Aeon of Wonder

by Carey Henderson

  Brook had been unsuccessful in convincing Kelly to sleep in her bed, so they'd both agreed to sleep in the living room, one on each couch. As she lay there, Brook could not get the image of the naked woman out of her mind. The woman just looked at them. Didn't move, didn't step toward them, just looked at her and Kelly. Even though she couldn't remember looking directly into them, Brook thought she remembered those eyes being dead like.

  In the city, night is never fully dark. Brook's apartment was dimly lit by street light peeking through the blinds. She kept thinking she saw the woman in the room but each time it was merely an illusion; something in the room at the right angle in the proper shadow. Brook tried to convince herself that she was safe, that having Kelly there protected her. She felt like it should have helped her but it did not in the least. Her eyes were wide and straining to gather light to see. But Brook couldn't bring herself to turn on a light. She felt embarrassed enough.

  As she began to doze toward sleep, she saw a shadow in the room that did not belong. The shadow did not move. It merely stood next to a window, just close enough to be detected but not close enough to be seen directly. Brook felt like an idiot as she pulled the comforter up and over her face. But it was the only way she could keep herself from screaming.

  She heard the hissing sound of someone moving on the other couch and pulled the comforter down.

  Kelly was suspended in mid-air but Brook saw no one or no thing holding her up. It was as though she floated. She watched as Kelly's head rolled back exposing her neck.

  Then the naked woman appeared. She was holding Kelly in the air. This time the woman's eyes burned a bright red into the night. Brook noticed that her long hair was floating up and around her head.

  The woman plunged her face into Kelly's neck and Brook didn't have to wonder what the woman was doing.

  Brook screamed until her upstairs neighbor came knocking and the neighbor across the hallway had called the police.

  ****

  After hours of searching, the police found no signs of forced entry, no footprints anywhere outside. Brook saw, as the paramedic loaded her onto a stretcher, that there were no marks on her neck. Yet there was something very wrong with Kelly.

  The police had asked all manner of questions, finally convinced that there was as of yet no visible sign of foul play. She was advised to go to the Police station the next day and give a full statement. She'd agreed but had told the officer she didn't know what else to say. He'd smiled and told her just to say the same thing again if need be, it was mostly a formality.

  Kelly had turned white as a sheet and had shaken violently for some time after Brook had managed to compose herself. The naked woman had merely dropped her back onto the couch and disappeared. It was only that her friend was hurt that Brook had managed to get up, turn a light on. She'd gasped when seeing Kelly so pale and shaking.

  After everyone left, Brook felt the terror come back. She cried for a moment and then convinced herself to shower and clean up. An hour later she left for the hospital. Her spirits had picked up again as the sun began to creep above the horizon.

  Brook hated hospitals. They shined and gleamed in all the creepiest ways, the smell, the whole atmosphere just made her uncomfortable. She walked to the front desk and asked which room Kelly was in. The nurse seemed annoyed but told her the room number.

  When she walked in, she was surprised to see that no one but Kelly was there. She lie asleep on the hospital bed, white as the sheets she lay on. Brook noticed how deep-set the dark circles under her eyes had become. She couldn't bring herself to allow her mind to say how Kelly really looked. Kelly could be rude and brash and sometimes downright hateful. But she and Brook had been there for each other so many times. She walked over to the bed and took Kelly's hand. It was cold as ice.

  "Hello?" The voice startled Brook.

  "Oh, hi."

  "Are you family, ma'am?"

  "No, I'm her best friend. Have any of her family been to see her?"

  The nurse, who had looked detached suddenly relaxed somewhat. "No, the hospital has tried to call her home but with no answer. Do you have any other contact information for them?"

  "Nothing other than their home and cell phone numbers," Brook said.

  "We tried all those with no luck. Left a message on every phone but as of yet, we've heard nothing back."

  "Oh."

  "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, I truly am, considering her condition and your friendship, but you're going to have to come back later in the day. We're about to run some tests on her."

