House Call - Part Three

Read it from the beginning:  
House Call  -  Part One

House Call  -  Part Two

...Cadwell spun around on the heel of his boot. He set up his shop again on the table and approached Abigail. Before she could object, he slapped the piece of tape across her mouth and dragged her to the banister where he zipped the cable tie around her wrists and to the railing.

"Mommy!" Lyrica cried out.

"It's okay, Pumpkin," Eric assured the little girl with a hug.

"What's he doing?" Lyrica screamed for an answer.

"He's here to fix you, Pumpkin."

Cadwell turned to Eric. "Dad?"

"Can't I just hold her?"

"I won't use the tape, if you don't make me." His dark eyes were sincere - but only for a moment. "She'll need to hear a voice."

Eric choked on a sob. "Okay, then."

He placed a soft kiss on top of Lyrica's head and let her go. He stepped next to Abigail at the banister and offered up his wrists. Caldwell obliged him.

Lyrica ran to her parents.

"Come with me," Cadwell's deep voice boomed at her.

"I don't wanna!" The little girl screeched and hung on to her mother's arm.

Cadwell wrapped his arm around Lyrica's waist -

"Mommy!"

He dragged her to the plastic.

"Daddy!"

"It'll be okay, Pumpkin." Eric assured her from across the room, trying to believe his own lies.

Abigail's muffled scream got lost in her throat.

Lyrica struggled to break free from the giant stranger - even managed a good, swift kick to his side.

"She's a fighter," Cadwell told Eric over his left shoulder. Reaching into his briefcase, he pulled out a syringe, pumped it once and then twice until fluid spewed from its top. Without hesitation, he looked down at the helpless girl and stuck her in the neck with it.

Lyrica yelped like a maimed animal.

From her banister prison, Abigail belted out another muffled scream and like a horse fallen from a race, her legs flailed; her body jerked; and she came dangerously close to dislocating her arms from their sockets.

"Oh, my God," Eric whispered through disbelief. "What have we done?"

Cadwell held onto the girl until she went limp. He laid her on the plastic sheet, smoothing out any wrinkles that creeped up around her. Leaning over his briefcase, he pulled out a jar. It was one of those weird looking mason-esque jars that you'd see in the laboratory of a mad scientist. Inside, three large chunks - immersed in a gooey water-like substance - swam rapidly around in circles, their little legs churning through the yellow liquid.

"What the hell are those?" Eric asked through wide eyes.

"My pets," Cadwell coddled the jar, as a mother would her newborn, and set it carefully beside Lyrica on the plastic.

"Are those leeches?" Eric asked in disgust.

"Something better," Cadwell assured him.  Next, he took out a rectangular pouch and unzipped it, revealing a shiny, large scalpel.

Eric gasped.

Abigail - still trying to break the cable around her wrists - gyrated in madness, like a wind sock puppet at a car dealership.

Cadwell raised his arms out to his sides, a priest at the altar. He mumbled some words under his breath and made a sign of the cross using the scalpel.  He squatted down close to the girl.  With his free hand, he folded Lyrica's shirt up to expose her belly.

"No!" Eric cried out.

Bringing down his right hand, Cadwell pressed the sharp blade into her soft skin, releasing a thin line of red.

"Please. We've changed our minds," Eric begged, pleading like a man before the barrel of a gun. "Please. Do not do this-"

"You gave the order," Cadwell reminded him, cutting deeper into the girl's flesh.