by JM HART
“Where are we going?”
Daniel didn’t need to answer. Kevin answered his own question. “Nanna and pop’s, right? How did you convince Mom?”
“It was her idea. Now come on, get dressed and meet me downstairs.”
*
The door to the garage was open. Tim recognized his hiking pack amongst the bags already lined up to be crammed into the cars. “Fair dinkum, nobody tells me anything,” he muttered to himself.
“Your mom and Kath, about an hour ago, packed up a few things, and locked up your house,” Daniel said.
“But what about my things?” Tim asked.
“Your mom knows what you need,” Daniel said.
“No, there are things I want that she can’t know because I don’t know, so I know there’re things that she doesn’t know I want. I have to go to the house.” Tim walked quickly away from Daniel to the front door and ran for home.
“Tim, get back here. Kevin, go get him.”
Kevin chased, but didn’t catch Tim before he reached home. He ran around the backyard, dug the spare key up from under the rock, and unlocked the back door leading into the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Kevin yelled.
“Wait there. Hang on,” Tim said.
Kevin looked around at the quiet street. He got a creepy feeling they were being watched. Across the road, Shaun’s mates and Kath’s boyfriend were coming out of a house. Tim stepped from the kitchen to see Kath’s boyfriend swing his bat; the metal smashed the window of the car in the driveway. Kevin pulled Tim out of sight as he reappeared, awkwardly stuffing an old photo into his Velcro wallet. Jumping the neighbors’ fence, Tim’s shoelace caught in a crack, pulling his shoe off. Together they unlatched the runners and sprinted back to Kevin’s.
“What was all that about?” Kevin asked, walking into his house.
“Nothing.”
“Yes, it was. What gives?”
“It’s a photo of my dad holding me when I was born. All right? Now shut up about it.”
“Chill. It’s all good. Don’t sweat it.”
Kevin followed the smell of pancakes. Jade was cooking with Alex’s help. Molly played with her breakfast, dipping her jam toast into a bowl of rice cereal. She seemed to really enjoy sucking the cereal off the toast. His mom was sitting at the table applying a fresh dressing to Shaun’s burnt hands. Shaun became agitated as soon as Kevin walked into the room and his mother looked up at him. Neither of them spoke.
She raised her eyebrows and Kevin shrugged his shoulders. They hadn’t communicated like this since — he couldn’t remember the last time. She tilted her head towards Jade and he nodded in agreement.
“Jade?”
Jade turned away from the stove and looked at Callie.
“Can you make Kevin a stack with lemon and honey to share with Tim, please?” Callie looked back at Kevin. “I’ll call you when they’re ready.” She then nodded in the direction of the garage. Kevin knew what she meant. She wanted him to help pack the car. He said nothing and left the room. He was excited his mom was back, but afraid she would turn again. He decided he would be cautious in her presence; she was still the dragon lady.
*
It hadn’t taken long to pack up the two cars and be on their way. Tim looked like he had been crying. Kevin focused on the carnage out his window. His dad was in the second car with Tim’s mom Sally, Kath, Alex and Shaun. Kevin was with his mom in the Dodge with Tim, Jade and Molly. Their car was out front. His mom steered around abandoned vehicles, tail lights flashing on and off. She turned off the main road, towards the coast, driving through the national park along the winding roads hidden under richly-scented vegetation. As they emerged out into the open, they could see the ocean on their left and as they rose to the top of a hill, Kevin could see the black cloud that hung over the city of Wollongong up ahead. His mom and dad stopped for Alex to use the bathroom at the lookout that was a jumping-off spot for hang gliders. Kevin could see the road winding below.
Thirty minutes later they entered the city and his mom slowed the car to a crawl. Tim said in a flat voice, “Look at that guy.”
Kevin leant across to see out Tim’s window.
“He looks like a zombie, without the blood drooling from his mouth. Why are they so pale?” Tim asked.
“I don’t know,” Kevin said.
“They probably don’t sleep much any more,” Jade replied. “Maybe they are low in iron, barely eat and just — keep wandering the streets, trying to remember what it is that they’re supposed to do.”
