Off Center.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The wind was whipping her around when he came up behind her, her hair flailing in it as though it were a bullwhip with a mind to do its own will. And when she staggered and almost fell Andrew Gramercy came to the rescue and caught her before she completely had hit the pavement that formed the two lane blacktop of highway 3. She tried to give him an innocent smile, but wound up looking more embarrassed than anything. And as he helped her to find a place to sit for a moment he could see that she wasn’t at all comfortable in his company.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Her hazel eyes blinked once and then twice and she slowly nodded her head yes.
“Your name is Alley.. Is that right?”
“Yes it is.”
He extended his hand to her.
“My name is Andrew.. Andrew Gramercy. how do you do Alley.”
She blinked, her eyes slowly studying him in a very calculating way.
“I’m alright I guess.. For the most part anyway.”
She took his hand and he was amazed at how soft her touch was. He sat down next to her.

“Alley. Would it be okay if I walked you home while we talked a little?”
She put her palms together and placed both hands between her knees and looked at him.
“Yeah.. Believe it or not I can walk and talk at the same time.”
They both laughed a little and got up and headed down the foot path beside of highway 3.
“So.. Andrew Gramercy.. What do you want to talk about?”
He hesitated slightly, taking in a deep breath before answering.
“You promise that you won’t get mad or run away if I tell you?”
She smiled and nodded slowly.
“Werewolves.” he said softly.
Now it was her turn to hesitate, her smoky hazel eyes squinting against the sun as she studied his look.
“Oh.. I see now.. You’ve come to talk to the crazy girl about her dreams. Is that it?”
“Not entirely Alley. I just saw you a few times around town and you looked rather scared and lost, so I asked Carmen who you were and she told me.”
“Carmen told you everything?”
“Mostly about the dreams and the Wolfsbane. Does it help?”
She nodded almost hesitantly.
“With the dreams it seems to, but not when I’m awake at night I see it sometimes. Roaming around the grounds of the light house.”
Andrew Gramercy stops in his tracks and turns to face her.

Introductions In Order.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



“It? You mean to tell me that you’ve seen this werewolf while you were awake?”
She nodded.
“Up close Alley?”
She stopped herself, going over her thoughts carefully.
“No.. I don’t recall ever.. Seeing it up close. Only from a distance, I’ve seen its face more than once in my dreams though.”
He stopped her, choosing his own words more carefully as to not offend the timid girl.
“Alley do you know what it sounds like to me?”
She lowered her head slightly giving him quick nervous glances from the side of her eyes.
“Ok Andrew lets hear it.” she sighed “What does it sound like to you?”
He turned to face her fully.
“Alley.. I think that someone has found a way to frighten you, and the more that you buy into this werewolf bit they are going to keep doing it.”
She slowly walked with Andrew up towards the property owned by his mother and father and followed him as he stepped up onto the porch of the Victorian.

They sat together on the front steps as Alley slowly mulled over his words in her mind. Andrew Gramercy’s mother spotted them sitting on the front steps and asked if they wanted refreshments, Andrew said they would love some, Alley nodded slowly in agreement. Peggy Gramercy disappeared in the front door of the Victorian. Alley once again turned to face him.
“Do you really think that someone would really do that to me?”
Andrew considered her question for a time, finally he turned to face her.
“Sure.. Yeah.. Well.. Think about it for a minute Alley. You witnessed something very terrible when you were young, and every since you’ve been suppressing that memory for all of this time. Now in who’s best interest would it be for you to keep that memory suppressed? Someone that was more than likely involved in the incident that you witnessed, is more than likely using this whole bit to keep you scared so you won’t remember who they are. And they are using this werewolf bit as the trigger. All we have to do is figure out who, and the rest will take care of itself.”

Her eyes squinted against the sun, her face took on a yellowish hue as it began to set on the horizon. she turned back to Andrew Gramercy.
“But why werewolves Andrew?”
He slowly ran his fingers over the top of her hand.
“Its probably another memory that you have tucked away from your childhood, someone is doing this to deliberately keep you from remembering. Because as long as you don’t remember anything, they are safe.”
They rose from the porch of the Victorian and Alley decided to head for home with Andrew Gramercy in tow. They talked in a almost casual manner almost all of the way to the light house where Alley Montrose and her strange uncle Trevor called home. Just fifty yards from the front door Andrew could make out the figure of a man standing in the doorway watching their every move. He was about to meet uncle Trevor.

