Virtual American Gothic - Third Season Episode Six The Vantage Point By Queribus and Gayle Dawson NOT TO BE ARCHIVED TO A WEB PAGE WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S PRIOR CONSENT. ********************************************** "Ta- Tonk, Ta-Tonk-tonk-tonk" Ben gave the nail a final whack with his hammer then he holstered it in his back pocket. "I hate my job, sometimes.." He muttered. Glancing one last time at the 48 hours to Vacate notice he'd just posted on the Boarding House Door. It was huge ugly neon yellow-- anybody could see it for blocks. He was reminded why the Klan wore hoods and snuck about in the shadows. He just never thought he feel like one of them. Some things were just too shameful to see the light of day. A light hand fell on his shoulder. Ben whirled around to see Loris. He couldn't meet her eye. "I'm glad it was you, Ben. Bad news always comes softer from a friend." "I'm so sorry, Miss Holt." "Don't count us out yet." ****** Matt and Loris weren't going down without a fight. They'd been to the Trinity Savings and Loan, and found out that the mortgage on the Boarding House was truly held by one Lucas Buck. Bad enough having to pay that man rent, but to know he had the power to turn them out on the street whenever the mood struck, was not making the newlyweds happy. Knowledge is power, was Matt's philosophy on this subject. And the two of them now found themselves elbow deep in property law books and land deeds at the hall of records. Loris knew a little of the house's history. Andrew Vantage built it 150 years ago. The property was once the burial ground to the indigenous people of the area. Andrew got the land cheap, after it had been wangled from the tribal chief in an exchange that was weighted in the state's favour with baubles and conveniences from the New England shops. About 30 years ago, the tribe attempted to have the property restored to it's historical owners and use. The case was still being tied up in the Carolina higher courts. And now, that same property was at question again. The rights of the meek versus the rights of the powerful. ************************* "...do you really know, who your doin'" Selena's sleep was disturbed by memories, memories of Lucas in his weaker moments. What the hell did he mean by that? There's gotta be something in there that she can use against him..something... ************************ "Says here, the Vantage lineage was a strong family of the community until about 25-30 years ago, around the time there was an opportunity to lay claim to property" "Well, I bought it 10 years ago from the bank Matt, it had stood empty for some time before that." Matt contemplated that bit of knowledge. "The bank got it from someone Loris, had to be a Vantage, no other names appear in these property records, other than yours and.." Matt stopped as his finger lighted on the Buck name that had recently been installed in the books. Loris felt the prickling of a presence at her back, she glanced behind her to the window, where the shutters moved back and forth, strangely, it wasn't a windy a day. Someone, something was there to encourage her search...she plowed on through the dusty details. Judith's light shimmered in the hall of records, her form barely materializing near the seated newlyweds. She was ringing her hands and frantically looking around for something she could use to get their attention. Smiling, her eyes lighted on the death certificates scroll. Judith closed her eyes and concentrated on that book, her abilities manifesting in a mini earthquake. The floor rumbled below Matt and Loris, they glanced at each other, then grasped the edge of the table, the furniture began to leap and bounce in their vicinity, shelves shuddering, books rattling...then suddenly a huge THUD! and all was fine. Judith reached down and delicately turned the page of the book to the correct spot. The effort of touch shivered through her almost like pain. Brushing his hair back from his forehead, Matt asked "Are you okay?" his wife smiled and nodded. He cupped her cheek with his hand. They glanced behind them and noted the open book, recalling the sensation of a presence, Loris approached the item, a smile forming as she read the title "Death Certificates, Trinity SC. I think we have our answers, Matt!" She proceeded to carry the book back to their table. Judith smiled as she faded away, now to pay a visit to the man in her life... ******** The new teacher was juggling her car keys, briefcase and her brown bag lunch as she tried to re open her car to retrieve her purse. "Allow me Miss Vikki, " Lucas easily removed the keys from her hand and did the deed. Swinging the keys on the ring, he grinned at her. "Why Thank You Sheriff Buck, I was in quite a predicament." Buck's response was interrupted by his son, " Hey Miss...I mean Ms. Madison, I see ya met my..." Caleb hesitated over the word. Buck looked at his son strangely. Reaching over to Caleb, he held his shoulder then turned to Victoria. "His mentor. Caleb and I have been very close in the past, Vikki. Almost like family." The look Buck shot Caleb was smiling and bright and it hurt like an arrow jabbing into your chest. She held her composure as one would with years of manners' training. Attempts to push away a none existent misplaced hair were the only