The Beast of 1977 (Book 1)

Chapter 24

Captain Kangaroo was conversing back and forth with both Mr. Green Jeans and Mr. Moose on the television while Isaac spoke in a low, overcast tone to his father over the phone.

Dressed in the same clothes from the night before, Isaac watched Isaiah crawl and romp about on the floor with his Fisher Price toy phone while he sipped away on his fourth cup of coffee for the morning. Isaac's mind was from the TV and drifting even further away from his son.

Every so often he would stare down at his scarred fingernails that felt as if someone had pierced each of them with sharp needles.

"Isaac, are you still there?" Mr. Mercer worriedly asked.

Shaking himself awake, Isaac replied, "I'm fine, dad. I just got a bad headache. Did the fuzz bring your car back yesterday?"

"Yeah, they brought it back last night. I think the carburetor needs replaced."

Just then, a long pause prevailed. The pause was soon followed by a moan from Isaac's father.

"Son...is everything alright with you? You sure don't sound fine."

Just judging by his father's stretched out gap in speech Isaac could sense that he was stressed over his grueling ordeal. All the young man could do was sit and shut his eyes in angst.

"Yeah, dad, I just need some time to...to work things out."

"Where's Lynn at?"

"She went out to get some more medicine for Isaiah. She said she'll be back before nine."

"Isaac, just relax and let the good Lord take care of everything. You've got a friend in him."

Out of helpless frustration, Isaac threw himself backwards into the

"Dad...I got something to tell you later on." He flinched,

to the

Isaac hesitantly said, sitting back and wiping the wetness away

"I gotta go to work now. Be

"I will, dad," Isaac sniffed before hanging up the

tenor that he hadn't heard before; it startled Isaac enough to where he even lost track of where Isaiah was and what he was

he handed his father

smile came across Isaac's battered face before taking the plastic receiver, holding it to his ear and

The mock conversations were customary; Isaiah would just sit and clap his tiny hands as though a parade were trolling right through the living room. The boy was happy to see someone enjoying his toys as much as

the television re-ran reports of the murder of the kidnapper, the dead bodies in his basement and

were the usual speculations from the usual talking heads on just what kind of animal could have possibly killed

scrolled through every little Sanders girl. Their angelic faces were alive with euphoric vitality as their smiling parents held all four of their children in

concentrated on the screen. He was completely void of

"Here!" Isaiah blurted out, handing his

the generous man offering

body from

he managed to limp his way into the warm bathroom Isaac promptly removed every item of clothing from off the child's body, cut on the warm water and then placed his boy inside the tub. With only a bar of soap Isaac scrubbed Isaiah from head

to bath Isaiah. The child actually enjoyed being wet; just splashing about in the water was all playtime for him. He knew that

He stared straight ahead at the grimy tile while listening to the little girl's scream in his head in a high pitched tone. Much like the proverbial 'fingernails across the chalkboard', Isaac couldn't help but to drown in the hellacious notion that everything that happened two nights earlier was nowhere to be found in his mind.

and yet,

All of the sudden, sprinkles of soapy water splashed into Isaac's dead

turn into a habit." Isaac scolded, shoving the

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