by Harper Lin
“I don’t know if this means anything,” Bea started. “But last night I woke up and looked out the bedroom window. I thought I saw tracks through the backyard in the little dusting of snow we had. But I thought they were too big. There had to be another explanation. I was groggy and went back to bed. I wonder…”
Aunt Astrid and Bea looked at me.
“Sorry, I slept like a rock,” I admitted, biting my lower lip.
“So do you know what this thing is?” Bea pressed.
“When the sun started to come up and the light began to sweep away the shadows, I watched this creature become more agitated.” Aunt Astrid leaned forward in her seat. “It knew it was running out of time and it hadn’t caught me. It charged the door two more times, the last time injuring itself. I saw the blood. Then I saw it start to shift.”
“What?” I didn’t understand what she meant.
“It was like that giant, grotesque thing was folding in on itself. With each disgusting part that it turned under, it seemed to melt into the surroundings. It was still there, but it was not in the same form. It was smaller and nearly invisible.”
“A giant invisible attacking hairless cat. Nothing we can’t handle.” I polished my nails on my shirt.
“No. Not invisible.” Aunt Astrid wagged her index finger in the air. “Almost invisible. It reflected the light differently, so you might see a ripple or what looks like heat mirages coming off the pavement on a hot day.”
“Like in that movie with the thing that blends into the jungle and hunts humans.” I pointed to Bea, who shook her head and shrugged. She had no idea what I was talking about.
“It’s still out there.” Aunt Astrid once again took on her starry gaze as she looked out the window. “So we need to find out as much as we can about it.”
“How are we going to do that?” Bea asked. “I’ve never heard of anything like this, and are you guys not realizing the bigger picture here?”
I looked at my aunt, who shrugged.
“It was obviously after Mom for a reason. Maybe it had something to do with me losing time and Cath getting caught up in that weird vortex that only she and Treacle could see.”
“And those giant cat footprints,” I added. “My gosh. Do you think it’s after us? Do you think it knows who we are?”
“And the missing children,” Aunt Astrid replied. “If it is, it has been here studying us for quite some time. I’ve been sensing it for a while. When I think back, I’m almost positive I saw it but thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Imagine that, my eyes playing tricks on me. It isn’t enough I can see through this dimension to the next and the next. The question really should be when do my eyes not play tricks on me?” She smiled mischievously.
“So what do we do?” Bea wiped her hands on her apron and walked to the door to unlock it. We were open for business in just a few more minutes.
“Tonight.” My aunt looked like Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry as she spoke. “My house. We’ll find out its name, its purpose, and how we can destroy it.”
“Will there be food there?” I had to ask. “Tom is picking me up, and we might go to dinner.”
“Tell him to bring you straight to my house after he’s fed you,” Aunt Astrid teased. “But there will be food at my house. When is there not food at my house?”
“When Bea makes it,” I said. “Just remember I’m on a no-tofu diet.”
“Hardy-har-har. You’re hilarious.” Bea rolled her eyes.
Lyle
After our fantastic meal the previous night at the Bibich football game, where the home team lost 7-0, Tom took me to an actual restaurant with linen napkins and real silverware before heading over to my aunt’s house.
“I meant to tell you that is an interesting sweater.” He smiled as he helped me put on my coat.
“This one is actually my favorite.” I stretched it out in front of me, making one little lonely bell on the red nose of Rudolph jingle happily. It had all the reindeer in white silhouette knitted onto a black background, but it was the actual red and green lights attached to the sleigh that blinked that made the sweater so delightfully tacky. “The battery goes in the hem of the sweater. I don’t even feel it.”
“Only a really beautiful woman could make a sweater like that look sexy.”
“Who are you fooling?” I said awkwardly.
“I’m telling the truth,” Tom said as he wrapped his arms around me while holding my coat. “In fact, I think you could probably make a potato sack look sexy.”