indication of discomfort. "Well, how nice Caleb. If you two gentlemen will excuse me, I should be getting on to class." she pointedly looked toward the school, then back at the grinning Sheriff. Caleb puzzled a glance between the two adults, putting two and two together, he wasn't surprised by Buck's next move. "Ms. Madison, if you're free for dinner this evening, I'd be honored to make your acquaintance a bit more...personal." Caleb frowned now, "Ms. Madison, I was wondering if you could help me with those new equations after school today..." "I'd be glad to." was her response, and she retrieved her purse then headed into class. The "Buck" men smiled with victory, then simultaneously they considered her response. Turning to one another they both stopped grinning. "Which one of us, ya figure, is the winner, Caleb?" ************************************** "I've been where you are Merly" "Your wrong MerlyAnn, I want you to live" Merlyn kept replaying those confrontations out on the bridge, the key to his weakness was there, when he was revealing things about himself to her, only she was too angry to see..so righteous. She twisted the ring on her finger, it no longer felt loose, like it conformed to fit the wearer. *********************** Caleb ran up to the front door of the boarding house pulled by that ugly yellow sign. "He did it! He really did it! The bastard!" Rose and her mother were coming out with suitcases and picture frames, loose clothes on hangers that wouldn't fit in anywhere. A pickup truck waited at the curb with a bored teenager tapping the wheel. "I have to stay with Aunt Maggie-- in a garret. There'll probably be rats!" Rose said dumping her load in the back of the truck. Mrs Russell seemed half distracted. "Caleb, honey, if you could talk to the Sheriff, I know I could run the Boarding House at a profit. I've done it before when Loris was away on family business. I just . . .can't face my sister after all these years." "I don't think I got nothing to say to that man." Caleb said grimly. Rose bundled her mother in the truck. "Ain't gonna do no good, Mamma. Half the town knows he don't want nobody to run this place. Etta Mae said he was gonna tear the place down." Her mother burst into tears at the thought. Rose got a lump in her throat herself and rushed at Caleb. He put up his hands to defend himself. The little girl threw her arms around him and hugged him. "Don't forget me, Caleb." **** There hadn't been anybody in the dark too quiet house. So sign of where they had gone either. Caleb walked into the back yard where his cousin had planted a garden years ago. Dead and gone. Like Gail. The sky clouded over from clear winter blue to a gloomy grey. Next to the potting shed a shape emerged. It was mostly shadow, black hair dripping into a black dress. Dark haunted eyes holding more gloom. It was his sister. "Hello, Caleb." Her voice was hollow with a slight echo. She clutched her left hand tightly rubbing something on her finger. "Merly?" "You can see me! I knew I could do it." Her smile was a gash in her face. "I'm back, Caleb, I'm back for you." "What are you going to do to me?" The boy backed nervously. He'd had nightmares of himself dead but he hadn't looked this bad. "I'm going to help you, honey. Did you think I'd let you be thrown out on the street?" "I don't want that kinda help." Caleb said sharply. "What's the matter with you, Merly, you look awful." "It's the ring, I guess." A kinda of green glow surrounded his sister as she twisted the ring a little tighter on her finger. "Awful is a good way to describe it." She laughed and awful was a good way to describe that too. "Well, stop it, Merly. Go back the way you were. I don't like you like this. You're scarin me." "The ring makes me a little different, Caleb. But in a good way. I finally have the power to bring Lucas to justice, I can strike him down, just as he..." "NO! I don't like you this way, and I can't understand what your going on about. It's not right, no matter what he done, you're talking murder." Merlyn Ann Temple watched her brother run up into the empty house and sank back into the shadows out of which she had come. **** The city death certificates indicated to Matt that he needed to dig a little further into the history of the Family Vantage. Taking some time out of his modified duties at the hospital, he snuck down to the infamous basement of the hospital. The records were in boxes and crates, and the further you went into the room that housed them, the older things smelled. "Typical Basement, keep pushing stuff to the back." Matt muttered as his lithe frame danced through the written history of the residents of Trinity. Surprisingly, they did have some order to them, and he was able to locate the summer of about 1975. That's where the Death Certificates scroll held a blip in it. Loris didn't disagree with Matt's pencil and paper rubbings, but she didn't agree either. At some point, some time ago, the name Lucas Buck was listed as D.E.A.D. and he wanted to know more about that. *************************************** Caleb crouched on the stairs, listening for the first time he could imagine, an argument between Loris and Matt. It had something to do with that paper Matt held in his hand. "The books indicate he died. Died Loris!! Now I know they've buried him alive before, but