~Scratch. ABT copyright © 2008.~

First Glance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The first time that he saw her, she was walking along the winding roadside of highway 3, towards the edge of the cliffs over looking the Atlantic ocean. This the second time, she was wandering down the main street of Mandolin Bay, clutching a brown and black sack from Carmen’s Exotic books and Potions shop just two blocks east of there. He was immediately struck by her, in the usual ways that a young man’s fancy is struck by a beautiful young girl. And beautiful she was, with long black silken locks of hair that flowed wildly past her shoulders, but her brilliant hazel eyes dancing nervously around, made her seem displaced in her surroundings. He tried to study her and the entire scene around her as it unfolded in front of him, all at once, the way the cold Atlantic wind seemed to lash at her back almost pushing her involuntarily along the sidewalk. The odd way that people seemed to quickly sway from her path, combined with their looks of pity and disgust only made him even more curious as to the identity of the beautiful young woman.

He wandered into Carmen’s shop just after 9:00 am, and approached the older gray haired woman behind the counter with a bit of reservation, but with growing curiosity none the less.
“Excuse me Ma’am?”
The way her eyes slowly drifted up to meet his voice, combined with a cold icy stare from over the top of her spectacles gave him an uneasy chill. Her emotionless eyes studied his every move, carefully looking him up and down before addressing him.
“What may I do for you young man?” She asked of him coldly.
His feet nervously fidgeted against the hard wood floors beneath him, he hesitated before looking back over his shoulder and out through the smoke stained plate glass window of Carmen’s Exotic Books and Potions shop at the black haired beauty as she made her way across the street.
“I was wondering if maybe you could tell me about that girl that just left your shop, the black haired one.”
“What about her?”
“Well ma’am.” he paused. “I noticed that some people was giving her some rather odd looks
I was just wondering why?”
“My name is Carman and this is my shop.”
“How do you do ma’am, I’m Andrew Gramercy.”
“You new to Mandolin Bay boy?”
“Yes ma’am, My mom and dad and I just moved here recently.”
“From?”
“Vermont.”
She moved along the inside of the counter making her way to the little swinging door nearest the cash register.
“You the folks that bought Bram’s old place out near highway 3?”
He nodded silently.
“So are you going to do your schooling at Griffin High?”
Again he nodded slowly.
“You ain’t one of those jocks are you?”
He shook his head no.

“Umm no ma’am actually I’m more of a computer geek, or so I’m told.”
“That’s Good for you boy. Them jocks they have a bit of a cruel streak in them. I have seen some of the things they pull on some of the younger kids around here. And if you were one of those I’d have to ask you to leave my place here.”
She moved up beside of him standing in front of the window staring out at the street, her eyes never leaving the young girl even as she spoke to him.
“Her name is Alley Montrose, folks around here don’t think that she’s right in the head, most have pity for her, some disregard her as being a loon, but very few understand her. She’s really harmless.”
“If she’s harmless why do people treat her that way?”
“Because when Alley was eight years old she saw her mother raped and beaten to death by an unknown assailant, they had broken into their home while they thought Alice Montrose was away, but she came home and caught whoever it was in the act. Alley witnessed the whole thing, the beating that Alice took, the rape too. She watched her mother die right before her very eyes, but can’t remember what her mothers killers face looked like, she blocked the whole thing out. It seems to still be haunting her, she sees monsters every where, in her dreams, in the light of day, in the darkest recesses of nightfall, she thinks that her mothers killer has a new shape and he’s come back to get her. in her nightmares she sees a wolf in the form of a man who taunts her, who vows to get her and silence her voice before she can remember.”
“A Werewolf?”
“Yes. So to give her a little peace of mind she comes here and I give her Wolfsbane for protection against the nightmares. It helps knowing its there, but she still has the nightmares though not as much.”
He stared out the window at her as she shuffled down the street clutching the bag to her chest.
“She lives with her uncle Trevor now, outside of town in the old Beckham light house, though the light house isn’t used anymore he works at the Mandolin Bay Theater house at the same end of town, its old and run down but people still go there a good bit to see old movies, and it helps Trevor Bellows to take care of his niece.”
He thanked Carmen for her time and swung open the front door of the book store and stepped out into the street to see what became of Alley. But she was already gone.

