Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills Ch. 06

Inside the house, the silence was so eerie it was almost loud. "Hello, anybody home?" Lisa called, this met with no response. "Brendan, Cornelius, Danielle?" Again, nothing. Just the same silence, punctuated by the sounds of a ticking clock, a dripping tap and a struggling refrigerator.

An eerie silence while un-nerving was no proof that anything was wrong, but a quick look around confirmed that there was something very disturbing going on. A toaster with 'popped' toast was switched on and sitting on the bench, an open jar of vegemite next to it. There was a bottle of orange juice left open near the sink, and the refrigerator door was open and some of the food had already started to spoil, such as a packet of cheese with a tiger brand mascot on the wrapping.

Soon things were getting even more disturbing. In Erica's bedroom, the bed was not made, the wardrobe doors and drawers were open and somebody had rummaged through them, as though looking for things in a hurry. Notably, one of Erica's sleep shirts was on the floor, along with a pair of the young girl's white cotton panties with cartoon cats on the cover. Looking down at Erica's knickers, Lisa could see the teenager's female stains on the saddle, obviously Erica had been wearing them before she took them off.

Lisa and Pete soon noticed other out of place things around the abandoned house, such as Danielle's mobile phone left behind. Why wouldn't she have taken this if she and Cornelius went to the Gold Coast like they had claimed?

The dripping tap was coming from the main bathroom but otherwise there wasn't anything wrong here, but in the living room there was plenty to see. There was a bowl of cereal on the coffee table, half eaten with the spoon still in it, with more cereal spilled on the couch. The TV set was on, but set to the VCR channel, and showing static snow, the flickering patterns adding to the disquiet of both Pete and Lisa as they continued to explore the Hawkins house.

The parents' bedroom at the front of the house showed the same sort of disorder as Erica's with the bed not made and the drawers flung open, as though somebody was either searching for something or packing in a hurry.

Lisa and Pete then walked to where the door that led to the granny flat and stopped short. In front as though guarding the entrance were a crocodile lilo and two sex dolls, the male doll dressed as a clown and the female doll as a witch, sitting in chairs one each side of the blow up crocodile.

"What the fuck?" asked Pete.

Lisa shook her head. "The clown costume, that's Cornelius's. I've seen him wearing it. And that's Erica's witch costume, I remember she wore it to a Halloween dance at she went to at school with Gavin last year. Why the fuck would anybody do this though?"

"Your brother's girlfriend's family are very strange," said Pete.

"Yeah, but this strange?" Lisa could make no sense of this.

"Disgusting too," said Pete, pointing down at the floor in disgust at a period pad that lay there face up, showing the wearer's dark red monthly blood stains.

"Oh yuck," said Lisa, but her eyes then fixated on something else on the floor.

It was another pair of knickers like Erica's in her bedroom, but Lisa knew straight away that these white panties with red, blue and yellow flowers did not belong to Faye, Erica or Danielle Hawkins. "Those are mine," said Lisa. "My panties."

"Are you sure?" Pete asked.

"Yes, I wore them to work on Thursday," said Lisa. "They're definitely my knickers."

"What would your knickers be doing here?" asked the puzzled Pete.

"Gavin must have brought them over here," said Lisa. "How else?"

"But what would your brother be doing with your underwear? It doesn't make any sense."

"Nothing here makes any sense," said Lisa. "Like in here." They went into the bedroom used by Cornelius and Danielle where the bed was also unmade and it looked as though somebody had ransacked the drawers and wardrobe. But most disturbing were huge red bloodstains on the white sheets.

"We're going to the police, this isn't normal," said Lisa. "I'm going to report Gavin missing."

"Agreed, this place is Mary Celeste level weird," agreed Pete.

The young couple, both disturbed and freaked in equal measures, were about to make for the side door to exit into the garage, when the ringing telephone shattered the silence of the abandoned house. Both jumped, and stared at the phone as it continued to ring.

"Should we answer it?" asked Pete.

"I don't know, maybe we shouldn't touch it?" mused Lisa. "Let it go to the answering machine?"

The phone stopped ringing and the answering machine came on, the voice of Faye Hawkins thanking the person for their call and asking them to leave a message after the beep. Pete and Lisa listened as a woman's voice filled the kitchen.

