Skeptomania - Paranormal / UFOs, etc.

WTB1

Lathum had a family. Corey, Jessie and Makum. All boys. That much he was sure of. But what they meant to him wasn’t so clear. He could see their faces in his minds eye and their voices he heard all the time.

He walked on as he remembered them. The patter of his foot-falls created a rhythm to his thoughts, and the dark sky seemed to confirm his mood. Pain. I feel pain. The only thing that lessoned it was his children.

Corey in the rain laughing as he stepped into a puddle of mud unawares, appearing grief-stricken as the cold liquid seeped into his sock and pant leg. Corey suspected it wouldn’t bother his father, but he wasn’t sure, because his father was usually as playful as he, and damn it all if mother complained about the laundry. Corey looked up at dad questioningly as the rain danced in his blinking brown eyes. But Lathum only smiled and looked away as if there were far more interesting things to be concerned about than some watery mud. And he knew that his simple gesture of indifference made his point.

Jessie cried when the ball hit him. And it hit him hard, right by his temple. A glancing blow to be sure but still significant. He yelped and crumpled as young boys do and grasped his head. But father was there to lift him up, placate him, comfort him. Before long the pain had passed and with it the naiveté of a young boy who thought he was invincible.

Makum ran the yard faster than anyone. It was a small track really – around the house, through the overgrown grass - starting at the front steps and ending there too with the finish line being the sidewalk that approached the steps to their home. He broke the plane effortlessly it seemed, with his similarly-aged neighbor opponent huffing some seconds behind him, rounding the corner only to see his failure and, realizing it, sauntered in as if he were never really trying in the first place. Makum strutted as he looked back at his opponent. He walked tall then and looked down at the defeated with a smirk, his deep blue eyes silently taunting. Makum was still young then. He had not grown yet into the outwardly arrogant young man who no longer smirked or subtly taunted.

Lathum remembered it all with little if any emotion. Phantoms all, he thought. Memories that may be comforting but ultimately useless and more, maybe, detrimental. What good could they do anyway? What purpose could they serve? Were they even real? Better to hold them in abeyance than afford them real value.

So he walked on. The night was humid. His clothes stuck to him like glue and the smell of late summer assaulted him. Leafy and grassy and pungent. But the silence made its place too, lending to the aromas another dimension – loneliness. Some might welcome the flavor of summer when they inhaled its clean essence. Others could inhale it and resent it for its innocence and timelessness, cursing it because it could always weather the storm of time and return again next year as if the blunt force of winter had never scarred it. Renewed and reborn, renewed and reborn.

A distant whine broke Lathum from his thoughts. He brought his hands from his pockets then, maybe to look more purposeful or stern or – well, he wasn’t sure just what. He saw the headlights moments later and fancied them as they shimmered in the distance, drawing closer.
And what are you up to? he thought. Coming back from a party? A wedding reception? Maybe a funeral? The simple thought of not knowing eased his self-indulgence reverie. It wasn’t all about him after all.

The vehicle came close and before long it seemed to notice him. It swerved some and slowed. The hiss of wheels on wet pavement came to a hush as it stopped some yards away from him.

Better to look down, better to feign the innocent bystander than to call attention to oneself. A creak of an opening car door, then another, then another. The sound of shoes and boots hitting the pavement

“On the ground! Now!”

Lathum stopped. The world seemed to slow with him. Every sound came slowly; every movement seemed to follow a script that he had already read.

“Fuck you”, he said, looking up at them.

WTB1

Okay ya lazy fucks. Read it when you have time and add to it if so inclined. I'm interested in where the story might go...

Gren · God Of Oreos

OOOOOOOOOOH. I was interested, but thought YOU'D be adding more.

WTB1

NO MAN! It's a damn writin' party!

Some controls, sure. Let's say I take from entries what sounds good (subjective obviously) and leave other entries for possible stories yet to be told.

Who wants to add? Come on!

Yaish · Intel Chief

"I dont think so mister tough guy. Stand right there and dont do anything stupid. The Old Man wants to see you."

Lathum smiled a little at how he had already backed them off. These four guys might be most feared men in the county, but they feared him. They might fear what the Old Man would do more, but the Old Man feared Lathum too, and right now Lathum didnt fear anything.

"Alright I'll go along. But I'm not riding in the back with a goon to either side of me. Those two stay here and I'll be in the back by myself." Lathum said, pointing to the two grunts who'd gotten out of the sedans rear doors.

"Shit!" one the grunts said.

"Knock it off" said their ringleader. "You two stay here and call for the other car. Lathum, get in."

Lathum moved off towards the car with a smirk directed at the two goons he'd just stranded. He waited at the open door, looking silently at the ringleader, outwaiting him, forcing him to move to his schedule.

With a muffled curse the ringleader put his head down and got in, followed a second after by a still smirking Lathum.

enigma · Deputy Dawg

The ringleader, known as Green, not MR Green, simply Green. settled himself reluctantly behind the wheel. He glanced at the rearview mirror.

Latham sat silently in the back, meeting Greens eyes in the mirror. The stare was cold, hard. Green nervously looked away silently chastising himself for being a coward. How could this man, after all these years bring his buried fears so suddenly to the surface?

