Chapter 8
Gayle and the Demon
June 4th 1980
1
The smell wasn't real, or so she thought, but it permeated her dreams and it was that which woke her. Gayle found that odd since she couldn't remember smelling anything in a dream before.
The smell had been wickedly pungent and in the dream, it had overpowered her and left her weak and gagging. Once long ago, Gayle had come too close to a candle she had been about to blow out, and a little of her hair had swung out over the flame instantly catching on fire. She had put it out quickly and lost about an inch, but the smell was nasty and lingered long in the room and clung to her clothes.
The dream had that smell.
It had been a chaotic dream that hardly made any sense, but the part with the smell came back vividly to her when she woke.
In the dream, she had been in her bedroom when she heard something strange on the backstairs. Without knowing why, and regardless of the anxiety that she suddenly felt, she went down the hall to investigate. A terrifically foul, reeking grey smoke filled the stairs top-to-bottom. It had that odor of burning hair but also, and far worse, a smell of burning flesh.
She felt an immediate urge to vomit and while retching in her throat she stumbled to the nearest room, Talitha's. It was empty and Gayle panicked, fearing that it was Talitha's body being burned. The dream took on a confused and hectic tempo as she dashed from empty room to empty room, looking for Talitha at first, but then anyone, until standing in the kitchen she realized that her family had abandoned her.
A sound from the basement made her go to the stairs leading down. Though she tried, she could not make herself go further than the top step and from there she could see a hellish glow emanating from the boiler room. There was utter silence in the basement, except for a horrifying sound of popping and snapping and...sizzling. Gayle heaved repeatedly in her dream, but didn't vomit.
Kneeling in the doorway of the basement and breathing heavily she was still gagging when a shadow overpowered the glow. Gayle fled from the fearsome shadow, somehow ending up in Katie's room. She had been in the room earlier in the dream and it had been empty, but now boxes from moving day stacked higher than her head formed a labyrinth.
The room at first had been dim so that the corners of it couldn't be seen but as she opened the first box, the ceiling light turned on. It was bright white at first but then it started to flash from white to red repeatedly. In a wild flurry, she began to open the boxes one after another, and there seemed to be hundreds of them. Finally, she found Katie standing in a very tall box with steep sides.
"It's time," Katie said casually.
"I know! There's something in the house, we gotta go!" Gayle reached down and picked up Katie as if she were still a baby and cradling her, spun to the door, only to find it wreathed in the sick smoke.
"We can't get out!"
With the words echoing in her mind, Gayle came awake, her brown eyes wide, her breathing ragged and harsh. Laying there in the dark, her first conscious act was to give the air a tentative sniff. The room smelled as it always had and she relaxed into her pillow and sighed in relief.
It was then she noticed the room was bitter cold, like it had been their first night in the house. Rolling over she went to snuggle and steal some of William's warmth, but his side of the bed was empty.
She sat up quick, her senses going to full alert. A glance at the clock showed it to be 11:28, and she went down a very short mental checklist of all the places William would likely be.
1) Bathroom.
2) Family room watching end of baseball game.
3) Kitchen getting a snack.
4) Having an affair? This last one was silly, but there had been no other options.
Gayle felt keyed up, not at all sleepy, and just a little bit afraid. It was the weird dream. She still had a little of the feeling of being trapped it sent a nervousness thrilling through her.
Deciding that she didn't want to be alone, she slipped out of bed, surprised to note that it was colder than she had at first thought. Luckily, she was wearing Talitha's warmest pajamas. Talitha had felt far too grown up to wear pajamas with pictures of baby ducks on them and had taken to stealing her mom's silk PJs. This had been fine with Gayle since the little ducks made her feel young again.
Tonight she wished they were footy pajamas like the ones Katie still sometimes wore. Quickly, the cold began affecting her toes and she went around the bed to the closet to get her slippers. She stopped just as she bent down to get them—William's tennis shoes were not in their normal place. He was a neat man and a creature of habit. His keys were always hanging by the door. His wallet and watch were always on his dresser and his tennis shoes were always on the floor next to the closet.
This little thing, the missing shoes, bothered her and she worried over it. Did this mean he wasn't home? What could he being doing out so late? Was there something wrong with Willy J? The idea of something wrong with her son caused her to start moving again. She left her room in a hurry and saw that the family room, where their TV sat, was cold, dark, and empty. Deep down she had never really expected her husband to be there.
She went to Talitha's room next but, before she could look in a noise came from downstairs. It sounded like it came from deep in the house, low down. It was a deep vibrating sound of metal against metal and it echoed throughout the house.
Gayle's eyes shot wide open and she took an involuntary step back. "What the hell was that?" she whispered.
The fear she had been experiencing had been a small embarrassing thing, but now suddenly, unexpectedly, it bloomed and bordered on terror. She had no idea what that noise could be, she only knew she was afraid of whatever had caused it.
