CHANGES

Thriller Stories | Jul 23, 2013 | 16 min read
4 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
On the evening of Friday 13th April 1990, the Deadwater Sheriff's department received an anonymous call about a possible case of child abuse. Responding to the call they went to the home of thirty-nine year old Deadwater resident Donald Arch to investigate. Hostility broke out and Donald-39 along with his brother Ronald-42 began to open fire on the Deadwater Sheriff‘s department. The following account has been put together from various sources, all unwilling to reveal their identities.

As officer Becky Garret pulled the squad car into the driveway of the crime scene that was once the home of Donald Arch and his family, officer Annie Hobbs caught sight of two EMT'S wheeling our a gurney with a thick black body bag on it and loading it into the awaiting ambulance.
"Mary mother of god!" Annie muttered under her breath as she felt her head go light.
"Don't be getting all squeamish on me now Annie," said Becky as she killed the engine. "I don't want you embarrassing me by throwing up your lunch all over the crime scene. Jeez, what a fricking mess this is."
Annie Hobbs had been with the Deadwater Sheriff's department all of six weeks, fresh from the academy and as green as they come. Annie had finished in the top 5% of her class at the academy and her credentials were very impressive, but for all her academic skills Annie Hobbs had no ‘real world' experience. Born and raised in a two-bit rural town that didn't even have a main street and where everybody knew everyone's business, Annie's views and experiences of the ‘big world' didn't come to fruition until she graduated High school and left her little backward town to join the police academy.
"Look alive," Becky Garrett said as Annie snapped back to life and began to composed herself. "Shit-kickers at twelve o'clock."
‘Shit-kickers' was Beck Garrett's pet names for most of the male officers at the station. Very early on, Annie had been given ‘the talk' by Becky about the lay of the land around the station and who to watch out for.
"Awe shit!" muttered Becky as Annie looked out the windscreen to see officers' Robert Briggs and Mike Trent sauntering across the Arch's drive towards them.
"Damn," Annie muttered under her breath as Becky unhooked her seat belt and opened the drivers' side door as Annie quickly followed suit.
"Evening ladies," Robert Briggs said flashing them his pearl white smile that would usually have most women's legs turn to jelly, but not Becky Garrett.
"It's quite the scene in there, I'd stay out here if I were you."
"Well thanks for the advice ‘Bobby' but I'm sure us ‘delicate flowers' can handle it." Becky replied as Robert's pearl white smile soon turned into a snarl.
"You are such a bitch Becky!" snapped Robert stormed off.
"It's pretty bad In there Annie, be careful." said Mike Trent flashing Annie a quick smile before running after Robert Briggs as Annie felt her face go flush.
"Are you sweet on him or something?" said Becky as Annie felt her face go even redder.
"What? No of course not!" Annie replied as she could feel bursts of hot flashes.
"He's no better than Briggs, remember that." said Becky as they both head for the front of the house.
Annie had surmised that Becky and Briggs had some kind of history together that was turbulent and bitter. Annie did once think about asking Becky about their 'relationship', but thought better of it. Early on, Annie surmised that Becky Garrett was like a diamond. Cold, hard and brilliant and almost impossible to penetrate. Annie had a great deal of respect for Becky, she was a damn fine officer ( or so Annie had been told on many occasions) who should be duty sergeant of the station by now or even deputy Sheriff at another station, but her quick temper and brash manner kept her from succeeding.

