Sitting on the edge of his bed, Sheriff Rome hung up his cell phone and placed it on the nightstand. “Wayne’s still not answering.”
Lula Mae slipped under the covers. “You should’ve left a voicemail.”
Sheriff Rome scooted Sophie from his side to the center of the bed. “I’ve left him two already. I’m not stalking…” He stopped when he heard voices from outside.
Lula Mae popped up from her pillow and clutched the now-barking dog. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” The sheriff grabbed his gun from the nightstand. “Stay here.”
Lula Mae shut Sophie in the bedroom and followed her husband into the living room. She watched him open the front door. As soon as he walked out onto the porch, someone hit his forearm with a staff, knocking the gun from his hand.
“Nick!” Lula Mae screamed before another man rushed inside to grab her. He was wearing a white ski mask with red-circle eyes and a jagged, thread-thin smile from ear to ear – had any ears been visible.
The two were dragged into the front yard and forced to their knees.
While a couple of people stood behind the Romes, several others were visible a few yards in front of them, all of their faces covered by the same terrifying ski masks.
The man with the Moses-like staff centered himself in front of the group facing the Romes.
Sheriff Rome took his wife’s hand.
As Lula Mae turned to see her husband’s face, she knew what was in his mind. The two men behind them were to be their executioners. They only awaited a signal from the man who appeared to be the leader.
The leader raised his staff, and those behind him stood at attention.
Lula Mae tightened her grip on her husband’s hand, and she closed her eyes. Several seconds passed.
The man behind her placed his hands on either side of her head, eliciting a gasping cry from her lips. She opened her eyes to see each member of the group pointing up and to the left.
The man forced her to face that direction, and she saw her husband being subjected to the same treatment.
They faced the moonlit woods beyond their house. A moment later the moon was no longer the brightest light within their scope of vision. A fire erupted near the top of Crown-of-Thorns Mountain, and it snaked its way around as if all the dead trees just below the barren peak were catching fire in a chain reaction. Soon, a ring of fire encircled the mountain’s apex like a crown of flames.
The men behind the Romes walked around them to join the others. The crowd parted, allowing the man with the staff to depart through the gauntlet. One-by-one, the others followed, leaving the Romes alone in the burning darkness.