Parasite (Shadows of the Past Book II) Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Frankie sat at the dining room table coloring, the tip of his tongue poking from the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on staying inside the lines. A shadow fell across the table and he looked up at Michelle, who stood over him, watching as he worked.

“We’re gonna need the table soon,” she said with a nod.

Frankie smiled as he nodded at her, then returned his attention to the coloring book. He was focused on the sky now, using the wide side of the crayon to create swaths of blue as he moved it back and forth.

As he worked, his mind wandered. Memories whispered from the past and he followed one back to that night in the garage. He saw Jack on a purely instinctive level, a powerful predatory force that was searching for him as he hid within the cocoon of white noise that was his world. While his father tried to start the car, Jack had thrown himself at the vehicle with an insane fury that flashed white-hot around Frankie’s sanctuary. Neither his father nor Michelle would have lasted very long against Jack, who had become so much more than just an ordinary man. The thin glass of the car windows would have easily failed against his onslaught.

It was then that he’d reached out for the first time with his mind. Venturing beyond the safety his confusion afforded him, he discovered he had a little trick of his own up his sleeve. He had touched Jack’s mind that night.

What he had seen as he gazed into Jack’s subconscious had terrified him. The thing that had taken control of Jack had no feelings whatsoever for man. It viewed him as nothing more than cattle in the field, which in essence they were, for their genes had been brought from the far reaches of space to this warm little planet circling the sun. They had been brought to feed these early explorers.

But as the continents broke apart, and that section they had inhabited drifted to the south, the food source found itself more adaptable than its masters. The tables had been turned as the hunter became the hunted, and this alien race had had to take drastic measures to adapt to the changes that were taking place around it. They were forced to evolve into a creature more suited to a snow-covered world, and in so doing they had surrendered their reign over their former slaves.

Frankie saw all of this in a flash of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. He had touched Jack’s mind, transferring a small part of the confusion that was his own world, and in so doing had opened himself up to this creature’s influence. Accomplishing what he had set out to do, he had retreated, followed by this predatory thing that stalked him through the chambers of his own mind. It was only when the fever gripped him that he was able to exorcise this demon from the past.

From his left came a faint sound that he realized, upon becoming aware of it, had always been there. A soft whispering, like that of a multitude of voices in worshipful prayer. The sound stopped his hand and his coloring book lay forgotten as he turned to peer into the deeper shadows that were crowded in the corners of the room.

He sensed his mother’s presence nearby and was comforted by her warmth, which stood in sharp contrast to the chilly waves of cold air that whispered from the deeper shadows.

“They’ve awakened,” his mother whispered in his mind and he sighed with resignation. He’d known this day would come and was saddened by the fact that it had arrived so soon. He’d hoped he would have had more time to get to know his family, to make up for everything he had missed while growing up, but that was not to be.

With wisdom beyond his years, he understood the uncanny persistence of life. Where there was the slightest sliver of hope that it could emerge, it would, and alien life was no different.

His father had suspected that he’d been unsuccessful in his attempt to destroy the thing that once lived as Jack Griffith. At the time, Frankie had known for a fact that he had failed, for the whispering that he recognized as coming from the collective consciousness of this creature had never fully ceased. It had grown quieter, true, but it had never stopped completely. And now it was growing stronger.

He glanced at the window, and the ridge beyond, aware that the fight would be joined once again. He felt their presence lurking at the edge of his consciousness, a faint whispering like the soft static of a radio tuned to a dead station. With his mind, he pushed them from his thoughts, driving them away from him, sending them reeling into the ether as they fled the confusion that threatened to consume them.

Michelle entered the room and found Frankie staring out the window. The coloring book on the table before him was covered by blood that was dripping from Frankie’s nose. 

He was unaware of this fact, his entire being focused on locating the source of the whispering, and as he sought them out he felt the months of confusion he’d held successfully at bay washing back through him.

He heard Michelle scream and was about to tell her that everything was all right when he looked down and saw that the blue sky he’d worked so hard on was now a bright red due to the blood flowing from his nose.

Chapter 9

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Parasite (Shadows of the Past Book II) Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The despair of the past few days was washed away by the exhilaration of racing headlong through the woods with no restrictions. This was his second pass on the circuit he and his father had cut from the forest behind their house. Reacquainted with the features of the path after his first go round, this time he decided to see just how fast he could run the route.

He was ripping around the second curve, dirt spewing from beneath all four tires as he leaned into the turn and cranked the throttle wide open. The four-wheeler leapt forward as the first long straightaway came into view. Suddenly a figure stepped out of the dense forest, right into the middle of the path, and Anthony’s mouth went dry with fear when he recognized Randy’s bulk blocking his way.

He whipped the handlebars to the right, cutting through the dense weeds, bouncing crazily over downed tree limbs as he skirted around Randy. He nearly lost control but he managed to get himself back onto the path and straightened out beyond Randy. He stopped, his hands shaking, his knees weak, as he looked back over his shoulder to find Randy casually sauntering towards him.

Anthony popped the clutch and twisted the throttle wide open just as Dave jumped out of the weeds and tried to grab the handlebars. Dave was sent sprawling into the weeds as Anthony sped away. He bounced over the path, the engine revving, glancing over his shoulder to see if anyone was chasing him. He failed to set himself for the next turn and instead of remaining on the path the four-wheeler spun out into the dense forest.

He pushed himself away from the four-wheeler as it rolled into the brush, tumbling through the trees, slamming into a bramble of fallen tree limbs. He lay there for a moment, pain coming from his left knee and lower back as the four-wheeler sputtered and died somewhere to his right.

Where did they come from? he wondered as he lay there listening to the voice of the forest around him. Like a curtain descending, all noise ceased as the sound of approaching footsteps filled the void.

They were coming for him.

Pushing himself back to his feet, he searched the forest for any sign of their approach. To his left he spotted movement and saw Randy calmly walking towards him with a strange animal at his heels. Dave joined him and together they approached him with a leisurely stride; it was as if they knew they had all the time in the world to do as they pleased, which frightened him more than anything else. Anthony turned and ran into the forest, following the trail he knew would lead back to his house.

Reaching his house, he raced through the kitchen door and crossed to the basement door, tracking mud across his mother’s clean floor, taking the steps two at a time, risking a headlong fall to the concrete floor below. He made his way to his father’s small workshop tucked away in the far corner. Above the workbench an assortment of tools hung from a pegboard; along the right side of the workbench was a row of drawers. Anthony opened the second one down and reached into the shadowy recesses at the back of the drawer. He pulled out a tin box and pried off the lid to reveal an object wrapped in an oily rag.

Hidden inside the rag lay a well-maintained Colt model 1911 45-caliber pistol. Unwrapping the weapon, he laid the rag on the surface of the workbench and pulled back the slide as his father had shown him just that spring. Locking the slide back, he slapped a full clip into the handle and released the lever holding the slide. It slid forward, ramming the blunt nose of a bullet into the chamber. Pushing the pass through safety button on the trigger guard from safe to fire, he crossed back to the steps and paused for a moment as he struggled to catch his breath.

He had a moment to consider what he was doing, to take stock of the situation, as it were. He only had two options open to him. Let Randy and Dave take him and do as they pleased, possibly resulting in his death. Or kill them both.

It wasn’t possible for Randy to still be alive. He’d seen him fall, had heard the sickening crunch of his body slamming into the stones at the bottom of the cliff. But here he was, coming after him again, and this time he knew there would be no turning back. Something had brought Randy back, be it for revenge, or worse. Anthony hadn’t matured to the point that such a notion would be considered impossible. His young mind was still wide open to any number of explanations for Randy’s return, most of them with sinister origins.

He had come back from the dead to get him, and that animal he’d seen with him, that strange creature that looked like a cross between a fox and a turtle was somehow involved.

