Undying Love Henry Claircastle began his routine walk home from work, exhibiting the same courteous face he had always shown to the passerby. This day, however, he hurt. Residing inside of himself was great suffering. His wife, Lavern, hadn’t been speaking to him. His marriage was in distress and Lavern had somehow managed to turn their six year old son, Tyler, against him. Henry took full responsibility for the blame of their current state of affairs and desired to make things right once again with his family. His wife’s condemnation of him was tearing him apart emotionally and physically. All day at work he had had a splitting headache and his nose had bleed twice. For the past two weeks, each day after work, he had stopped off at the florist shop and had bought an assortment of flowers and plants for his wife. She loved roses and he had given her a rose on their very first meeting. To the present they had been married twenty years. Twenty, passionately intense-loving years. He had known from their very first coming together that Lavern, was his one true soul-mate. And now that half of Henry Claircastle’s soul was dying. He needed his wife and child. He knew that without them he would die. As he walked home he decided that he would have to start thinking positively. He looked across the street at Grivmore Park and watched the children as they played. He took notice of their laughter and stared at them as they ran into the caring arms of their parents. Many times before he, his wife and child, had been in that Park doing all the same things, that the families he watched now, were doing. Taking a deep breath, he thought to himself in confidence, that that time would come again. He would make things right again. He had to. He just had to! The world around him complimented his outward character. It was a clear sunny day and it was summer. Everything was shinning and a pleasantly cool breeze gave balance to the heat. As with any of his normal treks home he encountered familiar faces and returned kindly gestures. Most of the people that recognized him were customers at the book store where he worked. He had worked at Ponto’s Books for about nine years now. Lavern had always brought a home-made lunch to him while he worked. She and his son would stop in for a few minutes every day, give him his lunch, talk about her plans with Tyler for the afternoon, give him a kiss, and be on their way. The last two weeks they hadn’t been in and he had taken lunch with him in the morning. His fellow employee’s being concerned, had asked him on various occasions about his wife and child. He had explained to them that both were sick with the flu. Henry knew that the sickness had added to the strife his family had been enduring or at least it lessened some of the guilt. Aside from co-workers, customers, and park regulars, his family didn’t have what one would consider close friends. Just superficial acquaintances, and that was for the best in his mind. He had been raised with the value that ‘Family is Everything.’ Henry Claircastle, truly believed that and cherished it. His son Tyler has just finished the first grade. He was growing up so fast. It literally seemed to Henry, as if only yesterday, he had held his son in his arms at the hospital on Tyler Claircastle’s first day of life, outside mother’s womb. During the school year Lavern had picked Tyler up every afternoon at 2:30pm. He didn’t get home from work until a little after 5:00pm. So each day he eagerly awaited the visage of his smiling baby boy waiting for him with open arms, as he returned home. In his son he could see a mirror of himself at that age. Tyler was shy, yet very astute, and seemed to prefer time spent alone. He had received only good news from his wife about Tyler’s performance at school. Henry Claircastle loved his son very much. The fact that his son was now being turned against him, that his son had been made to fear him, was nothing short of unbearable. And to think that it was his fault. His actions alone that had caused his wife to hate him. These things were causing him tremendous anguish. He had to restore their trust in him. Nothing would be too much to ask of him if things were to return to normal.
Before he knew it, he was walking up the front stairs to his home. Having had his mind so clustered with thoughts, the walk home now seemed quite like a dream. They didn’t own a vehicle simply because they didn’t have need of one. His place of work was only eight blocks away and his wife wasn’t employed. Henry felt that it was best that she took care of Tyler’s needs and as the man of the house, he should be the sole financial provider. ‘What decent man wouldn’t provide for his family’ he would always say. The house was small, but so was his family. To him it was the perfect house and perfect neighborhood to live in. It felt safe here and the nine and a half years they had lived here had been pleasant, until now. He stopped at the front door and listened. He could faintly hear that the television was on and he read the small sign, that was fastened at eye level, on the door. It read: "A Family That Prays Together, Stays Together." He could smell the fragrances of flowers from inside the house. As he turned the door key he wishfully thought to himself that the relationship between his wife and child would somehow be restored. He entered and soon discovered that he was wrong. His son spent most of the evening in his bedroom. His wife watched television and was obviously in no mood to cook dinner. So he ordered pizza to be delivered. He ate alone and from