by J. Hickey
Chapter 14
Isolation
The children spent three days nervously anticipating any sort of update on their uncle's condition. It never came. Instead, they awoke every morning with hope that he would miraculously recover and storm into their room with a bright and inviting smile.
While the kids wasted away three long, boring days, Uncle Joe was kept under constant watch in the medical wing's intensive care unit. Margot and Patricia didn't have the heart to tell the children how serious the situation was. His condition had worsened, and he was no longer able to breathe on his own; he was now only breathing with a respirator. It was a grim sight to see the young man in such a frail condition, hooked up to a series of machines that manipulated his body and stopped him from succumbing to his life-threatening injuries. Although no one would ever utter the words to the children, it was an absolute miracle that he hadn't already passed on.
Margot and Patricia spoke to the children the most during this troublesome time. They brought them their meals every morning and night. They both even made time in their busy schedules to spend large portions of their day playing board games with them in hopes of keeping their spirits up. Hunter and Elly were thankful for that. It was when they were left alone that they found it most difficult to cope. Their young minds wandered into deep and dark places.
Elly found solace by digging her nose deep into one of her many books. She had spent the last few days researching all the information she could find about the Cusith breed. She even found a specific training manual for the breed that was published through Belmonte Publishing, which she found a bit weird. Everything she learned from the book she implemented quickly into Trayer's daily regime. Elly found it easier to train the large pup with the book's help. She was ecstatic about how quickly Trayer had learned everything-it only took one morning to teach the mammoth canine how to roll over and play dead.
Hunter spent most of his time staring out the large bay window, dreaming about how great his life was before his parents' accident. He often found himself staring at the family photo Margot had given him and fighting off tears. He hardly slept at night, tossing and turning to the point of sheer exhaustion, and he found it very difficult to focus during the day. His little sister had almost given up on talking to him altogether due to his newfound quick temper. He knew he was snapping at his sister, through no fault of her own, and felt terrible once he calmed down, but the bitterness and anger that stewed in him often got the better of him.
The children were also thankful for Alistair and Liv, who were allowed to spend a few hours a day with them under the guidance of Alistair's father, Ben. Professor Calenstine ordered that no children could walk the mansion's premises unless under the strict guidance of an accompanying guardian. Liv and Alistair were granted special dispensation from Professor Calenstine and were allowed to leave under Ben's guidance for longer periods of time to help their friends during their time of need. No other children in the mansion were allowed to leave their rooms for more than an hour a day until the monster had been captured.
"We're really glad we get to come to your room and hang out," Alistair said softly as he concentrated on a card game he and Elly were playing.
"Yeah, we're crammed up in our rooms with our fathers all day. My dad drives me crazy going on about how Uncle Dominick can't do his job right. Who's winning?" Liv asked, taking took a seat next to them at the dining table.
"Elly always wins," Alistair admitted. "I can't believe they haven't found that creature yet."
"Doesn't surprise me," Hunter put in. He hopped off his bed with a book in his hand.
"You've been reading?" Liv asked. "I thought that was Elly's thing." She laughed a little.
"I've been pretty bored" Hunter answered, a little embarrassed. "While Elly was reading about training Trayer, I found out as much as I could about the Beast of Bladenboro." He pulled up a chair alongside Alistair and the girls. "I couldn't find much out at first. This book tells about its first sighting back in 1953 in North Carolina. It attacked dogs and cattle, and it only lasted for like a year. It says people think it was a rare sighting of a Carolina black panther."
"I read about that too," Elly added. "The town made it into a big deal."
"Well, I have this other book…" Hunter walked back over to his bed and pulled a very large manuscript from underneath it. He dropped it on the table, purposely making a loud thud. "Look who wrote this one." He pointed at the book with pride.
The children glanced at the cover. It read in bold print, "Mysteries Explored: a Journal of Wonders" by Professor Claudio Calenstine. Elly's eyes grew wide with excitement.
"Professor Calenstine wrote it?" Liv asked. She began thumbing through the pages of the seemingly ancient manuscript. "Some of this is written in weird languages," she noted.
"Yeah, I couldn't read all of it. I did find an entire chapter dedicated to the Beast of Bladenboro though. Professor Calenstine was actually there hunting the beast during that year," Hunter explained. "There's even this old picture of him, look." Hunter flipped through the yellowed pages until he found a black and white photo of three men sitting in front of a city limits sign that read "Welcome to Bladenboro." It looked as if the mayor-a round, pear-shaped man with a large beard-was in the middle of the photo. A younger man they didn't recognize stood to his right, smiling brightly with a gun slung across his shoulder. Hunter explained that this was Michael Rolands, who was there working with Professor Calenstine as an understudy. To the left was Professor Calenstine. One would expect the professor to be younger-looking, knowing that the photo was taken back in the 1950s. Yet, to the children's surprise, the professor was the spitting image of the man they had just met in the mansion-old and scrawny with a well-trimmed white beard. The only difference between the professor then and now was that he was standing with the aid of a staff and not confined to a wheelchair.
