by Sara Clancy
Panic became acid in his veins. He launched himself at the door, not caring if the dead were waiting for him outside. The lock held. The door refused to budge. No. No, no, no. It repeated in his head, faster and faster until it was just a blur. Growing in desperation as the door held. Hot tears welled in his eyes, blurring his vision and he slammed his shoulder against the unrelenting wood.
“Aleksandr.”
He froze. Years had passed since he had heard that voice, but he recognized it instantly. Trembling violently, he stared at the door. Don’t look. It’s not real. He’s not real. Don’t look.
“Aleksandr,” the voice came again, weak and sweet.
A child’s voice. A perfect replica of his memory. Remember their trick with Ivan, he told himself sharply. Don’t fall for it again.
“Why won’t you look at me, Aleksandr?”
He squeezed his eyes shut, forcing the scorching tears to drip free.
“Alek–”
“Stop.” It was both a command and plea.
“I’m scared, Aleksandr.”
“You’re not him.” His voice broke into a hard sob. Swallowing thickly, he forced the words out. “I know you’re not.”
“Aren’t you glad to see me?”
“Timofey died many years ago.”
Died. It was an easy word to say. A simple word that covered a multitude of sins. That spoke of the main event while sparing him the details.
“I’m here. Aleksandr, I’m cold.”
Water sloshed, and Aleksandr hunched in on himself. He fought with everything he had to keep the images from forming in his mind.
“Aleksandr …”
The plea broke him. He bashed his forehead against the door, choking as he wept.
“You’re my big brother. Help me.”
Say it! Aleksandr commanded himself. He could feel his grip on reality slipping because the illusion was so much better than the reality. The guilt. The horror. The blood. The lie stood as a comfort he wanted to surrender to. Say it! he screamed in his own head. Admit it! Own what you did!
“I watched,” he snarled. “Petya and Olga forced me to watch as they beat Timofey into a coma. He wanted to leave.”
“Turn around, Alek.”
He stabbed the door with his knife, his white knuckled grip helping him endure the words.
“They took him in here after,” Aleksandr forced himself to continue, every word like barbed wire in this throat. “They put the cold water on him to wake him up.”
“And you watched.” The accusation and disgust in Timofey’s voice ripped Aleksandr in two.
Not the real Timofey. The truth was like a whisper in a hurricane. Barely heard and of little consequence.
“I watched,” he admitted. “I watched when they turned the hot water on instead. They laughed when your skin bristled.”
Not really.
“And you watched.”
“You didn’t wake up. But you were alive. You were breathing.”
Water hit the backs of his feet in little waves. The sensation birthed a fresh wave of panic within Aleksandr’s mind, the rush dispersing his thoughts like smoke. He knew there was something he needed to remember. Something important.
“You didn’t save me.” Timofey no longer spoke in the voice of a four-year-old. Instead, the voice sounded dark, furious, and ancient.
“I sat with you,” Aleksandr sobbed, blinded by tears and grief. “I held your hand. It was all they’d let me do.”
“You left me to rot.”
“I wanted to bury you. I swear I did. They wouldn’t let me.”
The sound of wet footsteps stalked up behind him. Accompanied by the rising water. His eyes snapped up open wide as he felt the tepid water splash against his calves.
Hot breath brushed across his ear as a demonic voice growled, “You bathed with my corpse.”
No, the thought spiraled away before Aleksandr could grasp it.
“They made me. I didn’t want to,” he whimpered.
“For months.” The overly sweet scent of decay hit Aleksandr’s nose as the water reached his knees. “I lay there for months and you did nothing.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Timofey.”
“Look at me.”
Aleksandr shook his head, never lifting it from the door.
“Look what you did. What you allowed to happen!”
Waves lapped against Aleksandr’s hips. Horror shot through him like an eclectic blot, igniting every sense that grief had suppressed. Ivan. Nadya. The thought seized his lungs. Turning them to ice and freezing his shock. They need you!
“I needed you,” the voice hissed.
