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The Horror in Smithville[/caption]

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Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe and to another episode of my scary little tale ‘The Horror in Smithville’! With Halloween rapidly approaching I am making every effort to put the final touches on this suspenseful tale of juvenile horror. Today I have yet another addition of the ‘Part 14’ that works to establish several different pints of view. We have; Timmy and Archer headed to the hospital, Betty Sue and Truman dealing with the aggressor Barry, Middle School Principal Roger Marsch headed to “the job site”, Sheriff Walter Daniels head to “the job site”, and Archer’s Father Ralph Simner already AT “the job site”. There is a ‘Winter Weather Advisory’ that is about to turn into a ‘Winter Storm’ and I am not going to say another word about any of this. I will just leave you with the teaser that all the people headed for “the Job Site”… well; they are not going to be playing arcade games when they get there.

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We pick up where we left off, last week. Truman and Betty Sue have Barry Gartuska locked in the inner office of the Principal’s office of the Middle School. Deputy Darryl is headed to the Middle School, to pick up Barry and take him to the Smithville Sheriff’s Office. What happens, in today’s adventure, is going to be some of the most fun I have had in weeks of writing. I just hope that it is the same for you, My Dear Readers, too! Before I leave you to the tale and the characters (too), I want to remind you all of one thing. Regardless of my; pain, appointments, nausea, depression, scans, lack of sleep, lost weight, and growing concern over my condition? I am always right here sharing this story with you, My Dear Readers.

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I am rapidly approaching SIX HUNDERED ARTICLES here at The Other Shoe. 600 articles and ONE really great tale of horror and suspense… and all for FREE! There are never any ads or advertisements on my blog! I do not want the distractions, so I pay to have them removed. FIVE YEARS and 600 articles… and I am just asking for your support helping me BATTLE my CANCER. When you are reading, today, please think about that and… maybe at the end you will take a moment and donate. PLEASE?

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Now, without further adieu I give to you ‘The Horror in Smithville’!

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Part Fourteen – B – 3

As soon as Truman had closed the door the Principal’s private office behind him. Barry Gartuska began wriggling and squirming, all in a vain effort to gain release from the handcuffs and the steel framed chair. He, first, pulled his left hand as far as he could through the chair back. Nearly standing on his head, he slipped and fell face forward back into the chair. That had hurt his shoulder something fierce. Hang on… his shoulder… Barry was actually trying to have a thought. It was something from a movie he saw… about handcuffs… a shoulder… Nope, he drew a blank.

Next, Barry tried threading his right hand through the chair back. He almost had both his hands free when, slip. BAM! Now Barry had landed squarely on his butt. Again, he hurt his other shoulder, and again it made him think. Something about a hurt shoulder and getting out of handcuffs… Nope, again a blank. Barry weaved his right hand back through the chair back and sat down. Barry sat quietly, for a moment, listening to the voices in the outer office. Sounded like Betty Sue was being her normal harebrained and frantic self! HA! Barry may have been handcuffed to a chair bolted to the floor, but at least he didn’t have to deal with Betty Sue. He counted himself lucky.

He was sitting there, quietly, when it occurred to him. He had been able to weave both his hands through the chair back, so that they were free from being fixed behind him. He may not be able to get out of the chair, or the office, but he could move just enough to get out a cigarette, and maybe even smoke one, too! Again Barry weaved first his left, then his right hands through the chair back. Trying, desperately, to figure out just how he was going to be able to get his cigarettes, and lighter, out of his pants… and a cigarette lit! The more he worked at this goal, the more he really wanted a cigarette!

BAM! Barry was sitting on the floor with both his hands above his head. That time he had nearly dislocated his shoulder… … … Dang it! He’d almost had it that time. A movie where a guy dislocates his shoulder… to get out of handcuffs? Barry did not like all this… thinking! It was way too much like math class! Barry did not like math class. He had always picked his schedule so that any math class came right after lunch. That way, he could get high during lunch and sleep through all that plus, minus, divide, and multiply bullshit. Nobody ever really needed that junk, right? Barry was sitting on the floor, wishing that his mind would just stop trying to remember the movie… that and stop trying to figure out how to get a cigarette.