"Hi Faye, it's Angela, I left you a message yesterday but didn't hear back from you, hope you and Alistair and the kids are well. Anyway, please call me back, Charlie and I are going to Glenelg for lunch with the kids, so if you call me back after 3 o'clock Adelaide time -- that's 3.30 Eastern standard time, that would be best. Catch you soon, bye."

Pete and Lisa looked at each other. "That's Erica's aunty in Adelaide, Faye's sister. She doesn't sound like a stroke victim to me, which is apparently the reason they went to South Australia. Except they obviously didn't, so what's going on?"

"I think we'd better let the police figure that out," said Pete.

"I agree, let's get down the police station," said Lisa. Both of them hurried from the house, not sorry to be out of there, Lisa frantic to find out where the fuck her brother was.

*

Gavin at this moment was sitting in the back of Mr. Hawkins' four wheel drive as it sped across the border and out of the Australian Capital Territory and back into New South Wales. After seeing the brutal death of the fat man in the lake, torn to pieces and eaten by monsters and predatory reptiles and fish followed by the devil and two grim reapers come to claim his soul and condemn him to eternal damnation in Hell there was no reason to stay in Canberra.

Racing back to the hotel, frantic to get their stuff as it contained personal information that could be used against them if it fell into the wrong hands, the Hawkins family went back to the lobby so fast that they did not even wait for the lifts but took the stairs.

The hotel manager and his son were astonished to see the odd family that had bribed them to stay here depart so quickly, but the father's explanation -- that his mother had been taken ill and died in the night and they had to cut short their trip and rush back to Swan Hill -- convinced them, although not entirely.

The touristy things the group had planned around Canberra for the afternoon were all obviously cancelled. Dangerous monsters lurked in Lake Burley Griffin, the West Lake and the Molonglo River, UFO's were in the area and there were demonic presences here too. They needed to get out of here and fast.

Driving through farming country and heading for the coastal town of Bateman's Bay in the South Coast region of New South Wales, there was intermittent rain, sometimes drizzle, sometimes heavy other times the sun would briefly shine through the clouds.

Nobody had discussed the events back in Canberra -- there had been no time in the haste to leave. But now as the cars stopped in farmland about halfway between the capital and the coast to allow Danielle to duck behind a tree for a piss and a tampon change.

When Danielle returned adjusting her knickers through her jeans the group then addressed the morning's events back in Canberra. "So, what do you think happened back there, with the fat guy in the restaurant the fox warned us about?" Faye asked.

Alistair, who had now reverted back to the stern, gruff and grouchy Alistair rather than the Alistair who was trying to have fun back in Canberra, fortunately had a sage answer for his wife, kids and their partners.

"The fat man, he was a pedophile yes, and he was evil, but he was a stooge," declared Alistair. "I think he sold his soul to evil a long time ago. The demons would have contacted him to do a simple job, to try and trap us so the aliens can capture us. But the Demons had a second agenda, they wanted him dead, perhaps he'd failed them at other tasks they set him in the past. I couldn't say. When the fat guy fell into the lake, the demons sent the monsters to kill and eat him in front of us for two reasons. One to kill him, and two to send a message to scare us, to let us know what will happen to us too. So we need to be extra vigilant. Now let's go."

This made a lot of sense to the others, who were glad of Alistair's sage assessment of the situation. Before they could get back into the cars however they caught movement in a field across the road, and looked at what was going on. There was a large windmill on the property, and around it danced a group of people dressed as witches, wizards and druids, all of them chanting in Latin. Also dancing around the windmill and chanting in Latin were two bears, one a grizzly bear and the other a polar bear.

In the field were what looked like cattle, but these were much larger than any cows or even buffalos and didn't look like any bovine the group had seen. "You're a bit of an expert on weird animals, do you know what they are?" Faye asked her daughter's boyfriend.

Gavin looked at one of the strange animals as it made a lowing noise. "At a guess I'd say they're aurochs, an old European cattle. They've been extinct probably as long as the dodo."

Quite sure they didn't want to hang around with dangerous looking bovines supposed to be extinct for over four centuries, dancing bears and weird people carrying out some sort of magic ritual in a field, everyone got back in the cars, Alistair and Danielle making haste for the coast.

