Chapter 1
Betty sits there in her room terrified of what the stuffed animal had just said. Betty was only seven years old and had only recently been told what the word the bear had used meant. She had been told the day of her mother's death. Death, a foreign concept to Betty, a foreign concept to anybody that young. Her mother had been killed in a mugging gone wrong. Her father was now a completely different person, a stranger to his daughter, sad and angry. Suddenly someone opened the door to her bedroom.
"Daddy?" She asked, tears flowing down her cheeks.
"No." The voice had said coldly before continuing in a cheerful happy voice saying, "But I am here to help you to free you from all of this horrible nonsense."
"Where's daddy?" Betty asked as she stepped out of bed and backed away from the person closer to the closet.
"I can take you to him." They said reaching out a hand. Betty quickly jumped into the closet, locking the door from the inside.
Jack Crain stood in the small bedroom and couldn't hide his disgust. Jack had been a detective for ten years now but this scene was beyond anything he could have ever imagined.
"Any sign of struggle?" Jack asked Ralph Whitney the lead forensics scientist on this case.
"The closet door was kicked in. so the girl locked herself in and the poor girl probably knew what the person was going to do." Ralph said solemnly.
"And you saw the scene downstairs, the father was tied down, gagged and stabbed repeatedly." Jenny Another part of the forensics team, said as she took a sample of the blood from the closet. There was so much blood on the white walls of the room that it was almost headache inducing.
"Who would do this?" Jack asked himself aloud.
"One sick bastard." Ralph said as he used his gloved hands to lift up a teddy bear that had a splatter of blood across its face. Its face was seemingly horrified, stuck in a screaming position.
"Just a bear." Ralph said sadly as he placed it in an evidence bag.
"Wait a minute." Jack said as he slipped on two gloves and reached his hand to Ralph who gladly took the bear back out of the bag and handed it to him. Jack looked at it closely and took out a pair of tweezers.
"Bag." Jack said deep in concentration. Ralph took out a new bag and held it open for Jack. Jack took the tweezers and placed what was held in them into the bag, a long red hair.
"That definitely doesn't belong to either of the victims." Jenny said, sounding impressed.
"Does the eye of this bear look strange to you?" Jack asked as he showed it to Ralph.
"Is that what I think it is?" Ralph asked, almost sounding happy.
"A nanny cam." Jack said gladly.
"This case may have already been cracked." Ralph said cheerfully as he bagged the bear. Jack walked down the stairs and out of the house that was now surrounded by emergency vehicles and police tape while he dialed a number on his phone.
"Sylvia we have a nanny cam bear coming your way I need to know everything you find on it. ok?" Jack said obviously glad this case seemed to be wrapping up so quickly.
"Nanny cam… does that mean it was a kid?" Sylvia asked worriedly.
"I'm afraid so." Jack said suddenly dragged out of his fantasy of a quick and painless case dragged right back to the reality of just how awful the world was. Jack and Sylvia spoke about more personal matters like how Sylvia and her current wife were doing and how Jack had broken up with yet another woman after only two dates.
"Maybe I could hook you up with my ex wife." Sylvia said only half joking.
"Which one?" Jack asked just playing along.
"Number three maybe?" Sylvia asked, trying to hold back laughter.
"The one that transitioned to male?" Jack asked.
"He also tried to stab me in the face with a garden gnome." Sylvia said as if Jack was insane.
"I could fix his murderous tendencies." Jack said laughing wildly as he entered his car and began to drive to the police department.
One day after originally investigating the crime scene Jack stood in the Captain's office completely caught off guard.
"What do you mean Captain?" Jack asked Captain James Picard, a fifty-two year old balding man with what seemed to be an unnaturally fit body for a man his age.
"Exactly what I said Jack. Three other crime scenes all had the exact same bear at the scene where children were taken. Once you found the camera we searched the others all had the same exact cameras." The Captain repeated quickly.
"A coincidence?" Jack asked, already knowing the answer.
"Maybe if they hadn't all cut the video right before the time of the murder and had a voice box specially made for the same exact voice line." The Captain said as he turned his computer screen towards Jack.
The captain hit his mouse and a broken crackling voice started to speak from the recording, "Good dogs are given good homes and bad dogs are killed." Jack stood there visibly shook from the audio.
