The Revenants

by Castle, Jack

  But Peyton was keen and picked up on the omission. “So what happened to the other firefighters, did they stay at the crash site?” Peyton bit her lower lip and her eyes went up into the corner before she said, “I heard Wally say something about how his buddy killed two other people?”

  “Really?” Becca asked, vying for time. In the end she was too tired to lie. “Yeah, that happened too, but I’m sure we’re plenty safe here.”

  “I know that,” Peyton said, putting up a brave front, her eyes darting toward her gun on the night table.

  Geez. This girl is really hard to like.

  Shoot her! Donnie’s voice came from the closet this time.

  Becca merely rolled her eyes.

  “So what happened to you?” Becca asked.

  “Me?” Peyton asked.

  “Yeah, you. Do you remember anything before the crash?” Becca knew she shouldn’t have asked. The moment she saw the fear painted on Peyton’s face she regretted asking immediately.

  “When I woke up the bus was crashed on its nose like this.” Peyton put her fingertips on the nightstand and pointed to them with her other hand. “This is where the driver was, all mushed up.”

  Becca wasn’t quite sure she was following what Peyton was saying. “So you were the only survivor? And everyone else was…”

  Peyton’s brow furrowed, and her lips pursed. This was the first time she had shown any emotion other than really pissed off. Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes and she could only nod.

  “Peyton,” Becca began. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  The young girl started to say something, but it came out garbled. Peyton then quickly kicked off her tennies (including the one flecked with blood), climbed under the sheets without saying another word, and rolled over to the window so Becca wouldn’t see her cry.

  “I’m sorry,” Becca said softly, but Peyton only continued to muffle her sobs into her pillow.

  Smooth move, Becca-Bear. Real great. Poor girl loses all of her friends in one night and you treat her like a spoiled brat. Ever occur to you that she’s in shock?’

  Exhausted, Becca decided she might as well try and get some sleep. Before climbing under the covers she made sure Peyton had locked the door. For added measure she brought over a small wooden chair and propped it under the door handle.

  I don’t think that’s going to keep ghosts out, lass, do you?

  ‘It’s not the ghosts I’m worried about,’ she started to say out loud, but then remembered Peyton was in the room with her and might be listening.

  Before climbing into bed she decided not to take off her boots in case she needed to vamanos quickly, but staring at Peyton’s empty tennies on the floor, she decided what they both needed more than anything else tonight was a good night’s rest. As she unlaced her boots, the 1911 on the nightstand was comforting.

  ‘Damn, I don’t even have a pair of socks to my name,’ she thought, slipping her bare feet out of her boots and placing them beneath the covers. ‘Have to remedy that at the gift shop in the morning.’

  As she put head to pillow she started thinking tactfully, ‘How do you fight a ghost?’ The theme of Ghostbusters quickly ran through her head.

  Ah, I love that movie.

  Ignoring Donnie she thought, too bad there’s no such thing as Ghostbusters.

  Ah, but there is such things as ghosts, ya know that now, don’t ya, lass? Then Donnie opened the closet doors like a parting curtain, stepped out of the closet and began singing the Christmas Kewpie Doll’s song, ‘I’ll be home for Christmas.’

  Becca reached out to the chain dangling beneath the lamp and was about to turn off the light with a quick yank of the cord when Peyton’s teeny-tiny voice asked, “Could you leave the light on please?”

  Becca nodded, which was dumb, because Peyton was still curled up and facing the other way. “Sure, kid,” she answered. “Whatever you want.”

  As Donnie danced around the room singing, Becca left the lamp on, illuminating the 1911 on the nightstand as though it were a spotlighted museum piece. Her back was aching, probably from when Big Leonard’s truck bounced over the dead coyote. Where’s my meds? Crap. I left them in my gear bag…which I left in the ambulance.

  She rolled over to face away from Peyton and stared at the rattling vent on the wall again, finding some small comfort in the ambient noise, which was just loud enough to drown out Donnie’s singing

  Oddly enough, the last thing she thought of, as she drifted off to Never-Ever-Awake-Again land was this, ‘How did Peyton survive such a horrific bus crash when no one else did, and without so much as a scratch on her?’

