The Shores Of The Dead: Omnibus Edition

by Josh Hilden

  “Hello?” He asked as quiet as he could. It would be bad if he had to listen to Jackie moan for a few more hours. Although he’d been struck several times since this nightmare began that her death moans were very much like her sex moans. Kyle was sure that there was a profound truth hidden in that realization, but he was fucked if he could find it.

  “Hello … Kyle … is that you?” A familiar female voice asked. She was talking at a normal volume, but she sounded tired and as if she had a sore throat.

  For one glorious minute he thought that it had to be Jennifer. His little sister was finally returning his calls and she was going to tell him that she was alright and that mom and dad were alright. But the voice was wrong. It was deeper than Jenny’s and besides Jenny always called him Kye, he could never remember a time since her third birthday when she had called him Kyle unless she was busting his nuts. It did not matter that she was four years younger than his 21, she could dish out and take the bullshit a hundred times better than he’d ever been able to. If she’d been the one to break up with Jackie she would have punched the bitch as soon as she started jabbing her with that Bob Evans finger.

  “Yeah, who is this?” He thought he should know, the voice may not be Jenny’s but it was still so familiar. But he was so tired and hungry that nothing was clicking in his mind. He thought she might be one of his mom’s friends or his cousin Gale up in Port Huron, or maybe it really was nobody he really knew.

  “Kye it’s Scarlet,” He noted the switch to his nickname. That she sounded a bit hurt that he didn’t know who she was also registered. He thought, Fuck You, you aren’t under siege in the Toys “R” Us shitter with your best friend next to you probably dying. He did not say that.

  Then he realized who it was.

  Scarlet Parker was his neighbor and she’d been Jennifer’s best friend since they’d both been in diapers. She lived a couple of houses down and across the street from his with her mom, a tired woman who had worked two back breaking jobs since Scarlet’s father had taken off when Scarlet was seven.

  “Little, is that really you?” He asked ignoring that she hated the nickname he’d saddled her with as a child. “Where are you, are you okay?” He asked. It might not be Jennifer, but Scarlet had been an honorary member of the family for almost his entire life.

  It’d been because of Scarlet that Mikey Kline nearly killed Kyle in Junior High School. Mikey and his best friend Paul Brass had been the neighborhood bullies. They’d been the guys that would chase kids from the bus stop and across the entire neighborhood just so they could punch them in the gut. They’d gotten worse when they had gone from Frank Nicholas Elementary to the West Carrollton Middle School. Then they had started stealing from the other kids and really hurting people.

  2

  8 Years Ago

  “Stop, please stop!”

  The scream was clear on the warm spring day and it scared Kyle Carson. Benny had just gone into his house and Kyle was lost in thought as he continued on to his own home up the street. He’d been passing the entrance to the park when he heard it. He was sure that the voice was a girl’s and it sounded familiar. He’d almost placed it when he heard another voice.

  A male’s voice that he knew all too well.

  “Shut the fuck up or I’m going to break something.” Mikey Kline hissed.

  Kyle’s balls drew up into his stomach when he heard that voice. Mikey Kline had made Kyle’s life a living hell for as long as he could remember. He’d beaten Kyle up, stolen his toys and his money, and Kyle was pretty damn sure that Mikey and his best friend Paul had been the ones that had stolen his bicycle last summer.

  “Please don’t.” The girl’s voice said again, quieter this time but still very clear. Kyle was sure it was coming from the park. Pinnacle Park was a series of open spaces with play equipment and shelters with picnic tables surrounded by relatively thick secondary growth woods. All kinds of things were rumored to go on inside those woods. Benny was sure that teenage boys and girls were constantly “Getting it on” in the park every time the sun went down. Kyle wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but Benny treated it like the gospel.

  “Why are you doing this? Please stop that hurts!” The girl’s voice was getting louder again, and then Kyle heard a dull meat on meat sound followed by sobs.

  Kyle’s feet began to carry him toward the park entrance before his mind realized what he was doing. I should not be doing this, he thought to himself as he entered the shadowy coolness of the park. He dropped his backpack on the soft grass that needed to be mowed. Kyle privately thought that the grass might one day start devouring animals and small children. Then he moved slowly toward the increasingly bizarre sounds coming from the tree line. There were grunts and the sound heavy breathing, mixed in with the steady sobs of the girl he knew he should have been able to identify.

  Why the fuck didn’t I go get Benny? He thought. Everyone knew that Benny was the strong one of the two of them. Hadn’t it always been Benny Millett that proposed whatever scheme that got the pair in trouble? Like that expedition into the storm drain system? Two hours and three miles later they’d found themselves on the banks of the Little Miami River covered in muck to their hips. Kyle knew that with a father like his was Benny had to be stronger than Kyle ever needed to be.