this feels different. And then that Vantage baby dies. For no apparent reason, a healthy pregnancy, then, before the child is all the way out the birth canal , dead! And the time of birth and the time of Lucas' death/not death coincide. How could he do that?" "Now Matt, don't be delving into this stuff. It's best left undone. You hear me?" "Damn it Loris, we can't let him get away with this! Hell, I don't even know how he did it. But I think he murdered that baby, and somehow. Oh what does it matter. Our new landlord is kicking us out in 24 hours." he crumpled the paper and flung it toward the front door. Caleb crept down the stairs, watching Matt's movements lest he be caught outta bed at this hour. He reached forward and grabbed the crumpled ball. Then he hurried up the stairs to his room. He knew how a baby could die so another could live, Merlyn/Hally showed him that dark road. ***** "That was a lovely dinner, sheriff. I suppose we should say Good Night." Victoria Madison's voice was a cool as the evening, but with a hint of chilly invitation in it as well." "I suppose we should." Buck leaned against her door post, wondering how long she would draw this out. "We both have early mornings tomorrow." Her hand reached for the door, touching his sleeve lightly as she did so. "I make my own mornings, Miss Vikki." He watched that wrinkle of annoyance as she looked up into his face, her cheek close to his shoulder. "I make my own evenings, too." "I thought you were a creative man, Mr. . Buck." The teacher slipped her key into the lock but didn't turn it. "Lucas." "Lucas." Her head tilted just a bit as she said her name. Not enough to solicit a kiss, but close enough to an easy passage to one. Very nicely done, Buck thought. He leaned slightly closer, his breath moving the fine strands of hair about her brow, "Are you the artistic type as well, Miss. . .?" "Victoria. I have been known to be." Their lips met as the door opened to receive them. ***** Caleb huddled on his bed. He'd read the document certifying Lucas's death in 1975. Now he was staring at the two pieces of paper he'd found on the floor of the courthouse after Loris and Matt got married. >>I, Lucas Buck relinquish all claim on the property at 842 Peach Avenue to the sole ownership of Caleb Temple<<< Torn and ruined. He smoothed over the papers as if he could put them together. There was a tap at his bedroom door. The boy shoved all the papers under his pillow. Loris appeared in the doorway. She had been crying. "I knew you'd still be up. We can pack your things tomorrow, honey." "Ain't got much to pack. I said goodbye to Rose, this afternoon." "Oh, honey, we tried so hard." In the dark shelter of Loris's arms, Caleb whispered, "You know what you can do with a baby's life? You can use it to stop being dead." "What are you talking about, child?" "My sister did it for a little while, She give it back though before it was too late." "Oh my God, Caleb." Matt appeared behind the door, his eyes intent on what the boy was saying. "Reckon my daddy might have borrowed a life too, maybe forgot to return it, might have had his reasons." "Buck is living on an innocent child's life." He said. " Tell me how he did it, Caleb. There has to be a way to undo this." Caleb scooted away from Dr Matt. "Don't." Loris said. "He took that little child's soul, Caleb, don't you understand?" "Matt, stop this right now!" She pulled her husband away from the frightened boy. "We have him now, Loris." "We don't know what we have. Go to bed. Try to rest, for God's sake." "There's too much to do to rest." Matt insisted. "Too much to think about." Loris pushed Matt out of the room and shut the door. Caleb sat on the bed shivering. If his father had died years ago, his sister would be alive, Gage would be alive and Mamma. . . And he himself would never have been born. **** Victoria Madison wore silk underwear, no surprise. She didn't sweat anymore than Buck did, which was a novelty. Buck dressed in her bedroom. Linen sheets, no ruffles, no lace. Cool as the lady herself standing with a cup of tea in a crisp pale robe. "May I walk you to your car, Sheriff?" "Oh, now it's Sheriff?" He pulled on his boots and stood up to pull her closer, she was just out of reach, smiling. "All things have their right place and their right time, don't you agree? I like to keep my life tidy." She opened the door and indicated his blue car just waiting for him. "I agree I am the man to mess it up." Buck brushed by her, his arm scooping her into his chest so their kiss happened on the porch. "Hope that wasn't indiscreet." "Good night, sheriff." Buck got into the Crown Vic puffed up so far he considered adjusting the steering wheel. As he turned over the engine, he visibly jumped. Judith was seated beside him. "Don't worry, I won't touch you. I know it hurts." "I never felt a thing." He was starting to sweat now and furious with himself over it. "When you get your ring back, it won't hurt anymore." "Why don't you just say Bibbity Bobbetty Boo and get it back for me then." Judith smiled for a minute, that scared Buck more than if she'd pushed him out of the car."I'm working on it. But Merly has to come out from under your darkness in her own time." "Hell, that'll take forever. That bit. . .girl is enjoying ripping up my town." "She just has a few more