Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear (10 page)

“MOM! MOM! SOMETHING TERRIBLE’S HAPPENED!” Jack raced to checkout counter three where Liz was busy scanning grocery items. A bundle of fresh asparagus,
Beep!
A five pound bag of flour,
Beep!

Amelia hurried behind him and he yelled again. “You gotta come with us, quick!”

Beep
!

“Not now, Jack. I’m busy.”

Beep!

Liz smiled at the elderly woman waiting to pay the bill. “Sorry ‘bout that, ma’am.”

Beep!

“That’s all right,” the old lady smiled at the kids. Despite being gray, her long hair gave her a youthful appearance. She wore a colorful, cotton tunic dress and golden sandals on bare feet. “I just adore children. And Teresa Tree’s my name, but please, call me Teresa. ‘Ma’am’ makes me feel so old.”

Beep!

Jack pleaded. “I’m sorry, ma’am—uh, Teresa. But I need my mom right now, it’s a matter of life or death!”

Beep!

“Oh my,” Teresa’s forehead wrinkled. “Then she’d better go with you.”

Beep!

“No, no,” Liz glared at her son indirectly, then flashed a grin at Teresa. “That’s very nice of you, but I can’t. Anyway, my boy has a pretty wild imagination and…”

“It’s not my imagination, Mom,” Jack interrupted.

“No, Mrs. James,” Amelia added breathlessly. “Something happened behind the building.”

“Well, what was it? Someone was hurt?”

Jack glanced at Teresa. He didn’t want to say anything that might have sounded peculiar in front of a total stranger, yet the woman’s warm smile made him feel at ease.

Beep!

“Not someone, something,” explained Amelia.

“What’s she talking about?” Liz raised an eyebrow.

“Mom, remember that teddy bear I told you I thought was real? Well it
is
real, and I think it was in some kind of fight behind the store. Mom, please come with us to see if it’s okay! Please!”

“Well,” Teresa perked up. “Seems you have quite an emergency on your hands.”

“Yeah,” Liz let out an airy cough. “Like I said. Imagination.”

Beep!

“Mom, please!”

“Go for it,” Teresa nodded to Liz. “I’ll wait. It’ll be okay. We employees have to stick together.”

Liz tilted her head. “You work here, too?”

“Yes, yes,” Teresa beamed, pointing over her shoulder. “I’m the storyteller back in Kids Kastle,” she winked at Jack and Amelia. “You two should visit sometime,” she leaned in and brightened even further. “My stories can be quite magical.”

“Mom!” Jack danced on his tiptoes. “Come on!”

“Go, go,” the aging woman reached and put the
Register Closed
sign on the conveyer belt behind her groceries. “I’ll cover for you if Al or Roberta show up.”

“Thank you,” Liz touched her hand.

“Closed! This register’s closed?” a short, plump woman with a stubby nose and frizzy, black hair waddled to the checkout carrying a full basket. “Why do you have to close this register all of the sudden? What’s going on, huh?”

Behind her were two other women, both taller, and one freakishly so. She was skin and bones, with fine, grayish hair falling to her knees. Similar to their diminutive leader, the third woman was also overweight, yet possessed the height to make it less obvious. She had reddish hair set in waves reminiscent of a style Jack had seen in old-fashioned movies.

The three women peered at Teresa, then at the children.

“Oh, Gert,” Teresa smiled. “How’ve you been?” she nodded at the taller women. “Claudette, Vivien. How are you ladies?”

“It’s you we’re concerned about,” Gert answered. “You haven’t been by for quite some time.”

“I apologize. I’ve been so busy with the new job,” Teresa explained. “That reminds me. Gert, ladies, meet uh…”

“Oh, sorry. Liz. Liz James. And this is my son, Jack, and his friend Amelia.”

Gert bent down and wrinkled one eye. “Jack, huh? Tell me, what’s this talk about a teddy bear being real?”

Jack figured if the women were Teresa’s friends, they must have been respectable. “Oh, yeah. It was…”

“It was nothing,” Teresa interrupted. “I forgot my handbag, and they were just going out to my van to fetch it for me.”

“Really?” Gert stooped closer. “I swore I heard something else. Hmm. Must be hearing things.”

“That’s right,” Teresa agreed. “You must be.”

“Uh,” Jack addressed the women. “We’d love to stick around and chat, but we-we have to go,” he tugged his mom’s hand.

“I’ll be back in one minute, okay?” Liz followed the children outside.

