Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Hiya, Hollow Gabriel here. I'm writing this cause I just watched the movie The Wicker Man and decided to write a little story following what happened. If you haven't seen the movie, go look for it. It's pretty good. It stars Nicolas Cage. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. It might take me a while to actually finish the story and clean it up.

As Roy stepped off the jet black helicopter onto Summers Isl, he breathed in deeply. "Great.", he said aloud. "One of those Amish-like communities. No technology." He pulled his cellphone out and checked it. In bold print on the front screen read No Signal. "And no signal, yay.", Roy added. He grabbed his suitcase and took a letter from the pilot. "Your objective and case information is in there!", the pilot yelled out. "Take this too!" He handed Roy a satellite phone. "Use that in case of emergency! It'll connect you straight to HQ!" With that, the pilot slowly flew his helicopter into the distance. Roy watched the helicopter and sighed again. He looked over his shoulder at three old women approaching to greet him. "Well...", Roy sighed. "Lets get this party started."

"Welcome.", one of the women said as she walked up to Roy. "Welcome to Summers Isl.", the other two women chimed in. "Tell me stranger, what brings you to our lovely island?" Roy gave the women an irritated look and replied, "I'm looking into the disappearance of officer Edward Malus, he came here about a week ago." The women looked at each other, puzzled. Roy detected something, something suspicious. "The only person who comes to our island passed away. Since then, no one comes or goes.", the woman said. Roy looked down at his shoes, thinking for a second before introducing himself. "My name is Roy Cruz, federal agent. I need to see whoever is in charge here." The woman smiled slightly. "Why of course.", one of them said. "Sister Summersisle would be more than happy to meet you and offer any help you need. Follow us." The women turned around and began heading up a hill. Roy followed, a little hesitant. "Something isn't right.", Roy thought to himself. "I know Malus came here. The looks on their faces was beyond fake. I just hope I can clear this up without things getting ugly."

After walking through some woods along a path and down golden fields filled with a few workers in them, they came upon a rather big house. One of the women turned to Roy and smiled. "Dear sir, would you like me to take your suitcase to our inn for you? It must be a terrible burden to carry it around.", she said to Roy. He looked at her, his eyes stone cold, his face suddenly serious. "No.", he said sternly. "I'm fine." The woman frowned, a bit frightened by his quick change in mood.

As they walked up to the house, the door slowly opened. "Ahh, Sister Summersisle!", the women said together. An elderly lady with long blonde hair emerged from the doorway wearing an elegant white dress. She smiled at the women. "Hello sisters.", she said to them. Her eyes quickly turned to Roy. "Who might our guest be?", she asked the women. "Oh, this is-", one of them began before being interrupted by Roy. "Federal agent Roy Cruz. I'm here investigating a missing person by the name Edward Malus." Sister Summersisle looked at Roy for a while and then back to the women. "Well we don't get anymore visitors ever since our-", she began before Roy once again decided to interrupt. "Yeah yeah, cause of someone passing away. I heard. Look, I have witnesses saying officer Malus got on a plane heading to this island. You all can keep playing dumb and I can bring everyone here, if need be, back to California on suspicion of kidnapping or you can cooperate with me and tell me what I need to know." Sister Summerisle's face turned serious. "Very well Mr. Cruz, he did come here.", she replied smoothly. Roy breathed in and looked around. "That's more like it.", he said. "What did he do while he was here?" Summersisle opened the door to the house and looked back at Roy. "Please, come in. We can continue talking inside over some food and drinks.", she said with a warm smile. Roy looked at her and agreed, bringing his suitcase in with him.

