by Glenn Rolfe
“Sheriff, I’m coming in. Don’t shoot. Hear me out, and if you still feel you have to, I’ll let you put your gun to my head.”
Shane didn’t know what was real or true anymore. The glowing eyes could be a stupid trick, an effect, special contacts or something. The hand though, the tentacle… He couldn’t trust anyone. Not yet.
“Open it, keep your hands up, and come in slow.”
If his eyes light up or those things come out of his arms, he’s getting dropped.
The silver knob turned, cold wind blasted through as the door whipped open and smacked the wall.
“Hold it!” Shane said.
Truman had his hands high.
“I need to see the body,” he said. “I need to know he’s not coming back.”
It took Shane a second to wrap his head around what the boy was saying.
“I need answers first.”
Clint stepped across the threshold and slowly reached for a light switch.
Shane nodded.
He flicked the switch. A warm dull-yellow light above came to life.
“I’m gonna close the door.”
Shane could hear the wind outside; Mother Nature was pissed about something, probably all the unnatural shit going on here.
“Where is Jennifer Neilson? And don’t fucking bullshit me.”
“I took her. I did.”
“What the hell did you do to her? Where is she?”
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Try.”
“Her father was awful, a horrid drunk. Her mother was an enabler.”
“That’s not any of your concern,” Shane said. “You kidnapped her.”
“I know, I know. I haven’t been thinking straight since this happened.”
“The lady in the lake again?”
“Yes.”
“You killed your father, then took the girl. Why’d you do it?”
“I thought I could give her what I had. I thought I was becoming something better, something more… I don’t know…something stronger, untouchable. I thought I could pass it on.”
“You took her to turn her into whatever the hell you are?”
“I told you, I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“What was your plan? Get rid of dear ol’ dad, marry the girl you kidnapped, and runaway?”
“My father found her. Touched her. I used the power to kill him. I wasn’t about to let him do the things he’d done to me to her.”
Shane had never suspected Jack Truman of anything worse than being a thorny prick.
“I killed him, and I’m not sorry for that. I wish I’d have had the ability to do it sooner.”
“Where’s the girl?”
“Like I said, I thought I could give her this, like I knew what the fuck I was doing. She changed all right.”
“Where. Is. She?”
“She went to them.”
“Them? Your people of the lake?”
“It sounds fucking crazy. I know, okay?”
“Tell me something. Why aren’t you with them? Why are you different?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I think there’s something wrong with me. I mean, I think inside, something’s wrong. I’d been sick and tired prior to that thing in the lake touching me.”
“And Greg Hickey?”
“The kid you came here looking for? I never touched him. Never met him. My guess, he’s one of them.”
One of them.
“So, what are you doing here? I mean, you obviously got out of the cell.”
“Yeah, only when that Crowley guy came to kill me. I guess you can figure out what happened there.”
“Crowley?”
“He was one of them, too.”
“And you could have left. You were in such a rush to get out, yet you’re here. Why?”
“I want to help. I know I can’t take back what I’ve done, but I might be the only help you or anyone left alone in this town has.”
“You? You passed out after showing me what you could do. You said yourself you’re different.”
“I know, I know. But if I can—if you’ll let me—I’d like to try. I’m dying. I have no future. I have nothing to lose. Let me do something good. I don’t want to go out like my father.”
Car lights lit up the windows.
“Stay right there,” Shane said.
Going to the window, he recognized the cruiser.
“Shit, looks like I might need your help after all.”
Shane went to the door. “You can put your hands down.”
He opened it and raised his weapon.
Mae stepped from the driver’s seat.
“Shane.”
PART III:
THE LADY OF JADE LAKE
Chapter Thirty-Three
All that remained of the folks in Avalon, Maine soon succumbed to their invading neighbors. Green haze illuminated dining rooms, living rooms, showers, garages. Joggers, loners, couples in the throes of lust, elderly drinking tea before bed. By the time the sun set at 5:54 PM on October 17th all but one of the 461 women, men, and children of the small town were either on their way to Jade Lake or dead.
Gunner Tisdale drove his last recruits away from The Huckleberry Bar at the edge of town. The owner and bartender, Tom Higgins, three regulars they lovingly referred to as Larry Curly, and Moe (Jeff and Jess Murray, and their cousin Martin Riggs), Donna Taczili, Missy Barry, and Wes Jenkins, and Paulette LePage, were stacked in the Higgins’s Dodge Ram that was hooked to Gunner’s tow.
Jake Newman, riding shotgun in the tow truck’s cab, had handled the ladies and Wes Jenkins while Gunner took the rest. Paulette’s boyfriend, Dicky Trask, was the only one they couldn’t turn. His fate was Jake’s tentacle wrapping around his upper thigh and wrenching the appendage from his body. He bled out in the lot while they piled the others in the truck.
The lady of the lake frowned upon useless death, but understood that there would be some collateral damage along the way. Gunner was certain she would be more than pleased with their final tally.
