The groomer, p.1
The Groomer, page 1
The Groomer
Jon Athan
Copyright © 2020 Jon Athan
All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
For more information on this book or the author, please visit www.jon-athan.com. General inquiries are welcome.
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Book cover by Sean Lowery: http://indieauthordesign.com/
Thank you for the support!
First Edition
WARNING
This book contains scenes of intense violence and some disturbing themes. Some parts of this book may be considered violent, cruel, disturbing, or unusual. This book is not intended for those easily offended or appalled. Please enjoy at your own discretion.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter One
Want to Play a Game?
Liam Hansen sat in front of his computer, face lit up by the bright monitor. His bulky over-ear headset pulled his head down. Black bags hung under his bloodshot eyes. He blinked once a minute. He breathed loudly, but he didn’t notice it because of his noise-cancelling headphones. An eight-ounce can of Red Bull stood beside his mouse pad.
He frequently tapped the W-A-S-D keys on his keyboard with his left hand while clicking on his mouse with his right hand. In the video game, his character punched a tree until a block of the trunk exploded into a smaller block of wood. The repetitive, dull thud of each hit was oddly relaxing. He didn’t play it every day, but he enjoyed returning to his Minecraft world every now and then.
Liam was a ten-year-old boy. And he was already addicted to video games and energy drinks. His parents used video games to keep him busy, to keep him out of trouble—to raise him.
“What the hell are you doing, dude?”
Liam heard the nasally voice through his headphones. He was on a Skype voice call with a user named: Cheese2002. Liam didn’t know his real name, so he called him ‘Cheese.’
Liam responded, “I’m getting wood. What’s it look like?”
“Getting wood,” Cheese snickered.
“What? What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Cheese said while trying to suppress his laughter. “Just use an axe, dude. It’s so much faster.”
“I don’t have one now.”
“Make one!”
“After this. I don’t need that much wood anyway.”
Cheese cackled again. It sounded like he was rolling back-and-forth and side-to-side in his seat. Liam furrowed his brow and shrugged, as if his online friend could see him.
“Dude, seriously, what’s so funny?” he asked.
As he recomposed himself, Cheese said, “N–Nothing. I mean, I can’t tell you anyway. You’re too young.”
“Whatever, boomer.”
“I’m just saying, dude. Wait a couple of years and you’ll get it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t care anyway.”
Liam gathered the wood and headed back to a town over a mountain. He spent months building the town with Cheese. They built small shops and houses, a red barn for their livestock and fields for their crops, and even a mine, a library, and a guard post. But their pride and joy was the massive castle atop the mountain overlooking their town. The interior was unfurnished, but the exterior was complete.
Cheese asked, “What do you wanna build next?”
“Dude, we still have to finish the castle.”
“You actually want to build the inside? That’s gonna take forever!”
“So what?”
“I don’t have ‘forever,’ dude.”
As he directed his character to the castle, Liam asked, “Why? What else do you have to do?”
Cheese responded, “School, work, that kind of stuff.”
Liam checked the clock on his phone: 1:17 AM. He puckered his lips, then he sighed. School began at eight o’clock in the morning. He woke up at seven to eat breakfast, get ready, and arrive on time.
He said, “Yeah, I have to sleep soon, too.”
“Wait,” Cheese said in an urgent tone. He asked, “How about a game of Fortnite? Just one match before we sleep?”
“I don’t know, dude. They’re kinda long games...”
“Seriously, man, you know you want to.”
Liam let out another loud sigh, then he smirked and said, “Alright, one game.”
He took a swig of his Red Bull and jumped into a match of Fortnite. The sound of his keyboard clacking and his mouse clicking echoed through the house. His parents—underpaid and overworked—slept with earplugs and sleep masks. His mother also used sleeping pills to aid her slumber.
He can take care of himself, they told themselves. He’s old enough now. He has an older brother and a younger sister. He has his games and his friends.
One match in Fortnite quickly turned to two, then three, and then four. The clock on his phone read: 2:42 AM. He was out of Red Bull, but he wasn’t drowsy. The caffeine from the energy drink and the adrenaline from the video game kept him amped up. He felt his heart pounding away at his chest.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!
After losing another round, Liam said, “I think I’m gonna sleep now. Thanks for–”
“Let me just ask you something real quick,” Cheese interrupted.
“What’s up, dude?”
“You wanna meet up this weekend?”
“Like… um… what do you mean?”
“In person,” Cheese clarified. “I have some extra Minecraft Coins and V-Bucks I want to give you. I want you to get that Fortnite ‘Fishstick’ skin so we can wear it together.”
“Okay, um… Just send it to me.”
They shared a moment of awkward silence. Only their breathing and the menu music from the video game played through their headphones.
