Becoming the Gateway

by Justin Roberts

  She tried to scream as she dragged herself along the ground but the wound to her larynx made it impossible, breathing was almost impossible. The Clarence thing knelt down beside her and flipped her over so that she was on her back, facing up, even though her face had been nearly completely shredded. The fiend took its talon tipped fingers and tore into Carla's abdomen, her back arched upward as her body began to lurch around while the creature began to disembowel her. Her intestines came out in long strands as the thing drooled over her writhing frame. It flipped her back over as it pulled and pulled until her intestines reached a length long enough that it wrapped them around her torn face and throat, one thick strand of her bowels made shouting for help even harder as it was in her mouth like a gag and the creature began to drag her backward, towards the old horse stable. She was going to die, but she could not even cry out. She could see up to the big ranch house where her family waited for her to return like she'd promised. She could see a black car pull into the driveway and stop. Two children got out of the car and ran up toward the house, Alyssa and Bradley. She held her hand out toward them, knowing that they were much too far away to see her. She tried one last time to scream as Clarence dragged her by her own intestines toward the shadows of the stables, leaving a thick, red mud where her blood flowed into the dirt, smearing her violated face as she was dragged back through it. The last thought that Carla Henderson had before dying was, what is going to happen to the children?

  CHAPTER THREE

  Charlie Henderson’s mood had improved quite a bit from his earlier state of rage he was experiencing earlier this afternoon. At the end of it all, he did love Alyssa and Bradley, he just was sick of Charlene not taking his plans and his needs. The stop at Dairy Queen definitely helped lighten the mood in the car. He got himself a large Butterfinger Blizzard with extra candy filling. Bradley, as always, ordered the exact same thing. Alyssa, always having to take the road less traveled, decided on a large butterscotch dipped ice cream cone.

  The ride from Ellensburg to the Bear Creek Ranch had consisted of a lot of fart jokes back and forth with Bradley and a lot of fun poking at Alyssa for being so offended by what she kept referring to as boy humor.

  It was just as they were pulling off the last paved road on the way to the ranch that Alyssa dropped the bomb.

  “Daddy, where did you put our bags?” She said, looking at her father quizzically.

  "What do you mean?" He asked with no idea, once again, what the kid was talking about.

  "Mommy told you to make sure you had our bags with our other clothes and toothbrushes so we wouldn't have to carry them around school all day!" She fired back.

  "The fuck she did..."

  "I was standing right there when she told you!" She shouted.

  "STOP SCREAMING!" Bradley shouted from the back.

  "Well shit," Charlie said, smacking his palm against the steering wheel, "Well what the hell am I supposed to do? It's your shit! Sounds to me like your problem too. I hope you don't mind wearing the same clothes and not brushing your teeth for the weekend."

  "I don't mind!" Bradley said.

  "Of course you don't!" said Alyssa, "You're a gross boy!" Then she turned her attention back to her father and said, "Daddy! I can't get these clothes all dirty! These are my nice clothes! And if I don't brush my teeth my mouth will stink!"

  "You face stinks." Charlie replied.

  "Daddy!" She glared up at him to make sure he knew she meant business.

  "Fuck!" Charlie yelled as he slammed on the brakes, causing the BMW to fishtail on the dirt road before coming to a stop in huge cloud of dust. He pulled his phone up from the console and fired off a text to his ex-wife, in all caps of course.

  "WAY 2 FUKIN GO BITCH! U 4GOT THE KIDS FUCIN CLOTHES N SHIT"

  He hit send then immediately wrote up another message.

  "UR FAULT!! DO NOT EVN TRY TO SAY SHIT NOW ALLISSA WONT STOP CRI IN"

  Send.

  "ONE MOR THING BITCH! HOPE UR HAPY U RUIND UR KIDS WEEKND, UR FUKN FALT U HO! IM FUCKN DUN!!!!"

  Send.

  "Well," Charlie send to his kids as he hit the gas and peeled out before rocketing down the dirt road again, "I did my fucking part. You can only blame your damn mom now, or yourselves, but I did what I could so ya'll just leave me out of it."