“It’s so quiet, nobody is talking,” Callie said. “There is no connection between anybody.”
“Check out his pants, that guy’s too, they look …” Tim hesitated, searching for the right word.
“Soiled,” said Jade.
Callie turned down a side street, away from the coast and towards Saddleback Mountain, some forty miles further south. The street was dark and looked cold. A shiver ran over Kevin’s body. “What the hell?” A winged giant of a beast hovered before them, eating. The banging of the car’s brakes as Callie tried to stop had no comparison with the crunching of bones and the horrific image of the little clumps of hair caught between the beast’s bloody teeth. It slowly flapped bat-like wings while a scorpion’s tail flicked wildly behind it, lancing into people on the streets. The town was its buffet. Each claw had a person skewered and ready to eat. Over the building tops the grotesque heads of two more beasts could be seen. This one was the biggest and stood at least four storys high.
Callie threw the car into reverse and took the side street they had just passed. Kevin, Tim and Jade swung around to look behind. Molly started crying. He saw his dad enter the side street, closing in behind them. Kevin flung around to see out his side window, leaning his head back to look up and felt the demon looking straight at him. He quickly pulled away from the window. The blood drained from his face, a chill filled his chest and warmth suddenly filled his bladder. Uncomfortable, unable to prevent himself from rubbernecking, he watched the beast swallow a man’s bloody torso. His body became heavy with pain and dread. Suddenly, the creature’s head and body exploded into a thousand tiny versions of itself: it became an angry swarm, and headed in their direction. Molly screamed louder.
Callie yelled, “Guys, face the front.” The car jerked to the right, then to the left and the swarm, like a malicious pyroclastic cloud, raced up behind them. They didn’t have a chance.
Jade’s world spun, vertigo invading her senses. She slowly turned around to look at Kevin in the back seat and slapped his leg for attention. She was short of breath, pretending to be calm. “How do you feel now, K?”
Screwed, is the first thing that came to his mind. Kevin knew what she was hinting at: where, where to, where to go? Then the image of the long driveway leading up to his nanna’s home came into focus. Of course. He hadn’t consciously done this before but he had to believe it was possible. He felt the black wolf start to circle and doubt found a voice laughing in his mind. He pushed it away, blocked it out, and listened to Molly wailing; the sound fueled his desire to succeed, to create a safe place for them all. He looked over his shoulder, making sure his dad was following close behind. The cloud, the shapeshifting beast, the swarm — whatever it was — was close and moving up and over his dad’s car. Kevin saw his dad violently swerve his car from side to side in an attempt to shake it off.
“Call your mom, Tim,” Kevin said, “and tell her to put it on speaker.” The sound of the phone ringing was a strange sense of normalcy.
“Dad.”
“K, not now.”
“Dad, shake that thing off, you have to get closer, bumper to bumper. Or you won’t be able to follow. I’m not —” The reception was lost. Kevin had no choice but to focus on the road out front, where translucent waves, a mirage, started to appear.
“What now?” Callie shouted. She butted her nose up against the windscreen and saw a sinkhole was opening, growing, in front of them. She starte
d to slow and search for another way. Molly’s screaming filled her head. Callie glanced into the rear-vision mirror. “Kevin! Quieten her down.”
“No! Go straight for it!” Jade said. She leant over the gearstick and grabbed Callie’s leg, pushing it down onto the accelerator.
“What? Stop it! Don’t be foolish, we’ll all die.”
Tim pulled faces at Molly in vain. She couldn’t be distracted. He looked behind him to see where his mom and Daniel were. They were still trying to shake the swarm. “Come on, K, you can do it.”
Kevin was breaking out in a sweat and his face became red, his eyes sparked. There was no time for the car to brake or swerve. This time his mom would have no choice but to floor it, and hope they could jump the sinkhole. The car went straight up and hovered over and into the mirage. Kevin felt Jade’s vertigo and anxiety vanish. He heard Molly stop crying and Tim’s panic dissolve. Everything went quiet. They should have been alarmed, but they only felt peace.