time to time tried to make conversation with her, which on each attempt ended with him begging for forgiveness and teary eyed. He told her all about his day at work, a subject that she had always enjoyed hearing about. One subtle signal that he held onto in his mind with fervor, was a minute smile that had arisen on her face when he handed her a rose, from the assortment he had brought home with him. That small expression gave him a renewed hope, as he slept in their bed alone that night. The digital alarm clock summoned Henry Claircastle to get out of bed at 8:05am. The same event was occurring in many of the homes throughout this small reserved town of Brickwood, located in Tennessee, on Wednesday morning. Anyone who knew Henry, knew that he was a good worker. ‘Very Dependable’, were the words used by his boss at the book store. He hadn’t missed a day of work in the nine years he had worked at Ponto’s Books. He took a shower and made a quick breakfast. He sat at the kitchen table with his son. His wife sat on the couch. After he ate he dressed for work, gathered up his briefcase, and mustered up enough strength to ask something of his beloved. " I would really like it if maybe you and Tyler stopped in today" he said, then paused waiting for any response. He didn’t receive a response so he began speaking; " Well its up to you, but my co-workers have been asking about the two of you. And….. It would make me very happy." " I love you both, well, see you when I get home. Bye" he concluded, and walked over to his son and gave him a kiss on his fore-head. He arrived at work five minutes early, as he always did. He went about his normal daily schedule re-shelving returned books, unpacking and shelving new books, and customer service purchases and exchanges. Time went by quickly and the store had done over the expected business in sales for a Wednesday afternoon. It was close to lunch break when a fellow employee named Kim informed him that he had a telephone call. Setting down a stack of books, he went back into the managers office to get the phone. With a puzzled expression he picked up the telephone and asked; " Yes…..who is it ?" The voice on the other end ignited feelings of happiness within him. ‘ It is her. Its Lavern !’ ,his mind exclaimed with excitement. It took awhile for him to calm himself and clearly listen. Dread washed over him and his body collapsed slowly into a nearby chair as he began to realize the person speaking was not his wife. It was instead her sister Stella, whom he venomously hated. His stomach began to churn with bitter pains as he thought about how she had tried in the past to break up his family. She was a person he could choke to death and step on, while her body lay lifelessly on the ground. He would feel no remorse for her. Having not heard a word she had spoken he angrily snapped at her saying; " Why the hell are you calling me! Can’t you just find your own goddamn life, Stella ?" He heard her laughing and noticed a young male co-worker glancing in his direction, so he moved back into the office out of his view. She said; " Listen you stupid asshole, I wouldn’t call you if my life depended on it!" "Good!", he interjected. " I’ve been trying to get a hold of my sister. But she’s not answering. Where is she ?" she asked. He stood there silently for about 40 seconds, " Don’t you hang up on me you bastard !", he heard her bark on the other end. With a now placid demeanor he spoke to her saying; " Stella, she’s most likely at the park with Tyler. They were just here and brought me my lunch. I’m sure if you call back after five o’clock you can catch her at home……Okay ?" Stella sat at her office desk and shook her head, thinking about how much she hated the snake of a man- her sister had married. She hung up the phone. Henry Claircastle smiled then did the same. Stella Parker, Lavern’s older sister and divorced mother of one, worked for a major league company located in Albany Canada. She was product administrator and field representative among many other duties and titles. She was also an ambitious woman in her middle thirties, that had made one unforgivable career sacrifice that she regretted on a daily basis. At the young naive age of twenty-two, she had given custody of her daughter Kiki, then only a year old, to her now ex-husband Ronald. They lived somewhere in Siwah Egypt, from what she last had read. Ronald was a well known anthropologist in the scientific community. Aside from a letter and picture every two years she hadn’t heard from or been apart of her daughters life. The second biggest worry in her life was her sister Lavern’s situation. After hanging up the phone with Henry, her assistant and personal secretary named Heather Riley noticed her troubled state of mind, and asked her who she had spoken to. Stella started to avoid the question but soon discovered how much she really needed to talk about it all with someone. She told Heather everything that had been happening to her sister. She admitted to trying to break up the marriage between her sister and Henry. She explained how Henry was physically, verbally, and mentally abusive to her sister and nephew. And about the many times she had received phone calls from Lavern in the past, late at night, and the fear that she heard in her sister’s voice. The so called man her sister had married was a controlling pig. He didn’t let Lavern have a job and he refused to let her have a car. He didn’t allow her to have any friends and he always interrupted their phone conversations. She just wished that her sister would pick up and leave