by Jerry Hart
“Really? Fliers? No F.B.I.?” Owen grinned. “I was in San Sebastian.”
“Oh, snap. Really? The city? Were you kidnapped?”
“No. I walked there myself.”
Cullen stood there, still grinning. He shook his head in astonishment. “Why did you leave?”
Owen thought about what to say. His memories of living here with Cullen and his dad were pretty murky. He mostly only remembered actually getting up and leaving. “I don’t really know.”
The young woman who’d answered the door was standing in the middle of the hallway, studying them nervously. Owen stared at her. Cullen noticed and turned.
“Babe, I want you to meet someone,” he said to her.
She walked up to Cullen and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Honey,” Cullen said, “I’d like you to meet an old friend of mine, Owen Walters.”
She shook Owen’s hand, warming to him a little. “Nice to meet you. Collin’s told me all about you.”
Collin? Did she say Collin again?
“Owen, this is my wife, Vanessa.”
“Wife?” Owen asked, stunned. “You’re married?”
“You bet your life I’m married.”
“But you’re only...seventeen. I mean, congratulations. I just wasn’t expecting that.”
Cullen smiled. “Yeah, well, I was only fifteen the last time you saw me. All we cared about back then were videogames and toys. But we all have to grow up sometime.”
Owen checked on the two in the bathroom. Curtis managed to get Doug’s head bandaged and was now tending to his own cuts.
“Car accident, you say?” Vanessa asked, concerned.
“Yeah, not too far from here.”
“Well, why didn’t you go to the hospital?” she asked, not unkindly. Just curious.
“We didn’t think the damage was that bad.” Owen felt a little uncomfortable as he realized how he was imposing on Cullen’s life. He hadn’t been thinking clearly when he decided to come here. He hadn’t even thought for one second that Cullen would have a wife.
“I’m practically a registered nurse,” Vanessa said. “I could look at your friends’ cuts.”
“I think they would appreciate that,” Owen said with a smile. Vanessa walked past him and joined Doug and Curtis.
“Do you wax your eyebrows?” Owen finally asked Cullen. He had to know.
Cullen rubbed them and laughed. “Hell yeah, I do. Don’t you remember what they used to look like? Bushy as hell.”
Owen took in Cullen’s appearance. Besides the waxed eyebrows, he also had earrings and a large tattoo of a cross on his back. He had changed a lot over the years.
“Is your dad here?” Owen asked, looking around. “I hope we didn’t wake him.”
Cullen’s smile vanished quickly. “Dad died a year ago.”
Owen gasped. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“You remember that lake you and I used to fish in?” Cullen asked. Owen nodded, though he didn’t really remember. “Well, one night, me and Jake Ryan (you remember him?) snuck out and went fishing there. When we came back, dad was lying on the floor with a phone in his hand. He’d had a heart attack while I was gone.”
Owen was too stunned to respond. He remembered Cullen’s dad, Martin, fairly well. The man had never been very friendly. “Cullen, I’m really sorry.”
Cullen narrowed his eyes suspiciously for a second, then shook his head and grinned. “He’d always had a bad heart. It took me a while to get over it. I mean, sure he was my dad, but he was always a jerk. Remember?”
Owen nodded, then he thought of his own father, who was also dead.
“But with death came life. Vanessa and I had a baby a few weeks after Dad died. A girl.”
Owen’s eyes widened. Marriage was one thing, but a baby? “That’s great,” he said, and meant it. “Wow, man. You really are grown up.”
“Yep,” Cullen said proudly. “And that truck out there—I bought it myself.”
Now Owen was starting to feel inferior. He pretty much had nothing to claim as his own. Alyssa had bought everything when she was still alive....
“So, what’s your daughter’s name?” Owen asked, not wanting to think of Alyssa.
“Sidney Alyssa,” Cullen said.
