Into The Deep

Jane runs every night between eleven and one in the morning. Quiet, no distractions, peaceful and calm. She runs from the top of the hill where her house is, straight down a half-mile, then through the city park, cutting across to the marina for another two miles; making a circle back, and runs another half-mile past Gladewater Cemetery, then back up the hill and home.

It was always the same, five nights a week.

Then the disappearances happened. It still didn’t stop her from running. She just added something extra to her jogging adventure. A snub-nose .32 Police Special. Jane’s a cop. Whoever was abducting people tried to get her, she had a surprise for him or them.

Two weeks went by, and nothing. No one missing, no one crying foul.

Jane continued her nightly jogging routine.

On a night with a full moon, no less Halloween, Jane was rounding out the finish of her run going past Gladewater Cemetery; when she heard a scream coming somewhere from inside the grounds.

She drew her weapon and found the entrance. The gate was wide open.

She made her way slowly in the direction where the screaming came from, then cursed herself for not having her two-way radio with her.

As she ventured deeper into the confines of headstones; ever deathly quiet, she felt hands reach out for her. She struggled to twist free and see the person whose hands were trying to take her out. She wanted to yell out he was under arrest, but not only couldn’t she see this person, his grip around her throat from behind was causing her to lose oxygen.

She was growing limp, when she felt more hands at her ankles, calves, thighs, wrists and arms, and she was being pulled down. The gun fell from her grasp as she was becoming weaker.

Jane realized with a finality of horror, the scream she heard was her own.

The hands pulling her down, enveloping her body as she was pulled beneath the ground, and she disappeared.

The ground remained undisturbed.

And they say jogging is healthy.