  In a couple more minutes they reached the gate to the ranch and then the driveway where they parked right next to his brother's Porsche Cayenne SUV. Both kids bolted out of the car as fast as they could and raced each other to the front door of the ranch house.

  Charlie stayed behind for a quick second to send a few more messages to his ex, he wanted to make sure he got his point across. When he picked the phone back up, however, he saw that his service had gone down from the four bars it had shown back down the road to zero bars.

  "What the fuck?" He stared at the phone, perplexed. "Cheap piece of shit network, I'm going to fucking kill that chink, bastard kid at the store."

  He tossed the phone down and got out of the car, stretching and inhaling the fresh country air.

  As he let out a deep sign he said, "God I fucking hate this retarded-ass place."

  ~

  Paula followed Dennis into the kitchen that was just down the hall and to the right of the front door. She sat at the kitchen table looking up at the ceiling while impatiently rapping her manicured finger nails against the table's surface. Elizabeth would not stop tugging on her skirt asking, "Mommy! When can I go play with my cousins? When are they going to be here to play?" and so on and so forth.

  Dennis told the child to go play in the backyard and maybe pick some apples in the orchard while she waited for them to arrive.

  "What's up, Lover?," He said to Paula, giving her that pathetic little puppy dog face he just thought was so god damn cute, "You need a back rub? Or a glass of water or something?"

  She flashed him what anyone besides his dimwitted ass would have realized was a sarcastic smile and said, "No, Dear, I'm just fine. I'm just so happy to be back on the 'ol family ranch that I'm getting all antsy just trying to take it all in."

  But what she was thinking was, I fucking hate my life, I fucking hate my life, I fucking hate my life.

  She repeated this through her head at least a dozen more times as she just looked back at her ball-less wonder of a husband and said, "It's just so great to get to be with your family all weekend."

  "Well come on now," he said as he began to go ahead and start giving her that darn backrub anyway, "You just put in so much darned work taking care of my girls, you need this! Baby, you deserve a chance to just let your hair down and enjoy some good ol' fashion country livin' for a couple days!" For some reason he seemed to think it would help her mood to pat her firmly on the back three times as he said this. Instead it just caused her to have an itching desire to kick him in the fucking balls.

  What Paula really wanted to say was something along the lines of, No Dennis, what I need is a new fucking life with a new fucking family in a new fucking city, in a new fucking state! Why in the fuck do I still waste my fucking life here in fucking Northwest where the weather makes everyone want to commit fucking suicide nine months out of the year just to raise your kid and live in your house and have your pathetic, leave it to fucking Beaver life. What I need is a man who knows how to fuck like a man, not your faggot-ass face to face “love making" pussy bullshit. That's why I've been fucking so many other men and you're too much of a god damned pussy to know any better. I've been fucking the personal trainer that you pay for! I've been fucking our daughter's play date's dad every other Tuesday when the kids "go to the park" after day care, I've even been fucking your little brother, you pathetic fuck! Ever since your thirty-eighth birthday, three years ago. At least once every other month or so since then! I can't even stand that annoying prick of a brother of yours but I let him pound away at me in ways your boring ass couldn't even imagine, and I do it just to fucking spite you for ruining my fucking life.

  That's what she wanted
to say, but all that came out was, "You're right, Baby. I love you so much!"

  He planted a huge, sloppy kiss right in the middle of her forehead and ruffled her hair as he said, "Always and forever. Right, Babe?!"

  How many times does he have to say that "always and forever shit" before he realizes that I never say it back. Paula thought to herself.

  She just forced a smile and said, "Always and forever," as she started to fumble through her purse for her bottle of Xanax, what she loved to refer to as her "mommy pills".