Owen thought he would scream at that moment. Cullen had named his daughter Alyssa. What were the odds? Doug, Curtis and Vanessa came out of the bathroom and they all made their ways to the living room. Owen, Curtis and Doug sat down on the couch, Vanessa and Cullen in the chairs across from them. An awkward silence washed over the room, a ticking clock the only sound. Owen couldn’t find the clock, however.
“Was anyone else involved in the accident?” Vanessa asked.
The trio exchanged glances. “No,” Curtis said. “We just ran off the road. No big whoop.”
Vanessa nodded, though she didn’t look as relieved as Owen had hoped. He was well aware of the perfectly good car he had decided to park right in front of the house, and that Vanessa may have seen it.
“So, where are you guys headed?” Cullen asked.
“My old house,” Owen said. “The farm.”
Cullen’s lovingly waxed eyebrows drew together in confusion. “Why are you going there?”
“I...wanted to show my friends where I grew up. Why? Is someone else living there?”
“Not that I know of.”
More silence.
“Hey, have you guys heard about any giants roaming the area?” Doug suddenly asked. Owen elbowed him in the ribs.
Vanessa and Cullen exchanged glances. “No,” she said.
“Now that you’re back in town,” Cullen began, “I guess you’ll want to visit your dad.”
Owen shot Cullen a sharp look. “My dad?”
“Yeah.”
Owen looked to Doug and Curtis as if hoping they’d confirm what Cullen just said. They were just as wide-eyed as Owen. “My dad’s dead, Cullen.”
Cullen didn’t say anything for a moment. He looked at his wife nervously. “Yeah, his grave, I mean. I know he’s dead, silly. Brain cancer sucks.”
Trying to process what he was hearing, Owen remained silent. Brain cancer? He’d seen his father, Russell Walters, get struck by a meteor two years ago.
“Are you all right?” Cullen asked.
Owen nodded, looking at the floor. “My dad didn’t have brain cancer. He was killed by a meteor.”
“Why do you think that?” Cullen asked.
“Because I saw him die. At least, I thought I did.”
“You must have a funky memory, because I heard it was a tumor that killed him.”
“Who told you that?” Owen asked, looking at Cullen now.
“My dad.”
Owen shook his head. He wasn’t refusing to believe what he was hearing, but he was finding it difficult to accept.
“That’s why you came to live with us, remember? After that thing that happened at your farm?”
Cullen had to be referring to the meteor shower that Owen, up until now, believed to have killed his father. Owen could remember vividly the field lighting up where his father stood, the house shaking as if experiencing an earthquake.
“You do remember that, don’t you?” Cullen asked.
Owen nodded again.
“Are you okay?” Vanessa asked.
“Yes. This is just a lot to process. All this time....”
“What happened that night, Owen?” Cullen asked.
An awkward pause, then, “What do you mean?”
“Well, when the police got out to your place, your dad was dead inside the house. You were lying on the stairs, right in front of him. You don’t remember?”
Owen didn’t remember any of that. Was Cullen serious? If not, then why would he make that up? But Owen had a completely different recollection of the events that night. He remembered his father looking into the sky as it lit up, and Owen clearly remembered the meteor crashing right where his father had stood.
And now Cullen
was telling him that other things had happened. Stuff that Owen didn’t remember.
“Do you know your family’s mental-health history?” Vanessa asked.
Owen shook his head absently. He couldn’t remember anything about his family. As far as he knew, his father was the only family he had. His mother had left them a year before Russell’s death, according to what his father had told him. Living on a farm hadn’t agreed with her.
“What all do you remember?” Cullen asked. “Do you remember your time here, when you moved in with Dad and me?”
“A little,” Owen said. “I thought I was staying here because my dad died.”
Owen trailed off, so Cullen spoke. “Yeah, dude, you stayed here because of that. Then, after only a few weeks, you disappeared. It was scary.”
“Did a meteor actually hit our farm?” Owen asked desperately.
