s cold.”
I looked down at my slab of meat, and then I looked at Farah who wasn’t eating anything. “Why haven’t you eaten anything?”
“Vegetarian.” She responded taking a sip of something hot that looked like tea while picking at a plate full of vegetables.
“It’s a real shame, too!” Abilene slapped her knee. “Meat is one of the best things in life. I can’t believe this girl won’t eat any.”
“I like meat,” Natalie said, looking at me and then blushing again.
The two women were already cutting off chunks of meat and eating them. There wasn’t a chance it was one of the villagers, right?
“Are you going to eat?” Abilene asked, staring at me suspiciously.
“Um… oh… yeah… crap… I just remembered I need to do something at the police station.”
I didn’t want to eat, and besides, the real sheriff was waiting on me outside.
“Like what?” Abilene asked.
“Nothing big. I just want to get the paperwork done… rather than drive back to the plane and then back here and then the plane… let’s just simplify things.”
“We can worry about that in the morning…” The sheriff dismissed my words.
“No!” I cried out and then blushed when all of the girls looked at me. “I mean to say, it’s better if you get my statement now when everything’s fresh in my mind. It’d be a real shame if I couldn’t remember things accurately after waiting too long and you got the impression I was lying, right?”
“I suppose we can…”
“Just you!” All of the girls were looking at me now. “Ah, I mean, only one of you needs to inconvenience yourselves.”
The imposter sheriff stared at me for a moment and then let out a sigh. “Fine, if it’s got to be now, then let’s do it now.”
“This really can’t wait until after dinner?” Natalie asked, her eyes filled with tears.
“It can’t!” I started, even though my words sounded hollow even in my ears.
“F-fine… but come right back!” Natalie declared, holding a bloody steak knife in her hand toward me. “I still have a surprise for you.”
I coughed. “Oh… s-soon.”
At least I had succeeded with phase one.