by Hamill, Ike
Contents
Title Page
One: Amber
Two: Ricky
Three: Amber
Four: Ricky
Five: Amber
Six: Ricky
Seven: Amber's Story
Eight: Alan
Nine: Ricky
Ten: Amber
Eleven: Ricky
Twelve: Amber
Thirteen: Ricky
Fourteen: Amber
Fifteen: Alan
Sixteen: Amber
Seventeen: Alan
Eighteen: Ricky
Nineteen: Amber
Twenty: Alan
Twenty-One: Amber
Twenty-Two: Alan
Twenty-Three: Ricky
Twenty-Four: Amber
Twenty-Five: Ricky
Twenty-Six: Amber
Twenty-Seven: Ricky
Twenty-Eight: Amber
Twenty-Nine: Ricky
Thirty: Amber
Thirty-One: Ricky
Thirty-Two: Amber
Thirty-Three: Alan
Thirty-Four: Ricky
Thirty-Five: Amber
Thirty-Six: Ricky
Thirty-Seven: Ricky
Thirty-Eight: Amber
Thirty-Nine: Ricky
Forty: Amber
Forty-One: Ricky
Forty-Two: Amber
Forty-Three: Alan
Forty-Four: Amber
Forty-Five: Ricky
Forty-Six: Alan
More - Migrators
More - Until the Sun Goes Down
More - Until Dawn
More - Accidental Evil
UNTIL THE END
BY
IKE HAMILL
WWW.IKEHAMILL.COM
Dedication:
For Blaze. Earl & I miss you every day.
Special Thanks:
Thanks to Lynne, as always, for the edits.
Copyright © 2020 Ike Hamill
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events have been fabricated only to entertain. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of Ike Hamill.
One: Amber
“Hello?”
“Amber?”
“Yes, Ricky. You called me. Who else would it be?” she asked.
“You sound different, is all.”
“Yeah,” she said, sighing. “I’ve been through it lately. What’s up?”
“What do you know about epigenetics?”
Amber leaned back against the brick wall and propped a foot up on the porch railing.
“Let’s see,” she said with another sigh. “Epi from Greek means on or over. Genetics is pretty self-explanatory. So, it’s on top of genetics?”
He paused before he answered.
“That’s pretty good. Yeah, from what I understand that’s about right. It’s a field that studies how one’s genes can be expressed, or not, based on environmental factors.”
“I thought we were only going to talk again if you had concrete information,” she said.
The only response she got was silence.
Amber shook her head.
“Sorry. I’ll hold off on…”
“No, I don’t mean it,” she said. “I’m just dealing with stuff. This will be a good distraction. Tell me about epigenetics.”
Ricky started slow and picked up steam as he got into his explanation.
“So, let’s say that your grandparents went through a famine. It would be beneficial if their kids and grandkids were smaller and required less food. Those kinds of changes have to act quickly, so instead of changing the genes themselves, like through evolution, there’s a process that just switches genes on and off.”
“So the changes aren’t permanent?”
“Right. From generation to generation, they can be reversed if the food supply comes back or whatever.”
Amber let that sink in. She knew Ricky would get to the point eventually.
“What do you know about blood types?”
Amber laughed.
“Get to the point, Ricky.”
“Well, I started thinking—what if the attack on us wasn’t random?”
“It wasn’t. They followed Nick back to the hotel from the train tracks.”
“But why us? And with that whole hotel full of people, why did they choose the people they chose?”
“You tell me.”
“Because there was something particularly alluring about us. I think it was epigenetics. I think that the experiences we’ve all had in our lives made us so attractive to those things that they couldn’t resist, even though they don’t usually try to tackle an entire hotel.”
“What experiences?”
“I don’t know for sure yet, but I think that what happened to you in your uncle’s house, for starters. Maybe what happened to me when I was a kid. I don’t know about the rest of the people. But think about it—If you were some kind of paranormal creature that stayed alive mainly through obscurity, it would make sense for you to target people who had been through interactions with the paranormal.”
“Why?”
“To hide,” Ricky said. “If you eliminate all the people who believe, then you’re only left with nonbelievers. Someone who doesn’t believe in you isn’t going to hunt you, right?”
“I suppose. Tell me, is this a Ricky-ism, or do you have some evidence to support this theory?”
“I have tons of evidence. Not one bit of it is at all credible,” he said with a laugh.
“Perfect. And you’re calling me because…”
“I need a plan. You’re the best planner I know.”
“That can’t possibly be true,” she said.
“Well,” he said. “You’re the best planner I know who wouldn’t laugh me out of the room at the notion of chameleon vampires stalking the Maine countryside.”
Amber laughed.
“That, I can believe.”
# # #
Amber was still laughing as she disconnected the phone. For a moment, she imagined everything was right with the world. The soft light filtering through the trees made the world look so tranquil. She could almost imagine pushing up from the porch stairs and floating through that light, up to the peach-colored clouds.