  She'd already taken one on the ride over, hoping it would aid with her fake sleeping theatrics. To her dismay, the pill only made her capable of sort of zoning out just enough that she could pull off the ruse without letting on, through body language or through her dismissive soft laughter and eye rolling which she was so habitually prone to. She would have rather just gone into a medically induced coma and slept through the entire fucking weekend. She found the prescription bottle in the bottomless abyss of her purse and began to fumble with the child proof lid when she heard the front door, directly across the large living from her, fly open and the room erupted with a thunderous cacophony of children’s shrieking and laughter.

  Of course her softy husband thought it was music to his ears, "Who’s going to be the first one on the Uncle Dennis Roller Coaster?!" He yelled out to Bradley and Alyssa as they both ran towards him, although Alyssa was clearly trying to look "too cool for school", she was eleven now, after all.

  "Self-righteous little bitch." Paula said to herself, under her breath.

  Dennis swooped up nine year old little Bradley, the clear winner of the race, and spun the kid around in a circle while making goofy air plane sounds as they soared.

  "Don't think I forgot about the prettiest little princess in Washington State!" Dennis called out jubilantly as he let Bradley down gently and swooped Alyssa up into his arms.

  "Aaahhhh!" Alyssa yelled out while trying her best to look grown up and not burst out into laughter, "Uncle Dennis! Put me down!" Finally, she could no longer keep up the act and she began laughing wildly as her beloved Uncle Dennis spun her circles around the stupid kitchen while she held her arms out like wings and made her own stupid airplane sounds even though Dennis was already providing the dumb engine sound.

  God damn, kids are so fucking annoying! Paula thought as she watched her husband set her "niece" down and give her a big, cheesy hug.

  Dennis put one hand on each child's shoulder and spoke in that stupid, fake cowboy accent he always did with the kids out here, "How 'bout the two of you pilgrims go 'round back and help your cousin Bethie pick some of those delicious apple out in that there orchard?"

  "Let's have an apple fight!" Bradley yelled out as the two little hellions ran for the door.

  "No throwing apples," Dennis insisted, "That could hurt one of you guys, so have fun and be safe! And not for too long, you only have maybe a half hour of daylight left!"

  As the two children tore their way out the front door they nearly plowed down their father as he was entering while they were exiting.

  "Whoa!" Charlie shouted as the two speed demons winded around his legs, "Slow the fuck down already!" He looked up at his brother and said, "Can you believe these fucking kids?"

  "Little hell raisers," Dennis replied as he greeted his younger brother with a firm hug and two pats on the back, "Must take after their old man!"

  Charlie looked at Paula and their eyes locked, "Hey there, Hon," he said with a smile that made her want to throw up and fuck his brains out at the same time, "Looking good as always, I see."

  For the first time since she sat down at the kitchen table, Paula stopped the incessant tapping of her fingernails on the table and said, "Hey, Charlie."

  What followed was the typical greeting custom of the Henderson brothers, a custom that began on Dennis' thirty-fifth birthday. Assuming that the logistics of this display of brotherly camaraderie gave Paula the opportunity to place herself in the proper locations, which this time did happen to allow, Charlie would hold his brother firmly saying, "You can't get out, Big Bro!"

  What Dennis did not see was his wife spreading her legs, he never noticed that she always wore a short skirt when they hung out with Charlie, and pull her panties to the side so Charlie had full view of the goods, before closing her legs and standing up to shake his hand, then gave him a big, brotherly hug when he, as always, said "Hey now, we're family! And family doesn't shake hands...family hugs!" As usually Charlie picked his brother's wife off the ground mid-hug and spun her around in a full circle before looking at Dennis and saying, "Okay, Hoss, I guess it's time to go ahead and let you take this little filly back to Papa."

  "How you been, Charlie?" Dennis asked his brother.

  "Oh you know, same old shit. Closing deals and making money, Brother. How much you pull in last year at your law thing you do?"

  Dennis chose to ignore his brother's arrogant lack of basic civil etiquette and simply replied, "I do fine, Charlie."

  "Well I can tell that whatever it is I probably make more, if the way you dress is any indication!" Charlie, as usual, was the only one laughing at his own joke, but he laughed loud and obnoxiously enough to make up for it.