They all thought they were on their way to the pearly gates, soon to see a bright light. The nose of the car tilted downward. They braced for impact, the world came alive, and the car dived into the dirt and gravel. Its back wheels thumbed the ground and the car slid out of control, sliding down the blue metal drive, straight for the veranda.
Kevin glimpsed behind. The doorway was getting smaller.
*
Shaun braced himself against the leather seat in front and screamed in pain. Kath unlocked her seat belt and fastened his. Shaun felt feverish as every muscle in his body screamed with panic. He couldn’t take his eyes off the beast. Everyone was freaking, he couldn’t concentrate, his senses were locked on the entity. He knew he had seen it before in his dreams. It collapsed into a thousand mirrored pieces and headed towards them. Daniel was doing his best to shake it off, but Shaun knew they, he, had no hope of escaping this time. He was no longer an innocent boy. This is Dad’s doing, he thought. The memory of that night ten years ago came flooding back along with all the bad feelings, as if he was a kid again.
He understood his dad had violated his trust, and the trust of so many people, for some non-existent magical cure for his mom. He had loved his mother more than anything. He had prayed for her day and night to be healed. But what his dad did, whatever it was that he unearthed that night, seemed to be causing the extinction of humanity. The explosion, the plane to Egypt, the drug-induced flight, and the memories returned — the Russian in the palace. Everything had seemed so strange at the time. The dreams, the girl, finally it made some sense. It was her all along: Rachel. If only he could go back and stop his dad.
Shaun quickly turned away and faced front. The Dodge disappeared into thin air, just like Kevin and Tim had vanished at the river. What the hell? The swarm was descending again. Daniel swerved left then right in quick jerks.
A thousand vile angels swarmed behind the tail of the car. The swarm united, forming into one gigantic beast, stopping and sniffing the air as if searching for its prey. Filled with fury it turned from side to side in a rage. Its serrated tail sliced through the buildings and the people behind them on the streets. It shrieked and took off in flight.
The devil was enriched; his army of death was free to hunt. It exploded into a swarm of a thousand micro-beasts again, heading for the car. Sharp claws dragged along the boot of the car. Kath covered her ears, trying to block out the high-pitched screeches. Shaun saw the demons suddenly vanish behind them. The feeling of flying overcame him, and he relaxed. Every muscle, every cell was infused with light and peace. His burning hands cooled, the pain gone. He was in slow motion, gazing over his shoulder through the rear window, searching for the swarm, and saw a horizon of green and blue mountains stretching to the ocean. As suddenly as it had begun, the floating sensation ceased, and the car fell from the sky. Shaun’s body became heavy, and he was aware once again of the metal cage around them. The car landed heavily. Shaun’s neck whipped back and his head smashed into the side window as the car slid along the gravel slamming into the rear of the Dodge. Hidden under a few layers of dust, the cars became one piece of metal beside the grazing cow.
9
Labyrinth of darkness: Casey. England.
Sophia, are you there? Casey thought. Lying on the cold dirt floor on his back with his head resting on Terry’s leg, Casey stared into the darkness. The chamber was musty. The air was stale. Terry was propped up against the cold stone wall and Amy leant against his shoulder. He could feel Terry playing with his curls; he wouldn’t admit it out loud in a million years but Casey actually found it soothing. He shouted louder inside his head, Sophia, are you there? and Amy jumped a little. Casey was worried about Sophia because this had been the biggest gap between communications. Maybe I could dream about her. After sealing them in, he had tried again and again to break the wall down so they could get back into the house.
Amy had suggested they should just rest a while so he could build up his strength. “It will come when you’re ready. You used a lot of energy in the forest beforehand. It might be best that we stay here and not go rushing back upstairs, for a while anyway.”