No! The word cracked through the haze of his mind like a bolt of lightning. Staring down at the rising water, he clenched his hand and stabbed the door again. Nadya and Ivan are alive. They’re waiting for me. Go and get them!
“You can’t save them.”
Aleksandr narrowed his eyes. “You’re not Timofey.”
“I’ve come to take you with me, big brother.” The water had reached his ribs as the creature plastered itself to his back. “You, me, and the twins. We’re all going to Hell.”
Rage exploded under his skin. Throwing his head back, he cracked his skull against the monster. It howled with fury but only retreated a step. It was enough. Aleksandr spun around and brought the knife up, shoving the long blade under the monster’s ribs before he even realized what he was looking at. The beast from the desert. It loomed over him, fire blazing in its eye sockets as smoke poured from between its fangs.
His horror, his dread, his guilt and emerging hysteria. Nothing compared to the pure blinding rage that consumed him now. Not my kids. He spat the words out in his mind, knowing somehow that the monstrosity before could hear. Never my kids!
Its jaws widened, lips rolling back to bare engorged fangs. It lunged forward. Raising one arm up to fend off the strike, Aleksandr yanked the blade free and drove it down into one of its eyes. A roar rattled the room, but it was the water that terrified him. Each movement sent waves crashing into his face. It pushed past his lips and solidified like concrete in his throat.
Ivan and Nadya!
He clutched the thought before him like a shield as he drove the knife down over and over.
Never again! Never them!
Flattening his feet against the door, he pushed off, forcing the monster back, giving him just enough room to swing the knife around. One push. One slice. And the creature’s innards spilt out into the water.
Not them!
Hot blood blossomed around him as the water covered his head.
Not them!
One more stab and the floor dropped, leaving him to fall into oblivion.
***
Gripping the metal pole with both hands, Evelyn pulled the shed’s sliding door open. She kept her side pressed to the moving door in hopes that it would protect her from whatever might be lurking within the shadows. When nothing came rushing out, she glanced back at the house and froze. The sun was gone. Between one blink and the next, the light that had been scorching her eyes had disappeared from the sky. No sunset. No last final blazes of the day. A blanket of ebony had been laid over the land, without stars or a moon to disrupt the empty abyss. The only light was the soft glow that slipped out from the open shed door. It barely made it a few feet before her, and ended with a razor-sharp edge.
But the world wasn’t silent. Little shifts and grunts. Quiet whispers. Footsteps. And the far away sound of laughter. They all echoed towards her, making it impossible for her to turn her back to the darkness. With one hand trailing along the wall, she worked her way to the gap and backed inside. A heavy thud made her turn, the night forgotten as a body dropped from the open door of the car. From her position by the door, she could only see a silky stream of blonde hair and an ever-increasing pool of blood.
“Olga,” Petya chastised as he came around the back of the vehicle to survey the damage. “Look what you did.”
�
�She was making eyes at you,” Olga dismissed.
“So you gouge her eyes out. You don’t kill her. Now what are we going to use as a distraction?”
Evelyn inched backwards as they spoke, trying to slip out into the night before they noticed her presence. She couldn’t tear her eyes from the body as she moved. A sharp, short click made her freeze. Lifting her gaze, the first thing she saw was the barrel of the revolver. Petya held it aimed between her eyes, his smile easy. Almost charming.
“Evelyn,” he chuckled. “This is a surprise. Isn’t life fun sometimes?”
Olga held the frame as she leaned out of the back of the car.
“How did she get out of the cell?”
“I don’t know, darling,” Petya said. “Why don’t we ask her?”
Evelyn glanced between them and the revolver. “Shouldn’t you be asking about at least one of your kids?”
Olga pulled further out from the car, curling around her husband’s shoulders to whisper into his ear. “Shoot her.”
Petya used his free hand to stroke her hair. “Now, now, my love. Let’s not be rash. We know how much our guests like live bait.”
