Polaris

by Beth Bowland

  Mrs. Martin’s mind raced. Her pulse accelerated. “Teresa, what did this boy look like?”

  “He was a strange looking kid with dark hair and pale skin. He wore old clothes that were way too big for him—”

  “Teresa, I’ve got to go. Something has come up.” She hung up the phone and climbed out of bed as quickly as her feverish body would allow. Her legs wobbled beneath her as she made her way into the hallway.

  “Aaron,” she called out. “Come here.” She was too late. They were already outside.

  Mrs. Martin started to go upstairs but stopped when the walls around her appeared to spin. “Could it have been Nakal?” She made her way into the bathroom to splash cold water on her face.

  The water momentarily cooled her fever. She reached for a towel to dry her face when she noticed a tear-shaped symbol on her neck. Where did this come from? As she ran her shaky fingers against it, she remembered Nakal’s touch.

  “He knew about the old man at the gas station,” she whispered. “Why did he call me Mom?”

  She made her way back toward her bedroom to call the police about Nakal when she heard a faint shrill sound coming from upstairs. Walking up the stairwell to Aaron’s room, she felt a draft coming toward her. As she entered, she saw a large hole in the ceiling. “What in the world?” She gasped as she walked toward it.

  Nakal’s pungent odor permeated the air. The scent entered her lungs and burned with each labored breath she took. Too filled with horror to cry out, she stood numbly and watched the hole enlarge and spread down the wall to the floor. A blue haze filled the room, blocking out the light that shone through the window. She felt herself being pulled toward the black hole as it increased in size. The darkness pulled against her as if it was a great vacuum. A low shrilling sound came from the opening. She tried to scream. Her feet slid against the carpet toward the hole. She managed to grab the leg of the desk as her feet lifted from the ground. The pull increased. The darkness reached out, cradled her hands, and caused them to open. She slipped helplessly into darkness.

  The boys walked single file along the tree line with Parker leading the way. As they neared the Old Washington Bridge, there seemed to be a shift in the air. Tangible, small electrical currents pulsed through the atmosphere. A faint shrill came toward them from the fog. The sound whipped through the trees and rustled the branches.

  Parker looked over his shoulder at Aaron, and his breathing rate increased. The icy air burned against their faces. Their pulse heightened with each step they took.

  Parker held up his arm, motioning for them to stop. “Right down there,” he pointed, “is where I heard it coming from.

  Nakal took over the lead and picked up the pace without saying a word. He led them right up to the edge of the fog then turned around to face them. The screeching sound grew louder, and the ground began to shake every half second or so as if a giant elephant were approaching them.

  Aaron and Parker’s eyes grew wide. They watched as a grin spread across Nakal’s face and he erupted into laughter.

  Aaron placed his hand on Parker’s shoulder and took a step back, pulling Parker with him. There was a strange odor in the air that Aaron remembered smelling on Nakal.

  “Why are you laughing?” Aaron asked.

  Nakal’s eyes glowed amber as tiny sparks flickered from them.

  “It begins now,” said Nakal.

  “What are you talking about?” Parker said.

  The ground shook harder, indicating that whatever it was within the fog was getting nearer to them.

  Aaron continued to pull on Parker, quickening their backward steps.

  “What’s happening?” Aaron asked.

  Nakal raised his arms and signaled for something. Directly behind him emerged a large red blob-like creature shaped like a bloated letter X. Its skin was the texture of a dodgeball, while its face was void of any features, except for a small oblong opening in the center that opened and closed like fish gills. The creature swayed back and forth, and any area where its arms touched disappeared.

  Just as Nakal and the creature began to move toward them, Aaron noticed a swarm of birds in the midst of a high-speed vertical dive toward them. The birds swooped down and viciously pecked at the creature.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Aaron yelled.

  Aaron and Parker ran back through the woods and didn’t stop until they reached Aaron’s house. They climbed the front stairs two at a time and burst through the front door.