with her son and never turn back. Stella knew that she was in a financial position to where she could support the two of them without problem. On many occasions she had offered, to the point of pleading, to set a plane ticket up for Lavern. She instructed her sister to take Tyler in the middle of the night and never look back. Her sister was just plain afraid of him and never took her offer. Stella and Lavern’s parents had both been dead for many years. The two of them was all that they had left She had made a visit to the Claircastles three years ago on Christmas day. The stay was anything close to pleasant. Henry was noticeably threatened by her and made the whole visit a very horrible experience. The only time, while she was there, that she can remember her sister being somewhat of her normal cheerful self was when Henry took Tyler to the 24 hour supermarket to buy some eggnog. Looking back on the occasion now, she realized how much Henry had actually frightened her. There was something seriously evil behind that man’s eyes. Breaking her out of her thinking daze, was Heather’s voice, saying; " I detest men like that ! Its all about power and control with them. Someone needs to show him what it feels like to be abused !" Realizing that she had probably ranted on for far too long, she shuffled a stack of papers on her desktop and said; " Yeah, someone does. I think I should catch a flight tonight and check up on my baby sister." The two professional women exchanged smiles and continued with the business at hand. To his dismay, his wife and child didn’t bring his lunch to work, once again. When he began feeling any amount of despair during the day he pictured the small smile that he had seen form on her face last night. Around three o’clock another unsettling situation occurred. He spotted a man dressed in business attire, composed of a white pin-stripped shirt, black slacks, and black colored dress shoes. The man was young, good looking, muscular and clean shaven. Henry made eye contact with him and then quickly turned away to look in another direction. In doing so he thought, ‘That’s the one. That’s the slime ball Ms Smith had spoken of. He has been seeing my Lavern! He has been trying to poison her mind against me! He wants to take my place! He wants my family! He is the one to blame!’ His body began to shake and he stumbled sideways over a pile of books on the floor. He needed to get away for a moment, he needed to collect his thoughts. His eye’s made direct contact with the man’s eyes once more. This time, however, his eyes were filled with rage! The man must have sensed this and turned his head away. Henry began a fast paced walk to the employee’s room, thinking as he did so; " That piece of shit will not take my family away from me! What kind of fool does he take me for ? I have neighbors that watch out for me. Did he not think Ms Smith would tell me that she had seen him on different occasions at my home while I was working ? Lavern was being taken in by his lies. She even lied to me when I questioned her about him! I had to take control, I had to put a stop to it before it was too late! The thought of that stranger speaking to my wife and son!" In the employee’s back room he slammed his fists hard into the metal personal lockers and held in a maddening scream. With his right hand bleeding, caused by a twisted piece of metal about the size of an adult thumb on one of the lockers that he hit, he plotted in his mind; " If he wants me then he’s going to get me." The young man exited the store shortly after. Henry went home sick about five minutes after that. His name was Jeff Kilared and he was a social worker of sorts. He was single and lived alone in an apartment just about two miles east of Brickwood, in Jacobsville. He received a case file on Lavern Claircastle about a month and a half ago. He worked in a program that helped counsel abused woman and children. He would secretively meet with individuals that were experiencing abusive and most of the time violent relationships. He had seen it all before. Women who felt trapped and helpless. Most of the situations included children that were stuck in the middle of an abusive household. He basically gave his case subjects the information and steps that they needed to take to get themselves out of the violent storms they were caught up in. He gave them literature and help phone numbers. He provided them with classes for counseling that they could attend and words of encouragement that they rarely heard. The job and what came with it was not easy for him to bear witness of, but these people needed help and if they desired it he would provide it within the state laws. The worst, scenarios of course, was when a woman or a child was injured or even killed. Lavern Claircastle had obviously sought out help and loved herself and child enough to want a change. He had meet with her on three separate occasions. Two times he had visited her home while her husband was at work. And the other time they had spoken in the park near her home. At this point he hadn’t seen or spoken to her in about a month. It wasn’t uncommon for him to lose contact with individuals because he had a large number of cases to deal with. And sometimes one cases severity outweighed another. But he made certain to never forget about someone and made contact with them at the first available chance. From his conversations with her he had determined that mental and emotional abuse played a prominent role in Lavern’s private family life. Today he decided to check in on her and see how she and her