"Every scene with a bear had a child abducted?" Jack asked as he quickly regained his composure.
"Yes. No sign of struggle except for the parents who were killed in almost the exact same way through each crime scene." The Captain said as he turned the computer screen back towards himself.
"The girl was killed because she tried to hide. Any amount of a fight and the killer will lose it." Jack said simply thinking aloud.
"Ralph said that he has something to show you apparently he thinks it's groundbreaking." The Captain said, motioning his hand to the door. Jack walked out of the Captains office and then downstairs to the forensics section of the large building.
"You have something for me Ralph?" Jack asked, looking for good news.
"Yep. That hair you found had a match for a woman by the name of Jessica Jasper. She was murdered by her son who was only thirteen." Ralph said as he spun in his chair to face Jack.
"Jesus." Jack said, shocked.
"Yeah it's bad but apparently after an investigation they found that she had been locking him in a cage every night and he was extremely malnourished. She was treating him like a literal dog. The kid said that the last straw was when she put a funnel in his mouth and force fed him dry dog food. Poor kid lost it."
"Could he be the killer?" Jack asked.
"That'd be impossible because he was in prison for ten years and committed suicide only two years after being released that was four years ago." Ralph said obviously completely out of ideas.
"Anybody close to him before his death?" Jack asked, trying to look at this at all angles.
"I think the chick in our Tech department said that she dug up some information." Ralph said, happy to know that they're one step closer to getting this monster. Jack turned and headed up to the third floor where the tech groups were based and then directly to Sylvia's work place where an amazing computer setup laid in front of her.
"Sylvia, tell me you have good news please." Jack said practically begging.
"Geoffrey Jasper, the one who killed his mother, had a wife named Gertrude Jasper. Apparently Geoffrey wanted someone just like his mother because they had a child a year after he was released from prison. A year later he comits suicide. The note says that he couldn't live with knowing his wife was doing exactly what his mother did. The police look into it, find nothing and do nothing. Five years later the kid is going through everything that Geoffrey had gone through except worse. The police finally do something she's locked away and he's sent to foster care. Guess what happened exactly one month ago." Sylvia said all of this while simultaneously bringing up documents and pictures of the events on their computer.
"Gertrude was released." Jack said suddenly realizing that they now had two leading suspects.
"Exactly, and now we've got the bitch. She even lives in this very town." Sylvia said excitedly.
"Text me the address and see if you can find a current location on the kid." Jack said as he walked away.
"Wait, you don't think the kid could have done this do you?" Sylvia asked, sounding somewhat shocked.
"That kid would be in his late twenties now, only ten years younger than me. He could be capable of anything." Jack said, always trying to keep his head untouched by thoughts of doubt in his own intuition. Jack went out to the parking lot and into his car and sat for a moment.
"How could someone do this?" Jack asked himself, "How could someone hurt a child so horribly and feel nothing?" These thoughts flooded his mind until he thought of his niece. Jack pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
"Jack? My long lost brother?" Jeremy Jack's younger brother said in a joking tone.
"Jeremy is Violet there?" Jack asked in a very serious tone.
"Yeah we're putting a puzzle together now wanna say hi?" Jeremy asked cheerfully.
"Jeremy, you know how I just gave you two hundred bucks last Christmas?" Jack said staying as calm as possible.
"Yeah it's helped out a lot bro." Jeremy said happily remembering Christmas.
"I'm giving you an early Christmas present you're going to take Violet and you are both going to stay at a hotel out of town for a week or two." Jack said calmly.
"What's wrong Jack?" Jeremy said worriedly.
"Someone bad Jeremy really bad I'm scared little bro he's going after kids. I'll come by as soon as I check out my first suspect today. It'll be a few hours just please promise me you'll leave for a while." Jack said tears beginning to flow down his cheeks.
"We're packing now you don't have to come here thank you for telling me Jack. I know you'll have this guy caught soon. Bye." Jeremy said before he hung up the phone. Jack wiped the tears away, took a moment to get ahold of himself and then looked at the message revealing the current address of one Gertrude Jasper. Jack backed out of the parking lot and began to drive to the address.
