Each one would have been placed there with love. The family once must have been whole and loving until Barry had become ill and obsessed sounding about the unknown people he called them'.
"Barry, where have you gone?" Callie called from the room furthest away from me down the corridor.
No answer in reply.
Which told me that he was hiding out somewhere, or with any luck had fallen asleep; which would give me time to get everyone to safety.
Outside waited the entire patrol, each car backed a safe distance away, and each officer armed ready to fire their own shots at Barry to put a stop to this charade he was insistent on carrying through to the bitter end.
I stayed where was, a while longer, before I squeezed my body through the gap in the door. I was a little unsure whether to trust my own luck right now and push the door, but I was worried
In case the door creaked when I opened it wider, so it was safer to squeeze.
The corridor deserted, the polished wooden floor gleaming with the light that hit it from the window pane in the front door which had been barricaded with many items of furniture to stop any sudden reign of terror from the cops outside. Each time I moved, I held my breath expecting to be shot in the back, or the head but still no noise was being made in the house. Barry was nowhere to be seen, his disappearance somewhat worrying considering he was armed and extremely dangerous.
Chapter Two
The door to the room where Callie had been heard from was open, and I peered around to see what the situation was.
Callie was tied to the chair, and the children were tied back to back on another chair beside her, their heads resting on their chests where they had both fallen asleep with the exhaustion and confusion.
Callie's head snapped around in the chair, and her eyes met mine with surprise filling their depths, her anxious nodding at the children made me place my finger to my lips to silence her, Barry could be anywhere and I didn’t want to risk anyone lives from his anger.
I entered the room and used my training to check my surroundings, and to get my gun.
I walked over to Callie, and freed her hands and legs where they had been bound to the chair, she gave me a small smile and her lips quivered answered any questions of being grateful in this volatile situation.
While Callie freed the children and hushed them to keep quiet, I continued to survey our surroundings, the last thing I needed now they were free, was for Barry to reappear.
The shadows started to fall over the lounge, started to vanish the light that had helped me to walk through and find them, I just hoped we would be able to get out alive because I didn’t know the layout of the house.
Callie gripped my upper arm and pointed in the direction of the room opposite and pointed to the picture of their wedding day.
Their happy faces smiling back at the camera and Barry standing next to Callie, his face finally showing itself to me, so I knew who I was expected to face when he came out of hiding.
"Do you know where he is?" I whispered.
"No, he scuffled down the corridor and didn’t come back," she said and thought for a moment. "He might be in the spare room. He likes it in there," she added and pointed in the direction of the room.
I nodded and stood still for a few minutes, I heard the clock tick on by.
I listened intently to pick out the breathing of Barry from down the corridor, and without any effort at all the soft snores of someone sleeping met my ears and answered my earlier question to myself about what he was doing.
The shadow on the far wall seemed to have moved of its own will, none of us had moved, and this made me feel wary, either there was someone else in the house with us or something that I didn’t know. I waited for a little while, trying to decide what to do.
The front door, which would have been the better escape and most direct was all boarded and barricaded to stop anyone entering or leaving.
That only left the back door, but knowing hostage situations it was unlikely we would be able to use that one as our escape because it would be most likely boarded up as well to prevent any escape. The way I'd entered the house would be too noisy and risky to the children, their clambering about when they tried to get out would be loud and alert Barry to a presence in the house.
Now, I felt trapped inside the house with Callie and her two small children clinging to her side, I decided to try the windows in the lounge, but first I need to signal somehow to my colleagues that it was one of their own getting out.
"Do you have a torch anywhere?" I asked.
I kept my voice extremely quiet.
"Yes, in the kitchen this is down there on the right. The torch is in the first draw on your right as you enter the room," she said.
I nodded and headed off in the direction she had pointed, the shadow from earlier seemed to follow me, and now it had been joined by my own shadow when I walked down the corridor which had become dimmed by the light fading outside.
My back burned and itched for me to do something, as it had every time I went near Sam, and I had no idea why it was happening more often than before.
The kitchen was spacious when I reached the doorway, and I located the draw with ease and pulled out the torch. When I returned with silent steps back to Callie and her children, their anxious gazes met my own.
"I want you all to stay behind the sofa for me, don’t move until I tell you too," I ordered and pulled the sofa out. "And keep as quiet as you can"
All three did as I instructed, which left me free to listen to sounds coming our way from down the corridor and signal my waiting colleagues that are outside. I gently opened the curtains and flashed away in Morse code to my colleagues outside. Something I had learnt, but I couldn't remember when.
'This is Zera. I’m inside. The mother and children are safe. We are finding a way out” I flashed this message over and over again and waited for my answering reply.
'We got you, find a way out' came the answering reply.
I sighed, knowing the attempts I had to make to leave the building, just as the snoring stopped and the scuffling of feet began to come down the corridor.
I motioned to Callie, who had popped her head out from behind the sofa. Her eyes looked frightened, and her arm held her two boys tightly.
