by David Wood
Standing on the edge, Ash looked down, and his black eyes saw bodies laying across boulders that hadn't been exposed to the air in hundreds of millions of years. That the bodies even existed at all was a testament to the power they'd once had and to the strength that had made them the terrors they'd once been. Down in the wet reaches were figures like spiders, but with twice as many legs and fangs as large as cars. Some had the vague shape of humans, but were twenty feet tall and had too many eyes and arms. Some looked like animals, their dead bodies as big as a bus and covered in razor sharp needles long enough to impale a man on. In the ancient graveyard he saw claw, wing, tentacle, and fang, all of them as massive as they were monstrous. The worst, though, were those he didn't have words for, that compared to nothing he'd ever known. They were beings as alien to him as he was to an amoeba, and he shook as he tried to take in their magnificence.
I am becoming them, he thought, his anticipation marred by the faintest amount of apprehension. These beings once lived, and through me they will live again. The old ones will rise again... in us.
A strange sensation struck Ash in the chest and sent ripples through his body, dropping him to his bony knees. Looking down he saw the distant surface of the water rippling in echo. Far below, at the bottom of the mountain chamber, his dark god stirred. Long tendrils swished slowly in the murky depths, stretching after untold millennia of slumber.
“Sir?” a voice called from the black behind him. “Everything okay? I...thought I...”
“It's almost time.” Ash pushed himself back to his feet. As he stood up, black claws erupted from the ends of his fingers, flipping up his nails so violently they tore off and fluttered to the floor. “Yes, nearly time.”
The scent of fear blossomed in the tunnels under the mountain, this time not just from the children, but from his men too. That was okay, though. It was right that they should fear. He feared what was to come too, but he also lusted for it, yearned deep down for it to begin. His god was rising, and in the terror he would find his place. He would find his glory in the horror to come.
Inside the mountain and beyond, the dark god’s influence increased, and in the dark reaches of Stillwater monsters stirred beneath the flesh of saints and sinners alike.
Chapter 13
Kyle felt like he was driving over an alien landscape as he turned onto the gravel road leading the mine his father worked in. He’d been there before a few times as a kid, but his dad had driven then, and the occasions hadn’t been filled with fear and anger. And it didn’t help that the rain – the goddamn rain that didn’t want to stop falling! – had turned the world into a soggy, gloomy mess.
“I… I don’t feel good.” Maya leaned forward in the passenger seat and put her arms around her stomach.
One eye stayed on the road while Kyle glanced at her out of the corner of his other eye. “Are you hungry? Shit, I completely forgot about lunch.”
Maya shook her head. “No, it’s something else. I feel it…out there.”
“Feel what?”
She shook her head again, but then she reached for her door handle and jerked it open. Kyle slammed on the breaks, sliding the Jeep across gravel. It stopped just as she leaned out and vomited. He reached to unlatch his seatbelt, but she reached behind her and put a hand out to stop him. After a few more wet retches she pulled back inside and fell against her seat back with a gasp.
She took a deep breath. “Oh my God. I’ve never felt anything like this. Can’t you feel it?”
Kyle had no idea what she was talking about. All he felt were his boiling emotions. “No.”
“I don’t know how to describe it. The best is…” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, then took another deep breath. “It’s like I’m falling into some bottomless hole while someone screams in my head. It’s crazy.”
That’s one way to put it.
“Is this one of those…psychic things like what you were talking about last night?”
Maya nodded slowly before combing her hands through her wet, curly hair. “Yeah, but I’ve never felt anything this intense before. Ever. And whatever is causing it is getting closer.”
Never in his life had Kyle experienced anything that led him to believe what Maya said, but he couldn’t deny the things she’d told him about the town’s history, couldn’t deny what he’d experienced with the people he’d interacted with since arriving, not to mention what was happening to his mother. Even if he didn’t know how or why, he knew something bad was going on. Did that mean he believed Maya could see ghosts and sense evil?
I can’t believe I’m admitting it, but yeah, I kinda do. This town is too fucked up not to.
“Do you think you can hold on for a little bit longer? The mine is just around the bend up ahead. I promise, we won’t stay long. You won’t need to get out of the Jeep either.”
Maya’s face was the color of coffee with too much cream in it, but she nodded. “This is for your sister, so I’ll hold it together.”
Kyle’s affection for her grew, warming his heart. “Thanks. Now let’s get this done.”
Gravel flew into the air as Kyle pressed on the gas. Seconds later the mine’s parking lot came into view. To his surprise, it was packed with cars, some having to make do with muddy spaces beyond the gravel. Every miner employed by Badger Coal had to be there. Kyle added another odd checkmark to his mental list of Stillwater weirdness.
“It’s getting worse, Kyle.” Maya rocked in her seat and held her clenched fists in her lap.
It’s the mine, he though. That has to be it. It’s something about the mine.
He pulled over to the side of the road at the edge of the parking lot and set the emergency break as he put the transmission in PARK. He didn’t turn the Jeep off though.
“Hopefully I’ll only be a few minutes. I’ll find out where Taylor is, I’ll get her, and then…” He wasn’t sure how to finish that line of thought. Nothing he did after that would be good, or at least legal, but he knew deep down in his gut that not getting her would be far worse.
