Anna Johnson stirred slightly.  Her body hurt in places that she didn’t even know existed.  The last thing that she could remember was a group of people dressed in black robes encircling the police car and smashing the windows.  She was dragged out of the car and hit over the back of her head with something heavy.  Everything was black after that.  Anna sat up and looked around.  She rubbed her hand along the back of her neck, feeling the lump left there from when she had been hit.  Anna realized that she had been left by Lake Claire, the smooth round stones of the beach shifting under her weight as the light of the moon was reflected off the water.
 Anna laboriously climbed to her feet and brushed herself off.  Her home was at least two miles from Lake Claire and in her condition it would take quite awhile to get back.  She heard a faint groan emanating from behind her.  Anna turned quickly, her eyes probing the ground.  A slight movement caught her eye and she cautiously approached the prone figure on the ground.  It was Ricky Morris and he looked fairly awful.  A large knot had formed on his forehead and his clothes looked wet and sticky.  Anna leaned down and gently prodded Ricky.
 “Hunngg,” groaned Ricky as his eyes slowly opened.
 “Ricky?  It’s me, Anna.  How are you?  Are you hurt?”
 “Anna?  I have a major headache but other than that I think I’m fine.  Do you know where we are?  Are you okay?”
 “I’m fine, thank you.  I think we’re on the shore of Lake Claire.  Can you walk?  My house is at least two miles from here and we’d better start walking.”
 “It won’t help you,” called out Shawn McPhereson as he walked around a large boulder.  His arm was tied up in a sling and half his face was covered in dried blood.  “I woke up and found the both of you and brought you here.  They stuck us on an island, if there’s anyway we’re getting out of here it’ll have to be swimming rather than walking.  And I’m not in any condition to swim and neither is Ricky.”
 “What’s wrong with Ricky,” asked Anna as she helped Shawn walk over to where Ricky was lying.
 “My best guess would be a concussion.  That’s a pretty large knot on his head.”
 Ricky winced as he touched the front of his head and looked at his fingers to see if there was any blood.  “I think you’re right.  How are you doing, Shawn?  You look worse than I do.”
 “They broke my arm when they pulled me out of the window and I ended up with a cut on my head from the broken glass.  Other than that I’m perfectly fine,” drawled Shawn.
 “What actually happened?” asked Anna.  “I remember a bunch of people dressed in black robes approaching the car and breaking the windows.  I do remember them pulling you through the window, Shawn.  Everything else is a blur though.”
 Ricky pulled himself up to a sitting position, wincing at the effort that it took.  “After they pulled Shawn out of the car they hit him with some sort of club.  I broke the back window by accident when my gun went off and shattered it.  That’s how they got to you and me, Anna.  I’d almost have to assume that we were hit with the same kind of clubs.  Did anyone notice their robes though?  They had some sort of weird symbol on the left breast.  It looked oddly familiar.”
 “What did it look like?” asked Anna as she dampened her handkerchief in the lake water and handed it to Shawn to wipe his face off.
 “It was a square with a triangle in the middle and three prongs coming off the top of the triangle,” replied Ricky.
 “Thanks,” said Shawn as he took the handkerchief from Anna.  “It looked familiar because we’ve seen it before, Ricky.  Remember back at the station?  Agent Coles and I were in the school basement and we found that symbol painted on the walls with blood.  Agent Christenson and Principal Jackson showed it to you as well, Anna.”
 “Oh yes.  Now I remember.  I told Principal Jackson that all the leaders of the Neo-Pagan club wore them on black strings and that they could glow in the dark,” replied Michalea.
 “What does it mean?” asked Ricky as he took the handkerchief from Shawn and rinsed it off.
 “I have no idea.  All I know is that that basement was like a province of Hell.  I know where my bad dreams come from now.  There was blood all over the walls but it wasn’t splattered there randomly, it was used to write on the walls.  I still get shivers thinking of it.  According to the information that we’ve already received though, Principal Jackson and Agent Christenson saw some simile of Peter the day they investigated the school and he said something about knowing about them and being with them all the time.  Those exact sayings were painted on the walls.”
 “I thought it was just some kind of red paint or something like that,” said Ricky with a slightly confused look on his face.
