Read Online Encounters by Stewart Felkel - Free Book Online Page B

grew weaker as his brain lost oxygen. He glanced around but no one else was outside and the few windows with lights coming from them were covered. He dragged him up the stairs and inside the house.
    The lack of neighbors served him well. He counted to 60 to make sure of him then laid him down while he went back outside. He left the body while he went to retrieve his work gloves from his truck. His arms were shaking a little from the exertion and adrenaline in his system. On his way back in he retrieved the knife and the broken bits of glasses from the ground. He stood up and then paused like he had forgotten something. Glancing around him he saw the still lit cigarette. He extinguished it with his toe before adding it to the pile of evidence. He went back inside and began removing any trace he might have left on the body, just in case it was ever found. He stripped his jacket to remove any blood from it. He even wiped down his lighter to remove the man’s prints. He checked his ID and saw that he was a local man, which would mean he would be missed soon. That was a shame. If he was a drifter, like himself, then this would have been so much easier.
    Soon enough he was in his truck headed to the hardware store. As was his practice, the first day he was in town he had taken the day to drive around and familiarize his self with the town. That familiarity would serve him well again tonight. First the hardware store for plastic sheeting and Sack Crete and then to Wal-Mart for duc t tape and industrial sized zip-ties. It wouldn't do to buy it all in one place.
    When he returned home he wrapped the body in sheeting with the evidence laid on top and duct taped it together. He then placed the plastic wrapped body on another layer. The Sack Crete he mixed in a bucket in the living room before pouring it liberally over the body. Then he wrapped it again with several layers and zip tied it together. He glanced around again before dragging it to the truck, but the park was still empty. He lugged the body to the truck and closed the hard bedcover over it. He drove the limit exactly, never failed to use a blinker, and otherwise took great pains not to be noticed. A twenty minute trip found him on a small bridge over the Ouachita River watching the body sink out of sight. He stood there a minute and watched the stars some more. They were even more beautiful over the water. He supposed that he would need to stay long enough not to raise suspicion when someone filed a missing persons report, but he doubted that the body would ever be found. Not in the dim, dark, deep waters of the Ouachita. He drove home and turned on the radio. The news was once more about the Rest Stop Butcher. Police were still looking for suspects and asking anyone with information to call in. In the dark of his cabin he smiled.
     

Author’s foreword:
    Despite not selling well I really enjoyed the character from A Night Under the Stars. As such I sat down and hammered out Monsters as a sequel. On my phone of course, between classes. I moved him out west, still not sure where he was headed. Honestly I still have no idea where he is headed. I guess we’ll find out when we get there. Again, this story is dark, possibly my darkest, and makes no apologies for it.
     
    He nursed his beer while trying to guess the woman’s name. She was sitting at the bar sipping on some fruity concoction through a straw. She was a petite brunette wearing a blue sundress and when she had first walked in he immediately noticed her puffy eyes and lack of makeup. She looked like a Mary or maybe a Miranda. In the end it didn’t matter he thought as he raised his bottle to his lips. Pick-ups usually went south as soon as they found out that he lived in RV parks. He decided that he would finish this beer and then leave. There were exactly four people in the bar; the brunette, Susie maybe, the bartender, a dark haired young man in a black pea coat, and himself. The young man was slumped over the