“Wait just a few more seconds until she comes to,” Dominic said.
“Sorry.”
“Mmmmm. Hmmmmmm. Huh? Huh? Hello?” she said with a mouth as dry as sand.
“Mom, can you hear me?” Dominic asked.
“Huhhh hmmm, what? Who’s there? Dom? Dominic? Is that you?” she said as her voice was starting to sound more clear in the echoes of the room.
“Jon, go ahead with the light. Grab her ankles.”
The beam shined on her once attractive face. Now, it was ravaged by the parasite’s control. Her eyes danced. Open. Close. Open. Close.
“Where are we, Dominic? Why are we in the dark? Who’s shining that goddamn light in my face!? Turn that off!” she already spoke with a tinge of anger coming up from her throat.
“Mom, you’ve had an accident.”
“An accident? Get the fuck off of me! Why are my hands tied? Did your bastard father put you up to this?! My legs too?! You perv!” she said, even louder now.
“Mom, just relax! We’re not gonna hurt you, just take some deep breaths. Ok?” Dominic pleaded, but he was no match for his mother’s rage that was building up with every spoken word.
“Who’s grabbing my FUCKING legs! FUCK YOU! GET THE FUCK OFF ME!” she shouted and kicked with such force that it caused Jon to drop the Maglite. Both of his hands gripped her ankles, forcing the heels of the running sneakers into the cement. They squirmed.
“Shit! I’m sorry! She kicked me hard!” Jon cried as Mrs. Cooper wiggled like a prisoned snake.
Dominic had both hands around his mother’s bound wrists as she shouted out, “OFF! GET OFF! I’M GONNA KILL YOU AND YOUR FUCKING LITTLE FRIEND! OFF! YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING-”
Mrs. Cooper’s teeth almost bit down into her son’s hand. Dominic was quick enough to feel the sharpness before she clenched down. There was a noise of top teeth hitting bottom. Tick.
“Jon! Can you flick on the LED and grab her legs again? She’s biting at me! I don’t think we can keep her down much longer!” Dominic shouted down at him.
“I’M GONNA BITE YOUR LITTLE HEAD OFF!” she shouted as she lunged her head forward with another bite. A snarl. Jon could see the black figure of her pouncing upwards against the figure of Dominic. The two shadows tangled together.
“Now, Jon! Now! I can only hold her for a little more! She’s fucking crazy!” Dominic shouted in a pure panic. He regretted ever wanting to show Jon what happens to his mother in the dark.
Jon jumped up and nearly knocked the entire LED stand over with his shoe. Panic gloved his hands. He grabbed the stock and felt for the switch, snapped it on, and the harsh light filled the room once again, exposing the mother and son’s violent tussle.
Mrs. Cooper’s face raged and scowled like the maniacs Jon had seen before. It was terrifying, but Jon knew if he didn’t step back into the arena and grab hold of her feet, she may just follow through with her threat of biting her son’s little head off.
She didn’t make it easy for him. Her legs wiggled and whipped, making it hard for Jon to get a grip. Once he got in closer and stepped back into the brightness, Mrs. Cooper’s movements stopped in mid-jerk as her eyes met Jon’s again.
“Oh, well, if it isn’t the little Jonny boy from across the street!” she shouted out in a sinister voice. “I haven’t seen you since you were a tiny little shit running around the neighborhood! Why don’t you get your FUCKING hands off me!”
A frightened eyebrow rose on Jon’s face as he held her ankles with a loosened grip.
“Mom, you’re gonna be going to sleep again. Ok? Just calm down. Shhh,” Dominic said, seeming to ignore his mother’s sudden interest in Jon.
“Where’s your daddy and mommy, huh?” she asked as Jon tightened his grip now.
“Do you. . . do you know where they are?” Jon felt weird asking this psychotic woman anything.
“Jon, don’t worry about it. She’s not right in the head,” Dominic said.
“Hey!” she said as she twisted. “Come to think of it, I did see your mommy the other day! I bet you’d like to see your mommy again wouldn’t you, Jonny? Yeah! I bet you miss your mommy, don’t you? You son of a bitch! And how about your daddy? Do you miss him?” she shouted. Tucking her legs in, she shot them outwards. Jon’s grip tightened more.
