Booger called a friend he knew who lived in St. Louis, a friend that was an IT expert. He had met Cal in Branson, where he and his wife had a vacation home. Cal had done some work for the Branson police department in networking their computers. He had even assisted on an internet porn case for Booger. Booger had no idea how to get into the dark web, but maybe Cal could help.
“Hey, I thought we were going to have some breakfast,” Duce said as Booger motioned him to get in the car.
“No time but I did grab a cup of coffee for you,” Booger responded.
“I don’t suppose there is any whiskey in it,” Duce replied.
It was nearly a six-hour drive from Indianapolis to the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin, where Cal lived. Booger made it in four hours. He called Cal along the way to alert him to what he was looking for.
When they arrived, Cal met them on his front porch.
“Shit,” he said. You’ve really come across a sick son of a bitch this time, Booger.”
“I was afraid of that. What did you find, Cal?”
“Come on in. I’ll show you. I’ve got the website up down in the basement. By the way, who is your friend?” he said, looking at Duce.
“He’s a private eye that a missing girl’s family hired to find her.”
Cal held out his hand to shake. “I’m Duce,” he said.
“Well, Duce, if that girl got mixed up with whoever is running this website, I’m afraid you’re not going to have very good news for her parents.”
Cal led Booger and Duce down to the basement, a room filled with computers and surveillance cameras that showed nearly every room of the house and every part of the yard outside.
“Geez Cal, what’s the need for all the surveillance cameras?” Booger asked.
“I’ve got three teenage daughters, and I don’t trust their choices in boyfriends,” he said, laughing.
He led them to one computer screen on the far side of the basement. On it, the website Little Angels Adoption was open.
“That website was not easy for me to find. It required a password to enter. I used the name Dudley that you had mentioned. It worked.”
The website showed dozens of pictures of girls, some as young as two or three. Most, young teens. They were all pictured in, what looked like a small room or large closet. They were all in cages. Across each one of the photos was the word “sold.”
Another page listed “Current Adoptions.” There were only two girls listed. Booger recognized one of them. It was Abby Wilkinson.
“Shit,” he said. “That’s the missing girl from Connorville, Abby Wilkinson,” he said.
The other girl was pictured in a cage. Next to her picture were the words “sale pending.” Underneath that was the sale price, $14,000. Abby Wilkinson’s picture was different. She wasn’t in a cage. She was pictured in a dress, smiling, inside what looked like a living room. Next to her picture was an asking price of $100,000. Underneath that was the current bid, $95,000.”
“Cal, I want you to contact the FBI. Show them what you have found. Tell them that I know who is running the website. Tell them to meet me outside the Fischer Family carnival. They are somewhere in Topeka, Kansas.”
Duce and Booger hurried to the car. Topeka was nearly six hours west of Ballwin.
Back in the tunnel, at the carnival, Dwayne looked at Crystal with a blank stare. Her words were beginning to sink in, “It’s time to go home.”
“Where’s home, Crystal? I’ve been here so long I don’t remember home. I don’t know where I came from, and I don’t know who my parents are.”
“You know who your mother is, Dwayne. She will be here any minute. The rest will come to you soon. We don’t have much time. The end game has already started. In a few hours, none of this will exist. You must go back and get your friends. Bring them back to this room. Go now, and please hurry.”
Dwayne left and crawled back to the room underneath the haunted house, the room where Justin lived. When he got there, Abby was crying. She and Justin were trying to get out of the room through the door in the floor, but it was locked. There was no way out.
“Dwayne,” she screamed. “We thought you were gone. We thought the people in that room took you.”
“They did,” he said. “But they didn’t hurt me. I think they are trying to help us. I think they want to help us get home. They sent me here to get you and Justin. They want us to go with them.”
“I’m afraid,” Abby said.
“Don’t be afraid, Abby. The people in that room have a purpose for being here. I think they are a lot like us, children of the carnival. I think they want to leave too, but either they can’t, or they don’t want to until they help us go home. Trust me if you’re afraid, Abby. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“I won’t either,” Justin said.
Just then, a note came through a small crack in the floor above and dropped next to Justin’s cage. He picked it up and read it.
“It’s from Dudley,” he said. “He knows that you are down here, Abby. He wants me to lock you in my cage and then go to the room on the right and get the daughter and bring her to the other side of the tunnel.”
“No, he’s crazy,” Dwayne said. “the people in the room on the left will help us. They will get us out of here and help us get home.”
Justin’s head dropped. “You don’t understand. There is no way out. He said he will kill my brother Bryan if I don’t do exactly as he says. He said that Bryan is unconscious on the other side of the tunnel. He has been poisoned. He has about one hour to live. But if I do as he says, he will drop an antidote down into the tunnel that will save my brother.”
