Children of Torrey (Tales From Deranged Minds Winter's Whispers)

https://rumble.com/v66drs1-children-of-torrey-part-1.html

 

Children Of Torrey

By Ray Bush

Buddy couldn’t take his mind off of the sweet but somehow creepy old woman. She had looked like any other old lady he had ever seen. There was just something different about this one. Buddy really couldn’t tell if the feeling was good or bad. 

“You won’t be able to make it to the falls tonight,” She told the family. “You must stay with my twin in Torrey. She owns the cutest little motel.”

The sun was sinking in the west as the family of four drove south towards the Cotton Candy Falls. Buddy wanted to drive as far as he could before dark. The woman from the second hand store said her twin had the cutest motel in the small town of Torrey. Buddy knew that Beth had believed her one hundred percent. Both his daughters did as well. She had given both some small trinkets, Madison was enamored by the bottle the shop owner gave her. Buddy couldn’t believe neither he or Beth thought to read the note inside. 

The last sign said that Torrey was fifteen miles away which would put them there just before dusk. The shop owner was nearly spot on with the time frame. That was the thing about small town folks. They wouldn’t tell you how many miles away something was but they would tell you precisely what time you would arrive. 

“What is that?” Beth asked, and pointed forward into the dimming evening. Buddy flipped on the brights, “Holy shit, it’s two little girls.” Beth was clearly, and rightfully concerned. 

Buddy slowed but the closer he got to the girls the more he wanted to speed away. As the car approached the girls ran from the road then ducked down in the ditch running next to the car on the right shoulder. The ditch was deep enough that the girls could not be seen at all. He stopped the SUV where he thought they disappeared. Beth grabbed the flashlight from the glovebox while Buddy rolled her window down. Zoey also rolled her window down and her younger sister Madison leaned over so she could see also. Beth scanned the area with the flashlight. The ditch must be deeper than it looked, Beth couldn’t even see the top of their head. 

“Zoey honey, call out to them,” Buddy instructed his daughter. “I’ll bet they’ll feel safer if they hear a child’s voice.” Beth hadn’t even thought about that but she agreed that it was a good idea. 

Zoey was nervous and didn’t know what to say for a minute. “Are you okay?” That was the first thing that popped into her young mind. “Come out. We’ll help you.” 

After a long ten seconds both girls popped their heads out of the ditch simultaneously. If not for the spooky situation it would have been funny. But  that creepy field under the small sheet of fog was an eerie backdrop. What was not funny was the condition of these two girls. They were dirty but Beth thought most small town twelve year olds were probably dirty. It was the bruises and fresh cuts on their cute faces. 

“Holy shit,” Buddy said, then jumped out of the driver’s door. The girls cowered back in the ditch. “No,” he said then got back in the car, “That probably wasn’t a great idea.” Buddy was not a huge man but he would be much more intimidating than his wife or either his daughters. And if he were to be honest whatever happened to them was probably done by a man. Of course there were abusive women but Buddy thought the most abusive sex is men. Beth slowly got out of the car. 

“Don’t be scared,” Beth said in her most comforting motherly voice. “Come out. We can help you.” The girls raised their heads from the ditch again, Again it was at the exact same time. Not for the first time Beth thought it would have been funny if not for the weird scenario. 

“H, H, H, He won’t hurt us?” Both girls said that at the same time as well. Beth’s heart broke a little thinking about what they must have gone through. 

“No sweetheart,” Beth had tears in her eyes, “He’s very strong, he can protect you.” These girls were maybe two years older than Zoey which would make them three and a half years older than Madison. “Come get out of the cold. You can warm up and we’ll take you home."

The twin girls looked at each other, it was comically peculiar the way the two moved perfectly in sync. It was like they were being controlled by the same brain. They stood timidly then walked slowly step for step towards the vehicle. It was remarkable how perfectly timed their movements were, like synchronized swimmers. Madison didn’t like the look of these girls, they got creepier with each step closer to the SUV. The adults in the car guessed the feeling was because of whatever had happened to these girls so recently. However, if Buddy was being completely honest, the girls creeped him the hell out also. 

The girls stopped ten feet from the car then stared like deer ready to dart away at the slightest noise. “Please don’t hurt us,” They spoke the way they moved, perfectly in sync. “We need to get home to Torrey.”

“Of course we won’t hurt you,” Beth said sweetly and Buddy reiterated the point as gently as possible. “We will take you home. You are safe, we promise.”

“I’m Jemma, She’s Jenna,” The sister on the right said.

At the same time Jenna said, “I’m Jenna she’s Jemma.”