A plate of chicken, bread, and rice was in front of Roy. He wasn't particularly keen on eating anything but pizza, so he ignored the food and went straight to the water. After taking a sip and setting the cup down, Roy continued his questioning. Summersisle sat at the opposite side of the table, sipping on some tea. "So like I asked, what was Edward Malus doing here and where did he go?" Summersisle set her cup down and smiled, looking into the herbal brew. "Why Mr. Cruz.", she began. "You are a federal agent, you should already know why he was here." She looked up at him, satisfied with her comment. Roy stared at her, a little annoyed. "Well, you're right.", he replied. "We both know why he came here. I just wanted to see if you would cooperate with me. I guess I was wrong." Summersisle reached out and lay her hand on Roy's. "Oh no no Mr. Cruz, I was just playing.", she said in a rather girly fashion. "Mr. Malus came here seeking his daughter Rowan. When he got here, he found her with his lover and also mother of Rowan, Willow. Edward wanted to take Rowan back to California with him, but Willow wanted her to stay here." She took a sip of her tea before continuing. "A fight broke out. I had a few of my townsfolk subdue Mr. Malus." Roy's eyebrow arched a bit. "Subdue?", he asked. "Yes, he got very violent.", Summersisle replied. "He hit Willow and was screaming. It was truly frightening. We had to hold him down and take him to his room at the inn." Roy closed his eyes, deep in thought. "It's getting late.", Summersisle suddenly said. "Please, lets continue our chat tomorrow. I'm sure you'd like some rest. I'll have someone escort you to the inn." Roy stretched his arms, agreeing with her in his mind. "Agreed.", he said. As he stood up, Summersisle held her hand out to him. "It's a pleasure to have you here Mr. Cruz.", she said kindly. Roy shook her hand and replied, "Thanks."

Back at the inn, in a room on the top floor, Roy sat on a bed. It was still the night of the day he arrived. He was reviewing the papers within the letter he was given. They were notes and such about Edward Malus. One part read that Edward failed in saving a woman and her daughter from a sudden car wreck. The incident left nightmares with Edward that he complained to his doctor about. Roy stood up and set the papers on a nearby desk. He loosened his tie and took his jacket off. "What to do, what to do...", he mumbled to himself. "They're all lying, it's painfully obvious. I'll skip the questioning for now until a few of these whackos are detained and brought back to Cali. Until then, I'll look around for some hard evidence." Roy walked over to his suitcase which lay on the bed and opened the lock. Within it were pieces to his AA-12 combat shotgun, M40A3 sniper rifle, Smith & Wesson Model 500 .50-Cal. magnum handgun, and Glock model 22 handgun. Roy has heard stories of officers going off to islands and dying cause all they would bring was their standard issued sidearm and a single magazine of ammo for it. Under the weaponry in a hidden case were boxes of ammunition and frag grenades as well as an explosives kit. Roy laughed to himself. "Maybe I brought a bit too much.", he said to himself, still chuckling. He took his Glock 22 out and loaded it. He set it in his holster at his side waist and reached for his Smith & Wesson, putting this in his side holster which would be hidden under his jacket. He took a small box of ammo for each gun and set individual rounds in special holsters next to the respective guns. Roy swung his jacket back on and tidied himself up. He grabbed a flashlight from among the ammo boxes and also a pack of cigarettes and proceeded outside.

The inn was empty as Roy went out the front door. No one was outside either. He looked around, first at the shore and then back at the woods. "Where to start...", he thought. I guess I'll take a look around the shores and then off into the woods. I can't forget to search Summerisle's home too. That place definitely has some things hidden in it." He casually walked down the path to the shoreline. His black dress shoes dug into the sand as he looked around for anything that might lead him to Edward. He noticed something near some logs in the sand. Curious, he walked towards it and knelt down. The sand was a kind of blackish-red. Roy touched the sand, rubbing his finger into the darkened sand. He brought his finger to his nose and sniffed. "Blood.", he quietly said. He looked back down. Nothing else could be found. He stood back up and sighed. "Someone was either killed here or dumped here.", he said to himself. "A beach is no place to slaughter animals or put the bodies, especially among these logs." He looked up at the inn. Two women could be seen watching him. He smirked. "Keep your eyes on me all you want.", he thought. "I'm going to find out what happened here." As night began to fall more, Roy pulled out his flashlight to see better. He went up the hill and past the inn after examining the harbor thoroughly and finding nothing. He looked around the woods and some fields. After walking for about two hours, he came upon a clearing and a hill. He walked up the hill and shone his flashlight on the ground. The grass was badly burnt with debris littering it. Roy knelt down, examining the burnt debris. "I wonder what happened here...", he mumbled. "This is too far away to be a burning pit... And no house would be built on this hill... A shack maybe?" He looked around and noticed some straw and twigs twined together. He picked it up and looked it over carefully. "Well this rules out the shack.", he said. "This was hand-made." As he looked the straw-twig craft over, his flashlight shone on something shiny. Roy noticed it quickly. "Hello, what have we here?", he said. He picked up the object and rubbed some of the soot off it. "...Officer...Edward...Malus...", Roy read. It was Edward's badge. Roy's heart sank instantly. Now his imagination was running rampant as to what may have happened to Edward. Suddenly, a twig snapped behind him. Roy swiftly pulled his Glock 22 out, rolled forward and turned around, holding his gun up.