“Justin, he is lying to you. You know he is. The people in the room on the left will help us. They’ll get us out of here and help your brother too. You’ve got to trust me.”
“No. I know Dudley. He’s not lying, and no one can help us,” Justin said as he grabbed Abby and threw her into the cage.
Dwayne tried to stop him, but Justin was too strong. In a matter of a few seconds, Abby was inside the cage, and the door was locked. He grabbed Dwayne, who was clinging onto him, trying to stop him and threw him against the wall. Then Justin began crawling through the tunnel.
Dwayne looked at Abby, who was lying in a fetal position in the cage, crying.
“Don’t be afraid, Abby. I’ll be back for you,” he said.
Then Dwayne took chase of Justin into the tunnel. He didn’t know what he would do if he caught him, but he hoped the children of the carnival would help him.
***
Booger’s cell phone rang just as he crossed over the Kansas border.
“Booger, this is Cal,” the voice said.
“I’ve been monitoring the Little Angels website. There has been a change in the status of the two girls shown.”
“What’s that?”
“They changed the status of both girls to “sold.” Then, a couple of minutes later, the website went dark. You better hurry.”
“We’ll be there in about an hour. Notify the FBI.”
“I already have. They have been monitoring the website too. They said a task force is being put together. They are waiting on the proper warrants.”
“Geez, that could take a while, time those two girls may not have.”
Booger hung up and pushed the accelerator to the floor. He sped up to over 100 miles an hour on Interstate 70.
“We’ll be there in less than forty-five minutes,” he told Duce.
“Yeah, if you don’t get us killed first,” Duce replied.
***
Justin had years of experience crawling through the narrow tunnel. He was much faster than Dwayne. There was no way Dwayne could catch him. Even if he had, he couldn’t stop him. Justin was much stronger than he was.
So he decided to crawl through the tunnel to the room on the left in hopes that the creatures inside could help him.
***
The sun was beginning to peep its face over the eastern horizon. The creatures that roamed the carnival grounds at night began to make their way back inside the tunnel. Soon the carnival workers and their families would feel safe to come outside their trailers.
The quiet that followed the departure of the creatures from the carnival grounds was a welcome relief to everyone that lived there. That time just before the sun shot up over the treetops, was the most peaceful part of the day. It was the time when everyone felt safe, when they could relax and get their most rested hour of sleep.
They had no idea that Dudley’s end game would change everything.
Several holes had been dug in the earth just above the gas line that supplied energy to every part of the carnival. Dropped down into the holes was enough dynamite to cause an explosion that would level much of the carnival. Bodies would be impossible to identify. The center of the explosion would be Dudley’s office and trailer. No one would doubt that he was killed in the explosion. That was his plan.
When Justin reached the midpoint of the tunnel, he could hear the creatures in the room on the left. From their sounds, he could tell that all of them had come back from outside.
“It must be morning,” he said to himself.
Normally the creatures were quiet after getting back from roaming the carnival grounds. Something was going on, he sensed. They were loud, louder than he could ever remember. He moved swiftly and quietly past their room, hoping they would not know he was there. Into the room on the right, he went. Both the mother and daughter were sound asleep. The food I gave them earlier must have been drugged, he thought.
He opened the daughter’s cage and pulled her out. He began dragging her out of the room, slowly and quietly at first, until he was safely past the room on the left. Then he moved quickly. Time was running out if he was going to save his brother.
Justin reached the end of the tunnel before Dwayne even got to the midpoint. There, lying on the ground, was his brother, Bryan. When he reached him, Bryan was motionless. His breathing was slow and labored. He pounded on the door above the tunnel.
“Please, I’m here with the girl. Open up. Give me the antidote,” Justin screamed.
Suddenly, the door opened. He could see Dudley looking down. “Hand me the girl,” he said, “and I’ll hand you the antidote.”
Justin lifted the girl up. Dudley grabbed her and pulled her the rest of the way up. Then he dropped a small bottom down. “Give your brother all of this. It will take about ten minutes to work, and then he’ll slowly wake up.”
Then Dudley shut and locked the door in the floor. Justin gave his brother the antidote and waited by his side.
Dwayne reached the room on the left a few minutes later. When he got there, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Inside the small room was a dense fog. The fog was limited to inside the room. None of it carried into the tunnel. Inside the fog was a glow, like a light that illuminated the room in a visible fog. It looked a bit like a dozen car lights penetrating through the fog. At the edge of the opening leading into the room, he felt a warmth come over him. He felt safe. He felt comfortable. Something, a force of energy, was pulling him inside. He did not resist. When the fog had fully engulfed him, he saw his friends. He saw his mother.
“It’s time for you to go home,” she said to her son. “But first, you must do something. You must help some others find their way home, too.”
***
Booger’s car sped into the parking lot just outside the entrance to the carnival. The front gate was locked.