A column of ice speared Evelyn, cracking through her ribs and stealing her breath. The twins. She didn’t know. Had only seen one of them while they served as bait. Still, the idea of children being left to face the monsters stalking the desert left her chilled to the bone.
“What did you do?” she whispered.
“It doesn’t seem like you really grasp the concept of a gun to your head,” Petya noted.
“You don’t grasp the concept of parenting. So, it looks like we all have our faults.”
“I’m going to peel the skin off of your face,” Olga hissed.
“Come over here and do it!” Evelyn snapped. “You think you can scare me? I’ve had a really hard day!”
Noise rose up behind her. The rim of light had shrunk since she had last looked back. Now, the threshold was the borderline of reality. Nothing existent beyond it. Something paced back and forth in the darkness. Throaty snarls drifted out from the shadows. She backed up a few paces, the fear of what lurked outside far greater than the couple in front of her. At least, that’s what she had thought. It was hard to hold onto that conviction when the silence returned.
“We need to go,” Olga said. It was strange to hear the notes of fear weaving their way through the woman’s words. “Get the girl already.”
Petya’s arm never wavered. But he didn’t take a step towards Evelyn either. His eyes kept flicking from her to the shadows beyond her shoulder. Despite everything, a twisted little smile curled Evelyn’s lips.
“How does it feel to be hunted?” she asked.
Petya’s eyes flared. The tendons in his throat pressed against his skin as he bared his teeth. “Get in the car.”
“No.”
Taking only one step closer, he made a show of training the gun between her eyes. “Now.”
Evelyn lifted her chin. “You want me? Come over here and get me.”
Her bravado shattered as the first gunshot boomed. The walls of the shed held the sound, throwing it back on her as she cowered, arms instinctively coming up to protect her head. Panting heavily, it slowly dawned on her that she wasn’t injured. Lowering her hands, she saw that neither of the killers was looking at her, their attention was on the rafters. She glanced up to see two shotguns poking over the edge. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim light and see the tiny forms behind the weapons. Two identical children, their pale faces ghostlike in the shadows.
“Ivan,” Petya said slowly. “Did you just shoot at me?”
“No, father. That was all Nadya.”
The little figure next to the first waved.
Olga stood up in the doorframe of the car. “Get down here right now.”
The second shot punched a hole through the top of the car, a few inches away from the woman’s shoulder.
“The next one’s in your head,” Nadya bellowed as loudly as her cherub like voice could muster.
“Where’s Aleksandr?” Ivan demanded.
At this distance, it was hard to keep track of which one of them was talking. Even their voices were on par, almost indistinguishable.
“He’s down here,” Petya said. “Come down, children. We’ll take you to him.”
“Stay up there,” Evelyn shouted to them.
A few light whispers passed back and forth before one of them said, “We don’t know you.”
“I’m Evelyn,” she replied. “And I promised Aleksandr that I’d help get you out of here.”
Olga snapped her head around, her face twisted with disgust. “You and Alek? He betrayed us?”
“How does any of that surprise you?”
“I’m getting tired of your mouth,” Olga emerged fully from the vehicle.
Without concern for the children above or the monsters outside, the older woman stalked towards Evelyn with a singular, predatory purpose. Evelyn shifted one foot back, raising her hands, fists balled and ready to fight.
“I’ve been looking forward to this,” Evelyn said.
The side of the shed suddenly exploded, raining down like shrapnel. Evelyn sprinted to the side, rushing towards the children as she sought shelter from the shards. The building groaned as it swayed, the pillars toppling as the roof came down in fragments. Screams splintered the night. Some from the couple, some from the twins as their perch started to give way, and some of the more frantic ones that Evelyn knew were her own.
Her breath turned into a solid lump in her throat as two colossal serpents smashed through the remaining parts of the walls. Their fangs alone were as long as her body. Their bodies curled and swiped, reaping greater destruction with every move. Covering her head with her arms, she ran, searching the space above her head as she moved. She hadn’t yet figured out where the meek light was coming from, but it remained even as the shed toppled. As if they wanted to ensure that they could see the monstrous reptiles that were coming for them now.
