Virtual American Gothic - Third Season 
Episode Thirteen

Phantom

By Queribus and Rosebuck

NOT TO BE ARCHIVED TO A WEB PAGE WITHOUT 
THE AUTHOR'S PRIOR CONSENT.

Special Guest stars:
Bruce Campbell as Lieutenant Drey
Paul Williams as Mr. Drabble

**********************************************

TEASER

The door to Lucas' office opened just a crack. Lucas looked up from 
his essentially meaningless paperwork. Nothing and no one. He ruffled 
through the papers again.

There was a odd sound, like metal sliding across glass, like the gears of 
a clock just before they struck. Lucas looked up again. The door was 
closed. A figure sat deep in shadow, light glinted off the chrome of an 
electric wheelchair.

"Buck. It's been a long time."

"What brings you back to Trinity, Drey?"

He knew the voice but no matter how hard Lucas peered into the 
darkness there was no face. Just a hat and coat the color of his panelling.

"You've had some pretty strange goings on here lately, even for this 
town." One carefully gloved hand gestured his way.

"And you're pretty familiar with strange, aren't you?"

Drey leaned forward. His face was the panelling. No, a leather mask. 
Shine of deepset eyes. "I've seen my fair share."  Pause.  "As you know,  
I'm no longer on active duty.  They've got me behind a desk, Buck.  I 
was never meant for desk duty."

"Well," Lucas's eyebrows reached for the ceiling, "you do have certain 
limitations these days."

"That's the thing.  Sure, I can't chase suspects anymore, but I can still
solve a crime.  I haven't lost *this*"  Taps the side of his skull. 
Leather tapping leather.

Lucas leaned back in his chair and let the invisible man talk.

"I've got to show the boys on top that I can still break a case.  That's 
why I'm here.  There are a lot things in Lt. Harker's report on the 
Madison case that just don't add up."

Lucas sat up.  "You mean my son's kidnapping."

"I didn't know you had a son.  He just appeared out of thin air, didn't 
he?"

Steely,  "What do you mean by that?"

"The building was empty according to Harker, and then the boy just 
shows up. Very odd.  What did you think I meant?"

"Nothin'."

"There are holes in this case, and I intend to fill them.  The Madison 
woman had no injuries, but she died anyway."  Drey leaned forward.  
"This case is a gold mine, Buck.  I can show them all that I'm not out 
for the count, yet."

The sheriff's voice was mildly sarcastic, "Oh yeah, I can see that."  
Relaxing into his element. "I'll make a deal with you, Drey.  My 
department will give you all the assistance you want.  I get first dibs 
on any information you. . .  unmask about Vicki Madison, and, uh, 
creative approval on the report you turn in, and I'll make sure the boys 
upstairs . . stand up and take notice."

Drey leaned back in his chair. It whirred and rolled backwards then a bit 
forwards. Pacing?

"Once upon a time, an offer like that would have really bugged me, but  I 
owe you my life, Buck.  And I want to thank you again for that money you 
gave my sister.  She bought me this chair." 

The mechanical marvel buzzed and rolled quickly, too quickly, right up to 
Lucas's desk. There was a slit in the leather around Drey's lips. You 
could see the trace of a smile.  "You've got a deal, Buck." 

Lucas flexed his ring hand. "If you're thinking about Selena Coombs, 
she's a little. . .preoccupied these days.  I recommend you give her a," 
sly grin,  "*wide* berth."

"That woman is bad news.  Cursed.  Look what happens to the people 
around her. Even Miss Madison was her replacement at the school, from 
what I understand.  Don't you worry, I won't let her take me in a second 
time."

"Good to hear."  Stands up and opens the door for Drey. 
 
"Oh, and Buck, your wheelchair access to this building. . .sucks.  You 
might want to look into it."

Buck nodded, indulgently,  "I'll do that."

Drey rolled his nearly silent way out. The big chrome wheels almost 
clipping the toes of Buck's cowboy boots. The whirring didn't stop. Lucas 
looked back at his desk. A huge purple and green beetle was clamping its 
jaws open and closed. He slammed his hand on top of it. The metal wings 
were hard and sharp. Clockwork.


ACT ONE

"You sure you don't want any bacon?"

Caleb looked up from his cornflakes ready to say no, but Miz Holt--he 
kept forgetting it was Miz Crower now --was looking at Matt, worry all 
over her face.

Doctor Crower moved his eggs from one corner of the plate, to another, 
and back again. "I'm fine, Loris."

They taken to eating in the kitchen whenever the hubbub from the 
communal table got too much. This was one of those times. Rose was a 
little too interested in Caleb's genealogy for everybody's taste.

"You OK, Doctor Matt?"

"I'm fine, Caleb. You OK? Everything all right in school? And. . ." 
Matt's voice trailed off.

"School's just fine, especially since Miz Coombs came back. Seems like 
old times." The boy smiled broadly. Two hesitant smiles were reflected 
back at him.

"See your. . the Sheriff much?" Loris ventured.

"I seen him yesterday, chewing somebody out on Main Street. We didn't 
talk or nothin."

"I have the afternoon off," Matt said. "If you're not doing anything 
after school, if you're coming back here. . uh. . ."

"Why wouldn't I be coming back here?"

"No reason. . I could, uh, teach you that baseball swing. Knocks it out 
of the ballpark everytime." Loris rolled her eyes to the ceiling and 
stifled a smile.

"Long as we don't break a window this time." Caleb agreed.

"Promise." Matt crossed his heart, checked his watch and stood up, his 
breakfast rearranged but not eaten. "I'm late for rounds."

"See ya after school." Caleb smiled.

Matt turned around and suddenly hugged the boy tight. "I. . .I'm glad 
you're here, Caleb." He said in a rush.

"I'm glad I'm here too, Doctor Matt." The boy replied, his voice bright, 
his eyebrows crinkled up in worry. 

***
"Floyd?"  

The deputy jumped.  Lucas was right next to him.  It had been a while 
since that had happened.  "Yeah, Lucas."

"Do we have handicap access to this building?"

Floyd looked puzzled.  "Well, sure, Lucas, we have to by law.  It's in 
back, the door and ramp by the dumpster."

"I never noticed."

"When we put it in, you said it didn't matter if it was code, nobody 
would check the Sheriff's Dept."  Floyd scratched his head.  "Something 
wrong, Lucas?"  

 "Do I look like somethin's bugging me, Floyd?  I'm on a roll." Lucas 
flipped the front door back and forth a couple of times. "Opens easy 
enough for me."

Ben walked through the door Lucas was tinkering with. "Morning Sheriff." 

"Morning Benji." Lucas registered his deputy's usual wince and glanced at 
Floyd. "Get us a couple of bear claws and an eclair, would you?"

"I already ate breakfast, thank you, Lucas." Ben muttered sitting down at 
his paper strewn desk.

"Just do it, Floyd." 

The minute they were alone, Lucas leaned over his chief deputy's desk and 
poked through the tickets and such. 

"I'll get to them, Lucas."

"No hurry, I figure you're pretty tired these days, burning the candle at 
both ends."

"I'm fine." Ben kept his head down waiting for incoming.

"You want some coffee? Floyd almost got this mechanical marvel to work 
this morning."

Ben nodded half-hearted as his boss went back to pour him a cup.

 "Speaking of marvels AND ends, too, for that matter. Did she come back 
alive all the way or are there bits and pieces still on the slab? Is it 
like a mermaid, did you get the good parts or the bad parts?"

"Lucas!" 

"It's a scientific question, Benji. I'd be real suspicious of cold hands 
and cold feet. They might drop off. Sudden like. Don't let her chew you 
or nothing, that's how zombies' spread."

"Goddamn it!" Ben spilled his gourmet coffee all over the desk, paperwork 
and all.

Floyd came through the door with a box of pastries. 

"Have a sweet roll, Ben." Lucas grinned, "Sugar's good for a shock. And 
watch those hickies."

****
"I wish you didn't have to go."

Merly packed her few dresses in Ben's spare suitcase. Selena handed her 
the white one. 

"You want to keep that?" Merly said.

"White has never been my color. Except once." Selena sighed.

"I don't much like it anymore either." Merly rolled it into a little ball 
and stuck it in.