"How old is he anyway?" said Elly, peering over Liv's shoulder.
"He looks like he has to be a hundred in this photo," Alistair chuckled.
"That would make him like a hundred-and-sixty-two!" Liv laughed.
"Well, he writes about how once the word spread, things got a little crazy in town. The city started getting overrun with people trying to hunt it and collect the thousand-dollar reward. The professor writes that he first thought the mayor was making it all up and just doing this to get tourists to come to the town and spend money. Then, once he couldn't control the hype, he thinks the mayor claimed to have shot and killed a panther, ending the hunt, explaining that the large panther was the beast, and sparing the hassle of paying off anyone that money."
"Okay, so it was a hoax?" Liv quizzed, wondering where Hunter was going with the story.
"Well, Professor Calenstine said he stayed for a few months to keep investigating. There were three reports of attacks afterwards, spanning a four-week period. He says the mayor kept it quiet, but the town was still bustling with sightings. The professor continued to explore with a group of people and spotted the beast in the wild. See, read…" Hunter pointed to a paragraph. "He describes it as a large winged panther!"
"So it's the same creature?" Alistair asked.
"I dunno," Hunter said. "He said they were never able to capture it, but that when they tracked it, they found some sort of tag left in one of its nesting areas."
"A tag?" Elly asked.
"Yeah, he said he thinks someone had released it into the forest near the city and kept tabs on it in the wilderness. Collecting data or something."
"They do that with sharks in the ocean." Alistair got excited. "These tags have sensors so they can collect data from anywhere in the world. They sync with satellites, sending the information back to their labs. It's really cool. They can plot swim patterns, depths the sharks stay in, all kinds of stuff from one little tag," Alistair added. Elly gave Alistair a funny look. "What? I watch a lot of wilderness shows."
"How does that help us though?" Liv asked.
"Maybe someone is
still tracking it," Elly suggested. "The same people from back then?"
"Well, these tags are fairly new technology; I doubt they had it back in the fifties-that's ancient times. They didn't even have laptops back then," Alistair noted.
"I don't know," Hunter said with a shrug. "I just want to help find this thing. I hate being stuck up here like prisoners. That thing is the reason Uncle Joe isn't with us anymore."
"Then let's do something about it." Alistair spoke up.
"What do you mean?" Elly stacked the deck of cards up and put them away. She never liked this sort of ‘rebellious' talk.
"I mean let's get out of here, like you and Hunter did before we came to the mansion. We can sneak out tomorrow night!" Alistair started to get excited.
"Really?" Liv couldn't help but show her excitement as well.
"How did you sneak out last time?"
"It was easy." Hunter went on to explain how he stuffed the threshold of the lock with paper and waited to sneak out after everyone had gone to sleep.
"You guys aren't serious, are you?" Elly was a bit upset. "Do you remember what happened to me last time we snuck out?"
"There'll be four of us this time, and we'll be extra careful," Alistair explained.
"Yeah, Elly." Liv smiled. "We'll be fine if we stick together."
"And what if we do find the thing? Are we supposed to beat it up?" she added, now even more frustrated.
"No, we rush back and tell the adults where they can find it. This is a great idea!" Hunter added.
"No!" Elly walked away from the table and sat on her bed.
"Then don't go," Hunter mocked his little sister. "I told you not to come the first time. It's your fault you got hurt."
"It's okay if you want to stay here, Elly," Alistair spoke up, trying to ease the tension. "We need a game plan though."
"Yeah, we can't just walk around the mansion in the dark searching for the thing." Liv responded.
"What about Trayer?"
The pup's head shot up at the mention of his name, and his enormous tail started wagging, causing a loud thumping noise on the wall. Hunter smiled. He remembered something his sister had mentioned about Cusiths a few days earlier.
"What about him?" Liv tapped her leg, motioning for Trayer's attention. The pup set its large head on her lap while she scratched behind his big floppy ears.
"Elly, you said Cusiths are great trackers right?"
"Yeah so…" Elly added. "Dogs can't track something unless they catch its scent, stupid."
"Alistair, help me up." Hunter pointed to the large ventilation system that sat high on the children's wall.
Alistair boosted Hunter up, and Hunter peered into the vent and smiled.
"Yes!" He reached his fingers into the grate and pulled out a small clump of thick, coarse, purple hair. "It must have rubbed up against the vent too hard that night." He hopped back down. "Check it out?" He held out his hand, showing the group the matted hair.
"Will Trayer be able to pick up its scent with that?" Liv asked.
We'll find out tomorrow night." Hunter tucked the hair into his jeans pocket for safekeeping.
"Let's talk about the game plan." Hunter smiled for the first time in days.