Alone in Passing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Andrew Gramercy and his father and mother had only moved to Mandolin Bay three months ago, after Eric Gramercy had been transferred by his place of employment to nearby Thornwood, it was a thirty minute commute each way every day but the housing was more affordable in Mandolin Bay. Not only that, but Andrew’s mother Peg had always wanted to live by the ocean, which made the quaint little fishing village a perfect fit for the small family. He turned into the fenced in front yard and made his way through the shrubbery concealing the front porch of the white Victorian style home that his father had purchased for their move from Vermont. His eyes carefully looked back across the fenced in front yard back out at highway 3, as if he’d half expected to see the beautiful form of Alley Montrose following him to the house.

He opened the door and his first footsteps echoed throughout the foyer as he walked across the hardwood floors of the living room to head down the narrow hallway into the Kitchen where his mother was sitting at the breakfast nook. She raised her head to look at her seventeen year old son, Andrew looked to be the stereo typical jock, tall, well over six foot one, with broad shoulders and blond hair and blue eyes that were highlighted by his perfect white teeth, that when exposed by his alluring smile, could light up a room. Though in reality Andrew was in no way interested in sports of any kind. She instructed him to wash before lunch, and when he returned from the downstairs bath, she’d had sandwiches laid out on a plate with a tall glass of milk for him. While he ate, she studied him, Peggy Gramercy knew her own son well enough to know when there was something on his mind. She looked over the cold glass of milk at him.
“Okay Andy, tell mum a story.. What’s on your mind?”
“Mom.. What exactly is Wolfsbane?”
“Wolfsbane?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Well Andy, I think it’s a flower that was used by witches or something, to repel bad spirits, or it can be used to reverse Shape shifting spells.”
“Shape shifting? As in werewolves?”
She stopped what she was doing, to see where he was taking this.
“Andy. There’s no such thing as werewolves, although the ancient Germans did use the herb to poison wolves. I suppose that could be where it got its name. Tell mum why.”
He didn’t answer, instead he turned towards the side porch and stepped over to the window.
“Ma. I seen this girl today.. We haven’t actually met yet but I think she may need some help. And I would like to try.”
“Andrew.. You aren’t talking about that Montrose girl are you?”
He turned to face his mother.

“You know about Alley Montrose Ma?”
“The neighbors told us the whole story Andy, about her mother, about her, her strange uncle Trevor. The whole enchilada. They sound odd, I won’t tell you who you can talk to because I trust you, just be careful.”
“Ma.. Something isn’t right there.”
She came up behind him and placed her hand on her sons shoulder.
“Tell mum a story Andrew.”
He paused.
“Miss Carmen. She told me that everyone in town thinks that she isn’t right in the head ma.”
Peg Gramercy looked her son in the eye.
“And what does your gut tell you about that Andrew?”
“I looked into her eyes this morning ma. Yeah, we actually made eye contact, but I didn’t see crazy in there. I saw fear.”
“And knowing now what you know, you would still like to try and help her?”
“Yeah ma I would.. Especially now.”
He returned to the front porch and looked out towards highway 3, he had to be back before supper.

~Scratch A.B.T. Copyright© 2008.~

The Last Page.



October 30th 2003.

Tyler continues to treat me like a child and ignores my every attempt at getting his attention. Today Leonard waited for me behind Tanner’s drug store in his truck. we talked for two hours after I left soccer practice. He doesn’t treat me like a child, not like Tyler, Leonard looks to me as a woman. And he goes out of his way to make me feel like one, he is so gentle with me every time. Tomorrow morning when Mama leave’s for the market we are going out to Cherry Creek together, to make love like the first time in the tall grass. I can’t wait until we are together again.
Jennifer Watson. October 30th 2003.

Closure.