"What if you don't find a place?"

"I've got three listings to check out after school, I've got to take one 
of them."

"This is because Buck showed up last night after dinner? Isn't it?"

"No, Selena, well, not completely." Merly had run into the spare room 
and hid the minute the sheriff had walked through the door, like he 
owned it. Maybe he did, she thought.

"I can tell him not to come over." Selena offered. "Really! He'll 
listen." It started with the straight face Selena just couldn't maintain, 
then Merly started giggling. They both ended up laughing so hard they 
rolled on the bed. Selena holding her stomach for protection.

"I think he's got a vested interest in you." Merly smiled, glancing at 
her friend's middle.

"Maybe he does and maybe he doesn't."

"Anyway." Merly got up and glanced over her pathetically few possessions. 
They all fit in one little bag, that wasn't even hers. "It's not just  
*your* men, I might . . well. . .need some privacy of my own."

"You *are* grown up, aren't you? I'm going to miss you, Merlyn Anne. 
Lord, that is a sentence I never expected to be saying and meaning."

"I never thought I'd want you to mean it."

"What am I going to do without you when this thing decides to come on out 
of me. I may look brave but I am so scared."

"I have faith you'll come through."  She smiled, warmly.  "This baby is a 
blessing."

"There are some who would say she was a curse."

Merlyn took her friend's hand.  "What do they know?"  She gave it a 
little squeeze.  "It's a small town, Selena. You'll call me and I'll run 
over here and help you. One survivor to another."

"The town may be small, but it's deadly. You keep your head on your 
shoulders this time."

***
Lucas typed up the request for information about Drey's medical 
condition. Underlining "Include ALL psychological workups." Rolled it 
into the fax machine and switched Send. Nothing happened. He looked 
at it hard, a good sound Buck look. Nothing. 

Gave it a little shove, nothing.

"Floyd! I need some help here."

Nothing.

"Ben!!"

Even more nothing. Buck squinted at the recalcitrant fax and pointed his 
ring finger at it the way Merly used to. The machine just sat there.

"Hell and Damnation!"

The front door clicked behind him. Buck whirled around to see Cecil 
Parkins walking up the street shaking his head. 

"Hell with him." Lucas adjusted his vest and walked carefully and calmly 
back to his office. His door slammed loud enough to wake the dead.

***
The man in the leather hat and coat and mask, rolled almost silently down 
the halls of Trinity's Primary school. Rose peeked out of the Little 
Girls room-- she had a pass-- and gasped. Drey whirled around.

"Do you know where the School Counselor is?"

Rose pointed silently to the North Wing. Drey rolled off. His chair 
occasionally squeaking on the linoleum. She was never going to go into 
Miss Muir's office ever again. The Leather Man might get her.

***

Merly heard the bumping first. It was probably pipes. Or a shy student. 
You didn't want to sneak up on them, let them take their own time coming 
to you. She hoped it was Caleb. He'd waved a few times but they hadn't 
talked.

"Access Laws!" The muttered phrase was way too deep for any 
grade-schooler. Merly got up and opened the door. Ignoring the 
strangeness of her visitor, she helped the man maneuver his chair through 
the tight opening.

"I'm sorry, my room is so inadequate. It's just a temporary office. Can I 
help you, sir?"

Lt. Drey bottled up his long and well-thought out complaint against the 
barriers to handicapped mobility. This young woman wasn't afraid of him! 
It gave him pause. She was very well-spoken too.

"I was told you had the personnel file on Victoria Madison." he said 
gruffly, and then added, "I'm investigating the circumstances surrounding 
her death."

"Oh." Merly looked around. So many papers, she was swallowed up in 
papers. In her last life she could barely print her name. Her literacy as 
Lyn was a blessing but her handwriting was rudimentary. "I should have it 
somewhere. I have to refer to it when I talk to the children. Here it 
is." Dog-eared, with some of the papers smudged.

Drey riffled through it quickly. His gloved hands tearing one of the 
papers. Merly offered him some Scotch tape. "Vital statistics, Social 
Security, References. This is good. So," He glanced at Miss Muir. 
"What did you think of this woman?"

"I never. . .met her. I'm . . .new in Trinity."

Such a shy, delicate woman. She seemed out of another time, when the 
female sex was refined and set apart from the brutishness of man. "I'll 
need copies. For my investigations, you understand." 

"I'll do it. The copier is just up the hall." Merly didn't think she 
could get him in and out of her office again. That chair was heavy.

While he was waiting for the counselor to return, Drey glanced at her 
desk. The round, carefully formed letters of her penmanship made him 
think of his own long lost past, the hand of a child, the heart of a 
child.

Merly dashed back with the copies. She noticed the moisture on the man's 
face, well, mask. He must be suffering under there, poor thing. "Is there 
anything else I can do for you, sir."

"You can pardon my manners. My name's Drey, that's with an 'e.' Lt. Drey, 
with the State Police. Though much reduced in official status now, I'm 
afraid." He turned his head away. There was a crack in his voice.

"My name's Lyn Muir, but then, I guess you know that." She turned her 
desk lamp off. The room darkened.

"I know it's not easy to look at me."

"No. . I. . I thought you might be light sensitive." Her smile as she 
looked at him without flinching touched his heart.

"I have. . .Scars."

"Oh, so do I." She pushed her long bangs back to show him. Her tortoise 
shell spectacles slid down her nose.  The bullet that brought her life 
had creased its way from her hairline to just above her right eyebrow. 
The most serious scarification was right about in the middle, right near 
her third eye. "I'm sure it's nothing compared to your suffering . . .but 
I do understand just a bit about not being like so-called normal people."

Drey reached out for her hand impulsively. Hit his gear switch. The chair 
started up, spinning him backwards.

"What did I do??"

"It's nothing, nothing." Drey got the chair pointed in approximately the 
right direction. And battered his way out the door. "It's. . . a . . 
.glitch."

***
"So the Leather Man's machine creaked and moaned as he lurched down 
the hall toward poor Miss Muir." Rose whispered over Caleb's shoulder. "I 
expect her body's in a million pieces by now." 

Caleb shrugged, Rose was impossible.

"He was wearing a mask, just like that Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

"That's an R-rated movie." Caleb shot back.

"Boone's seen it."

"Miss Russell, would you finish passing out the forms." Selena's voice 
was like a gentle needle. "I believe Caleb Temple has already received 
his."

***
Lt. Drey rolled his silent chair, nearly silent, through the halls. 
Musing on the compassion of Miss Muir, an unexpected pleasure in the 
corrupted swamp that was Trinity. He twitched as the wheels squealed 
on the linoleum again. 

Switching to a lower gear he passed a classroom, the door open to the 
hall. A woman was writing on the blackboard. The familiar curve of her 
back stunned him. Selena Coombs, the most beautiful creature in the 
swamp. He felt stirrings he had rigorously ignored for two years. She 
turned languorously, the curve of her arm, her breast, her OH MY GOD! 

Eight months of baby belly overwhelmed Drey. His chair lurched, slipped 
into reverse and crashed into the hall bulletin board.

Rose slammed Caleb's back. "He's back. And he brought his chainsaw."

Selena went over to check the noise in the hall. Nothing and nobody 
there. She closed the classroom door. Pointing at her blackboard message. 
'Father And Son Pancake Breakfast." 

"Now who is planning on going tomorrow morning?"


ACT TWO

After looking at two vermin ridden studios, Merly was surprised to see 
the last place on her list was a duplex. Flat on the ground with a kind 
of pseudo porch loaded with dead plants. It looked relatively spacious, 
surely she couldn't afford this? The front door was open. She peeked in. 
Dim dark rooms. Clicked at the light. No electricity. Drey rolled out of 
the back room. 

"Miss Muir."

"Lieutenant."

"Do you live here?"

"I don't think anybody does. I was hoping to rent it, but. . ."

"This is Miss Madison's former abode."

"Oh." The dark empty walls seemed to crowd in on her. There were a few 
sticks of furniture. A couch and a chair. Danish Modern. Classic and 
clean--once.

"Does it frighten you? The woman was a kidnapper, potential murderess."

Merly went over to the window and pulled the thick white drapes open 
letting some afternoon sun flood in. The shadows were just dust. One good 
cleaning would make everything sparkle.