JACK HESITATED AT THE SPOT where, minutes earlier, he, Amelia, and the other two boys had heard that skin crawling roar. What kind of violent scene were they about to encounter? What bloody mess strewn across the asphalt? The images his mind painted were gruesome.

“It’s right over here,” Amelia told Liz while urging him with a poke in the shoulders. “C’mon, Jack.”

He let them go ahead of him. With his hand over his mouth, he watched them reach the corner of the building, imagining he saw what they saw in the back lot, envisioning the grisly evidence of a deadly struggle.

“Uncanny!” Amelia shouted.

He dashed to catch them. “What! What!”

“It’s amazing!” she announced. “It hasn’t even been touched!”

Perplexed, Jack saw no bloodstained blacktop, no severed, strewn body parts or bits of shredded fur. No scene of destruction at all, just an empty alleyway, clean except for some oil streaks and a few random cigarette butts. Then he discovered what Amelia had meant. On the ground in front of them, out for a leisurely picnic, the little creature sat without a single mark, cut or scratch.

He wanted to collapse. His mother’s harsh words perked him up again.

“Jack James, you really are pushing it, buster. You heard my boss. That thing’s supposed to be in the Lost and Found. What’s the matter with you? Are you trying to get me fired? Lying, stealing, making up crazy stories. I—I just don’t know what to do. Maybe we should get you some help.”

“Mom, I’m not making this up,” he insisted. “Amelia heard it, too. So did two other kids.”

“You heard?” his mom nodded skeptically. “Amelia, did you
see
anything?”

Amelia gave Jack a worried look.

“Well, no. Not exactly.”

“Just as I thought,” Liz continued. “You didn’t see anything because nothing happened. All this stuff about the teddy bear being alive, you’re imagining it, honey.”

In tears, his mom knelt and held him by the shoulders. She pulled him close, burying her face in his sandy blonde hair.

“Jack, I’m so sorry,” she blubbered. “You’ve got to understand. I miss your father, too. I love him so much. And I love you so much. I guess I didn’t realize how much this was affecting you. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision.”

She lifted her head, her cheeks red and puffy. “We’ll get through this. And then, who knows, maybe we’ll all be stronger for it.”

Jack smiled through his own tears. He had no defense. The mere sight of his mother bawling got to him.

“Promise your mom something, okay?”

“Sure,” he sniffled.

“Just talk to the school psychologist for me. You only have to see her once if you want. It would make me feel a lot better. You understand, don’t you?”

“Sure,” he didn’t know what else to say.

“Amelia,” Liz stood. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this. I never meant for our family’s troubles to affect anyone else, especially a sweetheart like you.”

“That’s okay, Mrs. James,” Amelia smiled.

“Okay,” Liz grabbed the supposed teddy bear off the ground. “I’ll take this to the Lost and Found myself this time. Jack, you go and wait in the break room for me. I’m almost done. Amelia, if you need a ride home, you’re welcome to wait with him. Come on, you two,” she started toward the store’s main entrance.

The children exchanged curious glances while searching the area. Amid the crushed cardboard, the empty, stacked pallets and the stray, flattened aluminum cans, nothing stood out as unusual.

“What just happened here, Jack?” Amelia seemed concerned, but not overly so.

“I don’t know. Did you hear that noise?”

“Duh, yeah,” she crinkled her nose. “Do you think it’s possible for that cute little teddy bear thing to make such an awful sound?”

He shrugged, once again not sure what to say.

“That noise was
sick
!” she snickered. Jack giggled, too, setting off a cascade of laughter between both of them. It felt good to release some of his nervous tension.

The moment passed, though, when Jack noticed something strange in the corner of his vision, staying just out of sight. Amelia must have perceived it, too. She stopped laughing and perused their surroundings.

“Do you see that?” she whispered.

“Y-yeah.”

Then the unusual vision became still, allowing him a brief glimpse of its faint outline. He remembered what he’d encountered earlier that morning—the long, flowing, translucent rags drifting in midair. Out of focus and distorted, it seemed to be in some deep water or behind thick glass. Silently it disintegrated, fading into the shades of color and light and shadow that surrounded it. The entity didn’t stick around long, though it was enough to give him shivers.

“Let’s go!” she snatched his hand.

NINE

THE HEATED WATER soothed Savage’s tense shoulders, forcing him to surrender to its tranquil embrace. He breathed in the steam and allowed the warmth to melt away any sense of unease. Whoever had kidnapped him, they couldn’t have been all that bad to have placed him in a spa the size of an Olympic pool.