Barry was sitting on the floor, facing the left backside of Principal Marsch’s desk… when everything in the room… went foggy. The whole room appeared to be filling with smoke or fog. He wriggled his back into his chair, so that he was sitting down and facing the front to the desk directly. Just as he had managed to squirm his butt back into the seat of the metal chair, the fog in the room began to… well, began to gather in the corner to his right. Right behind/beside Principal’s Marsch’s desk, to the left of the Principal’s chair, all the fog in the room was gathering.

Barry started getting a really bad headache. His vision started blurring, and his head throbbed. He did his best to just focus on the gathering fog. He was focusing harder than he had for anything before in his life. That was probably the reason for the headache, right? He was focusing and the fog was gathering, when he thought he heard a voice. Yet, the voice did not originate, like he thought it might, in the corner with the growing cloud of fog and smoke. No, this voice rumbled in Barry’s head. Fog was swirling all around the corner of the office, getting darker and deeper black as it gathered in the center. While in Barry’s head a low and inaudible voice rumbled causing his headache to grow in leaps and bounds. Barry, in a futile effort to block the growing voice, tried to cover his ears with handcuffed hands.

It was he was engaged in that futile effort that Barry smelled… it. Like someone trying to bar-b-que a three-week-old road kill possum on their backyard grill, it filled his nose with a pungent odor. His head swimming, his ears filled with a growing low rumbling angry voice, his nose filling with the pungent odor of burnt road kill, Barry began to wretch. Unable to turn, enough, left or right due to the weave of the handcuffs into the chair back, Barry began to wretch all over his own pants and shoes. Slowly, at first, his nausea was only increased by the smell of his own sick.

Not wanting to see his own vomit, Barry jerked his head up. That was when he saw… it! Formed from smoke and shadows, standing as tall as the seven-foot roof of the office, it formed from the center out. Dark black smoke, followed by a sharp and putrid smell, filled the air. Barry was scared to death, he tried leaning back in the chair, that didn’t work. He tried to lift up out of the chair; all he did was wrench his arms so bad he thought they would pull of out their sockets. No matter what Barry tired, he wasn’t avoiding what ever was forming in the corner of the room. He sat down, and waited for his fate to form.

The thick putrid black smoke whirled and turned, slowly out of the confused gases a form took shape. Standing every inch of seven feet, as thin as a rail, and clothed in smoke and shadows, a human form appeared. ‘The Tall Man’ appeared before Barry, and Barry was certain that this encounter just might be his last. Barry hardened his appearance, just as ‘The Tall Man’ began to speak.

“Hello, Barry. I am ‘The Tall Man’, or so I have been labeled by your contemporaries Timmy and Archer. I am very happy to make your acquaintance, and hope that you and I can be ‘friends’. You see, Barry, you and I have a great deal.. in common. I, too, dislike the meddling Duo; Timmy Marref and his diminutive side-kick Archer. They, already, have interfered in my plans, and have befriended one of my arch rivals… ‘Mr. Champion’.”

Barry listened, carefully, to what ‘The Tall Man’ was saying. Regardless of their common dislike for Timmy and Archer, something deep inside Barry, made him naturally repel from the man dressed in shadows. Barry liked being ‘The Bully’, and never shied away from picking on someone smaller than himself. He stole, he lied, he beat on smaller kids, and he would rather spend an afternoon burning stuff than going to school. Yet Barry had never seen himself as, well, ‘evil’. This ‘Tall Man’ was gonna have to work for his friendship, and when better than right now. Barry hadn’t smoked a cigarette in almost an hour, and he was Jonesing for one bad!

“Not so easy, Tall Man, I want… stuff, starting with a cigarette! How bout a smoke, then we’ll talk.”

