by Greg Taylor
“I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to give him a call.”
“I’m sure he’ll call if he has any news. Hey, what can I get you two?”
“Actually, we stopped by to see if you needed any help.”
“You serious?”
“Yeah, I feel bad, deserting you like this. It was okay when Strobe was with you, but…”
Toby had already pulled up the section of counter next to the cash register, allowing Annabel and Calanthe to enter into the kitchen.
“This might be kind of boring for you, Calanthe.” Toby brought a stool from the area behind the counter into the kitchen for Calanthe to sit on.
“No, I wanted to come.”
As it turned out, Calanthe was intrigued by the entire Killer Pizza operation. The hectic activity in the kitchen. The endless stream of people coming through the front door, young and old alike. The movie illuminating the wall on the other side of the street, this being Monster Mash-up night.
After observing the action for a while, Calanthe offered to help out. Toby thought about that for a moment, then placed Calanthe at the front counter to take orders. As she had shown numerous times before, Calanthe was a quick study, and that was certainly the case with her first Killer Pizza shift. She handled the nonstop activity like a pro, never once getting flustered.
When the shift was over, Toby rewarded Calanthe with something he had promised her in the school cafeteria. Her very first taste of pizza—real pizza—which was something the dekayi certainly didn’t possess on their menu.
“I like it,” Calanthe announced, after quickly devouring her pizza slice.
“I can tell,” Toby observed.
“What do you call this kind of pizza?”
“A Fangtastic Hawaiian.”
“It is very good. I would like another piece, please.”
“We call them slices. It’s a slice of pizza.”
“Well, whatever you call them, hit me!”
When Toby turned back to Calanthe after retrieving another pizza slice, she was staring straight ahead with a slight frown on her face.
“Calanthe?”
Calanthe didn’t answer. She appeared to be somewhere else all of a sudden.
“Calanthe? Everything okay?”
Calanthe gave Toby a blank look. Toby rotated the pizza slice under Calanthe’s nose, a culinary variation on smelling salts. When the aroma hit home, Calanthe’s eyes lost their faraway look. “For me?”
“Yes, for you.”
Calanthe smiled, took the pizza, and bit into it. Wherever the girl had been for those few moments, she was back. And enjoying her pizza, which was gone as fast as the first slice.
“Can I try the Monstrosity next?”
* * *
Walking his bike up Hazel Street alongside Annabel and Calanthe, Toby was approaching his house when he asked, “So what do you two want to do now? The night is still young.” Toby looked exhilarated and happy, just being with Annabel and Calanthe. He wanted to keep the evening going.
“I don’t know what you’re doing,” Annabel replied, “but Calanthe and I are going home, where I will be introducing her to one of the classic teen girl pastimes.”
“Which would be?”
“The slumber party.”
“Sounds great. Can I come?”
“Yeah, right.”
“C’mon!”
“No boys at girls’ slumber parties. Unless of course they sneak out in the middle of the night and crash ’em. But from what I heard, you already had your sneaking-out adventure last night.”
That stopped Toby in his tracks. He looked from Calanthe to Annabel, then back at Calanthe. “Yes, I decided it was time to tell Annabel about my noctural excursions.”
“And I’m glad you did, Calanthe. Because obviously Toby wasn’t going to tell me.” Annabel arched an eyebrow at Toby, then started off down the street, giving Calanthe a tug on the shirtsleeve.
“Hey, wait a second. I didn’t think it was my place to tell you. If I had, that would have betrayed a confidence.”
Annabel responded by giving Toby a wave over her shoulder.
“Good night, Toby,” Calanthe called back. “See you tomorrow.”
Toby watched the two girls walk off down the street, then strolled across his lawn, kicking absentmindedly at the leaves strewn across the grass as he went. Arriving at the front porch, Toby suddenly stopped, as though something had just occurred to him. He turned and stared off into the night. Not in the direction that Annabel and Calanthe had just gone, but rather northward, far beyond the two girls.
I wonder how Strobe is doing up there? Toby thought. He pondered his question for a moment, a slight frown on his face, then propped his bike up against the side of his house and went inside.
19
Strobe was still keeping watch in the woods. He was cold and getting increasingly annoyed. It had been almost an hour since Holt and the other MCOs had gone off to check out the village. Strobe was on the verge of abandoning his position to head to the village to find out what was keeping them so long. As he looked through his binoculars at the nearby village, Strobe suddenly heard a sinister hissing sound cut through the silence that had permeated the woods ever since he had entered them.
Whirling toward the sound, Strobe was just in time to see the tail end of a large serpent-like creature disappear behind a nearby tree. Strobe’s heart slammed into high gear at the sight of the monster.
That was one huge snake!
Another high-pitched hiss sliced through the woods, this one from another direction from the first. Then another, from yet another direction. The three monstrous serpents sounded alike, but they each had their own distinctive accent, their own personality. Which was more disturbing to Strobe, somehow, than if they had all sounded exactly the same.
Strobe knew what was happening. He was being surrounded, and the three dekayi were communicating with one another via their weird high-hissing language. Without another thought, Strobe took off through the woods in the direction of the village.