things to learn, that's all." "Speaking of learning new tricks, were you peeking in on me and Victoria? There were a few moves in there you might appreciate." "Lucas Buck, I was married to Gage Temple and then I was raped by you, I hardly think you can scare me with sex now." "It was worth a try. You look pretty good for a dead woman." "I know." Judith reached out a hand to smooth a hair from Lucas's forehead and vanished into mist before her fingers could touch him. Buck was shaking so hard he almost lost control of the car. He shut his eyes briefly and shook his temper loose. No sense turning into Ben Healy at this stage of the game. He gunned the car, turned down a few streets and pulled into a small driveway bumping the yellow sports car in it just a tad. He was about to reach into his pocket for the key when he remembered those damn locks. "What the hell!" He muttered and kicked the back door in. Sat down at the kitchen table and waited, watching his hands till they were tremor-free. Selena came out of the hall that led to her bedroom. The nightgown she was wearing was sheer batiste with french lace, but it was a grannygown all the same. "You need some better security measures." "I guess I do." Selena had seen Buck look worse. But not without a hole in his head. His face was unfocused by anger or frustration. He looked empty and raw, capable of anything. "If you rape me, I'll probably lose the baby." "You got a problem with that?" He didn't move, just stared at her, through her. Selena sighed and slowly moved towards Buck. "Who do you want to forget this time?" He laid his head against her torso just where her pregnancy was beginning to curve out under her breasts. His arms wrapped around her back pulling her closer. "Don't ask." **** "We have him now! You gave me the ring, Caleb. I have to use it." Merly's face with it's ghastly greenish glow floated in front of Caleb and everytime he tried to run away it turned into Dr Matt. "He took that little child's soul, Caleb. You took that little child's soul." "I didn't, Dr Matt." The boy sat bolt upright in bed. "I didn't mean to be bad." He could see the picture of his new teacher he'd cut out of the newspaper lying next to the bed. She'd believe him. It glowed in the moonlight. The pretty blonde face turned towards him, The comforting body sat on the edge of his bed. He reached out and stroked her face. "I'm still dreaming but at least it's a good dream." "No, son." Judith Temple said. "You're wide awake." **** Lucas Buck twisted and turned on Selena Coombs bed. He never had nightmares before. That damn woman had followed him even here. Didn't she have any shame? Merly twisted the ring tighter on her finger and reached into Buck's dream. She was leaning out of the mirror that ran the whole length of the ceiling over the schoolteacher's bed. Buck opened his eyes and looked at her. "You!" He whispered. Selena turned in her sleep by his side. "Wanta a threesome, dollface?" "They're finding out everything about you. I always knew they would." "You need to get a life and keep it this time. Until then, butt out of mine." "Like you took the Vantage child?" Buck grabbed for the ghostly image. It turned to ooze in his hands. He could feel where the ring had been on those long fingers. Felt good, better than good, like a transfusion of life itself. Selena watched him flex his arms with the new strength. She shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep when he pulled her to him. ****** "You're my mamma, aren't you?" Judith smiled and lit up the whole room. "Are you sorry I was born?" "Now, why would you say that?" "Cause of a lot of things. Cause of my father and what he did to you and to Merly and how maybe he shouldn't have been alive to do any of that." "But then you wouldn't have been alive, and I couldn't bear that. I love you Caleb." "I love you too Mamma. I loved you fore I ever met you just from that little picture in Merly's locket. I wished you were with me to help me and tell me what to do and what was right." "Everything happens for a reason, Caleb. Took me a long time to learn that-- but then, important lessons always take awhile. You don't need me to teach you what's right. You know what's right, you always have. It was you who taught Merly." "She needs a lot of help now cause of what I did to her." "She'll make it through, she won't fall so far she can't climb back. I trust my children to be everything they are and Merly is a child of light. I trust you too, dear, all of you, the light and the darkness both. When you learn to trust yourself everything will be all right and you can be complete. Not half but whole." "That other half is Lucas Buck." "I know." "Do you want me to be like my father? I thought you were good." "You are like your father, Caleb. You are both of us. I love both parts of you. Or did you expect me to split you down the middle, keep half and throw the rest away?" "Everybody else does." Judith reached out her arms and lifted the boy into them. For the first time in his life he was resting in his mamma's lap. "I'm not everybody else." Judith's light winced a little with the weight of the boy on it. But this was part of the reason she had come back. The personal part. "Did you know whole means holy?" Judith murmured in her son's ear. "Nope." "Well, it does. When things get