Planet Urth Boxed Set

by Jennifer Martucci

  He did not bother engaging in senseless platitudes. They were beyond small talk.

  “How many were there?” he asked and expected to know who, if anyone, Gabriel had aligned himself with.

  Judging from their state of defeat, he guessed an army had stormed the once meticulously maintained house and surprised them.

  “Two,” Kevin replied meekly.

  Eugene laughed. He enjoyed the low maleficent rumble that emanated from his body.

  “That is disappointing, and pathetic,” he hissed. “The three of you were beaten by Gabriel and another human I’m guessing.”

  “Yes, a little Asian guy,” Kevin said, the slightest hint of defensiveness modulating his tone of voice.

  “There was someone else too,” John added. “A girl.”

  “Did the girl beat you, too?” he asked.

  “No way, of course not,” Kevin said as if the idea of a female was more absurd somehow that an unenhanced human.

  Eugene erupted in thunderous laughter, a cruel deep sound that resonated through the house like mortar explosions. They each smiled and looked to each other nervously, laughing but not entirely sure why.

  He then stopped laughing abruptly and leveled his honey-colored eyes at them with contempt. He saw the color drain from Kevin’s face and opened his mouth to speak.

  “So, let me understand this,” he growled. “The three of you, all enhanced with additional strength and speed, were outdone by love-struck Gabriel and a pint-sized Asian guy; is that correct?”

  No one spoke.

  “And instead of going after them and attempting to redeem yourselves from this embarrassing failure, you are sitting around, smoking pot and drinking beers!” he roared.

  “What do you want us to do? Besides, I heard you were taken down by Gabriel and a hundred-pound girl,” Chris sassed.

  Eugene realized that the potent combination of drugs, alcohol and an overabundance of testosterone in the adolescent male body produced a reckless person, lethally reckless. Add to that heightened power and reflexes and the result was an oppositional fool on the verge of receiving a thorough thrashing.

  He suppressed the urge to kill Chris where he stood, restrained only by his need for information.

  Through clenched teeth he asked, “Where did they go?”

  “I don’t know, man. Gabriel, Alexandra and the Chinese dude didn’t tell us,” John answered, emboldened by Chris’s unpunished arrogance.

  Eugene felt a shudder pass through him at the colloquial use of the word “man,” nearly exploded at the use of the idiom “dude.” He was neither, and he was becoming increasingly infuriated by the sarcasm.

  “Melissa wasn’t with them?” he asked.

  “No,” Kevin answered groggily.

  “What kind of car does she drive?”

  “Who?”

  “Melissa, you moron!”

  Eugene was thoroughly incensed by Kevin and his friend’s maladroitness, their slurred cloudiness.

  “She drives 1999 Toyota Camry, black. It’s a real piece of shit, you know, all she could afford.”

  Eugene reviled Kevin’s continuance of inanities, his incessant need to offer his vapid opinion and running commentary. He wished to silence him, forever. But the extraction of information was proving somewhat useful. He had remembered seeing an older black Toyota Camry in Melissa’s driveway earlier. Either she had been home and hiding in a most meticulous manner or she had been out when he was there. Regardless, he had a remedy for the situation.

  He reached into his pants pocket and retrieved his cellular phone and punched the numbers 9-1-1. He began to speak in a voice that expertly mimicked the average human being’s voice to the operator and claimed to be a neighbor.

  “I heard screaming and things crashing around then I saw three teenagers run out of the house,” he impersonated. He paused and listened to the person on the other end then responded, “Um, there were two guys and a girl and they got into a late 1990s model Toyota Camry, black.” There was another pause and he rattled off a license plate number and added that he heard one of the guys referred to as “Gabriel.”

  Eugene watched as Kevin, Chris and John looked on in awe at his formidable ability to imitate the various intonations and nuances of human speech pattern. He approved of their admiration of him, he knew his skill was indeed impressive, particularly when he added his final piece de resistance and produced a tremor in his voice that implied impending tears and said, “I rushed over to see if something was wrong, if I could help, you know, and that’s when I saw them.” He feigned an emotional breakdown, gave the address he was at and added, “The three dead kids! Oh God! Hurry please,” then pressed end on his cellular phone.