  "What's wrong with her," Brook asked.

  "That's what we're hoping to find out. Our staff doctors are clueless. An infectious disease expert will be here within the hour."

  "You mean, like House?"

  The nurse actually smiled. "Yes, but no one's that good."

  The two women shared the brief moment with a smile and then the nurse left.

  Brook took Kelly's hand again. "Don't you die. I swear, if you die, I'll dig you back up and kill you myself." Then, she began to cry. The nurse walked by but when she saw Brook sobbing, she did not stop to remind her she had to leave.

  ****

  Later that morning, Brook went to Nick's apartment. Jonas was already there.

  "Where the hell were you guys," Brook said.

  "Dude, we just heard. We called the hospital and they told us we couldn't come until later in the day. They said they're, like, running some tests on her and stuff."

  "Yeah," Brook said. She fought back tears and flopped down onto Nick's overstuffed couch.

  "What happened," Nick asked.

  "I don't know," Brook said. "Well, like, I do know. But you'll never believe me. The cops didn't, my mom didn't, so you won't."

  Jonas spoke softly, something he rarely did. "Try us. We're not gonna laugh at you."

  Brook looked at Jonas, then Nick who shook his head in affirmation.

  "Well, ok," she began. "So, we were at the mall. At the food court, Kelly started acting totally weird. Like freaked out. And then I saw why."

  "What did you see," Nick asked.

  For a moment, Brook said nothing.

  "I don't know. I just... there was a naked woman standing in the fountain in the food court. Just right there, naked, in front of God and everybody." Her voice had begun to trail upward with the stress of trying to tell the story.

  "Hit this," Jonas said and Brook did. She coughed several times, then sighed into a sob. She began to cry. She tried to stop herself but the tears waged all-out war and won. Nick and Jonas both sat for a moment, stunned, then Nick got up and sat beside her on the couch.

  "It's ok," Nick said. "We'd be crying too, but we're worried about the both of you."

  Brook sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Thanks."

  "Can you finish," Jonas asked.

  "Ya, I think so."

  So Brook told them the story about the naked woman in the fountain and how she'd woken to find Kelly floating in mid-air and then how she saw the same naked woman suddenly appear and how she dug her head into Kelly's neck for a few minutes and then dropped her. She told them how white Kelly had been, how sickly she'd looked.

  "Guys, she looked... well, she looked dead already."

  "No shit," Jonas said. He meant no disrespect, it was merely a coping mechanism. "And you're sure you... ah, screw that. I believe you."

  "You do?"

  "Yeah," Jonas said. We were there that night, the whole freaky Ouija board thing. Stuff happens like that, too, like people report things like that on the internet all the time."

  "Be serious," Brook said.

  "He is," Nick said, "and I think I agree with him. I believe you, too. Why would you lie about that? Like, how would you even come up with that for a lie?"

  Brook fought back more tears, this time the relieved sort. It lifted what felt like to her a ton off her shoulders to know that they believed her. Even if maybe they didn't.

  "Was her family there?"

/>   "No," Brook said. "Nobody was there. Sorry I said that when I came in but I just couldn't believe I was the only one. Totally not your fault. But her parents, I mean, the hospital said they couldn't reach them. They've never been like really like close or anything, all kinda tension and stuff in her house all my life. But I didn't expect them to not show. Just, like, not even be there like at all. I wonder if they're ok?"

  "Where does Kelly's family live," Jonas asked.

  "Like thirty minutes from here."

  "Then we should go," Nick said.

  The three of them got into his car and drove to Kelly's parents’ home.

  ****

  Robert drove up to the old house he'd found his sister and her friends conjuring up who knew what that night a little over two weeks prior. He shut the truck off and sat in it for a while, just looking at the old house.