“I don’t know. I mean, there was a crater on your land, but no one could actually find any pieces of the meteor. A lot of people saw it in the sky that night, though.”
Owen thought about that. Doug and Curtis were whispering to each other conspiratorially, probably talking about the “giant” they’d encountered on the freeway.
“Owen, what’s my name?” Cullen asked unexpectedly.
“What?” Owen asked, looking up. Cullen was staring right back, completely serious.
“What’s my name?” he asked again.
“Cullen Matthews.”
“Are you saying Cullen, or are did you pick up some kind of accent in San Sebastian?”
“C-u-l-l-e-n. That’s your name, isn’t it?”
Cullen shook his head. “It’s not Cullen; it’s Collin.”
Everyone was silent for a while. Then a baby’s cry broke in, startling them. Vanessa got up and said nothing as she left the living room. Cullen, who was now and always had been Collin, stared at Owen without a word.
* * *
Owen held the white flier in his hand, his fourteen-year-old self staring back at him. This was one of the fliers Cullen—Collin—had talked about earlier. “Have You Seen This Boy?” was written just above the picture. He’d found it in a drawer in the kitchen. There were quite a few stacked in there. Apparently the Matthews had made more than they had given out.
Someone walked up to Owen, but he didn’t look to see who it was.
“I’m glad you’re back,” Collin said.
Owen nodded, still staring at the flier. He hated himself for leaving. The worst part was not even knowing why he’d left in the first place. He tried to remember back to that night but couldn’t. Not right now.
“I have someone here I want you to meet,” Collin added. Owen turned around and saw his friend holding a baby in his arms. Collin had changed into camouflage shorts and a white, long-sleeved shirt. It had been nearly ten minutes since he’d gotten up to join Vanessa in the back of the house, where the bedrooms were.
Owen smiled and stepped closer. The baby was wrapped in a pink blanket and stared sleepily at him. Owen touched her tiny hand and she grabbed his finger.
“She’s adorable. Congratulations.”
“Thanks. She was about two weeks late; the wife was in agony.”
It was hard to believe that Collin was a husband and a father, even though Owen was seeing it with his own eyes. His childhood friend was a man now, and Owen himself still felt like a kid.
“Luckily today’s my day off. I work for the airlines over in Custer.” Collin sat down at the dining table, feeding Sidney a bottle of formula. “So, tell me what you’ve been doing all these years.”
Owen sat down across from him. “There’s not much to tell,” Owen lied. “I made a few friends there and we got a condo together.” He left out the part where he and his friends fought monsters and saved the world from two evil brothers.
“A condo? Nice. That’s something.”
“I guess it is.”
“Meet any hot chicks in the city?”
Owen shook his head. He was almost ashamed of the fact that he hadn’t even tried to meet any girls.
“You’re still a virgin, aren’t you?” Collin suddenly asked.
Owen laughed but didn’t answer. He was feeling more inferior by the second. While he had been off fighting monsters and losing his friends, Collin was living life. He was bettering himself and taking care of a family.
“When did you lose yours?” Owen asked.
“When I was fifteen,” Collin answered, looking down at Sidney. She was almost done with her bottle.
“Fifteen?” Owen was shocked.
“Yeah. It was with Vanessa. We started going out, after you disappeared. She used to live right down the street. Well, one night, she came over, and one thing led to another....”
Owen shook his head. “Shame on you,” he said with a grin.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend losing one’s virginity at that age. It wasn’t worth it.”
A fairly comfortable silence filled the kitchen.
“So, tell me about your lovely wife,” Owen finally said.
Collin smiled. “Well, she’s almost a nurse. She’s the greatest woman I’ve ever known.”
“Did you get married before or after she got pregnant?” Owen wasn’t sure why he asked that, and he regretted it soon after.
“Why are you really here?” Collin asked, ignoring the question.
“I don’t know,” Owen answered truthfully. He wanted to know about the orb, and he’d figured the answers would be at his old farmhouse, but how would he explain that to Collin?