“Thanks.” I blushed and looked down at his strong hands. He nuzzled his face into my neck and squeezed me tightly for just a second before letting me go. He took my hand and led me outside to his truck. We got in.
“Did you have enough to eat?” he asked. “I could stop by Mama Tish’s for some Italian ice if you’d like. Nothing tastes better on a cold, frosty night than Italian ice.”
“No. I’m sure Aunt Astrid has something at her house. You are more than welcome to come in for a spell and say hello,” I added.
“I think I’ll do that. I’d like to see how she’s doing. What an ordeal this morning. Did everyone else believe the bird-flying-into-the-door story?”
I looked at Tom and blinked.
“What are you talking about?” I sounded completely stupid.
“Cath, not so long ago, you and I were in a haunted part of the woods behind a fallen tree, with a witch trying to sniff us out as if she were a pig and we were truffles. Did you really expect me to believe there wouldn’t be a few more weird experiences on the horizon if I hung around you and your family?”
“I just didn’t want to assume you were comfortable with all of this.” I looked out the window. The houses were all decorated in such beautiful lights they reminded me of gingerbread houses.
“I haven’t proven to you I’m comfortable?”
“Well, you might be now, but I have a feeling things are going to get really weird really quickly.” I felt a shiver run down my spine as I thought of the thing Aunt Astrid described.
“Well, I certainly do hope so.” He winked at me.
Soon, he pulled into my aunt’s driveway.
I recognized Blake’s sedan and wondered what he was doing there but said nothing out loud. When Tom and I walked into the house, I felt heaviness in the room.
“Hi.” I smiled. “Don’t tell me you guys ate all the dessert.”
“Hey, Cath. Tom, it’s nice to see you again,” Aunt Astrid said. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you thanks for stopping by this morning.”
“No worries. How are you feeling?” Tom asked as he went up and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Right as rain, but we’ve had a little bad news.”
I did a quick head count. Aunt Astrid, Bea, and Jake were all accounted for. Even Blake was there, and of course Tom was safe.
“We found the Lyle boy this afternoon,” Jake said.
I held my breath.
“He’s dead.”
Diabolus Formarum Catus
I slapped my hand over my mouth. Poor Melissa. I know I sound like a broken record, but why did this have to happen just before Christmas?
“Do you have any idea what happened?” I took off my coat and took Tom’s to hang up.
“His body looked like it had been partially eaten. We think that Bruce had been out there for a while and some of the coyotes or even the cougars from up north may have stumbled onto him,” Jake stated with that monotone that seemed to surface when he was giving especially troubling news. “There was also a storage facility nearby. Store-n-lock. There is a unit rented out to Mr. Gale Wayne.”
“I’m not convinced it was him,” Blake piped up. “The wounds inflicted on the body do not match any animals that could have gotten to him. The size, width, depth, and even the remains left behind are inconsistent with just about anything that is native to this area.”
“So what?” Jake snapped. “It doesn’t change the fact that Wayne has a storage unit that he didn’t bot
her to tell any of us about. With all the rumors and accusations, I can’t help but think if he really didn’t have anything to hide, he would have mentioned that.”
“Has anyone spoken to him?” Tom asked, joining the men on the far side of the kitchen at the table. I took a seat next to Bea as Aunt Astrid sliced me a thick slice of chocolate cake.
“Did you make this?” I whispered to Bea, who shook her head no. “Good.”
She elbowed me before we continued to listen in on the gruesome details.
“We are in the process of getting a search warrant for the storage unit and his house. It should be ready by tomorrow.” Jake nodded. “I’m just hoping we aren’t too late to find the girl. In fact, Blake, would you mind taking a run with me back to the storage area? The owner said those surveillance cameras were deleted every three days. I’m wondering if there are any along the route we might be able to tap into.”
“The Checked Inn is a pub just a stretch up the road from that storage place,” Tom added. “I know the owner, and I’m pretty sure he’s got cameras in his parking lot. We can see if they can be of any use. I’ll buy you guys a cold one, too.”
