The Awakening

by Pierre C. Arseneault

  Today she watched as the man on the roof worked. Lily didn’t really understand exactly what he was doing. He sure did make a lot of noise with all the banging he was doing with the big hammer he was using. She knew he was working because he had tools; real ones and not toys. She wondered if today would be another exciting day too.

  Ben Augustine’s favorite class in high school had been shop. Mostly it had been the carpentry portion of shop class. Ben loved to make things with his hands especially since he found meaning in it. He wanted to give a new life to the trees that had been cut and for their spirit to carry on. His grandfather had taught him that everything in nature has a spirit and that it must be honored, always. The idea that he could both honor the tree’s spirits and create something that could help serve his fellow man in different ways was a calling that came to Ben at a young age.

  College wasn’t something he had thought about while going to school, but he had since learned that to become a carpenter, he would need to complete an apprenticeship. With the completion of a carpenter program at a college though, it would reduce the time required to complete the apprenticeship. Sure, he could learn a lot on his own, and he had done so, but you couldn’t list YouTube on a resume as a reference or experience. These days, most people wanted you to have related work experience or technical training in the field before they took you on as an apprentice. In order to make money to go to college, Ben had taken a job with a local sawmill. He had started as a laborer and had since gained the confidence of his boss by always being punctual, doing the job to the best of his abilities and treating everyone with respect. These were the qualities, he learned, that were appreciated in the workforce and rewarded. His boss took notice and he was the one who convinced him to go to college.

  “Learn as much as you can and then make sure you come back,” he had said to Ben. “My brother has a construction company and he is always looking for carpenters. In the meantime though, maybe I can give him your name if you want to do some other jobs to make more cash for school?” Ben had agreed.

  He had continued working at the mill, but he was also doing some side jobs and projects whenever he was needed. On this day, he had been asked to put new shingles on the roof of the old Ketchum house.

  Ben had spent the day stripping off the old shingles and was now on the front side of the house, prepping it for the new roofing. It had taken him longer than he had hoped due to the three dormers on the front of the house.

  Stripping the old roofing around these without damaging the siding or the windows had been tedious. Ben was now down to the last bits of roofing which were in front of the dormers. Crouched, he struggled with his safety harness while getting ready to pry the bits of roofing off. He had to be careful not to damage the existing flashing like he had been told. Damaging that would mean removing the siding and that was not part of the job. Sure, they would fix it at no extra charge if he did damage the aluminum material that stopped the water from getting in under the siding and into the house, but it would be best if they didn’t need to do that.

  Ben crouched and carefully pried away a piece of roofing. As he bent down though, something caught the corner of his eye in the window of the dormer where he was working. A glint of something inside the house, he thought. Or maybe merely a reflection in the glass as it was dark in the house. It gave the glass a slight mirrored effect. Nobody was living there, so that was the likely cause of the glint he thought he saw.

  He glanced behind him to see what the source of the reflection might have been only to be reminded that he was three stories high. The dormer was in the attic of a two story house which meant he was much higher than he remembered. This thought sent his empty hand to the buckle of his safety harness. Once he was confident it was still secure, he turned his attention back to the task at hand. Before he was able to reach for the strip of roofing, he noticed something in the shadows of the attic. Something definitely moved, he thought.

  Before he was able to finish processing that he had seen movement, out of the shadows inside the house, on the other side of the window, a small red ball appeared on the floor of the attic. Focusing his gaze away from inside the house and to his own reflection, he saw the fear in his face and realized he had been holding his breath. Letting out a long breath, his mind started racing with questions. He knew the house was supposed to be empty. He wondered if there was anyone possibly squatting inside the vacant home.

  Before he could give it much more thought, a second red ball appeared next to the first just outside the shadows, resting on the floor of the vacant house. Ben shifted his weight, grasped at his safety harness while clutching at the metal pry bar he had been using to remove the shingles. Before he could assess the situation, a third red ball emerged from the shadows of the dark attic, hovering in the air. His breathing was now coming in short, shallow gasps, and he felt a powerful tightening as he watched this red mass hovering approximately five feet off the ground. Confused, and feeling the adrenaline racing through his body, Ben started to rise from the crouched position then wobbled on the sloped roof as he almost lost his footing. He staggered slightly but steadied himself. Just beneath the floating red ball, Ben saw a set of bright white teeth materialize out of thin air, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, but with a crueller twist.

  “A fucking clown,” he uttered as he took an involuntary step back from his old childhood phobia. The phobia that had been implanted by that stupid movie he had watched when he was way too young to watch such stuff. As he took the step, he suddenly realized that he was near enough to the edge of the roof already that his foot had nothing to land on. He flung his arms out to steady himself but it was too late. Falling backwards, he realized that his safety harness was clipped into a line that was too long, but in that instant, it was too late to do anything about it.