His decision made, he pulled himself up the steps with the pistol heavy in his hand. His father had taught him earlier that year to shoot, while his mom had been away at her sister’s. She never would have agreed to such a thing had it been proposed so he and his father had kept it as a secret between them. Another of the many secrets fathers and sons normally kept from mothers and wives.

Stepping into the back yard, Anthony scanned the forest for any sign of Randy’s approach. He heard footsteps in the leaves covering the forest floor and he waited, watching that section of trees the sound seemed to be originating from.

Randy came into view, followed by Dave, and Anthony had a moment to take a closer look at the bully who’d made his life a living hell. On one side of his head, a bulge protruded from beneath his long hair, giving him a lopsided appearance. His clothes were covered with a black substance that took Anthony several moments to identify as dried blood. Dark trails traced lines from each of his ears, across his top lip, under his nose, and from each corner of his mouth.

That crunch he’d heard had to have been Randy’s skull shattering. That realization awakened a cold ball of fear in the pit of his stomach. If he could come back from such a fall what chance did bullets have against him?

“Don’t come any closer,” Anthony shouted as he took a shooter’s stance. His feet shoulder-width apart, toes aimed at the target with his knees slightly bent, leaning forward at the waist to ride out the recoil and keep his balance while firing. He held the pistol in both hands, his right wrapped around the handle with his trigger finger pointing straight out along the barrel.

Never put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to fire, his father’s voice whispered in his mind. His left hand cupped his right hand, adding stability, as the loaded gun weighed nearly eight pounds.

Randy stopped for a moment and looked at him. As their eyes locked, Anthony realized it was no longer Randy. He was there, yes, but something else inhabited his body as well, something associated with the strange animal that sat along the tree line watching the events unfold.

Randy shrugged and took another step forward.

Anthony wrapped his finger around the trigger and gently squeezed. The gun bucked in his hand as the sound of the shot shattered the stillness of the forest with a sharp report that rolled away like thunder.

He missed.

He fired again, riding the recoil like his father had shown him, letting the muzzle of the pistol rise up before bringing it back down on his target.

His third shot sent a plume of dirt into the air directly in front of Randy, who hesitated for a moment before taking another step.

The fourth shot found its mark.

At distances over fifty yards, the effectiveness of a forty-five slug is greatly diminished. Within that range, its stopping power is legendary. Randy was only thirty yards away.

The blunt-nosed slug slammed into Randy’s left knee, shattering it on impact with the bone, the resulting shrapnel slicing through tendon and muscle and flesh. The force of the impact nearly bent his leg backwards at an impossible angle, and Randy dropped to the ground as the animal that had been watching from the edge of the forest started running around in frenzied circles, acting as if it too had been hit.

Strangely, though, Randy never made a sound as he hit the ground. The only sound was that of the report vanishing into the distance like thunder rolling across the silent forest.

Under Anthony’s watchful eye, Dave pulled Randy back into the forest, followed by the animal that stopped for a moment and looked back at him with two mismatched eyes. He felt its presence, a tickle of primitive recognition at the base of his neck, a whisper at the edge of his consciousness, a cold, emotionless sound that filled him with growing terror.

After they were gone, he fled back into the house and raced to the bathroom, where he promptly threw up. It wasn’t over, not by a long shot, and he’d have to keep a close watch on things. They would be back and the thought brought to mind the image of his mother in the kitchen alone, facing what lay in the forest just beyond the back door.

He had to tell someone.

But who?

Who would listen to a twelve-year-old kid with a crazy story of a bully coming back to life after he’d killed him? 

They’d lock him up for sure.

Chapter 8                       Chapter 10

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Parasite: Shadows of the Past Book II: Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Anthony sat on the edge of his bed as he watched the sheriff’s patrol car pull into the driveway of Randy’s house. They’d be coming for him soon. It was just a matter of time before they figured out what had happened. What should have been a joyous week, the first full days of summer vacation, was shrouded by his fear of being discovered.

“Wanna toss the ball back and forth?” his father said at the door to his room and Anthony shook his head. His father stepped into the room and sat down on the bed next to him.

“You know you can’t hide in your room all summer. You’re gonna have to come out to eat, go to the bathroom, that sort of thing,” his dad said.

Anthony knew he was trying to be lighthearted about things but he had no idea how terrified he’d been over the past few days. He’d been waiting for the police to arrive, certain that they would appear the moment he relaxed and dared to believe that he had gotten away with what he’d done.

Then there was Dave. He was a witness to Anthony’s act. There was no reason for him to protect Anthony.

“What kind of trouble is that boy in now?” his dad said as he leaned closer to the window to watch the sheriff’s patrol car across the street. “Maybe they’ll send him away,” his dad said more to himself and Anthony experienced a moment of hope. His dad knew what kind of trouble he was having with Randy. He should tell him. Get it out in the open and be done with it.

“Hey, Dad,” Anthony said.

“Yeah, bud?”

“Nothing, just never mind.” He chickened out at the last moment. For a second he’d thought his dad would understand. But when he looked into his eyes he realized he was still a full-fledged member of the turn the other cheek crowd.

Kill em with kindness, he’d always said. He’d killed him all right. But he hadn’t been very kind about it and he recalled the sensation that had flooded him when Randy had confronted him. A rage fed by years of helplessness.

“I’ve gotta leave for work in a bit. Your Mom’s spending the day at her sister’s. Will you be okay here by yourself?”

Anthony nodded his head. “I’ll be all right.”

“Are you sure?” His father placed his hand against Anthony’s forehead. “You don’t feel hot, but you don’t look too well, either.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Why don’t you get outside today, have some fun. Don’t tell your mom, but I filled up your four-wheeler.”

“You did?” He loved riding his four-wheeler on the trail he and his dad had cut through the woods behind the house. But his mom was always worried he’d get hurt so she’d only let him ride when his dad could go with him.

“You did pretty good in school this year, and you’re getting older. I believe you’re responsible enough to be trusted on your own. But you stay only on the trail, agreed?”

Anthony nodded his head vigorously. It was always fun riding his four-wheeler, even with his dad tagging along, but it would be so much better to ride alone. No one to tell him to slow down and no one to make him go home before he was ready.

“And remember, not a word of this to your mother.”

“I promise.”

“And you have to be back before she gets home. If she catches you riding alone, we’ll both be in deep trouble.”

Again Anthony nodded as he pushed himself up from his bed and crossed his room to retrieve his riding gear from the closet.

“I wonder what he wants?” his dad said. The sheriff’s patrol car had pulled into their driveway. His dad pushed himself away from the window and crossed to the door to Anthony’s room.

“Stay here,” his dad told him before vanishing down the hall. Anthony crossed to the door of his bedroom and listened as his father opened the front door

From below he heard his father’s voice as he spoke with the sheriff’s deputy and he cautiously crept into the hallway to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“I don’t care what they said,” his father’s voice came to him, strained with anger and just a hint of fear that kicked the tone up a note, “I’d rather you didn’t speak to him.”

“I understand your reluctance, Mr. Ferris. As a father myself, I’d be hesitant to let the police speak to my children. I was hoping maybe he’d seen or heard something that could clear this matter up quickly for everyone involved.” The Deputy’s voice was soft, reassuring, self-assured, in sharp contrast to his father’s response.

They knew. The thought blossomed in his mind. They knew what had happened. They knew what he had done. They were going to take him away. Send him downstate to the juvenile facility, to jail. He’d never survive jail. The thoughts trailed off in his mind as his father closed the door with an apology.

Anthony watched him through the slats of the banister as he stood with his back to the front door. He had denied them. His father had protected him, and he was suddenly filled with love for the man who was his father. He would keep them from sending him away. He was safe here in the house, under his father’s protection.