“That sounds like the best offer I’ve had all day,” Blake mumbled. He turned and smiled at me as if he were looking for some kind of approval. As if he were saying, “See, I can play nice.” I couldn’t help it. I smiled back.
Once the men left, my aunt pulled out some dusty books I had never seen before. They smelled slightly moldy, and a lot of the script was very hard to read.
“Where did these come from?” Bea asked. “I’ve never seen them.”
“The basement,” Aunt Astrid chirped. “I don’t like to bring these out very often. They are very old and delicate. Here, wear these.” She handed Bea and me each a pair of latex gloves.
“My gosh, could they fall apart that easily?” Bea asked.
“No. The magic is so powerful it may rub off on your skin. You could end up conjuring a toad-eating demon without even knowing it.”
“Oh, I had that happen to me once,” I quipped as I snapped on my gloves. “Yes, it produced Darla Castellan. I’ve yet to figure out how to banish her for good.”
Bea laughed, and my aunt rolled her eyes.
“This is serious business,” Aunt Astrid assured us as she put on her own latex gloves, then she hoisted a large book up in her hands and led us to her sitting room.
This was a smaller room off the main hallway that was filled with comfy chairs and good lighting and smelled of incense. Bea and I knew this was where she kept many of her precious objects, like her wand, which only came out on special occasions, crystals from various paranormal places around the country, and a crystal ball that she used as a paperweight on her desk. Neither Bea nor I had ever seen her use the crystal ball, but it was there just in case.
The side tables had already been covered with newspaper to catch any magical spillage.
I took a seat on one side of a very worn, tattered love seat that had at one time been covered in a bright-pink-and-green rose pattern but had since faded to what I thought were lovely, dusty tones. Bea sat next to me. Each of us had our own side table and light to work under.
“This is just like studying in high school,” she whispered.
“Yeah, except I usually had some magazines or a horror novel to read that was much more interesting than algebra.” I snickered.
As we began looking carefully through my aunt’s ancient tomes, Aunt Astrid began to quietly recite some kind of incantation. She lit her incense and a couple of candles and then ground a few spices and some salt into her mortar. Once that was done, she walked over to the door and smudged a little of the concoction over the top of the two windows that faced east.
“I’ve invited some of our ancestors to give us a hand if they can. They’ll pass through the door or the windows but leave the riffraff out in the cold,” she said, finally letting us in on her plan. “Maybe they’ll work quickly.”
The words in the book I was looking through reminded me of the writing seen in The Lord of the Rings. It was swirly and curlicued and very elegant but nothing I could make heads or tails of.
But I watched as the words suddenly shifted over the page. It was like watching sea anemones wave with the invisible currents under the water until finally they fell into place, making words I could read.
“That was a neat trick,” I mumbled.
“Can you read it all now?” Bea asked. I nodded, and she did too.
Aunt Astrid retrieved her own book, and in the comfortable silence of the house, we searched for a description, a picture, or any mention of the creature Aunt Astrid had been attacked by. It wasn’t until almost eleven o’clock that I read and reread a paragraph that sounded so terrifying that I prayed I was wrong and it wasn’t the beast we were actually going to have to deal with.
“Aunt Astrid?” I hesitated. “I think I might have found something.”
She looked at me and nodded. I felt like a student in school being called to stand up and read a note I had passed out loud in front of everyone.
“It says here that during the yuletide season, the underworld spits forth its young to feed off the precious flesh of innocents. Diabolus Formarum Catus.” I gulped. “The great demonic offspring slip through the dimensions unseen. They walk bravely among humans. They choose the most vulnerable and not only eat their bodies, but also drink in the suffering that is a residual effect of their appetites.”
“Does it say what they look like?” Bea asked.