tough and you think you have to tear yourself into bits, just remember I trust you. All of you." "I will." Caleb leaned back against his mothers soft fine hair. "Mamma, how come I can touch you? Cause I never could touch Merly, not until. . ." "I won't be here very long, Caleb. I traded time for touch." "You mean you made a DEAL!" "I guess I did." She leaned over and kissed him. Held him in her arms as he fell asleep. ***** Rita had started her shift early as usual. Busying herself with patient files and self talk, " Complainers first, then those who'll get better or worse." On call rosters for doctors came next, "Now I know he'll leave his beeper off all shift," finally brewing up a fresh pot of coffee. She was sneaking a sip of java when Buck came up behind her. Nearly scalded herself with the spill. "Better be more careful, we don't have a burn unit yet." "I . . .I don't have anything new to tell you, sheriff." "Well, you got time, Rita. Hell, all of five or ten minutes to remember something I can use." "Ben's just an ordinary guy. I don't know what you want." "Neither do I until you tell me so you better come up with something quick. Has he had any weird dreams lately?" "I don't spend the night with your deputy so I wouldn't know." "Not for lack of trying, Rita, we both know that." "He's got a son to take care of. I guess that's why he. ." "What?" "He's got this iron clad rule to get home everynight about 10. And he wants to be there alone. I know Benji's bedtime is nine so it isn't that." "So he throws you out at 10 for a hot date." "I don't know that!" "Well, you do now. And so do I." ***** Loris hung up the phone and thumbed again through her address book. "Doesn't anyone in this town own a working pickup truck?" she muttered. She'd already decided that most of the furniture would be left on the premises. It killed her to leave her mother's piano. But with no place to put it... There was a rap on the door. Loris wiped the tears out of her eyes and opened the front door to see Lucas Buck standing outside the screen. He glanced at her eyes, registered the tears with a twitch of his mouth. "Sheriff, we still have 24 hours." "Oh, I know how to tell time, Loris, known that since I was a kid." Buck leaned over and shoved some U-haul boxes against the door. "I figured you might need some packing equipment. Caleb around?" "He's at school. Do you want to grind your boot into his face too?" "Don't get so dramatic, Loris. It doesn't suit you." The phone rang. "You want to get that, I'll wait." "You needn't." She went for the extension in the hall. Buck settled on the swing and tried to listen, some words got through. "Buck's here. . . .no, trying to bother me, I'm not letting him. . . what did you find? . . . .I'll tell him." Loris unlatched the screen and came out on the porch. "Talking to your husband?" Buck's face was as immobile as ever when he said the words husband, but Loris could feel the animosity wash over her. "Matt would like to speak to you this evening, if it would be convenient." "Not another complaint about faulty taps, or a lightbulb needing replacin'," Lucas sighed. "About two deaths." "Ain't nobody died in Trinity recently. Unless you and the Doc are planning a double suicide, Loris." Lucas looked hopeful. "1975. A baby boy died, last name Vantage." "What the hell does that have to do with me?" "Yours was the second death." "Not again. Am I so quiet and unassuming that people keep thinking I'm dead, when I'm just resting?" "If you don't want to talk about it, I'm sure other people would be glad to hear it." "Hell, I'll drop by for a laugh. I love a good ghost story." "Maybe around 10, after the boy's gone to sleep." "Make it eight thirty. I have a date at 10." ****** Ben typed the same report on ol man Hansen's stolen truck four times before he got it right. The day was a dead loss for him, and yesterday too. Hell, even Merly wasn't talking to him any more, not that he blamed her. But, damn he missed that morning kiss. "Hello, Ben. Doing your Boss's dirty work as usual." Merly stood in the dark hall that led into Lucas's inner office glaring at Healy. "Merly! Somebody could see." "Not unless I let them." She looked at Ben's dumpy body, defeat and failure written all over him. "Why are you so afraid all the time?" "Because it's part of the job, Merly." "Just like betraying your friends." He would never stand up to Buck, she didn't know why she kept trying to find a backbone where it didn't exist. "Loris told me she was glad it was me who posted the notice. Buck threatened to send state troopers. He threatened to lock up the doors." "He just knows how to play you, like a yo yo, up and down." She shuddered in disgust. Ben looked at Merly's black drooping appearance, the cloud of gloom that oozed out of her. He went closer, pushing back everything in him that reminded him of that angel of death that struck down the trainman. The poor girl looked sick. "Honey, are you all right? Cause you don't sound like yourself." Her eyes looked past the cloud of despair that almost obscured her and into Ben's face of concern. "I think I'm changing." She said weakly. "We gotta get that ring off of you. I'll use a hacksaw if I have to, but you can't go on like this." "I don't want the ring gone. It's all I got left." "You got me, don't you?" Buck slammed the front