Snapdragon Book I: My Enemy

by Brandon Berntson

  “Well, it’s been real nice chatting with you,” Gavin said. “But I gotta go. Got a date with a chainsaw I put on layaway back in sixty-two.” Gavin took off hurriedly. The red-haired girl followed, calling his name again.

  “So,” Kinsey said. “What’s with the chainsaw comment? And layaway in sixty-two?”

  Seth smiled. “I thought the same thing. He makes these weird comments that make no sense. We all thought he was just being goofy. But I think it’s just the way Gavin is.”

  Kinsey nodded, but look confused.

  The red-haired girl was making her way now through the other skaters, closing the distance between she and Gavin. Gavin, meanwhile, was trying to put distance between them, but several other skaters were in his way. The red-haired girl caught up, and she, Gavin, and the other skaters were suddenly trying to untangle themselves in a cumbersome knot of arms, legs, and skates. Gavin and two other skaters fell to the gym floor.

  “Oh, Lolly!” the red-haired girl exclaimed.

  Gavin shook his head, looking wildly around him.

  “Are you all right?” the girl said. “Did you break any bones? Are you hurt? Want Dee-dee to make it better?”

  “Burnin’ holes in a popcorn toaster!” Gavin said, irritated. “What do I look like?”

  Dee-dee didn’t question Gavin’s phraseology. He tried to stand and accidentally knocked over one of the other skaters. He rubbed his backside, mouthing an apology to the boy he’d sent sprawling.

  Seth and Kinsey looked at one another, shrugged, and watched the scene unfold.

  “Oh, let me help you,” Dee-dee said, brushing off Gavin’s pant leg.

  “My pants ain’t dirty!” Gavin said. “Just my mind! And that has nothing to do with you!” Gavin brushed her hand away, and Seth and Kinsey cackled. Gavin blushed, visible in the glow of colored lights. “Do I look like I’m in a wheelchair?”

  “No,” Dee-dee said, smiling. “But you have wheels on your feet. Is that close enough?”

  Dee-dee, beaming, continued to help Gavin. “Oh, you’re all scruffed-up! We need to get you some new clothes. Where did you buy these things?”

  “Holiday season has corpses on sale!” Gavin said, slapping her hand away. “Now, stop it!”

  Seth was laughing so hard, he wiped tears from his eyes.

  “Who’s side are you on?” Gavin said, turning to Seth and Kinsey. Ignoring them, he turned back to Dee-dee. He gave her a scowl and tried to skate away through the cluster of other skaters. Dee-dee reached out, trying to pull him back, but Gavin had put some distance between them. “Uh! Stop!” Gavin said. “Jeez! People are watching!”

  “Lolly-pop, sweetheart,” Dee-dee called. “Wait for me!”

  “Don’t call me that!” Gavin said, finding a break in the crowd. He skated into the rink, trying to lose himself in a dozen other skaters.

  “Oh, Lolly-pop,” Dee-dee said, skating after him. “It fits! It’s sweet! Like you! You’re a sweet Lolly-pop!”

  “Stop it!” Gavin shouted, skating away from Dee-dee. He was halfway around the rink already. Other spectators watched, amused.

  “Gavin, sweety. Don’t be angry!”

  “Leave me alone!” Gavin cried, and disappeared. Seth saw him squat low to his skates, out of sight from Dee-dee.

  “Those two should live a long, happy life together,” Kinsey said.

  “For sure,” Seth agreed, nodding.

  He looked around. Eddie and Melissa stood together eating ice cream several feet away. Where was Howard? He hadn’t gotten the chance to ask.

  “Hey, Eddie!” Seth called.

  Between licks of ice cream, Eddie pushed his glasses onto his nose, and looked at Seth.

  “Have you seen Howard?”

  Eddie looked around the gym, at Seth, then shrugged. “He said he had to go to the bathroom. You haven’t seen him?”

  Seth shook his head.

  “Something wrong?” Kinsey asked.

  “Nah,” he said. “I just thought Howard would be here. He came down with Eddie.”

  “Maybe he found a girlfriend of his own,” Kinsey said.

  Seth nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Maybe.”

