She only comes out at night
The lean and hungry type
Nothin is new, I’ve seen her here before
From the depths of his dream, Dakota heard the start of the song. It was one of those oldies that Georgie loved but Nikki rolled his eyes at. “Old school stuff” he called it, like he didn’t have a love affair with the WuTang Clan since the fourth grade. His mother would have a bird if she bothered to listen to some of the stuff that came out of his Walkman, but he was careful to keep the lyrics strictly under his breath.
“Cody!”
Dakota rolled over, trying to block out the sun, the birds, and his mother as she called from downstairs. He had been dreaming of the house on the end of the block again. He’d been dreaming of The Shelby Place and how it had taken his friend on a long ago summer day almost four years ago. Dakota hated the dream, but it was hard to shake at the best of times. As his mother called him again, he tried to keep his mind on the hazy kitchen of that dark house. The door was opening and any second now the monster would snatch Chris and he would…
Dakota groaned as his eyes sprang open. He’d lost the dream and he bemoaned that summer break couldn’t have started yesterday as he rolled out of bed. From the clock radio, Hall and Oates were warning a young man that he better beware, that he better take care, cause the woman he’d set his eyes on was bad news.
She was a real Man Eater.
“Cody! Are you up? Come on, hunny! It’s the last day of school. You don’t want to be late.”
Dakota snapped his fingers a little as the chorus came up, pulling on the same jeans he’d worn the day before. They weren’t that dirty, after all, and if they couldn't stand up on their own, then they’d keep for another day. He slid on a T-shirt that was the no color of many washes and many wearings and laced up his high tops as his mother called up yet again. From downstairs, he could smell the mingling aromas and bacon and the eggs, pancakes and butter, and it made his mouth water.
“I’m almost ready, mom.” He called back, grabbing his bag as he descended the stairs.
His sister had beaten him to the table, and one look told him that she had chosen to eat first. Her hair looked like a bird's nest, and she was still wearing her nightgown with the happy horse on it. She looked up from her eggs long enough to stick her tongue out at him, and he returned the greeting as he reached for the ketchup.
“Gag,” she intoned, rolling her eyes as she watched him cover his eggs.
“Have you had a look in the mirror yet?” Dakota asked, “You’ve got a lot of room to talk.”
“Come on kids,” his mother said, adding pancakes to his plate, “Rachel, your bus will be here in fifteen minutes and you aren’t even dressed yet. Cody,” she began, but Dakota cut her off.
“Come on, mom. Nobody calls me Cody anymore. I’ve been Dakota for almost six whole months now. Cody makes me sound like a baby.”
She kissed his head, ruffling his hair as he tried to wiggle out from under it.
“Well, you’ll always be my baby.”
The doorbell rang just as he was finishing his pancakes and Dakota whooped with glee as he got up to let his friends in. Nikki stood on the stoop, his hair giving him an extra inch or two, and Georgie was with him, both grinning as Dakota came out the door.He yelled back inside that he had to get to school, and grabbed his bag as his mom stuck her head out to hand him his lunch and asked if he had everything he needed?
“I’m all set, mom,” he said, waving as he headed out the door to school.
“Have a good day, don’t forget the curfew!” she shouted.
Dakota made a disgusted sound, like anyone could forget that.
Like you could forget something that was going to ruin your whole summer.
“Shake a leg,” Nikki said, slapping him five as Dakota came stumbling out onto the front porch, “It's our last day and we want to get there quick so we can get out quicker.”
Dakota grabbed his beat up Huffy from under the eaves and the boys set out towards whatever might come.
It was the last day of school, and Dakota was hoping to make it fly by so he could get on with summer.
The streets were a bustle with kids heading to school, and they pulled their bikes out amongst them like ships on the bay. They knew every inch of the neighborhood, having played here since their earliest memories, and as they set out for school, the whole world seemed bathed in that pre-summer glow that signals the return of freedom. Nikki was already making plans for a bottle hunt after school, wanting to recycle the empties so they could go to the movies this weekend, but their plans were paused as they came to a stop in front of a familiar house.
It had been a sad, peeling reminder of their missing friend for almost four years now, but it seemed like it had gotten a face lift. The house on the eastern end of the horse shoe had been freshly painted, the scrag grass cut back to a respectable level, and the for sale sign had been taken up. There was a moving truck out front, and as they watched, a pair of burly moving men went in and out with various bits of furniture. It seemed an odd omen to begin summer on, and if any of them believed in portense, it would have given them more than pause.
“Looks like someone finally bought the old McCormic place,” Georgie said, breaking their spell as they set off again.
“Let’s hope they’ve got kids,” Nikki said, “We could use some new blood on the street. Might be nice not to be a trio anymore, not that I don’t appreciate your company.” he added with a grin.
