Revelations

by Elizabeth Hartl

  “Denise, honey, we’re out of money.”

  Xavier stopped at the only red light in the small country town in Arkansas. He tapped the steering wheel with one hand and rubbed his forehead with the other. “I don’t know. What do you want me to do? The hotels, the restaurants, the souvenirs. You should have chose to save the money.” Xavier reached for his cell phone.

  “Me? You chose the hotel.” Denise snapped.

  “For you.”

  Denise seethed.

  Monitoring the light in case it changed, Xavier opened his bank’s application and put in his password. The light turned green. There wasn’t another car for miles, so Xavier didn’t move, choosing instead to wait for his phone to load. $58.63.

  “Okay. So, we’ve got enough money to either make it up to St. Louis and then we live there, or we turn around now, head home, and we may have enough for dinner. You’re choice.” Xavier glanced at his wife, then glanced away.

  “I guess we’ll have to turn around.”

  Xavier made a U-turn in the middle of the empty intersection. “Sorry.”

  Denise shrugged. “I’m tired though. It’s getting late.”

  “We don’t have enough for a hotel room.” Xavier kept his eyes on the road.

  “Mm.” Denise stared out the window.

  They rode in silence for the better part of 45 minutes when Denise brightened. “What about camping?” She looked at Xavier.

  The thought hadn’t crossed Xavier’s mind. “Decent enough idea.”

  They rode in silence for a few more minutes while Xavier mulled it over. “Okay. Find a campground. Under twenty bucks, though.”

  Denise’s face lit up. “This’ll be fun!” She wasted no time searching cheap campgrounds near me on her cell phone.

  Xavier spotted a sporting goods store in a strip mall a few miles out of town. While Denise remained in the car, Xavier purchased the cheapest tent he saw. He tossed the tent into the back of the SUV and slid into the driver’s seat as Denise said, “Willow Falls Campground. $15 a night.”

  “That’s the one.” Xavier started the car as Denise hit the get directions button on the campground’s listing.

  Twenty minutes later, they were lost. “This is what it says.” Denise showed him the blue line on the map on her phone. “We’re still on track.”

  “I call bullshit.” Xavier snapped as he looked to his left out the window. “There’s nothing around. The damn road isn’t even paved!”

  “Keep going.” Denise urged.

  Ten more minutes of driving over the pitted gravel road, and they came up on a wooden archway with a sign hanging from the top: Willow Falls Campground. The sign’s paint was peeling and one chain securing it seemed to be shorter than the other, causing the sign to hang crooked.

  Xavier steered the car past the archway, and up to a small shack labeled Office. Several small white envelopes hung by thumbtacks from a corkboard on the office door. Each envelope had a surname on it. There was one for Xavier and Denise. Denise hopped out of the car and sprinted up to the door. She yanked on their envelope without pulling the thumbtack out. After getting back in the car, Denise opened the envelope. Inside was a map of the campground with their campsite circled. Denise guided Xavier to the correct spot.

  Xavier drove slowly on the narrow path. They seemed to go further and further into the woods. “Well, it doesn’t seem like we’ll have much company.” Denise attempted to make conversation.

  “Mm.” An unexpected sense of dread nagged at Xavier’s intestines. He glanced at Denise, wondering if she felt the tension he did, but she seemed enthusiastic.

  “Oh, here it is!” Denise unbuckled her seat belt. Xavier parked in the gravel space next to the fire pit.

  Xavier did not understand that this part of Arkansas had so much wooded area. The foliage was dense. He inspected their campsite as Denise flopped down on the grass, legs crossed, a genuine smile on her face that Xavier hadn’t seen in months. There was a fire pit, a grassy area for a tent or small camper, and a weathered picnic table. Xavier lifted the hatchback of the SUV and hauled out the tent.

  After they set the tent up, the sun was sinking further below the tree line. It was almost dark. “I’d better get some wood for a fire.” Xavier absently told Denise as he looked at the sky.

  “You want me to come with?”

  “Nah. I’ll be right back.” He tossed her the car keys. “But just in case you want to sit in the car or something. It’s a little chilly.” With that, he set off into the dense forest in search of firewood.

  There was a thin path that led from the campsite into the woods. It surely wasn’t a designated path, but one worked into the land after years of visitors taking the same walk. Xavier picked up large sticks, cradling them in the crook of his arm as he walked. About five minutes into his search, he noted a tree with a yellow ribbon tied around one of its low-hanging branches. Xavier also noted an oddly shaped bush further into his walk. He wanted to find his way back.

  As the sky got darker, the path beneath Xavier’s feet vanished. Xavier’s arm was full of medium and large sticks, but he was looking for fallen branches. He didn’t find any. The sky was turning an inky purple when Xavier decided that he should head back. He wouldn’t be able to see in ten minutes.

