With The Vengeance Of A Child
 
Chapter 1: The End
Bartlen pulled up outside the schoolyard, taking his usual place between the giant oak trees that lined the school fence. The huge ancient trunks and low sweeping branches of these giants gave Bartlen the perfect amount of cover. Just enough to see, without being seen. Just how he liked it. In the gutter grew an ever amassing stack of cigarette butts, proof that Bartlen had been in that same spot, at the same time, for quite some time. He was a regular. Through the tall linear black gates of iron that made the entrance to the schoolyard, Bartlen sat and watched silently the technicoloured hustle bustle chaos of children escaping from the school. Bartlen took a long hard considered draw on his cigarette, scratching at his unshaven face and digitally scrutinized the row of hard black bristles lined his lower lip. Bartlen liked his little expeditions to the school, he used them to gain knowledge. He quickly learnt which of the children were escorted, by whom and which of the children would walk back alone a couple of blocks to the safety of their homes. As Bartlen watched the chaos of the schools out brigade for the umpteenth time this week, he began to study the dirt beneath his fingernails and wondered how long it had been since they were clean. He didn't really care. He cared not for clean living and society, for they had only rejected him. He cared only for his own needs and smiled gleefully at how soon it would be until he fulfilled them.
 
Bartlen began to roll another cigarette, when he was sharply interrupted by a loud crash against the door of his van. Bartlen jumped. He dropped the cigarette paper and filter down between his legs and into the foot well of his Transit.
"Shit", he growled and started around to decipher the source of his sudden disturbance. Two young boys were backing away from the white van, one waving a hand gingerly to Bartlen,
"Sorry Mister", he giggled. Bartlen did not respond. The boy's actions had angered Bartlen. He didn't like little boys for a start, but even more so, highly uncomfortable with being startled by a child.
 
With a dismissing shake of the head, Bartlen reached down between his legs and began to gather the cigarette paper and filter, never taking his eyes off the schoolyard gates. Just then a familiar face began to approach the exit of the school drawing Bartlen to immediate attention. It was a young girl he'd seen many times, noticed many times and one Bartlen had a particularly keen eye for. She was small, petite for her age, about seven or eight. She had raven black hair with piercing blue eyes, pretty and almost doll like in the face. She wore a long red coat, a red scarf and carried a black rucksack. Bartlen knew this child was nearly always alone whilst leaving the school and if she did have company it would only ever be a gaggle of older, bigger girls teasing her and pulling her around. Everyday Bartlen would sit and watch as the little raven haired girl walked up to the street corner and waited patiently for what he assumed to be her older sister to collect her.
 
As she neared the corner, she reached into her rucksack, pulling out an apple and a small bag of sweets. She vaulted up onto a red brick wall and began to eat. Bartlen watched her intently. He knew it wouldn't be long before her older sister came and they would continue to walk east towards Culver Street, one of the more up market areas of Des Moines, Iowa. Bartlen also knew that the arrival of the elder sister would not be for at least ten or fifteen minutes. With a last glance around to spot any imposing threats before his strike, Bartlen decided now was the time to make his move.
 
His Transit van was old and heavily beaten on the outside, but on the inside a vast emporium of toys, games, sweets and chocolates. What lurked, hidden away in the glove compartment was however, far more sinister. Bartlen started the ignition of the old van and the diesel engine gave up a throaty rattle into the cold air as black smoke bellowed from the exhaust. He reached quickly into the passenger seat and grabbed a pair of black leather gloves. His pulse raced hard as he shivered with the adrenalin almost dropping both gloves as he struggled to put them on. Next he would remove a small bottle of ether from the glove compartment and a large white handkerchief. He opened the bottle and began to invert it over the white cotton.
"This had better be enough," he said to himself, his voice still shaking with fear and excitement. Bartlen placed the handkerchief onto the passenger seat and began to maneuver his van out of his parking space.
 
He made a quick assured turn in the road and proceeded in the direction of the little raven haired girl. He turned right at the corner of the side street and pulled in, ten yards away from his intended. He quickly reached for his red baseball cap and sun glasses donned them both and grabbed the handkerchief from the passenger seat. He nervously unscrewed the brown glass ether bottle one more time and topped up the handkerchief, being careful not to inhale as he did so. His next task would be to encourage the young girl to walk towards the van and become out of eye sight from parents, teachers and passers by.
 