Jack stood outside of the residence of Gertrude Jasper and couldn't help but notice every detail already attempting to understand her mind. A tidy yard and front porch. Jack knocked on the door and it was instantly opened to reveal a disheveled cluttered house.
"Detective Jack Crain." Jack said, showing her his badge.
"Why are you here?" The woman asked angrily.
"Gertrude Jasper?" Jack asked coldly.
"Yes." She said less angry than before.
"May I come in?" Jack asked, having to force himself to be civil. She motioned for him to enter and sat on her couch. Jack sat in an armchair facing her. With the perfect lawn and front porch and horrible living conditions Jack had already realized Gertrude only cared about what others thought of her and would most likely love if he thought kindly of her.
"Where were you last night from five PM to twelve AM?" Jack asked bluntly.
"Home. Why?" Gertrude said equally as bluntly but twice as much hostility in her voice.
"Can anyone confirm this?" Jack asked.
"No." Gertrude said the hostility was still in her voice.
"There have been multiple murders." Jack said probing for any reaction.
"I heard about that." She said still as blunt as ever.
"Your husband's mother's hair was found at the scene of the crime." Jack said, almost expecting her to respond as bluntly as all the other times.
"How is that even possible?" She asked not able to hide the terror in her voice.
"I was hoping you could tell us." Jack said finally getting to see a glimpse of her more human side.
"My husband had a doll made of his mother's hair, a dreadful thing really. He was buried with it. That's the only thing that could have been used to get that awful woman's hair." She said seemingly horrified.
"Don't leave town mam and if you think of anything else call the police department." Jack said as he stood and quickly left the house.
"Are we sure my husband is really dead?" Gertrude asked before Jack exited the house seemingly asking herself. Jack didn't bother answering and simply walked to his vehicle and drove away.
"Did you find the kid?" Jack asked Sylvia over the phone.
"Yeah he's here in town. He came here from his fourth foster family, he's twenty-eight now, but there is something that's weird," Sylvia started.
"Was his father's grave robbed?" Jack asked, interrupting Sylvia.
"How'd you know?" Sylvia asked, completely caught off guard.
"Send the address." Jack said before hanging up the phone.
"It's the kid, it has to be he's got a motive he was nearby and he could have gotten the doll." Jack told himself as he drove to the address. He was halfway to the address when the police radio called him in.
"Jack, get back to the department we found something very strange." Ralph's voice said over the radio.
Jack took the walkie talkie and put it close to his mouth then said, "I'm almost to Geoffrey's kids address just tell me now Ralph."
"We found a dog at the station. Someone left it here right in the lobby. We took a blood sample because Jenny had a weird feeling. I thought she was insane but then…" Ralph trailed off, unable to continue.
"Ralph, what was it Ralph?" Jack asked, urgently looking for any missing pieces of the puzzle.
"A DNA match." Ralph said, sounding like he was still in disbelief.
"A match with who?" Jack asked more confused about the case than ever before.
"Betty, the girl that was killed. It was a perfect match and the body has completely vanished." Ralph said, his voice shaking violently.
"What the hell does that mean?" Jack asked, realizing that the puzzle pieces are now completely scattered.
"I don't know." Ralph said completely out of ideas.
"I'm going to the address then I need to see the dog." Jack said as he turned into the house's driveway. Jack stepped out of his vehicle and walked to the door. Jack saw a Perfect yard and barred windows. When he knocked and the door was opened Jack was less worried about the state of the house and more so that the door had eight locks.
"He's scared of everything, what others think of him, an intruder or he's hiding something." Jack thought to himself.
"Hello." The man at the door said timidly.
"Richard Jasper?" Jack asked politely.
"Yes, is something wrong?" He said quickly.
"Detective Jack Crain." Jack said, giving his hand for Richard to shake. Richard took his hand and Jack automatically noticed how limp it was.
"Please come in." Richard said, ushering Jack to a chair as he sat on a couch adjacent to it.
"Have you spoken to your birth mother lately?" Jack asked quickly, getting to the point.
"Not since I was taken into foster care." Richard said.
"Are you married or have any children?" Jack asked, thinking that he may have married someone with the same tendencies as his mother.
"No." Richard answered sadly.