child had been getting along since their last encounter. Having not been able to reach her by phone he thought it would be wise to stop in at her husband’s place of employment, and verify that he was at work. He had seen pictures of Henry Claircastle during the visits to her home. After checking out the book store he had decided to grab something to eat, reviewed the Claircastle case file, and then set out to visit Mrs. Claircastle and her six year old son. It was 3:54pm when he pulled his car onto the side of the street, just outside in front of the Claircastle’s house. From the notes he had previously read over he knew Mr. Claircastle didn’t get off work until 5:00pm. This meeting would only last five to ten minutes at the most anyway. He slid out of his car seat, then leaned in to grab a folder and gold colored writing pen, off the passenger seat. Closing the driver side door, he then proceeded to the front steps. As he climbed the concrete stairs to the front door, he for a brief second thought he had seen a curtain in the nearby window close. He paused for a few seconds, surveying the window for movement but found none, then walked forward to the door. Observing the small sign that hung on the door he reached and pushed in the doorbell button. A half second later he heard the chiming of the bell. A small current of air flowed up from the bottom of the door and bombarded his sense of smell with a strong scent of flowered fragrances. So strong in fact that it became a pungent odor. He waited for a minute and then pushed the button once more. Muddled by the bell’s ringing he was almost certain that he had heard a voice telling him to come in. Turning the door knob he found that it was unlocked. The door opened and he stepped into the front hallway, closing the door behind him with his right arm. " Hello, Lavern. Its Jeff Kilared from the program. You Home?" he said, loud enough for her or the child to hopefully hear him. He walked down the hallway, passing a small kitchen to his right side. The overbearing scent of flowers forced him to cover his nostrils and mouth with his right hand. ‘ This is ridiculous’ he thought. The hallway opened up into a long living room. He heard a soft crunch under his shoes. Looking down he saw what looked like dry flower petals, or some kind of potpourri. The humming of fan motors could be heard. He focused on the surrounding room and was stunned by what he saw. The room looked like some kind of Green House. Flowers and plants sat on top of everything. The floor was literally covered with potpourri and he also noticed, a few burning incense sticks, throughout the area. About ten feet away, the back of a couch and the back of a woman’s head whom appeared to be watching television, could be seen. The television was playing but the volume was set so low that he couldn’t hear it. Lifting away his hand an inch or two from his mouth he spoke in that direction; "Mrs. Claircastle , its Jeff Kilared ? Is everything alright ? Mrs. Claircastle ?" A man’s voice from behind him caught him completely off guard. Shaken by the voice he turned around. It said; " You got that right pal. My wife’s name is Mrs. Claircastle, and don’t you ever forget that !" Henry Claircastle slowly walked toward him from out of the kitchen doorway. He was walking in a slanted fashion with his left shoulder leading him toward the counselor. Jeff Kilared could unmistakably see the crazed look on Mr. Claircastle’s face and strands of spittle shooting out of his mouth as he spoke. "What kind of a man would try to take another man’s family? You tell me that you piece of shit !" Henry said, making each word emphasized with hard hate. He moved closer and the young man began to step backwards into the living room. "You see boy, a family is all a man really has. And when you try to break that family up and destroy what a man has worked so hard for, why, your stepping into that man’s territory !" he said, as if offering some informative good advice to the stranger. Kilared tried to explain; "Mr. Claircastle I’m afraid that you’re mistaken about…." Before he could complete what he wanted to say his right leg bumped into the couch. Walking backwards he stepped around the side of the couch as Mr. Claircastle pressed forward. With his hand still covering his nose and mouth, from the odors, he turned his head toward the person sitting on the couch. "What the hell !" flashed in his mind, as his eyes widened in disbelief. Freaked out by what he saw, he had only a split second of time to react by raising up the hand that he had been covering his face with, to now shield himself from a swinging object. In the few seconds that the stranger had been distracted, Henry had lifted, reared back above his head, and swung the long handled axe he had hidden behind his body as he had walked toward the man. The blade severed the young man’s head and three of his fingers. His decapitated body fell forward onto the floor knocking over a potted plant. The severed head of Jeff Kilared hit the floor nearby and shortly rolled to a stop on the carpet. It was covered with blood, liquid potpourri, and sticking potpourri shavings. Henry stood there painted with blood splatter. He began speaking to the slain man; "And what does the man do when an intruder enters his territory…well he defends it vigorously and he protects his family!" He looked over at his wife and smiled because he could see that she was pleased with him, for the first time in a long time. That evening they cleaned the house and ate dinner together. That night they made love and Henry