Barry sat up in the chair, as much as his handcuffs would allow, and waited for The Tall Man to meet his demand. ‘The Tall Man’… moved… for the lack of a better word. It wasn’t so much moving like you or me, his tall form seemed more to glide out of the far corner of the room. His feet lifted and he walked like anyone else, it was just that his movement was just the fluid way he moved. Oh, and his feet? First, no shoes. Second, there were hooves at the end of his long spindly legs, not feet with shoes on them. Barry noticed, that when ‘The Tall Man’ moved toward him. He noticed the hooves, and he noticed that when he walked, his hooves left burn marks in the carpet. Burn marks the shape of horseshoes, but made in dark black of burnt carpet threads. Small plumes of smoke arose from the carpet, when his hooves touched the fabric beneath his hooves.

“So, Barry wants a cigarette, yes?’ Barry remains silent and just nods his head.

“Well, how about the one right here, the one it looks as though you might have dropped? Will that one be alright?” Again, remaining silent, Barry nods in agreement.

“No, don’t move, let me get that for you my good friend Barry.”

Barry looks at the cigarette; he had dropped earlier, on the floor. Not knowing what to expect next, would he reach down and pick it up? Would his hands burn the cigarette the way his hooves burnt the carpet? Barry didn’t know what to expect, except to expect the unexpected. As Barry stared at the cigarette, it began to life up off the carpet! The Tall Man was still a good five feet from Barry or the cigarette, and he had made no move to get closer. His hands were not movi9ng, either. You know, like in all the movies and TV shows? When someone, or something, goes to move something without their hands, they stretch out a hand and, like, guide the object through the air? None of that stuff with The Tall Man.

Barry quickly glanced up at The Tall Man only to see that he was looking directly at Barry. He smiled. Well it was like a smile, his lips upturned at the edge of his mouth that was all. Then Barry returned his gaze to the, now, floating cigarette as it approached his face. Suddenly, the floating cigarette halted its mid-air acrobatics. It stopped, just inches from Barry’s face, and floated motionless.

“Well, Barry, if you intend to smoke that cigarette. I will need to light it for you, won’t I? I mean I really don’t see how you could light this cigarette in your current state of confinement. Here, let me light this for you.”

OK, majorly creepy, nut Barry didn’t look away from the cigarette of The Tall Man for a moment. Barry wanted to see just how The Tall Man was going to light the cigarette for Barry. Again, The Tall Man did not reach out, he didn’t hold out a hand and snap his fingers, an unlike ‘I Dream of Genie’ he did not wiggle his nose. Nope, it just happened. One moment the cigarette was not lit, and the next there was a red-hot cherry at the tip of the cigarette. Now it began to move, again, right towards Barry’s mouth. Barry opened his lips, slightly, to allow the cigarette egress. As soon as it touched his lips, Barry shut his lips and began to draw. The tip flared and he drew smoke into his lungs. It was lit. Barry smoked the cigarette, drawing drag after drag from the cigarette. Everything, except the how he got the smoke, seemed normal. Everything except the taste. Barry couldn’t put his finger on it, the taste, but it was as if he had lit the cigarette with a piece of charcoal, like from a Bar-B-Que. Kind of an acrid and dry taste. Other than that, the cigarette smoked just fine, and it was helping Barry to relax and gather his thoughts.

The Tall Man had withdrawn back to the corner, almost as if he belonged in the shadows. Barry was gathering his thoughts and he had a few; first this guy was not ‘The Devil’ Barry was not sure how he knew this, but he did… second, this Tall Man didn’t mean to kill Barry or he would be dead already… third, this Tall Man needed Barry for something, he didn’t know what but until The Tall Man got what he wanted Barry figured he was as safe as safe could be. Now it was time to find out what this Tall Man was here for.

“K.. Thanks for the smoke. It is about spent, what should I do with it?”

“Just let it drop from your mouth, Barry. It isn’t going to burn the office down. There are two people, just outside that door, that will keep anything from burning down. Now, you have had your smoke… you are thinking clearer… are you ready?”