  He crept up to the trees and pushed a branch aside to give him an unobstructed view. What he saw froze the blood in his veins. Mikey Kline and Paul Brass were both there, he wasn’t surprised to see Paul because he never left Mikey’s side, and they had a small girl pinned to the ground face down. Paul was holding her wrists and head down with her face turned away from where Kyle was watching. He saw the book bag lying on the ground beside them and Kyle knew who the little girl was, “Little” Parker, his sister Jenny’s best friend.

  His fear and sickness was converted to white hot anger that Kyle had never felt before. Even the anger he felt when Tina died didn’t compare to the molten red rage that flowed from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. Little’s skirt was flipped up onto her back, and Kyle saw her underwear torn and hanging on one leg at the knee. Mikey had his pants pulled down around his own knees and he was positioned behind her, thrusting his hips back and forth.

  Kyle may have led a sheltered life, but he was also a child of early 21st century America. He knew what Mikey and Paul were doing to Scarlet, to a little girl that was like a sister to him, and it was wrong. But if he’d known Mikey very well this would not have really surprised him, the Kline family was rife with rumors of things Mikey did to some of his younger cousins. Things which couldn’t be proven.

  If a poll had been taken of his classmates, the consensus on Kyle Carson would have been that he was a nice quiet guy that never caused any problems. Most guys considered him a good natured goof ball that was no threat. Most of the girls considered him an ambiguous friend that they felt safe to be alone with. Only Benny Millett would have told the questioner that Kyle Carson had a hard streak in him.

  That Kyle, the one with the secret hard streak, looked around and saw a four foot piece of wood with a vague club shape lying in the brush. He picked it up and before he could think about the potential consequences of his actions, an act that was as alien to Kyle’s character as if he doused himself in gasoline and lit a match, he strode quickly into the clearing.

  Kyle knew that Paul Brass was the more dangerous, if the less intelligent, of the two in front of him and he acted accordingly. He brought the chuck of wood back like a baseball bat as he cleared the distance between them. Paul, who was grinning as he watched the antics of his best friend, looked up and over just in time to see the blur of the wood smash into the side of his head. There was a meaty thud and Paul let go of Little’s wrists and toppled over, not unconscious but clearly dazed. The blissful look on Mikey’s face was mixed with confusion as he focused on what was happening.

  “What the hell?” He began but never got to finish.

  Kyle said nothing as he swung the wood at Mikey’s
head. His aim was off and Mikey moved slightly at the last second causing the blow to connect with his upraised forearm. Mikey screamed in pain, but the lack of a breaking sound was evidence of the only partial success of the attack.

  Mikey withdrew from the now silent form of Scarlet and scrambled back on his haunches as he tried to pull up his pants. Kyle looked down at Little and then back at Mikey and Paul who was shakily getting to his feet.

  “Get the fuck out of here!” He screamed at them.

  “This isn’t over you fucking faggot.” Mikey said as he managed to haul his pants up.

  “Get out of here, or I am going to put one of you in the fucking hospital.” Kyle said. He meant it but it was good for him that the fear that was beginning to reassert its control over him wasn’t visible.

  They took off through the park, and Kyle dropped the club to the ground and knelt down next to Scarlet. He was shaking with fear and relief.

  “Are you OK?” he asked softly. He gently pulled her skirt back down to hide her nakedness, but he caught a brief glimpse of blood on her thighs and he had to fight the urge to stare in shock.

  She stirred and turned her head toward him. At first it did not look as if she even knew where she was or what was happening. Then her large green eyes locked with his and she said, “Kyle … they pulled my hair.” Then she started to cry.

  He held her while she cried and through the tears she told him what happened. She’d been walking home from school, unlike her best friend she went to St. Mary’s Catholic School at the bottom of the hill, when she ran into Mikey and Paul. They’d told her that there was a cat who just had some kittens and they would show her. She’d followed them into the woods, and that was when they had started to touch her and ask her to do things with them.

  “I told them no Kyle I swear, I never wanted to do any of those things with them.” She seemed to be begging Kyle to believe her.

  “I know.” He said, “This wasn’t your fault.”

  She continued the story telling him that she’d fought them as hard as she could but they’d been too strong. She didn’t remember him arriving, so he filled in some of the blanks in the story for her. For a long time after she told her story they sat there saying nothing. Then Kyle spoke.

  “We need to tell the police.” He said.

  Scarlet’s reaction was horrible. She started to cry even harder, and when she finally spoke he understood why. “They said that if I told anybody they would say that I want to do it, and that they would tell everyone what a whore I am. If that happens Kyle, my mom will know and she’ll hate me.” The tears flowed as she talked.

  “That’s not true. Nobody is going to think that you are a whore Scarlet. Those assholes attacked you … they raped you!” He was yelling now too.

  “Please Kyle, please don’t tell anyone.” She was begging, whipping her copper hair from side to side as she cried.

