by D. R. Mather
“Yeah man, it can be done.”
“Great, go out to the trailer and ask for Steve, he’s the guy wearing a tie, tell him what you need, tell him I sent you to him.”
“Hey, sure thing man.”
“So, this is your little secret?” asked Alex as the man left.
“Seems you guys found me out but yeah, this is it.”
Cindy looked at Kevin, she was holding her enormous belly with both arms. “Can they have it in today?”
“I’m afraid not honey,” Kevin laughed. “Maybe by the end of this week though?”
“Well, I’ll try to hold out. If not, I can always have you rig up that ‘hill puller’ you made for the sled hill. That should help me up the stairs.”
Everyone laughed but Kevin couldn’t let her have the last laugh yet.
“I’m afraid not honey, it’s only rated for two tons,” he snickered and walked off. Everyone was laughing at that one but women still have to stick together, so Judy ran up behind him and slapped his ass hard.
“Bully!”
“I sure am, I learned it from you kiddo.”
“Well!” She walked back to the group, “The man has no class, no class at all.”
Kevin was still grinning as he headed outside.
By the end of the first week of January, the electricians and plumbers had mostly taken over, there must have been over two hundred holes punched through various walls throughout the mansion. As Kevin walked around different areas, he figured this was the very first time the place had ever had any improvements done to it.
At the beginning of the second week, Marie returned and wasn’t happy. Kevin had decided that she should be in room twelve, next to Cindy; the time was getting close, too close if Cindy needed help.
“Why do I have to be in the next room from ‘her’?”
“Excuse me?” Kevin did not like the seething way Marie had said ‘her’.
Marie corrected her apparent bad attitude quickly, “I’m sorry Kevin, and I didn’t mean it that way, please, will you forgive me?”
“It’s okay, Marie. We moved your things already. We tried to place things exactly where we found them in your old room so that you wouldn’t get confused, okay?”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure everything is in order.” She headed to the stairs.
Judy and Beth were standing at the bottom of the stairs as Marie passed them. They both walked over to Kevin, who was standing near the front door.
“What the hell was that?” Judy didn’t look too happy.
“What do you mean baby?”
“I’ll tell you what I mean, when Marie walked passed us she gave us both a look that could have killed a grizzly bear instantly!”
“Oh? Where’s Cindy now?”
Both Beth and Judy answered at once, “Taking a nap.”
Kevin looked at them, “Hey neat, stereo!” He started to head out the door and then turned, “Amm…why don’t you go look in on her for me okay?”
They both agreed and Kevin left the house in search of Steve. He found him outside, talking to two men he hadn’t seen before. They were dressed for the snow, but he could see the dress clothes underneath.
“AH, here he is now. Kevin, I’d like you to meet Ted and Raymond, unity Surveyors.”
“Well good to meet both of you. Shall we go and play in the snow for a while?” Kevin walked down past the garages.
Judy liked Cindy, A LOT. Cindy liked Judy, A LOT. Judy was kind of casual about Cindy’s room. As long as she knew Roland wasn’t there, she would usually just walk in without knocking. Today, that little show of true friendship and trust saved Cindy’s life.
Judy walked up to the door with Beth right on her heels. She opened the door and screamed! Marie had Cindy on the bed, a pillow pulled taut over Cindy’s face. Cindy’s arms were just hanging, one completely off the bed. She wasn’t moving.
“YOU BITCH,” was all Beth heard from behind Judy, as she saw Judy take off and run at full speed into the room. Beth looked through the door in time to see Judy reach Marie, but not before Marie had released the pillow. There was no question in Beth’s mind about what Marie had been doing.
“OH YOU FUCK…..” Beth ran in as well.
Judy had finally yanked Marie off of Cindy. She grabbed two handfuls of Marie’s shirt, pulled with all her might and spun her off of Cindy. Marie went flying across the room and crashed against a dresser. Judy was up on the bed the instant Marie was out of the way, checking on Cindy. Beth knew her part well. She went to Marie, bent down, grabbed a handful of hair and dragged her to her feet.