“Anthony,” his father called from the front door.

“What?”

“Come down here, please. I want to speak to you.”

With his helmet in his hand, he slowly walked down the steps. Reaching the first floor, he crossed to where his father stood with his back to the front door.

“Do you know anything about what happened to Randy?”

Anthony shook his head as he shrugged. “What happened to Randy?”

“The police say he’s been missing for several days. Are you sure you don’t know anything about what might have happened?”

“He’s not my friend, why would I know?” The lie came so easily that Anthony experienced a moment of remorse. What had become of him that he could stoop so low, and lie so easily to his own father? But all children lied, adults too, everyone told little white lies during the course of a normal day.

But this was no little white lie.

“You understand that if something has happened, if we come out with the truth, they will understand.”

“I don’t know anything,” Anthony said. Did his father already know what had happened and he was just waiting for Anthony to come clean? Dave could have told him. He could have told everyone and Anthony wouldn’t know it. Were they just waiting for him to tell the truth?

“Are you sure?”

Anthony nodded. He couldn’t trust himself to speak, afraid that if he did, if he opened his mouth to further the lie the truth would come spilling out. Then they would know he was a murderer, a killer, a wild beast that had to be caged for everyone’s own good.

“I believe you,’ his father said, visibly relaxing as he pushed himself away from the door and crossed to where Anthony stood. “I better get going. Have a good day and remember what I said about your mother and the four- wheeler.”

“I will, Dad.” Anthony watched as his father vanished into the kitchen. He had done it but he wasn’t proud of it. He’d lied to his father. If he could keep the lie going, if he repeated it enough to those around him and to himself maybe he would actually start to believe it and then he could pretend it had all been a bad dream from the start.

He heard his father’s car start in the driveway and pull out. Anthony remained where he was for a moment, alone, listening to the silence of the house around him, then he turned and ran upstairs to finish getting ready. There was a trail waiting for him and he wanted to spend some quality time with it.

Chapter 7                       Chapter 9

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Parasite: Shadows of the Past Book II: Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I’m getting too damned old for this shit, Sam thought as he sat in his cruiser behind the yellow Camaro that had pulled to the side of the road. In the tinted rear window of the Camaro he watched the reflection of the light bar on top of his car, flashing red and blue. He’d clocked the sports car at nearly a hundred miles per hour in a fifty mile per hour zone and now he sat, waiting for a response to his call for wants.

Being a small county sheriff’s office, there was no room in the budget for computerized upgrades to their patrol cars, so they still relied on dispatch as a link to information readily available to their brethren with the state police. 

Traffic stops were the number one killer of cops in the country. He didn’t know if the person in the car in front of him had recently been involved in a crime. Or if they were emotionally distraught over a recent argument with a love interest. He was coming in cold, but he couldn’t very well justify approaching the driver’s window with his weapon drawn. What if it was some little old lady who was reliving her childhood?

He didn’t know for sure, and it was the not knowing that kept him in his seat. 

It was the first real week of summer vacation and soon the tourists would be crawling all over the area. Deep Creek Lake, a man-made reservoir that offered boating and fishing opportunities, had become a prime tourist destination over the years. Land had become so valuable around the lake that a number of farmers had become instant millionaires when they opted to sell out to the developers.

“There are no wants, Sam,” the dispatcher’s voice came from the radio mounted on the dash.

When he opened the door of his cruiser, the heat hit him like a wet blanket. The bulletproof vest he wore beneath his khaki shirt added to his discomfort. The heat reminded him of summers in D.C when he walked the beat, before he made the grade and got his gold shield. Happier times that teased with the promise of what could have been.

Putting on his Smokey Bear hat, he approached the driver side window of the Camaro with his hand resting easily on the butt of his revolver. He had unfastened the strap that held it in place in the event he needed to draw his weapon quickly. From the car came the heavy bass beat of music turned up too loud.

The tinted driver’s side window slid down into the door, allowing the music to escape, filling the day with a wild medley of crashing guitars and pounding drums. A young woman sat behind the wheel, her blonde head nodding in time with the music, tapping on the steering wheel with well-manicured fingers.

“Please turn the music down,” Sam shouted to be heard.

The young woman complied and the resulting silence was a welcomed relief.

“Do you know why I pulled you over?”

She shook her head as she glanced up at him with an elfin expression.

“You were doing a hundred in a fifty mile per hour zone. I could impound this car. I’ll need your license and registration please.”

“When was the last time you had your radar gun calibrated?” the young woman said. Her demeanor told Sam everything he needed to know about her. A tourist obviously spoiled by parents who probably paved her way through life with a bottomless checking account.

“I’m not going to argue the merits of my radar gun. Driver’s license and registration please.” Sam held out his hand.

“Do you know who my Daddy is?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. Driver’s license and registration please.”

“Bullshit backwater hick town, you have no idea who you’re messing with.”

“Nor do you, young lady. Now unless you want me to impound your car and place you under arrest, I will need your driver’s license and registration, please.”

“Oh my fucking God,” she screamed as she opened her purse and searched through its contents.

Sam stood up, amused by the woman’s reaction, when a call came over his radio clipped to his belt.

“Unit S-twelve see the occupants at nineteen one twenty three East Wilson drive. They have reported a missing child.”

“Roger, dispatch, I’m on my way.”

The woman held her license and registration out the window. Sam glanced at them briefly then handed them back. He knelt down to bring the woman’s face level with his own.

“I’ve got another call I have to take so I’m letting you go with this warning. I catch you speeding on my roads again, I’m not even going to ask for your license or registration. I’m going to impound your car and arrest you for endangering the public.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Try me.” The tone of his voice left little room for argument, so the woman nodded and Sam returned to his cruiser.

***

East Wilson Drive was a narrow blacktop ribbon of asphalt that meandered through the dense woods bordering the state forest. Barely wide enough for two cars to pass one another, there were wider sections every thirty yards or so where a place to pull off the road had been created along the shoulder. During deer season, the last two weeks of November, every one of these wider sections would be occupied by a car or truck from down state as hunters ventured into the forest in search of white tail deer.

There had been some big ones taken from this wilderness, but in most cases the lucky hunter was fortunate if he managed to take a spike. It was almost like the deer knew to avoid this section of the forest for those two weeks. The week before the season started they were all over the place, watching from the forest as cars went back and forth, sometimes crossing in front of a vehicle, forcing the less alert drivers to slam on their brakes.

Here and there even wider areas had been cut out of the forest where houses had been built and people had come to live. Many would be grouped in clusters of three to five, surrounded on all sides by a seemingly endless forest, and in many a deer stand stood in the back yard. During the summer they would spread corn and apples to bring in the deer. Most of these people were on fixed incomes and while the baits they used to lure in the deer would be considered unsportsmanlike, it was a necessity to keep the freezer full of meat.

It was one such wide spot that Sam pulled into in response to his call. To his left two houses sat side by side, while on his right a dilapidated trailer stood in the center of a large field filled with an assortment of junk that was slowly turning into rust. The trailer was his destination and Sam remained in his cruiser for several minutes, watching the trailer for any signs of life. He had learned early that when venturing to one of these places it was best to see how many dogs lived there before you stepped out from behind the wheel.

Crossing to the small porch, he climbed the three steps and rapped on the wooden screen door that had replaced the original aluminum one, parts of which still lay on the small front porch. An easy chair sat next to the front door, the fabric moldy from exposure to the elements, and next to it stood a small table upon which an overflowing ashtray resided.

From his pocket he removed a plastic vial and dipped his finger into its contents, rubbing the paste along his upper lip. It was a menthol rub, a trick he’d learned from his days with homicide. The menthol would mask any odors in the trailer, which, judging by its outer appearance, would be a dark and crowded space filled with the odors of unwashed bodies, cooking grease, and cigarette smoke.