  Confusion marked their drug-addled features.

  “What dead kids?” Kevin asked.

  “The ones that will be her when they arrive,” Eugene replied cryptically and smirked.

  Kevin made an effort to stand, wobbled on his tender leg and fell back to the couch. John and Chris rose and attempted to dash past him. Eugene shot his massive arm out and grabbed Chris by his neck and slammed him to the hardwood floors with such force the back of his skull crushed on impact. With his other hand, he accosted John and held him still. Desperate to free himself, John began thrashing and swinging his limbs. Eugene grabbed him by the back of his neck and used his free hand to simultaneously pinch his nose and cover his mouth. He held his formidable hand firmly in place. Eugene watched as his wriggling slowed and eventually stopped. He felt a tremor pass through his body, didn’t bother fighting it. He relished in John’s death, delighted in his vacant stare that replaced once animated eyes as life escaped him.

  After the quaver ceased and Eugene felt partially satiated, he walked slowly to the couch. Kevin looked up horrified, and met his gaze. Eugene hoped his glower communicated the pure hatred he felt for Kevin, the utter disdain. He did not speak, dared not interrupt the thrill of descending on prey. Instead, he gripped the leather sofa with both hands and overturned it. Kevin toppled from his seated position and landed on the floor. Eugene felt nauseated watching him squirm and writhe helplessly like the pathetic insect he and all of humanity truly was.

  “This will look familiar to you,” Eugene said finally as he raised his booted foot high in the air and stomped it down onto Kevin’s skull.

  Kevin’s death did not elicit the thrill he’d hoped for. He was disappointed; murdering a pathetic, incapacitated human lacked the pleasure of pursuit. It held the same excitement as stepping on ants on a sidewalk; it is done every day yet is seldom celebrated. But a future adventure loomed on the horizon, one far more titillating than Kevin’s extermination. Melissa, Gabriel and a new male were in the vicinity. He could almost smell them. They would prove far more worthy as adversaries and far more entertaining to slaughter.

  Buoyed, Eugene walked out the front door leaving it ajar behind him and climbed into his police cruiser. He directed the vehicle down the long, winding driveway and he activated the radio mechanism of the patrol car. He smirked as he heard instructions from the command post. They were dispatching units to Gabriel’s former home. Presently the police would arrive and discover the bodies of Kevin, Chris and John. The police force, with additional help from state authorities, would soon be participants aiding in his hunt for Melissa, Gabriel and the mysterious Asian man.

  Chapter 27

  Melissa listened anxiously as Gabriel outlined a sketchy plan to defend them against Eugene. She stared out the kitchen window as dusk gave way to night, as darkness crowded out daylight. Her neighborhood was eclipsed as a warship fleet of iron clouds shadowed overhead, accelerating nightfall and expanding their dominion to more than three-quarters of the sky. In the distance, the landscape flickered as if with muzzle flashes followed by a cannonade that shook the remaining twilight. Another springtime storm brewed overhead.

  She turned from the pane and looked to Gabriel who conversed with Yoshi and Alexandra in the dining room. Alexandra glanced at
her briefly, a look of fear and disbelief flashed in her deep brown eyes. Melissa wished her friend had not been involved in the nightmare that was unfolding, again. Gabriel seemed to perceive her misgivings and gestured for her join them. Reluctantly, she moved from her post at the window as lightning flashed across the black clouds, sharp and bright, and flashed again. Thunder crashed. The sky convulsed and shook innumerable silvery scales of rain.

  “Jesus! We’re getting some storm!” Alexandra said and shivered.

  Melissa joined Gabriel and stood at his side. He wrapped an arm around her protectively and rubbed his hand up and down her arm. Though she was certain the gesture was meant to soothe her, it had the opposite effect. Goose pimples arose on her exposed skin once again and she struggled to concentrate. Instead, her focus was diverted to what felt like a riot of winged insects darting and flitting about in her stomach all beating their wings feverishly in unison.

  “Don’t worry, it’ll end soon,” Yoshi assured Alexandra.