Reaching the front door of the Arch residence, the stench inside was almost unbearable as Annie could suddenly feel bile in the back of her throat as Becky reached into her pocket for her handkerchief to cover her nose and mouth.
"Sweet Jesus!" muttered Becky from behind her handkerchief as she stepped inside as Annie took out a tissue from her back pocket and put it over her mouth and followed Becky inside. Looking around the main foyer, Becky and Annie were horrified to discover the contents of the Arch's home. There were stacks upon stacks of newspapers piled up high all round the dining room and the floor was littered with sawdust and what appeared to be bones of some kind, maybe animal.
"Who the hell lived here, the Sawyer family? If I find Leather face down in here I‘m going to be seriously pissed!" Becky said from behind handkerchief as Annie stopped herself from laughing and gagging from the smell as Sergeant Gunnar Hooper appeared in the doorway that connected the dining room to the kitchen.
"Welcome to our nightmare ladies," said Hooper as he waded across the sawdust as Becky removed the handkerchief from her mouth while Annie kept hers' there.
"What was going here sir?" said Becky as she could feel the hairs in her nostrils tingle.
"A whole shit ball of something you couldn't possibly imagine kids." snapped Hooper as he stood in the arch of the dining room door as Becky and Annie stepped back.
"The press is going to have a field day with one I can assure you. Child abuse claims going unnoticed by us and worst of all, a shoot-out in which both suspects are dead, two officers are injured and a scene that makes the ‘gunfight at the ok corral' look like a Sunday picnic!"
"What do you want us to do?" said Becky as Hooper threw a glance Annie's way.
"I want you two down in the basement, I don't want anyone else down there but you two you got me? Anyone tells you different cold-cock them Becky, I know you won‘t have a problem with that will you?"
"Not at all sir," replied Becky grinning as Hooper nodded before stepping by them both and heading towards the front door.
"Sir, is the basement anything like up hear?" said Becky as Sergeant Gunnar Hooper looked over his shoulder back at them.
"Ladies, you won't believe me if it old you." he said smiling as he turned back and stepped out into the driveway.
"Awe shit!" Becky muttered as she took a few steps forward as the sound of snapping sawdust and crunching bones echoed beneath her feet where she found a small wooden door that lead down to the basement.

Taking out her flashlight from off her department issue utility belt, Becky Garrett pressed the button on the bottom as a beam of light shone out the front breaking the darkness.
"Stay close to me Annie and don't you dare trip and fall on me!" snapped Becky as Annie removed the tissue from her mouth and stuffed into her pocket before taking her flashlight off her utility belt and turning it on. As they made their way down the wooden steps into the bowels of the house, Becky shone her flashlight round the basement. Hooper was right, if he had told her she wouldn't have believed him. Spread out around the basement was the layout for a child's bedroom. In one corner was a wooden four-post bed with a small stuffed teddy bear on it and next to it was a small bedside table with a lamp and a half empty glass of milk. The rest of the room was filled with furniture and toys that any small boy could only dream of having.
"What the hell is going on round here?" muttered Becky as Annie suddenly heard what sounded like a muffled whimper coming from underneath her feet.
"Becky!" whispered Annie as she looked over her shoulder to see that Annie was pointing down below her feet to under the stairs as Becky nodded and drew her gun. Stepping very slowly down the stairs positioning her feet on the edges as not to make the boards creek, Becky reached the bottom as Annie drew her gun out and followed, stepping in the same places as Becky did. As Annie reached the bottom, Becky moved forward into the basement bedroom almost walking into a small painted rocking horse.
"There is some serious freaky Twilight Zone' shit going on in this house," whispered Becky as Annie tucked her flashlight under her arm and picked up a small framed photo with three people in it, a mother and what looks to be her two children, a small boy no older than seven or eight and a girl who looked to be in her early teens.
"Look at this place, upstairs is a sty and down here is something out of ‘Leave it to beaver'?"
"Check this out," whispered Annie as Becky turned around as Annie showed her the photo.
"Damn, it looks more like ‘The Brady bunch'. But that begs the question, where are the kids and where is mom?" whispered Becky as she heard another sound, this time coming from the farthest corner of the basement deep in the darkness.
"Did you hear that?" Whispered Becky as Annie put the photo back down and took her flashlight from under her arm as Becky slowly began to move past the staircase and round to where the noise came from.
"There's a closet back here," Becky whispered as she pulled back the hammer on her gun and took a deep breath.
"Deadwater Sheriff's department, come out with your hands up!" Becky bellowed as she heard a door knob turn and the creaking sound of a door opening as Annie began to hear a whimpering sound coming from behind her from underneath the bed.
"There's someone under the bed," Annie whispered as Becky nodded. Shining her flashlight towards the closet, Becky saw a woman step out of the closet. She had long dark hair with white streaks in it and was wearing all black.
"Mrs Arch?" Becky said as the woman nodded solemnly as Becky un cocked her gun and put it back in it's holster before retrieving her handcuffs.
"Turn around please," said Becky as the woman did so without force as Becky slapped the cuffs on her wrists.
"You have the right to remain silent, but I got a feeling that your not going to say much now are you?" said Becky as Annie put away her gun and got down on her knees and shone her torch under the bed.
"Oh my stars!" muttered Annie as Becky moved Mrs Arch over towards the bottom of the stairs.
"What is it?" said Becky as Annie said nothing as the face of the small boy from the photo stared back at her and all she could see was his eyes because the rest of his face was obscured by some kind of mask.