  “Mom!” Aaron yelled.

  They both charged through the house.

  Aaron flung open the door to his mother’s bedroom.

  “Mom!” Aaron shouted. Her bed was empty.

  “Maybe she’s in the kitchen,” Parker said.

  The boys checked in the kitchen, before continuing the search up the stairs and into Aaron’s bedroom, which they found empty. They split up and ran through the rest of the house before meeting up in the living room.

  “What just happened, and where’s my mom?” Aaron said. He paced rapidly around the room.

  Parker nervously peered out the window. “Who the heck did you guys let into your house? Did you see his eyes?” He rubbed his glove across the glass in a failed attempt to get a better view. “Do you think they’ll come back here?”

  “Oh, man,” Aaron pulled off his hat and rubbed his head. “Last night … his eyes … ” Aaron stuttered out as he sat on the edge of the couch.

  “Last night, what?” Parker demanded.

  Aaron stumbled over his words a few times. “I’m not sure how to say it.”

  “Just spit it out.”

  “Last night, I thought I saw Nakal’s eyes glow, but I was looking at his reflection in the mirror and there was a bird staring in the window, “Aaron paused. “I think they were looking at each other.”

  “What?” Parker’s voice rose an octave. “You serious?”

  Aaron nodded.

  Parker narrowed his eyes. “You saw all of that and you stayed in the room with him?”

  Aaron huffed. “I thought I’d imagined it.”

  “Did you tell your mother?”

  “No.” Aaron threw his hands up. “Again. I thought I’d imagined it. I have to find my mother.”

  “The car is still out in the driveway and she was too sick to walk anywhere.”

  “True,” Aaron said, “But she was on the phone before we left, maybe Mom is down at your house?”

  Parker’s eyes perked up. “Yeah, maybe my mom came back from town and stopped by to pick her up or take her to the doctor.”

  Aaron ran into his mom’s room, picked up the handset, and held it against his ear. He looked at Parker and frowned before hitting the receiver button a few times. “It’s dead.”

  Parker pulled out his cell phone and dialed his home number. After a few seconds, he looked at the face of the phone and sighed. “No signal.” He walked to the other side of the room and held the phone up in another attempt to get a signal. “Nothing.”

  “Let’s just run down to your house. Maybe your phone there is working,” Aaron pulled his hat back down on his head and zipped up his jacket. Parker followed behind him.

  As they made their way through the deep snow to Parker’s house, Aaron took in his surroundings. The area where he’d grown up and played all his life was now the site of a bad horror movie happening in real time.

  “Did you see that thing erase the trees?” Aaron shouted to Parker. “What was that?”

  Parker shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe it came from that meteor.”

  “That’s crazy. This can’t be happening, right?” Aaron asked.

  “Well, what about your mom getting sick after being outside with Nakal.”

  “Let’s hurry,” Aaron yelled as they ran toward Parker’s house.

  Parker’s family owned a two hundred acre wheat farm, located a half mile down the street from Aaron’s house. Several birds sat along the roo
f’s edge of Parker’s house, lined up like soldiers. They seemed to watch the boys as they approached. Their only movement was an occasional blink of their eyelids to flush away snow flurries.

  Aaron noticed the birds first. He nudged Parker who’d been running with his head down to block the icy wind.

  “Whoa!” Aaron said.

  The two slid to a stop and entered into a stare down with the birds for a few minutes.

  Parker waved his arms around. “Shoo, birds,” he shouted.

  The birds remained motionless and continued to watch the boys.

  “They look like the same birds that attacked Nakal and those monsters,” Aaron whispered. “And check out the one up front. It has a chain around its neck.”

  Parker focused in on the one bird. “What’s that about?”

  Aaron shrugged. “I dunno, but I think that’s the same bird that was looking in my bedroom window last night.”

  “This is too much.”

  Aaron nodded. “Now that I see them in the light, I think they’re Peregrine falcons. Don’t you remember we studied them in school?”