“Better buckle your seat belt,” he said to Duce.
“Shit,” Duce replied.
Then Booger pressed all the way down on the accelerator. The tires burned rubber into the concrete as they roared toward the gate. The force of the car slamming into the gate broke the locks and shattered the iron bars of the gate. The car flew inside. Booger drove straight for the haunted house, barreling down the narrow walkways and knocking over trash cans and anything in the walkway. He stopped the car just outside the front entrance to the haunted house. Both men got out of the car.
The force of the blast knocked both of them several feet backward.
***
After getting the girl, Dudley went to the haunted house, to the door in the floor. He unlocked it and climbed down to the cage. Inside was Abby. Her cries were much louder when she saw Dudley opening up the cage. He grabbed her and forced her upstairs to the haunted house, locking the door in the floor behind him. Then he took Abby and Sharon out the front entrance of the haunted house to the front gate, into the parking lot, and to a white van he had waiting. Once the girls were secure inside the van, he drove off. A block away, he stopped the van, took out his cell phone, pressed a button, and a huge explosion could be heard from the carnival grounds behind them, rocking the van.
***
The antidote worked on Bryan. A few minutes after digesting it, he woke up. Soon after, he was alert.
His brother was smiling down at him when Bryan finally opened his eyes.
“I thought you were dead,” he said to Justin. “We had a funeral for you. You were buried in the ground.”
“No, I’m alive,” Justin said. “We need to get out of here, Bryan. There is not much time. I checked the door above us. It’s locked. But I know some people that will help us get out of here. Are you Ok to crawl through the tunnel?”
“Yeah, I trust you, Justin. Just lead the way.”
The two brothers began crawling toward the center of the tunnel, toward the room on the left.
***
Dwayne moved quickly to the woman in the cage. His mother had told him that he needed to get her out of the cage and pull her through the tunnel to the door underneath the floor of the haunted house.
“But it is locked,” he told his mother. “How will we get out?”
“It won’t be a problem when you get there,” she said.
“You’re coming with me, aren’t you, mom?” Dwayne asked.
“I will be there when you need me, son,” she replied.
Lindsey was sound asleep when Dwayne pulled her out of her cage. He rolled her on her back and tied her shoulders to his legs so he could drag her. She was heavy and difficult to pull. He struggled to make any movement. That’s when something began to pull him down the tunnel toward the room underneath the haunted house. It was like a gust of wind pushing him through the tunnel.
He had nearly reached the room when an explosion rocked the earth above him. The dirt ceiling above him began to cave in. An intense heat could be felt from behind him, farther into the tunnel. He hurried to the ladder, pulling Lindsey up with him as he climbed to the door in the floor. The explosion had broken the door from its latch. He pushed it open as a huge fireball began rolling through the tunnel. With all his strength, he tried pulling Lindsey up through the opening. She was dead weight. He just didn’t have the strength to do it.
That’s when two men appeared. They grabbed her arms and lifted her through the opening just as the fireball reached the room underneath. They ran out of the haunted house as the floor underneath them caught fire. Outside the haunted house, they ran toward the front gate as the haunted house became engulfed in flames.
There was smoke and flames everywhere. The entire carnival was going up in flames.
The smoke was so dense that it was impossible to see where they were going. Their lungs filled with smoke. Soon they were paralyzed from lack of oxygen. All four fell to the ground, coughing and struggling to breathe.
That was when a bright light appeared in the fog. It moved toward them. The light engulfed them. Inside it, they could breathe again. A calmness came over their bodies. Their coughing stopped, and Dwayne saw his mother again. Standing next to her was Crystal. And next to Crystal were Justin and his brother Bryan.
“Mom, what is happening,” Dwayne asked.
Booger and Duce gave him an odd look. They thought that Dwayne was imagining something that wasn’t there. They couldn’t see the people in the light. They couldn’t hear them either.
“It is time for you to go home now,” Ginger said to her son. “You have done what you were left here to do. Your friends will be safe now. They are going home too.”
“Where’s home, mother? I don’t remember.”
“Your home is with me, Dwayne. I know you don’t remember now, but you will soon. You were with me the night I died. After your father killed me, he went after you. You tried to escape but he caught you. Dwayne, your father killed you too.”
Then the fog and the lights within it began to lift and float away.
Booger, Duce and Lindsey watched as it moved into the sky and disappeared.
That’s when they noticed that Dwayne was no longer there. He had gone home.
***
The white van never left the spot where it had stopped. Its engine went dead. Dudley tried to escape. He tried to get out of the van, but the doors were locked, and the windows would not roll down. When the FBI arrived, he was rambling, talking incoherently. He talked about ghosts that were outside his van, ghosts that wouldn’t allow him to leave.