  “OK,” he said at last reluctantly, “I won’t tell.”

  Later he walked her back to her house so she could clean up and change her clothes. Kyle always wondered what she told her mom about the tears. They never talked about the incident again.

  Three days later Mikey made good on his threats. It was a Saturday and Kyle was walking down the hill to the little mom and pop grocery store to get an ice cream cone when Mikey jumped out from the trees in front of him. Kyle squeaked in fright and turned to run, he collided solidly with Paul Brass before he had moved ten feet.

  “Look what we got here Paul, the little mother fucker that ruined my fun and put that knot on your head.” Mikey was giggling, and for the first time in his life, although not the last, Kyle Carson knew he was looking at somebody who was truly crazy.

  “I think we need to teach the faggot a lesson.” Paul said. His voice reminded Kyle of cold molasses being poured from a jar. It was the opposite of the fast, high pitched sounds that were emitted from Mikey’s gob.

  Kyle turned toward the street and attempted to flee from the pair. He knew he was faster than either of them. All he needed was a little space to build up some speed and he would be safe as houses. They never gave him the opportunity to begin. Paul grabbed him by the throat with one beefy mitt that would have done a pro football player proud and slammed him against a tree. Kyle felt the air rush from his body and his vision began to go grey.

  Kyle barely saw Mikey as he closed the distance between the two of them and kicked Kyle square in the testicles. It was a pain that Kyle would never forget, the entire world seemed to spin and he was unable to take in any air. Then he vomited all over Mikey. It was the only counter attack he was able to make during the entire ordeal.

  Kyle was sure they were going to kill him when he heard Paul scream in his thick slow voice. Kyle was released and he slid down the tree trunk and settled on the soft ground. There were a series of impact sounds, and he was sure that he caught the distinctive sounds of bones breaking. Then there were running footsteps that grew dimmer and less distinct rapidly.

  “Kye, you OK brother?” A voice that Kyle would have recognized anywhere asked. Benny Millett stood over him holding his ever present skateboard and grinning like the cat that got the cream. Then Kyle passed out.

  3

  Toys “R” Us

  2:40am EST

  Kyle’s reminiscence was broken when he realized that Scarlet was still talking to him on the other end of the phone. “I’m in the attic, I locked myself up here. Kyle those things are everywhere in the neighborhood, I can’t leave the house. I saw Mr. Gibson kill little Annie Phelps … and then he ate her face off.” She was building up a head of steam and Kyle thought she was fighting a losing battle with hysteria. “After a little while she got back up and started walking down the road, what the fuck is going on Kyle?!” The last was only a shade below a yell.

  “Little, are you hurt?” He asked ignoring her question. He had no idea past what he’d gleamed from the news and internet, and he wasn’t sure if he believed any of that, what was happening and he wasn’t going to blow smoke up her ass.

  “I’m OK … but I don’t know where my Mom is. She was at work when this all started.” Mrs. Parker was a Desk Clerk at the Holiday Inn by the Dayton Mall, ironically about three hundred yards from his current position, during the days. At night she worked as a cashier at the Meijer’s grocery store on Springboro Pike. She’s probably somebody’s lunch, he thought but did not say. The last thing he wanted to do was to scare her worse than she was already scared.

  “Little, I’m sorry you haven’t heard from your mom, but I need to ask you a question.” He took a deep breath not sure if he really wanted to know the answer but then he plunged ahead anyway, “Have you seen or heard from any of my family?”

  She didn’t respond, the phone made no noise and he thought that they might have been cut off, “Scarlet, have you seen my family?” He asked again. Panic was in his voice now, after hours of being locked in this cold white room without hearing another human voice, he was desperate to keep this tenuous connection open.

  “I think that your Mom and Dad are dead, Kyle.” She said calmly. The change in tone would have terrified Kyle under different circumstances, but he had hoped that talking about other things would calm her down. He’d just not wanted to hear this response.

  Kyle just sat there and stared at the decals of bunnies and butterflies that the store manager before Mike thought would cheer up the lousy employee restroom. Someone, Kyle would never have admitted that it had been him, had added a sticker of the Autobot leader Optimus Prime in such a position that looked as if he were attempting to mount one of the bunnies.

  There was nothing he could say. He had called his mom, his dad, and his little sister on their home and cell phones a thousand times since he had been trapped in here. Most of the calls had failed to connect due to “Heavy Call Volume”, but the ones that had gotten through had rolled right over to the voicemail system.

  For the first time since this nightmare had begun, Kyle Carson started to cry.


  4

  Toys “R” Us

  2:50am EST

  “Kyle, are you there?” The voice was so far away that he did not want to respond. But he had to because this made no sense. If she’d been in her house the entire time, then how did Scarlet know that his Mom and Dad were dead? He dragged his mind back to the here and now before he spoke.