  Seth looked around the gym, but Howard was nowhere to be found. Maybe Kinsey was right, or maybe he’d changed his mind and opted out as Malcolm had done.

  Another slow song came on and Seth and Kinsey looked at each another. Kinsey set her Kool-aid on the table, and Seth put his empty cup beside it. They didn’t say anything, but grabbed each other’s hand and started toward the rink. Seth felt the world disappear around him, as though it were only he and Kinsey MacKay in the known universe.

  iii

  When the skate party was over, Seth asked Kinsey if he could walk her home. She agreed. Gavin and Eddie said goodbye and parted shortly afterwards. They waved and said they’d see each other again next week. Eddie had ended the day by acquiring Melissa’s phone number, while Gavin had successfully eluded the clasp of Dee-dee, but not without a few embarrassing moments.

  “That was a lot of fun,” Kinsey said.

  Seth turned to her and smiled. “It was.”

  “Thank you for asking me.”

  “Thank you for coming. I was really nervous.”

  “You were?”

  Seth raised his eyebrows. “Sure. I thought it was obvious.”

  “Well, maybe just a little,” she said.

  With their skates put away and their shoes on, Seth walked Kinsey to the north doors and outside into the cool, September afternoon. Seth shivered, wishing he’d brought a jacket. The sky was a deep, solid slate of gray.

  A chain-link fence separated the school grounds from the street below. A group of kids stood by the fence to Seth’s right. Between the kids (six boys, Seth noticed) an opening in the fence led to a dozen concrete steps, descending to the street.

  Seth and Kinsey looked at each other. Seth raised his eyebrows and shrugged. The boys stood transfixed, fingers locked through the links of the fence, looking at something in the street. Kinsey said something about her house being to the west of the school, but Seth wanted to see what the boys were looking at.

  Kinsey rubbed her arms. “Cold,” she said.

  Seth frowned and walked over. None of the boys looked his way, riveted by what was taking place in the street.

  The excitement he’d felt from the skate party vanished in an instant, replaced by a feeling of cold dread. The phantom in the top hat was kneeling in front of Howard, playing a sort of game in the middle of the road.

  So long, Seth thought. Since I’ve seen it. It feels like so long.

  The demon was without its horse. Howard was in a trance like the boys by the fence, looking vacantly into the phantom’s eyes. Everyone was hypnotized, as if watching a magic show.

  “What is it?” Kinsey asked.

  Seth barely heard her. “I don’t know.”

  The clouds swirled. Wind blew violently against him, virtually knocking him over.

  You know. You know too well.

  Kinsey stepped closer. Seth tried holding her back. He grabbed her arm, but she was as mesmerized as the boys by the fence. Seth had to admit—when he looked at Howard and the demon—he wanted to see more.

  It’s either death or the bogeyman. But they’re both the same, pretty much, aren’t they?

  Where was Ben?

  An array of teeth stretched wide under the top hat. Another gust of wind threatened to bowl him over. Clouds thickened, darkening the day. The thing owned the power to extinguish the sun.

  Howard stared up at the monster through his tiny glasses. His gaze was slack. Drool fell from his lips.

  The phantom turned, fixing its empty stare on Seth, its face a dead, grinning skull. Then it turned back to Howard. The cape billowed behind it, flapping in the wind.

  Seth ran to the fence, slipping his fingers through the links. “Howard!” he screamed. “Run! Get outta there!”

  The other kids looked his way, frowning, as though wonder
ing why he’d want to disrupt the show.

  He screamed again:

  “Howard, run!”

  But yes, the boy was under the phantom’s spell.

  Kinsey tugged at his arm, trying to pull him away.

  Was he not prone to the same spell? Wouldn’t he be risking his and Kinsey’s life in order to save Howard?

  The figure crouched low, face to face with the redheaded boy. It put its hand out, turning, opening and closing its fist.

  Was it a magic trick, a ruse for Howard alone?

  The monster’s fingers uncurled. Seth shook the fence, and screamed again, but the boy was oblivious.

  You want to save your friend, but you’re not willing to risk your own skin, are you?

  Seth looked at Howard. The boy was not terrified. His expression, in fact, mirrored delight. Howard gazed, mesmerized, into the creature’s palm.