"Did you know that your father's grave was vandalized recently?" Jack asked, his tone teetering on the edge of accusatory.
"Yes." Richard said, looking down at his feet.
"Did you know about the doll that he was buried with?" Jack studied his face until he noticed a change. Confusion written all over Richard's face.
"That wasn't buried with him. I remember he gave it to my birth mother and she gave it to my brother." Richard said, confused.
"Brother?" Jack asked, obviously shocked.
"Twins." Richard answered.
"There are no records of that." Jack said.
"The news stories only mentioned one of us but there were two. Todd was his name or is, I don't know honestly. Our birth mother gave him the doll on his fourth birthday as a brand new chew toy. I remember actually being jealous of him but in reality he had it so much worse than me. I haven't talked to him in years." Richard explained all of this while he attempted to seem unbothered.
"Richard Jasper has a twin named Todd Jasper." Jack told Sylvia.
"Here it is." Sylvia started then paused shortly, "He's in town. What the hell is this, a Jasper family reunion?" Sylvia said sarcastically.
"Address?" Jack asked impatiently.
"4909 Dark Street." Sylvia answered quickly.
"Thanks Sylvia." Jack said before he hung up the phone.
"A twin, how the hell did we not know about this? How did that dog show up out of nowhere? How does it share DNA with Betty?" Jack thought as he drove to the address.
Jack parked the vehicle in the driveway and exited. Once he was at the door he suddenly heard screams from within the house. Jack acted quickly, kicking in the door and pulling out his gun.
"Hello! Is anyone here? I am Detective Jack Crain." Jack screamed as he scanned the room. Suddenly he saw a shadowy figure in the distance. Jack chased after them all the way into the bedroom where they jumped out of the window and ran. Jack stopped quickly as he saw Todd's bloody body on the bed.
Jack quickly took out his walkie talkie and urgently said, "we need an ambulance at 4909 Dark Street. We have what appears to be multiple stab wounds." Jack searched the outside of the home for any sight of the one who stabbed Todd. Jack found nothing then searched the house and saw nothing except for a teddy bear next to Todd. The ambulance arrived at the house thirty minutes later and ten minutes too late. Todd was dead.
The next day after a well deserved rest Jack sat in Captain Picard's office.
"Do you have any leads?" The Captain asked.
"The only person who knew I was going to Todd's address was Richard Jasper." Jack said as he leaned in closer to the captain.
"So Gertrude is no longer a suspect?" The Captain asked curiously.
"As far as I could tell she had no idea where Todd was. Unless…" Jack trailed off obviously thinking hard.
"Unless?" The Captain asked.
"She knew he was here, she was trying to protect him, an accomplice maybe?" Jack said, trying to put the pieces together. Suddenly the phone on the Captains desk began to ring.
The Captain picked the phone up, listened intently for a moment and then said, "Thank you for the information." The Captain hung up the phone.
"Information?" Jack asked.
"The talk you and Richard had brought up bad memories. He remembered that his mother had a secret compartment behind the closet wall that's where she kept him and Todd." The Captain explained.
"I think I'll give Gertrude a visit." Jack said as he stood and walked out. Jack thought he had all of the pieces put together but he still couldn't understand how the dog had shown up in the police station. Jack stood at the door of Gertrude's house. He suddenly had a strange feeling of dread. Jack decided to follow his gut instinct and go to the back door. The back door was unlocked so Jack slowly and silently opened the back door and snuck into the house. Jack's instincts were immediately proven correct when he saw Gertrude standing behind the front door shotgun in hand. Jack remembered where the closet was from his first visit to this house so he slowly crept to the closet. Gertrude was focused on the door, obviously afraid of something. Jack opened the closet door and saw exactly what Richard had described: a false wall easily moved that leads down to another door and behind that door is a soundproof room filled with cages.
"What in God's name is this?" Jack asked, his voice shaking almost as much as his hands. The cages which there were ten of in total were each filled with two children each. The sight of trapped beaten and starved children would have been enough to make Jack sick with rage but this was far worse. All of the children were normal and as healthy as could be expected but four out of the twenty children were different. Their bones were twisted and reshaped, their mouths stretched out into a maw and patches of fur grew from their skin. Suddenly all of the children turned towards the Jack except for the mutated children who seemed unable to lift any part of their own bodies. The children began to scream for help, bark and howl.