He closes the book slowly, pausing slightly before he hands it back to Angela Watson. They are both staring straight ahead, neither showing
emotion. Angela Watson slowly turns to face Daniel Vickers, choosing her words carefully.
“Daniel?”
“Yes ma’am?”
“When you called Sharon and I, before you and Leonard left for Cherry Creek. When did you realize that it was Leonard and not Tyler?”
He pauses.
“I didn’t know it was him. But I suspected he was involved when we were standing in his living room. There were pictures of him and Tyler everywhere and in a lot of those pictures he was standing by the black truck a lot. I just had a feeling that he at least knew what happened.”
“So when will you and Sharon be leaving?”
“Probably after the funeral.”
Angela Watson places her head on Daniel Vickers shoulder, and clutches his arm.
“I can’t ever repay you. The peace that you’ve given Jen and me. You and Sharon will come back for a Visit I hope?”
He smiles at her.
“We are going to keep in touch with you until summer, then we will both be coming back for another visit. After all, we are both Jennifer’s family aren’t we? ”
Sharon Milner appears from out of the front doorway and Daniel and Angela Watson both rise to their feet and all three head for the Chevrolet.
They drive to Silver crest cemetery, and stand in the small gathering of people to where the body of young Jennifer Watson is finally laid to rest. Daniel Vickers stares solemnly as the final words are spoken, when deputy Tyler Malloy approaches them.
“Miss Watson.. Angela. I am truly sorry for your loss. If you ever feel like talking you know I-”
She nods.
“I suppose we should Ty.”
she looks to Daniel Vickers and Sharon Milner. And the three share hugs.
“Well since we already have our things packed, you two go ahead and we’ll just leave from here.”
“You both stay in touch you hear?”
They walk back to the car leaving Angela Watson to the conversation of Tyler Malloy.
“Danny?”
He turns to face Sharon Milner.
“Dan.. I want to drive us across Crows Crossing Road. You didn’t sleep much last night, so you take a nap and I’ll drive.”
They get into the car and Sharon Milner drives them much of the way in complete silence as Daniel Vickers slowly drifts off to sleep. And when she finally reaches Crows Crossing she is not at all alarmed when the sees the smiling eyes of the beautiful young girl in her rear view mirror from the back seat. And as the sun breaks free from the clouds, she looks into the rear view mirror to find the smiling eyes gone, and now there is nothing but Peace.

~End~

~Scratch. A.B.T. Copyright © 2008~

I found some really Layouts at Doobix.com

Unexpected Truth.



Somehow it was beginning to seem likely to Daniel Vickers, that he had been misinterpreting the clues that he was being left by Jennifer Watson in his dreams. He could just feel it now by the way Tyler Malloy reacted to the way Leonard Davis said something to the effect of “I cleaned up your last mess and now-” and the way Tyler seemed genuinely surprised to see him holding the pistol. Even now the two men are arguing , Tyler Malloy slowly moving the attention away from Daniel Vickers who is recording the entire exchange on his video cell phone. He can hear the two men arguing now as he struggles to piece the whole puzzle together in his mind,
“there’s no time for that” he thinks to himself as he concentrates on Tyler Malloy who is now yelling at Sheriff Leonard Davis.
“Len! For the love of God what have you done??”
He has the gun trained on Tyler Malloy.
“You had all of those girls Ty, they all loved you!! But Jennifer was different, she wanted me, this one wanted me, not you!”
“Len.. Man your sick, I never did anything with those girls! You thought I was having sex with them? For the love of God man I have two daughters that age! Len.. Put the gun down. We can get you some help. Just stop this now!”
Now it was Daniel Vickers turn to be confused. Everything was telling him that Tyler Malloy was his man. And yet now here it was Leonard Davis that was all but confessing to the act. He glanced from the corner of his eye at Daniel and then back at the gun, Tyler slowly inching forward while Leonard Davis seemed to be rambling on about how he’d actually killed Jennifer and why. His eye’s were glazed over as he seemed to be recalling some distant memory.
“This was our special place.. Where we would come to be alone. And then we came out here that last time and she told me that she had written about our entire relationship in that book. I got angry.. I pulled out the gun.. Just to scare her into giving me the book. It went off by accident.. She.. Died right there..”
Tyler Malloy steps forward, startled, Leonard Davis jerks on the hand gun and it fires into his abdomen, he falls almost instantly. Daniel Vickers seizes the opportunity to tackle Leonard Davis knocking the gun loose from his hand and as the two struggle in the dirt, sounds of sirens in the distance begin to echo through the tree’s at Cherry Creek. Daniel begins to lose his footing and slowly Leonard Davis begins to get the advantage , he has a large thick part of a tree branch and is holding it over his head, and is about to lower it onto Daniel Vickers skull, but Tyler Malloy is still fully conscious and has recovered the pistol and shoots Sheriff Leonard Davis in the chest. He stumbles backwards, a cold vacant look crosses over his face, he falls to the earth, he is dead before his body touches the ground. Daniel Vickers tries to help him to his feet but now Tyler Malloy is almost unconscious. He hears footfalls coming towards them and soon Sharon Milner’s voice calls out to him. Her and Angela Watson have brought the Freemont county Sheriff’s department with them.