The cold intensified noticeably and she started to shiver despite the ducky pajamas. The back staircase was only a couple of feet from her and it seemed to be the source of the cold and now her breath was a fog in the dim light and her fear kept ratcheting up until it became so great that she had to fight the temptation to run back down the hall. She tried to rationalize the fear, but it was useless; her mind could not come up with any reason for it, other than the obvious. There was something wrong with the house...something unnatural. Something unwanted had entered their home and it was the something that had made the huge sound in the basement.
She felt the greatest desire, in fact the greatest need to get out of the house right then. There was an actual danger here…something indefinable at the moment, but still palpable and she knew she had to get her three children and leave as quick as possible.
Talitha's door stood partially open and Gayle slipped in on her quickly numbing toes. The carpet felt wonderfully warm compared to the hardwood floors, but she didn't stop to thaw her feet since she only needed to take a few strides into the room to see that her daughter's bed was empty. It had been slept in recently and still held a touch of body heat.
Gayle's dream came back to her then: the frantic running, the empty rooms...the feeling of being trapped. This last thought caused her to spin back to the door, afraid there'd be something blocking it, but it stood open and empty. However, that fact didn't matter and the power of her fear affected her judgment. She ran to the door as if in a race, and her momentum nearly carried her into the hall.
She couldn't let that happen, If she did she would then run down the hall, and then down the stairs and then out the front door. With a tremendous effort of will she stopped herself.
Another noise from the house came at her then, a shriek. She didn't know if it was a shriek of twisting metal or a shriek from a girl in fantastic terror, and she felt it as well as heard it. Her hands had been on the doorframe of Talitha's room and the shriek vibrated through them.
The willpower, which so recently had kept her from bolting, dried up in the face of this new sound. The need to run was fierce, but concern for her children's safety was stronger. Gayle looked up the darkened staircase to where her son would be, and her breathing b
ecame frantic. He was a deep sleeper and there was still a good chance he was up there right then, not knowing the danger…the unknown danger…that was so close.
But his room was so far away. In fact, it was the farthest room from any sort of safety and she was having trouble forcing herself in that direction.
He's already gone. He ran away and left you alone. They all left you…remember the dream? And they left you trapped in the house with...oh yes, with it, the thing that devours bodies.
The thought caused her shivering to go into overdrive so that she began shaking violently. Her willpower drained completely and she turned away from the still unknown danger and as she did, she turned her back on her son.
She saw Katie's bedroom door and hope flared in her.
You could go save her! No one would blame you for the loss of Willy J, if you were busy saving your daughter.
The thought was so rational and convincing that she almost went down the hall, but at the last moment, she noticed that her eyes had slipped off Katie's door and were now on the great staircase…if she went that way she would run. She would run screaming from the house and probably not stop until she reached the ferry.
2
"I'll come back for you," Gayle whispered, picturing her golden-haired daughter. "I promise."
With a mental struggle, Gayle yanked her eyes away from that end of the hall…what she considered the safe end. It was at least warmer down there and lighter. This end, near the backstairs, was dark and becoming cruelly cold.
Gayle went to the stairs trying to hurry but her feet would not listen and her legs trembled, threatening to buckle under her as she crept along as silently as she could.
Seconds ticked by and the cold on the backstairs intensified; there was a breeze blowing straight down from the attic toward the kitchen. It was as if a current of frozen terror washed over her as she began to climb. The feeling was so bizarre that she wondered briefly if she was still dreaming. In her mind the stairs began to feel like a tall, jagged cliff. With each step up, she left safety further and further behind and after a while, her hands gripped the railings tight as if she thought that they alone kept her from falling.
Soon she began to pant in her fear and her eyes were wild and twitched and skittered about. She kept looking back down the stairs, fearful of what could be creeping up from behind. She knew It was down there; the thing that had made the noises, the thing that ate bodies. It radiated a harsh unnatural feeling that caused her nerves to thrum and her heart to race. For now It was in the basement, but she had a terrible knowledge: It was coming up, slowly at the moment yet she knew that could change at any time.
The top step came into view and she grew even more fearful. Once in the attic she would no longer be able to look back down the stairs, and the thing could come up without her knowing, and she would be trapped…and then...
A shudder ran down her back, but still she managed to force herself on until she reached the final step. At that point she couldn't go forward. It was very much like her first time on the high dive at the pool when she was a kid. Gayle had frozen there, stricken with fear of the great height, and eventually a lifeguard had to come up and help her down. But there was no lifeguard here; in fact it was she who was supposed to be saving Willy J.
Yet that was the rub.
Deep inside she knew he wasn't sleeping in his bed, she knew it for a hard fact. She was sure that Willy J wasn't even in the house. He and the rest of her family had abandoned her, perhaps even sacrificed her to appease the thing in the basement.
Somewhere below her, a door crashed open with a loud bang and wired as she was, Gayle turned and bolted; her face set in a huge terrified, grimace. She was halfway down the first set of stairs before her hands shot out of their own volition. Her fingernails scraped and dug at the walls, causing them to break and peel back. There was intense pain but still she clawed at the walls, scraping away deep layers of paint until her momentum had been checked. Panting, she clutched her aching fingers to her chest and stood, shaking. There was no way she could leave her boy. She turned to go back up but her foot caught the step and she stumbled.