  (I bet you’ve been wondering this all along as well)

  Hearing her thoughts, Donnie stopped singing and leaning his face close to hers he answered, Ah… now there’s the real question lass…isn’t it.

  “Good night, Donnie,” she mumbled sleepily.

  Nighty-night!

  And with a quick yank of the chain, Donnie switched off the light.

  Chapter 19

  Tin Can

  “Man, I’m starving.”

  Wally grabbed a Snickers off the candy rack, ripped off the wrapper with his teeth, and bit the chocolate bar in half in one bite like a Great White shark on Shark Week. He sighed heavily. Snickers always were his candy bar of choice.

  “Boy, have you got the right idea,” the big lineman said beside him, and began stuffing his pockets with food.

  “Hey,” Wally asked with mock seriousness. “You want to leave some of those for me?”

  “I’m not exactly what you call a light eater.”

  “Really, no kidding,” Wally quipped back and then studied the big man as though seeing him truly for the first time. In another life, they could’ve been friends. Who knew how many times they had eaten in the same diner, traveled the same road, or shopped in the same grocery store.

  They continued stuffing their pockets with foodstuffs when Wally asked, “You think we should write all the stuff we’re taking down on a piece of paper or something?”

  Big Leonard glanced over at him with raised eyebrows. His expression said, ‘Man, you really are a Boy Scout.’ But then he surprised Wally by asking, “If you didn’t bring us to the gift shop to load us up on snacks, why did you bring us here then?” While waiting for him to answer Big Leonard tore into a peanuty-looking candy bar.

  Wally could smell the peanut butter and nuts and wondered aloud, “Where are those?” No, Wally, got to focus. “I brought us here so we could see what kind of emergency supplies we have, you know, flashlights, candles, and such.” He selected an oversized flashlight, snapped it on, and played the bright beam over his hand. “I didn’t want to scare the others but if we get snowed in here for a few days I want to see what kind of inventory we’re dealing with here.”

  “Ah, peanut-butter-butter bar, the second greatest candy bar ever,” Big Leonard said greedily, then loaded up some more bars into his coat pockets. “Wait, what did you just say? You think we might be stuck here for days?”

  “It’s possible.”

  Big Leonard flashed him a big toothy grin. “Alright, put me down on your I-Owe-You list for a couple of candy bars and a Diet Coke?” When he saw Wally staring at him he explained, “I know, I know. I like the taste, okay?”

  Big Leonard then went over to the freezer, stared solemnly at the beer behind the glass for a moment. He opened the glass door and grabbed a six pack of cheap beer and held it to his chest for a few seconds. He must’ve thought better of it because he then put it back.

  Whew, good. That’s the last thing we need is Chewbacca getting drunk on us and going apeshit. Pretty much the standard scenario for every horror flick, the drunken redneck causing problems, but the big lineman continued to surprise him.

  That’s when Wally heard it. A scraping sound. Like metal scratching on metal, then it changed, to more like a coffee can rattling sound.

  “You hear that?” Wally asked the big lineman.

/>   Before Big Leonard could respond they heard it again …scrape-scrape-scrape, Then it stopped. Then it started again …scrape-scrape-scrape Then it stopped.

  Without saying a word the two of them split up and canvased the aisles of the motel’s little gift shop. Even though they had taken different paths they followed the sound to the same single metal can sitting on a shelf in the middle of the store.

  Big Leonard was the first one to arrive and stood before it. Wally soon closed in to stand next to him. “Did ya find it?” Wally started to ask, but the big lineman held up a finger, shushing him and then finally said, “Just watch.”

  The two of them just stood there like that, like idiots, staring at a stupid can. What are we doing? Wally asked himself. With all the problems we have going on right now?

  As cans go, it wasn’t even an impressive looking can. Someone had peeled off the label so all you could see was a shiny metal can with rings, so there was no way you could even tell what was inside.