He was now ready. He stepped out of his van slowly and stood bolt upright. He tried to act normal, as normal as he could, so as not to appear a threat to the young child.
"Excuse me young lady", he said in a soft voice. "I'm supposed to take this junk to a garage sale for my friend, except I'm a little lost" he paused. The young girl looked him up and down. "Can you tell me how to get to Culver Street?" The little girl smiled and leapt of the wall with her arm raised pointing east.
"sure", she answered. "That street there, follow east until Main Street and it would be the first on the left". Bartlen repeated the directions to make out like he was trying to reach an understanding with the girl. Of course he knew where Culver Street was, he knew the little girl lived there. He'd followed her there before.
"Well Ma'am, thank you so much for that, I thought I'd never find the place", Bartlen smiled. "Let me give you something for your trouble? I got a whole bunch of kids stuff in the van for this garage sale, I guess you can pick out what you like". As he said this, the little girl approached the van her bright blue eyes already sparkling at the thought of her reward. Bartlen opened the back door of his van, revealing the Aladdin's Cave of children's goodies inside." Help yourself", he grinned.
" Why thanks, Mister", the little girl said as she danced towards the van and it's treasure.
"What's your name?" Bartlen asked.
"Jenny, er Jenny Martin, sir", said the girl already surveying the vast collection of teddies and dolls, for one she didn't already have. Her coat, clothes and mannerisms all suggested that she came from a good, hard working, well to do family. Bartlen liked this, he liked well mannered children.
"Would it be okay to have this one please, mister?" Jenny laughed, holding up a doll that looked a lot like herself. "It's like my sister, Rebecca", she giggled.

"Sure. Why not grab her some candy and some chocolate while your there then?"                                                 "Gee Thanks, Sir", Jenny smiled as if all her Christmas's had come at once.

As Jenny climbed into the back of the van towards the huge stock pile of chocolate and candy bars, Bartlen stepped inside too. He quickly slammed the back door shut behind them. Jenny, startled by the sudden bang and comparative darkness, spun around to face Bartlen with a look of sheer horror in her eyes. She tried to scream, but Bartlen grabbed her arm , pulling her close to him and pushing the ether to her face. Jenny kicked at him and struggled but she suddenly felt light headed. Her brain was telling her to fight, but her body was no longer listening. Her eyelids became heavy and her short, sharp panic breaths were becoming deep, undulating sighs. Her legs weakened and buckled under her weight. Bartlen let go of her, allowing her to drop weightily to the floor. He placed the handkerchief over her face and covered her with a large thick blanket, from head to toe. With a moment of perverse elation at having his victim in his grasps, he now wondered what he should do next. "Get the hell outta here!" he said to himself with a tone of forced sarcasm.

 

He Jumped from the back of the van, brushing himself off and straightening himself out, making sure he didn't look like the guy who just kidnapped some poor kid. He walked to the front of the van and put his key in the door lock. Turning the key the front of the van locked. Nerves. Bartlen hadn't locked the front of the van so he now had to unlock it again to get back in. he sat down in the drivers seat and removed his sun glasses. Not that he needed them on anyway, it was autumn, no sun and getting pretty cold. He started the ignition and began to drive down the same street he had pulled into and continued to drive back towards his own side of town. He looked out of the passenger window to see that he had been just in time. Rebecca, Jenny's older sister was making her way to the meeting point, completely oblivious to the fact that her baby sister was directly beside her now, in a deep sleep and at the mercy of Bartlen. So fragile, so helpless.

 

Rebecca Strolled casually down Maple Street towards the corner of School Avenue, holding the hand of her Boyfriend, Andy. Rebecca was very much like her sister, but had exchanged the raven haired doll like look for the more morbid Gothic look. She wore black clothes, lots of silver jewellery, a long black velvet coat and a hell of a lot of black make up. Her T-shirts comprised of a number of unsavoury slogans that she had been sent home from high school many a time for wearing. Rebecca being her usual rebellious self didn't care one bit. She loved to shock and get right in peoples faces, after all she was fifteen years old and at that age. Andy was sixteen, his hair was made raven black with the aid of some hair dye, his natural colour of light mousy brown was made only distinct by his eyebrows and some soft downy hairs that were appearing on his chin and upper lip. Proof that one day he would finally be a man.