Barry’s back tensed and his arms and legs became cold as if all the blood, in them, just ran for his body. “Are you ready?” Barry wasn’t sure he was ready for whatever The Tall Man had in store, for him. Matter o’fact, Barry was pretty sure that when The Tall Man was done with Barry… well, they were going to find his dead body in an empty lot somewhere. The only way to stay alive was to trick this Tall Man or manage to get him to leave and leave Barry… here. Barry’s mind was racing, for one of the first times in his life. Having spent the first twelve years of his life avoiding thinking, learning, and remembering Barry’s poor brain was ill-equipped and unprepared for the moment.

“Stop thinking so hard Barry. Your brain isn’t use to it, and it doesn’t suit you. Just come right out and tell me. Are you ready?”

Barry screwed up all the courage he had. He squared his shoulders, sit up straight in the chair, and spoke directly and clearly to The Tall Man.

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘Are you ready’… but I am not leaving here with you. If I do that… well, I will end up dead. Maybe not right away, but as soon as you are done with me, I will end up dead and dumped somewheres.”

The Tall Man did that thing with his face, again. Where the edges of his mouth turn up, but it doesn’t really look like a smile. Barry is trying his hardest to sit firm. To not show how scared he is, or seem weak in any way. It was just then, when Barry saw the handset of the Principal’s phone floating toward him. Toward his face. Barry flinched, some, thinking that it might be floating towards him to hit him, or something. Then he heard voices on the phone. Familiar voices, he heard Mr. Dunahoo’s voice on the phone. So he leaned into the phone and rested his left ear on the receiver.

" This is Truman Dunahoo… Teacher over to the Middle School? We are holding Barry Gartuska… … … garbled speech mixed with static… .. We do not have the facilities to hold students… indefinitely. Do you hear me, Deputy Darryl? Do you understand me Deputy Darryl?” Then there is silence, for a moment. Then a less familiar voice starts to speak on the receiver. ““Yes, Truman… I remember you! You are the English and Drama teacher at the Middle School… … You say you are holding the boy that beat up Timmy Marref?... ... OK... I understand. No, you are right you shouldn’t be holding be holding a murderer there at the Middle School!”

MURDERER! Timmy is dead? Barry knew he had given that gaywad the beating he had always wanted… the beating he deserved. But, he didn’t think he had beat him that bad. Bad enough to kill someone. The other voice on the phone, who was it? He had heard it before, that voice, somewhere and at sometime he had heard that voice. He just couldn’t place the voice, right now. Where had he heard the voice? Barry was thinking and thinking hard. His brain was not accustom to all this work, and Barry began to get a terrible headache. He strained and strained… “No, you are right you shouldn’t be holding be holding a murderer there at the Middle School!”… …. … WHO would Truman be talking to about “holding a murderer”?

Just as Barry spoke his name out loud, The Tall Man spoke the answer to the question hanging in Barry’s mind…

“Deputy Darryl!” They said in unison.

That was Deputy Darryl on the phone with Truman saying “No, you are right you shouldn’t be holding be holding a murderer there at the Middle School!” That meant that Deputy Darryl would be on his way to the Middle School to pick up Barry… ME! Barry had put all the pieces together, and with only limited help from The Tall Man. Deputy Darryl, and Truman and Betty Sue, ALL thought Barry was a murderer! Barry was not going to be going home, tonight. Or any other night, for that matter. Barry needed to think but his head was, already, screaming at him for all the work already. Barry had to get out of that office right now and he had to do it without leaving with The Tall Man. Barry had never believed in ‘God’ before, he was starting to reconsider that decision. As the wheels were turning, in side Barry’s head, outside a voice spoke to him.

“Barry… Barry they think you are a murderer, Barry. You heard the phone… Deputy Darryl is on his way, right now, to come and take you away! Barry you know what they do to boys your age in jail. Don’t you Barry?” Barry, you do not want to be here when Deputy Darryl gets here, believe me! They won’t give locking you away and throwing away the key… a second thought! Barry you killed a well liked BOY! You are going to die, Barry! They are going to kill you!”