  For a few brief moments, he felt himself free-falling, straight down, but as he struggled in his panic, his body turned a bit to the left. The fall came to an abrupt stop. He felt and heard a loud snap when the end of the line was reached. The pain and the pressure on his spine too much for his body to endure caused Ben to pass out. His body dangled alongside the siding of the house, where he would remain for almost an hour.

  The angle of the fall, with the line wrapped around his waist, as well as the sudden jarring impact would be explained as the reason for the back injury he would sustain. This was the day that changed the course of his life forever. Soon doctors would tell him they were not sure if the damage to his spinal column would be reparable. One thing they knew for certain, though, was that his dream of becoming a carpenter would never come to be.

  Lily stood at the window, the now headless torso of the Barbie doll in one hand and the doll’s head in the other. She stood there, silent as she watched Ben dangling from a line off the house across the street. She was completely unaware of the curse that she had inherited from her mother, but she knew if she focused hard enough, she could make things happen. She didn’t know how. She had no way of knowing that she made people see things that would scare them, things that would be disturbing to them. All she knew was that when she tried, she could scare people and she liked it. It’s fun to scare people, thought Lily, as she watched the man she had just scared now dangling from a rope. A giggle escaped her as she continued to watch him.

  “Oh my GOD!” Samantha exclaimed as she stood behind Lily. Samantha, while checking on the kids, saw Ben dangling on his safety line. Ben’s harness had held him but the way he dangled, bent backwards like he was, it had to be bad, she thought.

  A clatter startled Samantha and she heard a scream from behind her. She turned to see that Patrick had dumped his puzzle pieces and was starting his puzzle all over again. The scream had been from Gavin as the puzzle pieces clattering onto the floor had apparently scared him. Gavin, toy truck in hand, stood quivering in fear as he looked outside the window and noticed the hurt man across the street.

  “Call 911,” S
amantha blurted to Miriam. “Tell them someone needs help at the old Ketchum house.”

  Samantha walked over to Gavin where he stood, terrified. She took his hand and led him away from the frightening scene in the window. Miriam ran to get the cordless phone in the hallway. With the phone in hand she called 911 as she went outside and made her way towards the Ketchum house.

  “Lily,” Patrick said as he cocked his head to the side in an attempt to hear his twin sister. “Stop it, Lily.”

  Lily smirked as she dropped the head of the Barbie doll on the floor while watching what was happening at the Ketchum house. She placed her small, bare foot on the head of the doll and slowly put her weight on it, crushing the plastic toy with her heel. Barbie’s face, distorted and disfigured stared out with plastic painted eyes underfoot.

  Patrick took off his sunglasses, exposing his eyeless face. Where there should have been eye sockets and eyes, was just smooth skin. There was no way Patrick could have ever had sight, as his body never even made room for eyes to develop and grow. This was the reason why he always wore the sunglasses. Most people assumed it was just due to him being blind. However, he wore them to also protect himself from the taunts and teasing from other kids for looking so different. Though he was young still, he had received his share of bullying already. Even his foster siblings, Peter, Colin and Clay, called him a freak when the older kids or the grownups weren’t around to hear them.

  “Stop it,” Patrick repeated. He knew his sister was doing something she shouldn’t be doing. He didn’t know what it was and he wouldn’t understand even if he did. In his mind, he had convinced himself that his twin sister was kind and could do no wrong. Although there were times he felt something was off and it had to do with his sister. Even though he sensed this, he only ever felt love and kindness for her. She wasn’t bad to Patrick. She might be confused, but not bad.

  Walking over to where Lily stood at the window sill, he reached down and searched until he found her small hand. Standing together, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, he stood by her side. This love he had for his sister was the only thing he ever felt that was as real as life itself. Looking over at Patrick, Lily smiled as she returned to watch the ambulance arrive across the street.

  Chapter 6

  I Smell a Rat

  On a clear weekday morning, behind a large dumpster, three large rats were feasting on something bloody and gooey. With each nibble and bite there came crunching and slurping sounds, carried on the slight breeze along with the stench of decay. The three rats weren’t overly large, but they had weird rippling and crawling flesh underneath the short, matted and dark fur that covered their misshapen bodies. One of the rats stopped eating to sniff the air, as if something was amiss. Something had caught its attention away from the much needed feast and the sustenance it would need to fuel its rapid growth. Its bloody snout sniffed at the air as it rose on its hind quarters, making its body long and lean. The rat hissed, catlike, and scurried away. A shuffling sound made the two other rats pause for a brief moment before following suit. The three rats scurried through a hole in a section of fence behind the Old Mill Restaurant and disappeared from sight, leaving behind their feast: the much larger, dead and rotting, body of their mother. Blood, pus and a yellow gooey substance oozed from the bite marks and missing flesh, but no flies buzzed around the dead thing. No flies would go near it.