A voice interrupted her peace. “I like it when you laugh like that.”
The smile disappeared from Amber’s face. She didn’t turn to look at him.
“What do you want, Shawn?”
“Nothing from you. I don’t need a thing from you. I came here to see if Mrs. Evelyn needed anything from the shop.”
“I’m back now, Shawn. You can stop pretending to care about her.”
“Are you forgetting that I’ve known Mrs. Evelyn longer than you have?”
“I’m her family.”
“Understood. And I’m the one who took care of her when you escaped off to Maine.”
The porch stairs were too narrow for him to get around. With her feet propped on the iron railing, if he wanted to go inside, he was going to have to step over her legs. She had no intention of moving.
“I’m back.”
“Just like I said you would be. I predicted that as soon as you had your first taste of Maine snow, you would come running back to us.”
“You never said that.”
“I said it around. Ask anyone. And it turned out to be completely true.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
He didn’t have to reply. She heard it in the silence—he was thinking, “And yet here you are.” He wanted to believe that she really came back because of him. That wasn’t true either. His presence was the thing that almost kept her from returning.
Stil
l staring up at the soft light in the trees, Amber said, “If you want to talk to my cousin, use the phone, Shawn. I don’t need you in my house.”
Amber looked down to show him her resolve—that she really meant what she was saying—but he had already left. Shawn had disappeared around the corner of the house.
Climbing back to her feet with the aid of the iron railing, Amber went back inside.
Evelyn was in the living room, listening to a commercial on TV. The volume was so low that when the commercial finished, they could barely hear the dialog in the show that was on. At least Amber could barely hear it. Evelyn’s hearing was legendary.
“Shawn came by. I sent him away.”
“He’s good enough. I don’t see what you hate about him.”
Amber laughed. Cousin Evelyn had a very dry sense of humor. Her jokes were so subtle that a person like Shawn wouldn’t have even picked up on them at all.
“Try dating him and you’ll see. He wants to control every little thing. It’s unbearable.”
“I don’t know anyone else like that.”
Amber smiled.
“When you were gone, he went down to the Croc and Shop twice a week for me. Kept me well-supplied in all the essentials.”
“Lottery tickets and seltzer water?”
“Hush.”
“You know, those lottery tickets weren’t your numbers. He would pull losers from the trash and give them to you like they were fresh.”
“I said hush,” Evelyn said.
“It’s indefensible, tricking a blind lady like that.”
“That’s indefensible? That’s the big crime? Do you know what the odds of winning the lottery are?”
“Minuscule.”
“Thank you,” Evelyn said. “Good word for it. Minuscule. So what good is it to buy lottery tickets?”
“I don’t know,” Amber said. “The hope, I guess. You buy them because it’s fun to hope.”
“Precisely correct. And until you shoved it in my face that they weren’t real, I was able to entertain that hope. Now, I can’t. Who stole that hope from me—was it Shawn or you?”
Amber sighed.
“Me, I guess.”
“You guess correctly. Shawn wasn’t tricking me. He was giving me exactly what I wanted and he was saving a bit of money while doing it. You’re the one who dashed my hope, and for what?”
Amber didn’t have an answer.
Evelyn muttered something under her breath and then cocked her ear back towards the TV. Amber waited until the next commercial and then left her cousin to go to the kitchen and work on dinner. Everything was ready, she just had to get it all on plates. More than eating, Evelyn liked to watch TV with the aroma of food wafting out from the kitchen. That meant that they ate a lot of mushy food that was at least an hour overcooked. Evelyn didn’t have the teeth for anything crispy anyway.
Amber sighed, thinking that she might as well put out straws instead of forks. They would be more useful.
# # #
“You know what you might like?” Amber asked. “Indian food. Everything is like a casserole, and it’s full of spices, and it’s served on top of rice.”
Evelyn made a face.
“You love rice.”
“A person’s body gets used to the things it likes. It’s about sixty years too late for me to try new things. I’ll get the quick steps if I eat any of that Indian food.”
“That’s not dinner conversation, Evelyn,” Amber said, parroting back one of Evelyn’s expressions.
“You brought it up.”
Amber sighed.
Evelyn set her fork down on her plate. She snapped it down into place, making the china ring.
Amber looked up. Her cousin’s glass eyes were looking directly at her. Evelyn had been blind since birth, but she had somehow learned the knack of pointing her eyes at someone when she wanted to say something serious.
“What?” Amber asked.
“You need to tell me why you came back. I know it wasn’t for me, and I know it wasn’t because you’re afraid of snow. The realtor still hasn’t sold the house, so I know it’s not because you didn’t have a place to stay up there. What happened?”
Amber couldn’t look away from Evelyn’s eyes, and she couldn’t speak while they stared at her.
When Evelyn finally turned her face down towards her plate, Amber was able to talk again.
“It was crazy, Evelyn. I don’t think any rational person could believe what happened, so I don’t want to say.”