“Jon, don’t listen to this. It’s just the parasite making her talk like this,” Dominic said.
“Hey! I tell you what, you bastard, you untie me from my FUCKING son’s twisted little game, and I’ll show…” She began to feel the light’s rays. “. . .show. . . you. . . tell you. . . where your mommy and daddy…”
“What? Where are they? Did you see my parents? Where are they!?” Jon began to shout at the tired, evil woman. He could feel Mrs. Cooper’s legs turning into dead weight. Sleeping weight rather.
“Ooooo mhmmmm. I saw them. . . you little. . . FUCK off me!” she mumbled and gave one last tired jerk.
Jon squeezed her ankles. “Did you see my parents? Tell me! Tell me where they are!”
“Jon, stop! She’s making shit up! It’s not real!” Dominic cried.
“Untie me. . . I’ll tell you, they’re… shit… mhmmmmm. . . hmmmm. . . untie. . . now,” she groaned again before her head slumped back against the cement with a thud of her skull. The parasite’s control ceased beneath the light just as it did moments ago.
“Jesus Christ, Jon. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think it would get that bad. It seems like she’s getting worse,” Dominic said above his sleeping mother.
“Did she see my parents? Did she see them before she was infected?” Jon asked, unaware of the situation that just took place. He was angry now.
“I don’t know.”
In a surprising fit of starving and tired madness, Jon grabbed Dominic by the collar of his shirt. “You tell me right now! Are my parents dead? Did your mom kill my parents?” If you walked in on the two of them, you’d think Jon was a parasite-ridden freak himself.
“Jon! Get off me, man!” Dominic pleaded. “I don’t know!”
Jon began whipping Dominic around, just as he did to his mother moments ago. He wanted more answers.
“Please, Jon! I don’t know! Get off me!”
“Let’s put her back in the dark. Turn off the light!”
“Jon, there’s nothing we can do! She’s mental! She’s mad!” Dominic began to sob. “Please! We can’t keep doing this to her. Please! I’m sorry about your parents. If I knew where they were, I’d tell you. Believe me, I would. But we can’t do this. We have to stay healthy, stay alive!”
Jon let go of Dominic and stood up from the floor. About ready to take matters into his own hands, the voice in his head stopped him from extinguishing the light. Wait, just wait. Don’t do anything stupid.
Dominic adjusted the collar of his shirt and said, “My mom was up early a few days ago for her morning run. She usually runs around the neighborhood and then outside of it, up the road and back. Maybe she saw your mom or dad then. I don’t know!”
A few days ago? When was that? Jon hadn’t the slightest idea what day of the week it was. Everything blurred together. How many days has it been? Fuck! Jon’s back remained facing Dominic. Dominic was still on the ground by his mom, who was still away on a parasitic siesta. Jon felt for her and knew that his outburst was a mistake. It would get him nowhere.
“Rae screamed from the kitchen that morning and when I ran down to see what had happened, my mom was already out. She drank a bottle of water, of course. She’d been running all morning,” Dominic said.
“You couldn’t have known,” Jon said, softer now behind his wet paint mask. Still, he didn’t turn to face him. He was too embarrassed after clutching Dominic’s neck.
“Oh, but I did. I did. I had already been following the story for the past week or so. It scared me pretty good, so I got my sister on board with it. My mom wasn’t having anything about it. Called it ‘fake news’ and a bunch of ‘mumbo jumbo.’ Even after I showed her the articles and the new
s footage she refused to listen. The data didn’t matter to her.”
“What about your dad?”
“Don’t have one. He walked out before I was old enough to form memories.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”
“Don’t be. Didn’t know the guy. Nothing to be sorry about, Jon.”
Jon felt sadness for Dominic. Even though his mother still breathed, she was nothing more than a furious entity. Having to see her like this and having to handle her like she was a wild animal must be a true, living hell.
Still, her words itched at Jon’s mind and took him away from the present moment. They replaced the feeling of despair with a curiosity that couldn’t be ignored. An angry curiosity.