Becky took Mrs Arch upstairs and loaded her into the back of the squad car while Annie stayed down in the bedroom basement with the small boy. She had managed to coax him out from under the bed and to her horror had found him in a Red straightjacket with his arms bound around his back and on his head was some kind of mask that covered his whole head, leaving his eyes uncovered. Taking out some surgeons' gloves from her pocket, Annie took the mask off as she saw the boy's face and almost burst into tears.
"Hi, my name's Annie what's yours?"
"Laddy." the boy replied as he looked up at Annie as she got a clear look at his eyes. They were the bluest eyes she had ever seen and he had eyelashes that were so long and luscious, women would kill to have them.
"Hi Laddy, nice to meet you. Now don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to take this thing off of you and then we'll go and get you some ice cream, how does that sound?"
Laddy's face suddenly lit up as Annie found herself almost coming to tears as she quickly un strap the straightjacket before throwing it to the floor as Laddy suddenly threw his arms around Annie as she could no longer hold back the tears.

As Annie brought Laddy up the stairs and into the glow of the setting sun he quickly hissed and began to shield his eyes.
"It hurts it hurts!" he winced as Annie quickly put herself in front of him and drew him close to her body to shield him from the sun.
"It's alright sweetie, nothing is going to hurt you anymore." Annie said as Becky appeared in the doorway.
"Time to go. Is he going to be alright?" Becky said as Annie looked up, smiled and nodded.
"I think he'll be just fine."

Becky drove Laddy's mother back to the station in the squad car while Annie rode with Laddy in the back of Dr Feeney, the coroner's station wagon with her arm wrapped around him tightly. As the coroner's station wagon sped along the long stretch of road past the Royal Oak pub, Annie could hear Laddy's heart beating against her as Dr Feeney turned on the radio as The Doors and Jim Morrison sang ‘People are strange' as he began to suddenly slow down before indicating and turning into Forest road. A few moments later the station wagon was pulling into the parking lot of Deadwater memorial Hospital as he pulled into his spot and killed the engine.
"Can I stay with him while he gets checked out Dr Feeney?" said Annie as Dr Feeney
nodded his head as he opened the driver door and got out.
"Laddy, the doctor is going to check you over to make sure that your okay, then I'll take you the station where I'll make you a nice cup of hot cocoa. How does that sound?"
"With marshmallows?"
"With marshmallows."