The strangest thing was that when the FBI reached the van, they discovered the engine was running, the doors were unlocked, and the windows worked just fine. They found no reason why Dudley could not have driven away.
Abby and Sharon were found unharmed inside the back of the van.
A short time later, Sharon was returned to her mother, Lindsey. Soon after they returned home to her parents, Sharon’s grandparents. They had not seen either for over two years. The ordeal that everyone had been through brought the family back together.
Duce returned home to give closure to Crystal’s parents. It wasn’t the good news he had hoped to give them, but at least they would know she was gone, and they would get some satisfaction in knowing that justice would be served.
Dudley would never go to prison. Instead, he would spend the remainder of his life in a mental institution. The children of the carnival would haunt him for the remainder of his days, living with him somewhere between his reality and his nightmares.
Justin finally went home. His was a stillborn birth. He never woke up. That was a reality that his mother could never accept. She never let him go. So, he stayed to comfort her, to comfort his brother. In their minds, he was alive. When his parents died in the fire, Bryan had no one left in his life except Justin.
The explosion had taken Bryan’s life. Now they could both go home to their parents.
The FBI was grateful for what Booger had done. They allowed him to take Abby home.
Booger began a long car ride down to Connorville. Abby was sitting next to him. She reminisced about the friends that had helped her.
“If it wasn’t for Dwayne and Justin, I would have never gotten away,” she said.
“Abby, you can’t talk about them to others,” Booger cautioned. “They’ll think you are crazy.”
“I know,” she said. “But you saw them. You know they exist,” she said.
“Yes, but I won’t tell anyone else either. I think they’d lock me up and throw away the key. Whatever happened back there is best left as our secret.”
***
Ron and Jane Wilkinson and their son Andy had just returned from church that Sunday morning. Andy had grown into quite a young man in the seven years since his sister disappeared. He was in college now at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau. He was home for the weekend, spending some time with his parents. They were so lonely now with Abby gone. He and his old friends Nathan and Josh had strayed apart over the years. The memory of the night his sister disappeared was just too painful, and every time he saw his friends, it brought him back to that night. He dated Nancy a few times, but they drifted apart too. She was part of that awful night also.
Andy had spent the last seven years riddled with guilt over what happened that Halloween night in 1993. He thought that going away to college and getting away from Connorville would soften the memories of that night. But it didn’t. He thought about his little sister every day.
Ron and Jane Wilkinson had aged much more than the seven additional years should have shown. Ron was completely gray now. He had deep bags under both eyes and a sad look in his eyes that made people want to avoid him. Jane was cold and distant now. Both were simply going through the motions of marriage.
They had all come to the hopeless feeling that they would never see Abby again. They were haunted by the past and unable to find any meaning in the future.
They had sold the ice cream shop five years earlier. People stopped coming soon after Abby disappeared. There were rumors that the parents were somehow involved. Vicious rumors, however unfounded, left the family isolated. Friends they had known for many years avoided them.
When the doorbell rang, it took all three of them by surprise. Salespeople and the mailman were about the only people that came to their door nowadays, and neither came on a Sunday.
Ron Wilkinson got out of his chair in the living room and went to the door. When he opened it, he let out a scream that could be heard from blocks away. His wife and Andy came running to the door to see what had happened.
“Hi, Mom and Dad, I’m home,” Abby cried.
Tears flowed. Hugs and kisses flew. The family was together again.
Booger McLain smiled. He hadn’t cried since his wife died. But he was crying now. His life felt like it had meaning now. He decided right then that he was going to begin living again. He was going to give himself a second chance at happiness.
Booger turned and walked away. He had done what he set out to do. He had done what he had promised Ron Wilkinson. There was no more to be said. No need to stay.
As Booger stepped into his car, Ron Wilkinson grabbed his arm. “Thank you for bringing our daughter back to us, Mr. McLain,” he said, holding out a check for $10,000.
Booger took the check, looked at it and tore it up. “In a weird way, you and your daughter have given my life back to me,” Booger said. “Let’s call it even.”
***
Booger McLain’s life changed the day he brought Abby home. He went back to Cape Girardeau. He went back to the diner, to the same booth at the end.
Linda saw him walk in. She smiled.
A few seconds after he sat down, she brought him a pot of coffee and poured him a cup, not completely full, giving him enough room to add a little Old Crow.
“Fill it all the way, Linda,” he said with a small smile. “I’ve given up the whiskey.”
“Good to see you again, Booger. I didn’t think I’d ever see your face again.”
“Well, now, Linda. You know I can’t go too long without seeing you. Fact is, I was hoping we could see more of each other.”
Linda smiled and gave Booger a gentle kiss on the cheek. She had been hoping for this day.
“Why, Mr. McLain, are you trying to ask me for a date?”
-THE END-