 “We got the test results right before we left to bring Anna back home.  It was AB blood.”
 “What type was Peter’s?”
 “O positive I think.  We don’t know whose blood it was but we do know that there was a hell of a lot of it on the walls.”
 “Wait,” interrupted Anna.  “What did you say that Principal Jackson and Agent Christenson heard from Peter?”
 “Well, it wasn’t Peter who said it.”
 “I know that, just tell me what they heard.”
 “If I remember correctly it was a faint sibilant whispering in their ear saying ‘I am with you.  I will always be with you.  I know.’  Why are you so interested in what he said?”
 “I never mentioned this to Agent Christenson or Principal Jackson but Lucy told me the day before Peter died that she a weird dream where she walked into the school.  Peter was supposed to meet her there to talk about something.  She walked around the entire school looking for him and when she finally found him he was standing in front of the stairs to the basement.  She asked him how he was but he only told her that whatever happens he will always be with her.  She asked him what he meant but he only said, ‘You will know.  Only you and I know.’”
 “That sounds very interesting,” replied Shawn thoughtfully.  “Why didn’t you mention this to anyone, though?”
 “I didn’t think it was very important.  Lucy always has weird dreams and she always tells me about them.  Its not that I’m a bad friend its just that they’re usually the same thing over and over.  Something about being chased by some figure in black robes…  Oh my God…”
 Ricky and Shawn both looked sharply at each other.  “Black robes,” repeated Ricky carefully.
 “Yes.  I’m trying to remember what else she said.  She mentioned something about an altar of black stone, a circle of three, and the return of a three horned god.”
 “That sounds confusing,” replied Ricky.
 “No, no it doesn’t,” answered Shawn.  “I think I understand what she was getting at.  The altar was the square, a circle of three doesn’t just make a circle it also makes a triangle, and the spines represent this three horned god.  The symbol that we’ve been puzzling over is a religious symbol for some sort of a cult.”
 “Which means that the Neo-Pagan club…” faltered Anna.
 “Was a way to find sacrifices to this god,” finished Shawn.

 Roger Christenson woke up with a start.  He was covered in a cold sweat despite the fact that his room was very hot, even burning.  He looked down and saw that he was still wearing his suit.  Roger slowly swung his legs to the side of his bed and shook his head.  He remembered Edgar driving him back from the station and falling into bed as soon as he walked into the room.  I must not have gotten undressed, he thought to himself as he stood up.  Roger felt light headed and the room began to spin on him.  His body spasmed uncontrollably as he fell hard to the floor, a thin wail erupted deep from within his body rising in volume as he lost more and more control of his body.  Roger felt his pants get warm and wet as his bladder loosened.  His head rapidly tattooed itself on the hardwood floor as he bites through his tongue.  His wail became something incomprehensible to the human ear as wet-tearing sounds filled the room.  The last thing he could remember before he fell unconscious was a triangle with three spines on top of it superimposed on a square, burning brightly on the ceiling.

 The man sits up coughing blood over the floor.  He is on a black stone slab in a dark room and his arms are chained to the wall.  He is completely naked and all the hair on his body is gone.  He does not know where it went or even how he got here.  He lies back down on the cool slab and rests his hands on his stomach.  He feels something that was not there before.  He gets up again and looks at his chest, his eyes narrowing in the pale light.  A symbol was carved onto his chest with a sharp knife.  The wound is not completely healed over yet as he can still feel wetness around the edges of the cut.  Three cuts are on the top of a triangle and surrounding the triangle is a square.  He gently traces the wound fully until he notices that a similar design is on the back of his left hand.
 The man remembers when he first saw the symbol.  A child he knew wore it around his neck on a piece of thick black string.  The child was very proud of his adornment and would not take it off for anything, even though it disturbed film reels by glowing in the dark.  The symbol had etched itself in his mind and he remembered that his hand had begun to itch and red markings appeared on his hand the next day but he just shrugged it off.  Now he lies on his back and tries to remember what really happened.  Unfortunately he cannot recall anything that happened.  He cannot even remember what happened earlier in his life.