They all relied on me, to help them, to get them free, and I had no idea how I was going to do it without the boys hearing something that would surely give them nightmares for some years into their young lives.
"Callie! Callie!" Barry called from the corridor.
I nodded to Callie to answer him, allowing her to let him know she was still in the room.
"I'm here, Barry," she called in response.
The footsteps stopped somewhere in the corridor, and the huffing of his breathing filled the silence.
The shadow descended down the wall and hovered in front of me, as if it had been waiting to make a move but what for I had no idea and I didn’t know who the shadow belonged too, the only thing was for certain and that it seemed particularly interested in me.
Barry entered the room, the stale stench of alcohol followed him, making bile rise in my throat, the smell was overpowering beyond belief.
Callie came crawling out from behind the sofa followed by both of the children. Their small faces frightened and they stood clinging to Callie's skirts in fear.
Barry’s footsteps began to get closer, and I pushed Callie, and the children behind me to protect them from him. He staggered into the walls and made the noise seem louder in the room where all the furniture had been removed to barricade the front door.
“What are you doing?” He asked, when he finally staggered into the room, his gun in his hands.
“Nothing, Barry.” Callie replied clearly.
Barry had stopped.
He closed his eyes, and gripped hold of the door frame, his body swaying when slightly, when he eventually opened his eyes, the shock that I saw in them when he realised they weren’t alone. His eyes crossed to mine
, and he looked at me, his eyes narrowed suddenly, and the anger filled his eyes, the rage reddened his face.
“What are you doing here?” He demanded.
“I’m with the police; I’ve come to help you, Barry.” I answered calmly. “Will you let me help you?” I asked.
“Get out of my house!” He bellowed in response, waving the gun at me.
His face appeared the same colour of a tomato, and it was then the shadow crawled closer to me, and began to surround me, Callie, and the children.
“I haven’t come to take your family, I wanted to talk to you,” I said gently “Who are you afraid off? Maybe we can help you,”
“You can’t help me, you can’t see them. There’s one right around you now. They’re everywhere; no one believes me, but they are here,” he answered.
His body language became agitated when he spoke, and his eyes began to become large with fear when he spoke about the one surrounding me.
“What’s surrounding me, Barry?” I asked
“The others, they’re here, they will destroy us all. You haven’t seen them, have you?” he said.
“Barry, I think you need some help,” I stated. “Won’t you come outside with me? We can help you to sort this entire out, so you won’t be frightened anymore,”
“What and end up in a nut house? I’m not crazy. It’s just you don’t know who they are. You don’t have any idea, but I have seen them. All around us, the shadows that move, they wrap themselves around you and squeeze you dry until your nothing but bones,”
“What the shadows?” I asked feeling the chill of his words.
The shadow that had been following me was surrounding us right now, protective in a little circle, and if his words were truthful then we might be in trouble ourselves.
“You can’t stop them, nobody can.” he insisted.
I watched in horror when Barry lifted his gun into the air and aimed at me, the barrel of the gun centre metres from my face, and Barry held his hands steady and firmly. The slight bead of sweat began to crawl its way down my face, for the first time, that I could remember I was facing the fear of death. Callie cried out behind me and pushed the children backwards even further, I placed my hand in her own to comfort her, to stop the crying and tears and for reassurance.
This was by far the most volatile situation I’d been involved in, the barrel still pointing at me, and Barry smirked in an uneasy way, his drunken smell filled the room and collapsed any oxygen that might remain there for us.
With my own hand resting on my gun that was still tucked away in my belt, my pulse picked up, and the burning down my scar began to get unbearable making me want to collapse or do something else that I wasn’t quite sure off.
“Barry, you don’t have to do this,” I said
“Oh, but I do. It’s the only way. I was going to take me, and my family to a better place, but your here, so I have to take you with us,” he replied. “You’ll see that I was right, it’s a much better world than this one. And in the end we will all die before our time anyway, the shadows will get closer, and they swallow us and devour us”
My mind scrambled to make sense of what he was saying; he appeared before me as if he was deranged, gabbling on about some shadows devouring humans.
It all sounded absurd, and he desperately needed some help from a psychiatrist, probably the mental health team may take over his case, and give him the best possible care away from human contact for a while until he was better.
Barry still held his gun pointed at me.
Callie remained behind me; her skirt pulled backwards where the children had pulled it around themselves and remained huddled together, the sound of my voice when I spoke seemed dull to my own ears and my own extraordinary hearing.
I watched in complete fascination when Barry’s finger flipped the safety switch off the gun, and it then rested on the trigger.
“This is it.” He smiled.
His finger pressed firmly on the trigger; the loud bang ricocheted around the room, and the screams of children and females met my ears.
Surprisingly the shadow enveloped me tighter, and I watched the bullet in slow motion, like my mind had slowed time itself and the bullet came flinging through the air at high speed but hit the shadow directly and dropped with a cling’ to the floor and lay motionless.