  Wally was pretty sure this was where the sound had come from. Another odd thing was everything to the right of the can had been shoved away, as though some invisible arm had forced it away. And same thing on the left. It was as though all the other normal cans had a life of their own and none of them wanted anything to do with this unlabeled can.

  That should have been their first clue.

  It wasn’t.

  (They don’t know it right now but they might as well have been looking down the barrel of a loaded shotgun ready to go off in an instant and kill them both. Let’s see what happens, shall we?)

  “What am I waiting for?” Wally asked the big man.

  “Just watch.” The Big Lineman refused to take his intense gaze off the can for even a second.

  Then the can sort of… rippled, as though it were underwater.

  Before Wally could ask Big Leonard if he was seeing it too, the can moved. It just slid over on the shelf to the right a couple inches, all by its lonesome. Neither of them had touched it.

  When it happened Wally took a decisive step back. “Holy crap, did you see that?” Big Leonard just stood there smiling that big oafish grin of his. “You saw that, right? You saw it move?”

  “Maybe it’s some kind of trick can,” Wally offered. “Like magnets or something. It’s got to be some kind of trick, right? I mean, cans don’t move on their own.” He ducked his head low so he could inspect underneath the shelf but there was nothing out of the ordinary.

  The can rattled again, only this time, instead of a decisive slide, it sort of jiggled back and forth.

  Big Leonard lifted a big meaty paw to grab it. Before he could Wally’s hand shot out and encircled the big man’s wrist, well, almost

  “What are you doing? It’s just a can.”

  “Yeah, but it’s a can that’s moving all by itself,” Wally explained.

  Big Leonard exhaled heavily through a mouthful of grinning teeth. “Dude, it’s just a gag.”

  Wally let go of the big man’s wrist. “Leonard?”

  “Yeah?”

  “After everything we’ve seen tonight, do you really want to touch that thing?”

  The big lineman let out a big, “Phffttt,” then turned to Wally. “What, you’re scared of a little soup can?”

  But Wally wasn’t buying a ticket into Crazy Town. “If you had seen what we saw tonight, trust me, you wouldn’t touch it.”

  The can continued to rattle, but now Big Leonard appeared as though he was thinking that leaving the can alone might actually be a good idea. Eventually, he pulled his hand back.

  Wally nodded. “Alright, let’s go find some flashlights.” He turned away, which is why he had only glimpsed what happened next. He wasn’t entirely sure, and he certainly couldn’t have sworn on a stack of Bibles, but he was fairly certain he saw the can fly off the shelf as though shot out of a cannon, flip through the air with a quick swishing sound, and strike Big Leonard right in the forehead with a loud THWOCK.

  Hearing this, Wally spun all the way back around toward Leonard. The man’s legs quivered like noodles for a second before dropping him into the shelves opposite the mysterious can. Big Leonard’s arms flailed widely to keep his balance but he only managed to take out more shelving units and nearly everything else on them.

  Moving to his side, Wally asked, “Holy crap, are you alright?”

  “Huh,” was all the Big Lineman could answer and just sat there on the floor, his legs splayed in a V-formation, his eyes those of a shocked and terrified child. A small bead of blood seeped down from his forehead where the can had smashed into his skull. “I didn’t… I didn’t touch it. It… it attacked me.”

  Wally knew better than to say anything, but it didn’t stop him anyway. “I told you not to touch it.”

  The label-less can rolled across the floor like a normal can rolling across the floor after it had fallen off a shelf. Not taking any chances Wally swiftly punted it down the aisle and part of him was waiting for it to whip back toward them a second time.

  Thankfully, it didn’t.

  With an expression reserved only for the dazed and confused Big Leonard reached up, touched the bloody welt on his forehead, and muttered groggily, “I think I’m bleeding.”

  “C’mon, big guy,” Wally said, putting his hands under the big man’s arm and tugging him upward. “Let’s get you outta here and into your room where I can clean that up for you, maybe get you a bandage.”

