Creepers by Bret Tallent

man.  She was no follower, she was a leader. 
    Terri was also beautiful.  Since the seventh grade Yancy had marveled at her beauty, and it had only grown as she had grown.  Her slight frame, dirty blond hair, and aquiline features belied the nature of her strength.  Her eyes were a soft hazel that Yancy found difficult from which to look away.  Whenever Terri caught him staring at her, those eyes would twinkle and she would gift Yancy with a smile.  Yancy had lived for those smiles.  They made him feel like a better person than he was.  Yancy realized then that he would do anything for Terri.  With thoughts of Terri bouncing around his skull, Yancy finally drifted off to sleep.  He was happy.
     
    ***
    Evvie was also struggling to sleep.  Her mind was racing, and she was reacting to every sound the house made.  Creaks and moans that she had known for decades were now foreboding.  Leaves of the vines clinging to the side of the house ticked and scratched against its side in a gentle breeze.  Evvie had always enjoyed the sound of the leaves, but not tonight.  Tonight it made her think that someone was creeping around outside.
    For Evvie, sleep did not come easy this night but it came none the less.  In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Evvie finally drifted off to sleep.  In her hands, she still clutched the gun, but it did little to calm her sleep or her dreams.  For the first time in forever, Evvie dreamed of the stories her daddy had told her.  Evvie dreamed of the lynching of her grandparents.
    Unlike her mother, Precious had fallen almost instantly to sleep.  Her room was at the opposite end of the hall from that of her mother, and the creaking house didn’t bother Precious at all.  She had already been exhausted, and she had just been through too much tonight.  Precious needed to sleep.  Her aching body and ruined face needed to rest.  On top of that, Precious wanted the oblivion that only sleep could give her.

CHAPTER 10
     
     
    Tuesday morning didn’t start out any better than Monday had, and Jack was already dreading it.  Well, he was dreading most of it.  The work part of it, but he was really looking forward to seeing Terri this evening.  For Jack, the day just couldn’t be over quick enough.  First though, he had to check on another missing person.  To top it off, it was another person missing from roughly the same area as Sheila Eckers.
    Isaiah Jones lived in an old share cropper’s shack on the other side of route 33 from Ricky Dixon’s place.  It was about a mile closer to town and further back in the woods as well.  Jack drove slowly down the one lane dirt road that led to the shack.  Sunlight filtered through the leaves of the trees that overhung the road and sparkled on his windshield.  The flashing of light made it difficult for Jack to follow the road, and he’d nearly wound up in a ditch a couple of times.
    Eventually, the road opened up to a large field of soybean.  The soy beans were small and wilted from the summer heat and drought, and most of them were nearly dead.  To the left as Jack neared the center of the field, the road came to a small opening where a shack stood next to the woods.  The shack's old tin roof was rusted, and the porch appeared to be falling in on itself.  At least half of the place was covered with a lush carpet of green vines that had stretched out from the nearby woods.
    Jack came to a stop in front of the old shack and paused.  Not again, he thought to himself.  With trepidation, Jack surveyed the scene.  To the right of the cabin, beneath a lean-to, was an old Ford truck that looked like it hadn’t been used in a month.  Dust was thick on its windshield, and one of the tires was flat.  Jack also noted the tractor parked beside the truck also had a flat tire.  Cautiously, he stepped out of his cruiser.
    Isaiah worked for Jimmy Crawford and had lived in an old shack for nearly fifty years.  Jimmy owned the land and Isaiah