  Paula really did not have any real attraction to Charlie, but the thrill of screwing her husband's brother was what she was really after anyway. Matter of fact, she found it funny that Charlie would make fun of Dennis' style when Charlie himself seemed to model himself off those cheesy, MTV reality show types while Dennis actually dressed and acted like a successful man acting his age.

  Either way, she really was happy to have someone here to pass time with besides her boring husband and needy daughter and if she was going to get laid then all the better. All she had to do now was devise a way that Charlie and she could sneak off for a few minutes, and knowing Charlie she knew they wouldn't more time than that, without making it so blatantly obvious what they were up to. But she rested easy knowing that her simple husband would never in a million years think there was anything going on in their marriage to be worried about.

  Turns out, Charlie was already thinking the same thing and had a plan in place, "Well, shit! We got some time to kill while we wait for Charlotte and the old fucker down the hill to get their asses back, and Mom's probably just going to be yacking his fucking ear off down there for an hour while we wait and starve. I say we play some cards or something."

  “I don't really feel like a game right now, Charlie," Dennis replied, "I’m beat from the drive and I doubt it'll be much more than a couple minutes..."

  "Whatever, Lame-ass...you can just sit there being lame all you want, then." Charlie challenged back.

  "Fine," said Dennis, “But you have to go down to the game room and get the cards."

  "No worries, but it's a big ass room and they could be anywhere," Charlie smiled at Dennis then continued, "And since you're too lame to help me look how about I borrow Paula for a minute so I'm not down there all night?"

  "I don't mind," Paula said, "If he doesn't have someone help he'll never find them."

  Dennis looked over at his wife and smiled as he said, "Okay, then. If you guys are really set on playing a few hands then I'll just get some coffee brewing here in case anyone wants a cup when they get back and you two can go find the cards."

  Paula kissed Dennis on the cheek as she got up and said, "I'll be right back, a cup of coffee actually sounds good. After that long nap I took in the car I think I could use it."

  ~

  Bradley was racing around the apple orchard, engaged in fruit to fruit combat with his older sister and his younger cousin. Naturally, the two girls had decided to gang up on the one boy so Bradley had his hands full. And so far he was pleased to brag about how he was still whooping on them even though the odds were not in his favor.

  "Stupid girls!" he yelled out as he jumped out from behind one of the apple trees, ammo in in each hand, and let the first one loose at little Bethie, it sailed right over her head. The s
econd apple tagged Alyssa right in the shoulder, and boy was she pissed!

  "We said we're not playing your stupid apple fight game!" She shouted at him.

  "Just because you know that I'll whoop on you both!" Bradley shouted back.

  "Bradley!" Bethie said as she stomped her foot and put her hands on her hips to make sure her cousin knew she was serious, “It’s not nice to throw things at people!"

  "God, I hate being stuck with girls all weekend!" Bradley said while he leaned against the tree, "Well what do you guys want to do, then."

  "Hide and seek!" Both girls screamed out simultaneously.

  "Fine, whatever." He said as he pushed himself off the tree. Just then, something along the edge of the orchard caught his eye. It looked like a snake, or something snake like, had quickly slithered its way down into a hole in the dirt. He definitely had to check it out!

  "Did you guys see that?" he asked the two girls.

  "See what?" Alyssa asked, sounding annoyed.

  "I don't know, I think it was a snake."

  "Scary!" Bethie said as she took a step back, so she could hide behind Alyssa.

  "I'm gonna go see," Bradley said as he walked slowly toward the edge of the orchard, where he saw the thing seeming disappear into a hole in the dirt.

  "You're being stupid," Alyssa called out to him as he approached the area in question, "There's rattle snakes here!"

  He came to a small hole that really just looked like a gopher hole. It was in the dirt at the edge of where the apple orchard turns into the hilly path down to Clarence's house. He knelt down and looked into the hole, nothing seemed to stir down there. Only one way to know for sure, he had to ram a stick down there. Bradley reached for a stick in the bramble under one of the trees, it was about three feet long, just long enough!