“This is the earliest I’ve gone home for a long time.”
“We should hang out tomorrow too,” Rebecca said.
He shrugged. “What do you want to do?”
“Hop over to my house or call me in the morning. We’ll go into town again. I won’t bring Maggie. She doesn’t like to hang out with other people anyway.”
“You’ll need to drive,” he said. “As you saw this morning, I can’t drive.”
“We can go to the park or down to the lake. Do you have a swimsuit?”
“I can’t swim.”
“Not at all? Can you go into the water?”
“Nope. If I go in, you’ll be doing CPR within a minute.”
Rebecca laughed. “What do you like to do then?”
“Listen to music mostly,” he said. Smoke pot with his friends, shoplift, drink, run from the police. Kill his dad in a car crash. “Go to movies.”
“I haven’t seen a movie in years,” she said. “The temple shut down the theater. Some people, like my mom, have televisions with the older antennas so they can watch secular programs, but I don’t watch it. If they found out about it, they’d break into our house and smash it.”
“That’s messed up.”
“It’s okay. You’re not missing much anyway.”
“What else do you like to do?” she asked.
He watched her face from the corner of his eye. “I read books sometimes.”
“Really?” A grin exploded on her face. “What books?”
“Well, not so much books. Stories with superheroes and stuff like that.”
“Comic books?” Her eyes narrowed.
“Graphic novels. Higher quality than comic books.” The conversation died, and he winced. Something he should have kept to himself.
“I’ve read every book I can get my hands on, but Pastor John banned a lot of them until they’ve been approved by the temple. He wants nothing secular to pollute us. Still, I have boxes of them in our basement. Did you bring some with you?”
“A few. I don’t think you’ll like them.”
“Can I read them?”
“I’ll bring them over.”
“Just don’t let anyone else see them.”
He glanced over at her as she drove, and in the darkness created by a thick veil of thunderclouds, her faint silhouette against the dying light transformed into the rotting corpse of his dad. Michael shuddered in his seat and his jaw flew open. His dad’s sunken face, crushed from the tree that had stopped the momentum of his 60 mph airborne body, pivoted toward him independently of his shoulders. Light from the car’s headlights illuminated the disfigured corners of his mouth as they stretched, cramming the folds of his cheeks back to his ears. The eyes expanded like bloody full moons. The corners of his mouth expanded out further as if hooked on ghostly fingers. Gargled words gushed up from his throat, “Maybe… she’ll let you drive her car too.”
Michael whipped his head forward toward the evening road coming at them. The shadows still crept in on his peripheral vision, but he didn’t look again. He heard the gurgling sound, but turned his head further to the right and away from his dad.
His dad’s cold arm rested on his shoulder. “Nice job… with the car this morning.” His dad’s voice inched closer to his ear and chuckled beneath watery choking, like someone drowning. His dad strained to push up closer to him and the guttural voice whispered again, this time touching a rotting chin against his ear. “Put Rebecca in the passenger seat… and see how that… works out for you.”
Michael shook his body like swatting away a swarm of bugs around his head and ran his hands over his head, pulling his hair back. “Go away,” he screamed.
“What?” Rebecca asked.
Michael didn’t look over at Rebecca, fearing he might see his dad again, but the sensations were gone now. “I don’t feel well,” he said. “I need air.” Rebecca powered down his window, and the car slowed as she tried to make eye contact with him.
“That better?” she asked.
Michael inched his gaze toward her again and met her eyes. He nodded.
“You can drop me off at your house,” he said. “I’ll walk home.”
She paused. “You sure? It’s getting dark. I should take you home.”
“I’m sure,” he panted. “I’ll be fine.”
Rebecca turned into her driveway, stopping beside a dark blue Toyota RAV4. The headlights lit up the front of the house and illuminated the living room where the blinds were drawn, revealing the power to the house was out or the house was empty.
“That’s odd,” Rebecca said. “Mom usually waits up for me.”
“Maybe she’s asleep,” Michael said.
“Maybe.”