An old man wearing a stained white tank top opened the front door. “Are you here about Randy?” he asked through the screen.

Sam nodded and the old man unlatched the screen door before he pushed it open for Sam to enter.

After removing his hat, Sam stepped inside and was surprised to find a neat and cozy place, far from what he had expected. The front door opened into a living room with a kitchen to the right. Everything was neat and tidy, no dishes were piled up in the sink, a couple of open windows allowed a cross breeze to cool the interior of the trailer and give it a fresh scent, if the smell of cow shit in the fields could be considered fresh. The walls were covered with an assortment of plaques, each with a rustic saying.

My house was clean last week sorry you missed it.

Our windows aren’t dirty, that’s our dog’s nose art.

In the corner of the living room a new flat panel television sat on top of an older floor model that probably had not been turned on in years. Opposite from the television, which was tuned to Judge Judy, filling the easy chair with her massive bulk, sat what Sam assumed to be the missing child’s mother, dressed in a floral housecoat. Her feet were propped up on an upholstered stool and the small table beside her was covered with empty diet soda cans, silent testament to an intent doomed to failure. 

“Dee, someone’s here about Randy,” the old man said before stepping back into the kitchen and returning to the table where a disassembled shotgun lay on a towel.

“Well, show him in,” the woman said, muting the television with a remote she held in one meaty hand.

Sam stepped into the living room proper. “Good Morning Ma’am, I’m Sam Hardin with the Sheriff’s office.”

“Well, sit down, please. It hurts my neck to look up at you. My name’s Dee.”

Sam nodded and smiled as he settled into a small loveseat. He removed his notebook and pen from his shirt pocket.

“When did you first realize your son was missing?”

“This morning, well last night really. He’s been missing for several days now.”

“You didn’t call sooner?”

Dee shook her head. “We figured he was out with his friends. He’s done that before but he’s never been gone this long. Please find my son. If anything’s happened to him I’ll never forgive myself.”

“I’ll do everything I can, ma’am. What about his friends? Have you spoken with any of them?”

“He only has one real friend I know of, David, who lives with his dad down the street.”

“Do you have his phone number?”

“His Daddy won’t let him have a phone. Says they can’t afford it. If you ask me I think there’s something going on there. He’s always hungry when he’s around. I don’t think his parents are feeding him very well.”

“What about an address?”

“No,” she said shaking her head, “but he lives in the green house about two miles down the road, same side as us.”

“And what’s his name?”

Her face scrunched up as she tried to remember, her eyes vanishing into the folds of fat that surrounded them. “It’s a funny last name,” she said, “Zany, or something like it, I think.”

“What about the boy across the way?” the old man said from the kitchen, where he was oiling the trigger mechanism for the shotgun.

“What boy across the street?” she said, the tone of her voice rising several notches.

“You know, that Anthony kid that lives across the street.”

“They’re not friends, why do you think they’re friends? Randy picks on him. I’ve told that boy a thousand times to quit being like that but he never listens to me.”

“What do you mean he picked on him?” Sam said.

“Aren’t you listening to me?” she said, redirecting her anger at Sam. “He picks on the poor boy, they’re not friends, my son’s a big bully.” She stopped, her mouth working silently as realization dawned on her face. Her hand went to her mouth as her eyes widened in fear. “You don’t think?” she said then stopped, afraid to lend voice the suspicions that were obviously filling her mind.

“You say he lives across the street? And Randy picked on him?”

“As ashamed as I am to admit it, yes, my son was a bully to that boy. You don’t think? Oh my.”

“It could be nothing,” Sam said as he closed his notebook and pushed himself to his feet. “But I’ll look into it.”

Movement at the back of the room drew his attention and he watched as a young girl carrying a baby emerged from the shadowy hallway that led to the back of the trailer.

“Did he have a good nap, sweetie?” Dee said as she raised her arms to take the baby from the young girl.

“Who’s this?” the girl asked, nodding in Sam’s direction.

“He’s from the sheriff’s office, he’s going to help us find your brother.”

“I say let him stay lost,” the girl said.

“Now that’s no way to be. You know your brother loves you.”

The girl rolled her eyes at this but Sam wasn’t paying any attention. His gaze had been drawn to the baby Dee was cradling next to her ample breast. There was definitely something wrong with the child.

His head, if it was a he, was malformed with a very prominent nose that reminded Sam of the beak of a bird. The forward part of his head had a slant on either side of the nose with the eyes looking off to each side instead of straight ahead. He looked as if his skull had been squeezed in a vise when he was first born. Tearing his gaze from the child, he focused on Dee.

“I believe I’ve got everything I need. If there’s anything else, I’ll give you a call.”

“Please find my boy and bring him home to his mommy. No matter what he’s done, tell him I forgive him.”

Sam nodded as he made his way to the front door. He had a few things to go on, but the info about her son being a bully gave him his best lead. Most likely the bully’s victim had turned the tables on his tormentor or something had gotten out of hand and someone had been seriously hurt.

Either way he’d get to the bottom of it, that was his nature, the need to uncover the truth coupled with a persistence that knew no equal, and it was the persistence that always paid off.

Chapter 6                          Chapter 8

 

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Parasite (Shadows of the Past Book II) Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Dressed in blue coveralls with CSU printed in yellow letters on the back, Andrea Mills and James Ball stood in Jenny and Mark’s kitchen. James placed the case he was carrying on the counter and opened it to reveal layers of compartments, each containing vials used for collecting samples. As members of the county’s crime scene unit, they were responsible for collecting the evidence that would eventually be used in court cases, or to determine the cause of a crime.

In the yard an ambulance and several patrol cars sat parked while the occupants of the vehicles gathered in the shade beneath an oak tree. They were waiting for the Crime Scene Unit to finish collecting samples before they could search for clues to what had happened. Originally they had been inside, but James, the senior investigator for the CSU, had ushered them outside so CSU could finish their jobs in a timely fashion.

Andrea was young, mid-twenties, slender in her coveralls, with an open and inquisitive expression. She knelt at the basement door and shined the beam of her flashlight into the darkened basement below.  James, on the other hand, was ten years her senior and had seen more than his share of man’s inhumanity to man. As a former Secret Service agent he understood the darker nature of man and the greed that sometimes pushed him to commit acts he otherwise would not even contemplate.

“Are you ready for this?” James said. This was only her third crime scene so he knew she was still wet behind the ears, so to speak.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Andrea said as she gazed into the dark basement. “Why do they always keep it so dark?”

“Are you afraid of the dark?”

“Of course not, it’s just…”

James smiled at that.

Andrea stood up and motioned for James to lead the way. “Age before beauty,” she said.

“Gee, thanks,” James said as he surveyed the inky well of the basement stairs before him. No sound came from below. He knew from the preliminary report he’d received that there were no living survivors lurking in the basement. But there were two dead bodies and they deserved a modicum of respect as they collected evidence that would be used to determine what had happened to push them over the edge.

“I’ll go down and set up the work lights before you come down,” James said as he picked up one of the rechargeable work lights and stepped onto the landing.

Carefully he worked his way down the steps, taking it slow and easy, checking each step before he placed all of his weight on it. While with the Secret Service, he’d been involved in an investigation of a man suspected of providing funding for terrorist organizations via several websites he owned. While searching his house, they’d learned the hard way that he had bobby trapped his basement stairs by sawing each step nearly in half from the underside. The first agent who went down the steps went right through them onto the concrete below, breaking his leg.