He let his eyes climb high along the stone walls, skimming the indecipherable carvings. His awareness cleared. Finally he went over what had happened.

He’d been standing in his office, poring over the latest on the search for the Tanakee, when his knees buckled and both feet became one-ton lead weights. Then the heavy sensation migrated up his thighs to his abdomen, chest, neck. He’d felt it invade his cerebral cortex and had no way to fight it off. Paralyzed, he must have went into shock and passed out on the table. He recalled the rush of rapid movement while he was taken. Whatever it was, it went fast. Then he woke up here, in a Jacuzzi built for about a hundred.

His mind regained its sharpness and he studied the room, taking particular interest in searching for the exits, though there seemed to be no doors or windows. He convinced himself it must have been a trick of the light from the torches lining the carved rocks.

“Nice touch with the torches,” his words reverberated throughout the cavernous space. “A little cryptic for my taste, but, hey, it works with the whole ‘dungeon’ theme.”

He swished around in the waist-high water to examine the wall. Decorated with an engraved script, it rivaled even Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphs in grandeur. Savage was no archeologist, but he knew the world had never seen these carved shapes: animals, people and what appeared to be gods. He found them incredible. Ultimately though, the stone pictograms failed to hold his interest long.

“You want to tell me where my clothes are? That suit’s Armani, you know! Hello? Anybody?”

Silence. Only the gentle babbling of the super-heated liquid.

He felt something rush past his leg. His sense of calm changed to panic. With all the bubbles, his own feet were hidden. It was a terrible feeling—wading, no visibility, and an unknown creature lurking below.

He heard a disturbance behind him. When he saw it, he wished he hadn’t. He caught half a glimpse, enough to make out the contours of a black snake slipping under the waves. Not an ordinary snake, either, but a winged serpent swimming toward him, closing in for the death grip.

He spun the other direction, kicking and flailing in a wild attempt to get out of the spa. A few steps from escape, he noticed something in front of him. Again, it was speedy. If he’d blinked he never would have seen it. His fear doubled when he realized the thing winding toward him was another dark, predatory serpent. Same as the first, it slid under, disappearing into the steamy drink.

He tried to scream and managed a stilted gurgle while changing course, paddling away from danger. No matter how hard he thrust his arms or thrashed his legs, the water made it slow motion. The edge of the pool seemed too far. He’d never make it. Still, he wouldn’t give up.

Something rough and unyielding circled him. It brushed against his thigh and a surge of terror raged through his nervous system. His flailing and kicking became even wilder, even more erratic.

“HELP!”

The only other occupants of the room, the stone pillars, merely watched with cool indifference.

He felt a snake upon him, sensed its coldblooded stare, smelled its acidic breath. In a matter of seconds it would take him by the neck with its powerful jaws. Savage made one final, desperate reach for salvation.

He crashed against something and lost all momentum, sending him into an even greater panic. For a millisecond he thought a snake had gotten in front of him. Slipping on the slick floor, he pushed backward and raised his hands to guard himself.

Deep, resonant laughter filled the space, its hollow timbre thumping against Savage’s chest. Through his fingers, he allowed himself a tiny peek at the owner of the ominous outburst.

“It’s you,” he blinked. Despite the torchlight, a shadowy mist enveloped the man in darkness. He knew who it was standing in the water with him, though. Finally he’d come face-to-face with his client, Davos Mann.

“Did I scare you?” Davos had a dead tone.

“Scare me?” he answered, still wary of the prowling, lethal reptiles. “You could’ve killed me!”

“Relax, Savage,” Davos chuckled. “You’re fine. If I wanted to kill you—well, let’s not talk about that just yet. I wanted to give you a little demonstration, that’s all.”

“Yeah,” he forced himself to snicker. “That was a good one. You really had me there.”

Davos scowled. “You’ll witness worse if you don’t find that Tanakee.”

“We’ll find it. But there are a couple things my engineers don’t fully understand. Exactly how do you plan on using the creatures?”

“I’ve already told you,” Davos shot a glare that made Savage’s blood run cold, even in the hundred degree spa. “Once the processor is implanted into the Tanakee’s brain, it will allow me to tap into Eteea, the source of their powers. I’ll have access to the most potent force in the universe!”

Savage stepped away. He tried to put his finger on what made Davos so frightening. He seemed taller than Savage had imagined, and scarier, if that was possible. Maybe it was the jet-black hair, pulled back in tight braids which swayed in some nonexistent breeze.