 The door opens and a tall man walks in.  His face looks oddly familiar and yet he cannot place a name to it.  The man reaches across his body and pulls it a long sharp knife.  It is still stained with blood but the edge is a silverly sheen that looks very pretty to him.  He watches as the man delicately places the knife on the bottom side of the square and slices into his skin.  He feels a slight itching sensation as the knife is pulled away.  The tall man then takes a pair of thick tweezers and sticks them into the open wound.  He pulls out half a foot of his intestine and cuts it off.  He giggles as he watches the man give his intestine to the assistant.  He watches as his chains are reattached to the ceiling and his legs are tied together.  He is pulled up and hangs above the altar.
 He sees that there are holes in the altar and a large gold basin at the bottom with spouts hanging over it.  His head comes up a little as he hears some rustling in the corner.  Four more of the people in the black robes came over to the tall man and his assistant.  They carry long flesh colored bandages and they stand patiently as the man speaks words that he cannot understand.  The man takes his sharp knife and begins to open long cuts all along his body.  He stares with a bemused smile at the glimmering red liquid as it pools into the altar.  ‘How pretty,’ he thinks to himself as his head falls forward and the light in his eyes dim and go out.

 “Alex?  This is Agent Coles.  I’m calling from DC.”
 “Hello, Damian,” replied Alex.
 “I need you to do a favor for me.”
 “Sure.”
 “I need you to check the body of Peter Morris.  I know he’s still interred at the morgue in Murbrook.”
 “We did.  We didn’t really find anything remarkable though,” answered Alex.
 “Are you sure?  Did you see it yourself or were you told by the mortician?”
 “They wouldn’t let me back there when they investigated the body.”
 “Who are they?” asked Damian quickly.
 “The mortician is Joseph Walter’s boy, Luke and the undertaker that the Morris family chose was his other son, Mark.  Why?  You don’t suspect the Walter’s do you?”
 “Right now I don’t know who to suspect.  From what Roger and Edgar told me, however, Joseph Walter is one of our number one suspects in the case.  Is there anyway you can see the body before the wake and without anyone looking over your shoulder?”
 “I think there is.  I might have to sneak in but I usually have to report any poaching cases that I find in the state forest.  I can make up some reason to go in there and then slip away with my reports later on.”
 “Good.  When you find Peter’s body look at anything that might be out of the ordinary.  Its already been picked over by Luke and Mark so I doubt that you’ll find anything highly incriminating but do your best.”
 “Okay, I’ll see what I can do then.  I’ll try and get back to you tomorrow.  Is there anything else?”
 “Yes.  Is Jon McPhereson at the station tonight?”
 “He is.  Actually I see him walking towards me right now.  You want to talk to him?”
 “Yes.”
 “Okay here it is,” said Alex as he handed the phone over to Jon after whispering in his ear that it was Damian.
 “Damian.  How are you?” asked Jon.
 “I’m doing well, Jon.  How about you?”
 “Well besides this case I’m doing fine.  I haven’t heard from my brother in awhile though.  He was supposed to stop off at Lita’s after he dropped Anna off and he’s almost never late.”
 “Did you send someone to check it out?” asked Damian concernedly.
 “Yeah.  We sent a patrol car out there.  They might have stopped and gotten coffee or something because Anna’s mom called and said that she hasn’t seen her yet.”
 “You should definitely check that out and as soon as possible.  It might be nothing but I think that there’s something go on in your town and that whatever it is it isn’t very nice.”
 “Should we establish a curfew?  I know that’ll keep the kids off the streets and might keep incidents down.”
 “That’s an excellent idea.  I also have a personal favor to ask you.  I want you to keep a close surveillance on Lucy Walter.  I received some disturbing information that she could be the next victim.”
 “I’ll do it but how’d you find that out?  I mean we couldn’t find any connections stating that Lucy would be attacked next.”
 “It’s a state secret my friend.  You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.  I have a bad feeling that if Lucy comes up missing our problem will multiply exponentially and not just because of Reverend Walter.”
 “I’ll do that first thing in the morning,” promised Jon just as the intercom clicked.  Jon nodded to Alex to turn on the intercom.