“Some strange things have happened,” Owen continued. “I think my dad might have been involved with them.”
“What things?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Collin stared at Owen in silence for a while, nodding his head and rocking Sidney in his arms. “You wanna hold her?”
Owen nodded and smiled as Collin placed the baby in his arms. “Wow, she’s heavy.”
“Yep. Ten pounds, ten ounces when she was born. You think you’ll ever have kids?” Collin asked.
Owen thought for a moment before saying, “No. Kids aren’t for me.”
“Guys!” Curtis yelled from the living room. “Come see this!”
* * *
Collin, Owen and Vanessa ran into the living room and saw Doug and Curtis watching the TV. The news was on. There was shaky footage of a city street, cars lined up bumper to bumper. People were standing outside of these cars, staring at something just off-screen.
Finally, the camera turned and at the end of the street was something large and blue. The cameraman had zoomed in way too much. The camera pulled back, bringing the thing into focus.
Everyone in the living room gasped. It was a giant blue man. He was staring at the crowd in the streets before him, at the cameraman. It was an incredibly disturbing sight.
“I told you we saw a giant,” Doug said, practically breathless. Owen didn’t notice, though; he was too busy recognizing the street where this was taking place. The blue man was in downtown San Sebastian, standing in front of the parking garage that he and Chris had destroyed the other day. The blue giant turned his back on the gathering crowd and started picking through the rubble. It looked like it was searching for something.
The cameraman got closer to the giant, trying to make his way through the crowd. The sound was turned down on the TV and no one thought to turn it up. They only watched as the events unfolded before them.
As the camera got a closer look, the giant’s features became more pronounced. It looked to Owen like a giant naked man, but instead of being flesh-covered, he was blue and appeared to be made of stone. He was picking up a particularly huge piece of rubble and holding it over his head. He let out a piercing roar and hurled the rubble into the street, toward the cameraman. Suddenly, the video feed died.
Chapter 33. Trouble Downtown
Otis Elfman noticed right away that something was wrong with his condo when he returned that morning. For one, th
e front door was ajar. For another, his TV was on. And to top it all off, one of his windows was open.
“I may be old,” he said to himself, “but I know damn well I didn’t do any of this before I left.”
Otis had just gotten back from a fishing trip with an old buddy, and he was too tired to deal with whatever was going on now. He put his tackle box down and searched his place.
This was the second strange event to happen to him inside of a week. The first had been the ham sandwich sitting on his kitchen counter the other day. Otis was sure he hadn’t made that sandwich. It had to have been that Daniel Hudson boy, Otis told himself. The boy had been acting all kinds of weird while standing in the hall. He’d kept casting glances inside the old man’s condo during their awkward conversation about a broken arm and tree houses.
Perhaps one of Daniel’s friends had snuck in while he distracted the old man, only to...what? Make a ham sandwich and leave it on the counter? For what purpose? Otis thought about questioning the young fellow himself but he’d seen the police tape hanging from Daniel’s door when he’d gotten back. Something had happened and Otis didn’t know what.
But it must have been bad.
Suddenly the condo shook. Otis grabbed the kitchen counter he was standing next to and looked over to his windows. A dark shadow passed over them. Through the open window he’d found when he got home he could hear a grinding, moaning noise coming from the large shape that walked—walked!—by.
Otis could barely see out through the blinds what it was, but he noticed a hint of blue.
* * *
Patrick watched along with the crowd as the giant blue monstrosity walked along Calhoun Street. He and the other officers had followed it from the field, powerless to stop it. It had made its way along the freeway before stepping off and settling down here, in downtown San Sebastian.
The blue man had to be at least twenty stories tall. The people of the city followed his progress along the streets, keeping a relatively safe distance from him. The sun was already rising, but it was bitingly cold outside. Patrick could see his breath in front of him; he was in the shadow of a large building at the end of the street.