Leonard's Ruse.



As Tyler Malloy lies in his hospital bed he listens intently as Daniel Vickers relates to him the entire contents of his dreams.
“I never had an affair with any of the girls.” Tyler tells him. “ Jennifer came to me one day after soccer practice, she was distraught. Troubled.. but she wouldn’t say why. I took her home and dropped her off. Angela wasn’t there but I told her about it later. I told Leonard too. And the next day Jen came up missing. I went looking for her with a few of the other deputies, we tried Mr. Vickers, we really did, Jen was a good girl , she didn’t deserve that. God if I would have even suspected Leonard.”
Daniel Vickers studies him.
“But why the white hats? Why did your truck end up in my dreams? And the Strange visits to Angela Watson’s house? And how did you end up at Cherry Creek yesterday? Do you see my problem with this deputy? There’s a lot of questions that don’t seem to fit.”
Tyler Malloy lay’s his head back down on the pillow, his eyes never leaving Daniel Vickers.
“ Tell Me something Mr. Vickers. I’m curious.”
Daniel nods.
“Did you ever see ME driving the truck in your dreams?”
“No. come to think of it I never did see the drivers face, just his hands coming out of the shadows.”
“The truck wasn’t always mine Mr. Vickers. I bought it from Leonard last year. Hell it ran good, it was supposed to be a work truck, that’s why I bought the damn thing. I never dreamed that Leonard used it for-”
He stops in mid sentence.
“I only went to Angela’s to let her know that I hadn’t forgotten about her. I’d been in Jennifer’s room several times since she disappeared, it was like walking into a shrine. Nothing had changed or moved. Ever. It was heart breaking not knowing what happened. Yesterday when I was in my wife’s car, I saw you and Len heading towards Cherry Creek. Something strange happened. Hell no one would ever believe me in a million years if I told them.”
“Trust me Deputy. I know about strange, we are very well acquainted”
“I thought that I actually heard a voice telling me to follow you. And you may think I’m crazy but it sounded like Jennifer’s voice.”
“Jennifer told you to follow us?”
“I think so, and now I’m glad that I listened. Leonard was a sick man.”
Sharon Milner appears at Daniel Vickers side and leans over to whisper something in his ear, to which he nods.
“The Freemont County Sheriffs department dug up a body twenty minutes ago at Cherry Creek, of what appears to be a young female. They haven’t made a positive Identification yet, but I’d say given the circumstances that it is more than likely Jennifer Watson. I have to go Deputy, I’ll come and see how your doing later then?”
Tyler Malloy Nods. Daniel stops at the hospital door and looks down at him.
“By the way. We never covered the white hats did we?”
The deputy sadly stares at the ceiling.
“ We all wear white hats in the department Mr. Vickers. After all. We ARE supposed to be the good guys. Aren’t we?”
Daniel Vickers steps into the hallway. Sharon Milner is waiting there with Angela Watson. He sits down beside of them, trying to straighten it all out in his head at once. Staring straight ahead at the wall Sharon Milner gives Daniel Vickers other news.
“Danny?”
“Yeah?”
“Sweetie just before Angela and I left the house..”
He turns to her.
“What happened?”
“Annie Clark the librarian showed up. She found the book hidden in the library. We skimmed through it. It isn’t anything like what we were thinking.”
Angela Watson eyes were tearing up.
“It wasn’t Tyler, Daniel. After all of these years I find out that the one man I trusted was the one who was molesting my baby. He took her from me and I never suspected him.”
Daniel rises.
“I want to see the book.”

~Scratch A.B.T. Copyright © 2008.~



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For those of you who have been reading the Cherry Creek Prophecies. I will be posting the next to the last Chapter tonight. but in the mean time I would like to know what YOU think.. what do you think really Happened to Jennifer Watson? who Killed her? and why? well you can all safely post your thoughts on the subject as I have already written the 11th chapter where the killer is revealed. I will be posting it later tonight. see ya's later and Thanks for reading!!.