Page 8 of Fallen Creed

With leaves still on the trees, snow could gather and stack up, causing enough extra weight to crack branches. She still remembered a Halloween storm from years ago that snapped huge branches off one hundred-year-old cottonwoods and river maples. Many of those branches also brought down power lines, snapping them like rubber bands. Electricity had been out for over a week.

Gravel pinged against the undercarriage of her brand new, charcoal colored Jeep. She slowed down. Anne was one of the last given the allowance to buy and use her own vehicle, and it pained her to hear the new Jeep get battered.

The shortcut was rougher than the last time she had taken it. On either side, the cornfields grew tall enough to block her view. If she hadn’t slowed down, she probably would have never seen the patch of white in the red grass.

There weren’t any driveways or houses for almost a mile, maybe two, but Anne’s first thought was that it could be a package or mail that may have gotten blown into the ditch.

She stopped and backed up. Too far. She couldn’t see it anymore. There was no other traffic, but she still pulled to the side. She left the engine running as she got out to take a look.

These back road ditches could fool you. The tall grasses betrayed how deep they were. But there had been no rain, so at least she wouldn’t end up with mud and water in her shoes.

She backtracked, keeping her eyes focused on the ditch. Now she wondered if it could have been an animal. White or gray, possibly a possum. The grasses waved and rolled back and forth. Just when Anne convinced herself she was wasting time, she saw it.

Something white with black plastic bunched up and flapping around it. The white moved, too. It looked like a piece of clothing. Maybe a bag of garbage someone had thrown from their car.

She turned around and headed back to her vehicle.

What if it wasn’t just a bag of garbage?

Her brother, Ed, and her husband, Keith, read a lot of mysteries and thrillers. Keith would probably give her a hard time later that she didn’t take a closer look. Interstate 80 was only twenty miles away and ran parallel with this old gravel road. Maybe some drug runner threw out his stash. There had been bank robberies in the state before. Though she would have already heard about it.

Anne stopped and shook her head. Okay, now the curiosity would drive her crazy.

She went back. The slope into the ditch wasn’t as steep as she first expected, but she watched her feet and took baby steps, one after another. Without warning, she found herself standing over the bag. This close, she could see a white shirt or jacket had come loose from the black plastic garbage bag.

Something else had fallen out, too. At first glance, it looked like... No, that wasn’t possible. She bent down to get a better look, then jerked backwards. She slipped and skidded, losing her balance and sitting against the ditch’s incline in the middle of the tall grass. And now she was close enough, there was no denying what she saw.

Fingers! Someone’s hand was reaching out of the bag.

It had to be an early Halloween prank, and yet, at the same time she knew it wasn’t. Her stomach retched. She gasped and pushed herself away, digging her heels and elbows into the dirt to climb up the ditch. Still, she couldn’t peel her eyes away.

The hand wasn’t reaching out of the bag. Instead, it had fallen out. Cut at the wrist, it was clearly no longer attached to a body.

—6—

Walmart parking lot

Lincoln, Nebraska

David Ruben sat behind the steering wheel of the piece of crap SUV. His girls were getting sloppy or lazy. Neither was acceptable. But the junk vehicle was minor to the big frickin’ mistake they’d made last week. Perhaps he should take comfort in the fact that they wanted to make up for it.

Before he could mention a fitting punishment, they had started plotting and planning their redemption. He liked that. He had taught them well. They just needed a bit more experience. Deep down in their souls, Ruben knew the darkness existed. The trick was how to trigger it. And he had become a wizard at triggering darkness.

He pulled the bill of the Huskers’ ball cap lower until it tapped his Ray-Ban sunglasses. The sunglasses were a nice surprise. He’d always wanted a pair. Finding these in the glove compartment made up for the crappy SUV. With another glance in the rearview mirror, he had to admit; he looked pretty cool in them. The cap was stupid, but it made him fit in with the locals.

The passenger door opened almost exactly at the same time as the back door on the same side. Two young women slid into the vehicle. He didn’t bother to look at either of them. His sunglasses stayed straight ahead. It was always a good idea to make them think he was still disappointed.

“We’re taking care of things,” the woman beside him said.

He gave a curt nod. She smelled good, but different from when she’d left the vehicle. Those big purses came in handy. He was always interested to see what she had lifted this time. She could afford anything she wanted in the Walmart store. Ruben had made sure of that. But the stealing was an instinct. One of his first lessons—survive or die. It was also one of the best ways for him to find new recruits. He’d walk the aisles watching. He knew how to be invisible. When he’d see a young girl lift something, he’d follow her all the way outside to the parking lot. They never noticed him until he was there, right beside their car.

“I saw what you did.”

Their reactions were almost always the same. “Oh my God! Are you a cop?”

In the flood of their relief he’d reel them in, flatter them about their technique.

“How would you like to get paid for what you just did?”