door as he came in, shattering the image of Merly in front of Ben's eyes. "Yeah, I got you Ben, whether I want you or not." He sauntered over to the typewriter. "Can't you fill out a simple form in two hours?" "There been a lot of calls." Ben covered, sitting down at the typewriter and whiting out the errors. "I'll get it done." "You do that and I'll do the rest of what needs doing. You know the name of a good wrecking crew, Deputy?" "No, I don't!" "Guess your demolition happened way long ago, huh, Benji?" Buck sauntered off into the hall that led to his inner office. He paused in front of the door. Opened it carefully. "Trying out the chair to see if it fits?" A light green haze floated across the desk and hid in a corner. "Be like that then." He dusted the chair ostentatiously before sitting in it leaning back his arms flexed behind his head. "May I assume Ben is not performing up to expectations? Bring the bridge down a little lower, way lower and he'll be able to crawl across it." He rested his legs on the desk and received a sharp static shock for his exertions. "Oooh, electrical manifestations. It'll be paper cuts next. I think you better think about the suggestions I offered you last night." "I think you'd better worry about the truth coming out about that Vantage child." "One more ghost story about the creepy Buck family. Helps me more than hurts me. But I'm serious about you. Why don't you borrow a life and get a real man? Before it's too late. That ring will destroy you if you don't have a body to hold the power." ***** Matt was insistent on Caleb going up to his room. "You don't need to hear this." "You mean you're going to say bad things about my father, aren't you Doctor Matt?" "I'm going to do anything it takes to save our home, Caleb." "Anything covers an awful lot, sir." "Yes." Matt ran his hand over his forehead. This was going to be a terrible confrontation. He didn't want the boy to have to see it. "Yes, it does." "Caleb." Loris said. "Go upstairs. It'll be all right." The boy shook his head. Things hadn't been all right for awhile now. But he climbed the stairs slowly. From his window in the tower room he watched the sheriff's car pull up. Buck glanced up at his son's window before he walked up on the porch. For a minute their eyes met in the darkness. Or they seemed to. Buck stared up for longer than usual trying to pick out a shape behind the window. Nothing. He walked to the front door and smiled as Matt let him in. "Lovely evening for it, isn't it Harvard?" Caleb sat in his darkened room and tried to think about who could help him. Merly, no, she was Hell bent on destroying Buck. And why not, the boy wondered, wasn't he bad enough to want to get rid of? "He's part of me. Which means I'm part of him too. So why does he want to hurt me so bad?" "Are you sure you're the only one who's hurt." Judith's voice was clear as sunshine. Caleb turned around but she didn't appear. No, he wasn't sure. That was the problem. He couldn't hear a thing going on downstairs. Not even after he opened his bedroom door. Not even after standing in the hall. The voices only came clear when he had climbed halfway down the stairs, peering through the banisters. Matt was waving some papers in Lucas's face. "You can't get away from the times. Vantage boy dead at 7:30 am, one minute after you're pronounced dead." "Nothing but bad doctors on that night. Can't say Fulton Co. General isn't consistent about poor health care." "Look at the doctor's notes. That baby boy goes from healthy to stone cold dead in one minute? And you go from mortally wounded, heart stopped, completely stopped to just fine, blood pressure fine, everything fine-- in the same minute? It's medically impossible." "Well, maybe Leonard Nimoy would be interested in it. Hell, call up the X-Files, Harvard, but don't bother me with this crap." "You snuffed out that baby's life, just so you could go on living." "And I did all this after I was dead? You got a lot of faith in me, Harvard, I just hope I can live up to it." "Sheriff." Loris interjected. "I know it might sound fantastic to others but not to people here in Trinity. Most people have seen what you can do. What you have done. But they kid themselves it's benign. If they were to know this, if they were even to suspect that you heedlessly killed an innocent child, you would start to lose the trust you need to control this place." "You think so, Loris?" "I know it. I know you need the good will of the people of Trinity now, more than ever." She glanced at his ringless hand. Caleb gasped. Was that what Merly meant about having the power to destroy Buck? The sheriff rubbed his hand pensively. He'd heard the small intake of air from the stairs. He took the papers from Crower's hand and got up in an attitude of defeat. "Things have been different lately." He walked over to the archway to the hall, glanced quickly up the stairs straight into his son's eyes. "Sometimes in the middle of the night, you see things you don't expect to see. Things that change everything. For the worse." He ripped the papers in half and turned around slowly a big smile on his face. "But this sure as hell ain't it. Publish and be damned, Mr and Mrs Crower. Make me badder and scarier in Trinity, that'll hurt me a lot." "Plenty of people will believe this." Matt said retrieving