“Yeah. It does. It’s gross,” I said. “It says here that after being spit forth, they writhe in their naked skin, which becomes thicker and fatter the more they consume. The number of wrinkles etched into the flesh indicates how many centuries they’ve been doing what they are doing.”
“Like the rings on a tree,” Aunt Astrid said.
“It also says it can maneuver through this plane of existence in this form completely invisible but that it tires easily and its most comfortable configuration is that of a son of Cain.”
“Cain?” Bea asked.
“Cain murdered his brother, Abel, in the Bible. Interesting.” Aunt Astrid took a deep breath. “That does sound like our guy. Does it say anything about stopping him?”
“It says he was stopped back in oh, some time and dimension that I’ve never heard of by a dude who…” My mouth instantly went dry. “A dude whose last name was Greenstone.”
Bea stared at me with her mouth open. I did the same to Aunt Astrid.
“That thing didn’t just happen to mosey up to the café.” I choked. “It didn’t just show up as a snowstorm in front of my house, and it didn’t randomly leave tracks outside Bea’s place. It knows who we are.”
“Well, that sounds about right.” Aunt Astrid squared her shoulders and clenched her jaw. I had expected some kind of pep talk or inspirational hoo-ha, but I guess my aunt wasn’t in the mood. “That’s a good start. It tells us what we are dealing with.”
“What does it mean that he likes to walk around as a son of Cain?” Bea asked.
“It likes to walk around in human skin,” Aunt Astrid almost whispered. “It likes to look like one of us.”
She quickly hustled over to a small writing desk that was tucked into the corner of the room. After snapping on a floor lamp to give her more light, she proceeded to look through several newspapers.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Here. The first mention of the trouble at Bibich High School.” Quickly, she grabbed a calendar and began counting days. “Technically, the yuletide season hadn’t begun when this first hit the news.” She scratched her head.
“But when did Bruce get reported missing?” I asked.
“That was after it had started.” Aunt Astrid balked. “Maybe I’m just wishing there was a correlation so that I won’t have to admit there are two monsters out there. One from another dimension, and one born and raised right here among us.”
“Well, Bruce was reported missing ten days ago. B
ut he had been gone two days before that, right? Didn’t Melissa wait before calling the police, expecting him to just come home?”
Aunt Astrid snapped her fingers, looked at her calendar, and nodded. I looked at Bea, who smiled.
“I’m still not sure I’m following the connection with Bibich High School,” I whispered to Bea. “Do you get it?”
“I have no idea where my mother is going with this, but I bet she’ll explain it, won’t you, Mom?”
“Try this on for size.” Aunt Astrid took a seat. “Mr. Wayne is accused of hurting some children. He denies it. Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t. But two of the children involved go missing. We just found out one of them is dead and was found where Mr. Wayne had a storage unit. Perhaps he is the monster that came to our café.”
“But that guy’s been at the school for a couple years. Why wait? Why now? If he has a beef with the Greenstone bloodline, what was he waiting for?” I asked. “If it were me, I’d want my revenge immediately.”
“I think what we may need to do is pay a visit to Mr. Wayne’s house.” Aunt Astrid sounded as if she were dreaming up vacation plans to Hawaii.
“We better do that quickly,” Bea chimed in. “You heard Jake. They’ve requested a search warrant and expect it to be ready tomorrow morning.”
“And we can’t step out of this house and over there without the grandest protection spell ever cast. That takes time and energy.” My aunt tapped her lip with her index finger before shrugging. “Sorry, girls. Looks like we’ll be pulling an all-nighter tonight.”
“Yay! Slumber party!” I clapped. “I call dibs on the last of the chocolate cake.”
Fierce Trio of Felines
Before I could enjoy my chocolate cake, my aunt, her cat, Marshmallow, my cousin, and I had to traipse across the street to pick up Treacle and then back to Bea’s for Peanut Butter in order to safely return to my aunt’s house and get the party started.
“I was sleeping,” Treacle meowed as he nuzzled my chin.
