Byron Starr - Doppelgänger

Emilio walked over to James and grabbed him firmly by the shoulders. “Think, James, think. We need a name. Whose house is it?”

James’ mind was tangled with thoughts of those little girls and thoughts of his son, when he’d found him ripped apart while still in bed. It was a struggle between two sides of his mind. One side of his mind pulled him toward the simple, yet temporary, happiness of hysterics, the other more logical side of his mind cried out for him to get a hold of himself.

Finally, just as Emilio was about to resort to slapping him, James said, “I know her. I remember working her car, a little foreign car. She lives in town.”

“James, we need a name or an address.”

At first James didn’t respond, his panicked mind was busy recalling how hard it had been to get parts for the little hatchback. Right now he could remember the make and model of the girl’s car — Hell, he could probably even come up with the VIN number if he set his mind to it — but he couldn’t come up with the girl’s name.

However, while his mind was fumbling along, he did manage to remember her first name. “Tina! Her name is Tina!”

“What’s her last name! For Christ’s sake, think!”

Then it came to him. “Peck! It’s Tina Peck!” James said

Emilio quickly picked up the phone and dialed the Sheriff’s Department.

While the phone was ringing, James spoke up, “No, I take that back. It’s Beck. With a ‘B’. Tina Beck.”

“Sheriff’s Department?”

“Clara, this is Emilio! We’ve got an emergency! Send someone over to Tina Beck’s residence immediately!” Emilio spouted out.

“Who did you say this was?”

“Emilio Rodriguez, you need to… ”

“Now, what’s your emergency?”

“Damn it Clara! That thing is attacking a house that’s got five children in it right now! Now get someone over to the Beck house, now!” Emilio shouted over the phone.

Now it was Clara’s turn to panic. “Oh goodness. Oh goodness. Uh, hold on.” At first Emilio didn’t hear anything. He had just about given up on Clara and was about to run out to his SUV and use his radio to contact the Newton Police Department. Then he heard Clara talking on the radio. She was calling all cars in the area to the Beck house.

As soon as Emilio heard that cars were on the way, he and James threw on some clothes, got in Emilio’s truck, and headed for Tina Beck’s house themselves.

Tina sat in her rocker-recliner, still dressed in blue jeans and sweater. It was past one o’clock in the morning, but she was still up watching TV. There were only two bedrooms in the tiny house, and they were positioned right next to each other. With all the giggling that was going on in her daughter’s room, there was no way she was going to get any rest until the girls went to sleep. Not only that, Tina felt she needed to stay awake to play peacemaker if the girls started bickering again. However, it was beginning to look like the slumber party was winding down. Tina might actually get some sleep tonight after all. She could tell by the lack of light coming under the door that the girls had turned out the lights.

Tina was comfortable and beginning to doze off. She was just weighing the options of going to bed or sleeping in her rocker-recliner when a knock came from the door. At first Tina thought it was the girls banging around and paid no attention, but then the knock came again.

A mother in charge of her daughter and four other young girls for the night, Tina’s first reaction was alarm. They lived on Houston Street, only one street from where Alma Carroll was killed. The curtains were drawn, but they were thin cheap curtains and Tina could still clearly make out the shape of what appeared to be a woman at her door. Tina slowly stood up and without approaching the window, tried to look through a crack between the curtains and the window itself. She couldn’t tell who it was, but it certainly wasn’t a bear or a mountain lion, which was currently the favored local story as to what was doing all the killings.

Tina watched as the shape in the curtain reached toward the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

Well, mountain lions certainly don’t knock before entering. Tina started for the door.

In Lisa’s room, the knocking had stirred up the girls, none of whom had actually gone to sleep. They chattered and squealed that it was the werewolf-monster that ate “the lunchroom lady.” Lisa and Shelly went to the window to see who it was. They couldn’t quite see around a large holly bush that was situated between Lisa’s window and the front door. Behind them Crystal and Theresa were telling Megan that the werewolf-thing had come for her, causing tears to start welling up in the already emotional little teenager’s eyes.

Lisa and Shelly pressed their faces to the window trying to see around the tree. Finally Shelly got a good look and called out, “It’s Megan’s mom!”

The front door on the house had a glass window set in it. Tina pulled back the little curtain, and peered outside. “Mrs. Pierce?”

“Hi, Lisa,” Margo Pierce said. “I just thought I’d come by and see if Megan was behaving.”

This struck Lisa as being very odd. Why was Margo Pierce, the Police Chief’s sister, violating the curfew? Everything was wrong about this. Maybe Megan had snuck into Tina’s room and used the phone to call her mother, but it still didn’t add up. If Margo wanted to check on Megan, why hadn’t she just called?

“Can I come in?” Margo asked, but Tina’s hand didn’t reach for the bolt lock. Strange things had been happening around Newton the last few weeks and she wasn’t going to take any chances. Although it seemed crazy with the woman standing right before her eyes, Tina had a strange feeling, intuition, maybe, that this wasn’t really Margo Pierce. Tina decided she would call the Pierce house and see if Margo was there. Margo could be a pain in the butt when she didn’t get her way, but Thomas Pierce, Margo’s husband, worked with Tina’s father at the Sabine River Authority office and was one of his closest friends. If Margo decided to get angry about being left in the cold a few more minutes, maybe Thomas could help smooth things over.

“Tina?” Margo asked impatiently.

“Mrs. Pearce, I’m probably being an overprotective biddy, but I’m going to call Thomas, and, well… I’ll explain later.”

“Tina, it’s freezing out here,” Margo said sharply

Just then Megan came bounding down the hallway. “Is it Mom?” The other four girls were right behind her, but stayed in the hallway.

Tina turned around, “Megan…” was all Tina got out before a clawed hand crashed through the window in the door and grabbed her around the neck. The claws sank into her flesh as the hand tightened its grip. One of the claws severed Tina’s throat and windpipe, causing Tina’s attempts at screaming to turn from muffled cries to sickening gurgles. As the claws buried deeper into her neck, one of them severed a carotid artery, causing dark crimson blood to pump out of the terrible wound.

The four girls in the hall screamed in unison and fled to Lisa’s room. Megan stood part of the way across the living room staring blankly at the gory scene, her mind numbed in shock.

Tina was dying fast, but she wasn’t quite gone. Her eyes met with Megan’s and she managed to mouth the word “run.”

Megan snapped out of her trance and screamed. She turned and fled down the hall, stopping at Lisa’s room. Inside she could hear the other girls screaming. The door was locked. Megan was still panicking. She didn’t think about going into Tina’s room, which was only a few steps further down the hall, and locking the door. Instead, she stayed in front of the door to Lisa’s bedroom, banging on the door and screaming to be let in.