Yes, I realize it's not Sunday, but forgive me.
It was dark. The moon light scattered in the tree branches as Jeff and Rob made their way down a back country road that their 1989 Chevy pick-up was guiding them down - a road they've traveled so many times before.
Only this time it was different.
"Well folks," a voice crackled on the radio, "it looks like we got ourselves that '20 Year Storm,' so stay inside, hunker down and let some good ole southern boys make ya'll feel at ease."
Lynyrd Skynyrd's "That Smell," blared from the speakers in the rusty cab of the truck.
The rain came down in buckets, no lightning but enough thunder to set off the dog barks.
Jeff and Rob weren't you're average buddies. Jeff, short for Jefferson Alpeck, and Rob, short for Robert L. Johnson were named after southern Civil War heroes – some 240 years after the war – and just like those that fought in the Civil War, Bill and Rob upheld the belief that they were created better than others. They were part of the brethren known as the Ku Klux Klan.
In most areas they'd be wanted for murder, but here, they're just some of the "good ole boys." They've never been arrested or questioned for the murder they committed some four years ago.
Her name was Abigail Reed, a 14-year-old honor student. Her crime – being black.
Abigail was walking home one late summer evening from her cousin's house when Jeff and Rob drove up on her.
Reeking of moonshine, they began harassing her as their trusty pick-up truck crept along side her now quickening pace.
She'd seen this truck before. Over two hills and across Johnson's Bridge, in the corn fields where they burned crosses. She's seen the two ghost men before, too. But, not their faces. She remembered what her mother told her; repeatedly.
"Don't look at 'em! Don't you talk to 'em! You just get on home where you'll be safe!"
"Whatcha doin?" the men in the white hoods asked her.
She didn't dignify them with a response, but instead, began jogging towards her destination – home.
"Hey! I'm talkin' to ya! Ya fuckin' bitch!" Rob screamed out.
Abigail began a full sprint along the road while Rob's foot hardly pressed on the gas pedal. Within a matter of seconds Rob stomped on his gas pedal and cut off the would be path of Abigail. Dust kicked up the setting sun sky. To the average person seeing this, they would've assumed a truck had blown out a tire.
Screaming, she came to a stop. But, like most areas in their rural county, there was no one to hear her screams.
The two ghosts jumped out of the cab of the truck and swooped up a kicking and feisty Abigail.
"AH! Bitch scratched me!" Jeff hollered, and with that, slapped her with his big heavy farming hand. It hit Abigail with a force she's never felt. The impact caused her to hit her head on the side of the truck bed, knocking her out.
They tossed her motionless body into the bed and hopped into the cab. They drove for what felt like hours, never removing their masks - their protection.
The truck finally rolled to a stop in the middle of a field coming to the start of a small forest. Getting out, they grabbed Abigail's body, which remained motionless.
Jeff got out of the passenger's side, lifting up his hood, and took a big swig out of the bottle, and grabbed the rope sitting in the middle of the cab. Rob hopped out of the driver's side and grabbed the limp body that had only moved around due to his fanatic driving.
He tossed her over his shoulder like a potato sack as the three of them made their way into the woods. They stumbled some 20 feet in before giving up and throwing her down against a tree.
"Gimme that rope!" hollered Rob, as he snatched the rope from Jeff's hands like a dog feeding on table scraps at a steak house. Jeff walked around to the other side of the tree and waited for Rob to pass the rope around.
Within a matter of moments, Abigail Reed was tied up and still unconscious.
"Let the fuggin' varmints eat 'er," Rob growled out.
"Shoot, ain't no one gonna miss her anyway," said Jeff, agreeing with Rob's thought to keep her there.
They turned and took their time getting back to the truck, but once there, realized something was wrong.
"Where the fugg is your mask, ya dumbshit?" Rob questioned.
"Ah fuck!" Jeff said, grabbing at his head, realizing that it had fallen off.
"Lets go back. You know you's a retard right?" Rob joked towards his disgruntled friend.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up!" Jeff snarled back.
Coming back to the tree where they left Abigail, Jeff saw his hood. He stepped over, bent down and picked it up. While doing so, keeping his eyes glued on Abigail.
She stared right back, a look of questioning horror.
She knew the man.
Jefferson Alpeck.
He lived just around the corner from her.
"Oh fuck! She's up! Oh fuck, she's up!" Jeff hollered.
"WHAT?" yelled Rob.
"She looked right at me. SHE' FUCKIN' AWAKE"
"Sun-uh-bitch. Looks like we gots-ta do somethin' here."
"Yeah, yeah we do," Jeff said with a eyebrow raise and a devilish smirk across his face.
He bent down and with one hand, gripped her neck while looking her right in the eye, the moonlight providing the only light he needed to make sure he did the job.
"She ain't gonna tell no one," Jeff said reassuringly as her body went limp and stopped breathing.
"You a sick sun-uh-bitch," Rob laughingly replied.
"Yeah," Jeff sheepishly replied, keeping his head down like a five-year-old getting in trouble for spilling a glass of water.
"Suppose we better get the fugg outta here."
Jeff bent down and grabbed his mask and the two made their way back to the truck.
The rain was pouring as the two made their way down the road, the same one they traveled down with Abigail Reed in their truck bed, four years ago. This time though, they were on their way to a rally as they could see the orange in the sky in the distance, even with the rain coming down like it does only once every 20-years.
Abigail Reed was the last thing on their mind as they saw headlights coming at them. Not thinking anything of it, Jeff cut to the middle of the road, a little game of chicken.
Just as doing so, he saw a girl run across the road.
Abigail Reed stopped in the headlights, starring at Jeff and Rob.
-Part 2 next Sunday.
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