Geeze! Didn’t The Tall Man know that Barry knew what they were going to do? Barry knew what they would do to him, in jail. He also knew that they were not about to let him live after beating that little gayward to death! DANGIT! It was an ACCIDENT! I didn’t MEAN to beat him to death! I just got a little carried away! Yeah, but they wouldn’t understand that. His Dad would understand! His Dad would know what it was to get carried away beating up a gaywad! If only he could get to his Dad! His Dad would know what to do! Now, how was he going to get past Truman and that Betty Sue?

Just as Barry was trying to figure out just how to get past two grown adults blocking his way out, Barry felt heat on his face and smelled… smelled something worse than a dead cat! It was The Tall Man and he was right up in Barry’s grill… and he was talking.

“Barry. Barry, you really need to listen to me, Barry. You are not going to get out of here, alone. Without my help, you are going to end up in the backseat of Deputy Darryl’s cruiser… then in a lock-up at the Smithville Police station while they wait for a County Marshall to come and take you to the county lock-up. After that, my dear Barry? After that you will be everyone’s ‘Play Toy’ until you are ‘Found Guilty By a Jury of Your Peers’. They, it will be off to the ELECTRIC CHAIR, Barry! They don’t use the ‘Lethal Injection’ here, anymore… no drugs for Barry! Nope, they will strap you into Ol’Sparky and light you up like a Christmas Tree! But I CAN HELP YOU, Barry! Just let me help you!?!?”

Barry just couldn’t think with this freaky guy up in his grill… and that smell! What had this creep been eating? Road Kill for breakfast? It was about to make Barry PUKE! Barry needed to think, and one thing was for sure! Barry was not leaving with Captain Creepy! That was not happening, and Barry had to set him straight!

“Listen, dude… I am not leaving with you. I mean, like, Thanks for the cigarette… and Thanks for the ‘Heads-Up that they are on the way to come and take me away… but there is, like, no way in Hell that I am leaving here with YOU! No hard feelings, but it just ain’t happenen!”

Barry was not looking up at The Tall Man when he broke the news to him. He figured it would be easier, if he wasn’t looking right at him. Barry was sure that this Tall Man wasn’t gonna take the news too well, but what was he gonna do? Float a burning cigarette up his nose? Nope, Barry was much less concerned about The Tall Man than getting his ass past Truman and Betty Sue! He figured that Betty Sue would scamper away and hide under her desk, once he came out screaming and throwing stuff. Truman, one the other hand, would be more difficult. He wouldn’t shy away from a fight. Barry figured, in his current state he could, probably, take Truman. At least enough to get past him and out into the hallway. Once there, he was sure that he could out run Truman, and make a b-Line for the street, then home! Home and help from his Dad! His Dad would know just what to do! Maybe he could send me over to his brother’s? Yeah, his Uncle Dave! Uncle Dave had several run-ins with the law! There was no way he would let the law take his nephew away!

While Barry was plotting and planning, figuring it all out in his head. The one thing he was no planning on was right in front of him. The Tall Man had given Barry some time to consider his options. The Tall Man was not in any hurry, he gave Barry several moments to come to the right decision. Then he spoke, to Barry, one last time.

“Barry? Barry? I have given you a few moments to consider your options. Have you come to the correct decision? You know that your father is not going to break probation to ‘save’ you, right? I mean you do know that, right? You walk into your home and tell your father that you killed a fellow student? We will tie you up and hold you until the police get there then ask them if there is a reward! You do know that to be true, right Barry?”

That made Barry think for a moment. Yes, his father was out on parole as was his uncle, too. As difficult as it was for Barry to admit, The Tall Man was probably right about his father and his uncle. This upset Barry even more than he was scared. Then, he had a thought, it was a rarity, but this one just might work. He was going to try and trick The Tall Man. It everything came out, the way he planed, he would get out of the handcuffs, out of the office and past Betty Sue and Truman, too. Here goes nuthin!