“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,” Maya told him, her eyes closed and her arms around her stomach again. “Just go and find her.”
He leaned over and kissed her check. “Thank you.” A tiny smile touched the corners of her quivering lips. He then exited the Jeep and made his way toward the mine.
Maya was drowning. That was how she felt as she sat in the Jeep. Rain pelted the roof, each drop adding to her misery. In her mind she flailed and fought, but it surrounded her, consumed her.
But what is IT?
That was the real question, and one she didn’t have an answer for. Whatever plagued the town wasn’t a simple angry spirit. Those she knew, had dealt with before. No, this was something altogether different. It felt vast, alien, unknowable. More than that, it felt ancient. She stood closer to it than ever before, yet it already surrounded her, choking her from all sides. How that was possible, she didn’t know.
She did know, however, that she wanted to leave. Now. Fuck the blog, fuck the book, fuck everything. Leave and not look back.
Come on, Kyle. Get your sister and let’s go, before it’s too late.
Too late for what? Another question she couldn’t answer, yet one she knew her life depended on. All their lives did.
“Dad!” Kyle’s voice carried through the parking lot like thunder. “Come out here!”
The entrance to the mine was a swamp of mud and dead grass, and a hunk of smashed metal vaguely resembling a mine cart sat off to the side in a useless heap. He looked into the mine itself to see if anything stirred, but all he saw was endless black. The sign-in board and manager trailers were to the right, so he headed that way.
“Come on, Dad, we need to talk!”
As he passed the sign-in board he stopped to see if his Dad had even checked in, but the date written on the board was more than two weeks ago.
That doesn’t make any sense. Guys are obviously here working, and have been. What th
e hell is going on?
“Hey! Is anyone fucking here?!”
He turned toward the trailers, shivering as rain slid down his spine. The gravel was so soaked it barely made a sound when he walked. Beyond the trailers stood the mine’s generator, smoke chugging from the exhaust pipe of the monstrous beast. He opened his mouth to call out again, but the door to the manager’s trailer open in a squeal of rusted hinges. He hardly recognized the man who stepped out.
“Stop yer squallin’, boy.”
As much as Kyle hated his father, he didn’t want to admit that the man coming toward him was Gus Mason. His dad had never been the most robust man, and years of mine work had bent his back until he always appeared hunched, but the man with his father’s voice belonged in a hospital.
Or a morgue. Jesus, look at him!
Kyle thought he’d gotten over the sickly look everyone in town seemed to have, but they were nothing – not even his mom – compared to what approached. His dad’s dirty blond hair was gone save for a few sad strands, his blue eyes sunken and dark, his skin corpse-like, and he leaned to the left as he shuffled forward on bowed legs. It was a terrible sight, not one he’d ever wished on his dad even at his most angry. But, he wasn’t here for his dad. He was here for Taylor. He kept her face in his mind as a guiding light.
“Where’s my sister?” He put all the steel he could into his voice.
His father sneered, teeth missing as his lips parted at the corner of his mouth. “Your sister? What the fuck you care?”
“I care a lot, so answer the question.”
His father shook his ugly head. “You seem to have forgotten your place in the order of things, boy. I don’t answer to you.”
For the first time in his life, Kyle curled his hands into fists and got ready to hit his dad. “You’ll answer to me today, goddamn it.”
“Is that so?” His father stopped just a foot away from him. A sweetly sour smell wafted off of his body, nearly making Kyle puke. “Well then go on, boy. Take your swing. Let’s see what happens. Let’s see how much you really love that faggot cunt of a sister.”
Kyle’s fist flew at his dad’s head before he knew he was going to do it. He put all his strength behind the punch, rocketing it forward. His dad didn’t even blink. But, instead of hitting him, Kyle’s hand stopped when his dad grabbed him by the forearm and stopped the punch inches from his face. His dad’s grip was tight, but the coldness of his skin shocked Kyle more. It was like his fingers were made of ice, and the chill slowly spread up Kyle’s arm.
“Good try, boy.” His dad smirked and tightened his grip, forcing the cold further up Kyle’s arm. “I didn’t think you had the balls. Too bad you ran off. You’d have made an excellent servant.”
Between his dad’s freezing hands and strange words Kyle didn’t know what to think. All the anger in his heart evaporated, and in its place fear curled up like a snake. His dad’s touch hurt, but the pain went past the skin. He heard voices in his head, saw visions of falling stone walls and water, felt his heart flutter as an outside pulse pressed against it. In his dad’s grip he felt like he was falling…or drowning.
“That’s it, boy. Ssshhhh. Let it happen. You’ll be with your sister soon enough.”
Hearing Taylor mentioned snapped Kyle’s mind back into focus, and with all the strength he could muster he yanked away from his dad’s grip. After taking several hurried backward steps he rubbed at his numb arm. “Don’t ever touch me again, you son of a bitch. I’m gonna find Taylor, and when I do I’m taking her with me. You and Mom can die here together for all I care, but not her.”
“Oh, I think this ought to be a family occasion.” His dad lunged forward.