James had no idea what he was going to find in the basement. The last two people down there had been a pair of sheriff’s deputies fighting for their lives. Stopping at the bottom, he shined the beam of his flashlight around his position. Thick strands of what looked like spider webbing hung from the rafters, creating a jungle that filled the empty space. It was as if the basement had not been entered in years, yet the shelf to his right was neat and orderly, full of canned vegetables that were clearly marked and dated. Beyond that lay a workbench; its surface, too, was clear of debris and the hand tools hung from a pegboard attached the wall behind the bench. Neat and orderly with everything in its place, except for the strange threads hanging from the exposed rafters, and the excavation in the center of the basement floor.

The basement could have passed for any one of a million others occupied by a working couple struggling to make ends meet. Beyond the workbench, towards the middle of the room on the floor, lay a pile of dirt with several digging tools scattered about on top of it, next to an excavation in the concrete floor. From the center of the hole a single steel object rose up from the earth, slender, forming a curved line that vanished into the ground. It appeared to be metal yet reflected none of the light given off by the flashlight.

Turning his attention away from the excavation, he shined the light around the floor, noting the presence of a large number of dead insects lying scattered about.

What the hell? James wondered as he knelt down and picked up one of the insects with his gloved hand. It was familiar, yet unlike anything he had ever seen before. Its body was slender like that of a praying mantis, but instead of an upper torso topped by a head, it ended in a stubby appendage that resembled the head of an old-time executioner’s axe lying on its side.

“Is everything all right?” Andrea said from the top of the steps.

“Everything’s fine,” James said as he turned his attention to setting up the floodlight and turned it on. Light flooded the basement, the hanging strands casting long shadows that added to the disturbing nature of the basement.

“What the hell are those things?” Andrea said from the bottom of the stairs.

“No idea,” James said as he gathered one up and slipped it into an evidence bag, cutting it from the rafter with his knife. As soon as the strand was severed it dissolved into a sticky fluid at the bottom of the evidence bag.

“Whatever it is, it’s obviously still alive,” he said as he ran his gloved hand down the back of one of the strands, noting how it changed color when it came into contact with him. “We’ll have to create a path to the bodies for the pathology guys,” James continued as he severed several more, watching them collapse to the floor as a column of liquid.

Their presence made him uncomfortable and he debated stopping the collection at that point so they could don more protective gear. Reaching the first body, he opted to continue as it was. These people had lain down here long enough; they needed to gather up what they came for and let the others do what was needed for the dead.

Jenny was lying on her back staring up at the ceiling above, her short skirt hiked up around her waist, exposing white panties stained by the release of bodily fluids at the moment of her death. James photographed her, the flash of the camera throwing everything into sharp contrast; the entry wound under her chin was black against the dingy whiteness of her flesh.

“I’ve got the female,” James said as he knelt down and searched around her body. Nothing jumped out at him as an object for collection so he moved on. Pathology stood a better chance of determining what had driven them to attack the sheriff’s deputies; their job was to catalogue the crime scene, photograph it, and maintain the integrity of any evidence discovered at the scene.

He found several more of the bugs lying around Jenny.

“What do you make of the insects?” James said.

Andrea knelt down and picked up an insect, looking at it closely under the beam of her flashlight. “It’s like nothing I’m familiar with. I’ll have to check my database when I get back to the office.”

“Could they have come from Central America?”

“Possibly. I won’t know for sure until I get to a computer. What are you thinking?”

“Drug shipment gone bad. Maybe they were sampling the product, who knows.”

James stood up and approached the metal object sticking up from the center of the excavation.

“What’s that?” Andrea said as she joined him.

“Fifty-Five Chevy?” James said.

“I don’t think it’s a car.”

“Then what is it?” James said as he stepped into the excavation and knelt down to get a closer look. He tapped on the metal and it emitted a hollow sound. “It’s hollow.” Shining the beam of his flashlight along the surface, he noted that the metal, though silver in color, did not reflect the light, it absorbed it.

Placing his hand against the silver gray surface, he noted how cold it felt, as cold and lifeless as a grave.

“What do you think it is?” Andrea said, her attention focused on James and the object.

“Don’t know myself, but I know someone who might,” James said as he stepped back and snapped several pictures. Not even the camera flash was reflected from the surface.

After taking a few more shots, he knelt down and looked closely at the point where the metal met the ground. Here it was obvious the object spread out under the concrete floor flaring from the base of the fin. He wasn’t sure when he had recognized the object as a stabilizer fin; it had just come to him as he inspected the object that he was slowly beginning to suspect had otherworldly origins.

He came upon a tube in the slick surface, molded from the same piece of metal, as there were no mating lines. Cleaning out the rest of the dirt that clogged it, he leaned forward and shined his flashlight into the tube. The beam of his flashlight died a few feet into the aperture, the metal seeming to absorb the energy given off by the light. This realization heightened his earlier suspicions that what he was looking at had not come from this planet.

Standing up, he brushed off the knees of his coveralls and climbed out of the excavation.

“So what do you think it is?” Andrea said.

“I don’t want to say, you’ll laugh at me.”

“Me, I wouldn’t laugh at you, you’re my mentor.”

“Very funny. Have you finished with the male?”

“All done, samples taken and photos shot.”

“I guess we’re done, then. We can turn the scene over to the Medical Examiner’s office.”

“That’s good,” Andrea said as she looked around the basement, “this place gives me the creeps.”

“Me too,” James said as he crossed to the stairs with Andrea in tow.

“So what do you think it is?” she said at the bottom of the steps.

James stopped and looked back at the single fin sticking up in the center of the excavation. He imagined that somewhere nearby was the fin’s twin, buried for hundreds of thousands of years beneath the earth. In several places he saw insects lying dead. Could they have come from the craft? If so, how had they survived?

James shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said and turned up the steps. But he knew someone who might and he considered a visit to the University of Washington where one Professor Abramson taught physics. He would know.

Chapter 5                   Chapter 7

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Parasite (Shadows of the Past Book II) Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Deputy Pete Forest and his partner Deputy Bob Michaels gazed up at the silent house as they sat in their cruiser parked in the driveway of the Reynolds residence. Both of them were familiar with Mark and his story, and each in their own way was rooting for the young man to be successful in his life. Bob had been present when Mark and his two friends had tried to rob the Pick and Go several years earlier. The fact that he had been released early for good behavior was a plus, so when Mark’s parole officer told them about his failure to show up for work and his employer’s inability to reach him, they decided to check things out, and make sure everything was okay.

It was obvious everything was not okay at the Reynolds’. Their old Cavalier was still sitting in the driveway, and after a bit of digging they’d discovered that Mark’s wife Jenny had not shown up for work for the past two days. Which led to a couple of possible conclusions.  They might have left town in the misguided hope to start new somewhere else, but the more likely answer was their bodies were both inside right now after a murder-suicide.

“Are we going in or not?” Ronald Stevens, Mark’s parole officer said from the back seat of the cruiser. He had agreed to come with them.

“Let’s get this over with,” Pete said as he opened his door and stepped out into the relentless midday heat. The incessant cry of the cicadas filled the day, coming from the forest behind the house, and the earthy scent of decay was carried on a soft breeze stirring the leaves of the trees.

“You wait here, Ronald,” Bob said as he exited the cruiser and rounded the hood to stop alongside his partner. Each of them had been in sticky situations in the past, and they each knew they were taking one hell of a risk walking up onto the house as they were. For all they knew, Mark had gone over the edge and was right now watching them through a telescopic sight ready to end their lives.

Having served themselves, they were aware of the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Each vet reacted differently when his or her options dwindled in the civilian world as Mark’s had. Being an ex-con had heightened that situation for Mark, whose only desire was to do what was right.

Reaching the foot of the steps of the front porch, they breathed a sigh of relief. Above them the house stood silent in the midday heat, blank windows watching them with unseeing eyes.

“After you,” Bob said and Pete started up the stairs, followed by his partner.