"No, it doesn't frighten me one bit. It's a pretty apartment."

"You don't believe in Ghosts, Miss Muir?"

"I don't believe in being afraid of them." Merly's smile was infectious.

"Oh, I'm so glad to hear that." A high scratchy voice called out from the 
front door. "I can get the lease agreement to you tomorrow if you want. 
Such a lovely couple." The man was about four feet tall and bald as an 
egg. Glasses bigger than his nose were tied around the back of his head. 
He kept checking them to make sure they didn't fall off. He jumped when 
he got close enough to Drey to notice there was no face visible.

"It's just me, Mr. Drabble, Lyn Muir, all by my lonesome." Merly 
explained. "And I'm not sure I can afford a lease. I'm on a limited 
income."

"There's furniture in every room at no extra cost." He took a wide berth 
around the chrome chair. "A refrigerator, nobody has a refrigerator. 
Well, she couldn't take it with her, could she?"

"Were there any papers?" Drey asked.

"The sheriff's office took all of those, what there were, mostly grading 
stuff from that school of hers." Drabble scuttled into the hall. "We even 
left the bed in here and the dresser. We couldn't sell it because of the 
health laws. But then she didn't die in it, did she, she died in the 
street." 

Merly was giggling at the landlord, holding her hand over her mouth not 
to offend. He misunderstood.

"Oh, now I've done it. I run on and on and then people run out and I'll 
never rent either side ever again." He burst into tears and flopped down 
on the couch. Dust rose in the air.

'There, there, I've not run away yet."

"Miss Muir is made of sterner stuff." Drey said, knocking the little 
landlord in the knees with his chair.

"You think you might take it?" Drabble whimpered.

"I've only got  $800 dollars. I'm sure it isn't enough for all this."

"I can vouch for Miss Muir's character." Drey leaned forward fiercely.  
Eyes burning behind the mask.

Drabble moaned a little and asked to see the money. Merly pulled it out, 
all in tens and twenties.

"I'll take it. If you can clean it up from this state, I'll forego first 
and last and any cleaning deposit. The Quick Mart locksmiths are closed 
by now. Can I get you the keys tomorrow?"

Merly gasped. Looked around once more to reassure herself that there 
really weren't any ghosts, and nodded. "You got a deal." She winced at 
the words.

****
Lucas eased himself back into his leather chair and its cool comfort.  A 
deep breath to clear his mind.  Then he let it fill with delicate pale 
perfection, blonde hair, blue eyes, cold treacherous heart.  He closed 
his eyes and reached out with the aid of the circle of metal around his 
finger. 

 He saw her home. What secrets had she hidden there, what plots had she 
planned?  But this wasn't a jump into the past, but a slide in the 
present.  Drey, his chair close up to a woman.  Merlyn!  She sat on the 
couch, so that she waseye-to-eye with the masked man.  Lucas sucked in 
his breath.  

He took something out of his pocket, Merlyn bowed her head close to his, 
while Drey fastened something in her hair.  His gloved hand trembled as 
he did so.  Damn, if that wasn't lust in the man's eyes.  Lucas grinned.  
Trust Merlyn Temple to attract a shell of a man.  Wouldn't be the first 
time.  He let himself move closer.  The clip in her hair was in the shape 
of a shiny, blue beetle.  Drey's beetlemania was as amusing as his phobia 
had been a few years back.  

Lucas sighed, as entertaining as this game of peekaboo was, he had work 
to do. Again, he opened his mind to images of Vicki Madison.  He sought 
some knowledge of her, of what she had been.  He found Caleb sitting on 
his bed. That was OK.  A peek at his son could be useful, too.  He peered 
over Caleb's shoulder at the sheet of paper the boy was studying.  A 
picture by his own hand, of his sister in her ghostly form, the white 
dress standing out against the blood red background.  Merlyn, again!  Why 
couldn't he focus on the right woman?  

 The ring was fighting him, and he was tiring out. 

"I need a vacation,"  he said to no one in particular.

***
Caleb was on the Boarding House porch swinging his bat, practicing those 
angles for home runs and pop-up flies that Doctor Matt taught him. He saw 
the Crown Vic pull up noiselessly out of the corner of his eye. Another 
darn life lesson, he guessed.

He watched his father amble up the walk, give a glare at the angel on the 
stoop. He always did that when he didn't think anyone was looking.

"Hi." Pull the bat up to the sky for a pop-up.

"Hi." Buck watched the boy's form. "That's a Yankee game, you know."

"I know.  They're good at it."

"Completely unreliable sport. Too many people on the team. We oughta 
go hunting sometime."

"Miz Holt don't approve of guns."

"Why am I not surprised?" Buck flopped into the swing and patted the 
seat. Caleb put the bat down and sat  ready for some long story so 
twisted you needed a bloodhound to follow it. "Picked out what you're 
gonna wear yet?"

"To whut?"

"The Pancake Breakfast.  It's tomorrow morning. And you're not wearing 
that striped shirt to an affair like that. We could maybe go down to 
Carlton's, pick you out a nice outfit. . . I thought I'd wear black. You 
got anything black? Might look good on you."

"I like this shirt."

"It's OK for a kid, I guess. But there's gonna be some important people 
at that breakfast. . ."

"Doctor Matt likes this shirt. Which is a good thing, cause he's the one 
going with me for pancakes."

"Fine, I'll give you a gift certificate to the Tasty Hutte, they serve 
pancakes every morning. You and I are going to THIS breakfast."

"I already invited Doctor Matt. And he said yes."

"Uninvite him. It's a Father and Son breakfast."

"So?"

"So, I'm your father. I'm going with you."

"You weren't in a hurry to let anybody know you were my daddy before."

"Well they do now. Everybody does. Live with it."

"I do! I hear it day in and day out. When you gonna move in with your 
dad? When's your dad gonna buy you this or that? Like you were gonna get 
me a car or something."

"You want a car?"

Caleb let out a huge sigh and slumped in the corner of the swing. Lucas 
just looked at him. What the hell was wrong now?

"Doctor Matt feels all left out and that's not right." The boy's voice 
was low but determined.

"He'll do just fine, he's a grown man, son, he'll get used to it." 
Caleb's face was immobile, stubborn. Big sigh, from Lucas this time. He 
knew that set to the jaw. It was hereditary. "So when ARE you gonna move 
in with me?"

"This is my house. You bought it for me. I reckon I'll live in my own 
house."

"Oh shoot . . .!" The swing started banging.

"It IS mine, isn't it or do you want it back?"

"Hell, I don't want it back. You are the most ornery. .  . !"

"Doctor Matt's done a lot for me and he at least deserves one measly 
little breakfast."

"Oh sure, he's done sooo much for you. Give him the damn breakfast! Hell, 
fry up the griddle cakes yourself." Lucas's face was awfully big when he 
stuck it in your face like that. "Give him the whole damn house if you 
want to!" He flung himself up and kicked at the white painted walls. 

Loris opened the screen door to check out what's going on. "Is there a 
problem, Sheriff?"

"Butt out, Miz Crower!! This is not your business." Lucas yelled at her. 
Caleb shook his head and waved her off. Loris had never heard the Sheriff 
so. . .so. . .wild.

"She's just worried about me."

"Worry and fret is a full-time occupation of the Crower's! He's Worry and 
She's Fret. It's all they're good for. I've done a few things for you 
myself!" He was hanging on the swing, glaring down at his son.

Caleb's eyebrows twisted, he tilted his head up to stare right back. "I 
know what you done."

Lucas flinched. He pushed the swing back viciously, it banged against the 
porch railings. 

"Be like that then! I don't care!" 

He took the porch steps two at a time storming off to his car. Not a 
glance back at his son hanging on to the turbulent swing.

"You saved my life, Daddy." the boy whispered.

***
Merlyn felt swallowed up by the cavernous inside of the Natural History 
Museum.  Darkness enveloped her as she stepped farther from the bright 
morning sunshine seen through the front doors.  A large exhibit to her 
right held the remains of an alligator, skeleton separated from its skin. 
 She looked around, bemused and amazed.  A few more steps in and she 
heard voices up ahead.  