Before Rebecca could turn off the engine, the door to the house flew open, and a woman stumbled forward her hands reaching out in front of her as if finding her way in the dark.
“Mom!” Rebecca screamed. Black arms snaked and twisted around Audrey’s face, neck, and waist. Blood drenched her shirt and shorts. She rose as if hoisted by wires so her legs dangled above the steps. She struggled forward and clawed at the arm around her neck. The car’s headlights reflected her bulging white eyes. Her head whipped from side to side, the black arms strangling every limb until she punched her fist through the screen door and clung to the wood frame. She planted her foot on the top cement step and struggled to stand again, the black arms still gripping her like a predator determined to devour its prey. She clawed at the black arm suffocating her face, and a scream erupted for a moment before being choked away again.
Rebecca pierced the air with her screams as she threw her door open and jumped out of the car without turning off its engine. Michael swung his door open and stood, watching Rebecca scramble toward the front door of her house. The thing thrashed her mother from side to side, splattering red dots around the entrance, before dragging her inside, the screen door slamming shut.
Rebecca ran up the steps and charged inside the house. Michael’s heart pounded in his chest and his pulse filled his ears. Was he even awake right now? He looked down into the car where, just a moment earlier, he’d been safe and had reached for his backpack. His hands trembled as he fumbled with the zipper on his backpack until it opened, and he frantically searched for his pistol.
“Shit!” Pastor John had it. With his fists clenched and teeth grinding, he rushed toward the front door. His shoes slapped up the cement steps. The darkness that had swallowed Rebecca stared at him as he opened the door and stepped inside. The light from Rebecca’s car spilling in through uncovered windows revealed the empty living room and the potted plant on the TV stand.
He fumbled his fingers along the wall for a light switch and flipped it on when he found it, but nothing happened. An odd odor filled the air as he stepped into the darkness.
“Mom!” Rebecca screamed from the hallway straight ahead. She called out again and again, louder and louder.
Glass shattered far ahead in the shadows, and something rattled the walls of the house. Rebecca screamed and something crashed out the backdoor. He hurried forward, his left arm rubbing against rough wallpaper.
“Rebecca?” he shouted.
“Here!” she yelled from the darkness of the kitchen at the end of the hallway.
He dug in his pocket for his cellphone, but then remembered it was in his backpack. No signal anyway, and that asshole bully had broken it. Heat flashed through his face. His eyes darted to every shadow that moved.
“This way!” she called.
Rebecca’s footsteps echoed ahead as metal squealed and clanged. A moment later, light flooded the kitchen as Rebecca turned on a flashlight.
“Mom!” Rebecca screamed.
Audrey shrieked as the back door swung open, and the walls shook. The wooden frame around the back door creaked and popped as the nightmarish beast dragged her across the threshold and outside. The screen door banged shut behind them. Sobbing and moaning filled the air as the struggle faded into the backyard
. Rebecca jumped over to him and handed him her flashlight. Then she grabbed two large kitchen knives and ran outside.
“Get a knife!” she yelled at him.
He grabbed the largest knife he could find from the wooden holder next to the stove and followed her outside. He lit up the area around her, and the faint outline of something pitch black squirmed at the edge of his sight. Like a shifting black hole, the animal carried Audrey farther away. Rebecca ran to the edge of the light and sliced her two knives toward her mother’s attacker. He gasped for breath and hurried forward. The screams and groans sank away into the backyard faster than they could run.
Thunderclouds rumbled overhead. Brief flashes of lightning created silhouettes of Rebecca and her mother against an endless swarm of limbs like tree roots flipped upside down. Arms branched out toward Rebecca as she swung and stabbed the knives in every direction. Michael ran up beside her and joined in.
The living shadow retreated further into the backyard with Audrey encompassed within its grasp. Audrey’s shrieks pierced the air and muffled as she squirmed. Every ounce of common sense commanded him to run away from the unfolding nightmare. The creature fanned out across the ground, its arms stretching and releasing as it bound forward. It hissed at them like air being forced from a strangled cat. A hideous boney beak on its head clicked at them like bones slamming together. Rebecca jumped ahead and the light from the flashlight illuminated the underside of one arm, revealing several rows of small jagged teeth.