  The phantom’s hand moved. Howard smiled, as if watching rainbows of magic dance from the creature’s palm. Spiders swarmed, materializing in vast numbers. They fell to the road. Spiders massed at Howard’s feet and began to climb his legs. The boy didn’t notice. He was witnessing something else, some other form of magic. His eyes grew large in amazement, looking at something other than what was massing at his feet. Howard reached out and put his fingers into the creature’s palm.

  “Howard, no! Don’t! Run, Howard!”

  The figure turned its head on creaking bones and looked at Seth again. Cold wind touched his heart. The demon was making a promise, and Seth’s insides turned to ice.

  Now it knows you. Now it is going to look for you wherever you go. It has you burned into its brain.

  The figure wasn’t death or the bogeyman. It was worse. Seth was looking at something woven together by the beauty of stars and the rot of the grave, from magic and blood.

  A frantic, rustling sound of live wires came from the street as the spiders swarmed. When Howard reached into the creature’s palm, he’d made a connection. Spiders gathered on Howard’s arm, swarming in a carapace of a million, polished black bodies. Black widows suddenly covered the boy’s body—from his sneakers to his hair. They massed across his shoulders. They crawled behind his glasses and over his mouth.

  The phantom must’ve broken the spell. Howard wiped spiders from his eyes, no longer mesmerized by the demon’s magic. He realized what was happening. A look of dawning horror crossed his face, the nightmare mass crawling across every inch of his flesh. He screamed, his tiny wails echoing over the schoolyard.

  This is how Sadie died, the Pattersons.

  Howard was jumping up and down, screaming with all his might.

  Why didn’t you stay? Seth thought. Why didn’t you stay at the skate party?

  The spell broke. The kids along the fence looked at each other, scattered, and fled, leaving Howard alone on the street.

  Kinsey tugged at Seth’s arm, trying to pull him away from the fence, but he couldn’t move. “Come on, Seth! You can’t save him! You can’t! Come on!”

  Howard continued to scream, trying to shake the spiders off. To Seth’s horror, they swarmed into his mouth. He wiped them from his arms, but their numbers were absurd. From the creature’s palm, they continued to materialize. Spiders shifted in a black mass across the street, moving in waves.

  Seth was helpless, watching, as though under some aberrant spell.

  Howard fell to his knees, his screams turning to sobs, then whimpers of pain. Spiders continued to mass, and the boy fell face-forward onto the street.

  “Seth? Seth? Let’s get out of here! Let’s go!” Kinsey tugged at Seth’s arm.

  But he couldn’t look away.

  I vow to you, my dark promise.

  “Seth! Let’s go!”

  The monster turned, looking at Seth with the same soulless eyes. Currents of black moved through his flesh. Darkness entered his mouth and nose. Vacuous air came to life in his chest. Blood drained from his face and hands, and Seth turned cold. The phantom had hypnotized him, readying him for a similar demise.

  Just wait and see.

  Were those spiders crawling across his arms and legs now too?

  Kinsey grabbed his hand, pulling him from the fence as violently as she could, breaking the spell. The world came back slowly, the streets, the schoolyard. The world was still dark and cold, the wind blowing, another cloudy, blustery day.

  He held Kinsey’s hand, and they ran, hurrying through the neighborhood streets.

  Howard’s dead. Howard’s gone.

  A claw plucked his shirt. Laughter echoed over the streets. The steady gallop of hooves grew loudly in his ears…

  Seth looked behind him, but it was only the cold, the bleak sky, trees blowing violently in the wind. Leaves scattered and fell.

  Kinsey still held his hand, not letting go.

  What are we running from? See the pretty rainbows! Look at all the colors!

  The wind felt like hands around his windpipe. The streets disappeared again.

  He ran with Kinsey up the steps of some random house. A door slammed shut behind him.

  Seth slipped into another dimension, a darker world parallel to his own. He was not in Ellishome at all. He had never been in Ellishome. This was the Dark World now.

  He moved into the shadows. It was safe here, someone told him. Not cold. It was warm.

  Kinsey was talking, but he couldn’t make out the words. They were at her house, in her room. Her parents were gone.

  The chill extinguished everything, moving through his bones.

