Echo

Echo


Clean the Tainted
1

Breaking News:

“The Travis County Sheriffs Department are in a high speed pursuit of four suspects involved in a triple homicide earlier this evening. Sheriff Ronald Meeks has reported that one of the suspects has sustained injury during a brief stand off with deputies following the advancing chase. The driver of the fleeing Chevy Nova is reported to be 19 year old Kane Larson of Jackford Township. It’s possible that Larson’s brother Mark Larson, wanted felon and convicted murder, is also in the vehicle; the other two suspects have not been Identified as of this time. The ID of the three victims are unknown. Reporter Stan Corbitt is standing by on location.

Stan:
“I’m currently live from the corner of East 32nd and Clark in Jackford Township where around 5:00 this evening three residents of this small community were murdered execution style in the front yard of 1604 32nd and Clark. Witnesses say around 5:00pm an olive green Chevy Nova parked out in front of the single family home, three men get out of the vehicle with firearms in hand, walked up the front steps and entered the residence uninvited and unannounced. Within seconds of entering the home, the three men quickly exit, escorting three people into the yard. One of the victims includes an 8 year old child. The three captives without resistance, drop to their knees while the gun men executed each of them one by one in a ritualistic manner from the back of the head. Sheriffs deputies Charles Gray and Richard Sky happen to be partial witness to the slaying while in route to a previous call. Grey and Sky stopped their vehicles and began to engage he suspects as they fled the scene, injuring one in the brief firefight, the officers were unharmed.”

My hands are sweating making it difficult to grip the steering wheel. I’m so sick to my stomach I could puke an intestine and my heart is about to rip from my chest. The world outside is passing in a blur while inside the car it’s a chaotic stew of emotions. I feel like I’m trapped in a pressure cooker containing a nuclear warhead ready to blow hole through the whole planet.
Breath Kane breath…
“Come on Kane we’re not headed to a sunny Sunday pick nick here”.
“Shut up Terry and let him drive. You’re doing great bro but he’s right we need to put a foot in this things ass.”
“yeah I got ya Mark… Just uh, let me warm up to this”.
“Yeah and while you’re warming up their about to blow us like dust in the wind. Now quit being a baby and grow a set real quick before I-”.
“Terry if you threaten my little brother I’m going to blow your head through the back window, now shut it and enjoy the ride.”
Terry leans forward in his seat to Mark’s ear.
“You’re going to blow my head through a window? You Mark; shoot me”?
Terry holds his handgun up to my brothers head who is now turned around in his seat face to face with Terry sitting behind him.
“Hey guys I don’t mean to break up this warm brotherly moment we have going here but ugh… I’m bleeding out back here”!
Looking in the rear view mirror I see Shawn soaked in his own sweat and painted in his own blood from the bullet planted in his stomach. Terry hovers over Shawn trying to keep him calm and slow the blood loss.
“You know Mark…” Shawn began. “I've always loved this car, I remember how it used to look when you rolled it off a wrecker”. Shawn chuckles. “It only had three wheels man. But wow man you really put her back together. It’s roar and scream down a stretch sends an electric charge up my spine…” Shawn falls quiet and weak then begins to speak again. “Do me a favor though bud… Next time you plan another cleansing like this… INVEST IN A DAMN FOUR DOOR! That way I’m not trying to squeeze my ass in the back seat of a lunch box and end up getting shot!”
I look at Mark who is intently studying a “Travis/Shurl County road map, his face calm and strong which was what made my brother a leader above all others. His ability to fearlessly and quickly hold up to any situation. From the mirror, Shawn’s eyes are low, drawn dark as though someone has pulled the blinds on his soul. He was going.
Terry snapped his head over to Shawn sitting next to him as Shawn began to slowly slump over across the backseat. Without ever batting an eye Terry had Mark by the back of the hair with a large hunting knife to Mark’s throat.
“You let my Cousin die here now and I’ll send you back to the dirt you piece of shit, now change him! Now you fu-”
Before Terry could finish his thought Mark was turned around in his seat with Terry pinned up against the back window by his throat. The hunting knife, like a bullet, zipped past my face and lodged into the windshield. Terry flailed about trying with all his being to free himself from Mark’s grip. The continuous applied force of Mark pressing Terry to the glass sends webs of cracks across the window. The bright blue and white lights from the pursuing squad cars casts a eerie shade over my brothers face I've never seen before, an evil I’ve always know was there but never seen has shown itself. The light flicks off Marks razor teeth and lightning blue eyes.
Mark smiles and speaks, his voice dry and steady.
“He will die Terry, he will die an honorable death. But you, you sad weak little insect, you are going to live a tortured misery trapped in a rotting tomb, never to die. You will live.”
My knees shake and my hands throbs around the steering wheel. From behind me I hear Terry screaming like I've never heard a human being scream before. Suddenly an explosion of gunfire erupts in the car. Terry unconsciously empties twelve rounds into the floorboard of the car.
My skin turns cold and clammy; my breathing becomes labored and my vision tunnels. I hear the sound of a million bees swarming around the car. The world begins to fade. Sound mutes and the dark washes over me; a veil drops over my universe.