They chased it to the edge of the small forest behind the house before it slipped between the trees and spun around to face them, whipping its arms toward them like weapons. Audrey lay entangled against the creature’s topside with her eyes fluttering open and shut. The thing raised Audrey up into the air a few feet, dangling her like a rag doll in front of them, daring them to come get her, but then it inched back into the safety of the forest.
Its arms crept around the trees, and Rebecca skidded to a halt to avoid getting knocked in the face. More limbs slinked along the ground through the brush toward her. She didn’t see them. Michael jumped forward and grabbed her by the waist, yanking her back out of the way before they ensnared her.
“Mom!” she screamed again.
Her knife handle slammed back into his forearm as she struggled forward to attack it.
“Stay back,” he said, but she twisted herself from his grip and lunged forward into the maze of trees. “Rebecca!”
She disappeared within the thick shadows. His flashlight caught glimpses of the macabre mass as it shrank behind a fallen tree. He ran further into the forest, following the commotion, but his flashlight was fading. Within a few moments he was surrounded by creaking branches and approaching storm clouds.
9
“Rebecca!” Michael called out.
Branches crashed and snapped against him as he tore off in the direction Rebecca had gone. There was no sign of her anywhere. He couldn’t give up, but he needed to get help. He had to get home and get his grandfather.
He turned back and ran toward the house with the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. The light from his flashlight dimmed as he made his way across the lawn and charged into the battered and broken house. His shoes slipped on a patch of blood where Rebecca’s mom had been dragged across the kitchen floor. Blood and another putrid smell, something like rotting flesh, hung in the air. The smell was familiar. He dodged the smeared blood as much as possible, but his shoes slid and squeaked until he stepped onto the rug by the front door. Nobody would believe this. And his footprints were all over the place.
He crashed through the screen door, nearly tripping down the stairs, and the door cracked shut behind him. The headlights of Rebecca’s idling car led him across the driveway and onto the main road. His tennis shoes pounded against the gravel road, each breath roaring in his ears until the light from his grandparents’ front porch peeked through the trees from across the road. His heart ached as if about to burst in his chest. This was crazy. This was freaking nuts. How would he tell his mom about this? He had crashed his grandfather’s car in the morning, gotten kicked out of a church service and punched by a bully by lunch, and then spent the afternoon with Rebecca only to return home to watch a monster abduct Audrey. Oh, and then Rebecca disappeared too. Never mind all the bloody footprints on the floor that matched his shoes or the knife in his hand.
He clenched the knife harder. The flashlight’s range had diminished to only a few feet, but he had to go back there and find her. His grandfather had told him not to go out at night and to stay away from the woods. He cringed thinking about what would be his grandfather’s reaction.
The porch light at his grandparents’ house lit the yard. Michael’s body weakened as he approached their driveway. His grandfather was standing on the porch holding a rifle as he trudged into the driveway.
“Michael?” his grandfather called.
He caught his breath. “Grandpa, there’s something over at Rebecca’s house.”
“I heard the screams,” he said. “Get inside. Where’s Rebecca?”
“Something pulled her into the forest and her mom too.”
His grandfather’s shoulders drooped forward, and he stared at the ground. His chin trembled. “Stay right next to me.”
His grandfather hurried inside and made a phone call, instructing the person on the other line to meet him at Audrey Wagner’s house.
“Yeah, it sounds like a bessie,” his grandfather said into the phone. “Two. Audrey Wagner and her girl.”
His grandfather hung up the phone as Michael dropped his knife into the kitchen sink. His knuckles ached as he released it. A moment later his grandfather handed him the rifle he’d been holding and unlocked the kitchen pantry. He came back a moment later with an assault rifle.
“Do you think you can shoot that?” his grandfather asked him.
Michael nodded.