  Shuffling his feet, Burke kicked at an empty soda can, sending it flying against the dumpster behind the Old Mill Restaurant, making a clattering sound. He dug out his Zippo from his pocket and lit a menthol cigarette. He knew these weren’t good for him, but he also didn’t know how else to keep from going completely crazy. He inhaled long on his smoke, which made him burst into a hacking, coughing fit that made his knees weak, his head spin and phlegm build in his mouth and throat.

  Once he got his coughing under control, he spat and wiped the tears away from his eyes and took another drag. I’ll quit eventually, he thought to himself. Just not today. The cell phone in his pocket made a bloop sound which indicated he had gotten a text.

  I’m here was all it read.

  The text was from Jin Hong. Jin was inside the Old Mill Restaurant waiting on Burke. He looked at his half-smoked cigarette before placing it between his lips to free his hands. He sent a little white lie in response.

  I’m just up the street… be there soon.

  Burke adjusted his large plastic framed glasses and blew out smoke. As soon as he finished exhaling, he winced at a sudden, horrible scent that assaulted his smoker’s dulled sense of smell. Burke swatted at the air in hopes of alleviating the strength of the rotten odor. The stench was too much, even for his smoke damaged sinuses. He took a quick last drag of his cigarette and flicked it against the dumpster. Burke walked away as the stub of a cigarette rolled on the asphalt, still smoldering. A set of small, glowing yellow eyes peered at it from under the dumpster.

  Moments later, the trio of misshapen rats returned once more to feast on the corpse of their mother. Years ago their mother had eaten from a strange plant in a cavern along the coast that had long since collapsed. The strange plant had gifted the mother rat with a long, though painful life, filled with illness and the occasional hunger that could not be fed. Its recent offspring had insatiable hunger and seemed to thrive.

  Their first meal had been their father, their ravenous appetites being satiated while their mother watched. The strange rats mostly shunned by the collective murids would eventually feast on their inferior brothering. While hunting for food, a savage hunger overcame them and mother became prey. Mother became food. Such was the price to pay once this deep hunger took over.

  “Detective Burke,” Shelley exclaimed as he walked into the Old Mill Restaurant. “I can’t say I’m happy to see you. It’s never good when you’re in town.”

  “It’s great to see you too, Shelley,” Burke replied with a sly grin. While on sick leave, he might not have been feeling his usual self, but he was still able to appreciate sarcasm. “I’m meeting a friend,” Burke added as he saw Jin Hong raise his hand to get his attention. Jin sat at a cluttered table at the very back of the restaurant, which Burke thought was a good idea.

  “Coffee?” Shelley asked.

  “Sure,” Burke replied. “And do you have any of your homemade pie?”

  “Apple?” Shelley asked. “With ice-cream?”

  “Bring one for my friend too,” Burke replied as he made his way to the table where Jin sat.

  Jin stood to greet Burke as he approached, holding out his hand for a handshake which Burke complied with.

  “Nice to finally meet you in person,” Jin said.

  “Doesn’t Skype count?” Burke asked as both men sat down.

  Burke couldn’t help but notice that the clutter on the table were some of the documents he had mailed to Hong, most of which he had been hesitant to send electronically, and chance leaving a digital trail. There were copies of autopsy reports, medical records, lab reports and a slew of pictures, many of which had garnered looks of disgust from Shelley when she accidentally saw more than she had wanted to.

  “I have to admit when you first sent me the lab reports for my opinion, I assumed you guys were messing with me,” Jin stated, wasting no time getting to the point. “The lab reports show a mutated strain of a fungus previously only found in the jungles of Peru.”

  “The vampire ants,” Burke replied. “The ones you told me about.”

  Jin wasn’t sure if Burke was testing him or if he really was confused.

  “The zombie ants,” Jin replied, correcting Burke. “Did you read the articles I sent you?”

  “I did. But remember that I’m not a scientist.”

  “Well I am,” Jin replied. “I wish I had those baggies you told me about. The ones the chamber maid said she threw out. I bet Danny was on to something.”

  “On to what?” Shelley asked as she
brought over two heaping plates of apple pie, topped with ice-cream. “Does this have to do with the article in the Chronicler?”

  “What article?” Burke inquired, who was already familiar with Oakwood Island’s only surviving newspaper.

  “The one about the dead animals they found out in the woods and more near town. Oh, they made a big deal out of it, just trying to scare people is what I think, going on about the five year anniversary of the killings. A cluster of dead animals too, near the old Stuart’s house.”

  “You have a copy of that paper handy?” Burke asked.

  “Sure do,” Shelley replied. “I’ll get you one. Be right back with your coffees.”

  “Thanks,” Burke said, a sentiment which was echoed by Jin.

  “I’ll be honest,” Burke continued as he turned his focus back to the man he had come to meet in person. “I read the article you sent me and I did a little digging of my own. Those ants you talk about sound like science fiction to me. Like something out of a bad Stephen King book.” Burke picked up his fork and took a bite of pie.