"We've made a few changes to our exhibits since your last tour, 
Lieutenant. There've been expansions throughout the entomological 
section.  I know that's a favorite of yours.  An all-consuming field of 
study."

"You've always been a never ending fount of information, Mrs. 
Constantine. Your tireless efforts in behalf of the museum are an 
inspiration."

Merly rounded a corner.  She could hear the voices clearly now, but 
couldn't locate them in the maze of exhibits.  She was quite sure she 
knew the man's.

"It's a great pleasure to have you back to enjoy the fruits of science," 
continued the mild, distracted, feminine voice.

Merly took a chance and scooted between two exhibits and found herself 
next to Lt. Drey's wheelchair.  Startled, he knocked into the switch and 
the chair spun in a circle.  "Miss Muir!"  he exclaimed, when he had 
himself  righted.  

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Lieutenant."  Merly reached out and touched his 
shoulder. His gloved hand met hers briefly, before she removed it.  

Merly turned to the woman.  "Mrs. Constantine?  My name is Lyn Muir.  
I'm from the school.  Principal Elliot said his secretary contacted you this 
morning about a field trip.  I'm here to arrange one."

"Yes.  The school seems quite rushed this year.  Is it the season, do you 
suppose?  Spring has such a strong effect on mammals."

"Oh, no.  Principal Elliot thought that a field trip would be a nice 
distraction for the children after the recent. . .events."  Merly glanced 
at the pin Mrs. Constantine was wearing.  An Egyptian scarab.

"Oh, my, yes, I recall, now.  Wasn't that your idea, Lt. Drey?"

Drey's eyes were inscrutable behind his mask.  "I think I made the 
suggestion yesterday when I was at the school.  It'll give the children 
something else to think about than the kidnapping of one of their 
classmates."

"That was very thoughtful of you, Lieutenant."  Merly smiled, warmly.  

Her eyes steadily on Drey, Mrs. Constantine spoke,  "Friday is the only 
day I have free, for at least a month."

"Oh, but we were thinking sometime next week.  Friday gives us only three 
days to prepare.  I don't know that we can find enough chaperones that 
soon."

Drey rolled forward, between Merly and the curator.  "I'm sure it can be 
arranged.  Mrs. Constantine's calendar is always full with special 
events.  At such short notice, I don't think the school can be picky."

Merly sighed,  "I suppose you're right."

"Have you been to the museum before? The children will get so much out 
of it, it's such a. . .fascinating place."  He gravitated to the skeleton of 
a bobcat, stroking the slick smooth surfaces.  

"I've never been here. I've never even known all this knowledge was right 
here for the asking."

"Then let me give you a tour, Miss Muir."  His leathered hand brushed 
against her leg.

"Please, Lyn."

"All right then, Lyn."  His voice softened, becoming melodious in the 
dark. His chair whirred quietly, and she was reminded of a sound she had 
heard before. She couldn't quite place it, but it made her think of 
crickets.

"I'd like that.  I've just moved here, I lived someplace even more 
isolated than this.  I'm not very sophisticated, Lieutenant."

"Simplicity is a virtue. . .Lyn."  He swung away from a large exhibit.  
Merly was curious about the woodland animals, but hurried to follow him.  


ACT THREE

"So, do you like it?"  Merlyn had pulled the curtains wide open so that 
light spilled into the nearly bare living room of the duplex.

Ben took a deep breath.  "Shoot, we should have talked it over, Merly."

 "I'll pay you back when I get my first paycheck"  She wasn't looking at 
him, she was gathering up the cleaning supplies she had been using when 
he had arrived.

"You don't have to pay me back," he said, exasperation entering his 
voice."It's not that. I want to do things for you. I want to take care of 
you."

She stopped what she was doing. "I'm not helpless."

"I don't mean that. I. . .you always took care of me, now, I can. . ."

"Be the man,"  she finished.  He looked wounded.  There were so many 
reasons she loved him, but now she was wondering why he loved her.

"Be your man."  He passed a hand through his hair.  "This place is 
creepy."

"It's just a place, Ben.  It's mine now, It's not hers anymore."

They heard a soft rustling sound from the other side of the duplex.  He 
raised his eyebrows.

"Mice, Ben, just mice,"  she laughed.

He smiled then, his face lighting up.  "You're not afraid?"  It wasn't 
really a question.

"Not any more, not with you here."  She closed the gap between them, 
settling her head against his chest.  It was only a little lie, told for 
his sake.  

"You're the bravest person I know."  He stroked her hair, grateful for 
the lie.

She leaned back a little, to look up into his face.  A clue, then, to why 
he loved her.  "I'm not so brave."  

She looked so lovely, and so very young.  He kissed her forehead, the 
scar that he treasured for everything that it meant.  Her hands slid up 
his arms to his shoulders and her body pressed more tightly against his.  
She smelled like roses in the summer.  He pulled away from her.  "Well, 
then, you've done a lot to clean this place up.  I guess it's time to 
unpack.  I brought a box of dishes and pans and stuff for the kitchen.  
It's in my car."

"We'll get it later," she covered her disappointment.  "I've got just the 
one bag."  She picked it up from the floor and headed for the bedroom.  
He found himself following her.

She began taking out her clothes, folding some and putting them in the 
drawers, holding up the dresses against her body for him to see.  He 
didn't really unpack anything, he just handed her the hangers and watched 
her.  She giggled and twirled, and looked not much older than Caleb.  
Sweet Jesus, why had he never seen this side of her before?  He was 
robbing the cradle.

There was some cloth peeking out from the bag, the last item.  He pulled 
it out.  A long white cotton sundress.  She took it from him, a little 
embarrassed.  "I don't think I dare wear white."

"You're going to wear it someday, you know, in a ceremony." 

Her eyes widened, and when they looked at him, they did so directly.  
Nothing shy or childlike about it.  The look of a woman in love, with all 
it's promise.  "That sounds lovely."

He caught his breath. 

***
Caleb's tower bedroom was golden with the light flowing from mother to 
son. They were sitting on the bed talking over the day before sleep.

"We went to the Pancake breakfast this mornin', Momma. They canceled 
three classes for it. Not math though."

"Course not."

"Doctor Matt ate three plates of pancakes. I never seen him eat so much 
and laugh so much. He was happy, Momma."

"You made him happy, dear." She kissed her son's stubby hair. 

"Daddy isn't. He's mad at me again. He's always mad at me. I'm never 
good enough for him."

"Your father cares too much. It comes out in aggravation."

"It comes out in him yelling at me. Wanting to buy me a car! I'm twelve 
years old!"

So's Lucas, Judith thought. "You are SO much alike. And so different, 
too. There's Matt in you, and Loris and Merly. A lot of people go to
make up Caleb Temple."

"I need to talk to you about Merly, Momma."

Uh, oh. "I'm listening."

"I ain't talked none to her since she come alive. There's been stuff I 
needed to settle out first." He sat up on the bed and stared eye on eye 
to his Momma. This was serious. "Now . . .I'm glad she's alive."

"So am I."

"But how did she get there, that's the problem?" Caleb sighed deeply. 
"She took a baby's life a long time ago and she came alive then too. And 
the baby nearly didn't make it."

"I know about that, Caleb."

"Was that a sin, Mamma?"

"The baby didn't die, Caleb."

"One baby did." The boy went to his upper drawer and got out a box with 
all his precious papers in it, a drawing of his sister as she used to be, 
the quit claim to his house, and another piece of paper from a long time 
ago. A list of deaths from April 1975. Lucas Buck 19 years old, dead. 
Baby Boy Vantage two minutes old dead. Lucas Buck alive. All three 
events were circled with a big question mark attached in the margin.

"Baby Boy. He didn't even have a name. That WAS a sin, wasn't it?"

"Taking any life for any purpose, especially a selfish purpose, isn't 
right."

"And this was a baby. Two minutes old. Not big enough to hurt nobody." 
Like Vicki was trying to hurt me, he thought.

"Yes, it was."

"My daddy wanted to live real bad.  You think that's unforgivable?"

"What do you think, Caleb?"

Her son rubbed his hand over his face, was a time when all of this would 
have been simple. Lucas Buck was bad and Merly was good. It wasn't 
simple anymore. "I think that sometimes you have to do things that might 
be wrong, real wrong, but you got your reasons. They might not always 
be very good reasons but they're all you got."