“Ok, Mr. Tall Man, let’s say I believe you about my Dad and his brother. Whos to say that you can ever get me out of here? You can appear in this room… you can lift a cigarette and light it… no biggie I bet that there are lots of Magicians that can pull those tricks. Before I consider leaving here with you, I need some proof. How’s this? If you can get me out of these handcuffs… I will consider talking about leaving with you. How’s that for deals, huh? Can you even get me out of these handcuffs?”

The Tall Man, again, made an attempt at smiling. The edges of his lips raised, slightly, and then lowered again. Without any hand gestures or blinking eyes or any of that Hollywood stuff, The Tall Man just stood there, then spoke.

“Barry, if you move your hands you will find that they are quite free of the handcuffs. Now, Barry, I am not accustom to performing or having to work to win people’s support. More often that not, people come to ME! Now, if you are satisfied, we need to get moving. I would rather that we were gone when they open that door… which will be very soon, now.”

Barry pulled both his hands forward… and they were indeed free! He rubbed his wrists and looked on the ground underneath the chair he had been imprisoned for the past several hours. There lay the handcuffs. Not melted, not burnt and not deformed in any way. They were whole and they looked functional, it was just that they were not wrapped around his wrists anymore. That was impressive, but Barry wasn’t about to tell The Tall Man that. He was free from his handcuffs, now he needed to be free of this inner office and then he would take his chances with Betty Sue and Truman. Barry reached into his back pocket, took out his pack of cigarettes, pulled out a smoke, brought out his lighter and lit his cigarette. Then he spoke to The Tall Man.

“Well… that was impressive, but… just HOW are you going to get us past Betty Sue and ol’Truman in the outer office? You explain that to me, and I’ll consider bein’ your sidekick and leaving here with you…”

There was no slight lifting of the edges of his lips, this time. This time The Tall Man opened his mouth wide and let out a deep, and scary, laugh. It was like no laugh Barry had ever heard. I was loud, but that was not all! It… well, it was a laugh… but behind the laugh… Barry could swear he heard something more. Something like the rattling of bones in a ceramic dish. It sounded hallow and it sounded brittle. The sound made the hair on the back of Barry’s neck stand on end, and it made Barry’s blood run cold in his veins. Barry had not said anything,… funny… so he was at a loss as to why The Tall man was laughing. Then, The Tall Man, spoke and it all became very clear… and Barry was never the same, again.

“Barry… I have tried to do things ‘your way’… I have humored your curiosity… I allowed for your petty desires… and I have even indulged your feelings of independence… and self-reliance. The truth of the matter is this, Barry. You can leave here with me, NOW! Make it past the growing crowds already gathering and lusting for your blood for killing Timmy Marref… NEVER spend a single day or night in jail or PRISON for the MURDER you are most assuredly GUILTY. You can do all that, RIGHT NOW, without me explaining ANYTHING! Or, I can just disappear. Just disappear and leave you here for the townspeople to string up, in the school courtyard, LONG before Deputy Darryl arrives. By the time he gets here? They will have broken every bone in your body THEN strung you up to hang! I am tried of playing games, Barry. Which is it to be. Come with me, or die a painful and gruesome death… all too similar to the death Timmy Marref had at your hands!”

‘All I have to do, is to get hijm to open the door… once that is done, I am home free… I have to stick to my plan. Not let him get into my head… Just challenge him to open the door… the BLOT for the street!’ Thought Barry quietly to himself, or so he thought. As I have explained, Barry is not the brightest bulb in the pack. He really did think that he could outwit The Tall Man, and right now he was going to pay the price for being so wrong.

“OK… OK Tall Man. Just one mo0re thing. How are you going to get that door open? Get the door open, and I will go with you Mr. Tall Man. Just get the door open… and I will go right along with you… K?