 “Chief McPhereson,” came the voice.  “We’re at the Johnson ranch and there’s no sign of Anna, Ricky, or Shawn.  There’s broken glass all over the road though and we found Ricky’s and Shawn’s pieces on the ground.  There are also tractor marks on the ground and car tracks next to them.”
 “Jon?” asked Damian.  “Jon, are you okay?”
 “Yeah…yeah I’m still here.”
 “Okay.  Shawn will be okay.  He’s an intelligent young man and can take care of himself.  I’m sure they’re all okay.  We’ll find them, Jon.”
 “Yes…what did you say you were going to do to this son of a bitch?”
 “Hang him from the highest tree I can find, Jon.”
 “Good.”

 Anna stared at the necklace in her hand.  She had found it while walking around the small island.  As Shawn had told her and Ricky earlier, they were somewhere in the middle of Lake Claire with no way to get back home.  Anna had walked the island twice now and during her second trip she had seen the reflection of the sun off some shiny object laying on the rocks.  She had gone over and picked up the object.  Now she stared at it, entranced by the fine design.  It was heavy for its size and exactly as Ricky and Shawn had explained and as she had seen in school as well.  It was all black and she wondered how it glowed red in the dark as there didn’t appear to be any sort of internal or external lighting source.  The thick black string was only about six inches long and it was threaded through the top spine of the symbol.
 Anna walked back to where Ricky and Shawn lay, carrying the symbol with her.  “What is that?” asked Ricky as he pulled himself up and walked over to Anna.
 “It’s one of the symbols.  I found it walking around the island.  Here take a look at it,” said Anna as she handed it over to Ricky and Shawn.
 “It’s heavy,” said Ricky surprised as she dropped it in his hand.  “Here you are Shawn.”
 “Odd.  I’ve never seen anything like this before.  The string is really interesting, too,” muttered Shawn.
 “Why?” asked Anna as she sat down next to him.
 “It’s some sort of dried animal product.  Look here,” instructed Shawn as he pointed at the string.  “It’s thick but its not a weaving or made of artificial material because its solid.”  Shawn then broke the string and showed Anna and Ricky the inside of the string.  “See there’s no weaving its just a solid piece of something.  It has the consistency of stuffed intestine, though.”
 “How do you know all of this stuff?” asked Ricky.
 “I took a lot of college classes that dealt with both forensics and biology.  Luke Walter and I took a lot of the same courses, actually.  He became a mortician in Murbrook, though.  He was a smart guy, knew a lot about the human body and pharmaceuticals, especially anesthetics.”
 “This is all interesting, guys,” interrupted Anna.  “But it won’t do us any good unless we get off this stupid island.  I mean I’m interested in the symbol and everything but I’m more interested in getting home.”
 “We all are, Anna,” said Shawn calmly.  “Eventually Jon and your mother will realize that we’re missing and they’ll put out an APB on us.”
 “But we disappeared, Shawn,” said Ricky.  “They won’t know where to look or even where to start.  If we want to be found we’re going to need to help our own cause here.”
 “How?” asked Anna.
 “Well there is a lot of underbrush on this island and driftwood.  I still have my knife with me, all we would need is a piece of flint and according to the geography reports of this area there is a lot of flint here,” mused Shawn.
 “We light a signal fire?” questioned Ricky.
 “Can you think of anything else?  We’d have to do it at night though in order to get the most attention.  But it will take us awhile to get everything ready and to even get a small flame going.  Have any of you lit a fire with flint and steel?”
 Both Anna and Ricky shook their heads.  “Do you know what flint looks like?” asked Ricky.
 “Yeah.  It’s a black stone that chips easily.  Don’t worry just show it to me when you find it and I’ll tell you whether its flint or not.”
 Anna nodded and walked into the interior of the island.  She needed time to think and reflect about what had happened to her and she couldn’t think with Ricky and Shawn talking all the time.  The island wasn’t very big but it they hadn’t explored the interior yet.  The interior of the island was brightly lit despite being crowded with trees and underbrush.  The ground was soft with pine needles and small birds chirped in the trees.  Anna felt much calmer here than on the noisy shore where the waves broke over the rocks.