None of them spared the same reverence for the old Shelby Place as they rode by, and for good reason. If Chris’s old house had been ill kept, the Shelby Place was a downright eye sore. It was easily the largest house on the block and had been a crumbling wreck for as long as any of them could remember. As bad as the overgrown yard and peeling outside were, all three boys knew that the inside was worse than the outside. Dakota still dreamed about the nightmare caverns of that sagging relic sometimes, but the kitchen was always the worst.
That sickly, horror movie green tile, the bloated dark wood of the cabinets, the rusted sink that somehow still dripped, and that single bandy legged table with its solitary chair.
The basement door had come creakily open, drawing the four boys' attention as they looked at the gaping maw of that crouching monster.
Chris had gone to it, shining his light down as he prepared to descend.
They had told him not to, said it was too much, but he had looked back and, grinning, told them not to be such chickens.
That's when something had grabbed him, tugging him down into the abyss and out of their lives forever.
They had run like cowards, and when the police had questioned them later they had all said the same thing.
Something had yanked him in and Chris had been gone.
As they rode past, Dakota imagined he could almost see someone looking back at them through the single smeery window that hadn’t been covered with wood after someone had broken them out with a rock long before they had been born.
He turned away from the house, not wanting to know what ghostly apparition might be there.
The little neighborhoods that made up the burrows were soon behind them, and as the trees parted, they came out on Culver’s main street. The town had its memorial day colors out and the effect was impressive. Culver tried its best to attract out of towners, tourists who might pump a little money into the economy, but ultimately it was up to the locals to keep the place afloat. Dakota and his friends rode past the drug store, the movie theater, the little hardware store where the old men were already gathering, and onward to City Hall.
They were passing the large notice board when they first saw the girl.
She was a stranger to them then, a skinny blonde girl on a fading red ten speed who was looking at the board with some interest. She looked up as they approached and Dakota thought for a moment he had seen a ghost. Her eyes were blue, her blonde hair long and fine as the wind moved it, her smile genuine as she lifted a hand to greet the boys.
She was older than Chris had been when he’d be snatched, but they could have still been siblings.
:"scuse me,” she asked as the boys came to a halt, “I’m looking for the middle school. Do you all go there?”
“Yeah,” Dakota answered, “we’re on our way there now.”
“Cool, mind if I follow you? The map they have stuck up here is kinda useless.”
“Not a bit,” Nikki answered for them, and as he fell into a comical bow over his handlebars.“Allow us to introduce ourselves. That's Georgie, and Dakota, and I’m Nikki.”
“Crystal,” she said, “We just moved here from San Diego.”
She fell in with their convoy with a comfortable ease that would have surprised adults, but seems as easy as breathing to children.
They chatted a little as they rode into a small cluster of students, all making their way to one of the three schools that gave schoolyard road its name. The elementary school came first, looking like a saltine box laying on its side, and then the middle school which looked like a kids sandcastle except made of brick. Beyond it was the High School, but none of them would discover its mysteries for another two years, if they were lucky. As they slid their bikes into the rack in front of the slightly lumpy brick edifice, Dakota voiced the question they’d all been wondering.
“Are you really starting today?” his voice sounding apologetic, “It’s the last day of school before summer.”
“Oh no,” she confided, “I won’t be starting till next year. My mom got a call from the principal yesterday and she sent me to get some forms from the office. I guess they need authorization to get my records from my old school.”
As the four walked through the doors, they saw a smaller board by the office that held the same sort of foreboding as the one in front of City Hall.
It held the posters of the two kids who had gone missing since April, as well as the faded reminders of those who had gone missing before them.
Crystal stopped to look at them, and Dakota suddenly wondered if it had been the map that had drawn her attention earlier?
“Pretty spooky,” Nikki said, leaning in to half whisper in her ear, “Madelin was a little kid, but Jasper was older than us. It’s crazy to think that he could have just been snatched like that.”
“Snatched?” Crystal asked.
“Well sure,” George pipped up, “That's what they call it when some kid goes missing in Culver.”
“How long’s it been going on?” Crystal asked, sounding a little afraid as she glanced at the older notices.
“It officially started about four years ago,” Georgie said, moving up to stand next to her, “It usually between two to three a year, but most of them are just chalked up to runaways. That's what they're still calling Jasper, though his Dad claims he never would. It’s a little harder with Madelin, since six year old girls don’t usually run away on their way to Girl Scouts.”
“Do they think it's the same person doing the snatching?” Crystal asked
“It’s been floated,” Dakota said, “but no one seems to know. There’s no pattern, nothing connecting them. It all just started happening about four years ago.”
“Jeez, guys,” Nikki said, trying for sarcastic but landing on put out, “great way to welcome a new face. I’m sure now she’ll want to stay forever.”
“It’s okay,” Crystal assured him, “My dad and I are into that kind of thing. Spooky stuff doesn’t really bother me.”