  Robert mostly hated the internet. But it had its uses, like researching old homes and folk tales. The old house had a lot of history to it. The current dilapidated house was the third to sit on the property. The usual stories of hangings and cruelty, short illness and death, which seem to themselves haunt abandoned places that had seen antiquity, were there to be found. But what had gotten Robert's attention was both the witch craft and voodoo that had been practiced either on the property before or between the houses that had inhabited the land or in the homes themselves once built.

  At one point, a full coven of witches, all having lineage tracing back to covens from Italy that still remained to this day, had overtaken the house. The stories were hard to find but did not vary: this coven had slaughtered all the members of the family living there and impaled their bodies at the entrance to the path leading from the main road to the house. Not even local law enforcement at the time would set foot on the property. Robert wasn't certain how much of it all to believe. Some of it smacked of 'local flavor' stories; the kind that people tell and retell until the tale is tall enough to be excused as myth.

  One such story told of a law man who refused to be fearful of the old hags and rode right onto their property.

  For his bravery, his entrails were removed and read. While he was still alive.

  No one knows what happened to the horse.

  Robert had heard these sorts of stories before but the internet had put the whole picture together. He wondered now even more what those kids had called up.

  He stepped inside the house and waited, trying to hear anything that might be there. Someone, some meth-insane squatter, was what worried him more than old hag witches, however. His .38 was tucked into the back of his jeans. He did not yell out, "Hello."

  The paraphernalia, the weed and the Ouija board were still tucked in the corner, on a table, in the Great Room where the kids had been. They're even dumber than I thought, Robert said to himself. The first thing I'd've done would have been to come back and make sure my shit wasn't still there. No smarts, these kids. About as shrewd as bumblebees.

  Robert burnt the Ouija board in the fireplace and pocketed everything else. The board started to crackle and pop, louder until Robert walked over to the fireplace. The flames seemed as if they were fighting to ignite the board completely, merely burning the edges black.

  "Yeah, fire hurts. If you won't burn, though, I'll just go get some gas and fix that right fast."

  Footsteps across the floor above him. Robert reached behind his back and unsnapped the holster. He stayed still and listened. The footsteps went back in the other direction. He started walking with deliberate, quiet steps toward the stairs, keeping an ear firmly affixed on the floor above. Sure enough, the phantom feet walked back in the other direction but stopped at a midpoint. He walked to the stairs and mounted the first one. Quiet. But the second one creaked and he heard the footsteps running from the room.

  He backed down off the stairs. The footsteps were coming his way.

  Then, at the top of the stairs stood the shadow of a man with a horn jutting from his forehead. His shape didn't seemed quite defined. It was as though he were made of the blackest fire. No light, no heat.

  Robert didn't even bother unholstering the gun.

  "Which one called you?"

  The shadow said nothing.

  "Which one called you," Robert said. He'd dropped his voice down.

  The shadow still said nothing. It took a step toward the stair well.

  "Uh-uh," Robert said. He pointed at the stairs. "Let's keep plenty of these between us. I realize that I am in your house but I also know that you realize that only protects you, it doesn't put me in danger."

  The shadow stopped and stood. For a moment, Robert thought he saw a flash where its eyes should be.

  "It was Kelly, wasn't it? The brunette."

  For a moment the shadow did nothing. It merely stood. Robert waited. It didn't have a choice.

  Finally, the shadow nodded in the affirmative.

  "Is she after her now?"

  Again, the shadow nodded in the affirmative.

  "Damnit," Robert said. "Your mother, sister, whatever the hell she is, is a real bitch on wheels."

  He turned his back on the shadow and walked out the front door.

  He got into his truck, cranked it and rushed back to the city, hoping to God literally that his sister was all right. And also that Kelly, that stupid, stupid girl, was all right, too. If there wasn't already, very soon there would be blood.

  Robert heard his phone ringing and had to fish it out of his pocket.

  "Hello?"

  "Robert? Robert?" It was Brook and Robert heard fear in her voice. No, more like terror.

  "What is it, Brook?"

  "Can you please come to Kelly's parent's place, like right now?"