 Anna wandered over a small hill, her eyes looking for the small pieces of flint that Shawn had described.  Ricky was somewhere nearby, as she could hear him crashing through the trees and Shawn was gathering some of the large branches that had fallen near the shore.  Anna stopped short and looked downward, she had stubbed her toe on a black rock.  It was wedged into the ground and the tip of it had been pointing straight up.  She saw that it was fairly thick and the sides of it were chipped as if it had been shaped into something.  Anna knelt down and pried at the stone, wiggling it in order to loosen the dirt around it.  When she finally pulled it out of the ground she realized that the stone had shaped into something similar to an axe head.  Anna did not know what drive her to look back down at the hole that she had made but she soon wished she hadn’t.  Staring up at her was a grinning human skull.

 Ricky’s arms were loaded with branches when he heard the scream.  Anna had told him and Shawn that she would look for the flint mainly because she had some general idea of what it looked like and because Shawn couldn’t go out into the woods and search for anything as he only had one arm.  Ricky would be the one to gather the larger branches and logs needed to build the bonfire and Shawn took over looking for tinder to start the fire if Anna managed to find some flint.
 “Ricky!” yelled Shawn as he ran towards him.  “Where’s Anna?”
 Ricky yelled back, “I don’t know,” as he dropped the logs that he was carrying and ran towards the direction of Anna’s screaming.
 They found her in a small basin near the middle of the island.  She was scrunched in front of a small hill holding a large piece of flint that was shaped like an axe.  Standing in the middle of the basin was a large black stone about six feet in length with three large holes coming out of the front of it.  Shawn walked over to Anna.  “Are you okay?” he asked gently.
 “L…Loo…Look,” she said as she pointed at the ground in front of her.
 Ricky walked over and stared at the hole in the ground.  A human skull looked back up at him.  He motioned Shawn to stay where he was and proceeded to the large black stone.  Ricky felt strangely detached as he ran his fingers over the stone, feeling the pores in it and the rough texture.  The top of the stone was sunken down in the shape of a body and at the lowest point above where the small of the back would be was a large hole much like a sink.  There were four holes on the actual stone itself where it seemed that poles would fit into.  The stone itself was shiny and covered in what appeared to be dried blood from a long time ago.  Ricky knelt down and looked at the spouts that he had seen earlier, noticing that they were connected to the hole on the top of stone.
 He brushed his fingers against the side of it again and was surprised when a large chunk of dirt fell off.  He looked back and saw that Shawn was still consoling Anna, not paying attention to what Ricky was doing.  Ricky turned back and began to vigorously pick away at the stone, prying off large chunks of dirt.  Finally, he was done and he stepped back to see what had been hidden underneath.  He gave a small gasp of astonishment as he saw a triangle with three spines superimposed on a square.  This time, however, there was something else.  On each spine there appeared to be a human body and the in the square, surrounding the triangle were figures in long black robes each holding a human skull high above their heads.  Liquid flowed from some of the skulls into the mouths of the figures.  Ricky then looked at the triangle and shivered, two malevolent eyes glared balefully back at him above a row of sharp teeth.  Three horns surmounted the thing’s head and they too dripped some sort of liquid.
 Ricky shivered again and turned his face away from the design on the stone.  The sunlight seemed much weaker and sickly now despite the fact that there were no trees in the small basin to obscure any light.  He felt himself shivering and shaking, his teeth chattering in his mouth and he looked up to see Anna and Shawn observing him carefully.  Ricky shook his head, he thought he saw a small smirk on Shawn’s face as he looked at them and Anna held the axe head menacingly.  They both stood up together, and he watched as they let each other’s hands go.  Ricky took a step back, scared; his pulse was racing as they approached him from either side.  Shawn held his knife loosely in his good hand and walked closer to him.  Ricky did the only thing he could think of, he turned and ran as fast as possible…

 “He was a good boy, Edgar,” sighed Ellen Morris as she handed him a cup of tea.
 “I know, Ellen.  I know.  I’m so sorry for what happened.”
 “I know you are and Rudy does too.  He’s tearing himself up with what happened. I honestly believe that he thinks he should have died before Peter and that he’d be willing to take Peter’s place.”