  Xavier began walking back the way he came. He found the oddly shaped bush. He kept walking. Xavier found it odd that he was no longer on a path, but he had found the bush, so he figured he was going in the right direction.

  Xavier kept walking when he came up on the tree with the ribbon. Xavier stopped in his tracks when he noticed that the ribbon was no longer yellow, but red. Xavier felt a chill as he stared at the ribbon fluttering in the breeze. He forced himself to move past the tree.

  After a few more minutes of brisk walking, Xavier almost tripped over a disemboweled raccoon. Flies swarmed around the entrails, a rotten smell emanated from the carcass. It must have been there for a day or two, at least, but Xavier would have remembered it if he had seen it looking for firewood. Xavier looked around, past the trees surrounding him. Someone must have put it there after he had passed this spot. Someone was watching him. Then he remembered Denise.

  Xavier ignored the feeling of doom that gnawed at him and ran toward his campsite. After a minute, he saw an orange glow ahead. His pace slowed as he wrinkled his brow in confusion. It had to be his campsite; There was no one around them. Xavier hurried toward the glow. As he got closer, he recognized the picnic table and his SUV on the gravel pad. Denise was standing in front of a roaring fire, her back to him. He wondered how she got such an enormous fire going without supplies.

  Tension filled the air. There was something wrong. Denise remained completely still in front of the fire. He approached slowly and quietly. “Denise?” Xavier gently called.

  Denise didn’t respond or even turn around to face him.

  “Denise?” Xavier called louder as he got closer.

  Nothing.

  Xavier reached his arm toward her, about to touch her shoulder, when suddenly Denise spun to face him. She was paler than usual and he noticed immediately that her eyes were not the same color they had been fifteen minutes before. Her face held a sinister smile. This was not Denise.

  Xavier backed away in shock. Denise continued to smile at him; Not moving, not speaking. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her as fear gripped his heart. He continued to back away. She continued to smile. The glow from the fire back lit her, giving her a demonic glow.

  They stared at one another, Xavier breathing heavily and Denise smiling. The crackling of the flames was the only sound. Xavier’s mouth had gone dry, his body trembled. He then heard a rustling in the trees to his right. As he looked, Denise pounced on Xavier, sending him sprawling on his back. Sharp teeth dug into his neck. Xavier howled in pain. The teeth sank deeper until Xavier had no energy left to fight.

  Xavier lay on the cold ground, staring at the sky, feeling his blood ooze out of the open wound. Denise came into his vie
w. She stood over him and let out a cackle, licking the blood off her lips.

  Xavier let his head flop to the right. A raccoon ambled out of the tree line at the edge of the campsite as darkness crept into his vision. It’s only a raccoon.

  The Summoning

  “Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

  Janet curled into a ball on her bed, squeezed her eyes closed, and threw her palms over her ears and pressed hard. As hard as she pressed her palms to the sides of her head, she could still hear the footsteps pounding down the long hallway.

  “Girl! What did I tell you!”

  Janet buried her chin in her chest.

  The footsteps stopped, and the hollow wooden door flung open. There was silence for just a moment. “I thought I told you not to mess with my office.”

  Janet knew better than to answer.

  The footsteps came fast. A few seconds later, Janet felt herself being lifted by her hair. She screamed in pain, but her eyes remained closed. It was easier that way.

  *

  Theodore the Teddy Bear, Magenta the Bunny Rabbit, Betsy the Baby Doll, and Maxine the Monkey sat in a small circle in the center of Janet’s bedroom. The pink curtains floated in the breeze from the open window, and Janet had to close it to light the black candle that sat in the middle of the circle of stuffed animals. Janet was old enough to know not to place the candle too close to her friends, but young enough to have trouble with her mother’s lighter. Janet knew she needed to be quick with it so she could return it to her mother’s cigarette pack before she noticed it was missing.

  After the candle was lit, Janet asked, “What do I do next?”

  Her stuffed animals remained silent.

  “Theodore, you’re the smart one. What do I do?”

  The teddy bear’s glassy eyes stared straight ahead. He didn’t speak.

  Janet sighed, trying to remember the movie her parents were watching the night before. She remembered the people in the movie standing in a circle, saying the same words over and over again. Janet knew that she could do that, if she could just remember the words.

  Janet only remembered a few of the words in the movie. She closed her eyes, repeated the words, and made the rest up. Janet heard shuffling and her eyes popped open. She looked to her left first toward Betsy and Maxine. As she rotated her head over to her right, she thought she saw Theodore’s paw twitch, but by the time Janet could fully focus on him, the bear was still. Janet furrowed her eyebrows and waited, staring at Theodore. When minutes passed and the bear didn’t move, Janet let out the breath she was holding and blew out the candle.