*

In a Sydney police station for the local area where the Hawkins and Baxter family lived, Lisa Baxter was also pondering a mystery other than that of her missing brother, and this was how some people ever got into the New South Wales police. Lisa was already on edge, while waiting to be served her mobile phone rang and it was Gino, who had no good news for her. Nobody among their friends had seen either Gavin or Erica since last week, and not heard from them either.

Adding to Lisa's disquiet was that the television was on in the waiting area, and there were news reports of people acting like maniacs, such as some drug-taking teenagers thinking that the Devil had set Byron Bay on fire and running around in the middle of the night warning people. Closer to home were bizarre reports about lunatics in the Blue Mountains firing a shotgun and rifle at a group of scouts doing a night tour on one of the trails, a third person having a chainsaw. Not surprisingly the kids in the scout group were traumatized, some needing hospital treatment for nervous shock.

When finally she was able to talk to an officer, the young constable -- a Constable Jackson aged about 25 who looked like a dork and unfortunately acted like one too. He refused to file any sort of missing person's report as he didn't seem to understand that Gavin hadn't gone camping as claimed, suggesting he was just late back and it wasn't a police matter. He would not listen to Lisa's assertions at the bizarre way the Hawkins family had left their house nor that the story about going to Adelaide was obviously a lie. He even had the gall to tell her she and her boyfriend shouldn't have gone into the Hawkins' family's house without their permission. Her boyfriend backing her up on the claims didn't help and Lisa and Pete were both severely frustrated at the obstructive young man.

"Constable Jackson, can I please speak with somebody more senior than you?" asked Lisa. "A sergeant or a detective perhaps?"

"Miss Baxter, if your brother still isn't back tomorrow I suggest you call police general enquires..." began Constable Jackson, before another male voice was heard.

"Is everything okay out here, Constable?" A tall, good-looking police officer with red hair aged about 30 appeared from out of the back rooms.

"Sergeant Smith, I was just explaining to this young lady that she can't..."

"Isn't it about time for your afternoon break Constable?" asked Sergeant Smith. "How about you take it now, and I'll assist this lady and gentleman."

The constable departed and the sergeant offered his hand with a friendly smile, shaking hands with Lisa and Pete. "I'm Sergeant Darren Smith, pleased to meet you."

"Lisa Baxter, Pete Jones, likewise," said Lisa, returning the sergeant's handshake.

"From what I overheard, I understand your brother is missing?" asked Sergeant Smith.

Lisa nodded. "Yes, Gavin, he's my younger brother. Things have been really strange, I don't know where to begin."

Sergeant Smith gave the young woman a friendly smile. "How about we go into an interview room and we can talk about it?" Another uniformed constable, this time a pretty young woman with strawberry blonde hair came into the police station after returning from the toilet. "This is Constable Beth Walker, who will be sitting in with us."

Soon and with the police having gotten Lisa and Pete two cups of tea, Lisa and Pete were sitting in the interview room with Sergeant Smith and Constable Walker describing the bizarre behavior of her brother before he vanished, and how the family of his girlfriend had vanished too, making up lies about going interstate.

Sergeant Smith was a mask of professionalism, but his composure slipped when Lisa mentioned the name 'Cornelius Hawkins' when discussing her brother's girlfriend Erica Hawkins, also seemingly missing.

"Cornelius Hawkins?" The sergeant's expression showed his distaste. "That Cornelius Hawkins? What am I saying, how many Cornelius Hawkins can there be?"

"Yes," said Lisa. "You know of him?"

"He has met my acquaintance yes," said Sergeant Smith tactfully. He didn't disclose that he had been very close to charging Cornelius Hawkins with wasting police time last year after his antics in a park frightening old ladies, and it was only the Inspector finally deciding it wasn't worth extra resources prosecuting a moron who was likely to get a slap on the wrist in a magistrates' court anyway that stopped this. So Cornelius was given an official caution with which he blew his nose as he left the police station, and also was that week's winner of the dickhead of the week competition that the police at this station had for morons who they had to deal with.

Sergeant Smith not for the first time fantasized about transferring Constable Jackson to a station out the back of Bourke as Lisa and Pete talked about the Hawkins family house and how it was left. How could any serving officer dismiss a report like this?