Looking through the window into the living room, Pete saw the food tray next to the easy chair; on it sat a plate of food. The television was still on and he could hear the sound of canned laughter. It was as if something urgent had happened to take them away from their meal. Moving down the porch, he looked into the kitchen window. A pocketbook sat on the counter, a set of keys lying next to it.

“I’m going to try the front door,” Pete said.

“I’ll go around the back. Give me a minute to get into place and we’ll go in.”

Pete waited for his partner to get into position, his hand resting on the doorknob of the front door. He’d already tried it, finding it locked, and knew he was going to have to kick in the door. From the radio mounted on his belt came a single break. That was Bob’s signal to get ready. It was followed by two breaks in quick succession and Pete stepped back in preparation to kicking in the door. When three quick breaks came from the radio he raised his foot and slammed it into the door right next to the knob.

The lock shattered, parts of it skittering across the floor as the door swung in and Pete entered the hallway with his revolver drawn. Crouched low, in order to make himself as small a target as possible, he quickly moved down the short hallway and scanned the living room, checking each shadowy corner before he was satisfied that it was clear.

“Living room clear,” he said.

“Laundry room clear,” Bob’s voice came from the depths of the house and each of them moved through the first floor, clearing the rooms as they went. They met in the hallway by the front door. 

“Let’s do the upstairs,” Bob said and Pete followed him up the carpeted steps.

#

Ronald had watched as Pete and Bob entered the house; from his place beside the cruiser he could easily follow their progress through the downstairs rooms. When they had moved up the stairs, he approached the house as well. He’d been a sheriff’s deputy himself for a number of years before he became a parole officer, so he was familiar with the procedure and to be honest he felt a little left out of the loop by the deputies’ admonishment that he stay there. So when they moved upstairs he entered the house.

The sound of a television playing came from the living room on the left and he crossed to the set to turn it off as the sound of the two deputies moving through the upstairs came to him through the ceiling. In the resulting silence he heard the buzzing sound of insects that drew his attention to the plate of half eaten food sitting on a TV tray beside the easy chair across from the television. Flies buzzed about the congealed mass of what had once been hamburger helper, lighting briefly on the squirming mound of maggots mixed with the putrid mass of meat and noodles.

It had been a couple of days, at least, since the couple had fled.

But why?

It made no sense. Ronald had spoken with the owner of the small diner where Mark worked and had learned that he was a dependable worker who was always on time, always finished his job without complaint, and was willing to stay on the few occasions they’d asked him to. In fact they had been planning on moving Mark up from dishwasher to food prep, along with a slight raise.

They were as surprised as Ronald when Mark simply hadn’t shown up two days before. No phone call, and their calls to his house had gone unanswered. 

Familiar with Mark’s past service, Ronald had become worried and enlisted the help of a couple of the deputies to lend him a hand and check up on young man.

Ronald heard Bob and Pete coming down the steps just as he became aware of another sound coming from the floor beneath him. The slow, steady scrape of metal over concrete.

Bob and Pete entered the hallway and Ronald waved to get their attention.

“I though we told you to stay in the car,” Bob said as he crossed the living room towards him. Ronald motioned for him to be quiet by placing his finger over his lips. Bob stopped and tilted his head to listen.

From the basement beneath them came the sound of metal scraping against another object.

Bob motioned to Pete that they were in the basement. Pete turned and crossed the kitchen to the basement door with Bob and Ronald close on his heels. Opening the door, he tried the light switch on the wall but the basement remained as dark as the bottom of a deep well.

The beam of his flashlight pierced the darkness as Bob, followed closely by his partner, moved down the basement steps. Reaching the bottom, each man searched the corners of the basement with a flashlight. Thick strands of an unknown substance hung from the exposed rafters, creating long shadows cast by the flashlights that offered refuge to anyone hiding in the basement.

Bob settled the beam of his flashlight on the vertical fin sticking up from the basement floor. Around it a number of large black insects were lying on the floor.

“What the hell is that?” Bob said.

Pete shrugged as he stepped into the jungle of hanging strands, playing the beam of his flashlight all around himself as he ventured deeper into the basement. The sound of movement came from his right and he swung around in that direction just as Jenny emerged from between two strands with an axe held in her hands. Dark flesh lay around each of her oversized eyes as her lips were pulled back in a grimace.

“Hold it,” Pete shouted as he drew his revolver. She continued her advance on him, lifting the axe over her shoulder as if she were about to strike him with it. He fired his revolver from the hip, the muzzle flash temporarily blinding him as the roar of the shot rebounded from floor and ceiling. Jenny was driven back by the impact of the round, a black spot blossoming on the bottom of her chin as the angle of the round took it up into her brain, dropping her instantly. 

Bob quickly crossed to Pete just as Mark appeared from the shadowy depths on his blind side, wielding an axe in his hand, the head resting on his shoulder in preparation for a swing. Bob fired as the sound of Pete’s shot reverberated in his ear, the muzzle flash illuminating the jungle of hanging strands around him, temporarily blinding him. Bob’s shot caught Mark in the center of mass, a black spot suddenly appeared in the center of his chest as he was driven back into the shadows.

Mark returned, surprising Pete, who had expected him to go down from the impact of the shot, and he managed to swing his axe, the blade slicing into Pete’s calf muscle and dropping him to the floor as he screamed and fired again, his shot going wide, ricocheting from the block wall somewhere in the shadowy depths of the basement.

Bob came to him as Mark raised his axe for another blow, black blood blossoming on Mark’s shirt as Bob’s round slammed into the center of his chest. He stepped back from the impact of the round but remained on his feet as he approached them to take another swing.

“What the fuck,” Bob shouted as he fired again, his round hitting Mark in the throat, forcing him to stagger back, yet he remained standing, impervious to their rounds. Pete fired from his position, aiming up, and the round slammed into the bottom of Mark’s chin, angling up into his brain, and he dropped lifelessly to the ground, the axe clattering to the floor beside him.

“Where’s the other one?” Pete said.

“She’s down, I hope,” Bob said as he knelt over his partner with his pistol in one hand and his flashlight in the other as he tried to look everywhere at once.

#

Ronald stepped back from the basement door as Bob helped Pete into the kitchen. Blood was flowing freely form the deep gash in his calf, and after sitting Pete on the floor, Bob grabbed several towels from the towel rack and used them to try to stem the flow of blood.

“What happened? Did you find them? What was all the shooting about?” Ronald said.

“Go to the cruiser and get the first aid kit,” Bob said.

“What happened?” Ronald persisted.

“Do it now, dammit,” Bob said and Ronald turned on his heel to race from the kitchen.

Bob looked up from the wound on Pete’s leg. “Are you going to be all right?”

Pete nodded in response, pain evident on his face. “What the hell was that all about?”

“Who knows, but I’m calling for back up.”

Bob keyed the mike clipped to his shoulder that was attached to the small radio on his belt, that was further powered by the cruiser’s more powerful radio.

“Base, this is six three, over,” Bob said into the mike.

From the small speaker on his shoulder came the reply in a female voice.  “Roger six three, this is base, go ahead.”

“We have shots fired at our location, one officer is down, over.”

“Roger six three,” came the immediate response, tension evident in the dispatcher’s voice, “back-up is en-route, emergency services have been notified. What is the status of the officer down, over?”

“Status is stable, but life threatening, over.”

“Will he be okay, Bob?” came the dispatcher’s worried voice, breaking all protocols.

“He’ll be all right, Maggie. I’ve got it under control. Out.”

Ronald rushed back into the kitchen with the first aid kit and Bob opened it, removing several cellophane wrapped bandages and placed them next to Pete’s leg. Removing the blood soaked towel, he laid it aside and opened the bandages, carefully wrapping the puckered wound with the sterile bandage.

