by Nathan Jay
Dustin grabbed Wilson and Michael by the collar and pulled them away from the building. He walked to the car and dialed his wife’s number.
“Hello? Julia?”
Dustin put his cellphone on speaker.
“Julia?”
“Dustin?”
“Where are you?”
“I was on my way home when our flight got diverted to another airport. Something about a national security issue.”
“Where’s the airport?”
“Somewhere in Asheville.”
“We’re here. Outside in the parking lot. Come out.”
“Wait, how did you know…”
“It’s a long story. The boys are with me.”
“Hi, mom!” yelled Michael.
“Hello, mom!” yelled Wilson.
They could hear their mother crying.
“Hi, boys. I’m coming out soon, okay? Dustin, take me off speakerphone.”
Dustin took her off the speaker.
“Yeah.”
“I’m scared, Dustin. They’re all kinds of stories going around about invasions and attacks.”
“Did they say when they were going to let you all out?”
“It should be any minute.”
Suddenly the phone went dead.
“Hello? Hello? Julia?”
Dustin tossed the cellphone onto the seat.
“It’s dead. Shit!”
Wilson and Michael stared at the entrance of the airport, expecting their mother to emerge.
“She said she would be out any minute. They’re just waiting.”
“Waiting on what?”
“I think it’s some kind of security procedure they have to go through.”
There was a movement amongst the crowd standing in front of the building that caught Wilson’s eye. An elderly woman fell to the ground and started convulsing. Then another person fell. And another.
“Look, Dad! Something’s happening!” yelled Wilson as he opened the passenger door and stood to get a better look. Dustin climbed out of the car and looked. Suddenly the double doors opened, and people started running from the building.
“There’s Julia! I see her!” yelled Dustin. Julia was screaming as she exited the building. Frantically she looked around the parking lot while dozens of people pushed her, almost causing her to fall. Dustin jumped in the car and started pressing the horn to get her attention.
Wilson looked inside the airport through the glass doors.
“They’re here!” he yelled.
Hundreds of large hairy spiders with large fangs came crashing through the glass and started crawling all over the building. The creatures let out a hissing sound as they moved through the crowd grabbing their victims and tossing them back towards the larger group of spiders exiting the building.
“Jesus Christ!” yelled one of the police officers. He took out his weapon and started firing at the enormous spider moving towards him. The spider lifted its two front legs and pushed the officer to the ground. Two other spiders jumped on the man and plunged their long knifelike fangs into his body, and sucked it dry of blood.
Wilson saw a small boy being stepped on by the fleeing mob of people. Two large spiders saw the child struggling to climb to his feet. The creatures started crawling towards the child and snapping their venomous fangs. Quickly, Wilson tapped his eyelid. He didn’t see the spiders anymore. Instead, in place of the spiders, he saw ghostly spirits with twisted faces. The ghosts plunged their hands into the chests of their victims and ripped out their souls. Afterward, the ghouls put the victims’ souls into glowing sacks that each of them carried on their waist.
Wilson tapped his eye again, and the daylight returned.
“They’re not spiders. They’re demons stealing the souls of everyone they kill. We’ve got to get to mom!”
Suddenly, a large spider with red eyes knocked a small boy to the ground and jumped on his back. Wilson tapped his eyelid again and extended his hand. The child underneath the hairy spider closed his eyes and prepared to be killed by the demon. Wilson grabbed the monster, twisted its neck, and hurled it over the building. Two other demons approached the child, but Wilson grabbed them and smashed them into one big mush before throwing them over the building as well. Wilson turned to Michael.
“Come on! Let’s get mom!”
“Bro! Your face!”
Wilson lifted his palm to his face and felt. The veins had returned. Still, there was no time to worry if he wanted to save his mom. He saw two of the demons moving towards her.
“Shoot the two demons closest to mom!” Wilson yelled.
“Demons? I only see spiders!”
“I see them as demons, but you see them as spiders. Don’t worry about that. Shoot anything that looks like it’s getting close to mom!”
Michael placed the triangle over his eye and centered it on the spider. He pressed one of the corners, and a laser shot from the triangle and exploded the creature. The remaining spider jumped on Julia’s back, and she fell face-first onto the ground. Once again, Michael centered the triangle on his target and fired the weapon. The creature exploded, covering his mother in the thick green liquid. Just as Julia got up to run, another spider was in front of her. Michael quickly fired again.
“I’m going to use the big weapon,” he said to Wilson. His brother put his hand over the triangle and lowered it.
“Don’t! Something tells me that we’re going to need it in a few minutes.”
Dustin ran for his wife. As soon as he reached her, another spider attacked. Michael quickly shot the creature and yelled at his father.
“Hurry up, Dad! I can’t hold them back!”
Dustin grabbed Julia by her hand and pulled her to her feet. A spider jumped in front of the couple, but Dustin was ready. He pulled out his gun and fired three shots into the spider’s head. After killing the creature, Dustin pulled his ooze-covered wife to the car, and they climbed in.
“What the hell is going on?” Julia screamed. Michael hugged his mother and started crying.
“I can’t believe we saved you!” he cried as she kissed his face.