“You fucking bitch. We’ll take care of you, come on.”
She dragged Marie out of the room by her hair, right into the bodies of Roland, Alex and April, who had heard Judy screaming and had come running.
Roland ran past them, into the room. He saw Judy on the bed, half of her lying just over Cindy’s breasts.
“Come on, Cindy, breathe. Come on, take a breath. Oh come on…..SHIT.” Judy leaned over Cindy’s mouth as she had done in hospital.
Roland and the rest were just watching the glow and its beginning. Now they could see through Cindy’s skin and into her throat. As quickly as she started, Judy stopped. She sat back, and watched. Cindy’s eyes began to flutter, and then she opened them. Judy was kneeling beside her on the bed.
“Hi Cindy, have a nice nap?”
Cindy was up and wrapping her arms around Judy instantly. This wasn’t any hit on the head like the stairs, which had made Cindy forget, this was something Cindy remembered until the point where she’d passed out.
“OH BABY, HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU HAVE TO SAVE MY LIFE?” Cindy was now crying hard on Judy. Everyone gathered around them both.
“If it happens again, then I’ll just call it my job and I’ll be able to punch a clock for you.”
Cindy and Judy laughed through the tears and then just stayed quiet and held each other. Eventually Roland, April and Alex joined them on the bed.
Beth was at the bottom of the stairs now. Marie was walking bent over with her hair in Beth’s hand. Beth walked her into the living room.
“I know I saw some here.” Then she saw it, “Ha, here it is. Come on bitch, this way.” She took Marie over towards the stairs to the basement. Her other hand now held a roll of duct tape in it.
Through the entire walk downstairs, Marie had been telling Beth that they would all burn in a boiling pit of oil and that they were all pigs. She spat on Beth’s ass, on her back, on her legs. Just before she got to the living room panel to the side hall she heard a voice.
“Beth?”
Kevin was standing at the entrance to the living room taking his gloves off, a task which he slowed down to a crawl. “What are you doing with Marie?”
“What am I doing with Marie?” She spun and Marie went crashing up against the wall panel. When she turned, Kevin saw the hate in her face and in Marie’s eyes. “THIS BITCH just tried to kill Cindy, that’s what I’m doing with her,” she said, then spun again, opened the panel and dragged Marie through. Kevin bolted to the stairs; the fastest runner in the world would have taken three times longer to get to Cindy than Kevin did. He grabbed both sides of the door casing when he got to her room, just so he could stop himself.
“Everything alright here?”
Judy looked over to him, “It is now.”
Kevin left and headed back to the basement. When he got to the bottom of the basement stairs he saw Beth using just about the whole roll of tape to bind Marie to the chair.
“Beth honey, give me the tape.”
She never faltered, she handed it over.
“I want to save a little,” he said.
An hour later and Kevin had released the entire work crew for the day, and now everyone was in the basement with Marie. Kevin had been asking her questions and only getting sworn at and called foul names each time.
He suddenly smelled mint.
“Just hold tight for a minute guys, ‘phone call’,” h
e said as he turned and headed for the stairs. By now they all knew what that meant. However, he didn’t want to do it in front of Marie. When he reached the hall, he turned and sat against the wall.
“Hello Kevin.”
“Hello back, now what the hell is going on if I may be so bold as to ask?”
“We have been waiting for this, for the force to show itself. Marie has the essence of the evil force in her now, I’m afraid there is no bringing her back.”
“Great, just wonderful, what the hell am I supposed to do with her?”
“That we imagine will be left up to all of you, we cannot help her. Are you able to get any information out of her?”
“No, but I’ve learned a bunch of new words and phrases that I’ll be able to use the next time I get pissed off.”
“We thought as much. Marie is simply a vessel, she won’t be able to tell you anything useful and once this evil force figures out that you have her, it will kill her.”
