Inanimate (44 page)

Bear
knew this kill was his. In one quick
motion he thrusted his arm forward, but something stopped him while
he was half way to his target. A wisp of smoke rose from his chest.
A bullet pierced straight through him, narrowly missing Crass who
was lying on the ground, helpless. Looking up, Bear saw a cop
standing thirty feet away, pistol aimed, mouth agape. Bear smirked
and brought his arm down hard, straight into the chest of Wilma
Crass. The officer opened fire, but all he did was create holes.
Bear was not stopped. Again he drove his claws towards Wilma’s
chest as the officer’s clip emptied.

Bear had managed to strike
Wilma, but he was not sure if it was a fatal blow thanks to the
officer’s bullets slowing his movements. His body now in tatters,
he had to finish Crass while there was enough of him in tact to do
so.
The
officer did not move, instead he simply stood, staring in shock at
the living stuffed bear that just attacked a woman before him. Bear
was not interested in the officer; he was interested in Wilma’s
husband. He turned, expecting to see the doctor lying helpless on
the lawn but was instead met with something else: the flat end of a
shovel. Crass had limped over to the wall of the house where the
gardener had left out a shovel, despite Wilma’s instructions for
him to put all tools away after use. The injured doctor used the
shovel to hoist himself up and now used it as a weapon to destroy
the demonic bear. A hard hit sent Bear to the ground, followed
closely by Crass who drove the sharp end into the creature’s neck
area, severing its head. He breathed a quick sigh of relief but it
was not over. Bear’s good eye was still open and his body was
trying to get to its feet again. Furiously, Crass brought the
shovel down again and again, hacking off the limbs of the once
fluffy being. The limbs however, were still moving, each one
wriggling independently in different directions. Crass turned to
the officer.

“
Help her!”

Officer Lu ran across the lawn to assist,
simultaneously calling for an ambulance on his radio. As the
officer helped his wife, Crass hobbled to the wall and picked up a
small blue cuttings bin. He hobbled back and chopped up the limbs
of Bear some more, then chopped up the face. With a few scrapes of
the shovel he swept the bits into the cuttings bin and went to his
beloved wife.

Benjamin Crass tore at his own
clothes, ripping off strips to try and stop his wife’s
bleeding
. He
checked her pulse and started to administer CPR.

“
Is the ambulance
coming?”

He
was speaking to Officer Lu, but Lu was
distracted. The sight’s he had just seen were distracting him to no
end.

“
Hey!”

Crass’s voice was powerful, snapping Lu
out of his trance.

“
Is the ambulance
coming?”

Lu simply nodded. As Crass administered
CPR, he started to realize he may already be too late. The stern,
rigid old doctor started to tear up as he furiously tried to save
his wife.

“
Come on Wilma, stay with
me. Stay with your old grumpy bastard of a husband!”

With no response from Wilma, he turned
to anger, directed at Lu.

“
Where the hell were you?
You were supposed to be protecting us!”

“
I’m sorry doctor,” said Lu
sheepishly. “My partner and I went for coffee.”

“
Where the hell is he
then?”

Lu did not respond. The officer
did not want to tell the doctor the truth, that they were given
spotty information as to why they were there guarding the doctor
and his wife. That Lu and his partner did not feel there was any
real danger, so they went for coffee and the barista gave them the
wrong drink, which they only realized after they had left and his
partner had walked back in the cool evening air to get it remade.
Thinking about the circumstances, it was too ridiculous, even for
Lu to comprehend. No, he chose not to tell any of this to Crass,
instead he said nothing, quietly praying they would not be the
cause of a woman’s death,
Wilma’s
death.

Crass’s stare was
piercing
, his
face glistened with blood in the moonlight. With his hands he was
pressing down on his wife trying to stem the bleeding but his face
was pointed squarely at Lu’s. If his hands weren’t being used right
now to save his Wilma, he would have used them to strangle the life
out Lu. He was furious. As the sounds of the ambulance drew nearer,
Crass simply stared. Right now, in the frame of mind he was in, he
would be capable of murder but at that moment he had more important
things to worry about.

CHAPTER 39

Chomping
sounds danced around the main hall of
the Sheriff’s station. MacNamee only had half of an egg mayonnaise
sandwich, he wasn’t overly hungry. His cellphone vibrated furiously
inside his pocket, shining through the fabric proudly. The ringer
barely had time to kick in before he answered.

“
Ben! Christ I thought we
lost you!”

Jacobs overheard and headed over to
MacNamee to eavesdrop.

“
I got one of
them!”

MacNamee
grabbed Jacobs arm.

“
You’re kidding?”

“
No Greg I’m not, I got the
one that killed Greta.”

Tears fell from MacNamee’s eyes. He used
his hand to wipe them away.

“
The bear? It’s gone?”

“
It’s gone
.”

Crass
spoke quietly. His face was bandaged
and he sat in a hospital room, waiting for news about Wilma’s
condition. MacNamee suddenly realized he was lost in his own
selfish thoughts of revenge. He was so busy thinking about Bear’s
demise he never even asked how Crass and Wilma were.

“
Thanks for letting me know Ben.
Are you and Wilma alright?”

“
I’m alright
Greg, but Wilma…”

“
What about her?”

“
She’s…
she’s holding on right now. The
doctors don’t know what’s going to happen. That thing got her good
Greg. It’s a miracle she even made it the hospital.”

MacNamee didn’t say anything. There wasn’t
really anything he could say except that he was sorry to hear that
news. But he didn’t. Crass knew he had MacNamee’s
condolences.