Kyle was shocked that his dad could move so fast, but his adrenaline was pumping and all his senses were buzzing, so he saw the old man moving in time to scramble backwards. His dad’s face twisted into a mask of savage glee as he tried again, pushing Kyle back further. He knew he’d have to find his sister another way. His dad was beyond reasoning.
“We’re not family,” he said. “Not anymore.”
Spinning on his heels, Kyle ran back to the Jeep. As he neared the vehicle he looked over his shoulder, sure his dad would be hot on his heels, but instead he was nowhere to be seen. Kyle wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, or a bad. Not stopping to ponder it, he dashed to the Jeep and jumped in.
“Did he tell you anything?” Maya asked. She was still pale, but she seemed to be handling things as well as she could.
Kyle put the Jeep in REVERSE and hit the gas. The Jeep lurched but didn’t roll backward. He gunned the engine, and it lurched again, but that was all. He looked down to make sure he had it in the right gear and noticed the emergency brake was still set. Growling at himself, he let the brake go and hit the gas again. He just missed backing into a stand of trees before he hit the brakes, shifted into DRIVE, and took off.
“He said a lot,” Kyle replied as he stopped at the main road. “Just nothing I needed to hear.”
Maya nodded and finally let go of her stomach. After a few seconds she laid her hand on top of his leg. “Kyle, I think… I think your sister is back there. In the mines. I don’t know why, but I do.”
Hearing her words plunged a knife into his heart. Not because he didn’t want to hear them, but because he’d already come to same conclusion.
It’s the only thing that makes sense in this whole fucked up situation.
“I do too.” He patted her hand.
“So then what do we do next?”
He paused, unsure himself. There hadn’t been much time for thinking lately. “I still need to find Taylor, and I think I know how, but I can’t drag you through this anymore. I’m taking you back to the motel. It’s not your fight.”
He grabbed the wheel and turned it to the left, but she grabbed it and stopped him. “No you’re not. I don’t claim to understand everything that’s going on, but what’s happening to this town is tied up with your parents, Taylor…everything. Hell, I think Darius might have gotten wrapped up in it too somehow. It may not be my fight, but I came here for a reason, so I’m not leaving you. Um… I mean…”
“Thank you.” He moved his right hand over and put it over hers on the wheel. Her skin felt warm and solid, healing him just by being there. “This shit is seriously fucked up, and God knows what’s out there, but I know that meeting you was… I feel better having you with me. Thank you.”
Without waiting for a reply, he turned the steering wheel to the right and pressed the gas. He had to get into the mine, and the front entrance wasn’t the only way.
Chapter 14
Half a mile down Geller Drive Kyle slowed the Jeep and scanned the trees lining the road. After a few seconds he saw a break in the wood, said, “Hold on,” and turned left onto what could be considered a road in only the most charitable sense of the word. To most people it would have looked like little more than a wide strip of mud winding between tightly packed trees. Maya squealed in alarm as branches smacked at the windshield and roof of the Jeep, but Kyle didn't flinch. He'd driven down this road enough to know its limits.
“We’re not going to fit through!” Maya said, her arms and legs stretched out to hold her in her seat.
Kyle tightened his grip on the wheel as one of the Jeep's tires caught on an exposed tree root and jarred the vehicle. “We’ll make it, trust me.”
They didn’t speak another word until they finally came to a stop three jarring, tense minutes later. The road ended in a clearing just big enough for a large vehicle to turn around in. The mountain rose up on the left, and thick forest engulfed the area in gloom. The constant patter of rain falling on leaves only made the place feel more oppressive. In the distance the Stillwater River burbled.
“I don't even want to know what all you got up to out here when you were younger,” Maya said as she got out. Once outside she opened the rear door and grabbed the night vision goggles. The high tech equipment looked strange and bulky in her slender hands.
“I can feel it again.” Her right hand clutched at her chest. Her face was pale and drawn. “But something’s different. I think it’s worse.”
Kyle knelt down next to her and raised his hands to hold her steady, but as he moved his heart thumped heavily in his chest, as though someone had kicked him right on his sternum, and a wave of vertigo rushed over him. He managed to stay on his knees, but inside he felt like he was falling.
“The world is swallowing us,” Maya said.
That was exactly how Kyle felt too.
After a few seconds, he took a gulp of cool, wet air, and as his lungs expanded he felt normal again aside from a few jitters in his stomach. Gone was the sense of falling, of being carried along helplessly by something he couldn't see or understand. His legs barely even shook as he got back to his feet.
Maya, though, looked like ten miles of bad country road. Crouched on her hands and knees, he could see only a little of her face, but what he saw wasn't good. Her skin had gone from soft brown to almost white, and her eyes were unfocused orbs that twitched aimlessly. Her back and chest rocked like the ocean from the heaviness of her breathing. Kyle stooped down and grabbed her shoulders, and heat radiated off her. When he shifted down to take her wrists and straighten her up, her pulse beat against his fingers in quick, powerful throbs. After a few seconds he got her settled on her heels, but she didn't seem to notice. She only gazed forward in a thousand-yard stare. It was then he noticed that, though he couldn't hear anything, her lips were moving. He leaned into her and put his ear toward her mouth.