"You know what compassion is, Caleb?"

"Maybe, Miz Holt thinks so. You put it in soup." Caleb's eyes looked 
mischievous.

 Judith laughed. "Well, compassion-- in or out of soup-- can always find 
a way to accept a person you care about without accepting every single 
thing they do."

"Sheriff Buck is my daddy. And Merly is my sister. And I can't help 
it. . ."

"You forgive family."

"That's right, Momma." Caleb smiled as if everything troublesome fell 
into place all at once. "You forgive family."

Caleb curled up in his mother's arms and fell asleep, completely at 
peace. Her eyes were closed, tears forcing their way out of them.

***
"Thank you for showing me how to make dinner.  I didn't know cooking 
could be so much fun."  Merlyn put the last dish in the dishwasher.

"It was just spaghetti and sauce from a jar."  

"I guess it's who you're cooking with then, that makes the difference."

Ben looked up into her face, gone suddenly shy.  "I guess."  There was 
electricity in the air.  That moment when they both realized that 
everything was taken care of and they had a wide stretch of evening 
together.  "Merlyn. . ." 

She stepped closer to him, a soft smile on her lips.  "I thought about 
it, so many times.  What it would be like to live a normal life, do 
normal things. With you."

He wrapped his arms around her, and sighed.  "I dreamed about it."

"We have a future together, I've never had a future before."

He didn't want to ever let her go.  He was full of his love for her, of 
the grace she had brought him.  "And I never thought I'd want a future 
again, it looked so empty."

It was so natural for her to lift her head, for him to lower his, for 
their lips to meet.  His hands moved up her back to cup her face.  The 
kiss lasted a short forever.  

She left the kiss with a smile illuminating her from within.  "Is this 
what it feels like?  To want another person?  To desire them so 
completely?"

"You really want me, Merlyn?"

" With every part of me.  Will you be my lover, Ben?"

He couldn't reply, not with words.  Only with his lips and his hands, and 
every ounce of everything he was, and could be, with her by his side.

***
He was at home in his own mansion, in his own room, fire blazing in the 
hearth. He adjusted his hair in the 18th century pier glass, crackled 
with silver from all the Bucks who had admired themselves in it. There 
was something to admire, centuries of dominance in every aspect of life 
and love and death. He closed his eyes and let go, as he had told Gail 
Emory to let go, years ago, her hand clutched in his. There was a fire 
then, too. 

He saw the darkness. Good, now where is the thing that threatens me and 
mine? Ben's face caught the light. Oh, that's not likely. His deputy 
crushed Merly's lips in his. Their bare arms entangled. Quite another 
kind of darkness. Ben was driving the car tonight. Breaking speed limits 
from this angle. Buck chuckled a little, but this was wasting the power 
and the vision. 

He closed his eyes again and sank in the darkness. From a distance he 
heard sounds, the accelerations of passion, from close the grinding of 
teeth, a sense, a smell even, of bitterness and rage-- this is it, Buck 
closed in on the bitter scent-- then, 'Merly' and then 'I love you Ben.'

"Hell."

Lucas squeezed his eyes as tight as they would go. Opened up the full 
power of his ring to his darkest core. An endless succession of images of 
Merly appeared, all in white dresses running off into infinity.

"Nooooo!" Buck smashed his ring against the mantle.  "You don't belong to 
her anymore." Fortunately the stone was tough. He looked up at his 
reflection in the glass. The whites showing around his eyes, the veins 
popping into a v on his forehead. "Why are you doing this to me!"

"Shhhhhh. .  ." He felt the soft weight against his back.

 "I didn't invite you here, Judith." His voice was harsh, but he didn't 
move away. 

"Do you want me to leave? I will." He couldn't see her at all, only the 
faint trace of being held. It was almost like talking to himself.

"Whatever." He looked at his face again, the lines taut and haggard. 
Wanted to break the glass. "I am NOT scared."

"I know."

He could feel her arms around him. He didn't even try to look at her. He 
looked at the mirror instead. His pulse started slowing down. "You 
believe any lie I tell you?"

"You're terrified."

"It's that bitch of yours' fault." His voice was gentler than the words 
he chose.

"She was trapped. She did what she could. And that image of Merlyn isn't 
true anymore. There's no more white dress to be afraid of."

"Damn right, I would have beat her next time." He ran his fingers through 
his hair. 

"I know."

"I couldn't live like Drey, a bogeyman with no bite." Close look at the 
corner of his jaw where tension lurked.

"You're not like Lt. Drey." Judith sighed, "And you don't really need 
that ring to be Lucas Buck. You never did."

"What do I need, Judith. . . Judith?" 

She was gone and the fear was back.

****
Ben fussed with his new coffee maker. Floyd had been bending the custom 
gold filter. You had to have it just right or some of the grounds got 
through. Course, Turkish coffee had the grounds in it. He wondered if 
Merly had ever had Turkish coffee. Maybe they could try it sometime. They 
had the whole rest of their lives to try . . . anything. 

There were birds singing outside. He didn't think he'd ever heard 
birdsong in the Sheriff's office before. Maybe everything was different 
now. Everything could finally be all right for a change.

"This is such a surprising day for me, Ben." Healy jumped a little to 
hear Lucas echo his own thoughts.

"It is for me, too, Lucas."

"I'll bet." Buck sighed and smiled benignly, listening to the birds.  
"Who'd have thought Merlyn Temple would be a squealer?" 

"You bastard!" Ben clenched up his fists and hid them under his desk. 
Lucas flashed his ring hand like it was a fourteen carat diamond he was 
casually showing off. Tight little crooked smile on his face.

"Audio as well as Video. Stereophonic sound."

"Merly told me what that ring'll do. Why should I be shocked that you 
are low-class enough to use it as a. . .a. . ."

"The word's voyeur, Ben. It's French."

"It's obscene."

"Different strokes. Actually your technique was pretty boring, but if you 
ever need any tips. . ."

"I swear to god. . ."

"What? . .I'm sure He'd love to hear any conversation at all from you, 
Ben. Or from Merly either. She ain't a angel anymore. As we both know all 
too well. Flesh and blood can be sweet -- it can also be . . .damaged." 
He snapped a pencil in half. "Makes ya think, doesn't it?" 

Ben sat stunned into silence. No, he hadn't thought, but he was thinking 
now. Lucas sauntered back into his office. The words emerged, quietly, 
solemnly. "I'd kill you."

****
As the day twisted to it's end, Selena Coombs opened her front door, 
flicking on the yellow bug-light on the porch. It cast a lot of shadows, 
not all of them very pleasant. 

She had a dried flower wreath to hang. An old hobby she had taken up 
again in the later months of her pregnancy. Not that anyone was sending 
her flowers these days, she had to get them from the florist, herself. 
She could recall a time when she had too many flowers to know what to do 
with them.  

Selena shivered in the chilly damp air. The night was empty and eerie. It 
was too quiet. She was really missing Merlyn tonight.  She wasn't truly 
alone, she told herself, but Diana couldn't talk back.  The wreath was a 
fragrant one that the she and Merlyn had worked on together.  Lots of 
roses. 
 
Selena stepped back to look at her work, and heard a noise by her car. A 
rustle in the leaves. She turned, peering into the dusk.  "Anyone there?"

No answer.  

Then she saw a dark shape crawling across the hood of her bright yellow 
car. A baby bird? It was too small for any kitten. 

She stepped down from the porch and traveled half of the walkway before 
she identified it as a large beetle. Huge iridescent wings flapped at 
her. "EEEUUWW!"  She jumped back, scrambling up the steps and back inside 
her house.

Drey rolled a little forward from behind the shelter of the car.  He 
should have guessed the slut wouldn't appreciate his gift.  In general, 
women were a faithless lot. 

***
Lucas pulled up to the abandoned warehouse in Goat Town. A crumbling 
wreck next to the railroad tracks. Hell of a place to meet Drey. He got 
out of the Buckmobile and watched the moonrise. What he could see of it. 
There was fog rolling in. A raggedy-ass cow was mooing like it lost its 
best friend.