“Hi, mom!” said Wilson. Julia let go of Michael and stared at Wilson’s face.
“Jesus! Your face! Your eye!”
“It’s not permanent, mom. I’ll explain later.”
“Dustin! You son of a bitch! Did this happen when he went down south?”
Wilson interrupted his mom.
“It’s not Dad’s fault. Please, Mom. Stop.”
Dustin sped out of the parking lot and made a turn onto the road to exit the airport. Wilson looked in the rearview mirror.
“Oh my God!” yelled Wilson. Dustin looked in the rearview mirror while everyone else turned around. Standing in front of the airport was a tall shadow-like figure. It had no face and had long stringy brown hair with two glowing orbs where its eyes were supposed to be. Although the creature had a muscular build, it seemed to be a giant, towering over the airport building, making the fleeing people seem like children running away.
“What the hell is that?” asked Michael. Wilson knew who it was. It was the Evil One Grandma Noya had mentioned. Julia began crying and hyperventilating.
“Why is this happening? What’s going on?”
Dustin looked in the rearview mirror as the car accelerated. The car clipped the side mirror of an oncoming car and bounced onto the sidewalk. Dustin steadied the steering wheel and turned the car back onto the road.
Wilson looked back at the giant shadow. Although the creature had stopped moving, it seemed to be staring at their car as they tried to make their getaway. The creature extended its arms to the sky and let out a high-pitched scream. Suddenly a wide hole formed in the center of its chest. Wilson watched in horror as thousands of creatures from hell burst from the shadow’s body. Large black wolflike creatures with sharp fangs and long claws grabbed the nearest person in sight and shredded their bodies to pieces; demonic creatures with wings made of fire flew high into the sky an
d began raining fire down on everything causing the nearby forest to start burning.
“Dad. Go!” yelled Wilson.
The ground began to tremble as the monsters ran after the car. Dustin turned his attention to the road and tried not to look back. Although he had the pedal pressed to the floor, he tried to go faster. He dodged oncoming traffic and raced ahead of several vehicles in front of him. Suddenly, Wilson crawled into the backseat.
“Go up front with Dad!” Wilson said to his mother. After pausing a moment to look at the monsters in the sky, Julia climbed into the front seat. As soon as his mother was gone, Wilson tapped his eye. What he saw made him tremble in fear. Total carnage was on the road behind their car. Not only were there monsters in the sky and running after their car, but some creatures were also invisible to everyone else. They were thin human-like creatures with translucent, see-through skin. Wilson could see their black hearts pumping black sludge through the various colored veins within their bodies. Some of the beasts had two heads, and some had one. They didn’t run but instead seemed to glide through the air in pursuit of their victims. Each time the creature fell upon a person, it would yank open the person’s mouth. It thrust its long tongue in, and the tongue would disconnect from the beast, suck the person dry from the inside, and burst from the person’s stomach as a smaller version of the see-through creature. A few seconds later, the demon would grow to adult size and try to repeat the attack.
As the creatures drew closer to the bumper of the car, Wilson extended his hand. He grabbed several of the galloping wolf creatures and smashed his hands together. The two demons yelped and were instantly a pile of mush on the side of the road. Wilson repeated this with ten other creatures. When he turned around to yell to his father, he saw his mother staring at him, unable to speak. Wilson ignored his mother’s catatonic state and turned to Michael.
“Hey! You…”
But Michael already had his triangle out.
“I’m way ahead of you, bro. Just tell me when you want me to let go of the big one.”
Michael aimed his triangle and started destroying the closest creatures. Wilson smiled. He was proud that his little brother had become an expert at using the weapon. Wilson extended his hand to the thin monsters floating in the distance. As soon as he tried to close his hand, he felt a sharp pain shoot up his arm.
“Ahhhhh…” he screamed as he pulled his hand back. His hand burned.
“Wilson! You okay?” asked his father from the front seat.
Michael was scared.
“Bro! Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Keep shooting.”
Wilson lifted his hand and looked at it. There were blisters on it. He shook his hand and put his arm underneath his armpit. In a few seconds, the feeling in his hand returned.
“Okay, Michael. Use the weapon.”
“You sure?”
“Do it. We have to get out of here.”
“Dad! Pullover!”
Dustin pulled over the car. Michael climbed out, aimed the triangle into the center of the monsters in the distance, and touched all the triangle edges. A flash of light shot from the triangle and a red orb rose into the air. As it got higher, the ball of energy grew larger and larger. Michael jumped back into the car.
“Floor it, Dad.”
Dustin sped back onto the road. As the car got further down the road, Wilson looked back at the creatures – they all had turned and started running back towards the shadowy figure. The Evil One let out a scream and turned away from the orb. He raised his hand and slowly faded away against the building. Finally, the sphere exploded, and all the creatures fell like corpses to the ground. Dustin didn’t stop. He continued driving until he was back on the highway.
“Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?” asked Julia. Dustin exhaled.
“It’s a long story. The first thing we need to do is find a gas station. We’re almost out.”