"We'll get a missing persons' report for your brother lodged right away," said Sergeant Smith. "And Constable Walker and I will be going back with you to the house with forensics, to secure it and start the investigation. You did the right thing reporting this."

As Lisa signed the missing person's report for Gavin that Constable Walker had prepared, the reality of his hit her and she felt a lump in her throat and had to swallow hard to stop herself crying. Her little brother was officially a missing person. Her parents would be coming back tomorrow to such terrible news. What if Gavin was one of those people who just vanished from the face of the Earth never to be seen again? She could never live with herself, always wondering if she should have handled things differently.

Returning to the Hawkins house Lisa and Pete waited outside with a third officer while the police secured the property as a potential crime scene with the 'police line -- do not cross' tape and the forensic officers began their work.

"This place is like the Marie Celeste," said Beth Walker, the young constable unconsciously referencing Pete's reaction to seeing inside the Hawkins house earlier as neither Lisa nor Pete had used this reference to the infamous ship when making their statements.

"I agree, it's weird as anything I've seen," said Sergeant Smith. A model of professionalism, he indulged in a few seconds of unprofessionalism as a forensics took photos of Lisa's used panties left on the floor. He noticed creamy colored snatch stains on the white double cotton saddle, and could not help but think that these came from the vagina of the very attractive Lisa.

After the blow up dolls and crocodile were photographed and dusted for prints, Sergeant Smith like all officers at the scene wearing gloves knocked on the door leading to the granny flat, hoping to rouse this mysterious Brendan Hawkins, who according to Lisa Baxter never came outside. If indeed he was there, and with the rest of the family missing this was unlikely.

"Brendan Hawkins, this is Sergeant Darren Smith and Constable Beth Walker, New South Wales police. If you can hear us, open the door please, we need to talk to you."

No answer to this, and other attempts to talk to him also failed. "We're coming in Brendan," warned Sergeant Smith, he and Constable Walker entering the granny flat, which was small but meticulously tidy.

"He's not here, Sarge, he must have gone with them," said Beth Walker, there being no sign of anyone in the granny flat, which was as silent as the rest of the house.

Sergeant Smith nodded. This Brendan Hawkins character had vanished as completely as the rest of the family and the sister's boyfriend, and the police went back to continue looking over the property.

*

Brendan Hawkins of course was not with the rest of the family as they stood in a car park at Batemans Bay, looking out to sea through a late afternoon sun shower.

"I'm a bit worried about them using our car number plates to track us," said Faye.

"I have been thinking about that too," said Alistair. "But unless we steal the plates off other cars and switch them what are we supposed to do? And that's too risky."

"We could make up fake plates," Danielle suggested. She pointed at another car with Victorian registration plates. "That has white plates with blue numbers and letters." She then indicated another interstate vehicle, this one from Queensland. "And that Queensland one has white plates with maroon numbers and letters. We passed a shop on the way in that looked like it sells stationary. All we'd need is white cardboard and two markers, one maroon and one dark blue."

"I can do it," declared Cornelius. "I'm an artist."

"Yeah a bullshit artist," growled his father.

"Alistair, if he's confident enough maybe let him try it," Faye suggested. "We don't have too many other options."

"Yeah okay then, but remember, you fuck it up and I bust your arse," Alistair warned Cornelius, as he and Danielle went back to town and quickly came back with the cardboard, some scissors, tape and two marker pens maroon and dark blue.

Looking at how the letter and number sequences worked on both the Victorian and Queensland car registration ran, Cornelius set to work.

"Make sure you have the numbers right for both plates front and back," grumbled Alistair.

"As if Dad, I'm not retarded," Cornelius shot back. Showing his artistic talent, soon there were two sets of false Victorian and Queensland registration plates done to perfection. Cutting them out and making sure nobody was watching, Cornelius and Danielle covered the yellow and black New South Wales plates on Danielle's car with the blue and white Victorian plates, and then the New South Wales plates on the four wheel driver were covered by the false Queensland plates, all firmly secured with plenty of tape. It would not be enough to fool the police close up, but more than good enough for passing vehicles on the road.

"About time you served some purpose in life," was Alistair's only comment to his son.