The doctor checked Laddy out and apart from a little bruising he was fine. So Annie called up Becky and she came and got both of them and drove them to the Sheriff's station.
"I promised Laddy that I'd make him hot cocoa with marshmallows," Annie said as Becky tried not to smirk.
"You're such a sap Hobbs!" said Becky as she grabbed Annie by the arm. "I want extra marshmallows on mine." Becky grinned as Annie burst out laughing and gave her a playful wink.
"No problem."
While Laddy sat in interview room number 2 with some pencils and some paper drawing, Annie was in the break room making Cocoa for Laddy and Becky while Becky was at her desk looking over Laddy's mother's file.
"Check this out, turns out ‘mother Teresa' in there is not from around these parts?" said Becky as she flipped through the pages.
"Turns out she's originally from eastern Europe, somewhere around Romania."
"That a fact?" replied Annie as she brought over Becky's hot cocoa and placed it in front of her.
"Thank you." Becky said under her breath not looking up at Annie.
"You welcome," she replied as she could see Becky trying not to smile.
"So what else have you got there about Laddy's mother, and where is the daughter that was in the photo?" Annie said as she sat on the edge of the desk.
"That's the real kicker, turns out that the mother and apparently absent daughter, who ran away from home at aged fifteen because her "new daddy" tried too "get friendly" with his new step-daughter which went unnoticed by the mother, she up and ran away.
But that's not all, on paper the mother and daughter are Sally and Lydia Arch but the mother's real name is Yana Jorsic and the daughter's real name is Anya and they were both came to this country in nineteen seventy-eight as part of some three-ring circus from Romania and one summer when they came to Deadwater, where Yana met and fell in love with her night in shining armour Donald Arch, who paid the circus owner's off and took her and her nine year old daughter Anya away from the cruel life of the circus and through what turns out to be some ‘shady' dealings with justice system of America, got their names changed, married Yana and brought her and her daughter back here to our little slice of heaven."
"Sweet Jesus," muttered Annie. "This is some serious stuff. So, what do we do about Laddy?"
"I don't know, Hooper is trying to get something out of the mother and social services won't be here until morning so I guess we wait?"
"I'll go take Laddy his cocoa, be back in a minute." said Annie as she got up off the desk and made her way down the hall to the interview rooms and stopped just outside interview room number 2 as she leant against the door and could swear she could hear Laddy talking to someone? Opening the door she saw that Laddy was sitting at the table drawing away with out a care in the world.
"Were you just talking to someone?" said Annie as Laddy looked up from his drawing and shook his head.
"Is that my Cocoa?" he said putting down his pencils as Annie placed the cup on the table and Laddy grabbed at it and began to gulp it down.
"Be careful, it's very hot." Annie said but before she had time to react, Laddy had finished the entire cup and now had a chocolate ring around his mouth.
"Finished!" he said grinning as he wiped away the chocolate around his mouth with his sleeve and put the cup on the table before sitting down opposite Laddy.
As Annie sat there, the air conditioning in the room packed in and It became increasingly hot so Annie undid the top tow buttons of the uniform as Laddy saw something sparkle underneath?
"What's that?" said Laddy as Annie looked down to see that Laddy was looking at her pendant around her neck.
"Oh this, I was given this a long time ago by my grandmother before she died. She was kind of superstitious, she said this would ward off evil spirits and would protect me." said Annie as she tried not to smile.
"I think it is very pretty," said Laddy as he reached under his shirt and produced a necklace similar to Annie's. "See, I got one too. My sister gave it to me before she went away. She said that as long as I wear it, she'll always be with me and I'll be protected until she comes back for me."
"When did she tell you this?" said Annie looking at Laddy confused.
"I spoke to her today, just before all those policeman came to my house and daddy and uncle Ronald told me and mommy to stay in my bedroom and hide until it was all over."
Before Annie had a chance to process what Laddy had just told her, the interview room door opened and Becky appeared.
"Becky, I really got to talk to you," said Annie as she got up from her chair and ushered Becky back out the room and closed the door.
"What's up?"
"The anonymous tip that lead us to Laddy's house, did they find out where the call came from?"
"Um yeah I think so?" replied Becky as the lights began to flicker above them.
"Tell me, where was it?"
"Annie, your starting to freak me out." replied Becky as Annie grabbed both of Becky's arms.
"Becky, where did the call come from?"
"I'll go find out?" Becky replied shaking Annie off as she left Annie and went back to her desk to get the file as Annie threw open the door to interview room 1 and told the officer in there to get out. Shutting the door Annie pulled out the chair opposite Mrs Arch and sat down.
"Mrs Arch, or do you prefer Yana Jorsic?" said Annie as Sally Arch/Yana Jorsic looked up at Annie as she tilted her head to one side as she saw Annie's necklace.
"I see you have the medallion of our people," she said finally speaking. You are one of us so you must understand why I did what I did to protect my son."
"No I don't," snapped Annie as she slammed her fist into the table. "How is locking your son in a basement and making him wear a straightjacket and some sort of S&M mask protecting your son?"
"I could not protect my Anya from ‘the changes' and that is why she ran away. I would not let my Laddy suffer the same fate as she did."
"She ran away because you husband tried to sexually assault her!" snapped Annie as Sally Arch/Yana Jorsic began to laugh.
"You stupid little girl, you have no idea what my family has been through. You people came in to my home and killed my poor Donald and Roland and now you have me locked up in here like some animal while you let that THING loose putting everyone in danger."
"That THING is you son!" screamed Annie as the interview room door flew open and Becky came in.
"Annie, we got a problem." she said as Annie bolted up from out of the chair as Sally Arch/Yana Jorsic began to mumble something in a foreign tongue. Closing the door behind them Becky began to pace up and down the corridor.
"What's going on?"
"We just got a phone call from the squad car that's still outside the Arch house. Someone just set it on fire!"
"What?" said Annie as Becky stopped pacing.
"And before the line went dead, they said they saw someone come out of the house."
"What do you mean ‘the line went dead'?"
"I mean the line went dead, but not before I heard screaming."
"Jesus!" muttered Annie as the lights began to flicker again but much more faster this time.
"Go check on Laddy, I'll see what is going on with these damn lights!" said Becky as Annie ran down the corridor to interview room 2 and went inside where she found Laddy crouched in the corner, his face twisted and contorted as she could hear him screaming out in agony.
"Laddy, what's wrong?" said Annie as she ran round the table to where Laddy was screaming and took hold of him and pulled him close.
"It hurts Annie! It hurts so much!" Laddy screamed.
"It's okay baby, I'm here." Annie said stroking his hair as her mind was suddenly distracted by the sound of shouting and gun fire coming from outside the interview room.
"Becky, what's going on out there?" shouted Annie as the shouting soon turned to screaming and the gun fire suddenly stopped.
Letting go of Laddy, Annie got up and took out her gun as something slammed against the interview room door.
"Don't worry Laddy, I won't let anyone hurt you." Annie said.
"Don't worry Annie, I'll be fine." said Laddy as Annie suddenly felt a sharp pain on the back of her head as she reached round and felt wetness. Stumbling round Annie saw Laddy standing up holding the remains of the now broken cocoa cup she had left on the table.
"Why Laddy?" said Annie as she felt her head go all light as her eyes rolled into the back of her head before falling to the ground.