Claircastle could not describe in words the peace and contentment that he now felt. Thursday morning he awoke with his beautiful wife laying at his side. He felt energetic and strong. He hadn’t felt this good in years. With a day of hectic chores already planned out and a lingering thought of how much he wanted things with his family to remain as they were now, he contemplated a hard decision. In the ‘balance of importance’ between work and family, family won hands down. "And it most certainly should!" he would have argued, had he been in a debate over the issue. Henry Claircastle, being the responsible Head of the Household, did what he had to do. He called of work, for the first time in the nine years that he had been employed, at Ponto’s Books. He made a promise to himself as he looked upon his wife, and that was that he would never ever let anyone again harm his happy family. The three of them ate breakfast and afterward he and his wife discussed what should be done with the young man’s body. Around 1:30pm he played board games and painted pictures with his son, in his son’s bedroom. They had an enjoyable time spent together. Henry Claircastle was elated about everything. "This car has been wrecked before. It drives like crap!" Lavern’s older sister said to herself, as she turned the rental car around the corner. Stella Parker, was only two blocks away from the Claircastle home. Last night she had taken a flight from Canada to Tennessee. After arriving she registered in a near by hotel , rented a car, and was now driving to Brickwood to find her sister. Something didn’t seem right in her mind. It had been over two weeks since she had spoken to her sister. The last time they had spoken Lavern had mentioned something to her about going to a family counselor. At the time she really hadn’t thought much of it and had dismissed it as just another way her sister was trying to get her to shut up about the marriage problems. But now, after the phone conversation yesterday with Henry and the fact that she wasn’t able to get a hold of her, nor had Lavern contacted her, the thought that her sister and nephew might have gotten away, crossed her mind. And she could just picture that bastard, Henry, trying to hide that from her! Usually she spoke to her sister once a week, and always when Lavern’s husband was at work. She could see her sister’s white painted house from the stop sign. Another possibility running through her mind, that was not so positive, was the chance that Henry had somehow brainwashed her sister. She parked the rental car in front of the house, behind another car already sitting there. Throwing her purse strap over her right shoulder she then exited the vehicle. Inside the house Henry Claircastle heard a car door close, and then investigated it. Stella noticed all the windows were shut and the curtains drawn closed. Heavily concerned she walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. ….No answer. She rang the doorbell again and knocked a few times. ….Still no answer. A third time she rang the doorbell. This time she heard a voice say; "Its open." It was his voice! She was a little rattled by this unexpected situation. "What in the name of God is he doing home?" she thought, questioningly. Her first instinct was to go back to the car and leave. Then she tossed around the idea that maybe Lavern and Tyler had left Henry after all. To see him suffering would be one moment of personal pleasure she wouldn’t let slip by. She opened the door and went inside. Immediately she had trouble breathing. An intense sharp odor was choking her and she started to cough. She had never been one who could stand perfumes or similar smells. Her breathing was so bad, that she would even avoid house hold product isles, while grocery shopping. Scented candles and incense always seemed to have the worst affect on her. Looking down the hallway she saw Henry sitting on the couch apparently reading a newspaper. She walked toward the living room. It took her no time at all to notice the floor covered with dry potpourri and the many flowers and plants. The room had a subdued look because of the sunlight being filtered by white-colored closed curtains. With a feeling that something odd was going on, she walked around to where she stood facing him. He nonchalantly lowered the newspaper and looked up at her. In between coughing she spoke; "What did you do, kill a cat?" Henry let out a burst of surreal laughter. He watched has her chest heaved up and down with congestion. "So where is my sister and nephew?" she questioned, and turned her head from side to side, as if hoping to see them. "My wife and child are in his room spending quality time together." he responded, emphasizing the word wife with vocal tone. He sat there looking at her with a silly clown faced expression that made her want to slap him right in it. "What a fucking prick" she thought, with disgust. She shook her head and said to him; "You know Henry, you could just take a shower once in a while, it would cut down on all of this." In saying that she motioned around the room with her arms. Henry Claircastle just sat there looking at her. Fixing the purse strap back onto her shoulder she walked through the dinning room and up to Tyler’s bedroom door. She paused to listen for a moment then lightly tapped on the door. Before opening the door, she looked back over her shoulder at the dinner table that was completely dressed with potted plants and assorted flowers, placed in ornate vases. It didn’t make any sense to her and she just wanted more than anything now to find