Chapter Seventeen: Water and Fire

We look in the journal and find all we need. We find how to kill it, its location and most importantly what it is.

The Beast of Busco is an enormous snapping turtle named Oscar which first seen in 1949. The story goes that a farmer began to notice his chickens going missing. After a few months of it, larger livestock was missing. All the disappearances happened near the lake on his property. Then one day, he reportedly saw a colossal turtle that size of a truck.  The turtle then went on land and grabbed the farmer’s son. Police came and investigated but found nothing.

In the years following, every ten years it would come from his hiding place and feed. My uncle found six cases of missing people who fit a pattern and path to the location he thought the beast would be now. At the end of his entry, he explains how to kill it. You basically burn it alive. The turtle has no shell so enough rounds of gunfire could work too.

So next day while Michelle and Jenny take Lilly out of the lake. I go to place where the beast should be. It’s a well hidden cave where you have to do a little dive underwater to get to. I’m a good swimmer and I make it easily to cave. I search with my flashlight in the dark cave. I can’t find much. A smell hits me though. It’s like fish and beef. I quickly turn to see a giant turtle behind me. It snaps at me and misses taking a piece of the cave rock. I roll on the ground behind a rock. The turtle still violently snaps at the walls of the cave. One is very near me. So I roll to a new spot and blindly fire my rifle at it. The third shoot connects because I hear a terrible grunt from it.

I grab my lighter fluid and open it. I blindly throw it and it hits the turtle. I throw my lighter towards the same way. It lights it. The fire is a bit on the turtle. The turtle thrashes around and is starting to implode the cave at the same time. The turtle, still on fire, tries to make its way towards me, towards the water. I drop my rifle and get my shotgun. All tools of my uncles’ that I found in his room. I fire once in the turtle’s face.

It doesn’t work well. Its thick skin is too strong. I look for a weak spot. I see the legs are lighter so I shoot there. The turtle is down after two shots to each side. It’s still alive and is snapping at me. I pull out the spare lighter fluid; look like we will need more for the camp and I toss the open can at the turtle. I toss my spare lighter, which is like my sixth one I’m about to lose. The turtle goes up in flames. I hear its horrible grunts as I turn to leave. I dive in water and swim to shore.

I go back to camp just in time as the girls are returning. Its lunch time and I now have the chance to be with all the important girls in my life. Michelle goes to prepare lunch and yells out.

“Where’s all the lighter fluid?”

I just laugh and offer to go out and buy more. Jenny joins me to hear the tale of the demise of the Beast of Busco. She’s just pissed she missed it.

We talk about our next case that is in this area. The warlock.

Warlocks are equivalent of witches. They are known to summon demons as minions and draining life from humans. They also have fire and shadow magic. No known way to kill them but fire could work as it works for witches.

We get to the store I load up with lighter fluid and a few lighters. Some for camping but mainly for our other outside activity. We are driving home when we pass, Longstone road. That’s the name of the warlock from the book. We look at each other and decide to check it out. I drive down the dirt road and we see an old house in the distance. I pull over and we get out to walk the rest of the way.

We are able to sneak up to the door way and get in. We walk in and search the place. We head downstairs. I stop and put down some fluid in the stairway. We head down and look for the warlock. The basement is will lite with torches but no sign of the warlock. We do see a ton of books. Most of them aren’t in English but I put a lot in my bag. We head back up the stairs.

We are halfway up the stair when we see an old looking man coming down. He sees up and his light up. Flames are covering them up now. He turns to shot a fireball at me, I turn push Jenny down the stairs. It’s not a terrible fall but it’s better than getting roasted. The warlock shoots towards me, it nearly hits me but it does hit my lighter fluid line. The flames shoot back at him and caught his robes. I fall down the stairs. Jenny helps me to my feet but the stairway is now on fire.

We search for a way out. I see a small window that we can leave though. The warlock pushes his way through the flames. He doesn’t attack again; he wants to save his books. I get Jenny to window and she goes through it. I pass her my bag of books. The warlock doesn’t notice it. He is loading up his own bag. As I make my way out of the window I turn and see the stairway completely in flames. I make it out.

A few moments the warlock makes its way through the window. He gets half way out when Jenny covers him in lighter fluid and I kick him back into the flaming building. We guard the hole till we hear distant fire sirens and we leave.

We make it home and act like nothing happen. We enjoy the rest of the weekend and we all head home. It was a very productive and bone rattling weekend. I killed a giant turtle and a warlock, while I found out my uncle’s haunted past. And all while I get a great time with my daughter, sister and the woman I was falling in love with.