  It took all his strength to hoist the big man to his feet. After slinging Big Leonard’s arm over his shoulder, they were about to exit the aisle in the direction Wally had booted the can. Realizing this, and without saying a word, they both shuffled to turn around in the small aisle and proceeded to exit the gift shop in the other direction.

  (There are so many different events happening here. How are they all linked? In case you can’t tell… I’m being sarcastic.)

  (Alright, want a hint?)

  (The middle-aged nerd’s got a pretty good handle on it.)

  (What nerd you ask?)

  (OH! That’s right. You haven’t met him yet. Sorry. The whole time and space relativity thing is such a drag. I must admit. Sometimes it gets the best of me.)

  (What’s his name?) (I honestly have no idea who you’re talking about.)

  (Did I mention I have this whole issue with lying?)

  (Cause I don’t)

  Chapter 20

  Little Pests

  Becca woke up.

  The lamp was still on, but that’s not what woke her up.

  What is that infernal rattling noise? ‘Huh, since when do you use words like infernal? Answer? Never.’

  Through half-slit eyelids she saw that it was. Oh yeah, the stupid metal vent on the wall rattling. Still half-asleep, she began to open her eyes. As her vision cleared she asked herself, What the hell is coming out of the vent?

  Spiders.

  Becca hated spiders. Of course, who doesn’t? Except maybe those really weird Goth girls who dye their hair jet-black and have weird tattoos on their faces and necks. At least the spiders coming out of the rattling vent weren’t the big giant fuzzy kind. Nor were they the gigantic desert camel spiders she had encountered in Afghanistan that were known to grow as big as six inches wide, but in truth, she herself had never actually seen one even half that large. No, these were your simple, run-of-the-mill, tiny house spiders. And lots of them.

  Ewww… gross.

  Well, she sure as heck wasn’t going back to bed and have spiders crawling over her in her sleep. So she got out of bed, grabbed her combat boot off the floor. Easy enough to squish. And using her boot like a glove, and making as little noise as possible so as not to wake Peyton, she flattened the trio of little pests crawling on the wall that had just exited the vent.

  The only problem was, they just kept coming. Dozens of the little buggers. There was nothing supernatural about it. She had seen this before. Probably a bloated spider mama in the ducts who gave birth and now they were all on a mass exod
us out of the wall and into the world, which just happened to be her motel room.

  Oh, lucky day! Donnie’s voice said, but the rest of him was thankfully absent.

  Well, three or thirty, Becca wasn’t about to go back to sleep and have them crawling all over her.

  THUMP!

  With her hand still inside her boot she flattened at least a dozen more.

  And they were still coming.

  THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

  Another twenty tiny insects were now flattened on the wall, painting it black with a little bit of red mixed in.

  Lass, we are definitely not getting our deposit back now.

  THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

  A few of the little bastards actually had the audacity to climb up her boot and were working their way up her forearm.

  “Ouch!”

  And they bite.

  Becca didn’t know house spiders could actually bite you. Could they?

  When she lifted her gaze from the fresh welt on her forearm to the wall space beneath the vent she saw a moving mass of black writhing insects. Many had dropped to the floor and were now going on the offensive, crawling across the floor toward her bare feet. She quickly backed up on her toes until she was at her bed. And they still pursued her. She crawled up onto her bed. Sitting on her shins, she swiped several of them off the sheets, and her arms, with the palms of her hands.

  This was quickly turning into a losing battle.

  Staying on the bed, she grabbed her other boot off the floor, and shook it free of the nasty bugs.

  Her bed was now surrounded by a moat of arachnids. It was terrifying, but this was no nightmare, of that she was certain. She fought down the urge to yell for help. She figured anyone showing up would just say she was being a big baby. ‘Just a couple house spiders,’ they’d say, and start stepping on the pint-sized bugs. On the other hand, the steady stream of spiders crawling out of the vent had not ceased, so now she thought, If I wait her for help to arrive they will have swarmed me and eaten my flesh down to the bone. All preconceptions of how house spiders were supposed to behave had now gone out the proverbial window.