  “What are you, a meteorologist? How would you know it’s going to end soon?” she asked haughtily.

  Alexandra’s response to Yoshi lacked the razor-sharp edge that was always present when her friend sought to humiliate or essentially silence one who dared speak fatuously in her presence. Her current demeanor was different, almost playful. If Melissa didn’t know better, she would think her friend’s behavior verged on flirtation.

  “I know because where I live the weather can be very harsh. Since we don’t have the modern conveniences you enjoy here in America like satellite-guided weather reports, we have to rely on thunder and lightning patterns, cloud color and thickness among other things. Judging from what I see and hear, the storm will last no more than twenty minutes tops.”

  Melissa waited for a snappy response from Alexandra. When none was offered, she became equal parts suspicious and worried for her friend’s emotional state.

  “Yoshi’s right,” Gabriel affirmed. “When the storm breaks, it will be dark enough out there for us to walk to Melissa’s house and get her dad’s shotgun. He does still have it, right?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “And ammo?” Yoshi asked.

  Typically, Alexandra would have issued him a verbal lashing and charged him with asking an asinine question. Melissa expected it, paused in anticipation of it but, again, silence.

  “Um, yeah, I guess. Why would he keep a gun without ammunition?” she asked then blushed.

  “Good point,” Yoshi agreed, the skin of his face matching the scarlet hue she imagined streaked her own.

  “We arm ourselves and stay put. Eugene will be back. It’s only a matter of time. If we run, he will follow us. He will never quit; until we’re dead,” Gabriel said somberly.

  “What!” Alexandra exclaimed. “Are you saying we’re going to wait for him to come back and kill us?”

  “Well, kind of, but not exactly,” Gabriel began.

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?” Alexandra railed. “You must be if you think it’s a good idea to just stay rather than run and give ourselves a fighting chance.”

  “Alex, you don’t understand –”

  “No, you don’t understand!” Alexandra panicked. “You don’t understand! That thing came to my house and wanted to kill me once before, would have if Daniella hadn’t called when she did. I am not risking another run-in with him. No way, no how!”

  “So you’re proposing we live a life on the run and never come back to Harbingers Falls, or anywhere else for that matter? You want to go from place to place across the country indefinitely with no home, no family, nothing?”

  Alexandra was clearly rattled by the prospect of either option; both seemed bleak, hopeless. She lowered her head and ran her hands through her thick, raven hair. When she raised her chin and looked to Melissa, Gabriel and Yoshi, her eyes were pools of liquid onyx, red-rimmed and filled with tears.

  “Running, staying, both are horrible options,” she said in a trembling voice. “I don’t want to die.”

  Her sentiment echoed Melissa’s, appeared to resound through everyone.

  “No matter what, we need the gun,” Gabriel said solemnly. “No decisions need to be made right this minute, but time is an issue.”

  “Fine, whatever, but we need to come up with a third option,” Alexandra said.

  Finally in agreement, Melissa waited with Gabriel, Alexandra and Yoshi as the storm raged. Rain pelted the rooftop and windows, exploding like shrapnel in every direction. Thunder cracked, shook the house, as though a great war was being waged between Heaven and Earth. An extended barrage of lightning blasted from an angry sky showcasing its might, its fury.

  When finally the battle ended, quicker than she would have imagined and just as Yoshi had predicted, darkness had fallen. Clouds remained but were retreating swiftly. All that was left was otherworldly stillness.

  Melissa had spent much of her time waiting out the storm perched in an upstairs bedroom, away from Miss Harriet’s lifeless form, and in the company of her friends. Gabriel kept her enveloped in his arms to calm her, reassure her. His proximity did little more than cause her pulse-rate to skyrocket.

  As the last droplets fell, the storm long since passed, Gabriel released her from his protective embrace.

  “We should go now,” he said soberly then slowly walked to the top of the staircase. Melissa followed, as did Alexandra and Yoshi. They descended the steps and followed him to the sliding glass doors off of the living room. The sliders led to a large, painted wooden deck. From the deck, they would have access to both Miss Harriet’s backyard and Melissa’s as well.