  Janet left the room to brush her teeth for bed without bothering to return her animals to their proper places. When she returned from the bathroom, Theodore was no longer facing the candle inside the circle, but turned forty-five degrees to face the bedroom door. Janet furrowed her brow, shuffled over to Theodore, and picked him up. “What are you up to?” She asked him as she walked over to the rocking chair in which he usually sat and placed him in the seat.

  She turned and came face to face with her mother. “What’s going on in here?” Janet’s mother took in the scene.

  “Nothing.”

  Janet’s mother raised an eyebrow. “Mm. Time for ni night.”

  “Ni night? Mom, I’m too big for ni night.”

  “Sorry. Time for bed.”

  Janet nodded as she hurried to put Maxine, Betsy, and Magenta back in their places. Janet’s mother grabbed the candle from the middle of the floor. “This better not have been lit.”

  “It wasn’t.” Janet snapped as she shoved her feet under the pink comforter on her twin-size bed.

  “Goodnight.” Janet’s mother flipped off the light and started to close the door.

  “What about Theodore and Maxine and Magenta and Betsy?” Janet ran out of breath as she called to her mother.

  “Oh, sorry. Goodnight, Betsy. Goodnight, Maxine. Goodnight, Magenta. Goodnight, Theodore.”

  Janet smiled and looked at Theodore. There seemed to be a twinkle in his eye.

  *

  “Janet!”

  “Jimmy, she couldn’t have done this!”

  “Bullshit, Irene. She did it.” Janet’s father rounded on her mother. “Unless it was you.” The words flowed from his lips like the hiss of a rattlesnake.

  Half hidden behind the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen, Janet peeked into the room. Her parents were standing by the sink, water overflowing onto the cracked linoleum floor. Jimmy turned and Janet could feel his eyes boring a hole into her skull. He stared at her, snarling.

  “Jimmy.” Irene warned.

  She was too late. Jimmy rushed toward Janet and knocked her off her feet with a backhand across the side of the head. Janet cried out.

  “Stop!” Irene ran toward the living room, trying to catch Jimmy.

  “You stay out of this!” Jimmy bellowed, pointing at his wife.

  Janet scurried into the slight gap between the couch and the living room wall, covering her head. Jimmy wretched the couch away from the wall with one shove. “I didn’t do anything!” Janet screamed. “It was Theodore!”

  Jimmy froze. Irene sniffled. Janet whimpered. Jimmy’s eyes darted from Janet to Irene, trying to process what he just heard. As the confusion faded, the fury returned, but this time for a different reason. “You have balls, little lady.” Jimmy moved toward his daughter again.

  “Jimmy stop!”

  “She’s a vandal and a liar!” Jimmy yanked Janet from the wall.

  Janet limped to her room, rubbing her bruised elbow. Entering her bedroom and quietly closing the door, Janet whipped her head in Theodore’s direction and glared at him. “Thanks a lot.” She bit out.

  Theodore didn’t respond. The bits of wet paper towel clung to his damp fur.

  *

  Janet wasn’t sure if her eyes were open or closed. She blinked a few times to make sure she was awake. What happened to her night light? She heard a rustling coming from the vicinity of her rocking chair.

  As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Janet saw a shape moving toward the bedroom door. “Theodore?”

  The shape moved silently and slipped through the crack in the door without disturbing it. Janet trembled, but made a move to stand. On wobbly legs, Janet moved toward the door, peeking out from behind it to follow the shape.

  She could tell from the ambient light in the hallway it was Theodore. She could also tell that something glinted in his right paw. He slipped around the corner toward her parent’s bedroom.

  Janet pushed her bedroom door fully open to follow Theodore and quickly as she dared to. She was halfway down the hall when a scream broke the thick silence of the night. Janet broke into a run, slipping on a worn spot on the carpet while rounding the corner of the hallway.

  Janet pushed her parents’ bedroom door open and flipped the light switch. Yellow light flooded the room, but all Janet could process was red. The wall, the bed, and her parents, drenched in the red. Irene was still screaming. Jimmy was silent. Theodore sat propped up against the bed, a bloody knife in his lap.

  Banality

  “For whatever the tortures of hell, the boredom of heaven would be worse.”

  Erica saw the corridor. It seemed to go on forever. She couldn’t see the end, but she knew it must be there. Erica walked on.

  The lighting shifted as she moved forward. The light behind her went out as the light in front of her came on, like she was moving through a spotlight. The rest of the corridor was dim.

  Erica passed door after door on both sides of the corridor. Every door she came to was boarded, or when she tried the knob, locked. She furrowed her brow. Erica wanted to explore the rooms, not wander an endless corridor. That was the point of being there.