Annie soon began to stir as she felt like she had been hit with a log splitter as she clutched the side of her head as she opened her eyes. She was now in the main part of the station propped up against the wall by the front door. As she opened her eyes fully she saw Laddy sitting on a chair opposite, his legs dangling over the edge.
"Hi," Laddy said smiling as Annie tried to get to her feet as she suddenly felt light headed again.
"I wouldn't try to escape, Lydia will get mad."
"Lydia, your sister?" replied Annie taking deep heavy breaths.
"She came to rescue me from mommy and daddy. They were trying to hurt me, keeping me locked up in the basement away from the world. Now what kind of mommy and daddy would do that to their child?"
"Define child," said Annie as Laddy's smile faded.
"I thought you liked me? I thought you were going to protect me?" said Laddy as the tension was broken by a sudden loud scream.
"Looks like mommy's gone to sleep." said Laddy as he jumped off the chair as Annie could hear the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway.
"Lydia!" shouted Laddy as a young woman no more than twenty one appeared in the doorway across the room, her long dark hair, pale face and clothes were drenched in blood.
"Lydia, I want you to meet my new friend Annie, Annie this is my sister Lydia."
Annie looked over at Lydia as she went to go for her gun but found it was gone.
"Looking for this?" said Lydia as she held up Annie's gun.
"What are you going to do with me?" said Annie trembling.
"Laddy trusts you, I have my reservations. You try once to escape and I rip out your heart and eat it. Got it?"
"Yes." replied Annie.
"Good, Laddy we're going on a road trip." said Lydia as Laddy began to jump up and down.
"I call shotgun!" Laddy shouted as he ran for the door and ran outside as Lydia walked towards Annie and crouched down in front of her and saw Annie's necklace and smiled.
"So, our families are connected." said Lydia as she stood up and held out a hand as Annie sat still and didn't move.
"Come with us or die, your choice?" said Lydia.
"Where are we going?" said Annie as she used the wall to pull herself up.
"Wherever the winds take us my dear." replied Lydia smiling as she showed Annie a set of razor sharp pointed teeth.

A few moments later, Lydia was putting Annie in the back seat of an old Vista Cruiser. Shutting the door behind Annie, Lydia got in the front and started the engine as the radio came on as Roger Daltrey sang ‘Don't let the sun go down on me'.
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