  As they crossed the living room, Melissa glanced at Miss Harriet, face down in a large, garnet halo of blood. Sadness and guilt filled her. Her kindly neighbor, the person who had baked her cookies each Christmas and prepared every conceivable dessert for Melissa and her father after her mother’s death, was dead. And it was her fault. A wave of nausea washed over her. She had seen her deceased neighbor earlier, had spent the night in the same room as her, but the shock of being kidnapped by a veritable monster had superseded normal emotional responses. She had feared for her life. She had contended with more questions than her brain could process. Now, however, when presented with a far graver potential future and a moment of reprieve with Gabriel, reality settled in and weighed upon her.

  Melissa shook her head as if the act alone would clear her mind. It did not of course. The image of her late neighbor remained, etched indelibly in her mind’s eye. She doubted it, along with so many other images she’d witnessed in the last five months, would ever disappear. She would deal with them another time. She had to get to her house safely and retrieve her father’s shotgun and plan an exit first. She looked away from Miss Harriet and focused on the sliding glass doors.

  Once at the doors, Melissa, along with her friends, looked to Gabriel for further instructions.

  Melissa’s heart maintained its dangerous pace as Gabriel opened the front door and peered out.

  “All right, we go, get the gun then come back here, okay?”

  “Yep. Easy-peasy,” Melissa heard herself speak with confidence she did not possess. In the dark recesses of her mind a nagging presentiment warned her that the task they were undertaking would be anything but easy, that it would prove a challenge unlike any they’d ever been presented with.

  Forcing intuition from her thoughts, Melissa opened the glass storm door and stepped out concealment.

  The darkness beyond Miss Harriet’s door loomed impenetrably, so solid in appearance it assumed a sinister life of its own. The profound gloom paired with Melissa’s churning imagination turned exceptionally darkened niches into portals that descended into unknown depths of hell and shadows into mythical harbingers of doom that, like cockroaches, crawled walls and fences, fleet and quivering, silently championing bloodshed and awaiting impending chaos.

  She felt unsettled, walking into perfect darkness. In the most primitive portion of her mind, an inner vo
ice dictated that she always move toward light and away from darkness. Each step she took into the blackness disoriented her further, contradicted an inherent demand for lightness and made her primitive voice scream that she turn back.

  She heard Gabriel’s squishy footsteps behind her navigating the rain-saturated lawn.

  As if he sensed her need for him at her side, he sped up and walk alongside her. They reached the porch that led to the family room at the rear of her house and, after climbing three steps, Melissa used her key to unlock the door.

  “This door was unlocked when we left,” Yoshi observed.

  “Maybe the psycho bastard locked up for Melissa. You know, you can never be too safe,” Alexandra joked and smiled wryly. But humor did not reach her eyes.

  Melissa opened the door slowly and listened for sounds of movement. The house was still, save for the hum and buzz of major appliances. She stepped across the threshold but did not turn on any lights. She did not want to draw attention to their arrival, to possibly alert Eugene to their presence. Rather, she stepped quickly and cautiously through her blackened home, avoiding obstacles by employing her memory and mental maps. Gabriel, who possessed superior vision, followed her with ease as did Yoshi. Alexandra did not fare as well.

  “Fuck!” Alexandra screamed as her legs tangled in a blanket haphazardly strewn on the family room floor. She caught herself before she tumbled to her knees.

  “Guess the psycho locks up after he ransacks the place but doesn’t clean up after himself,” she grumbled loudly.

  “Shhh!” Melissa admonished then whispered, “It was there a few days ago.”

  “And you didn’t pick it up because?”

  “Oh shut up, Alex! We’re trying not to get killed here and you’re judging my housekeeping?”

  “Knock it off you two,” Gabriel said gently then, to Yoshi he said, “Watch the driveway from the kitchen window. We’ll go up and get the gun.”

  Yoshi took his post in front of the kitchen window and Melissa ascended the staircase quickly. Alexandra and Gabriel followed. Once inside her father’s room, her eyes scanned the area quickly and focused almost instantly on a rack upon which the Remington shotgun was mounted. Gabriel grabbed the gun while she searched the cabinet below it for ammunition.