As Bob worked on Pete, Ronald walked over to the basement door and looked down into the darkness below. “What happened down there?”

“They attacked us.”

“They? Who?” Ronald said.

“Mark and Jenny. I guess you’re not going to have to worry about his parole violation anymore.”

“Are they dead?”

“I sure as hell hope so,” Bob said, shuddering as he looked at the open basement door, recalling the way Mark had kept coming even after being hit several times at close range.

Must be a drug or something, he thought as the sound of a distant siren came to them.

Ronald screamed and jumped back as Pico, the cat, darted through the opened door. Pico stopped halfway across the kitchen and looked back at them; he hissed, and then turned and fled through the back door.

Chapter 4                       Chapter 6

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Parasite (Shadows of the Past Book II) Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Mark understood persistence, persistence had gotten him out of jail ahead of his scheduled release date, early release for good behavior. Persistence had helped him land the job he now had washing the breakfast dishes at the Crest view diner every morning before five.

Persistence, that nose to the grindstone stubbornness, had helped him stay out of trouble.

Yeah, he still hung out with the so-called bad element, it was the only thing his wife Jenny hated about the new and improved Mark, but there were some things that would never change.

Friendship was one of them. He had grown up with Rick and Pete. They had been boyhood pals, high school friends, and brothers under fire when all three of them enlisted in the marines shortly after the nine eleven attacks. After two tours in the sandbox they had decided to call it quits and return to civilian life. Unfortunately civilian life was not ready for them. They missed the adrenalin rush combat had provided, and that need had led them down some shadowy paths that ended at the local Pick and Go convenience store when they tried to rob it.

They would have gotten away with it too if they hadn’t of picked a night when several of the local deputies went bowling. So they stormed into the store, guns drawn, to meet the stony gazes of six out of uniform sheriff deputies who had recently finished a night of league bowling. Their first mistakes had been not properly casing the place before they attempted the robbery. Their second mistake was assuming the six civilians in the store would drop to the ground on their command. Instead the six deputies had drawn their own weapons as the lone clerk nearly shit himself while he cowered on the floor behind the counter.

Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and not a shot was fired as the three ex-marines were cuffed and loaded into the back of patrol cars.

But that had been then and this was now and Mark stood gazing down at what he hoped would be his and Jenny’s ticket to a better life. He’d been after his landlord to fix the sump pump in the basement as it kept backing up every time it rained.

He wanted to put in a regular drain and after months of badgering the old bitty that owned the place he managed to convince her to let him do the job in exchange for two months of free rent. Now he was deep in the middle of the project when another obstacle popped up.

Were he to look back on his life he would find it filled with obstacles that had popped up unexpectedly, forcing him to react, making his past look like the erratic path of a pinball bouncing from one bumper to the next.

Cutting through the thin concrete floor had been a piece of cake. The ground beneath was very rocky but he did manage to dig a slit trench halfway across the basement’s length before he hit the immobile object he was now gazing at.

He’d brought out his entire arsenal of tools as he widened and deepened the hole around the object that at first glance looked like the tail fin of a 55’ Chevy Belair. After three hours of tedious, backbreaking work, he’d come to the realization that what he had run into had extraterrestrial origins. And with that realization came the hope that he could bankroll his find into a new lease on life for he and his wife.

He never once gave a thought to ownership. He’d found it so in his mind it was his. It didn’t matter that it was beneath the floor of the basement in a house he did not even own. He’d found it. So it belonged to him and as he sank to his knees next to the fin shaped object he thought of all the money he was going to make off his discovery. Had he known the truth about what was to transpire he would most likely have covered it back up and forgotten about it. Instead he focused on revealing more of the hidden object, digging down into the dirt as the mound beside him grew.

The fin measured a mere two inches thick and appeared to be made of a dull gray metal that seemed to absorb the light instead of reflecting it. So far he had exposed nearly a foot of the fins vertical surface and had reached the point where the buried object had begun to flare away from the base of the fin, vanishing into the rocky soil. He dug away at the ground, with pick and shovel as he worked on his knees, struggling to expose something that would give him some clue to the craft’s origin.

His phone rang and he glanced at the face of it. It was Rick, so he flipped the phone open and placed it next to his ear.

“Yo Rick, what’s up man,” he said. Both Rick and Pete had recently been released after serving most of their sentences, neither of them possessed Mark’s persistence.

“Let’s roll downtown and score some weed man,” Rick said, his voice faint in the receiver pressed next to his ear.

“Can’t man, I’m busy tonight, gotta finish this job in my basement so our rent’s covered.”

“Fuck your rent man, let’s go party.”

“Can’t, besides what I’m working on right now might set us all up for life.”

“Whatcha got going down man?”

“Can’t say yet, it’s too early, I’ll talk to you later man, I’ve gotta get back to work.”

“Whatever man, if you change your mind we’ll be downtown at the usual place. You remember where that is don’t you?”

“Yeah, I know where it is, if I change my mind, you’ll see me.”

Mark hung up and slipped the phone back into his pocket. They still had their gangster attitude.

“Hey, your supper’s ready,” Jenny yelled down from the basement door at the top of the stairs.

“I’ll be up in a minute,” he said.

“Well don’t wait too long, you don’t want your supper to get cold, and besides I’m going out tonight. There’s a five thousand dollar jackpot at the VFW, and we need to pay the electric bill.”

“Okay, give me a minute will ya.”

There was always one bill or another that had to be paid. Jenny made good money compared to what he made washing dishes but even with the two incomes combined they still struggled. And it didn’t help that she spent a great deal of money on playing bingo chasing an impossible dream. It was all she ever talked about, winning the big one at bingo, sadly talk was all it ever amounted to.

Leaning to the left he spotted a faint seam in the metal of the fin, down near the base where it flared out. He ran his finger over it and could feel the slight depression with his thumb. Using a putty knife he tried to slip it into the seam with no success.

“Your dinner’s getting cold and I’m getting ready to leave.”

“I’m on my way.”

“You said that a half an hour ago,” Jenny shot back.

“Jesus fucking Christ woman can’t I get anything done around here,” he said as he pushed himself up from his knees and approached the steps. Reaching the top he shoved open the door to find Jenny standing at the counter waiting for him. The kitchen décor was dated when they were kids, now it was considered retro, a look that everyone was spending a great deal of money to duplicate. Hell for what these fools spent on old kitchen appliances he’d let them have the entire kitchen set.

“It’s about time, I was just getting ready to leave, what’s so damned important down there anyway?”

Mark shrugged, “I’m just trying to get that drain done so our rent will be paid for the next two months.”

“But what about the electric bill?”

“I’m working on it, if things pan out like I hope they do we won’t ever have to worry about money again.”

Jenny stopped what she a doing, her hand hovering above her opened pocketbook. “You’re not doing anything illegal are you?”

“Absolutely not,” he said, staring at her, daring her it seemed to prove him wrong.

“I believe you,” she said as she turned back to her pocket book to retrieve her car keys. As she crossed to the back door with Mark following behind her, their cat Pico emerged from hiding and entered the kitchen from the shadowy recesses of the living room.

“Don’t forget to feed Pico tonight, I won’t be late, I promise, and don’t work too hard.”

“I’ve got an early day tomorrow anyway so I’ll probably be asleep by the time you get home,” he said as she slipped out the door and crossed the small back porch to the yard beyond.

Mark watched Jenny back out of the driveway then he turned to the oven where his meal waited. Uncovering the plate he frowned as its contents. Hamburger helper and baked potato again. He’d do anything for a steak, thick and juicy, with the blood running out of its center. Grabbing a beer from the fridge he crossed into the living room with a very vocal Pico trailing him.

“Be patient, I’ll get you fed.”

After placing his plate of a TV tray he sat down in his easy chair and flipped on the television, pulling the tray around in front of him.