Casey felt pressure building on his bladder. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, directing his thoughts to his mom, her smile, the sound of her laughter and the smell of her perfume; he inhaled deeply to imagine the scent. Sometimes he felt so lost without her. She would have liked Sophia — and Terry and Amy. His bladder was becoming so uncomfortable his eyes flew open and he desperately looked for a place to relieve himself. How long had they been here? Two hours at least, he thought, looking back at the wall. He saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye; something was moving towards him. He closed his eyes, ignoring his bladder. He felt the presence getting closer and the darkness behind his eyes became intense. Internally, he tried to move away from the presence, slipping further away from his body, hiding in Terry’s aura. He sensed it looking closely into his face, trying to see if he was awake. He kept as still as possible and felt like he was floating out in space. His heart was racing, but his breathing was relaxed as if in sleep. A breath crossed his face, and he nearly yanked himself out of hiding. He heard a voice in his head. His palms were sweaty. He disengaged from the separation of his body, feeling the intensity of the darkness move away. He allowed himself to float closer to the surface and open his stubborn eyes a crack. An apparition of an old man with ginger hair and a scruffy beard down to his chest, wearing a brown robe with a sash had disappeared into the wall. Casey’s fear evaporated. He focused on the wall again and it moved like a Chinese block puzzle; he shuffled the bricks, restacking them. Casey slowly sat up, watching them move left-right and up-down. He reached out his hand to hold them and they succumbed to his energy. I’m back. Without touching them or moving from Terry’s side he laid the bricks on the ground. He could hear the trunks sliding along the wall.
Terry and Amy were up on their feet beside him, motivated to step into the opening and back into the basement.
“What do you think, Terry?” Amy said. “Do you think it’s safe? I don’t feel the heaviness any more. It feels like a blanket has been lifted.”
“Let me go upstairs first,” Casey said.
Terry raised his brows and said, “No!”
“I hate to say it, but I think he’s right, Terry.”
“I’m not letting Casey go up there on his own!”
“Yeah, you should let me. You need to be here for Amy, and I’ll know better than both of you if the entities are gone, or are hiding in the walls.”
“Entities, is that what you saw? What do they look like, Casey?”
“They were metallic grey liquid like mercury. They had the snout of a dog, the wings of a bat, the tail of a scorpion, and death dripped from their mouths. They didn’t have a stable, solid form. They fight for existence and that’s why they need us: to possess our body and soul, leaving us only a corner of our mind to reside in. They have no souls, they’re from hell. And to answer the questions you want to ask, Amy, I don’t kn
ow how I know this stuff. Sometimes I feel like I am an old man who has lived a thousand lifetimes. But other times — well, you get the picture. I survived drowning that day for a reason. You found me, Terry, for a reason. This is all connected.”
The darkness of the basement hid his face as he climbed the stairs. The golden retriever followed. Casey placed both hands on the door like in a fire and felt the silence.
He slowly pushed the door open and peeked into the dark kitchen. The sun had gone. They had been down there longer than he thought. Night hung over the house and his bladder was about to burst. He couldn’t go slow; he had to get to the bathroom before his teeth started to float!
*
Casey stepped into the kitchen and crept into the center of the room. He peeked into the lounge room; the edge of the curtain was possessed by a pre-dawn breeze. A fog drifted through the open window and Casey shivered. The wooden panels that had hung over the window lay by the bookshelf and the side table, lamp, and chair were knocked over. Casey stood with the dog by his side in the middle of the room, testing for a sense of any other presence in the house. It seemed quiet and empty. He flicked off the light switch and waited. Nothing: no lost souls, no apparitions, no emotional memories. Something had taken them away. It had become eerily quiet and empty. He walked cautiously into the foyer and flicked the light up the stairs. Satisfied he was alone, he entered Amy’s great-aunt’s old room where she had stayed during her final years. He wanted to use the bathroom and closed the door slowly behind him, hoping to reduce the sound of the squeaking hinges. The torch clanged as he laid it on top of the porcelain. He quickly unzipped his pants and sighed in relief as the stream went on forever.
Casey zipped himself up, washed his hands and opened the squeaky door. The sound unnerved him, making him feel silly. The floor was loud, and the room smelt musty, but it felt happy and comfortable, and he imagined this was how Amy’s great- aunt was. The thought of frying up eggs and sausages, a Sunday English breakfast, made his stomach rumble. The clock in the room chimed, signaling dawn and the sun’s imminent rising. Where has the night gone? Where is Sophia?