Dustin drove for an hour before he stopped at a gas station without many people. Everyone got out of the car and went into the convenience store while Dustin pumped gas into the vehicle. After relieving themselves in the bathroom and picking up a few snacks from the store, the boys returned to the car and waited for their mom to come back. Finally, she returned, looking pale and confused. When she climbed into the car, she avoided eye contact. Instead, she put on her seatbelt and looked straight ahead. After a few moments of silence, Michael spoke.
“Where do we go now?”
The question startled Wilson, and he searched his father’s face for an answer. Finally, Dustin responded.
“I think we should probably drive on until nightfall. Then we should probably pull over and sleep.”
As Dustin pulled out onto the road, he looked over at Julia.
“You okay?”
“I’m just trying to understand what’s going on.”
“I’ll fill you in after we get some rest.”
Chapter 26: The Way You Sleep
“Dude, do you want a bologna sandwich?”
“No. You spit in it. I know you did.”
Michael shoved his index finger deep into his nose and pulled out a long green booger. He opened the sandwich and rubbed it on the pink meat before passing the sandwich to Wilson for a second time.
“Go ahead, bro. We’re brothers.”
“That’s gross! I’m not eating that.”
Michael shrugged and took a bite of the sandwich. After chewing it for a while, he smiled and swallowed.
“Sweet.”
Suddenly Julia turned to face the boys from the front seat.
“I know a place just up the road where you can do it.”
“Do what?”
“Kill yourself.”
Wilson was confused.
“What?”
Dustin lowered the rearview mirror and looked at Wilson from the front seat.
“You want to die with your mother, don’t you?”
“No.”
Michael fumbled under the driver’s seat.
“Wait. I can help.”
Finally, he pulled out a toy doll. The toy had blond hair, and both the plastic eyes were missing.
“Here. Put this in your mouth.”
Wilson looked at his brother and then looked at what was in his hands. The doll had become a handgun. Julia smiled and clapped her hands.
“Go ahead. Put it in your mouth,” Wilson’s mother squealed. Dustin and Michael joined in.
“Yeah! Go ahead and do it!”
“Please, bro, you’ve got to do it!”
Wilson lifted the gun to his lips. Just as he opened his mouth, a veiled figure swung open the car door.
“Get out!” the masked woman whispered. Wilson was afraid.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Wilson climbed out of the car and began walking behind the lady. Although he couldn’t see her, he could hear the sound her long black dress made as she took each step – a swooshing sound like polyester fabric between a fat man’s legs. Suddenly the woman began speaking to Wilson as they walked. Her voice was as light as a feather, a whisper amongst the trees.
“He approaches from the North. The best way to stop him is by attacking him through the South.”
“Who?”
“You will need her. Do not underestimate the Evil One’s capabilities.”
“Who will I need?”
The woman stopped at the edge of a lake. Although it was dark, a yellow moon was immense in the night sky. Wilson turned to face the woman.
“Who are you?”
He reached for the woman’s veil and brushed it aside, but all he could see was more fabric. The woman pointed towards the water.
“The Jellybeans are hidden in the field.”
Wilson’s eyes widened as he looked into the water. There were large glowing lights at the bottom of the lake.
“What are those?” he asked as he pointed at the large white lights
moving on the floor of the lake.
“You will need them.”
“Why?”
“What color is pain?”
Suddenly, the woman reached out and grabbed Wilson by his neck.
“Hey! What are you doing?” he gagged. Wilson swung at the lady, and his hand disappeared into the cold fabric like the woman was invisible. As Wilson struggled to free himself, the woman lifted him from the ground and threw him toward the center of the lake. Wilson fell towards the water. Wilson seemed to move in slow motion. He twisted his body to look back at the woman, but she was gone. He looked down into the water and was amazed. The lights at the bottom of the lake weren’t lights at all. They were glowing buffalo. Wilson closed his eyes and prepared for impact, but it never came. There was only the sound of a breeze blowing through the trees. Wilson opened his eyes and discovered he was standing on Grandma Noya’s front porch. He looked across the street at Nana Ama’s house, sitting on the hill. Red lights flashed off and on within the home while vast plumes of smoke billowed up from behind it. There was a tap on his shoulder, and Wilson turned to see Grandma Noya.
“Don’t worry about me. My journey was a peaceful one.”
“It was?”
Wilson could feel sadness inside of him, trying to get out. He wanted to embrace his grandmother, but he knew he was dreaming. Grandma Noya nodded towards the house on the hill.
“You know you’re going to have to go in there, don’t you?”
“I don’t want to.”
“It’s the only way they’ll return.”
“Who?”
“The buffalo. It has always been about them.”
Wilson kissed Grandma Noya on the cheek.
“I miss you, Grandma.”
She smiled and touched Wilson’s face. Wilson turned to look at the house, and this time he was standing in front of Nana Ama’s house. The flashing red lights were gone. Wilson looked into the windows of the house and became terrified. There were dozens of white rotting faces pressed against the glass.
“Who are they?” he asked. But his grandmother was gone. Instead, an elderly black man with a long gray beard stood next to him.
“You need a key,” he said. As he rubbed his beard, Wilson noticed the chains on his wrists.