Cheese coughed to clear his throat, then he said, “I want to give it to you in person. I just thought, like… I don’t know. I got you these gifts ‘cause we’ve known each other for a while now. We play together almost every day. We’ve trolled a bunch of people. You remember when we raided those role-playing servers in GTA Online? Stealing their cars, running people over, trying to frame other players.”
Liam smiled as he reminisced about their good times playing together. He never argued with Cheese about anything. But he was cautious because he knew Cheese was older than him. He sounded older, despite his nasally voice, and his vocabulary was extensive. He went to school, but he never specified his grade—middle school? high school? College?
Cheese2002—Liam guessed the number at the end of his friend’s username was connected to his birth year. So, he assumed Cheese was seventeen or eighteen years old.
Cheese continued, “Let’s meet at the park. I’ll give you these gifts as a late birthday present, then we can play some Fortnite together if you bring your Nintendo Switch. Then your mom can stop bitching about you getting out of your room. What do you think? You down?”
Liam said, “I don’t know…”
“Why, bro? Come on, it’s me! Cheese!” Cheese said as he chuckled. “It’s not like I’m going to hurt you or anything like that. And we’re going to be in public. You want that Fishstick skin, don’t you? Hell, dude, you can buy some Legendary Skins with the leftover V-Bucks if you want. I don’t care what you do with ‘em.”
Liam’s lips fluttered as he let out a loud, sputtering sigh. Some of his saliva hit the monitor, but he paid it no mind. He thought about his decision. He trusted Cheese, and he was always happy to receive a gift. He was also interested in buying some new skins, which changed the appearance of his character. And he never felt intimidated by Cheese. He felt more intimidated by his eight-year-old sister, in fact.
Liam said, “I can meet you at Kamala Park. It’s, like, two blocks away from my school. Is Friday good?”
“Friday’s good, but… let’s meet at Plaza Park. They have Wi-Fi there now, so we can play Fortnite without any lag.”
“Plaza Park… I guess, but… It’s kinda far.”
“Well, it’s like we’re meeting in the middle ‘cause it’s not so far from me. So, we’ll meet there on Friday after school. Deal?”
“I mean, um… I should probably ask my–”
He stopped as he caught a glimpse of the clock on his monitor. It was now three o’clock in the morning.
Liam said, “I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later, Cheese. Thanks for playing with me!”
“Hey! We’re meeting on Friday, right? Right?”
Liam turned off his comp uter and jumped into bed. He thought about Cheese’s invitation for a few minutes.
“I’ll meet you… Friday… after school,” he whispered before dozing off.
***
“Are you… Are you Cheese2002?” Liam asked as he approached a young man sitting on a bench.
The stranger fiddled with his phone before glancing at Liam. He was surprisingly attractive—lean, clean, tall, and young. His curly brown hair was stylishly messy, his brown eyes as gentle as a puppy’s, and his face as hairless as a child’s. He wasn’t the sharpest dresser, but he wore exactly what Cheese told Liam he would be wearing: a blue button-up shirt with a gray t-shirt underneath, slim jeans, and sneakers.
“That’s me,” the stranger said. “You must be Liam. It’s cool to finally meet you, little dude. My real name’s Zachary Denton.”
Zachary reached for a handshake. Liam stared at Zachary’s hand for a few seconds, then he glanced around, as if he were making a drug deal in public. He shook Zachary’s hand, then he hooked his thumbs under the straps of his baby blue backpack and stepped back. Zachary furrowed his brow and cocked his head to the side, as if to say: what’s the matter, buddy?
Liam smiled nervously and said, “You, um… You sound a little different.”
“Yeah? I guess it’s just the mic I use when I play online. It’s a piece of crap.”
Liam’s eyes wandered to the backpack on the bench beside Zachary. He asked, “Did you just finish school, too?”
“Oh, yeah. I drove here right after class, so I’ve been waiting for you for a minute.”
“Oh… What, um… What school do you go–”
“Hey, check this out, dude,” Zachary interrupted.
He pulled two gift cards out of his backpack—one for 3,500 Minecraft Coins and another for 2,800 V-Bucks for Fortnite. He reached out to hand them to Liam. Liam bit his bottom lip and glanced around the park again. Broad daylight bathed the park in a warm glow. Pedestrians strolled down the walkways while the homeless built tents on the lawns. He saw a police cruiser drive down the street behind Zachary, too.
He felt safe in the area, but cautionary tales—recounted by his parents and his teachers—kept stabbing the back of his mind.
‘Don’t take candy from a stranger.’
They never said not to take a gift card from a stranger, Liam thought.
He accepted the gift. He sat down beside Zachary and pulled his Nintendo Switch out of his backpack. He started playing Fortnite.
He asked, “Can I use it now?”
As he pulled his own Nintendo Switch out of his backpack, Zachary said, “Go for it, dude. It’s yours. I’ll get online, too.”