My fingers felt my body for any wounds, and I couldn’t find any blood. Callie had pulled my hand tighter to symbolise she was alright, and Barry stared motionless, mouth agape when he realised he’d failed. The shadow collected itself and gathered around me again, and I heard Callie behind me sigh and then collapse to the floor taking both of the children with her. Not bothering to turn around because I couldn’t, Callie and the children were safer unconscious than facing the horror of their dominant male threatening to take their lives, and now my own.
With fascination, Barry drew the gun towards me again, and this time his finger slightly trembled, my own eyes met his, and we remained watching each other. Two more shadows joined the first and climbed down the walls gradually surrounding the first, and gathering fully in front of me to protect my life, They collected themselves and began to form in front of us both, they formed into the silhouettes of men with wings. Each face hadn’t become clear that I could see, and they didn’t seem to mind or have any issue with letting themselves become known in front of humans, whatever they were.
“See! They’re coming.” He screeched waving the gun at all of them as he wasn’t sure which one to shoot at first “Your one of them, aren’t you?” He demanded.
“Barry, listen. I have no idea who they are, this is the first time I have seen them. Have you seen them before?” I asked hurriedly.
I needed some answers, before these shadow things came alive in front of me; I needed to know the threat was in directed at me.
“Yes, it’s them. They will form into birds of prey, but more like men with wings, like a volcan I suppose” He answered.
“Will they harm us?” I asked.
“I’ve seen them kill outside, now they’re after us because we know too much.”
Still when we were speaking the shadows had become to symbolise a man, but their back had enormous wings attached which their colours had started to come through, they were golden and brown streaks. I had never seen such beauty before in my life; well I don’t think I have any way from what I can remember.
Stumbling backwards, when I recognised the first man-bird in front of me, it was Sam, his human features had remained, but his wings had exploded behind him along with feet of a bird rather than human feet. I gasped audibly into the now silent room, and watched when Sam’s closest of friends who were also part of the force joined at his sides. Each one standing tall and proud in front Barry, their faces a mixture of concern and the thread of fear.
“Greetings, my name is Samious Charlton, leader of the Volcans. We gladly make your acquaintance,” Sam said and stood waiting for a replying answer from Barry who could only stand in front of him, the shock written on his face.
“You’re real,” Barry spluttered and continued to stare.
“We are indeed, but we are not the evil you believe us to be. We come in peace to your world and wish only to remain amongst you, to protect your race from harm,” Sam explained.
“I saw you. Many times. You’ve devoured people with your shadows,”
“No! That wasn’t us, there are others Barry, but we will remain to protect you from them. Please trust us.” Sam insisted.
I waited silently behind them, all of the strange winged men in front of me standing and facing Barry. I felt like I must be in a dream and that this wasn’t really happening around me, but then it was Sami stood there in front of me, still himself for the exception of his wing that had protruded from out of his back somewhere.
“How can I trust you? You can’t be real,” Barry stated and stood with his gun still poised at us all.
“We are real, the ones you have witnessed are the evil ones of our
kind, the ones that will defy all the rules the Volcan's have set for years,” Sami replied his gaze steady and watchful of the movements of the man in front of him.
“I just want my wife and my children, we can have a better life on the other side,” he insisted.
“Trust me,” Sam said. “It doesn’t have to be this way,”
“What does that mean?” He asked, looking confused and irritated.
I watched in horror, Barry lifted his gun again, this time putting it the temple of his own head, pulling the trigger. It was from this moment that everything appeared in slow motion, like I was here but I wasn’t at the same time, the gun exploded and so did Barry’s head, the wall quickly splattered with blood, and his body fell to the ground.
“Jesus Sam,” Mike muttered. “You could have stopped him,”
“What chance did I have?” Sam demanded. “You saw how fast he reacted, there wasn’t anything I could do, the best we can all do now is leave before they come into the house,”
“Err...Sam?” I hesitated, I wasn’t sure what his name was anymore, was it Sam or did I have to call him Sameous?
“Zera,” He breathed. “Meet us outside, we have a lot to talk about,”
I nodded, numbed by the shock of watching Barry’s head explode, slowly, Sam and the others dissipated themselves, gradually becoming nothing more than shadows.
I waited for the police to come storming into the house, it wasn’t long before they obliged and found me, huddled in the corner with the children in my arms, trying to shield them from the awful carnage of their fathers head in pieces.
Their small, muffled cries, and their pleading for the mother continued until eventually a female office took them from me, I remained where I was, completely shocked and saddened that nothing could have been done to help Barry, his mental torture at seeing the shadow’s, and his actions had eventually twisted themselves into him taking his own life, while his wife was still unconscious on the floor, I didn’t have a clue or any understanding to what Sam had done to her, I only hoped it wasn’t to serious and that she would make a full recovery, for the boys sake.
Volcan Knights Page 2