He's not here! He's gone! Run while you still can! her mind screamed at her. Gayle started to cry.
She thought of Willy J then, remembering him as a baby. He was so precious and beautiful. She had fallen in love with him the moment he was born, and she knew that he loved her just as much.
He would never leave me! she thought, angry at herself. With that she sprang to her feet and ran up the stairs as lightly and as quickly as she could. The top stair came into view in a second and she barely hesitated before closing her eyes and dashing past it on feather-light feet. Willy J's was shut which she took for a good sign since he always slept with it that way and she had it open and was in the room in a flash. She would wake him as quietly as possible and then they'd make a run for it.
However…
His bed was neatly made; the top sheet was folded back perfectly, just as she had taught him and the corners were all tucked in with the military precision that his father preferred. Willy J was not in the neat bed... he was not even in the room. For seconds Gayle stared in stunned disbelief.
She was alone.
"They left me," she moaned aloud to the bed.
Tears started to gush from her eyes and she crumpled to the floor sobbing. It felt like a knife had been driven into her stomach and slowly it twisted. She looked back at the door; it had shut at some point in the last few seconds. The door had been open…she knew it had been open…but now it was closed, and she feared there could be something horrible...just on the other side of it.
Within her a feeling of being trapped bloomed. It was sudden and overwhelming, and a fear-induced madness took over her thinking.
She had to hide!
The thought sent her crawling to the bed with a plan to bury herself beneath it. Deep down she knew it was a stupid and useless plan, but her fear was so overwhelming it could not be denied. The underside of the bed was obviously where Willy J shoved everything when doing a quick cleaning and was too crowded to fit even her small body. With crazed desperation, Gayle started to pull clothes out to make room for herself, but then, like shining rain, coins from a pair of his pants, began to drop on the floor. It made a fearful racket and Gayle resembled a playful cat scrambling around after them, but stopped with the realization that It now knew where she was. Just as quick as it had come to her, she threw out the foolish plan to hide and forgetting the coins still rolling about, she ran to the nearest window. She couldn’t hide…but she could jump!
Standing on her toes she eyed the distance to the ground, it was only thirty-five or so. Insane with fear she said, "I can make it. It's not that far!"
With her small muscles bunched she strained to open the window but it seemed to be painted shut. She tried again and panted, "It's not that far," over and over again, as she threw her all into it. The window wouldn't budge and the same was true of the second one. Winded, she paused and looked out. The night seemed so lovely and peaceful; she could imagine herself jumping from the third story and simply flying away. However, the windows wouldn't budge and the glass was the new style and she didn't think she could break it. And if she could, the breaking glass would be loud, and It would come, and It would eat her.
It would eat her slowly, painfully. Enjoying the pain, far more than the taste of Gayle's flesh. Moreover, Gayle would be alive and screaming during all this, because that was the best part. She would be alive, while It ate her. Gayle would be alive a long time.
Just as she knew the beds would be all empty, she also knew this about the creature, and for her it was a cold hard fact.
It had been just over five minutes since Gayle awoke from her terrible dream, and in that time she had been very close to true panic. But being close to panicking and actually panicking, was like the difference between standing very close to a speeding train and standing in front one. The vision of being eaten alive tipped the
scale and tipped her mind as well.
She turned and flew to the door and tore at the knob in a frenzy.
The door opened and Gayle sped down the hallway with a wild look in her eyes. She did not see the hall or the dark stairs beyond. In fact she saw nothing, and she couldn't tell if she was running from danger or to danger. By some miracle her feet hit the first two steps properly, but none of the rest. Stumbling, she flew forward, coming down hard on her hands and forearms in the middle of the stairs.
"Ooof!" The wind was knocked from her but it didn't seem to matter. Her body was beyond feeling or even controlling itself and she kicked crazily with her legs as she flailed with her arms.
Seconds passed as she attempted to right herself. Finally gaining her feet, she threw herself forward and it was only due to her lack of momentum that she didn't injure herself as she hit the wall at the landing. Bouncing off it like a pinball, she next slammed into the railing and this too she ricocheted off of. Her arms thrashed around and her feet again failed to find the stairs properly, and she fell in a jumbled ball. She hit her head on the landing of the second floor with what to her was a deafening, CRACK!
Her panic disappeared completely.
There was a vaguely remembered pain in her hands and arms, but then that was gone too. There had also been cold…yes, but now just numbness. She lay in the very dark staircase and could barely feel her arms and legs, but that didn't seem to matter. Nothing seemed to matter and for how long she lay there she didn't know.
Blinking cleared Gayle’s vision somewhat and she could see her legs and feet and the ducky pajamas. Her first very dizzy thought was that she must be sitting on a swing. She couldn't really tell if she was right side up or not and the swinging sensation continued, slow at first, but quickly it got worse. The numbness had been pleasant, but now going back and forth, she felt like throwing up and she rolled over to try to right herself.
The Trilogy of the Void: The Complete Boxed Set Page 18
