Battleground Earth
Page 16
Justin closed his eyes, trying to wash away the images his brain insisted on creating, but that only made it worse. He felt something tickle the back of his arm. Legs. He could feel them scurrying along his flesh as the spiders marched over him.
Justin slapped angrily at his body, imagining hundreds of spiders, their thick black legs as wide as his fingers and as hairy as his gran’s chin, crawling all over him, on his bare arms and beneath his shirt. He slapped himself until it hurt, but nothing could convince him that he was not still covered with the creatures. No matter how hard he fought, he could not hold off the sensation of the creeping, crawling bugs from his skin. Justin’s heart rate skyrocketed, and his breathing increased to match. He felt dizzy as a strange spreading warmth ran through his body, and then, with a rush like a wave crashing on the beach, the true blackness came.
Justin collapsed to the floor, crashing into the junk that had been thrown into the shed over the years. Only then, when his unconscious form became just another addition to the floor, did the first spider come out of hiding and explore the newest addition.
Declan waited for his mother to disappear into the kitchen before he made his way over to the shed. He waited for the music to start, and that was when he opened the door. Declan never understood why his parents treat him and his brother so differently. He had asked, but they simply punished Justin for being a tattler.
His hands shook as he worked the padlock from the door. Declan took a deep breath as he peered inside. Justin was lying on his side, his body covered in spiders, at least a dozen, the majority nothing but the big shed spiders; tiny bodies with long gangly legs, but there were several garden spiders, their striped bodies fat like soaked raisins. Black legs prodded at the podgy skin of Justin’s cheek. Declan hated spiders, but he loved his brother so he brushed them all off, slapping at them until his body was clean. He moved into a crouch, and grabbed his brother by the shoulders. Declan heaved him out of the shed, grunting with the effort it took to do so with just one arm. Justin woke up as he was halfway out of the door and was able to help push himself free.
Declan pulled his brother to the side of the house and held him, cradling him like a protector. “It’s going to be alright, Justin. I promise.”
Justin couldn’t find the strength to speak. His body shook with cold and his teeth chattered every time he relaxed his jaw. Instead, he sought comfort in his brother’s embrace, but found a sadness there, because he knew it would not always last.
However, it was what they had, and in each other, they had a bond that could not be broken. Both understood that the life they lived was not like the life of anybody else they knew, but at the same time, it was their life, and to wish it away still felt wrong somehow.
“How about we go up to our room and play a game of Monopoly or something?” Declan offered as his brother’s sobs died down.
“You hate Monopoly.” Justin looked up at his brother. He felt ashamed, and he felt angry. A range of emotions that he could not quite put words to bubbled within him.
“No, but you like it, so what do you say?” Declan knew his brother wouldn’t able to resist a chance to play the world’s most boring and never-ending game.
“Can I be the battleship?”
“You can be anything you want.”
“Cool, then let’s go.” Justin got to his feet and froze.
To get inside and into the bedroom would mean going past their mother. Unless they went around the side and in through the front door, but that was usually locked when their father wasn’t home.
“Don’t worry, she’s listening to her tunes; she won’t even notice,” Declan whispered. “You go upstairs and I’ll get us both a drink and something to snack on.”
Justin held his breath as he crept through the kitchen. Peggy didn’t notice, however. She was lost to her music and a cigarette, the cloud from which hung in the kitchen, gathering above her head like a brooding storm.
The house they lived in was a decent size, and while there was a spare guest room that was never used, the boys were made to share. They liked it that way too.
Their room was decorated with a simple blue and white striped wallpaper and a dark blue carpet. Their beds, which were bunk beds until a few weeks before, stood on opposite sides of the room. A large window occupied the wall between the two items of furniture, while a toy chest stood beneath it, guarding their more valuable toys. The board games were in the closet, and while Justin had grown a lot over the last year, almost catching up with his brother, he still couldn’t quite reach the shelf where they sat.
So he sat on the floor and watched as Declan pulled down several boxes of games, including Monopoly. He had brought a bag of chips from the kitchen, and two cans of cola for them to drink. Their bedroom was their sanctuary, and for some reason, it was the one place in the house their parents rarely entered and always behaved in. Justin found a great comfort in the room and was always happy when Declan suggested they stay there to play.
The afternoon moved by with them moving through four different board games and the entire bag of chips. By the time their father got home, they had forgotten the problems of the morning and were even looking forward to the smells coming up from the kitchen, of the meal their mother was cooking.
Cave Crawlers is available from Amazon here!