"Over here." The voice hissed from one of the dark holding areas. Lucas 
pushed the stray hereford aside and climbed up the steep ramp. Drey was 
in the shadows. Well, his chair was. It was hard to see anything in the 
dark recesses, still stinking of raw tobacco. But the metal wheels caught 
what moonlight there was.

"That ramp must have been a challenge for your chair."

"It has a very powerful motor." Drey's gloved hand patted the gear box. 
"There was a serious train accident here last fall. That was never fully 
investigated either."

"I think I might have heard something about that. Terrible tragedy." 
Lucas leaned against a crate criss-crossed with spider webs. "So, what 
was so earthshakingly important that you called me out to this locale?"

Drey shoved his gear switch and rolled slowly forward. His gloved hand 
smashed the spiders into pulp. "There are no Madisons in Massachusetts."

"I find that hard to believe."

"None that have produced a Victoria of the proper age and education." 
Leather fingers picked all the webs apart. "False Social Security number, 
false birth certificate, false references. You don't check your school 
staff very carefully, do you, Buck?"

"I'll have to issue a formal reprimand.  Well, you found a whole lot of 
nothing real quick, Drey."

"It's easy to use a fax machine." Lt. Drey shook the spider dust off his 
fingers and rolled swiftly down the ramp and off into the foggy night.

"Yeah, right." Buck glanced around.  The Leather man would make an 
efficient exterminator. All the spiders were dead.

***
The Fulton County Library was closing its doors as Merly walked down 
the steps.

"Bye, bye, Lyn. Don't study too hard."

Merly waved shyly at Lee Falk. He was taking extension classes at the 
adult school too. Selena virtually promised her a GED but she wanted to 
make sure she actually knew the subjects. There might be a chance of 
going on to college. She liked counseling. But there was so much else. 
She could do anything now, be a doctor, or a teacher, or. . . a mother. 
Ben was waiting up for her at the duplex. Thank heavens Benji liked his 
new babysitter. Maybe he had a crush on her. 

She smiled and looked up at the moon. It had disappeared in the low fog. 
There was a soft heavenly glow to the whole sky like magic. It looked 
like a start of a journey to a strange new world.

Lt. Drey rolled out of the darkness. His hat dashing like a cavalier, his 
chair swift like some wizard's wonderful device.

"Miss Muir. You are a vision in the moonlight."

"Thank you, Lt. Drey." Merly smiled at him. "But there isn't any 
moonlight."

"Then you have replaced it. Haven't you noticed how nightime sharpens and 
heightens each sensation?"

" I hadn't quite thought of it that way, but I suppose you're right. I 
always liked to make believe in the dark."

"In the dark, it's easy to pretend that the truth is what it ought to 
be." His voice cracked with sudden gloom.

"Is there something wrong?"

"When I came to this town, I had hoped to find a friend, someone to 
understand me, someone who wasn't afraid to open up their mind to this . 
. .life of mine. But my deformity has eaten me alive, I see that now. 
There's no place for me with you."

"That's not true, Lt." Merly reached out her hand and covered his gloved 
fingers. "I'm your friend."

"Dare I trust you?"

"You can always trust me, Lt. Drey. It's what's inside that really 
counts." Merly leaned over and kissed his slick leather mask. She walked 
down the street occasionally looking back to wave shyly.

"Slowly. . . gently. . . night unfurls it's splendor."

Drey looked up at the shrouded heavens and the fog bank broke to let the 
moon and the stars peek through.

"Grasp it. . .sense it. . . tremulous and tender."

From somewhere deep within his mind an orchestra poured forth its rich 
strains and Drey answered in a rich baritone.

"You alone can make my song take flight
help me make . . . the Music . . Of. . . The. . . Night!"


ACT FOUR

"Ahhh!"  Floyd jumped back as hot water came spurting out of the coffee 
machine.  He looked around the room.  "I don't know what I did, honest.  
I'm sure I pushed the right buttons. I pushed them all!"

Lucas shouldered him aside and pulled out the plug.  The stream of water 
ceased.  "Coffee, Floyd!  That's all you had to do."

"I was trying, Lucas, but this new-fangled machine's got more 
instructions than my VCR. Can't you fix it?"

Lucas shoved a roll of paper towels into Floyd's hands.  "I don't know 
what you expect of me, but I can't do everything all by myself."

"But you're Lucas Buck, Lucas!!"

"Oh shut up, Floyd!"

****
Buck had hoped for a little peace and quiet inside his office. He found 
his Granny instead. Why did everybody have to pop up sudden like? It was 
disconcerting.

Lucilla stroked the deep gouge in the center of her right palm. "I think 
I'm going to have it tattooed. Maybe run a snake around it so I'll always 
remember."

Lucas sat back in his office chair and stared at his Grandmother 
dispassionately. "Why don't you tattoo hate and love on alternate 
knuckles, next." Cauldrons and backwoods voodoo didn't impress him 
much.

"This little war wound of mine not only saved that precious little boy of 
yours. It also got the ring back on your finger and a little stability 
back in this town."

"Stability!" Buck snapped. Bouncing out of his chair like a spring loaded 
knife. "You call this stability. This damn. . "

"What's wrong now?" Lucy's eyes went right through him.

He stopped in mid sentence. Letting calm run back over his face like a 
mask. "Nothin is wrong, nothing I can't handle slick and easy. All by 
myself." 

Lucas sat down indolently and held up his hand so the ring would shine in 
the dim light. It looked kinda grey and milky for a moment. Only long 
years of control stopped him from gasping. He reached for that tiny star 
his son had won in spelling. Rubbed it like a worry bead.

When he could speak again Buck's voice was way too calm.  "What in the 
hell was it, Lucilla?"

"Well, a little combination of Appalachian herbcraft and good ol 
common... '

"I ain't talking about you. What WAS that thing that took my son?"

"Don't you know? I thought it'd come clear by now."

He shook his head, his eyes blank as the vision he'd been trying to 
catch. "Vanished. Just like Caleb did. Off the face of the earth."

"Nevermind, you killed her anyway."

He remembered the slim perfect body lying in the street. A broken ankle 
was the only thing the coroner could find wrong with Victoria Madison. 
"Well, she's dead."

"You did kill her, didn't you?"

"Somebody did."

"Hell, the boy truly is your son, let him know he did a good job. Tell 
him his Granny's mighty proud."

"Caleb could have given her a bit of a shove. But she didn't die from the 
fall."

"Interesting." Lucilla walked behind Buck's chair and looked out the 
window without a view. "Maybe she was already dead, maybe she never was 
alive. Ain't like that never happened before--- in this town."

Buck thought about Marie and all her gruesome Christmas blessings. How 
her little throat had crumbled like dry leaves. "Maybe. . . And then 
again. . .if it happened twice. . ."

"Time to start watching our backs?"

"When did that time ever stop?" His hand had sort of a tremor in it. He 
clenched it in a hard tight fist to stop the shaking.

***
The children from Selena's class poured into the museum like the Mongol 
hordes. She'd divided them up into four neatly arranged groups but it was 
every pre-teen for themselves once they saw the skeletons. Mrs. 
Constantine stood by the town model in her vaguely bemused state, 
crooning meaningless greetings as each boy and girl flowed past her. 
Waving a bit like a flight attendant.

"They're a little excited." Merly explained trying to hold back an 
anxious boy who was in rapture when he saw the antique weapons case.

"Pirates!!" He squealed.

"Oh, yes, we have a little of everything. Natural History is so 
expansive." Mrs. Constantine smiled broadly and steered Merly over to the 
graphs, none of the children would ever bother them there. "I'm so 
surprised to see you here, Miss Muir."

"There weren't enough teachers available for chaperones, so I was 
drafted." She glanced back to Selena sitting on the bench by the office, 
she'd taken off her pumps and was rubbing her feet.

"Miss Coombs always looks so lovely and well-turned out, even in her 
condition."

"She does," Merly admitted, "but I sure wish Nikes went with her pretty 
dresses."

"I'll see if she would like a cup of tea. I believe the children are down 
by the prehistoric exhibit."

"Oh yes, I'll make sure they don't break anything." 

Merly left Selena to Mrs. Constantine's solicitations and tried to 
remember where the prehistoric exhibit was. The lights as always were 
evocative but not very illuminating for children-watching. She passed by 
a bear and an eagle fighting each other in frozen taxidermy. The contest 
seemed ill matched.