"FREEZE!", Roy yelled. Four men had been trying to sneak up behind Roy. Two of them holding axes, the other two holding clubs. "Drop your weapons, now!", Roy continued yelling. The men backed away a little but began to creep toward him. "I SAID DROP YOUR WEAPONS!", he screamed while turning the safety on his gun off. The men didn't stop at all, they didn't understand what he was holding at them. "I will not hesitate to kill you ******** if you don't drop your weapons and get on the ground!", Roy said, close to firing. One of the men suddenly jumped forward. Roy turned his aim to the man and shot him right in the head. The man flopped to the ground, instantly dead. The other three men stared at their dead friend, shocked and unsure what just happened. "I ******** told you!", Roy yelled. The men panicked and ran away. "H-Hey! Get back here!", Roy yelled at them, a little startled at their reaction. He holstered his gun and checked the shot man. "Wow.", Roy said to himself. "I was a few centimeters off from directly between his eyes... Damn..." He stood and brushed his pants and suit off. "This confirms my suspicions.", he thought. "Edward must have been burned here. For what reason, I don't know and frankly I don't care at this point. I'm taking these bastards down and ending this insanity."

Roy pulled out the satellite phone he was given and pressed a green button on it. The phone instantly began to make a call. "FBI headquarters, how may I help you?", a female voice answered. "This is agent Roy Cruz of the California FBI division, I need backup here asap. I am on an island called Summers Isle investigating a missing person which has now progressed to murder. The locals are hostile. I repeat, the locals are hostile.", Roy said calmly. The lady on the other end began typing quickly. "Ok agent Cruz, we have five choppers that will begin dispatch in one hour. You'll need to set a smoke flare at an arrival point and rendezvous with the sent teams. Estimated time till they arrive is seven hours.", the lady explained. "********.", Roy replied. "Make that asap please, I don't want to kill everyone on this island." He pressed the end button, a grin on his face. He quickly ran into the woods back towards the inn. "Honestly, take as long as you want.", he thought. "This is gonna be fun."

Back at FBI headquarters, a message was sent to a supervisor. He read it over and began to shout orders to get any and all spare and working agents to Summers Isle. "Get to that island before Roy massacres every possible witness and suspect!", the man bellowed. Agents began scrambling around. The man had a very distressed look on his face. "At least we know we won't lose a good agent.", he said aloud.

Roy snuck into the empty inn, making his way quietly up to his room. He had his Glock 22 drawn in his right hand and his combat knife in his left. As he made his way up some stairs, a woman waited quietly at the top behind a door with a knife in her hand. Roy stepped off the last stair to the top and proceeded slowly to his door. The woman then quickly stepped out from behind the door and swung the knife at Roy. He dodged it narrowly and outstretched his left arm with his knife at the woman. It swiftly cut across her throat, dropping her to the ground. Roy turned back around to find another woman coming at him with a broom. She thrust the point at him in effort to push him down the stairs. He moved sharply to the right, took aim, and shot the girl in the heart. Suddenly, a man burst through a door next to Roy, landing on him. Roy pushed the man off who had been stabbed in the gut upon tackling Roy. Roy looked around, bracing himself for anymore attacks. After taking a second to relax, he rushed into his room to his suitcase. He unlocked it and opened it, taking his shotgun and sniper rifle out. He assembled the two in record time, strapped them to his back, and exited the inn. Roy put his knife away and drew his magnum, dual-wielding handguns.

A large group of people were charging towards the inn. Roy noticed them and smiled. "HEY ALL!", he yelled at them. "I HAVE THE RIGHT TO OPEN FIRE!" He held his guns up and took aim at the charging crowd. Before unleashing rounds onto them, he smiled and said, "It's all for you Malus. They're getting what they deserve." Roy's fingers began to quickly pull the triggers, unloading bullets. Screams of anger, pain, and fear rang out from the crowd. They began to scatter, some running away, many into the woods, and a few still charging at Roy. After emptying the clips in his handguns, he holstered them and ran to the right up the hill, back towards the hill where he found Edward's badge. The crowd grouped back together. "We must capture that devil!", Summersisle, who had been at the back of the crowd, screamed out. "He hath brought death upon us and will pay dearly for his sins!" The crowd roared in agreement and resumed chasing Roy.