Or maybe it was his skin, so flawless it made Savage uncomfortable. Not one mark, wrinkle, old pimple from high school that went bad and left a scar—nothing. It didn’t feel right, though it might have been the work of a highly skilled, incredibly expensive surgeon. Davos had money, so it was plausible. The hair, too. That could have been the result of some eccentric stylist armed with the best product money can buy.

Then, for the first time without the interference of electronic devices, he saw Davos’ true eye color. The vision terrified him. It wasn’t the color that so disconcerted Savage, but the complete lack of any hue in the first place. He thought he might have detected a slight hint of blue, then the lighting changed, the water shifted and reflected in another direction, and the illusion vanished. The dismaying oddity didn’t end there. In the center of those dull gray orbs, where normal, circular pupils should have been, were two dark, vertical folds, one on top of the other, similar to a lizard’s, yet much more complex.

Either not noticing or not caring he was being studied, Davos proceeded with his inquisition.

“Have you any news on the whereabouts of the Tanakee?”

“Yes,” Savage averted his gaze to gather his thoughts. “We have some strong leads. My personal choice is the toy delivery to a Winmart in Willow. There was a report of an extraneous teddy bear in the shipment, and then today we intercepted a call from the store manager to the police regarding possible suspicious activity overnight.”

“That’s it!” Davos raised his voice. “That’s where it’s hiding! You must move on that store!”

“That’s the plan. We go in tonight to ransack the place. No stone unturned. People will think it’s a robbery, of course.”

“You fool! You can’t pull a simple smash and grab! It’s way too risky!”

“Do you have a better plan?” Savage knew he’d made a mistake the second the question left his lips.

“Of course,” Davos answered. “We know where he is now, so set up surveillance and pin him in. Then insert some specialized teams, but only in the most delicate of undercover operations. No witnesses. Can you handle that? Or am I going to have to take this operation over myself?”

“No, no, sir. I mean, yes. We’ll get your creature. Just give us a chance.”

A sudden and vivid image of Savage’s own grotesque death flashed into his mind, showing him what would happen if he failed. He’d heard of nonperformance penalties. Never fatal ones, though. Yet Davos expressed no reluctance to fulfill his pernicious duty when it came to upholding bargains.

Laughter echoed off the stone walls again, startling Savage from Davos’ psychic grip. He searched the pool and found he was alone in the hot water once more.

“Hey! Don’t leave! How do I get out of this place? And what about my suit!”

The temperature went up until churning and bubbling became a rolling boil. He hurried toward the nearest edge, each step less comfortable than the previous. The floor was an inferno, and touching it meant an instant third-degree burn.

He felt something on his wrist and became terrified the serpents might have made their return. What he saw, though, was worse. Bobbing and rolling to reveal its sunken eye sockets and eternal toothy grin, it was no doubt a human skull.

He cringed, fighting to keep from ejecting the contents of his stomach. A load of vomit wouldn’t have spoiled the nasty brew, anyway. Pallid chunks of some unknown origin abounded, ranging from pea to fist-sized. Something big hit his back. Hidden in the steam, the object was buoyant enough to hover an inch below the surface, affording Savage a fleeting image. Then the roiling water pushed it up and he saw the whole outline, confirming its ghoulish identification—a headless, legless, armless human torso. He felt his stomach’s wild objections yet again, though he was in too much of a hurry to give in to its demands. No way would he stay another second in that water along with a bunch of sliced up body parts, the ingredients of a grisly gruel.

The floor had become a slimy mess, making each step a struggle. After a couple more paces, he felt the flesh on the souls of his feet loosen and peel off in layers. He collapsed, sinking into the carnal soup, clutching at whatever he thought would hold his mouth above the surface. He felt a thigh, a forearm, another skull.

One last surge of adrenalin allowed him to push off with his shredded feet, forcing his lips above the waterline.

“Aaaaaahhhhhh!”

He allowed all his fears, all his pain, everything remaining of his pathetic existence to come out in that last primal scream.

BUZZ!

“Mr. Savage? Are you all right?”

His assistant’s voice plucked him from that sickening cauldron and deposited him firmly into the real world, back in his office. A cursory scan of his body revealed all was well—nothing burned, no dangling flaps of skin and, best of all, he had his silk suit on again.

BUZZ!

“Mr. Savage?”

“Yes, Rebecca. I’m fine. Just fine.”

“Okay, because I thought I heard someone screaming in there.”

“No, that was just me. I, uh…I was lifting weights. Tough workout today.”

“Oh. Okay. Just checking.”

“Hey, Rebecca?”

“Yes, Mr. Savage.”