The bell rang then, and Crystal thanked them for helping her.
“Maybe you’d like to hang out after school?” Nikki said hopefully, “We’re trying to get some money together to go see a movie on Saturday.”
“Sounds like fun,” Crystal said, and as the boys split off to go to class, Dakota hoped she would come hang out with them.
He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he felt like she might be the fourth they had been looking for to round out their group.
A group that had felt incomplete since Chris had gone missing.
* * * * *
When she met them outside the school later, the mod was drastically different.
“This is so unfair!” Nikki said, throwing his hands up as they walked to the bike rack.
“They're just being cautious, Nik,” George said, trying to calm him down.
“It isn’t enough that this curfew means we have to be in before dark, but now all the businesses have to close an hour before sunset too. None of the good movies even start before six. All we’ll be able to see are baby movies on the daytime matinee!”
“Uh, last time I checked, The Black Cauldron wasn’t a baby movie,” George put in.
“Grow up, George!” Nikki flashed at him, “I wanted to see something with some teeth, not something rated PG.”
“Whats wrong?” Crystal asked, mounting up to ride with them as they explained what had happened today.
The last day of school was usually something reserved for yearbook signings and pizza parties and end of the year relaxation. Today had been mostly taken up by an assembly with Sheriff Millwood. He had recently had the job dropped in his lap by former Sheriff Gabriel Herd, and he was trying his best to get this kidnapper so the town wouldn’t hang him from a lamppost. As such, he had taught a three hour assembly on Stranger Danger and Summer Safety and told all the kids about the Curfew and the Limited Shop hours and how it was all to keep them safe.
“It’s to keep his job safe, you mean.” Nikki had said, “My dad said that if one more kid goes missing the Elks Club is about ready to pull their backing and maybe even cut his break line.”
“That's awful,” Crystal said.
The mainstreet looked more like a ghost town now and they could see the flyers for new hours of operation in every window they passed.
“Oh, he’s not serious. They would never actually cut his break line.”
“Not that, I mean that kids are going missing and they don’t seem to have any idea why.”
Dakota shrugged, “It’s just something that keeps happening. It’s why we stay in a group. The kids who get taken usually go it alone.”
“It’s still a little odd,” Crystal said, “I rode around some today while you guys were in school and no one seems to have any clue. They're afraid, but they can’t say as they’ve seen anyone in a weird van or someone suspicious. Most of them seem to have just chalked it up as something that happens.”
“Yeah, it’s a real pain,” Dakota said, unknowingly mirroring his elders but really wanting to change the subject “So, did we still want to go get bottles for movie money? We can head to dump and,”
“What if we did something?” Crystal said, making it sound like a sudden idea, but clearly it was something she had been considering.
“Like what?” Nikki asked.
“What if we kinda looked around some?” Crystal said, “Ya know, kind of helped out and tried to find the culprit?”
All three boys looked at her like she’d lost her mind.
“You want us to try and find the guy who is snatching kids?” Dakota asked, not sure he had heard her right.
“If the police can’t find him then what chance do we have?” Nikki pointed out.
“Oh, I dunno,” George said, “The police have overlooked a lot of key evidence here. I’ve been telling you guys for a while now that this didn’t actually start with kids. It really began about six years ago with,”
“George, if you trot that missing pet crap out again, I’ll snatch you myself.” Nikki said
“But it makes sense,” George put in, “After all, we were looking for missing pets when Chris got,” but Dakota gave him a look and he clammed up.
They didn’t talk about Chris anymore than they had to, and certainly not around people who weren’t in the know.
Dakota liked Crystal, but she wasn’t there yet, and might never be.
“Come on, guys,” Crystal said, “It sounds like you’ve already thought about it. What did you really have to do anyway this summer besides goof around?”
George was already sold, and Dakota could see Nikki beginning to flip flop.
He couldn’t say it surprised him. If a pretty girl told him to catch the culprit all by himself for a chance at a date he’d probably try. Nikki was a soft touch when it came to girls, and Dakota could tell when he was outvoted.
“I guess we could try,” Nikki hedged, “I mean, what were we really doing?”
“Plus,” Crystal added, just to sweeten the pot, “imagine the reward money if we pull it off. You’d probably have no need of bottle picking to get movie money.”
“Oh heck ya!” Nikki added, lifting his bike tire into a magnificent two second wheely before almost falling over as it dropped back down, “I am in!”
She had grasped both of Nikki’s great loves, money and girls.
There was no chance of salvaging it now and Dakota knew it.
Dakota sighed, “Fine,” he said, “but promise me that when we don’t find anything in about a week we’ll give this up and move on.”
“Agreed,” said Crystal, smiling brightly, “Lets meet in my garage this afternoon. With any luck we can wrap this up before school starts and get everything back to normal.”
“Sure,” said Dakota, “piece of cake, right?”
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