  Bones, he thought. Cold. So cold.

  No, it wasn’t warm at all…

  Seth hugged himself against the chill, and the blackness rushed in…

  CHAPTER XII

  He was in a coffin. A soft, lilting voice beckoned him back from the dark. A hand stroked his cheek. Kinsey brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes. He didn’t realize it, but he was talking:

  “Did you see…?” he said. “Did you see…?”

  Kinsey mollified him. Yes, she did see. So, had the others…

  Colors came together in front of his eyes as Kinsey’s bedroom emerged. Were those the flashing lights from the skate party, or the deadly rainbow? Had he fainted? Seth felt weak, his limbs heavy, as if he’d run a marathon.

  They weren’t dead. At least for now.

  He was in Kinsey’s room. She’d taken him to her house. What would her parents think, having a boy alone in her room?

  “Howard…” he tried to say.

  “Howard’s dead, Seth.”

  His vision came back. The room came to life: pink elephants, blue elephants, gray and white stuffed elephants of all sizes were on Kinsey’s bed, scattered throughout the room. He didn’t realize how much she loved elephants.

  A Johnny Depp poster hung on the wall from Pirates of the Caribbean. Another smaller sized poster showed Mathew McConaughey standing in the street with a jacket slung over his shoulder.

  Seth felt woozy.

  Howard eaten alive by spiders…

  Seth blinked it away. “Did you see?” he asked, again.

  “Yes,” Kinsey said. “Seth? What was it?”

  Her face came into focus, large dark eyes.

  “Sadie’s killer,” he said.

  Kinsey nodded. “But what is it?”

  Seth looked at Kinsey, not knowing what to say. Ben told him the phantom was his enemy, but should he tell her about Ben? Where would he begin? What could he say?

  “I don’t know,” Seth said. “I don’t know what it is. It’s not from here. I think it…”

  “The Pattersons?” Kinsey asked.

  Seth nodded.

  Kinsey looked afraid. “But why?” she asked.

  Seth shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it makes him stronger. Maybe he has to do it.”

  “Why would he have to do it? Why does anything have to kill?”

  Her question was good one.

  “To survive,” he guessed. “That’s why things kill. To survive.”

&n
bsp; They sat on the edge of the bed. Seth still saw Howard’s body, his face…

  He closed his eyes and wondered about the fate of Ellishome, what was walking these streets…

  The tunnel emerged again, and for the second time, Seth let the darkness take him.

  ii

  The call came in at 4:02 pm on Friday from Deputy Anders. This time, he stayed at the crime scene.

  Frank’s temples began to pound. Eyes bloodshot, head throbbing, Frank told Anders to keep the witnesses there…

  “Uh…Sheriff. There are no witnesses.”

  Frank pinched the bridge of his nose. “What do you mean there are no witnesses?”

  “That’s just the trouble, Sheriff,” Anders voice came over the radio. “I was patrolling the neighborhood. I found the boy in the street. I called you right away.”

  “How the hell can an elementary school, in the middle of the day, not see one of their own kids dead in the street?”

  Frank was tired. Sadie McCall, the Patterson’s, and now the Colorcup boy. He ran his fingers through his hair, wanting to dig past his eyes, rip out the pain between his temples.

  Frank pressed the button on the receiver:

  “Anders?” he said. “What does he look like?”

  “Sheriff?”

  “What does he look like Anders? Is he torn apart?”

  “Uh, not really, Sheriff.”

  “What?”

  “You better get down here. It’s the damndest thing.”

  Bimsley took a deep breath. “Anders?”

  “Yes, sir?” Static breaking, the voice of Anders coming and going…

  “Stay where you are. I’ll be right there.”

  “Yes, sir,” Anders replied, and the line went dead.

  Frank grabbed his hat, shook his head, and walked out of the office, getting into his car.

  “Please God,” he said. “Just tell me what to do. Please.”

  He reached into the glove compartment and took out a bottle of aspirin. He ground several tablets between his teeth without tasting them.

  He put the car in gear and drove to the elementary school. Whatever was going on, he didn’t think he or his deputies had the power to destroy it. Frank Allen Bimsley had gone far beyond worry now.