  “Um, no. I don’t remember anything about necklace-wearing birds,” Parker whispered. “Let’s go in through the back door.”

  They eased around to the side of the house, and the falcons turned their heads to follow them. As soon as the boys neared the rear of the house, they darted the rest of the way and through the back door.

  The house was eerily quiet as they entered.

  “Mom? Dad?” Parker called out as he darted around the house. “No one’s here.”

  Aaron sighed. “Maybe she took my mom to the doctor.” He picked up their house phone and slammed it down on the countertop after hearing silence.

  Parker grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. “Let’s see if anyone else has seen that thing.”

  The TV screen came on with a strange hieroglyphic symbol flashing across the screen, and a low screeching sound filled the living room. An image began to form on the screen as the boys moved closer.

  An image of Nakal appeared on the screen, causing the boys to jump. The image was so real that Nakal’s eyes seemed to shift and follow the boys’ movements.

  “What’s going on?” Aaron’s voice cracked. His eyes shifted back and forth between the TV and the door. Part of him wanted to flee, while the other part was curious as to how Nakal got on TV. Aaron eased closer to the screen. Nakal’s gaze rose up to meet his.

  “Aaron,” Nakal began, “why did you run? There are no time-outs in this game. You gotta follow the rules.”

  Aaron’s breath seemed to catch deep inside his chest, and his heart pulsated in his ears. He pressed his lips together, then swished his tongue around his dry mouth as he attempted to force words to come out.

  Aaron screamed at the TV before running out of the house with Parker right on his heels.

  “Wait,” yelled Parker. “Let’s take the truck and go into town to get some help.”

  “You don’t know how to drive.”

  Parker ran over to the garage and disappeared inside the door, leaving Aaron alone with the falcons intently staring. Moments later the garage door lifted, and Parker, behind the steering wheel of his father’s dilapidated nineteen fifty-five Chevy truck, pulled up beside Aaron.

  Aaron looked around at the falcons once again before reluctantly climbing inside the truck. After securely fastening his seat belt, he closed his eyes.

  “I repeat. You don’t know how to drive.”

  Parker fastened his seat belt and revved up the engine. “Sure I do. It’s just like driving a tractor. Let’s go.” He pulled the truck out of park, lifted his foot off the brake, and then pressed the gas. The engine revved up again, but the truck only rocked forward and back.

  Aaron leaned over and looked at the dash. “Uh, Mr. It’s-just-like-driving-a-tractor, I think you have it in neutral.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Parker replied with a nervous chuckle. Placing his foot on the brake again, he shifted to drive, eased his foot off the brake, and sighed with relief when the truck slowly moved forward.

  “I wonder if they’ll follow us.” Aaron eyed the falcons. “There is definitely some what the heck stuff going on in Bixie.”

  Chapter 4

  Aaron sat without talking as Parker maneuvered the truck down the street and onto the main road into town. The tail of the truck swerved from the left as he rapidly turned the wheel in the opposite direction. It then swerved to the right. He turned the wheel as quickly as he could the other way. The lines in the road were covered in snow. Going a slow easy pace, Parker tried his best to keep the truck in the center of the road. Aaron strained his eyes to see through the foggy windows caused by a faulty window defogger and bad window wipers that screeched with every pass.

  He gripped the armrest tighter and realized that if he pressed any harder on the imaginary brakes beneath his feet, he would push through the floorboards.

  “I thought you said you could drive this thing,” Aaron said as he reached over and tried to help steer. “Hold it steady. I’m getting motion sick.”

  Parker sneered. “I think I’m doing a pretty good job, without one driving lesson.”

  “What did your parents come into town for?” Aaron asked.

  Parker shrugged. “I dunno. They wouldn’t tell me, but Mom seemed pretty upset. I heard them whispering about my aunt but couldn’t make out what was being said.”

  “Hey!” yelled Aaron. “Watch out!”

