Throwaway People

Final Fates

Greenacres Camp: Time Uncertain

Little C. went through the gap in the fence into a parking lot. One of Jose's older girls who had disappeared a while back was there with the werewolf like figure that took the form of the dog. Little C. hadn't come armed. He had no intent to hurt anyone. It was what had saved him.

"We told you not to come around here anymore." Terri told Little C.

"My cousin made me come. They are bad men and are somewhere around here." Little C. said. "I'm just warning you is all."

"Go back, they won't hurt you. Go call the police on Andy's operation. Testify against them and this Jose." Coyote said. "Do that and we let you live."

"I hate what they are doing, it's a deal." Little C. might do some jail time himself, but he would deserve it for letting Andy get this far with his operation.

Andy had lost Jorge. He had come out of the garage into an office decorated with Christmas decorations. The calender on the wall said 1987. He turned and went out the door. Into the parking lot which was decorated with Christmas lights too. He looked down the barrel of a automatic pistol.

It was held by a middle-aged woman. Behind her stood Patty and Jim. Beside them stood a girl who could have been Kitty's sister. It took Andy a moment to realize that it was Kitty. A more grown up version.

"I'm going to blow your brains out. You bastard." The woman said.

"No, Aunt Crow. I want him to go to prison. Forever." Kitty said.

"How about I just blow his balls off, then." Crow said.

Jim pulled out the four inch folding knife he carried. "I'll be glad to cut them off."

"No, I want him to be arrested and go to prison. Forever." Kitty told them again.

Jim took the gun from Andy's waist band. Patty used her phone to call 911.

"Give me an excuse and I will shoot you in the balls." Crow told Andy. "I'm a good shot."

Greenacres, Clearing: 7:00 AM

Their Christmas presents, money they had earned, and some other personal items were in a grassy clearing when they returned the next day. Patty found her Gibson among their things. It wasn't the only thing that the building had left her. There was a bright pink dress from the fifties. The one she used to seduce Jim. The house left Jim the Giant Book of Knowledge. Key found her stuffed dog which she now knew was Coyote. Sleeping by the presents was Wolfie.

"I call him Coyote." Key said. Leaning down to pet the dog.

"If I didn't know better." Crow said. "I'd swear he was Wolfie. You call him what you want, but I'm naming him Wolfie, and I'm taking him back with me."

"I guess we didn't need the house anymore." Patty said. "It left us a gift, I think. Each of us got something that was in the house at the time."

"I still have to wonder why?" Jim said. "What did it gain from helping us."

"Maybe it was just doing what it thought was the right thing." Patty said.

"Just because someone is nice to you doesn't mean they have your best interests in mind." Key said. "You taught me that."

"We were nice to you, we didn't want anything from you." Patty said. "Sometimes people do what is decent without any motivation of their own."

Terri stood at the edge of the clearing. She watched the others discuss the motives of the house. No one was really clear as to why it helped them. Terri knew. She would never tell them, but she knew. The house fed on the radiant energy of emotions, Jim had gotten that right, but it also fed on the terror of evil men like Carlos, Jorge, and Andy. The building had lured the men into it's trap and then it killed them in the most terrifying manner it could think of.

The house wasn't evil. The house used the energy from the horror of those evil men to power itself up and renew itself. It would use that energy and renewal to help other decent people. Terri wondered what happened to Coyote. The dog was here, but not the Coyote spirit she had known.

Terri had grabbed some clothes from the house, before it left. She walked up dressed in seventies clothes. Key was the first to notice her. She ran across the field and caught her in a fierce hug. The others stared at Terri. Not knowing who she was.

"Where have you been?" Keyote demanded.

"Oh, I've been around." Terri told her. "I told you I'd come back for you."

"I'm so glad you came back."

"I'm sorry, but I have to go."

"Why? You just got here."

"I'm tied to the house now, where it goes I go." Terri said. "Have the police search the canal. My bones are stuck in the canal pipe under Haverhill. I just wanted to come back long enough to say that I love you. I wish I could stay, but I've waited too long already I have to go."

In front of Key's eyes Terri disappeared. No one could explain it. Nor did they like to think about it. Key began to think the whole thing was just a hallucination. The others wouldn't talk about it, lending to the feeling that it never actually happened.

Prologue:

Jose found himself locked in a cell. There was no socialization of prisoners. This was an isolation prison. Not a new concept, but one that had made a resurgence in recent years. All of the prisoners were isolated from one another. The only people he saw were prison guards who had no conversation with him other than to relate orders.

The only association he had with the other prisoners was a brief stint to the outside. It gave the prisoners a chance to talk to each other. All of the prisoners had been told what Jose had done to children. None of them, not even other pediphiles would talk or associate with him.

Jose remembered what Kitty had said during the trial. She had wanted him to stay in prison forever. Jose had laughed at that. He could handle prison, he'd been in prison before. Only, it wasn't this maximum isolation prison. Jose realized with a certain horror that forever isolated in this prison was nothing to laugh at.

Andy had been assigned a different exercise period from Jose. They would never see each other. Every prisoner and guard here hated him. In his cell he constantly heard prisoners in the neighboring cells whispering what they would do to him, if they could get him alone. In the exercise yard the talk was the same. How, if they had a chance, what they'd do to Andy. Some of the guards had suggested he could have an accident one day.

Andy was constantly afraid for his life. Terrified that some of the prisoners might try to rape him if they found him alone. That the guards might arrange an 'accident' one day. Kitty's Aunt Crow had said that if he ever ended up in the infirmary she had a surprise waiting for him there. He didn't know what that would be, but he didn't want to find out.

Kitty had said she wanted Andy to be in prison 'forever'. She had stressed that. It was why Andy hadn't been given the death penalty for killing Kitty's Mother. Andy would spend 'forever' terrified of what might happen to him.

That was Keyote's vision of justice. It was what they had done to her for six years. Isolated and terrified her. They had taken six years of her life. Now, they would spend the rest of their lives under similar conditions. While Key was free. She ran across the grassy plains of Thornbrush Reservation after getting counseling in California. Wolfie ran by her side. She was free.

*END*

(I am rewriting two other Keyote stories. If you enjoyed this story I am sure you will enjoy following her as she heals and continues to live free.)