“Wonderful, any other happy news?”
“Yes, in fact there is something else, we have decided that we want you to form a circle with the amulet, all of your group will be linked this time.”
“When would you like this done? I’m kind of busy now if you’ve noticed? The crews will notice I’m not here.”
“We will see to that.”
“Well, ok, your call…ammm…over and out?”
It was already too late, the voice had left.
Kevin walked back down to the basement. He knew what was next, and he could hear Beth asking questions. Beth sounded really, REALLY pissed off. When Kevin got to the bottom, he saw everyone about ten feet behind Beth. She had her hand in a fully cocked position and was about to backhand Marie’s face when Kevin passed by the group VERY fast and grabbed her arm.
“No honey, it won’t help, she isn’t Marie anymore, and she never will be again.”
He released Beth’s arm and she slowly lowered it. Then she turned and began to walk away with Kevin over to the rest.
“DID YOU LIKE THOSE BOYS STICKING THEIR DICKS INTO EVERY HOLE YOU HAD YOU SLUT?”
Kevin only has a chance to think, ’Oh shit’
He then heard that same ear-piercing scream come out of Beth. He started to turn to stop her, but Beth had already turned towards Marie again.
“ARRRRRRR…”
Her hands went up and a bolt of thin blue light came out of both hands. The light hit Marie twice, once in the forehead and once in the center of her chest. In a speed faster than one could blink an eye, Marie exploded into a fireball, then fluttered to the floor as ash. There wasn’t even any smoke left from the impact. Nothing. First Marie was – then she wasn’t.
“No one calls me a slut.” Beth calmly walked back to the group, spun and stood alongside the rest as if she were watching along with everyone else.
Alex broke the tension a little, but all he said was, “Ammm… yeah.”
Kevin walked past the empty chair and over to the wall behind it. Nothing, no holes – she controlled it.
***
The following morning kept Kevin on the phone for a while. It seemed that the Foremen and even Steve had told Kevin that they had other obligations and had to bow out for two days. Kevin didn’t complain. He thanked them for letting him know and finally finished the calls.
Everyone was eating microwave breakfasts of one type or another when Kevin came around the corner.
“Well, I can tell you how long we’ll be gone. Everyone just passed on two days of work.” He then walked over to the chest freezer to find a delectable meal from the freezer. As he walked past Cindy he stopped and leans over her shoulder.
“How you feeling sport?”
“Pretty good actually, Judy has the good stuff I think.” She turned and kissed Kevin’s cheek.
He stood back up and sauntered over to the freezer, slowly dragging his hand across Cindy’s back, almost listlessly. Judy could see it now; Kevin was tired, in his body and in his mind. She had to remind herself that he had been doing this for over two years, every single night without stop, no rest, no release. She was proud of his inner strength, but how long could he really hold up? She had to find a way to help him before he got bad. She just didn’t know how.
Later, they were all in the living room, sitting and fidgeting about. Kevin stopped and stood.
“Looks like it’s go time.”
If all of them went, they left themselves unprotected. Kevin had an idea for that; the attic. It was hard to get to, and there was only one way up – the side hallway’s stairs. He thought the second floor panel would be hidden enough to not worry about. As they headed up, Kevin grabbed the toboggan.
“You plan on doing a little sledding in the ‘other world’?”
“Nope, just a tiny bit of insurance Alex, nothing more.”
Everyone had cushions and pillows for the body collapse that was going to happen. As they reached the attic, April and Beth were helping Cindy as the last flight of stairs was really taking a toll on her.
“Almost there kitten,” said Beth.
“Just a few more steps,” said April.
Kevin was already at the top, watching everyone’s progress. When the last one made it through, Kevin closed the door and then dropped the sled upside down in front of it, with the length of it heading away from the door. Just before the front of the sled hit the floor it stopped and the back of it had hit the opposite wall, forming the perfect wedge.