 “It’s a parental instinct,” replied Edgar softly.  “Every parent believes that their children should outlast them and when they don’t then it’s a painful shock to take.  How is Rudy doing, anyway?”
 “He’s okay.  The doctors even believe that he’ll be able to leave the hospital in a week or so.  His mother is with him most of the time and she’s been helping out around the house.  It’s so quiet now, with Rudy in the hospital, Peter dead, and Ricky working all the time.  You will take care of Ricky, right?”
 “Yes.  He’ll be taken care of.”
 “Why does he work so much?”
 “He does it as a defense mechanism.  We’re all different in how we handle tragedy.  When Maria died I fell into the same depression that Rudy and Lucy Walter did.  Ricky knows that if he thinks about it then he’ll be the same way and so he works a lot to get his mind off what happened.  How are you coping?”
 “I cry.  I cry a lot.  I think I’ve cleaned this house from top to bottom eight different times.  I spend a lot of time at church praying and even in Peter’s garden.”
 “Good.  Keep yourself busy it’ll keep your mind off what happened.  We’ll find out who did this and we’ll make them pay.  Agents Coles and Christenson are very talented and intelligent men and they’ll get to the bottom of this.”
 “Good.  I want to see the son of a bitch who killed my son dead.”
 “You will,” promised Edgar.  He then decided to turn the conversation back to the phone call he had received from Ellen Morris.  “You said you found something the other day that you wanted to show me?”
 “Oh, yes. I almost forgot.  As I said earlier I was cleaning his room and I was changing the sheets on his bed when I saw a chest all the way in the corner.  I moved the bed and pulled it out and saw that it was locked.  I guessed the combination, it was Lucy’s birthday, and found this,” said Ellen as she placed a large leather bound book on the table in front of Edgar.  She also took out a bunch of envelopes and placed them on top of the book.  “It’s funny but all of these letters are addressed from a Tomas Nolond in a state penitentiary…”

 Lucy Walter wandered down the hall of the school arm in arm with Peter Morris.  They seemed to float down the hallway like royalty.  Lucy frowned a little though as she saw that instead of smiling and saying hi as people usually did, they frowned and whispered in each other’s ears.  Mary Jane Raulson and Anna Johnson looked especially worried as they watched the couple walk down the hall toward the principal’s office.  Lucy looked up at Peter and tried to speak but he softly put a finger on her lips.  Lucy shrugged off her odd feeling and walked with Peter, a bright smile on her face.
 She looked surprised as they walked past the principal’s office and Lucy became even more worried when she saw that the office was empty.  Usually Principal Jackson was there with a big grin on his face welcoming any student who walked by to come in and tell him there troubles.  Peter kept on walking past the office toward the stairs to the basement.  He stopped and looked at Lucy with a loving gaze.  “I’m sorry Lucy.  I’m more sorry than you could ever realize.”
 “Why, Peter?”
 “I’m sorry for what I did.  I know you’re in pain and its all my fault.  Please understand, though; I was only trying to help you.  I want you to be happy and safe.”
 “Why are you talking like this.  What’s got into you lately?  Has Mary Jane been telling you things again?” said Lucy with a hard edge in her voice but as she looked into his eyes she instantly felt sorry for what she had said.
 “No.  No, it has nothing to do with Mary Jane at all.  I just wanted to tell you something before I have to go.”
 “Go?  Go where?”
 But Peter ignored her and leaned down to her ear.  He whispered quietly to her and even though she could not understand what he was saying she kept it in her mind.  Peter then straightened and gave her a chaste kiss on her cheek.  He then stepped back and opened the door to the basement without looking.  He caressed her cheek.  “I love you Lucy Walter and tell your father that that is my sin.  I know your pain and I’m sorry, just remember that I will be with you always…” whispered Peter as he stepped into the darkness and disappeared.
 Lucy awoke in her dark room.  Her tears staining her face.  She could still feel his caresses and his kiss on her cheek.  But she dashed away her tears with one hand and reached for the phone.  She dialed quickly and waited for the other line to pick up.  “Hello?  Chief McPhereson? I have something to tell you.  Something very important…”