They were coming up on Jake’s house when Gunner spotted someone by the decaying rubble of what used to be Henry’s Auto Service. Gunner pulled into the grass covered lot. His headlights caught Russ James like a deer.
Gunner and Jake got out and walked toward the cowering man.
He ran away from the dumpsters and into the husk of the auto shop.
Jake followed as Gunner walked around to the front of the building. He heard a shattering of glass, followed by a loud screech. Opening the old bay door, he saw Russ James had severed Jake’s tentacle with a large glass pane from the broken window to the side door. Russ turned to Gunner and charged at him, smashing him in the face with an old metal pole.
Gunner fell back as the town loon ran for the road, dragging the pipe with him.
“You can’t have me, I won’t go,” he said.
Jake Newman appeared around the side, striding after him, severed tentacle leaking brown mucus as he went.
Gunner got to his feet and went to the truck. Pulling around, he caught up with the duo just as Jake latched his good tentacle around the pipe and ripped it from the crazy man’s grasp. Russ then charged and tackled Jake to the ground. Gunner floored it. When Russ looked up, Gunner’s bumper slammed into his face. A sickening crunch and thump followed.
Gunner parked and went back to see the results of his actions.
Russ James’s body had been snapped completely backwards. His back laid flat against his boot heels.
Unfortunately, Gunner had also run over Jake. The young guy was squished in multiple places, brown gunk leaking out everywhere. His head had been pulverized like a melon.
Gunner got back in his truck and continued to the lake.
The rest of his ride was free of any interruptions.
The roadside near the lake entrance was lined with abandoned cars and trucks, some still running, headlights illuminating the woods beyond.
Gunner pulled up alongside
a pickup. He opened the Ram’s door to find his group stirring. One by one, they climbed from the truck. When the last, Paulette LePage, got out, he led them from the road and into the woods, to the lake.
They were the last to arrive.
The time had come.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“And the last are here,” Greg said. Standing upon the rock at the water’s edge, he raised and extended his arms over his head. The intense green light unleashed from his gaze reached out to the congregation, bathed them in the wondrous green light. His arms stretched and morphed into black tentacles. The storm ripping over the lake, finally unleashed the rain. The normally calm waters of Jade Lake came to violent life. Waves swelled where they shouldn’t be. The lake was as alive and active as the ocean in the path of a hurricane.
“We shall begin.”
He nodded to Ginny, Mark, and Jennifer Neilson. They had been tasked with finishing off the small crew gathered at the Truman house. He watched as the three walked forward, into the crashing waves until they were swallowed.
“The Century Moon is with us. This power…do you feel it?” he shouted over the weather. “She is coming. And she is so very pleased. One hundred years ago, the people of Avalon heard her call, felt her strength, her faith, and were given her great gift. As have all of you. Like you, like me, they came to her. They joined her here under the Century Moon, in the eye of the storm, and gave themselves to her. I want to see your faith. I want to see your loyalty. Your allegiance.
Their perfect, empty faces gazed up at him. Pelted by rain, pushed by the wind, splashed by each breaking wave, they were ready. How easy it had been to instill within them that a better place, a greater place awaited them–the chosen—that the invitation was too impressive to pass up, the opportunity was more than they deserved, yet here it was presented to them in living color and in full force.
She’d shown him first. Though that wasn’t quite right, was it? There had been the other, the diseased one. The broken one. Well, Greg had been the first capable vessel. And as her right hand, he had accomplished all that was set out for him. As those who had come before, he would deliver her a bounty of flesh and souls, of the innocent and the corrupt alike. She would rise from the waters free for a moment to accept her devotion, collect her chosen, and bathe in their life.
“Feel her gift. Let your eyes shine upon her. Show her your appreciation.”
The green glow ignited and spread between them. Facing the raging lake, the emerald glow met the intensity of the storm. Within seconds, she answered. The dark waters lit up in an amazing jade luminance. The entire lake glowed.
“One-by-one, go to her. Become!”
And so they did, not a word spoken between them. The townspeople of Avalon waded into the lake, one after the other, in a slow march of solidarity and devotion. And with each soul delivered, the glow of the lake intensified.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Michele carried the bag Mae had packed, Alice at her side clutching her arm. The sky opened above them delivering a heavy downpour. She led Alice inside where they joined the sheriff, Mae, and a terrible-looking guy she’d never seen before. His skin looked like it’d been sucked dry of all its blood. His mouth looked painfully sore, and his eyes were rimmed in red. He looked like a monster. Alice let out a sharp breath as she noticed him, and tucked herself behind Michele.
“Who is he?” Michele said.
His eyes set upon her. She felt her insides squirm.
“This is Clint Truman, he’s someone who…” the sheriff looked like he was searching for the right words. “Someone who is here to help.”
“I know how I look, but I am here to do as the sheriff said. I will help.”
“Help how?” Michele said.
“I know what they can do, what they want, I–”
“You’re one of them.”
“Shane?” Mae said. “That’s not right, is it?”
“Now listen, before you get any ideas…” Shane said.
Mae unshouldered the rifle and aimed it at the sick man.