“You’re not a rational person?”
“I’d like to think I am.”
“But you believe it.”
“I have to believe it—I experienced it. And I promised myself that I wouldn’t let myself forget.”
“Why?”
Amber had to ponder that for a moment to come up with an answer that really felt true.
“Safety? I’m afraid that if I let myself forget, I won’t take the necessary precautions to stay safe.”
Evelyn laughed.
Amber slumped in her chair. She had been afraid that her cousin would laugh at her. She wasn’t prepared for Evelyn to laugh even before she heard what Amber believed to be true.
“What’s funny?” Amber asked.
“You’re afraid that I’m going to think that you’re crazy, is that it?”
Amber tilted her head and shrugged. It was a silent response, but somehow Evelyn got it.
“You throw birdseed on the floor every night before you go to bed and wake up early to clean it up before you think I’ve noticed. What makes you think I don’t already think you’re crazy?”
Amber was still processing the shame that she had been discovered when her cousin Evelyn said, “But we’re all crazy. Please tell me what happened.”
“I can’t.”
Two: Ricky
“Let’s go,” Ricky said, pounding on the door.
“Just a second,” George said. When he finally opened the door, a cloud of pungent smoke rolled out with him.
“George,” Ricky said, frowning.
George shouldered his backpack and led the way down the hall. Calling back to his brother, he said, “It’s legal.”
“Not in the dorm it’s not,” Ricky said. He caught up at the stairwell. “And you’re not twenty-one. I’m an officer of the law.”
George held the door for him.
“Please—arrest me. I dare you.”
“I will, George.”
“That would be hilarious. Mom would kill you.”
Ricky shook his head. When they got to the car, George tried to open the back door to put his bag in. Ricky stood there with his finger on the button.
“Unlock it.”
“Just not around me, okay? Not until you’re legal?”
Eventually, George looked him in the eyes and saw that he was serious.
“Yeah. Okay.”
“Thank you,” Ricky said, unlocking the car.
They climbed into their seats and Ricky smiled and then laughed.
“What?” George asked.
“I guess you don’t realize how much you smell like smoke. I’m not going to have to arrest you—after Mom is done with you there won’t be anything left to arrest.”
“Nah, she’s cool,” George said.
“Okay,” Ricky said, starting his car. “We’ll see.”
They pulled out onto the road and Ricky took a left at the Wendy’s.
“One of the guys at work is selling his father’s car. You want to take a look at it this weekend?”
“Nah. I’m good,” George said. He was tapping out a message on his phone.
“You don’t have any interest in being able to drive yourself around?”
“What for? Everything I need is within walking distance. I’ve got the Walmart and movie theater if I feel the need to leave my room, which I rarely do.”
“When I was in school, we used to like to get out of town every once in a while.”
“Uh huh,�
� George said.
“One time we just decided to grab a canoe and we rode all the way up to Moosehead in the middle of the night. It was amazing. You think you can see a lot of stars here, but up there… I couldn’t even…”
“Uh huh,” George said, interrupting.
“You’re growing into a really personable young man at that…”
“Uh huh.”
Ricky turned on the radio and George put in his headphones. They drove the rest of the way home without speaking.
# # #
“Your dog chased the chickens again this morning,” Mary said as Ricky came into the kitchen.
“Okay, Mom, I’ll have a word with him,” Ricky said. At the sound of his voice, Tucker came bounding in from the other room. The dog was followed by his father.
“Where’s your brother?” Mary asked.
“Outside. Trying to air out his clothes, I think,” Ricky said. He was down on one knee, scratching Tucker until his back leg thumped against the floor.
“Back when I was a kid, we used to have to sneak around to smoke that stuff,” Vernon said. He grunted as he slipped into the booth in the corner of the kitchen. “Now they just smoke it right out in the open.”
“Oh, who cares, Vernon,” Mary said. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another. His grades are good and he doesn’t even drive.”
“It wrecks your brain,” Vernon said.
“That’s true,” Ricky added.
“Is that why you asked me out? Because your brain was wrecked?”
Vernon blinked and shut his mouth. He seemed to realize that there was nothing he could say that didn’t have the potential of getting him in trouble. Ricky sat across from his father and Tucker squeezed under the table.
“Did he get any?” Ricky asked.
“Who?” Vernon asked.
His mother answered, “He means Tucker. No, he didn’t get any, but he got Rosie all worked up. Her eggs come out funny when she’s worked up.”
“You want me to walk him over from now on?” Ricky asked. He already knew the answer to the question.
“No.”
One of his mother’s favorite things was how Tucker would leave Ricky’s house in the morning and find his way down the path to join Mary and Vernon for breakfast. No matter how many chickens the dog chased, his mother never wanted that to end. It always tickled her when Tucker would stand up on his hind legs with his paws on the window. The dog would bark once to be let in. Mary liked it because Tucker had taught the trick to himself.