A great darkness swept over the face of The Tall Man. The edges of his mouth made an obvious turn downward. His jaw tensed, noticeably. His forehead furrowed as he frowned and his eyes squinted in anger. Even a complete, like Barry, could tell that he had pushed The Tall Man too far. At the very same time, the room became very dark and the air quite thin. Barry was having hard time breathing, when The Tall Man began to speak.

“I have indulged your stupidity. I have humored your curiosity. I have proved my ability and I have allowed you to question me. NOW THAT ENDS!”

This time The Tall Man’s right hand lifter from his side, with finger curled in a gnarly half-fist. As he did this, The Tall Man spoke words of a language Barry could not understand, and had never heard. Barry was walking backwards, into the door, when it happened. He first felt it in his fingertips, and toes. Then he felt it in his chest, and his arms and legs. Something was pulling at him. He looked down at his hands and arms… that was when he started screaming! When Barry looked down at his arms and legs… he saw something. Barry saw an opaque white’ish form rising out of his body! As it was being pulled from inside his body out. Barry experienced terrible and terrific pain!

It was a pain like nothing Barry had ever felt in his entire life, while it appeared that The Tall Man was literally pulling his soul out of his body! For Barry it felt like somebody was pulling all his bones OUT of his body… all at once! Like someone was, somehow, pulling out; all his teeth in his mouth, all the many bones out of his fingers in his hand, ever single bone out of his spine and every other bone from all of his body ALL AT ONCE! Barry wanted to blackout! But, he didn’t! He was screaming and screaming in pain and the more he screamed the worse the pain became! He didn’t even need to look down, now, to see the ghostly white form as it was being pulled out form inside in body!

Barry was not a spiritual person. He had only been to church a few times in his life, at Christmas, and only because he had been promised that “Santa will come while we are at church!” Even though Barry was not religious and he had never been to Sunday School… Barry KNEW that it was his soul that was being pulled form out of his body! The Tall Man was now clearly smiling… and SMILING BIG! Doing this to Barry was making The Tall Man very happy! There was only one way this was going to end, and Barry exactly what he had to do. Unknown, to Barry right now, this was to be the last decision… exercise of freewill of Barry’s short life. Barry was giving himself to The Tall Man.

“OK… OK!!! I WILL go WITH you! PLEASE!! Just STOP! PLEASE just STOP right NOW!”

The Tall Man gave his right hand one last HARD jerk (pulling Barry’s body right up OFF the carpeted floor), then he let his right hand drop to his side, and Barry to the floor in a crumpled heap. Barry was breathing hard and there was a terrible ringing in his ears. He was covered in sweat… well, he hoped that it was all sweat. Barry put his hands on the seat of the chair, so that he could lift himself up into the chair. He really wanted to sit down and light up a cigarette. Then, through the rining in his ears, he heard The Tall Man speak.

“No, Barry, we are not going to have time for that! As well, you will not be needing those cigarettes anymore at all! Why don’t we just leave them right here for Betty Sue and Truman to find, then we are going to leave, Barry. You are never going to return here, Barry, You are never again going to; see this school, see these students, see these teachers, see your father or your Uncle. Barry? This is the last time you are ever going to be anything more than my tool. Your life, as you know it, is now going to end! Say ‘Goodbye’ to everything and everyone you have ever known. Go ahead, Barry, say it NOW!”

Barry sees his broken pack of cigarettes appear on the floor in front of him. Then, he starts to say “goodbye”.. and only gets out…

‘Goo…”

Betty Sue and Truman are leaning up against the door, when they hear Barry form inside the inner office. They hear him screaming! They had smelled cigarette smoke, again, a few moments earlier. Then it got really quite. Now… Barry was screaming AGAIN! This time is was so loud that it forced Truman and Betty Sue away from the door to the inner office. They heard Barry’s screaming twice, then they could have sworn they heard… Barry begging for his life! Truman got right up against the door, again, and put his ear hard up against the door. He could barely make out Barry saying “PLEASE just STOP right NOW!”