He quickly reached the outskirts of the complex and took a path between two single-story wooden buildings. From what Strobe could tell, the village appeared to be arranged in a circular pattern. The houses he had just run past were part of a large circle that surrounded another circle of slightly larger buildings. Strobe ran past this second ring to find a third ring of buildings.
The strangely designed village appeared to be deserted. Either that or the dekayi were hiding out in their dark homes. Whichever, the place was totally creeping Strobe out.
It wasn’t just how deserted it was. It was knowing how completely bizarre the inhabitants were that lived here, thanks to Calanthe’s descriptions of her people and their habits. The main question on Strobe’s mind as he ran through the village was …
Where had Holt and the other MCOs disappeared to?
Staying in the dense shadows of the buildings as he ran, Strobe saw the reflected flickering light of a torch, illuminating a narrow walkway up ahead. Slowing to walk, Strobe moved cautiously toward the light. When he turned the corner, the sight that greeted him was absolutely horrifying.
Strobe lurched back into the shadows and brought up his crossbow into a ready position. There were no dekayi in sight, but the thing that had caused Strobe’s violent reaction was …
Actually, Strobe had to study the sight through his crossbow’s infrared scope to figure out exactly what he was looking at. One thing was obvious. Dixon—hands tied behind his back—was hanging upside down by his ankles from the top of a post that held a flickering torch.
The truly terrifying part of the scenario, however, and the thing that Strobe was studying through his scope, was that Dixon appeared to be encased in some sort of slimy cocoon. The thick, translucent, black-tinged ooze was moving along his body, collecting at his head and dripping to the walkway below.
As Strobe watched, Dixon’s body rotated slowly and his face swung into view. Strobe was reli
eved to see that Dixon was alive. But when the MCO’s wide-open eyes met Strobe’s, they conveyed just how completely out-of-his-head terrified he was. Dixon was sending Strobe a single, desperate message. Get me out of here!
Suddenly, Strobe heard the dekayi that had been following him, their hissing voices echoing between the buildings. He pulled down his phone mouthpiece, flicked on the walkie-talkie that hung from his belt, and ordered the helicopter pilot to head immediately to the crop fields.
Then he ran across the walkway to Dixon. He hadn’t been able to detect from the shadows where he’d been standing that the post Dixon hung from was covered with the same disgusting muck that encased him, making it impossible to climb. Exactly what Strobe had intended to do to cut the MCO down.
Shoving his knife back into its sheath, Strobe stepped away from the post and brought up his crossbow. “I’m gonna have to shoot you down, Dixon. Get ready for impact.” But Strobe never got off a shot at the rope holding Dixon to the post.
“Aaaaaaggghhhhh!!!”
Strobe shouted out in alarm as a thick blob of the black-tinged ooze splattered his hand. It had come from somewhere above and behind him. As Strobe retreated back into the shadows of the nearest building, he lost his grip on the crossbow and dropped it. Just then the hissing of the three dekayi became louder, more immediate. Seconds later, they were visible in the torchlight that illuminated the walkway, slithering and crawling toward Strobe.
Strobe felt a chill of pure terror when he saw the odd-legged serpents. One of them was on the walkway. The other two were on the sides of the buildings that formed a wall along either side of the walkway, the feet of their stunted legs making a sucking sound as they crawled along the walls.
Strobe willed himself to keep it together. Not an easy thing to do, with the trio of bizarre-looking serpents slithering toward him. A hiss from above indicated there was also a dekayi on the roof overhead. Strobe was pretty sure that’s where the black-tinged ooze had come from. It was the dekayi’s spit! Which, as Strobe now knew, had the ability to completely numb a person’s hand within thirty seconds.
You gotta get out of here, and fast!
Just before Strobe made a break for it, he exchanged a look with Dixon. I’ll be back for you! That’s the message Strobe sent, hoping that it translated. Then he grabbed his crossbow with his left hand, the one that still had feeling in it, and sprinted down the walkway toward the center of town.
The walkway turned to the right. Then left. Another left. Another right.
Strobe had no idea where he was going. He just wanted to put as much distance between him and the advancing dekayi as possible. At the final turn before reaching the center of the village, Strobe skidded to a stop and slammed back up against the side of a building.
There, on another torch-lit pole, hung Harris. The chilling sight of Harris, encased in the same gelatinous cocoon—made Strobe feel weak. He actually felt himself buckle, then forced himself to stand up straight.
The unseen dekayi were getting closer every second. Strobe could tell by the sound of them, a sound he’d never heard before, except maybe in his nightmares. The slithering/crawling. The high-pitched hissing. It was like a bizarre, aural tidal wave, building in intensity as it bore down on him.
The center of town was in sight at the end of the walkway. With a final glance at Harris, Strobe ran toward it. Approaching the square, Strobe had the sinking feeling that the dekayi wanted him to go there. That he’d been led right into a trap. When he broke into the square, his eyes went immediately to a wooden stage at the far side of the open area.
