Jeff Strand - Graverobbers Wanted - No Experience Necessary

Dominick hesitated. "This bow was really expensive."

"Now!"

He kicked the bow. It slid across the floor, coming to a stop about two feet from me. I removed the knife from Linda's neck and she hurried over to Dominick. "Asshole!" she said, slapping him across the chest. "Don'tyouever worry about how much your precious bow is worth when some maniac is attacking me with aknife! "

I wondered if this was the way I was going to solve the mystery, by threatening each of the potential suspects with sharp objects until one of them turned out to be the killer.

"So what brings you here?" asked Dominick.

"Some psycho has me running all over the place playing his game," I said. "The final clue was I AM THE MIGHTY HUNTER. That would be you, right?"

"Well, no, not really, I just fish," Dominick explained. "I have a huge weapon collection, but it's not used for hunting. I swear,I have nothing to do with whatever it is you're involved in." He turned to Linda. "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?"

"The son of a bitch is crazy," said Linda. "He probably murdered his kids himself."

"I'm not crazy!" I shouted, furious. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "Okay, maybe I am a little, but I'm not lying about this.If Dominick isn't the mighty hunter, who is?"

Linda avoided my gaze.

Then a possibility occurred to me.The game—Prophecies of the Night.

"In Prophecies of the Night, is one of the character types a hunter?" I asked.

Dominick shrugged and glanced at Linda. "I'm not sure," she said. "There are so many I'd think there would have to be."

I tried to remember what I'd heard from the game. I stood there, concentrating, trying to recall any piece of conversation that indicated who might play a hunter.

A flash of dialogue ran through my mind.

"...I'll add his head to my trophy case..."

"It's Farley!" I exclaimed. "The mighty hunter is Farley! He has my kids!"

I turned and started to bolt for the door. "Hold on, wait a second!" said Dominick. "Should we call the police?"

"No police! That's the recurring theme of Farley's threats! I have to go after him myself!"

"Okay, we don't need to involve the cops, but I'll come with you!"

"You're not going anywhere!" Linda protested. "The guy is insane, can't you tell?"

Dominick shook his head. "There's always been something about Farley thatcreeped me out. I have no problem at all believing that he's a kidnapper."

"And a murderer," I said. "He buried Michael alive and chopped up Jennifer."

"Jennifer's dead?" Dominick took a few seconds to digest that information then continued. "Okay, if what you say about Farley is true, then you can't just confront him with a kitchen knife. But you may also be completely wrong, so I'm not sending you after him without supervision. I mean, you could've really hurt Linda and she had nothing to do with this."

"I don't need supervision," I said.

"I think you do. And if you take me along, I can arm you to the teeth. I've got an incredible collection of weapons in the other room, not all of them legal, if you get my drift."

"Well then, why don't you tag along?" I suggested.

"Good idea. Let's go getsomestuff."

Chapter 22

THERE WERE no cars in the driveway as we pulled up alongside Farley's home. It was a fairly nice place, if a bit small. Personally, I would've figured Farley to be the kind of guy who still lived with his parents.

The three of us got out of Helen's car. I'd told them the whole story on the way, to make sure they understood just how dangerous things could be. Linda had refused to let Dominick go without her, and all three of us were wielding crossbows. I also had a belt from which dangled two vicious-looking knives, and a quiver containing a combination of about twenty arrows and bolts, everything from one with an explosive tip to a razor-lined one that I was supposed to handle very, very carefully.

After we each placed a bolt into our crossbows and pulled them back, locked into place and ready to fire, we walked up to the front door and I knocked. "Farley, it's me," I called out.

No answer.

"I know that you're the mighty hunter," I said. "Open the door and let's talk."

Still nothing.I tested the doorknob and found it unlocked. "You guys ready?" I asked.

Dominick nodded. Linda shook her head.

I turned the knob and pushed the door open. "Come on out, Farley!" I shouted into the darkness. I reached inside and flipped on the light switch. The living room looked a lot like the Ghoulish Delights office—a shrine to horror movies. The walls were covered with posters, and all sorts of masks, models, creatures, and other assorted morbid props were carefully placed for maximum gruesome impact.

More interesting were the six or seven cables that stretched across the room just inches below the ceiling, one end of each fastened to the wall at our right, the other end disappearing into a hallway.

"Theresa?" I called out. "Kyle? Can you hear me?"

No response, not that I expected one.

Then I saw Boo-Boo. The skull was at the far end of the room, resting on top of a television set, an envelope in his mouth.

"I need to get that envelope," I said, pointing. "You two stay put. Cover me."

Dominick and Linda raised their crossbows in a position to best shoot any assailant. I moved my own slowly, from side to side, and then began to move forward. The first cable was only a couple of feet away.

Three steps later there was a loud squeaking sound, and then suddenly a corpse burst out of the hallway, hanging from a pulley attached to the cable. At least a dozen blades protruded from the body, and I barely jumped back in time to avoid being sliced.The corpse slammed against the wall and dangled there, bouncing and swaying like a flesh-and-blood puppet.

It was a man, and he'd been completely dismembered. The pieces were now held together with wire, with inch-long gaps in between each chunk. Except for the head,which hung a good six inches above the rest of the body.

I turned around. Dominick and Linda both looked ready to keel over, but neither of them screamed.

"I won't be offended if you want to wait in the car."

"Just get the fucking envelope!" Dominick snapped.

From this angle, I still couldn't see into the hallway. The toes of the corpse dangled about a foot above the floor, so it would be too dangerous to try to crawl over to the envelope if another body shot out. I took another step forward, then another, and then leapt back as I heard a second series of squeaks.

Another corpse burst out of the hallway. This time dodging was unnecessary, because the wire snapped and the body dropped in a heap on the floor. Only the head, adorned with several fishhooks, slammed against the wall.

Okay, I was wasting time. I braced myself, and then ran at top speed across the room. Out of the corner of my eye I saw four corpses shoot out of the hallway, one after the other. I reached Boo-Boo and snatched the envelope out of his mouth as the corpses bashed into the wall.

I looked at them. All had various weapons protruding from them, from a long spear to a non-running chainsaw. Two of the corpses hadn't been reconstructed properly, their body parts switched around in some appalling mix-and-match game.

"Welcome to the mind of Farley," I said. Dominick and Linda had nothing to say to that.

I opened the envelope, which was labeled "For Andrew" and read the note inside.

"Congratulations, Andrew! You've done great! Okay, I can't say that for sure—it may have taken you too long to find this, and I may have slaughtered your kiddies out of boredom. But for now let's pretend I haven't. It's time for the moment you've been waiting for.The final showdown.The big explanation. Fun, fun, fun for the whole family! Can you handle this much excitement??? Follow the enclosed map and see what happens! As usual,do it alone or I'll kill your kids,yaddayaddayadda . This time I mean it. Your verybestest friend in the whole wide world, Farley."