Then Truman heard, what he thought was, Barry falling to the ground inside the office. Truman was panicked. He knew that there was no way for anyone to get inside the inner office. There were no windows and no other doors. Barry was locked and handcuffed in room by himself! But, Truman’s reason could not overcome his feeling that someone was really hurting Barry in that room.

“Hand me that key, Betty Sue. Stand over there, behind your desk, and duck down. I am not sure what is happening in there… but it sounds like Barry is being hurt… badly. I am going to open the door… and I do not know what is going to come out. Stay over there… and stay safe!”

Betty Sue handed Truman the key, then she stood beside Truman, just to the other side of the door, and spoke.

“We don’t KNOW what is in that room… you are right. But, we are going to find out what is.. TOGETHER! Now, take a deep breath… and unlock that door and open it!”

Truman starts counting, and Betty Sue chimes in…

“1… 2… THREE!”

END Part 14 –B -3

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/7vKh0ReY620]

(The Horror in Smithville - Logo)

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With THAT My Dear Readers, we bring to an end, this episode of Part 14. Finally Barry has met The Tall Man, much to his chagrin. The Tall Man has yet another of the town’s people under his thumb. It doesn’t really matter that nobody thought Barry had murdered Timmy. It doesn’t really matter that Timmy is not dead. The only thing that matters? That Barry gave his permission to The Tall Man to take him away! Now, The Tall Man owns Barry and Barry is going to rue the day be beat on Timmy the “gaywad”.

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Now, My Dear Readers, I am not sure just which day I am going to publish this work. I have moved the regularly scheduled day of the week for “The Horror’ to Friday. I did this so that I could have my article with the largest draw appear right before the weekend. Hoping that, doing so, would assure me of more traffic over the weekend. Everything I do I do to improve traffic and increase readership. Especially NOW that I am running a Cancer Treatment Campaign, in an effort to raise money to help me pay all my medical bills. The more traffic the more eyes to see the ads and the more hearts and minds to possibly convince to lend a hand!

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Admittedly, since this time last week I have experienced a big bump in donations. I am not @ $280 in donations. That is a fraction of my goal, as set. However, I am not complaining… I am just explaining. I have about SEVEN days left to try and raise as MUCH money as I possibly can. I simply must succeed! This goal was not set by whim or fancy. It was come to with get discussion and deliberation and as a deliberate act. I sincerely wanted to have the resources to move out of California and battle my cancer in a place with; four seasons, snow and FEWER PEOPLE. I set this goal so that I might get away from `public transportation’ and be freed to come and go as I please! I included these goals in my figuring of the total amount to TRY and ACHIEVE.

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For the next seven days I WILL NOT SLEEP… much at all. I will NOT REST… much at all. I fear I will damage my health… but I do so.. so that I MIGHT MEET MY GOAL! My Dear Readers I am going to push and PUSH and PUSH myself to meet or exceed my goal. To fail would be to fail; my health, my life, my future, my love, my friends, Allen and Alexander… ALL! There si so much riding on this campaign, My Dear Readers. More than you know and more than most understand. That is hwy I am redoubling my efforts, and planning on spending five out of the remaining seven days ON LINE! On line; publishing, promoting, talking, advertising, pimping, pleading, and even begging… if need be.

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So, if you haven’t already? PLEASE My Dear Readers, head over to the campaign web site at Indiegogo. Read the; doctor’s reports’ scan images, test results and reports. Watch the videos, and animations I have uploaded. Look at all of the pictures from my youth and those of me with my brothers and family. Understand the great loss they will all feel if I am unable to obtain the treatment I so desperately need. I am not asking any one person to donate… HUGE! However, there have been OVER 300+ people ‘Share’ my campaign on Facebook. If everyone of those were to donate even TEN DOLLARS EACH? I would have earned over $3,000.00! With that I could make a good effort at my treatment!

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PLEASE? Drop by… and take a look.. and PLEASE donate.

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Adieu!

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Thank YOU!

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Danny's Cancer Treatment Fund @ Indiegogo