Pico jumped onto the arm of the chair and lay down as Mark ate while watching a documentary about ancient aliens on the history channel. Absently he scratched Pico’s neck and the cat purred in contentment.

As Mark watched TV in the living room, moonlight softly illuminated the fin sticking up from the hole in the center of the basement floor. Down near the line where metal and earth met there was a stirring as something pushed through the earth that had clogged a small opening several millennia before. An insect emerged into the moonlight. Several inches long and less than half an inch across it resembled a preying mantis to a small degree. Instead of an upright upper torso and head the end of this insect terminated in a head that resembled the leading edge of a knife with a very narrow blade edge flaring back into the body. Several more emerged from behind the first and they spread their wings before taking flight into the shadowy recesses of the basement. More insects spilled from the opening, joining their brethren in a swirling ball of flashing wings near the shadowy ceiling.

                                                                                 #

Mark had finished dinner and was sleepily watching the television when Pico stood up and gazed towards the kitchen with a growl low in his throat.

“What’s wrong buddy, you hear something?” Mark said as he pushed himself up and retrieved his empty beer can.

Time for a refill.

He crossed to the kitchen with Pico hot on his tail. He still hadn’t fed him yet even though he’d promised Jenny he would, and once in the kitchen he retrieved a can of cat food from the cupboard. He spooned half the contents of the can into a small bowl that he placed on the floor next to the refrigerator. He looked into the can at the compressed contents realizing with a sudden clarity that unless something changed soon on the money front, they would be reduced to sharing Pico’s dinner. The thought tuned his stomach and he quickly covered the can with a piece of foil and placed it in the fridge as he retrieved another beer.

Pico was at the basement door, trying to open it with his paw.

“Do you hear something down there? A big old juicy rat maybe?”

Mark opened the door and Pico darted through into the basement. Closing the door he returned to the living room as the sound of an object falling over came form the basement.

“Go get em, boy,” Mark said as he settled into his seat and popped the top of the beer can. He took a long drink as a commotion erupted from the basement. Objects fell to the floor as the sound of Pico screeching came from below him.

“Dammit it all to hell,” Mark jumped to his feet as a low mournful wail issued from the basement. Crossing into the kitchen he reached the basement door and flung it open. Flipping on the light he looked down at the tools scattered across the floor.

“What in the hell is going on down here?” he yelled as he came down the steps. Reaching the bottom step he stopped as the buzzing cloud of insects swirling around the single bare bulb that hung from the exposed rafters came into view. One of the insects cut out of the pack and dive-bombed him, he sidestepped it, moving into the path of a second insect that slammed into his arm and he looked down as an intense jolt of pain flared from the point of impact. The insect was holding onto his flesh as it sawed its head back and forth, cutting through his skin, and pushing itself under the soft tissue.

In no time the insect vanished beneath the flesh of his arm, becoming a faint bump that moved with growing agony past his elbow and upper arm. He felt it under his flesh, crawling beneath the soft tissue as it went into the recess of his underarm and vanished into the cavity of his chest. 

He dropped to his knees as he felt the insect moving through his chest cavity, pushing aside his lung, and igniting intense pain that flared out from his chest with every breath he took. The other insects dropped to the floor where they lay twitching as the pain flowed across his body and he sensed the presence of another within his own mind. An ancient force that stoked primitive fears that lay deep in the hidden recesses of man’s half forgotten past.

He felt it climbing his esophagus, a single point of pain that emerged from beneath his breastbone, closing his windpipe and causing him to gag as he struggled to catch his breath. He fell face first onto the mound of dirt, clawing and scratching at the ground as his heartbeat thundered in his ear and his vision dimmed from the lack of oxygen. Just when he was certain he was about to step across into the unknown void of death the object was past his throat and he gulped in a lungful of air as he rolled over onto his back and looked up at the light bulb glowing above him.

He lay there, unable to move, his arms and legs locked into position as his body betrayed him. The insect had moved into his cranial cavity, pushing its way past his nasal cavity, attaching itself to the Hypothalamus that lay at the very core of the brain.

Like a telephone operator of old the Hypothalamus lay at the heart of a neural network of nerves that were responsible for controlling everything from what a person saw to how they responded to external stimuli. A bundle of glands that was viewed by many as the seat of Man’s soul. Sight, sound, and touch were all processed here. It also played a role in controlling the motor systems of the brain, which were responsible for bodily movement and coordination. A part of the endocrine system the effects of its varied responses were immediate. Once in place the insect injected an alien concoction of DNA into Mark’s bloodstream as it incited the production of adrenalin.

Mark was sweating profusely as adrenalin slammed into his body. Providing a rush far greater than any he’d ever experienced before and as the alien DNA flooded his system he became aware of a faint whispering that lay just beyond the edge of his consciousness. He felt like a powerful secret was about to be revealed. The truth would become known and his consciousness would expand to encompass all the universe. The light above him became a distant star that existed somewhere on the other side of the universe, an icy void man would never lay eyes upon, a place that existed only in memory.

Mark became aware of another consciousness within his own, a presence that sought his acceptance but stood ready to take what it desired.

“Become one with us,” a sweetly sinister voice whispered in his mind and he rebelled against its intrusion as the distant star drew closer, the color changing from a harsh white light to a soft blue hue. An ancient memory blossomed in his mind, one shared by billions of others that lay not only in the present, but occupied the past, as well as a future that had yet to transpire.

They had mastered time and space, the universe lay at their feet, theirs for the taking, yet they had as yet to master their own emotions, their own beliefs crouched in the dodgy persistence that was faith. Above them a blue sun burned towards oblivion as they once again gathered in the valley of tears beneath the spires of Baezil. Coming together to join as one mind, one emotion, one desire to step beyond the yoke of limitations they had placed upon themselves.

He was coming. The thought whispered among them as an electric bolt of emotion shot through the crowd.

As those alien memories unfolded in his mind Mark struggled to hang onto his own memories that were being threatened by the crashing wave of this creatures past. He saw himself as a child, following his father around the yard as he worked to keep their little plot of land neat and tidy. The image was replaced with that of the sun reflected from the silver lid of a coffin beneath a spray of flowers whose petal moved in time with the steady breeze as the preacher’s words whispered through his mind.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,” the Preacher’s words droned against the incessant cry of the cicadas coming from a nearby forest. He had never been a religious person, throwing off the yoke of belief when he was younger and could choose his own path. But now, faced with the alternative, he clung to the Preacher’s words, a tenuous lifeline to what he had once been in the churning turmoil of what this thing wished him to become.

“His will protect me from my enemies.” That sinister voice whispered in sharp counterpoint to the Preacher’s remembered words. Mark clung to the memory as it slowly faded, a desperate last grab at maintaining who he was as that other presence washed over him like the relentless surf of the ocean.

“He leadeth me beside still waters.” The Preacher’s words faded slowly into the incessant cry of the cicadas that Mark suddenly realized was not what he had at first thought it to be. It was not cicadas at all, but the worshipful cries of millions of voices rising up from an antediluvian void to overwhelm all that was he as the final transition took place and he became one with that which had invaded him. His consciousness was shuffled off to the side, imprisoned in his own mind as the new Mark slowly regained his feet and retrieved an axe from the floor beside the hole in the basement floor. He smashed the light bulb, plunging the basement into an ebony void into which a single shaft of moonlight flowed through the only window, softly illuminating the fin standing in the center of the excavation.

With his back against the far wall he settled onto his haunches with the axe held between his upraised knees. Pico emerged from beneath the toolbox and crossed the basement to sit next to Mark who reached out and placed his hand upon his head. Neither of them moved until the sound of a car pulling into the driveway outside alerted them to Jenny’s return from Bingo.  

Chapter 3                              Chapter 5

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