“
Anyway Greg I better go, I just
thought I’d let you
know there was one less for you to worry about.”

“
Ok, you call me and let
me
know when
Wilma gets better ok?”

“
Ok,
will do. Be safe.”

Crass
hung up. By this point everyone was
listening in, waiting to see what the phone call was about.
MacNamee put his phone back in his pocket.

“
He got one of the
creatures.”

A ripple of relief
washed over the
group.

“
Which one?”
Matthew asked, praying it was
one of the dummies.

“
The bear.”

“
Oh” Matthew
said, realizing he knew nothing
about that one.

“
Well should we check it off the
list?” Graham
asked, continuing “We might as well, at least we’ll know
exactly how many there are left.”

Oates
stepped forward. “Here, I have
it.”

Oates
handed MacNamee the list.

“
Does anyone have a
pen?”

Lynch lifted a black biro from a desk
beside him and handed it to MacNamee. As the doctor unfolded the
list he happily scrubbed Bear’s name off of it. He was in a
slightly better mood, knowing that the creature that killed his
wife was now gone.

“
How many
are actually on the list
Doctor?”

Matthew
asked as he wondered how many others
he didn’t know about. MacNamee read them out loud.

“
Dummy, two smaller dummies,
Doll, Clown, Dog and Soldiers.”

MacNamee’s mood
started to fade. His
mind was taking him back to Connor’s room and the dolls he had with
him. His brain was telling him he was missing something but he
didn’t know what it was. Just then, Anne unintentionally pieced it
together for him.

“
Has anyone seen Jessica? She was
here a minute ago? I brought her some candy.”

“
Jessica!” MacNamee
blurted
out.

“
What?”

Jacobs
asked, the mood in the group
switching from optimism to concern.

“
The doll Jessica had, it’s the
one from Connor’s room! I
can’t believe I didn’t think of it
earlier!”

“
Betsy?”
Oates asked, suddenly realizing the
implications of MacNamee’s words.

“
Yes! Shit, we need to
find
her!”

“
You mean one of those things was
with
us the
whole time?” Oates barked. “Why was it brought in here?”

“
There was no way we could
have known the
little girl would bring one in with her.” Jacobs defended his
actions. “There must be hundreds of dolls in this town, how could
we know that one was the one we were looking for?”

Oates
bit his tongue. Jacobs was right,
they couldn’t have known, but that didn’t change the fact they were
still in this predicament. Matthew, terrified, started
rambling.

“
Jesus Christ, I was with her, I
mean I actually sat with her! All the time she had one of those
things with her!”

Proactively, Graham spoke
up.

“
We’ll
find her. If we split up into three
groups, two can look and one can wait here in case she comes
back.”

Graham aimed his words at Jacobs for
approval. When the sergeant nodded he then looked at Oates for the
same approval.

“
That alright with you
Sheriff?”

“
Ok”
said Oates “But me and Lynch lead the
teams, since we know the station layout, it can be quite a complex
place to find your way around.”

Lynch
stepped forward.

“
Ok let’s divide
in
to three
teams of three, with three of us staying here in the main
room…”

Lynch
was interrupted by a knock on the
window. Something outside was knocking and everyone tensed up.
Oates and Jacobs moved towards the window, followed by Lynch.
Graham and Murdoch stepped in front of the rest of the group to
protect them. With a nod between them, Jacobs and Lynch drew their
weapons while Oates prepared to open the blinds. Matthew slinked
back behind Anne in order to keep safe. MacNamee sat at the desk,
motionless; waiting to see what was outside. Oates kept his hand
low. Starting with three fingers he counted down, Jacobs and Lynch
prepared to fire. After the count of one Oates yanked the cord,
forcing the blinds open. Everyone held their breath until they saw
Billy standing at the window, gesturing for them to open it. Oates
flicked open the lock and slid the window open. Outside, Donna sat
on the front of a motorbike wearing all leather, only her hair
protruded from the sleek black helmet. Billy had a leather jacket
on but regular pants underneath; his leg injury had made it
difficult for him to change.

“
Billy, what
are you doing here? I thought
you didn’t want our help.” Oates asked stubbornly.

“
I don’t,
I just thought I’d let you know I
killed one of them.”

“
I killed one of them you mean”
Donna
interjected.

“
Ok, we
killed one of them” Billy amended,
looking back at his fiancé with a smirk.

“
Which one?” Jacobs
asked, moving closer
to the window to check Donna out.

“
That stupid dog thing”
Billy
said
casually. “Well anyways, just thought I’d let you know. We’re
leaving for a few days.”

“
Where
are you going?” asked
Lynch

“
I don’t
know yet, just going to drive for a
while. The bar will be here when I get back. It’s not like we’ve
had many customers these last few days anyways.”

Billy
put his helmet on and turned, limping
back to his bike. The cops said nothing as he got on and sped off
into the night. Oates closed the window, locked it, and lowered the
blinds again.

“
So that’s the dog off the
list
,”
MacNamee said as he scored the name off.

“
Anyway Deputy, you were
saying?”

CHAPTER 40

Outside, darkness
had finally settled
on the town of Staunton allowing the streetlamps their full right
to an eerie glow. The parking lot received another visitor, one
that cast a long shadow thanks to the streetlamp overhead. Dummy
moved stealthily across the tarmac to the building that housed his
targets. When he arrived at his destination he bumped into his
smaller cohorts. Keeping communication brief Dummy’s shrill voice
was quiet in the open night.