Buddy was creeped out for sure. “Girls jump in the back,” Buddy instructed his daughters. “Hop in,” Buddy invited the spooky hitchhikers, “You’re safe now.” Buddy couldn’t see the color of their eyes as dusk turned to night, but for some reason he didn’t like them. 

The girls walked to the car and climbed in one after the other. It was the only time they didn’t move simultaneously. Buddy tried to get a good look at their eyes before they shut the door and the dome light turned off. He didn’t get a great look. They just looked dark. As soon as the door shut the temperature in the car dropped like a stone in a lake. Buddy regretted ever stopping to pick these girls up. Then immediately felt guilty for feeling that way. The girls were obviously in trouble and needed their help, it wasn’t their fault that they happened to be creepy as shit. He then thought about his poor daughters sitting in the third row and regretted picking these girls up again. His girls might as well have been on an island with the scary girls between the family. Beth’s face said that she felt the same way. 

“How did you girls get all the way out here?” Beth asked and silently hoped she was able to hide the fear in her voice. Buddy turned off the flashers then pulled from the narrow shoulder onto the road. 

“A man took us while our parents were out,” They answered at the same time but somehow didn’t talk over each other. The voices seemed to blend into one. “We barely got away, but he’s still out there. He’s probably looking for us.”

Buddy stepped on the gas hard until the SUV hit seventy-five. He wanted nothing to do with the psychotic kidnapper, not to mention these psycho kids. He set the cruise, he didn’t trust his feet to keep him at a somewhat normal speed. The speed limit was sixty-five. He didn’t care if he got pulled over that would be okay. Buddy would be able to hand them off to the proper authorities. He really hated the way these girls made him feel, and felt bad for his girls. They must be terrified. He sped up to eighty then set the cruise again. 

“Do you want to tell us what happened?” Beth asked and Buddy gave her a look. He didn’t want to know and damn sure didn’t want his daughters to hear any of that. 

“No ma’am,” they said together. They both began to cry. Buddy thought it sounded as fake as a three dollar bill. “I wouldn’t want your girls to hear. And we don’t want to talk right now. We only want to relive it once when we tell the sheriff.” That made sense to Buddy. Besides he didn’t want to hear a scary story told by scary children who spoke in sync with each other. 

Buddy understood why the girls didn’t want to talk about it more than once. The awkwardness that followed was chilly and could be worse than their simultaneous talking. Buddy turned the heater to max and made sure that he turned it up for the third row. He hoped his girls were ok. The heater did help but these girls were like riding in the car with a glacier.

“Please don’t hurt us,” Buddy heard. He looked around even though he knew it had been inside his mind. “We’ve been through so much already.” Buddy turned up the radio, “You can’t ignore us.”

Beth turned around to look at the girls, judging by her face she was feeling the same as Buddy. She probably heard the voice as well. “Do you girls need a snack or some water?” Beth asked, Buddy was now convinced that Beth had also heard the girls in her mind. She seemed to be trying to break the silence or maybe she was trying to get them out of her head. 

“No thank you ma’am,” How could someone sound so scary while being so perfectly mannered? Despite their scary awkwardness the girls were still cute. Beth wondered what it was about these girls that made them feel so terrifying.

“Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable?” Beth asked and both girls shook their heads. Buddy now knew for sure that Beth was trying to keep them talking. “Well don’t be scared to ask.”

Buddy was so grateful when he saw the distant lights of a small city. He gave the SUV gas. The slight smile on Beth’s face said she agreed with his lead foot. The short ride seemed to drag on for far too long, like the city was moving away at the same eighty-five MPH that the SUV was approaching at. It was freezing, completely silent, and uncomfortably awkward. The whole family was so relieved when they passed the “Welcome to Torrey” sign. 

The town was basically a main street of small shops. Behind the mainstreet shops were rectangle blocks of houses making up neighborhoods. Buddy guessed mixed in the houses was a park and probably a couple schools, maybe even an apartment complex. None of the shops were big chain stores or restaurants. Every one was a mom and pop shop. Both husband and wife noted the unusual amount of children wandering the streets in the dark. Buddy assumed there was some sort of a town activity, maybe a dance or something. The weirdest part was that there was not a single adult. 

They crawled down mainstreet while all the childrens’ eyes watched the SUV. A motel passed by on the left side of the street. It had to be the motel owned by the sweet old lady’s twin sister. In the parking lot, standing halfway out of the light, was a little girl wearing a pilgrim costume and a hideous mask. It might have been made from human skin. 

“La la la la la la la,” Came from the speakers of the SUV. The family was scared but none of them said anything. They didn’t want to sound ridiculous.

“That’s the police station, right?” Buddy asked the scary little girls. He was pointing at the stately looking building on the right. He was happy when the girls didn’t speak and simply nodded.