Liam redeemed his gift card and purchased the Fishstick skin for his character on Fortnite. He saved the Minecraft gift card for home. He played a match with Zachary. Zachary taught him a few special maneuvers and tricks. Then they walked around the park and played Pokémon GO, laughing and chatting every step of the way.
From the outside looking in, they looked like brothers. Zachary was clearly in his twenties, but he gave off a youthful aura. He blended with his environment.
After an hour of playing and conversing, they returned to the bench. Liam put his jacket and his Nintendo Switch in his backpack.
Zachary asked, “Hey, you want me to jailbreak your Switch?”
“Huh?”
“Jailbreak, dude. You know what that is, right?”
“Um… no.”
Zachary said, “It’s pretty much a hack. You can make your Switch do things it’s not supposed to do. Things that it will never be able to do officially.”
“Like what?”
“On my Switch back home, I can play Gameboy Advance, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and GameCube games. You said you liked that Mario game, right? Super Mario Odyssey? Well, if you jailbreak your system, you can play Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario 64 and any Mario game you want. You won’t even have to pay for it, dude.”
Liam stuttered, “R–Really?”
“Yup.”
“Is it, like, um… like bad? Like breaking the law?”
Zachary chuckled, then he said, “Don’t worry about that. You think anyone’s ever going to arrest a ten-year-old because of video games? I do it all the time and I’ve never been in trouble. So, what do you say, little dude? Want me to hack your Switch? I’ll do it for free and it won’t take more than thirty minutes. I can probably do it in fifteen.”
Liam pressed his tongue against the side of his mouth and looked around. He checked the clock on his phone: 4:46 PM. His parents usually arrived home at six o’clock. He had more than enough time to hack his Nintendo Switch. And he believed every word out of Zachary’s mouth. But he couldn’t get the warnings out of his head.
‘Don’t ever get into a stranger’s car.’
The devil on Liam’s shoulder said: ‘But he’s not a stranger, he’s a friend.’
Liam asked, “Can you do it at my house?”
“Sorry, I can’t. I have to do it through my computer. I don’t live so far, you know, and I can drop you off at your house right after if you want. You’d be home faster than if you started walking home now. I mean, it’s up to you, Liam. I’m just glad we could meet. I had fun, little dude.”
“Y–Yeah, me too,” Liam said, an innocent smile blossoming on his face. He said, “Okay, I’ll go with you. I just have to get home before six, okay?”
“Yeah, dude, no problem. Come on, I parked right over here.”
They walked down the walkway while chatting about their favorite Super Mario video games. Then Zachary grabbed Liam’s shoulder and pulled him away from the walkway. They walked across the lawn. To Liam, it seemed like they were taking a shortcut to the parking lot. Instead, they approached a little white hatchback parked on the street.
Zachary knew the park well. He avoided the surveillance cameras in the parking lot and at the end of the walkways. Liam climbed into the passenger seat. A stack of manila file folders sat on the dashboard in front of Liam, just tall enough to block him from outside eyes—and other cameras. Liam wasn’t aware of Zachary’s precautions. He wasn’t aware of his intentions, either.
They drove away, cruising far from Liam’s home. His parents didn’t see him at six o’clock—or seven, or eight.
Chapter Two
The Park
“Are you seriously drinking right now?” Holly McCarthy hissed, bug-eyed.
Her husband, Andrew McCarthy, shook his flask and said, “Don’t worry about it, hun. They think it’s apple juice.”
“Oh. My. God. You are… a child.”
“Don’t be so melodramatic.”
“Okay, you’re a… a… I don’t even know if there’s a word for it. A… A wannabe college student? A poser?”
“A poser? Jeez, that’s just rude.”
“What? It’s true, isn’t it? You’re thirty-four years old, almost thirty-five, and you’re drinking out of a flask at a public park. I’m surprised you’re not drinking out of a bottle of sunscreen.”
Ha, Ha, Ha!—Andrew laughed sarcastically. Their friends, setting up lawn chairs and picnic blankets outside of a large sandbox, cackled and teased him. They sided with Holly, especially considering the circumstances. It was a sunny Saturday gathering of close friends and their families, including their young, impressionable children.
Andrew stood five-eleven. His beach blonde hair was always disheveled. His blue eyes sparkled behind his glasses. His beard was trimmed, thick but neat. He worked as a territory sales representative for a local health insurance company. He was responsible for sales profitability, growth, and market penetration as well as managing old contacts and recruiting new clients.
He lived a boring, middle-class suburban life. He wasn’t macho or aggressive or violent. He wasn’t a drunk, either, but he tried to add some excitement to his life every now and then.
He grabbed his wife’s arm and pulled her closer to him, then he planted a sloppy kiss on her lips, tongue and all. Holly could only giggle as she tried to break away.
She said, “You’re so embarrassing.”
“But you love me, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Save it for the bedroom, you two,” Matthew Baker, a family friend, said from the sidelines. “Or for your minivan.”