her sister. She opened the bedroom door and stepped inside. The child’s bedroom curtains were drawn closed making it very dim. A foreboding sense of fear touched her. Squinting her eyes in the poor light she could see the child’s bed, a few plants, and his dresser chest. Looking out in front of her toward the side of the small bed, she saw Tyler lying down on the floor. She couldn't see his face but she could see that he was wearing blue-jeans and a white and red T-shirt. Also toys were scattered around him on the floor. Then, on the far side just beyond the foot of the bed, she located her sister sitting in a rocking-chair. The very same rocking-chair in fact that she had given them as a marriage present. The light was really bad and she couldn’t see if Lavern’s eyes were open or shut. She had every reason to believe that they were sleeping, because they were being silent and still. Coughing again, she went over to the closest window and pulled back the curtain just enough to allow sufficient light into the room. She turned to look at her sister, but what she saw there was an unspeakable horrid thing. Terrorized beyond normal functioning , she stared in shock at an abominable scene. Positioned upright in the rocking-chair was a decaying corpse. It was the lifeless murdered body of her sister, Lavern Parker Claircastle. Her sister’s body had been dressed in a clean outfit and was wearing a light blue bonnet on her rotting skull. A large obvious gaping tear could be seen across the neck on her dead sister’s body. Her once soft skin now looked hard, wrinkled, dark, and bruised. She could smell the putrid stench of the decomposition that had before been hidden by the sweet flowery fragrances. A kaleidoscope of despair, sadness, fear, terror, and anger, eclipsed her soul. With the small amount of willpower she had left she forced her self not to scream. However, she couldn’t stop the flood of hot tears that spilled down her face. Her body was feeling weak and frail. Her mind began to focus and work again. She suddenly thought about the child. Helplessly her mind cried out; "Oh God!", "Oh Jesus!", "The baby, he was just a baby!" She looked at the motionless child that lay on the bedroom floor and could now see the decaying flesh on his little face. His tiny eyelids were closed. "Dear God, they have both been dead for weeks", she realized. And in all hopelessness, her mind told her to get out of there as fast as she possibly could! The purse she had carried slid off her shoulder and onto the floor, she staggered toward the door and opened it. Blindly she rushed through the rooms and into the hallway. Determined to get the hell away from this place she slammed into the front door. She began franticly twisting the door handle and pushing with all her weight against it. With the door not opening she looked and seen that it was bolted shut. As she reached for the locks, two cold hands grabbed around her throat , and started squeezing it with a strong malevolent force. She began kicking and punching the attacker. She bit into her tongue until it bled, but didn’t feel it. Henry Claircastle violently slammed her head into the hall wall. Which caused a glass framed picture to fall off the wall and crack when it hit the floor. With an insane adrenaline rush of strength he forced her down onto the floor, keeping her in his death lock hold as he did. Gasping for breath she unknowingly grabbed a small sliver of broken glass from off the carpet. Her mind was blank and her eye sight was distorted. In one last defensive attempt she stabbed the right side of his face with the glass. It didn’t prevent him from his intended course of action. Continuing in crushing her neck with his hands and shaking her head violently, Stella Parker’s life slipped away. A line of her blood ran down her left cheek and into her hair. Her skin had changed color and her neck was swollen and covered with broken blood vessels. The business style, light gray-colored, above the knee cut dress, she was wearing had been torn in the scuffle. Her eyes opened were eerily fixed on the front door. Henry Claircastle released his hold on Lavern’s sister after seeing that she was for certain dead. He slowly stood up and walked to the kitchen. In doing so, he purposely stepped down hard, onto his last victim’s face. He opened the refrigerator and took out a cold glass pitcher of water. Then he made himself a full glass of water and drank it in small savoring sips. He was bleeding from his cheek but didn’t seem to be the least bit concerned about it. A smudge of Stella’s blood went from his hand and onto the glass of water. In a diabolical toast he raised the glass in her direction and said; " Now I have my family back for good…..Bitch!" Henry Claircastle then ‘drank to that’. Three day’s later Henry Claircastle was arrested for the brutal murders. That same day the tranquil town of Brickwood, Tennessee was shocked into a chaotic stir over the horrendous news. Much later after Henry Claircastle had been sentenced to death by electrocution, younger kids began to tell stories about the Roseman that sneaks into homes at night and murders whole families, leaving behind a single rose across each victim’s neck. About a month after the discovery of the murders, in a church about four blocks from where the Claircastle’s had lived together. A young couple stood before a congregation of wedding guests. They exchanged the vows of their undying love and then kissed passionately. Someday, in the not so far off future, their love would cultivate a family. © Horns October 1999 HofP |