the documents. "Sure they will, and they'll jump on my bandwagon even quicker just in case they want their kids to stay alive." Buck's eyes burned all the way to the back of Matt's skull. "People will do just about anything to protect their children, Crower." Lucas glanced at his watch. "Whoaa, look at the time. I gotta previous engagement as I believe I told your dear wife. I'll show myself out. What'dya think would go best on this property after it's leveled? A video outlet or a Tastee freeze?" He slammed the door behind him. ***** Ben had gone out to pick up some breakfast stuff from the all night grocery, leaving Merly to watch over Benji. She watched the boy sleep, sure he couldn't see her even if he did awake. Ben Jr slept slack jawed and looselimbed, just like his father. On other nights it had looked endearing, innocent. Now, it was more evidence of the rampant stupidity in the Healy family. The boy looked like a moron lawling about. Merly shook her head. He was just a kid, sleeping in a comfortable position. The house wasn't cramped and crowded with evidence of a failed and useless life. It was just an untidy batchelor's house. Maybe. It was getting harder to keep things straight. She heard a car pull up and looked out hoping it was Ben. The Crown Vic purred into position in front of the house. Merly gripped her ring--- HER ring-- and ran down the stairs. She felt tugs on her arms and on her soul but she ignored them. Buck was leaning against the car waiting for her. A concentration on the circlet round her finger solidified her body. "I won't let you hurt the people I love." "So do something, Wonder Woman." "I will." Lucas shrugged. "I'm waiting. I don't have to tear the Boarding House down till tomorrow." "I'll kill you first." "Take your best shot." Merly poured all her concentration into the ring on her finger. She felt it drain the anger out of her body and concentrate it in pure rage-- if purity could be used to describe such a thing. It wasn't hot as she'd always thought rage should be-- not hot as hell but cold as ice. Somewhere around her she could feel her mother warning her to stop, that something precious was being threatened-- could it be her soul? She didn't know if she believed in souls anymore. Or life or death, because what was this thing she was that was neither life nor death? "There are inbetweens, dear, that could go either way. But if you go towards death you will never be able to go towards life." "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Merly muttered and threw the cold in her arm towards Lucas. It didn't quite leave her body, bounced like a ball on an elastic. "You talking to yourself now, Merly? You know, if you really want to use that little piece of jewelry you oughta ask the man who knows how." Buck reached out his hand towards the ring and the very thought of giving it up enraged Merly so much she let go of the cold power and felt it stream out of her. Buck's hand fell like a cold stone, all life and feeling frozen away. Merly aimed her next blow for his heart. Buck could see the deadly power coming towards him like the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. The chill of it was falling over his body when Judith's golden form materialized in front of him. The icy rage hit her full on, draining the color and the light out of her form. She cried out and grabbed Buck's paralyzed hand, the last bit of warmth in her flowed into him and revived his cold fingers. Judith looked between Merly and Buck. "I don't want you to die." Buck held onto the chilling form of Judith without thinking. He pulled her into the car as if it were a refuge. She was fading in front of his eyes. Turning grey and cold. He held her close until she was lost completely to touch and sight. Merly slumped into a pool of shadow and regret at the base of the entrance to Ben's building. ***** The ancestor masks were all carefully packed and wrapped. All her library was crated up-- she'd had to use some of Lucas's boxes after all. Loris was looking at the doll in the rocker in the "good" parlor, the one no one sat in. Matt was pacing in the living room. "The Charleston Examiner is a good paper. They would listen to us. Maybe a column, maybe send a reporter." "They sent us one reporter, Matt, she shot herself." "A male reporter, then. Damn it, Loris, don't bring up Gail." Caleb sat on the top step watching the people he was beginning to think of as his parents. Not his momma and daddy, he knew who they were now-- talked to both of them, held both of THEM by the hand. Nope, Loris and Dr Matt were his parents, whatever that meant, and right now it meant they were fighting. Loris Holt picked up the blind doll from the rocker, setting it arcing to and fro. She held it like a little girl, smoothing her hair, cradling the hard china form. "Male reporters end up in another place, chained up, starved to death-- just as dead in the end though. Matthew Crower, when are you going to stop fighting the Sheriff with your bare hands? The World can't beat him!" "Then what can, Loris? Something has to. He should be soulless and in his grave like that poor Vantage child. If I had the power, I'd put him there." Loris looked up into her husband's furious eyes. "I have the power. But I won't." She shook away the tears and hugged the doll tighter. "I