The car slowly pulled away from the two stranded men who stood silently, glumly on the shoulder of the road. The fog made them appear as spectors...

The car traveled slowly, the sudden appearnce of the heavy fog making Green more nervous by the minute. And Latham continued to stare at him in the mirror. Those eyes... those damn eyes. Green pulled his head a little tighter into his shoulders and the collar of his sportcoat.

BTW- I think this need to be a "sticky". *Realizes that with that innocent statement she just opened it up for all manner of wise cracks and jokes*

WTB1

Me like!

WTB1

No one told him things could turn out this way, that it could get this bad.

The soft hum of the engine seemed to relax him some. Why not go with it? It could all change in a second.

Lathum broke his view from the rear-view mirror after noticing Green avoiding him anyway. The fog rolled by and they slowed. It seemed to thicken even more.

“Aren’t you going to ask me why I was walking out of town, Green?”

“No. The Old Man asks the questions, not me.”

Lathum continued, his voice low. Green squirmed. “It’s been a lot of years.”

Green blinked a few times.

“I like you Green. So I’m going to tell you some things. See, when you get a man like me you gotta be careful, you have to think. Think about my motives, and how I might go about accomplishing them.”

Green drove on, his thick brow furrowing and relaxing then furrowing again.

“Does it add up to you Green? That when I left town, running scared, that I would do it on foot and on the main road? Does it make sense?”

“Godamn it! Stop with the crap Lathum. I know you’re trying to trick me.”

“Am I? Why didn’t you see me when you drove out? Why did you see me only on the way back?”

WTB1 · Last edited by WTB1 on Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

Green looked in the rear-view. Where ARE they he thought? Where’s the second car? They should be caught up by now. But then maybe the fog blocked his view. Maybe they were close after all.

He noticed, and was ashamed, that he was tapping his left foot on the floor board and scratching his face at the same time. He should know better than to show any emotion at all with a man like the one who sat behind him – particularly any nervousness that denoted weakness.
It didn’t help anything either that he was second guessing himself. Why hadn’t they patted him down? Stupid! He could feel his pulse quicken. They had assumed Lathum had given up, that he was through fighting, that he was running. Lathum HAD sent the letter after all, explaining that it was over. The whole thing was over as far as Lathum thought. He was leaving the whole fucking mess behind. That was the crux of the letter. But now he and Lathum were alone. Somehow Lathum had talked him into separating with his men. Again, it happened because they assumed he was beaten, the fight worn out of him.

“You know I sent the letter. I can tell, Green. You know. But why would I send it? Think. Did you really think it was over? No one knows where The Old Man lives. He never takes meetings or calls from home. But he will tonight, won’t he?”

Greens face reddened. “You son of a bitch! I’m only working here,” he said, his voice going from deep to higher, betraying his fear.

Green had always been known as an enforcer. He ruled with an iron hand. His loyalty was unquestioned always, and those beneath him became very uneasy at even the slightest hint that Green was upset about anything. That had always been his persona. So it was pissing him off to realize that he was falling apart right now. It pissed him off that the fog seemed to signal danger - that it had appeared as if summoned. And it pissed him off that he could not seem to look Lathum in the eye. Sure, it WAS Lathum, the legend, The Bane, as he was called, but it didn’t make Green feel any better about himself. And now he was alone with The Bane and being mentally fucked with, all while trying not to run off the road or hit a dear in this god-awful fog.

Green attempted a rebuttal.
“Listen man. I didn’t see you when we drove out because you were taking a piss in the woods for all I know. Now why don’t you just sit back and enjoy the ride? See this shit out here? Might as well be driving at 30,000 feet. We’re in a fucking cloud.”

enigma · Deputy Dawg

"Yes... we are in a cloud Green. But you know what happens in clouds at 30,000 feet? Sometimes bad things happen up there where no one can see. Sometimes things mysteriously crash."

Green began sweating despite himself. He turned the air vents towrad his massive frame, hoping to cool off. Damn, he thought... just showed him once again how nervous he makes me. The son-of-a-bitch!

Green glanced in the rearview mirror once again, and this time when he met Lathams eyes... they didn't seem so cold, so alien. He kept contact... did those eyes look amused? Yes! There was a twinkle in those eyes that wasn't there before. What did the bastard have planed?

Stupid, thought Green, I let him seperate me from my back-up, never checked to see if the son-of-a-bitch was armed... and now we're alone in this fucking fog... headed for the Old Man's private compound. Where the hell IS that second car?

WTB1

Sweet!

Gren · God Of Oreos

Dammit, every time I try to jump in somebody's already moved it along, making what I had ready unusable. Reads great though! I'll just read till 4 am and then jump in.

WTB1

LOL! I'm done for the night. The Tigers are coming on. Go fer it bud.

Gren · God Of Oreos

Heh, the Tigers. The K-Car Kittens. I quit watching them a couple decades ago. Hey, WTB? You won't believe this....... Some moron running his mouth at the Dunkin Doughnuts counter said that (lol), that, that the Tigers (hee hee) made it to the play-offs (LOL) and beat the freakin' YANKEES (RFLMAO) in 4 games! Can you believe that shit??!? I dunno what he was smokin' but I want some of it.

Yaish · Intel Chief

Gren, put a little post

{Placeholder}

and edit the story into it.