I’ll show you…
“You know, it’s interesting,” Dominic said, “she doesn’t eat or drink anything. I’ve brought down food for her and she didn’t seem to care one bit for it. Won’t even drink any water, tainted or untainted. I can tell she’s lost weight. I’d imagine if we don’t kill her, or she doesn’t somehow kill herself, she’ll eventually wither away.”
“Wonder how long that would take. My grandma was pretty frail but mustered up enough strength to choke me. This parasite may just be keeping them alive enough to keep fighting.” Jon thought back to his horrific encounter in Camp Valley.
“Oh man,” Dominic said, exhausted by it all. He blew tired air from his mouth. “Well, let’s head back upstairs. There’s nothing more for us to do down here at the moment. I say we get some rest.”
Rest? There was no time for rest.
I’ll tell. . .
“I’m sorry I couldn’t lock the door when we came in, you put duct tape all over it,” Jon said.
“Yeah, sorry. Since we trap her in here, we have to cover the inside lock. Initially, she was feeling the walls until she came to the door and must’ve let herself out. That’s why the basement looks like shit. She was a bull in a china shop out there. We lock it outside and then clog the lock with duct tape so she can’t tear it with her nails. We’re lucky we got enough wrapped around it so we can still control the turn lock on the outside, it all works through the knob itself.”
I’ll show. . .
“I see,” Jon said. His mind was pumping with the thought of waking Mrs. Cooper back up.
“Yep. Thank God we got a shit-ton of the stuff, too.” Dominic pointed over his shoulder to one of the metal shelves on the side of the room. A gigantic donut of duct tape sat on the edge of one of the levels.
Untie me. . .
Chapter FIFTY
Back Upstairs
“She sleeps when we sleep,” Dominic said as he and Jon walked back up the basement steps. The Maglite lit the way to the gray kitchen. “Besides, if she’s constantly awake and flipping out, she might just break out and we can’t have that. We’ll go as long as we have batteries and when we run out, we’ll get some more. I told Rae we’d eventually have to break into the neighbors’ houses or raid Walmart.”
The two of them snapped off their masks and threw them in the trash bin by the island where Jon’s rifle lay on the marble table next to Dominic’s hunting bow and leather arrow bag. On the dining table, the half drank glass of tap water sat by the Ritz crackers. Jon was unsure if he should be drinking water at all anymore.
“So, the tap water is untainted as far as you know?” Jon asked.
“Yep. Crazy to think that purified water turned out to be the one that would cause a worldwide epidemic. For years, I’ve read that tap water was filled with fluoride and chemicals to rot your mind. That’s why these articles interested me so much,” Dominic replied. “I guess if we lived in California we may have issues with the tap.”
Jon grabbed his rifle and walked into the dim living room where photographs of the Coopers sat on end tables beside fabric couches. He stood, looking out the window across the asphalt. His house, 524 Franklin Court, stood silently. No new cars in the driveway. No one to be seen. It remained just as it was when he arrived not long before. His hand found his front pocket and ran his fingers atop the brass ring.
“I think you should stay with us, Jon,” Dominic said behind him, still in the kitchen. He was slinging the leather bag of arrows over his shoulder. “I mean, you’re free to go back to your place, but it would be better if the three of us stayed close. If something happens to my mom…”
I bet you miss your mommy. I’ll tell you… The words played back in his mind. I’ll show…I’ll tell. . .
“. . . if she breaks out,” Dominic said, his voice fading back into focus. “We’ll keep a lookout for your folks. In the meantime, you can bring some of your clothes and whatnot over. The guestroom is untouched. Clean sheets. We’ve got food that will last us for a little while if we eat little by little.”
Show… tell…
“Ok,” Jon said, still staring out at his empty, lonely house. It looked like a reflection of himself. “You think that parasite is contagious?”
“I don’t think it is. Nothing points to that,” Dominic said. “I think it’s strictly from the water. Now, of course, there could be a way perhaps if you mix an infected person’s blood with yours, maybe. I don’t know if that’s ever been tested. I wouldn’t risk it.”
Jon nodded. “I’ve gotten blood on me from the parasite people, but it didn’t get into any cuts or anything. Not that I’m aware of.”
“Hmm.” Dominic rubbed his beard.