won't!" "Oh God, Loris, What can you do? Tell me, just tell me what to do, you don't have to raise a hand. I'll do it for you." Caleb leaned far over the banister to watch Matt dig his fingers into Loris's arms. "It's in my family, not yours." "We're one family now. You, me, AND Caleb." "No! I will not do evil to stop evil." They split apart, each looking at a different barren corner of the room. Caleb felt his heart calm down. Something awful just passed over him but it didn't touch him, not yet. "So we're back on the street, then." Matt murmured. Loris stroked the doll and put it back in the chair, just for tonight. "I suppose we are." ***** Ben had found Merly lying in the street, carried her upstairs like cold, viscous jello. She was crying so miserably, talking about knocking the sun out of the sky, all he could think of doing was to wrap her in Granny Healy's old eiderdown and try to keep the dead woman warm. Moonlight from the window came in and lit Merly's face. It was like the reflection off pewter. "I'm damned, Ben." "I don't see how that's even possible. You've always tried to be so good." "I killed my momma tonight." "Your momma's dead, sweetheart. Been dead a long time. Buck killed her, he told me so." "I guess I AM Buck now." She held up the ring and looked at it. It was dug deep in her finger. "Cut it off me." "I'm afraid I'd cut you too." "I don't care. Take it, finger and all, please bring me back to what I was." Ben reached for the ring and a wave of cold fell over him. He was terrified, hearing in his ears the screams of the train engineer as he fell beneath Merly's grasp, but Ben kept reaching. "It's kinda cold, honey." His fingertips started turning blue and he was wincing from the pain when Merly pulled his finger away from the deadly circlet. "Don't, if I hurt you I'd never forgive myself. You're the only person left who. . . who. . ." Ben looked at the young girl, she was edged with dark green phosphorescence and the way her eyes glimmered in the dark made him scared but she was still Merly in her heart. He believed that. "You scare me, Merly, but then. . . you always did. Never made a lot a difference before, I don't see why it should now. I still care about you. I'm still trying to be good enough for you." "Oh Ben." She huddled in his arms crying. "I don't want to kill anybody. Not anybody at all. It hurts too much to die, it hurts for a long long time." ******** Caleb opened the cardboard suitcase and dressed in his favorite shirt. Red and white stripes. He reached under his pillow and pulled out the remnants of the quit claim. Folded them carefully and put them into his shirt pocket. "Close to my heart." The boy climbed on his bicycle and looked back at the ugly sign that meant his home was gone tomorrow, maybe bulldozed under in a few days. Straightened his shoulders and pedaled off towards town. The night was cold and clear and dark. Darker than most nights in Trinity ever got. Caleb looked into the dark blue sky and there skimming the stars was the bow of a narrow crescent moon. All it needed was stringing and you could shoot an arrow off of it. Caleb stood for a moment in the middle of the street and watched the moon. Whiter than Merly's dress when she was an angel. As beautiful as his Momma. "I reckon if we weren't in this much trouble, I'da never seen this tonight. It's just all one thing, isn't it Momma? And there gotta be a reason for that." The boy sighed and pedaled off into the night. *** Floyd looked at his word puzzle for minute. Eight letter word for totality. He looked up totality twice in the dictionary but it hadn't stuck. Maybe. . .C O MPLEAT. "Where's Ben, tonight?" Caleb rolled his bike in and leaned on the front desk. "He's home, sitting up with a sick friend." "Well, I hope his friend's better, I come here to see my father anyway." Floyd looked upset, Lucas had come in a very bad mood. Take no prisoners kind of mood. "Uh, the sheriff told me he wasn't to be disturbed." "I ain't going to disturb him, Floyd, least I hope not." "You . . .You can't go in there." "Yes, I can, Floyd. This is family." Floyd grabbed a doughnut for security. Caleb opened the door to his father's inner office. The light was dim inside, only shadows and a pair of heavy lidded eyes glowing like dying coals. "Evenin' sir. I just brought something by that you left at the court house, the other night. Here's one half." Caleb laid a torn sheet of paper on the sheriff's desk. "And here's the other." The light was barely bright enough to read the words of the quit claim. "Somebody who cared about me once said that half was nothing, half was nowhere. I figured you might like to take this all the way." The boy nodded a farewell and left the room. Buck smoothed out the pieces of paper and looked about as if expecting some kind of revelation to show up and lecture him. Nothing changed in the room, neither light nor hope increased. He reached for a tape dispenser and painstakingly stuck the two pieces into one bandaged whole. He sighed in the dark empty room and reached into his bottom drawer. Pulled out an unopened blue bottle. The cork was difficult to extract. His right hand still didn't have enough grip in it. He gulped down a swallow and winced. It was as bitter as he had anticipated. END 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!!