"I'm… I'm here to help. Just quiet… quiet down okay?" Jack said, raising his hand to the children. Jack quickly set to work grabbing a metal bar lying on the floor and prying the locks off of the cages. He was able to successfully remove the locks of three of the cages before he heard a loud bang upstairs like the door was kicked in, two gunshots, loud screams and then a loud fight moving towards the closet.
Jack quickly pulled out his gun and grabbed the walkie talkie before saying, "I need backup now. I found the missing children there's a fight and gunshots." Suddenly Gertrude fell down the stairs and into the room.
"Why the hell are you in my house?" Gertrude screamed madly as she raised her gun towards Jack. Gertrude had no time to pull the trigger because Richard ran down the stairs with a golf club in his hand and hit her over the head with it. There was a sickening crunch sound and then blood flowed down Gertrude's forehead.
"I couldn't let it happen to someone else… I… I just couldn't." Richard said sadly before he fell to the ground the two bullet wounds spurting blood as he landed on the concrete floor. Jack quickly took the bar once again and pried open the other locks. The four children who had the mutations seemed to be reverting back to normal, the fur falling off, bones cracking, reverting back to normal and mouths being forced back into a human form. The children screamed as the changes were taking place but then it stopped and they were no longer reverting to normal. Jack turned around just in time to see Gertrude trying to walk up the steps but having an extremely hard time due to very clearly having brain trauma from the massive crack to the head.
"You…" Jack said angrily, basically growling the words at her. Jack walked to her, grabbed her by the head digging his fingers into the massive hole in her skull and pulled her to the ground, she fell hard grunting loudly as she did.
"I just… help… my dogs are being… bad…" she mumbled before continuing with the incoherent words of a mad woman.
"Pick up the gun." Jack ordered as he pulled his own gun from its holster.
"This… the shoot?" Gertrude asked, unable to comprehend much of anything after the hit and fall. She picked up the gun and raised it into the air.
"Yes, that is a gun." Jack said as he pulled the trigger of his own weapon killing Gertrude where she sat. The children who were not afflicted with the horrifying mutations had already run upstairs before Gertrude was killed and were now being met by the police. The mutated children slowly reverted back to normal; two other officers had already walked into the room while this was happening.
"What the hell was that?" One of them asked Jack.
Jack looked at them and shrugged before saying, "I have no idea but it's finished now. Make sure the kids get to the hospital. Have them pay extra close attention to those four." Jack turned and walked out escorting the four children to the ambulance that awaited them before going to his own car. He said nothing as he drove home ready to get some greatly deserved rest.
Jack pulled into his driveway and immediately jumped out of the car and ran to his brother who was crawling towards him.
"Jeremy!" Jack screamed as he ran to his brother's aid.
"Jack! They did… did something… oh god!" Jeremy screamed as he fell to his back, arms around his stomach.
"Jeremy, who did this?" Jack demanded tears flowing violently from his eyes.
"Did… something… Violet changed…" suddenly his voice faded and his breathing stopped as soon as Jeremy died his body was engulfed in a flame. The flame was cold and fast acting as soon as it had engulfed his body it faded and left nothing but ashes and an envelope. Jack reached into the ashes and grabbed the envelope as he frantically tried to figure out what happened.
Jack opened the envelope and unfolded the paper it read
"Dear Mr. Crain cease your hunt for the coven and its members. Failure to comply with this demand will lead to the death of all that you hold dear. Please keep in mind that we know you now, we see you at this very moment. You should feel honored that only two loved ones were harmed in this show of power.
Warmest regards, the Coven"
Jack immediately Dropped the letter and looked up and around himself frantically.
"Violet!" He screamed madly desperate to make sure she was safe. Suddenly a small dog wearing Violet's favorite dress and hair bow ran to him barking loudly as if it missed him. Jack grabbed the dog and hugged it tightly.
"I'll fix this, I swear." He whispered as he held his niece in his loving embrace. He knew the only way to fix her was to kill the one whose power turned her, just like the ones in the cages. He would never rest until they were all wiped from the face of the planet.