“Nice,” said Kevin. He walked the gang into the last room down, “You never know, from the point of hearing a sled break to the point of something getting here, it could make all the difference as to whether we die or not.”
They all sat on the dusty, unfinished wooden floor and put the cushions behind them. Kevin sat to the right of Judy, the rest gathered in the circle. In his left hand, with the split side of the amulet facing Judy, he told them to get ready. Judy held her half in her right hand with the split facing Kevin’s half.
“Everyone, hold hands with us. Good, ready kiddies? Its show time.” They joined the halves together.
They began to focus. It wasn’t the hallway this time, it was an empty room. The walls and ceiling were still doing that wacky thing with moving colors.
“They could really use a better interior decorator, this one has a one track mind,” said Kevin.
Kevin and Judy had been to this place before, the others had not. Everyone was silent and a few wandered over to the walls. Cindy and April touched it gently, and the rest were just standing with their mouths open. To one side was a door. At least Kevin thought it was until it opened. The door just went away, as if it never was. Two beings came in. Kevin knew them, it was the ‘voice’ and the female.
“Welcome to all of you.” Their arms were amazingly long, at least four feet or more. The ‘voice’ stretched them out in a gesture of welcome. “Please, be seated.”
Everyone looked around. Chairs had appeared behind each one of them, directly in the angle they were standing, so that they didn’t even have to move to sit. They sat down.
Alex was facing backwards to everyone.
“Ah, this isn’t gonna work for me.” The chair simply turned to face the voice.
The female being walked over to Judy and whispered to her, “You can do what you were wondering about; you have it in you to rejuvenate Kevin.” And she moved to the opposite end of the room.
“After some discussion we have decided that each of you should understand something of who we are. We are a race which has been in existence for well over fifty billion of your years. We do not function as you do in many ways, but we are the same in many ways as well. You see, we are you, the human race, once you evolve. We come from a twin to your Earth. Not a different realm or existence, or even another dimension. Our planet is a twin to yours only in its size, composition and distance from a sun of about the same size. We do not have alien qualities as you may suspect. We are simply you, evolved. The only difference between our two plane
ts is that life started far, far sooner than it did for your planet. Forty billion years ago, we looked very much as you do now. However, with that much time, we began to slowly change, to learn to make the best of what we were inside of ourselves. Our chemical balance eventually changed, as did our brains. Over fifty billion years, we simply became rewired. It opened up a whole new plain of existence for our race. However, we are not the only ones; there are many other places that you could only begin to dream about. Not all of them friendly. Because of our advanced race, we are assigned to watch over our sister planet. Yes Kevin, even we speak to a divine power – one that is far, far greater than you humans could ever conceive. Which is to say that you are both right and wrong about your beliefs, there is a divine power, it simply is not as you have created it. You do not have the capacity to understand, so I must leave it at that.
We are here to help you. There is a great evil among you. It has a plan. The plan is to take over as the dominant species, through you, so that in fifty billion years, it will be an exact match to our own.”
“WOW, that’s a long-term plan guys, couldn’t it come up with a quicker way?”
“Kevin you must understand, time has no meaning to us. If you were able to use one of your earth ships and travel to our planet, it would take you trillions of years. We have advanced our brains to the level that we merely gather around the circle of life and we ‘think’ our entire vessel here at the speed of thought.”
Roland piped up, “Sounds like a plan, let’s take a trip to your house for tea.”
“Oh I am afraid you would not survive the trip young Roland, the movement through space would remove you from existence.”
“Fine, I’ll make my own tea at home then.”
Everyone chuckled a little.
“At this time, if it is okay with all of you, we would like to talk to you separately.”
Kevin turned to them. Like it or not, he was their leader. “Guys?”
They nodded their heads at him so Kevin said; “Okay then, off you go.”
The female came to Beth and escorted her out of the room; the ‘voice’ escorted Roland.