What Strobe saw on that stage brought him up short. From a pole set in the center of the platform, hung Holt, upside down. He wasn’t covered in the black-tinged ooze, however. Not yet. But he was in the grip of a huge serpent, its body wrapped around him from top to bottom. The serpent’s head hovered above Holt’s feet, which were bound and hanging from the post crossbar overhead. The creature’s tongue flicked in and out. Its large sharp fangs were bared.
Strobe started for the stage, bringing up his crossbow into a shooting position as he went. It was awkward, having to use his left finger on the trigger instead of his right, but his hand was still paralyzed by the disgusting dekayi slimeball. Strobe was halfway to the stage when the serpent’s body suddenly constricted, instantly increasing the pressure on Holt.
“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
Holt’s face contorted into a grotesque mask as he screamed in torment. It looked as though his body might actually burst from the serpent’s vice-like grip. Strobe immediately stopped in his tracks and lowered his crossbow. The dekayi responded by relaxing its grip.
Face-off. One that Strobe knew he couldn’t win.
“Go, Tibbles. Get out if you can. Bring help!” When Holt spoke, it was with extreme effort. It sounded to Strobe as though Holt knew these might be the last words he would ever utter.
By now the other dekayi had arrived at the edge of the square, their signature hissing language now joined by another sound, the whir of the approaching helicopter’s blades. Strobe glanced quickly at the buildings that surrounded the square, chose one, and sprinted toward it. Shooting a look at Holt over his shoulder, he immediately wished he hadn’t.
The serpent was vomiting the gelatinous black-tinged ooze up and down Holt’s body, instantly paralyzing the MCO. With that disgusting and disturbing image searing through his brain, Strobe dropped his shoulder when he was a few feet away from the door of the building and plowed into it, blasting the door open.
Strobe was desperate at this point to escape a similar fate as Holt and the rest of the MCOs. He felt feverish and sick and hyper with adrenaline at the thought. And he knew he would not let that happen. He would die first. It was after Strobe had slammed the door shut and moved farther into the dark building …
That he saw what was waiting for him.
20
“Usually there are more than two girls for a slumber party. This is more what you’d call a sleepover.”
A thousand miles might have separated Annabel’s home and Calanthe’s former village, but considering what was going on in the two places, they might as well have been on different planets. Completely clueless of what was happening to Strobe, Annabel and Calanthe had just settled on Annabel’s queen-size bed with their bowls of snacks and drinks. Calanthe nodded gravely at what Annabel had just told her, as though she had learned some ancient wisdom about teen life in the human world. Which, in a way, she had.
“What happens during these slumber parties? Sleepovers?” Calanthe had a serious expression on her face as she asked the question.
“Lots of music.” Annabel indicated the amplified iPod that was playing a rousing pop-rock song. “Lots of snacks.” Annabel held up her bowl of popcorn and indicated Calanthe’s bowl of chips. “And most important, lots of talk.”
“Talk?”
“About anything and everything. Stupid things. Important things. Whatever comes to mind.” Annabel lay down on her stomach, feet up in the air and crossed at the ankles behind her, and started munching on her popcorn.
“What would you like to talk about?” Calanthe asked, remaining in her cross-legged position at the head of the bed.
“Oh, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me a little more about your village.”
“What would you like to know?”
“Did you ever do anything like this? Just sit around at night? Talk?”
“Never by ourselves.”
“You mean there was always an adult supervising you?”
“Yes.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“That’s what I came to believe.”
“When, Calanthe? When did you start to become so … different from all the other villagers?”
Calanthe didn’t have to think about her answer. “It was the night of the Sleeping that changed me.”
“The Sleeping?”
“It is a ritual in our village. All the children, when they reach
the age of three, are taken out into the forest and left there, all by themselves.”
“They do this when you’re only three?” Annabel asked.
“Yes. Each child is required to stay in the forest overnight, then make their way back to the village the following morning. With no help or guidance. The Sleeping is meant to teach the children to not be afraid of the forest.”
“Either that or make you terrified of going into the woods for the rest of your lives. Obviously you made it back. What about the ones who got lost?”
“We never saw them again.”
Annabel’s mouth dropped in amazement. “I can’t believe it. Three-year-olds left to die out in the woods? Fights to the death? I’m amazed you made it through all that. What a totally weird place you came from.”
“Yes, but as I said, it was the Sleeping that changed me. It was that night, while I was wandering in the dark looking for a place to stay, that I found the cave that I told you and Toby about. When I entered the cave, I couldn’t see a thing, it was so dark. I stumbled along for a while, feeling with my hands for direction, and finally made it to the center of the cave. There I discovered some flints and brush to start a fire with. It was then that I knew others had been there before me. They had left the flints and branches for when they returned. It took me a long time to start a flame, but when I finally did … as the fire became larger and larger … the pictures on the walls slowly became visible. It was as though a veil had been lifted from my eyes.”
“That’s actually a really beautiful story, Calanthe.”
No reply from Calanthe. From the expression on her face, it appeared that she had returned to that cave, was once again looking at those pictures, being transformed by them. Then the moment passed, and Calanthe was back in the here and now.
“So … are you sure you were only three when this happened?”
Calanthe nodded.
“How old are you now, anyway? I never did ask you that.”
“Almost four.”
Annabel laughed. “Almost four? What does that mean?”