"So where's your sister anyway?" asked Andy, looking to see that Jenny was not in her usual spot on wall at the meeting point.

"How the hell should I know?" Rebecca replied "What do I look like, her keeper?" Rebecca was used to Jenny not being at that street corner. She knew that all should had to do was walk into the school and there would be Jenny, crying into the arms of her teacher or the school nurse.

"She probably got her head flushed in the toilet again", Rebecca sighed.

"I wish she'd get it together, you know? Start fighting back. If I caught those bastards hurting her I'd kick all their asses", boasted Andy." It's not fair on the poor kid". Andy liked to sound concerned for Jenny. It scored him much hero points with Rebecca, but skinny, beautiful, feminine, Andy with his long hair, black nails and eyeliner pencil was a really big sissy. No match for a large eight year old.

"Come on, Dufus", chirped Rebecca." We had better get down that school and find out what happened to her this time".

 

Andy and Rebecca instantly adopted the whole wide-eyed staring freak pose and began to attempt to weird out parents and children as they walk towards the black iron gates of the schoolyard. They trampled with their heavy boots through piles of golden brown leaves, making as much mess of the neat piles as they possibly could. It was quite a piece of theatre. Rebecca and Andy loved the attention and the onlookers just loved laughed at how pretentious and stupid they looked. Of course Andy and Rebecca thought they looked great. Children began to shout at them and make ghostly noises at them before laughing hard and running away, before "Rebecca of the Damned" or "Andy of the living Dead", could put a curse on them, or some crazy shit like that.

"I fucking hate kids", growled Rebecca, as a soaking wet tennis ball hit her in the middle of her back. Rebecca looked for the culprit but concluded that the ball had been hurled from an unknown origin. They made it through the school gates, up the stairs and into the main corridor of the school. Children's pictures and various notice boards lined the walls of the now deserted school. The floor was hard and shiny in a slate grey colour and the the walls a sickly yellow biege. The school was silent , but you could still feel the energy of a hundred noisy children, stampeding through the halls. Their smell was everywhere hanging in the air, with a strange almost echo of laughter and shouting, playing on a continuous loop echoing down the halls.

 

Rebecca stopped just outside class four A. She gently knocked on the large brown door. The class room was laid out with singular desks in a neat row all facing front. The room was cheerfully bright, with large colourful pictures of huge pre-historic beasts that the children had drawn as part of their "Dinosaurs" project, that they had spent all of last term and part of the holidays completing.

"Come on in", called a bright female voice. It was Jenny's teacher, Miss Calvinstone. Miss Calvinstone was young and fair haired. She was curvacious and attractive, with a kind face. Miss Calvinstone was the nice teacher that had replaced the old battle-axe that Jenny had the misfortune of last term, Mrs Rose. However strict though, Mrs Rose was always kind to Jenny after she had had her head flushed or her clothes panted and torn. Even the time Jenny was coated in fart gas, Mrs Rose took care of her until Rebecca came to collect her.

"Miss Calvinstone, you haven't seen Jenny have you? She's not at the corner like usual", Rebecca asked politely.

"Well, no. she left on time, right with the bell. I hope she hasn't got into some trouble again". Miss Calvinstone was well aware that Jenny was the bud of most of the class room jokes.

"Yeah, me too",shrugged Rebecca. "I'll go check with the nurse"

"Okay. Soory I couldn't be more help",cringed Miss Calvinstone.

"Thanks" Rebecca smiled nervously as she left the brightly painted room. "Come on, Romeo!" Rebecca snapped at Andy. She noticed that Andy was staring at Miss Calvinstone with a look that only the most serious of schoolboy crushes could muster. 

"Er, What,yeah what?", Andy stuttered as he turned to follow his blackened bride out of the class room, but not before turning around to have one last look at the blonde hair frame that surrounded Miss Calvinstones ample cleavage.