His grandfather led him out to the Cadillac in the driveway and got into the driver’s seat.
“I’ll take it this time,” his grandfather said with a smirk.
Michael climbed into the passenger seat. He cracked his rifle on the door as he got in.
“Good thing they have a safety catch,” his grandfather said.
The car started with a rumble and a squeal as his grandfather backed out. They raced over to Rebecca’s driveway. Her car’s engine was still running and the car doors were wide open.
“What did the animal look like?” his grandfather asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“Was it black with long arms?”
Michael looked at his grandfather and nodded. “How did you know?”
“Remember, I told you not to go in the woods?”
“We didn’t, at first. We were trying to rescue Rebecca’s mom. Then it grabbed her too.”
“How big was it?”
“I only saw its arms.”
“That’s all they are. A mass of arms.”
“There’s more than one of them?”
“We’re not sure how many there are. At least a couple.”
His grandfather stepped out, pulling the assault rifle up to his chest as he eyed Rebecca’s house. Her car’s headlights still illuminated the front porch. The trees along the edge of the house came into view. The rifle’s cold metal in Michael’s hands was no comfort. He wanted to run into the forest again and get Rebecca back. He climbed out of the car and stood at his grandfather’s side.
“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Michael asked.
His grandfather shook his head. “It wouldn’t do any good. The police are all temple members. I’m sure they’re behind this.”
They stood waiting by the car for what seemed like hours. Michael held back the urge to run into the forest without his grandfather. A moment later, a truck pulled up behind his grandfather’s car and two men jumped out. They rushed over to his grandfather and looked at Michael.
“This is my grandson, Michael,” his grandfather said.
“I’m Finn,” the taller man said.
“Ray,” said the overweight man.
Both wore beige military vests with the pockets packed full of something indicating they’d prepared for a major battle. They carried their assault rifles against their chests. Both men were roughly the same age as his grandfather.
“A bessie took Audrey and her girl,” his grandfather said to Finn.
“Which way did they go?” Finn asked.
His grandfather looked at him. He pointed. “Into the forest out back.”
“How long ago?” Finn looked toward the forest.
“Maybe 20 minutes.”
“Okay, we’ve still got time.” Finn grabbed flashlights from his truck, handing one to Michael, and led the way into Rebecca’s house.
The door squeaked open and Michael stayed at his grandfather’s side. Finn flipped the light switch on, but the power was still out.
“Audrey? Rebecca?” Finn called out. Silence. They stepped forward, their flashlights scanning every corner.
“Rebecca?” his grandfather called out. The light flashed across the floor revealing pools of blood had been streaked from the front door all the way to the back. The two men didn’t appear to be alarmed by any of the destruction around them.
“I guess we know which way our culprit went,” Finn said.
A black mucus-like jelly led them through the house and out the back door. Thunder crashed overhead, although it didn’t rain, and a woman could be heard screaming through the trees. They stepped down the back porch steps into the backyard grass. The forest loomed up ahead.
“Audrey?” his grandfather called out. “Rebecca?”
Screams burst from the darkness within the forest, but then stopped. A tree branch creaked followed by a loud clicking sound. It was like rows of teeth snapping together again and again.
“Get back,” Ray said to Michael.
The clicking grew louder and echoed between the trees. Their flashlights scanned the edges of the forest and stopped on Rebecca’s face, who was dangling like a rag doll in the air, her legs wrapped with black appendages like anacondas. Finn aimed his rifle low and shot near Rebecca’s feet. The bullets smashed into the dirt and bursts of bark exploded across the surrounding trees. Michael winced from the gunfire. Finn and Ray inched forward toward Rebecca. Finn continued firing at the animal detaining her. Ray’s flashlight pierced deep within the darkness and the creature’s outline came into view. Thick shadows webbed between the trees and shifted as the light touched it. Clicks and hisses grew louder as the men approached and the shadows scurried back further into the forest, dangling Rebecca in front of it like a fisherman displaying his prized catch.
Shadows Rising Page 7
