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School Day
By aragorn_8
SCHOOL DAY
A Novel written by Jeff Long
Based on the short story by Jeff Long
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to give special thanks to my sister, Jennifer, who introduced me to her school, which played a big part on the impact of this novel. I’d also like to thank Dillon Lavergne and Allison Luk, who between the two, gave me enough ideas to write the short story that this is based upon.
I’d like to thank everyone who helped me get through my depression - Joanne Bell, Aaron Wittkopf (or however the heck you spell your last name), Mary-Anne and Tanya Barker, Mike Forrest, Roberta Hammond, Ryan Miller, Jessica Derker, Mr. Cornish, Allison Luk, and the table crew (you know who you are). Without you guys, I wouldn’t have been around to finish this.
I’d also like to thank my Brother, Kevin, who taught me how to use a computer when I was 5 years old.
I should like to thank Mark Abbot and Curtis Coates as well, for their positive input and reviews of this, which built my confidence enough to write more.
Also, I’d like to thank Allison and Joanne again, just for being there when I needed someone to talk to.
Here’s to you guys, and all those all-nighters I pulled to get this done, staying awake only by drinking cup after cup of Cappuccino.
~ PROLOGUE ~
Murder In The 1800's
The sun was setting on the small town of Heartfield. The dying red glow of the sun shining against the backs of the wooden houses was the signal everyone waited for, so those outside knew to go in, and those inside knew to remain inside. That’s why there was no activity outside, on the streets or in the fields of this nineteenth century town.
It had all started when a little boy disappeared from his own yard. He was under the watchful eyes of his parents, who both turned away for three minutes, to answer the front door. When they returned, their son was missing. There was an investigation, but they had not discovered if he ran away, or was kidnapped. That was only the first of many more disappearances and murders.
Next, the town Liberian disappeared for two days, only to be discovered dead in a forest just outside of Heartfield. Her chest had been ripped open, and she was hidden inside a hollow tree. It was then that the parents of the missing child started to accept the fact that someone had kidnapped and murdered their son as well. By then though, the chances of finding the boy’s body was slim, since it happened weeks before and all the skin would have decayed. If they found anything at all, it would only have been a skeleton, which they did.
The young eighteen year old stable boy was about to refill the horses’s water trough. It was the first time in weeks that it was completely empty, and when he went to refill it, he discovered the skeleton of what appeared to be a small boy. Since the only person to ever go missing from Heartfield, and not been discovered at a later date, was the missing boy, so they held a funeral and buried the remains in the local graveyard.
Then the stable boy’s girlfriend was found in her house, headless, when her parents got home late one night. Another teen, which was later identified as from the neighbouring town, and his horse, were also found dead in front of the house. Both the horse and the boy had been gutted.
By that time, there was a full police investigation into the murders and who could be behind them, but every lead they got just led to a dead end, and they quickly found that they were getting nowhere with the case. The only way to find out who the killer was, was to catch him in the act.
A couple weeks went by, and there had been no more murders. It seemed that all was back to normal and whoever had been killing the people, had stopped and moved on. But that was when it happened.
There was a town meeting called to discuss the issue on taxes. The people thought they were paying too much in taxes, but the truth was, the town needed to raise the amount of taxes, because they were losing money.
The Mayor failed to show up for the meeting, and since he was the most important figure, they had waited for him to arrive before they started, but as time went on, and the night got later and later, they came to the conclusion that something must have come up, and the Mayor was not going to come.
Everyone was sent home, but a small group of people decided to visit the Mayor at his home to see if he was all right. When they arrived, they found the door slightly opened, so they cautiously went in, calling out for him. After he didn’t answer, they started to search the house, and found him in his room, hung from the roof by a rope around his neck. Upon further investigation, it was revealed that he had a bump on the back of the head, so he was knocked out first, then hung.
The people of Heartfield were getting more uneasy now, knowing that if the killer wasn’t afraid to go after the most important man in the town, no one was safe.
The next morning, a local man was also found dead in his house, an axe to the back. By that night there was a new curfew in the town, that nobody would be aloud out after dark.
The police were getting more and more frustrated with the case, because there were never any clues at any of the crime scenes to lead them to the identity of the killer. They weren’t going to give up though, because they knew that whoever it was that was killing the people had to screw up sometime...
25 year old Miriam Furlong was at home, sitting in a chair, rocking back and forth gently, smoothing her cat down, which slept, purring, one her knees. The fire in the fireplace crackled and casted a glow around the room, being the only source of light.
Outside, night had arrived and she had been at the store when it first came, so she quickly hurried back to her house, planning on going back for the rest of the supplies the next morning when the sun was back up, and all was safe.
She had been terrified of all the events that had happened, but she also felt sorrow, since she had known the Stable Boy’s girlfriend, as well as the other teen found outside. The girlfriend had been cheating on the Stable Boy with another person from the near-by town, and the Stable Boy had never caught on. Miriam was good friends with the girlfriend, and made a promise to her that she wouldn’t tell.