Merly craned her head to look at the pattern of feathers under the 
eagle's wings. 

A hand snaked out of the darkness and fastened tight around her mouth.

****
It was a very narrow room made even more narrow by the gigantic box in 
the middle that looked like a coffin. Merlyn Temple was seated in a 
straight back chair, her arms tied tightly behind her back. Her feet 
bound to the legs of the chair. 

A tall man was pacing in the little aisle between her and that casket 
with the little window on the front of it. She could see shadows behind 
the window and hear frantic scuttling sounds.

"I tried to believe you." Drey's voice was harsh and raspy. "I wanted to 
believe you, but I couldn't. I never wanted it to come to this."

"You can walk!"

"Of course I can walk. Did I ever say I couldn't?"

Merly didn't know what to say to that.

"Do you know what a flensing chamber is, Miss Muir? Do you know what 
it can do to a man?" He slowly removed his mask. "This is what it did to 
me!"

He looked very handsome under the mask. There were maybe one or two 
scratches on his face around the eyes but those might have been crow's 
feet. Merly did need better glasses. 

There certainly weren't any scars. On the outside.

"But I still feel the same way about you, Lt." Merly tried to cross her 
fingers, she absolutely hated to lie. "Remember, it's what's inside that 
really matters."

"No, Lyn, it's WHO'S inside that really matters. Who's inside your 
bedroom? Who's inside your heart? It's not me!"

Drey pulled on the counterweight and opened the flensing chamber. Several 
of the big black beetles were on the lid. He scooped up a handful and 
showed them to Merly. "They pick carcasses clean. I mean just look at 
me!" Now that he was close, she could see a faint scar running across one 
cheek. It was not as prominent as the one on her forehead.

Drey held out a raw steak and put the beetles on it. They ate at that 
fast enough. He dropped the steak into the chamber. She could hear the 
thrashing. "That's just to whet their appetite." He tied the counter 
weight to Merly's chair so it would stay open.

"They may be full once they've eaten the steak, they may not crawl out on 
the surface of the wood, up the covered chain and down the 
counterbalance. They may not smell you where your sitting, shivering. 
They may not crawl down the rope to your tender flesh."

"Why are you doing this. I never hurt you."

"You should have said that last night. Merly! When you were crying out 
how much you loved Ben! I heard every word on the other side of the wall. 
There are no mice in your duplex, there's only me."

"Help me! Somebody!" Merly screamed. She knew he was crazy now. 
Listening to a man and woman in their intimate moments was just insane. 
Drey tied a cloth around her mouth to stop her screams.

"All women are betrayers. All women."

Merly moaned and pulled at her bonds.

"Perhaps you never meant to hurt me. I'd like to think that." Drey peeled 
off his glove and touched her cheek with his smooth hand. Not a scar on 
it. " But you did. You left your mark just like Selena did." He stopped 
by the door to look at her once last time as he put his mask back on. "I 
think you should be alone now. In the solace of the dark."

He turned out the lights.

"Listen to THEM, in the dark, their sound is the music of the night."

The rustling of the beetles increased in frenzy. 

"They're always hungry, you hope and hope they'll be full, but they're 
always hungry, Merly."

***
Lucas was cruising down the tree-lined streets of Trinity. Thinking about 
what he could get past the guardian of the ring. Merly didn't know a damn 
thing about Vicki so that was out. But she'd lived awhile with Selena. 
Maybe he could pry loose some tangible proof of his fatherhood of that 
baby whale Selena was toting around.

He closed his eyes briefly. The car drove on smoothly. Avoiding every 
pothole and rut.

There was Selena, at the local museum. Creepy place. She looked bored but 
luscious, tottering around on those high heels of hers. Oops, a 
wheelchair popped out of the shadows and scared her. "Careful, darling, 
you can get ankle burn from that idiot."

He opened his eyes and turned a corner. Closed them again. This was more 
like old times.

Drey's leather face in close-up. The flensing chamber opening up. "What 
is this, nostalgia week?" And then Merly tied to a chair screaming. "Oh, 
Hell!"

His car rammed into a Dodge Dart. Scraped the paint. On the Dart.

***
Selena rounded up all of the class from their invasion of the museum's 
skeletons. Josh had to be pulled off the stuffed bear before he knocked 
the eagle down. Where the hell had Merly gone to? One woman couldn't 
handle all these hooligans.

Mrs. Constantine had an excellent suggestion. "Blood sugar."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I think a little snack might calm down your charges."

"It might at that." Selena glanced at Rose who was telling horror stories 
to Boone who was about to start punching Caleb. Heaven only knew what a 
Leather Man was. "We didn't bring any box lunches, I'm afraid."

"There's plenty of macaroni and cheese in the staff cafeteria. We could 
feed them all."

"Perfect!" Selena sighed. And then her stomach gave out it's opinion of 
macaroni and cheese. It was agin it. "Could I perhaps follow you later? 
I'm not feeling too. . . hungry right now."

"I totally understand." Mrs. Constantine funneled the children into the 
staff elevator in the rear of the building. The cafeteria was in the 
basement.

Selena wandered off down another aisle. "Lyn?" She cried. Nobody was 
around. "Oh hell, Merly, are you there?"

Footsteps.

She followed them right back to the pirate exhibit. Twenty pieces of gold 
and a suspiciously shiny cutlass had been discovered offshore, reputed to 
be part of Black Beard's horde. 

"Bet his real name was Buck." They looked fake, maybe chocolate 
underneath. She could still eat chocolate. Well, she wasn't going to 
break the glass to get it.

Turning to leave, a man in a wheelchair rolled in front of her path. 
Leather coat and hat and mask. So this was the Leather man.

"Selena Coombs, I have come for you!"

She knew that voice. She knocked the pirate case over, pieces of gold 
everywhere, and in the chaos outflanked Drey. Running down yet another 
hall, looking for somebody to help her and knowing they were all in the 
basement shoveling macaroni and cheese in their faces, Selena swore the 
very next day she was gonna take Merly's advice and buy some sneakers.

She could hear the whirring sound of Drey's chair right behind her. A 
wheel bumped her ankle and he grabbed for her arm. She barely sidestepped 
a mannequin of a Confederate officer and Drey went down in a tangle of 
removable legs and military gear. The hollow of a staircase was right in 
front of her. She dashed down it, listing to one side, half-carrying her 
belly, feeling her high heels catching on every step.

"To Hell with this." She hung on to the railing and kicked each shoe off. 
Didn't even care where they landed. A fall down the stairs was just too 
much karma for Selena Coombs to conjure up in her eighth month of 
pregnancy.

Barefooted at the bottom of the stairs, Selena stopped for a minute to 
catch her breath. "Oh my God!"
***
In the dark room with the beetles, Merly heard the sound of footsteps and 
a woman's voice. She could grunt but not loud enough for anyone to hear 
her.
But if she tipped her head way back the gag started to loosen. Maybe she 
could shake it loose all the way.
***
A door was half open and Selena walked in. Dark as a tomb. She flipped 
the light switch on. There was a desk and some papers. A vase of dried up 
decaying flowers. And a further door into the depths of the building. 
"Jesus." This was the entrance to the flensing chamber. Nothing could get 
her to go any further that way.

Dried up flowers???

She looked at the bouquet again. Pinned carefully to the wall were the 
pictures that madman Ossie had kept as a shrine to her two years ago. 
Stamped across each picture was "Official Evidence."  There was a message 
with the flowers.

She opened the envelope as if it might bite her. Inside was a glittering 
stickpin of a Stag Head beetle and a small card. The writing was very 
very neat. "You can't pin this on Ossie."

A leather hand knocked the flowers off the table. "Do you like my little 
present, Miss Coombs?" 

Selena grabbed the pin and drove it through Drey's palm.

****
The macaroni and cheese was OK but there was no catsup. Caleb kept 
scanning the small dining room while Rose wove more stories about the 
Leather Man.

"Where's Miss Coombs?"

"She's indisposed." Rose pronounced. "Women in a delicate condition get 
that way all the time."

"Delicate condition?"

"She's throwing up."

