Hangman: by Nick Venom (ebooks children's books free txt) 📕

“Two days, sir.”

“Has Crude become president?”

“Yes, sir. As president, his first act was to establish a rescue force to track and retrieve you.” Dennel told him. Brooks chuckled while shaking his head.

“I apologize for roping you all with my death.” He said, wiping blood off his lip.

“Death?” Wales muttered.

“What do you mean by that, sir?” Hankins asked, creeping closer to Brooks. Brooks shook his head again, looking up at the detective.

“Crude doesn’t want to save me. He wants to make sure I’m dead. He established a team to track me down and get the kidnapper, killing the entire team and myself off during the trip back to the white house.”

“Crude wants to do that?” Dennel asked, raising her eyebrows. Brooks nodded his head.

“It’s been his plan since day one. He tricked me into handing him the position of vice president and then again to sign a bill that would nearly kill me. Have you heard of the Toxic Waste Bill?” Dennel nodded her head. “Crude convinced me to sign that bill, leading to Hangman, my kidnapper, and torturer, to be born. I created this monster.” None of them noticed an eye peering at them from the rafters or the almost invincible string floating near the neck of Woodole. 

“You. Will. All. Die!” The man hiding under a tattered cloak muttered as more string emerged from his fingertips, forming in the shapes of nooses. The nooses floated down and prepared themselves to catch Breson and Naju. The nooses slowly drifted towards the necks of all three soldiers. 

“What do we do now?” Dennel asked Brooks. 

“We need to leave this warehouse before Hangman reappears.” Brooks declared. “If we can’t escape, then we’re all dead here. Our deaths will allow Crude to rule America with an iron fist, eliminating any threats to him. He’ll take over America without any resistance.” Dennel nodded and ordered Wales and Harrison to pick Brooks up. 

“Woodole, open the door! Breson, contact the truck!” Dennel ordered. Woodole went to the door and opened it, feeling a tight sensation wrapping around her neck. Her body was lifted into the air. She grabbed at her neck to tear the string off, but couldn’t do it in time before the string snapped her neck. “Rush the door! Escape before we’re locked in!” Dennel ordered. The team rushed towards the door with Wales and Harrison dragging Brooks with them. Two nooses adjusted to fit the necks of Breson and Naju, launching them up into the air. They began choking on the sudden lack of oxygen as the nooses tightened around their necks, lifting them higher into the air. Dennel and the others rushed outside, closing the door behind them. Harrison scanned the area and noticed two garbage bins sitting next to the front door. He motioned for Wales and Dennel to help push them in front of the entrance. They pushed it in front of the entrance, leaving their dead comrades behind. “Can anybody contact the truck?” She asked the others.

“I’ll see if I can,” Hankins said, taking out his radio. “This is TF-147 reporting in. Truck, where are you, we need a pickup.” He shouted into the radio. He put the radio up to his ear and waited for a response, but never received it. “Truck isn’t responding.” 

“Something is very off. What if Hangman killed the driver?” Harrison asked.

“I never signed up for this,” Wales shouted, raising his hands to his head while walking around in circles.

“It’s possible,” Strong muttered. “Our intel is very limited.”

“We need to double-time it to HQ,” Dennel ordered.

“How do we escape a supernatural killer?” Wales asked.

“Let’s leave now!” Hankins shouted, pointing at the door. The door was being smashed in. The others nodded and turned to run away from the warehouse when a large explosion went off behind them. They turned around and noticed that the door was wide open, revealing the dimly lit main room with the bodies of their three comrades lying on the floor, dead. A small puddle of blood formed in their mouths with little amounts splashing out. 

“You. Can. Not. Leave.” muttered a voice coming from the warehouse. Five nooses formed, created out of the same near-invisible string, and charged towards the team. Strong noticed the string glittering off the sunlight and its incredible speed that it charged towards them.

“Scatter! There are invisible nooses going towards us!” Strong shouted, alerting everybody to the sudden danger. Everybody scattered, running in different directions as the nooses traveled towards them. Harrison carried Brooks over his shoulders as he ran towards the street. The nooses then loosened and formed long strands that wrapped themselves on stop signs and nearby residential buildings. The string tripped Strong and Wales while gripping onto Hankins. Harrison and Dennel weren’t affected by the string and managed to escape Hangman’s grip, rushing towards the direction that the truck went towards with Brooks in their hands. Hankins felt the string slowly tightening, ripping into his skin. Hankins shouted as the string slowly dug its way into his skin while Strong and Wales were dealing with the string attaching to their shoes. Wales thought fast and discarded his shoes, escaping the string. He picked himself up before helping Strong out of the string. 