The Stable Boy came close to finding out once, when he was going to go to his girlfriend’s house to surprise her, but Miriam, who at the time was also working in the stables, stopped him by seducing him and bringing him back to her place. Thinking back on it, she probably could have thought of a better way to stop him from going, but she was panicked, so did the first thing she could think of. Neither her, or the Stable Boy ever told anyone, and no relationship followed afterwards.
As Miriam sat and listened to the fire crackling, she heard a faint creak, which could have been either a footstep from inside the house, or the front door being opened. Either one was pretty bad.
Miriam very quietly, and very scared, stood up and slowly started walking through her house, careful not to make a sound.
Because of her slow pace, it took her a few minutes to reach the front door, but when she managed to get to it, her heart started thumping faster and faster in her chest. Her lips felt dry and she had to lick them a couple times to get them wet again.
The front door was wide open, the blackness of the starless night shining in at her, something which she didn’t want to see. Then she heard the floorboards creak above her head, and she immediately jerked her gaze up, peering at the ceiling. Had it been her imagination?
No. she heard the creak again as someone walked across the floor. She looked back behind her and saw her cat in the kitchen, rubbing her back on a chair leg. So if it wasn’t the cat, and she lived alone, then that meant...
She was off, racing up the steps at full speed, ready to attack whoever had invaded her home.
She reached the top of the stairs and slowed to a walk as she became careful and even more frightened at the same time.
As she walked around the corner in the hall, towards the guest bedroom, she was nervous about what she’d see, and even though she didn’t want to find out, she forced herself to continue on.
As she rounded the corner, a shape flew out at her, bumping into her and causing her to scream. Miriam continued to scream for minutes on end, with no sign of stopping. After a couple minutes, she realized that she wasn’t dead, and opened her eyes, she she had only just then realized she had closed, and stopped screaming.
“Miriam, calm down!” The person grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her until she calmed down to a heavy breathing.
“Jacob, you jerk!” She screamed as she slapped him in the chest. She forgot that her brother said he was coming to visit and she had forgotten that last time he came, she gave him a key to the house.
“You didn’t have to leave the damn door wide open!”
Jacob looked stunned and Miriam saw it on his face. “What? I closed the door behind me. Maybe the wind blew it open or something. I’ll be right back. I’ll go close it.” Jacob turned and walked down the hall, heading for the stairs.
Miriam turned back with a sigh and walked into the guest room, where her brother was staying. She entered the room, and saw all his bags and immediately wondered why he had so much stuff.
She decided she’d go ask him, so she turned and walked out of the room and down the hall, then down the stairs.
When she got to the first floor again, she called out, “Jacob?” and she waited a minute for an answer that never came. She walked to the front door, and saw it closed. She turned and walked into the kitchen, she gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
Jacob was on the floor, laying in a pool of his own crimson blood, his throat slit, a chair knocked over next to him.
“My God!” Miriam whispered. She heard a crash from the room next to her, and put out the candles in the kitchen, casting the room into complete darkness. She quietly ducked down behind the table in the middle of the kitchen and waited in silence.
She started hearing footsteps walk into the kitchen and across the floor, and when she heard them almost in front of her, she leaped up with a scream and she rammed into someone, knocking them both to the floor, Miriam on top.
She raised her fist and started punching the figure in the head until it stopped struggling, and its breathing quieted down. Miriam got up and re-lit the candles.
She looked down on the floor and saw a figure dressed in a hood and cloak, a sickle laying next to it. She walked over and kicked the weapon away as she reached down and pulled the hood back, revealing the face of one of the town residents.
Miriam turned and ran out of the room and to the front door, opening it. “Help!” She screamed. “Somebody help me!”
A door to a house across the street opened and the woman living there called out, “What’s the matter?”
“The killer is in my house!” Miriam called over. “Go get the police! He’s knocked out!”
The woman nodded, and without slipping on shoes or even closing the door to her house, ran off down the street to the police station.
Miriam sighed and turned back, looking at the unconscious body on her kitchen floor.
The next day, the sky was gray, as if it was about to rain any minute, and the entire town was gathered in the main square, looking up at a giant wooden cross with tons of hay below it. Tied to the cross was the man whom had been killing all the people.
A Judge stood next to the cross, and looked out among the crowd.. “This man is being punished for the deaths of various town residents, including that of our very own Mayor!” The Judge shouted as cheers rang out. “He is also being tried for witchcraft and satanism. The police searched his house this morning and found many items and notes about the subjects and we believe he killed our friends and families for Satan. So now we must send him to meet his Master.”
He picked up a burning log from a nearby fire and waved it in front of the man. “Any last words?” The Judge whispered. The man just looked down and smiled and the Judge lowered the burning log, setting the hay on fire, causing the fire to quickly spread to the wooden cross.
Within minutes, the cross was a roaring fire, the murderer gone for good.
A Priest walked up to the Judge, who was watching the fire with the crowd of people. “Sir,” The Priest asked. “Where are we going to bury him? Surly a servant of Satan can’t be buried on holy ground with the rest of the town’s former residents.”
“No, you’re right.” The Judge said. “His remains shall be buried just outside of town, all by themselves, where only others like him will be buried.”
Maybe now the town could finally get some peace. And it did, until about 200 years later...
6/8/2002 3:11:23 PM
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