“Now hold on, Mae, hold on.”
Michele pawed through the bag, and found the pistol. She pulled the gun, following Mae’s lead.
“Holy Christ,” Shane stepped in front of the guy. “Both of you lower your goddamn weapons!”
“You didn’t see what happened today,” Mae said. “You didn’t see what they can do. What they’re capable of if you give them the opportunity. We’ve seen too much to stand side-by-side with one of them. Now Shane Keenan Davis you step aside this instant and let us–”
“I most certainly will not. Mae, you know I don’t trust anyone willy nilly. I know what this fella is. I know what he’s capable of. I’ve seen what he can do, but you must trust me. He is not like the others. Look at him for Christ’s sake. He’s dying.”
“What do they want?” Michele said, gun still aimed at his face.
Mae lowered the rifle.
“Michele, you too.” The sheriff said.
She acquiesced.
Together, the sheriff and Clint filled them in on what they knew. When they were done, there was only one option left.
“So, we have to get out of here? Leave Avalon for good?” Michele said.
“Oh, Christ, Shane, what about all those people? Those are our neighbors and friends. You expect us to just leave them? Give them to this, this lady of the lake?” Mae said.
“They are beyond saving. It’s too late. Once they’re changed, there is no going back. The people we know are gone.”
Michele bit her lip to keep it from trembling. She hoped that there was still a way to get her father back. She held that belief to her heart like an anchor.
“What about you,” she said. “What about you? If you have this thing in you, why are you still you?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I believe is has to do with the fact that I’m sick. I was ill before she got a hold of me. They have left me alone since it happened. Unlike the rest where they call them to the lake and somehow appear to be communicating some directive, I have been cut off, cast out, I guess.”
“If you haven’t been with them, how do you know all this? Can you…hear them? Hear this call?” Michele said.
“No…I… They took someone from me that I never should have had. They called for her. She went to them…then, the one at the jailhouse came in and said I was to be eliminated.” He raised his gaze. “But I killed him first.”
“So,” Mae said. “They’re afraid of you.”
“What? I…I don’t know…”
“What did you mean when you said they took someone you shouldn’t have had?” Michele stood, the gun in her hand resting by her leg.
Clint looked away.
The sheriff stood. “We can discuss all this once we’re out of here. I don’t want to be here when they accomplish whatever it is they have planned. Now, everyone, let’s get to the cars. We can drive to Bangor and sort this thing out someplace safe.”
“Shouldn’t you be calling other cops or the National Guard or something?” Michele said.
“And tell them what exactly? That my town is under the spell of some creature from the lake? That they have eyes that glow like something out of a Stephen King novel? That their hands turn into tentacles?”
She thought about the Stephen King book she’d fallen asleep reading the other night. Jesus, was that last night? She couldn’t tell. She thought of the way the thing buried in the ground was changing that woman in the story.
She clammed up.
“Now,” the sheriff said. “Everyone. Outside. Let’s go.”
They filed out through the front door, and Michele laid the gun on the top of the bag, brought it up over her shoulder and hefted Alice up on her hip.
“We’re going to be okay, you and me,” she said.
“Promise?” Alice said.
“I promise.” She kissed the girl on the cheek. “Come on”
The rain was coming down so fast and
hard. It pounded against the porch roof, the tops of the vehicles; it felt and sounded like they were being attacked by the deluge.
“Mae, you and the girl’s get in my car. Clint, you take the other cruiser. Our best route is probably to head back toward town and get the hell out as fast as we can.”
“Why not just go right? Where does this road go?” Michele said.
“It’s just takes us the long way around the lake. We’d still end up in the same spot, only it would take more time and be a lot more back road driving. I’d rather get back to where there’s people that don’t want to change me.”
The sheriff was right.
“Shane!” Mae screamed.
Michele turned and saw the trio approaching from around the side of the house.
“Jennifer?” she said, the words falling from her mouth.
Their eyes began to ignite, shining a green glow through the storm. Tentacle arms raised, they split up. Uncle Mike circled toward the end of the driveway blocking them in, Aunt Ginny head straight for Clint and Sheriff Davis, and Jennifer came for her and Alice.
“We cannot let you leave,” Ginny said. “She will not allow it. You will come with us or die here.”
“Afraid that’s not going to work for us,” the sheriff raised his gun and fired. The bullet ripped through Aunt Ginny’s shoulder, but she managed to keep her feet and extend one of her tentacles at him. It curled around his ankles, and as he fired a second shot he was pulled to his back and was dragged away.
Jennifer’s tentacles came hurling at her and Alice. Michele shoved Alice toward the front door. “Get inside!” she said.
Jennifer missed Alice, and the girl got inside and slammed the door.
The other tentacle slapped across the porch, slipping by Michele’s leg. She reached in the bag for the gun but it wasn’t there. In a panic, she glanced across the porch. It was gone.
Jennifer used her disgusting new appendages to lift herself over the porch railing. Michele tried to crawl for the steps, but the slimy tentacle started to wrap around her throat.
She was being choked.