Hangman, now irritated, formed two nooses and ordered them to grab onto Strong and Wales. The nooses followed his instructions with no hesitation, grabbing onto Strong and Wales’ necks. The nooses choked them as it dragged them towards the warehouse. They both grabbed at the string, but couldn’t tear it off. The string then began to raise itself into the air, effectively raising both soldiers into the air and hanging them. Wales reached into his pocket and grabbed his knife, cutting the string that was at his nape. He dropped to the ground, slamming onto the pavement. He then looked up and watched---in terror---as Strong’s soul slowly departed her body; her body becoming limp. Wales whispered a quick apology before turning around and running towards Hankins, who was struggling with the string that was cutting to his bones. Wales got to him and began cutting the string, which frustrated Hangman. Hangman didn’t send more nooses, instead, disappearing into the shadows. A man wearing a mask that covered the top part of his face---except for his dark blue eyes---wielding a scythe and wearing a cloak that covered his body from shoulders to feet. He watched as Wales cut down Hankins. The man smirked before turning around and heading to the other side of the roof.

Dennel and Harrison returned with the truck, pulling up to the curb. “Get in!” Harrison shouted from the back of the truck as he motioned for them to get in. Wales helped the limping Hankins into the truck before getting in himself. Once in the truck, Harrison slammed the doors shut and shouted for Dennel to “gas it”. Dennel followed his orders and applied as much pressure as she could onto the pedal, launching the truck into motion. Sitting next to Dennel was the dead body of the driver. The driver had a large gash in his forehead and a fractured skull. The gash seemed to be created by a sickle or scythe, something that Hangman wasn’t known to have. They sped off from the warehouse, leaving the bodies of Grace Strong, Roxy Woodole, Donna Breson, and Ulanda Naju behind at the warehouse, all dead. As the truck made its way to their HQ, a drone followed them and recorded their actions. Brooks looked out of the back door windows but missed the small and quick red drone flying over them. 

“Interesting, they managed to survive and retrieve Brooks.” Crude whispered to himself. He then slammed his fists on his desk, throwing his mug and pencils a couple of inches into the air before landing back on the desk with a loud “thud”. “This messes with my plan. It seems like it's time to go to Plan B.” He then began scribbling onto a loose piece of paper before handing it to the only bodyguard in the room. The bodyguard took the paper out of the room and headed down a long hallway before climbing two flights of stairs to ground level. There the bodyguard dropped off the letter in front of one of the White House’s doors before knocking on it, turning back around and heading to Crude’s hidden workroom. The door slowly creaked ajar but didn’t open farther than that. 

“It’s time,” a mysterious voice muttered from behind the door.

“Where do we go?” Dennel asked, sitting in the driver’s seat. She directed her question to the people around her. Mick Wales, Nate Harrison, and Jake Hankins had no answer for her. They couldn’t afford to return to the White House or any government-sponsored buildings in fear of being attacked by William Crude, the vice president of the United States that became the next president in Alan Brook’s absence. Alan Brooks was the 47th president, but he held very little power after being captured by Hangman.

Now, the four members of Task Force 147 and the ex-president were in a government van, heading as far away as they could from the warehouse that kissed death and laughed at life. 

Brooks, resting in the back of the van, looked up at the roof. He had heard Dennel’s question, rattling his brain for an answer. I was the president. I should have a lot of resources spread everywhere…? No, Crude must’ve taken over everything under the government’s control under the pretense of “searching for clues”. I’m sure he would do that. That’s what scares me. He has control over almost everything, leaving me with very little. Most of my “friends” worked in the government alongside me and I wasn’t the most social person anyway. Wait! That’s it. He distanced himself from the government and is a good buddy of mine. 

Brooks shot up from his spot on the floor, jumping towards the front seats. “I know a place we can go. An old buddy of mine lives in a fortress-like house. He has no connections to the government and wouldn’t be under the control of Crude or anybody else!” He exclaimed.

Dennel looked at him through the rearview mirror. “I apologize, sir, but do you trust this man with your life?”

“I do.”

Dennel nodded, glancing at Harrison, who had his hands drooped over the head of the passenger’s seat. He had his head on the top of the seat, looking down through the windshield. He turned his head towards her, feeling her glance itching his skin. “Your call, MJ. You’re our leader here… do what you think is best.” He told her.

Dennel nodded, thanking him, before looking up at the rearview mirror at Brooks. “We’re going with your buddy. Where does he live?”

“7847 south Bright Street.” He said. “It’s a two-story red brick house.”

Dennel nodded. “Thank you, Mr. President.”

Brooks waved off her thanks. “I’m not Mr. President anymore. Crude is.”

“Well, he won’t be when we expose him,” Harrison said.

“Yeah, like five people could go against the government?” Wales chimed in, getting a few glares from his teammates. “It’s the truth, though.” Jenkins stared at him, siding with him but not expressing it. He had his mouth closed, waiting for an opportunity