Jon sighed and said, “I’ll stay. Let me grab some things and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Alright. You want me to go with you?”
“No, I’ll be fine. It’ll only be a few minutes,” Jon said, holding up the Remington.
“Call out if anything happens, I’ll be here. Do you need my phone number?”
Jon almost said yes, but once he grabbed for his phone, he realized that he had thrown it into the garage, making it crash on the hard floor.
“Don’t have a phone,” Jon said as he opened the front door of the Coopers’ house and stepped back into the rainy morning.
Chapter FIFTY-ONE
Not a Wink
Jon returned to the Coopers’ place with an old Nike gym bag and the Rehoboth Beach bag. Dominic greeted him at the door with a finger over his lips.
“Rae’s asleep upstairs. We can’t make too much noise, okay? Come on in,” Dominic said, holding the door open for Jon. He eased it closed behind him. “Feel free to take these articles upstairs if you wanna read more. I know I could only explain so much. I’m still trying to understand myself.”
Jon picked up one of the articles with a headline that read: WHY THE NEW WATER PARASITES ARE NO LAUGHING MATTER. He wasn’t actually going to read it.
The two of them walked up the carpeted steps to the upstairs hallway. Two doors on the left. One on the right. Down the hall, the master bedroom lingered. A bathroom sat between. The hall looked like the one in Jon’s house, except this one was painted a dark brown and had photos of the Cooper clan hanging along the walls.
“This is the guest room,” Dominic whispered. He led Jon into the room on the right. On the opposite side of the cul-de-sac, this would be Jon’s bedroom, but here it was designed for guests with plain sheets that were as grey as the sky outside.
“Thanks,” Jon whispered back as he lay his bags on the bed. Dominic shut the door behind them as they stood in a cream-colored bedroom that looked out over the neighborhood. Black curtains, which didn’t match the colors of the room, were on either side of the window.
Dominic’s whisper was louder now as he said, “We sleep during the daytime now. It takes some getting used to, and Rae and I aren’t fully adapted to it yet, but it’s what has to be done.” He walked by the window and dark curtains. Pulling them closed, they blacked out the room except for the lines of light peeking around the fabric.
Dominic continued. “I gave you my blackout curtains. I figured you’d need more time to adjust to the schedule. I’m pretty much there myself. I can almost fall aslee
p as the sun comes up now. Same with Rae.”
“Thanks,” Jon said. His mind was elsewhere.
The light re-entered the room as Dominic pulled back the curtains. “We have little battery-operated alarm clocks, although you yelled so loud outside we didn’t need it today.” He sniffed a laugh. Jon was silent. “There’s one on the end table there, I set it for seven-thirty. That’ll give you almost an hour before the sun goes all the way down. That will at least allow you to get your bearings straight for the night. It’s not gonna be easy, but the trick is to make yourself super tired at night until your body can’t take it. My mom helped with that.”
“What do we do when we wake up?” Jon asked.
Untie me and I’ll. . .
“Well, we basically keep a lookout, try some things on mom and see if we can get anywhere with a remedy.”
“Have you seen anyone come through the neighborhood at night?” Jon was still holding the rifle by its stock.
“Only once.” Dominic was peering out through the rain-stained window. “I believe it was the Hannigans next door. Their daughter, Molly, was good friends with Rae. Does the name sound familiar to you? Molly Hannigan?”
“Yeah, I think so. The Hannigans. I’ve seen them out and about before.” Just like with the Coopers, Jon hadn’t spent much time with his neighbors other than Dylan, and that was years ago. Maybe a block party BBQ once or twice. Perhaps he saw them at the community yard sales.
“It was the night after my mom collapsed, infected. Rae and I were just done getting mom settled downstairs when we saw lights beaming through the living room windows. I wasn’t sure what was said but it appeared Mr. Hannigan got out and started yelling up at the house. Bitch this and cunt that. You know how they talk.”
“That I do.”
“All of a sudden, Mr. Hannigan starts punching at the front door. I mean, full-on winding up and letting it rip on the wood. I guess he was locked out? I don’t know. I think they were having marriage trouble and the missus changed the lock or something. Somehow, though, he gets in. Then the screams came.”
When the Sky Goes Dark Page 25