“Nadya! Ivan!” she screamed.
Both snakes reared, tracking her movement with onyx eyes and flicking tongues. A pillar crashed down between her and the animals. They lashed out, striking at the moving wood as she ran past. It was getting harder to move. The debris that fell upon her steadily growing larger. Gunfire boomed as Petya faced off with the animals. Out of the corner of her eyes, Evelyn noticed Olga joining the fight. But her attention wasn’t on them, or the snakes, or the shed. She had finally spotted the twins. Both of them were hanging from a rafter, their small arms struggling to hold on as it rattled and quaked.
“It’s okay!” she screamed up to them, flinching away as one of the serpents struck beside her.
The blow wasn’t aimed at her. It didn’t even notice her as its massive body rolled above her, making her drop. With a thunderous crush, it destroyed the last of the shed that had been keeping up the children’s hiding place. Like a severed tree, it began to fall. Slowly at first. Quickly gaining strength. Evelyn sprinted alongside it.
“One of you, drop!” she commanded. “I’ll catch you.”
Neither seemed inclined to take her up on the offer, but gravity pulled one down. She caught them, the collision painful and knocking them both to the ground.
“Nadya!” the boy screamed up to his still hanging sister.
He stomped on Evelyn’s chest in his hurry to get up, his fragile body feeling a thousand pounds as it drove into her stomach. The small girl above them had scrambled up onto a pillar and thrown herself. Evelyn shot up, already knowing that she wasn’t going to get there fast enough. But the small girl had jumped for her. She landed on the back of the snake as it slithered past. The giant reptile reared and hissed, lashing out with gaping jaws to try and swallow the girl. But Nadya was fast and fearless. She slipped around the snake’s rapidly coiling body, ensuring that there was always a layer of its own flesh between her and the fangs.
“Where’s the gun?” Ivan demanded as
he searched through the rubble. He wasn’t strong enough to lift most of it.
In one smooth move, Evelyn pulled off the backpack and forced the straps over the boy’s arms. While she hadn’t had a chance to look inside it yet, she doubted Aleksandr would have given her dead weight to carry. Whatever was in it would be critical for survival. Ivan whipped around to face her, his eyes screaming in panic while his face remained impassive.
“Can you hot wire a car?” she asked.
“Who cares about the car?” he snapped.
“You and Alek,” Evelyn hissed as she hurled the boy up into her arms. He squirmed and thrashed but it was easy enough to keep her hold. “Get the car started. I’ll get your sister. We gotta get Alek.”
Not bothering to give a sign of agreement, Ivan just focused his gaze on the vehicle in question. They charged through the battle zone. Gunshots booming. Wood cracking. Snakes thrashing wildly in their desperate attempt to sink their fangs into flesh. Even with the walls and roof reduced to rubble, the glowing light remained in the same dimensions as before. A sharp-edged box cut out of the surrounding darkness.
Nearing the vehicle, she crouched low to drop Ivan off. He jumped from her arms and was already running before he hit the ground. Adrenaline pushed her to the brink of insanity. That was all she could think to explain why she picked up a piece of twisted metal and drove it deep into the nearest snake’s side. It thrashed, its huge body slamming against the ground hard enough to make it tremble. The unstable remains she stood upon slid and she fell, smacking into Olga before she hit the ground. Ignoring everything that was going on around her, the woman clawed her way on top of Evelyn, pressing her down with one hand as the other retrieved the nearest debris.
Evelyn drove the point of her elbow down into the soft hollow between Olga’s collarbones. The woman snarled like a wild animal, taking the pain and attempting to strike again. Evelyn snapped her fist up, her knuckles slicing open on the crazed woman’s teeth. Blood dripped from Olga’s mouth, some her own, and some of Evelyn’s. Olga clawed and ripped at every patch of vulnerable skin she could find. Evelyn screamed in agony as the nails sunk into her flesh.