  Parker slammed on the brakes and braced himself as the truck went into a tailspin. The truck came to a halt mere inches from a huge fallen tree that was barely visible beneath the fallen snow. It blocked the entire road.

  “Now what?” Parker said, putting the truck in park.

  The truck shook.

  Aaron looked around. “What was that?”

  Again, the truck shook.

  “Oh, no. It’s that big eraser alien thing,” Parker screamed as he slammed the gearshift into drive. He drove alongside the tree, off the road, and down into a ditch. “Hold on. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”

  Aaron scanned the trees, looking for a sign of Nakal or the creature. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Well, it feels like they’re coming, and I ain’t waiting for them,” Parker said as he continued the off-road romp through the snow.

  The truck aggressively trudged through the snow, and finally they were able to make it back onto the main road, but Parker didn’t stop until the city square came into view. He went directly to the police station and slid the truck into two parking spots, narrowly missing one of the parked patrol cars.

  As they made their way out of the truck, Aaron took a look around the downtown area of Bixie. It seemed to be business as usual—people walking around visiting various shops and restaurants—but he noticed no one was talking on cell phones.

  “I don’t think anyone’s seen what we saw,” Aaron said as they neared the police station.

  “And it doesn’t seem to have snowed as much in town as it did on our side of town.” Parker said.

  In that moment, it was as if Parker’s words awakened Mother Nature and ticked her off. A blast of wintry mix came rushing toward them from behind the buildings, as a thick white wall of snow enveloped them and caused them to retreat. They stooped behind the truck, using it as a shield against her wrath.

  Aaron grabbed Parker by the sleeve and pulled him in the direction of the entry to the police station. With an outreached arm he felt for the door handle.

  “Help me get it open,” Aaron yelled to Parker.

  They each grabbed hold of the door and pulled it back against the strong winds, managing to pry it open just far enough to slide though. The door quickly shut behind them causing them to fall headfirst into the police station lobby.

  “Now that’s what I call a grand entrance.” An older woman greeted them at the counter. Her hair was a shade off from being jet-black, and her gr
ay roots had grown out a couple of inches. She wore it pulled back from her face with a turquoise beaded headband.

  “How can I help you boys today?” she asked.

  “We need a cop,” Parker screeched. “We’re being chased by an alien and a giant eraser!”

  Aaron dropped his head as the lady just stared at them.

  “S’cuse me, honey,” she said, then pursed her lips together to suppress a grin.

  “We need help!” Parker screamed. “We’re under attack!”

  Aaron felt the blood rush to his cheeks as the stares of the office workers fell on them. “Um,” Aaron stuttered. “We, uh, saw something strange near old Washington Bridge.”

  The woman gave them a side-eyed glare and waved her hand to get the attention of one of the detectives in the rear, who seemed to snarl at the interruption.

  The detective reluctantly walked over to the counter, taking his coffee mug with him.

  “Yeah?” he said and took a sip of his coffee, making an obnoxious slurping sound. His eyes narrowed at them.

  Aaron opened his mouth to speak then closed it.

  Parker huffed as he elbowed Aaron. “We saw an alien,” Parker said.

  The detective slurped his coffee once again and raised his left eyebrow.

  “Alien.” The word came from the detective’s mouth as if he’d had a mouthful of crackers. He stood there for a moment staring at the boys. He then scratched his head, slurped his coffee, and returned to his desk shaking his head.

  The woman cleared her throat before speaking.

  “Maybe you boys should run on home. We’re awfully busy here today with the phones, Internet, and satellites being down, and we don’t have time for foolishness,” she said, before walking away from the counter, not giving the boys a chance to respond.

  Aaron could tell from Parker’s body language that he was getting ready to protest. He quickly pulled him back toward the entry. “They’re not going to believe us unless we have proof,” Aaron said quietly. “You have to admit it does sound crazy.”

  Parker nodded. “I guess you’re right. We need a camera.”