  "Are you all right?"

  "No..." She trailed off.

  "Brook?"

  "Ya, I'm ok. Do you remember how to get out here?"

  "I think so, yes."

  "Hurry, Bobby. Something's really wrong with her folks."

  The phone went dead and Robert floored the accelerator.

  ****

  As soon as he walked through the front door, Brook ran to him and hugged him. He knew something was very wrong.

  "What is it? What's happened to Kelly's mom and dad?"

  "I don't know," Brook said.

  "Something isn't right," Nick said. "I don't know, Robert. They act like..."

  "Like they're not there," Jonas finished.

  "'Not there', what do you mean, Jonas," Robert asked.

  "I dunno, man, it's like you can talk to them, they look at you and you think they're listening, but they don't say nothing back. They just sit there, staring."

  "Yeah," Nick said, "That about sums it up."

  "Where are they," Robert asked Brook.

  "That's the weirdest part," she said.

  They got to the bottom step of the basement and Robert said, "Go upstairs, Brook."

  "No! No, Robert, I want to stay down here."

  Robert turned and put his arms on her shoulders. "Just once, do what I say, please. I may need Nick and Jonas' help, but you don't want to be down here. Not now. Trust me."

  He looked her deep in the eyes and she relented and walked up the stairs.

  "Shut the door. Don't open it."

  Robert turned and looked at Kelly's parents, both of them smiling death grins at him, their eyes burning. Her mom opened her mouth and hissed at him like a cat.

  "Ok, boys, I'm sorry to say that you brought this on us all, so you're about to have the life scared out of you as payment."

  "We didn't do it," Jonas said, "Kelly said that fuckin' poem!"

  "Yeah," Nick said, "this isn't our fault, Robert."

  "That was all Kelly's blood on the Ouija board, then?"

  Neither Jonas nor Nick said a word. They merely looked down.

  Robert slapped Jonas on the shoulder. "You'll be fine. You just won't sleep."

  "Uh, for how long?"

  "Likely ever."

  Robert walked toward Kelly's parents, who
were both standing and began to walk toward him with an odd cadence, like a slither.

  "Sit down," he said. "Please, just have a seat, right now."

  Her parents sat. Nick and Jonas looked at each other in disbelief.

  ****

  Kelly sat bolt upright in her hospital bed. She swung her arm and hit her attending nurse so hard that it shoved the woman's nose right up into her brain and killed her instantly. Kelly got out of the bed and walked out the hospital, past disaffected staff, nurses staring at their smartphones and people generally indifferent to anything but themselves.

  She began to walk toward her parent's house.

  ****

  "Do either of you believe in the thing you called up?"

  "What 'thing'," Nick asked.

  "Demons."

  "Oh."

  Nick looked at Kelly's parents. "You're saying they're... possessed?"

  "Yes, that's exactly it: they're possessed."

  "You believe in that crap?"

  "Utterly."

  "Why? I mean, like you're not idiot. Modern science doesn't hold to any superstitions like that anymore. We know that the mind is the cause of these things."

  "Exactly. Notice, you didn't say, 'brain'?" He pointed down at Nick's stomach. "Because you know there's more to it than that down there, in your gut. Your brain and your mind are separate entities. Look, science can tell us how our brains work and how our bodies work. But it can't give any of it meaning. So what if it's simply psychological, my friend? Look at them. Do you really think therapy is going to fix that? Or would you rather just have them lobotomized instead? Perhaps shunted away into some asylum?"

  Nick looked at Kelly's parents, watching her mom twist into impossible positions and her father breathe heavily and fidget, still under the sway of Robert's command.

  "You've got a point," he said.

  "And you didn't even say, 'like'. Well done."

  "You're a dick."

  "Absolutely."

  "Ok, ok," Jonas said. "So we're now talking demons. Fine. I guess I can live with that, considering how they are acting. How is that our fault, I mean, like, how did what we did do this to them," Jonas asked.