"M. . .our Counselor isn't in any delicate condition. She's gone too."

Rose just shrugged and blew bubbles in her milk.

"I think I better find out where they went." The boy glanced around 
anxiously.

"Maybe the Leather man got em."

"Maybe he did."

"Caleb Buck, looking out for the town. Your daddy deputize you or 
somethin?"

"Shut up Rose."

 He slipped away to find them.  
***
In the dark, the sound of the Beetles rustling against each other was all 
she could hear. The rope that held the chamber open shivered. Were they 
crawling down? Their comical tottering bodies loping towards her and 
those gnashing jaws that never stop, never stop. Merly's gag was off but 
she was too frightened to scream.

"Havin' fun. . .in the dark?"

Lucas's voice oozed out of the blackness. Now she could give up hope.

A flashlight flicked on, illuminating Buck's face from below. A tight 
parsimonious smile on his lips. "Hi dollface." His shiny flickknife 
clicked open, gleaming in the flashlight.

"You sonofabitch."

"Now that's no way to greet your hero." He cut her bonds free with a 
casual twist of the wrist. Looking down on her upturned face, inches 
away. The cover of the flensing box slammed shut. "It's customary for the 
fair maiden to kiss her rescuer."

"I'm not in the mood."

"Not a maiden, either." He flicked a solitary beetle off her shoulder as 
she inched away.

"Why'd you save me?"

Lucas shrugged, a tiny smile on his face, an unreadable look in his dark 
eyes. "You're family, now."

***
Caleb couldn't use the staff elevator. That took a key, so he was running 
along the basement halls in the dark looking for another way up to the 
ground floor. 

There were echoes. Footsteps on metal. Over his head. Sounded like 
stairs. And somebody breathing real hard.  He wasn't Rose and he wasn't 
afraid of any Leather Man. On the other hand. A door was half ajar with 
the lights on and he ducked in it for a moment. There were dead flowers 
spilt on the floor, stinking up the room. And pictures on the wall.

"Somebody's sure interested in Miz Coombs."

The door behind him opened with a bang and his sister was in the room, 
looking very disheveled.

"Caleb!"

"Merly! I was scared to death you was in trouble."

"I was, but. . Lucas . . . helped me."

"He did?" 

Merly nodded. "Saved me actually."

Caleb looked very serious for a moment. "Let's get one thing straight. 
You're my sister. And I don't care what you had to do to get alive again. 
I'm just glad you are, cause I love you."

"I love you too, Caleb. So much." They hugged the breath out of each 
other. It felt so good, so almighty real. "I gotta get you out of this 
place. There's a dangerous man running loose."

"I was just about to say the same thing to you.  We gotta find Miz Coombs 
first, though."

"Is Selena missing?" Merly suddenly saw the same pictures that had caught 
Caleb's eye. "Oh no."

***
Selena Coombs was at the top of the stairs. Her bare feet were killing 
her. Her heart was pumping a mile a minute and she would have given 20 
gold pieces for a shot of vodka-- straight. 

The museum looked like a mystic maze. Confederate officers staring at her 
in plastic rigor mortis, skulls everywhere. She never realized how morbid 
science could be. Only good thing about the nightmare was Drey was 
nowhere in sight. 

One of the banners hanging from the ceiling describing the relative size 
of tideland mammals moved in no wind at all. She listened for the sound 
of wheels turning, that horrible whirr of slick machinery. She heard a 
step. A hand rested on her shoulder and she screamed.

"Somebody please, please, please, please help me!"

"That's a lot of pleas, Selena, I surrender, what do you want?" Lucas put 
his arms around her, which was a damn good thing as she swayed and almost 
fainted. "Whoa, don't pass out on me. You're more than a handful these 
days, you know."

"Don't joke, Lucas. My baby is jumping like she's ready to come out."

"She sure is. When'd you give her the pogo stick?" Selena punched him. 
"Hold on, let's find you some nice chair to sit down in. A nice Big 
chair. Maybe a couch. You're gonna be all right."

"You sure about that, Buck?" The slight mechanical whirring of Drey's 
wheelchair startled them both. His big chrome machine scraped the side of 
the talking woodlands exhibit. The one with a big out of order sign over 
the loud speaker. Something gold glinted by his thigh.

"Jesus Christ, it's him." Selena screamed. "I swear to God, I'll kill you 
if you touch me again."

"What did he do to you?" Lucas wondered, he'd seen Merly's peril clear as
day, but Selena had just looked a little flustered.

"Don't you know?" Selena said. "What's WRONG with you? He's been trying 
to kill me all afternoon."

"Oh." Buck's face was mildly blank.

"That woman is the Whore of Babylon! She the one who made me as I am." He 
showed them his unblemished face. "This!" Ripped open his shirt to show a 
few slight scars on his chest. "Look at the horror of this!"

"Keep your pants on." Buck smiled. "There are kids in the building."

"Children, Oh the children! I'LL NEVER have children!!! And it's all your 
fault, Selena Coombs!" Drey flashed the cutlass from the pirate exhibit. 
It looked real enough now.

"Aren't you going to DO anything!" Selena hissed in Buck's ear.

"What do you want me to do, keelhaul him?" Buck twisted his ring around, 
hoping the damn thing would straighten up and fly right. "I'll admit, he 
is buggin me."

Footsteps rang out behind and to the side of them. Mrs. Constantine came 
around the huge photograph of trees and grasses in a dither.

"Mr. Drey, this is a respectable museum that has been in the stewardship 
of my family for generations. You cannot behave in this fashion in a hall 
of science."

"Science is a slaughterhouse!" He swung the cutlass at the curator.

Lucas stared quizzically at the loudspeaker with it's Out Of Order sign. 

There was a whistle and a winding moan. "Predators in the wild can be 
identified. . ." The sound burst out of the speakers fit to shatter 
eardrums. Three lights clicked on and swept over the exhibit.

Drey bellowed and put his chair into drastic reverse. It rammed the black 
and white display at an alarming speed.  The native grasslands began to 
totter and then slowly invert.  

"My talking forest. . ." Mrs. Constantine put up her arms to halt the 
descent. The guy wires snapped like gunfire and the wood shrieked with 
the stress.  " . . . the native inhabitants have greatly changed. . ."

So did Drey. He leapt up out of the chair like a man on fire and flailed 
his way forward, sword flashing as he chopped skeletal remains and 
instructive banners in his wake.

Merly came out of the shadows, reached for Selena and pulled her to 
safety. They both squatted under a huge skeleton of a Carolina Panther, 
now extinct. Pressed up against Selena's belly, Merlyn felt the kick of 
life.  Innocence in the midst of chaos.

The pressboard photograph of the tidewater woodland smashed down with all 
its attendant lighting and sound equipment on Mrs. Constantine's 
shoulders.

"Oh my." were her last words.

Lt. Drey turned for a second to hear them and Caleb swung the rifle from 
the Confederate mannequin like a baseball bat hitting a pop up fly. Drey 
keeled over, his sword clattered to the ground.

The boy reached down and felt for the Leather man's pulse. He looked back 
at Merly anxiously watching his effortless violence. "It's OK. He's 
alive."

"Too bad this one ain't." 

Lucas bent over Mrs. Constantine's dead body where it lay half buried in 
wires and crumpled wood. Her eyes were still staring at him with their 
air of mild but totally false concern, glazing slowly dry. Buck looked at 
the crumpled wheelchair with a frown.

He tapped at the stone in his ring with a fingernail and gave his hand a 
good shake.  "Cheap Korean ring," he muttered under his breath. 

Caleb went to stand by Merly and Selena.  Merly held out her hand to him. 
He nodded, taking both their hands.  Lucas walked over and tousled his 
hair.

"You OK, son?"

"Yeah,"  He looked up with a smile, and then back at the two women.  "I'm 
OK."

FADE TO BLACK
ROLL CREDITS TO THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBER    



DISCLAIMER:  Any story/episode appearing that states it is part of Virtual 
AG-Season Three is based upon the Television show, "American Gothic", 
which is the property of Shaun Cassidy, Renaissance Productions, and CBS 
(apparently).  The characters added to support this concept, and the storylines, 
are the property of the writers acknowledged as such.  PLEASE, DON'T SUE 
US!!