“Trent…calm down. That’s not helping. It’s just a rainstorm and the cat is obviously scared. Maybe lower the hood on the car and we will just try and ride this thing out. Walk down route 204 when this thing passes. There has to be an auto repair store somewhere along the way.”
Josh wished he had really meant that. It sounded good, but in the deepest recesses of his being, he was sure all these snafus coming together at once were not mere coincidence. And that they were not just simple mechanical problems coupled with a massive electrical storm. He was primarily trying to assuage Sally’s rising anxiety and hopefully get Trent to cool it simultaneously. Josh was sure this was just the beginning of a shit storm that would make what was going on outside the car look mild.
“Oh hell!” Trent exclaimed as he leapt from the car. “I left the damn hood up!”
He slammed the driver’s door behind him and dashed to the front of the car. He disengaged the support arm of the hood, but the rain had made everything very slippery and the heavy hood fell without warning and Trent could not get his hands away in time. He cried out in agony as his fingers were trapped between the hood and the frame of the car. Trent railed in pain, now stuck in place as his hands no longer of use and the rain continued to pummel him.
“Help!” he shouted over the cacophony of the storm. “My fingers are stuck here!”
Sally was the first one out, tossing the cat aside and going to Trent’s aid. However, as hard as she tried, she simply could not budge the heavy hood from its grip. Just seconds behind her, Josh dove into action as well, falling awkwardly in the muck that had built up from the torrential downpour. He wiped away the bulk of the goo from his body and joined Sally to raise the hood from its latch. He pulled and yanked and even looked underneath to see if the latch just needed to be released, but it was no use. The hood seemed just stuck in place.
Trent continued to cry out in anguish as Sally and Josh worked with all they had to free him. Then, following yet another deafening volley of thunder and a vicious streak of lightning, all the doors on the car began to open and close at will, as if someone was standing at each of the four panels and rapidly opening and then slamming shut them over and over. Josh felt his dread at what they apparently had unleashed from the mansion nearly overwhelm him. He looked into the car, and the cat was sitting placidly on the top of the front seat watching their predicament unfold with calm eyes and a happily switching motion if its’ tail.
Josh focused again on the hood, and with a final effort, he and Sally were able to raise the hood from its down position and Trent immediately fell backward onto the muddy road, as he cradled his injured hands against his stomach. As soon as he had freed himself, the doors on the car went closed and stopped their apparent possessed movement. Josh got his arms under Trent’s shoulder and got him to his feet and muscled him into the back seat before hopping into the driver’s seat to join Sally up front. The cat had moved to the dash and was watching them all closely as they struggled to get their breath as the rain dripped repeatedly from their soaked hair and clothes.
“Trent?” Josh gasped as he wiped away rivulets of water from his brow, looking back.
“Not good, bro…” Trent replied through gritted teeth. “They got smashed pretty good. Fingers are swelling up and pretty bloody all over. Hard to say, but I’d hazard a guess my fingers are all broken.”
“Fuck!” Josh exclaimed wondering what to do next.
The storm was still in full force, the car was dead in its tracks, Sally was crying and rocking herself back and forth in a near catatonic state, and Trent needed medical attention immediately. And on top of that, Josh had this sinking feeling that if they were, in fact, being punished per the von Kraken legend, and he was pretty sure they were, that it was just beginning. Josh shook Sally to get out of her trance and tossed her a couple ace bandages from his pack.
“Wrap his fingers in these to help staunch the bleeding, but keep them loose. Don’t want to cut off his circulation!”
Sally just stared at Josh like she had no idea who he was.
“Sally! Snap the hell out of it!”
Josh hated himself for that, but even more for having to slap her across the face to get through to her. Sally broke from whatever place it was she had retreated to and came back to full awareness. Josh thrust the bandages at her roughly. There was no more time for being timid and calm.
“Sally! Bandages! Trent!”
She nodded vigorously as tears still streamed from her eyes and she moved to the back seat to attend to Trent’s hands. On some level, she must have taken in Josh’s instructions, as she gently but completely wrapped the damaged digits on Trent’s bloody hands. As she worked, though, Sally looked forward to Josh and spoke:
“What are we going to do, Josh?” she forced out between sobs and gasps for air.
“One catastrophe at a time, Sally. I have a feeling this is not over yet.”
“What ain’t over?” Trent asked as he sat about halfway up and grimaced against the pain.
Josh looked at Trent via the rear-view mirror and caught his eyes with his own but said nothing.
“You cannot be serious?” Trent added.
“That’s the second time you’ve asked me that tonight, Trent. I guess this time…yeah…I’m serious. As serious as a heart attack…”
Trent slumped back down, Sally covered her face with her hands and Josh stared at the cat, who was now sitting in the passenger’s seat eyeing him like he was a filet of salmon. As the cat turned his head to lick a paw, Josh caught a glimpse of its collar and the jangling tag that bore the name “Spangles”. Oh shit…Josh said silently to himself. Apparently, an immortal cat was possible…despite it being beyond comprehension…
Josh knew their only chance of getting out of this predicament in one piece, Trent’s injuries aside, was to get away from the mansion and the cat from hell. But unfortunately, the weather seemed to be against them as well. Josh assumed that was also part of von Kraken’s revenge for moving his brother’s soul from the mansion. He was not about to leave either Sally nor Trent behind in this car, all things considered, but for sure the rain and the cold evening might do more harm to Trent if he tried to move them as a group. And Sally was a city girl…he had no ideas if she could make it either.
As Josh racked his brain for a solution, even the possibility of taking the cat back to the mansion was interrupted. Maybe, he pondered, returning good old Michael’s soul to the mansion might absolve them of their previous transgression? He doubted it, though. Herbert had made this pretty clear. However, just as Josh was giving this plan some real consideration, all the windows of the car, including the windshield and the rear window imploded as if they had been struck by a bomb of some sort.
The glass shattered into a million pebbles and other tiny fragments, showering the three of them as they cowered reacting to the blast. Only two things saved them from being eviscerated, Josh knew. One, most of the glass was safety glass and designed to shatter into non-lethal bits upon such an accident. And second, Sally had her face buried in her hands sobbing away while Trent had rolled onto his side upon hearing Josh’s pronouncement that he felt the revenge as laid out in the von Kraken legend was a reality. Josh looked up from where he had hunched over, hoping at least that the damn cat had been killed or at least maimed in the implosion. No such luck…
Josh sat up as glass bits fell from his shoulders and hair. Spangles had been seemingly unscathed by the incursion. Just a few stray pebbles of safety glass fell from its’ head as it arched its’ back high, like the stereotypical Halloween cat—how ironic, Josh thought—and began to utter the most demonic and frightening sounds any of them could imagine. It was a guttural and primal sounding thing, seeming to originate in the cat’s stomach and chest, but hard to fathom that the intensity and volume of the noise could be possible based on the small stature of the cat. It began as a low rumbling as the cat lowered its’ back and then evolved into a yowl similar to the one previously emitte
d before Trent got his hands smashed. But this time, the yowl was more terrifying and louder than imaginable. The yowl rose and rose in volume and pitch until Sally and Josh had to cover their ears to block out the sound. Trent with his damaged hands did not have that luxury and he just buried his head into his coat, doing his best to escape the onslaught.
The yowl finally faded away, only to be replaced with a massive hissing emanation that Josh recognized from having been around cats all his life on the family farm back in Shelbyville, where he had grown up, that this was the warning sign preceding an offensive attack. Josh suddenly had lots of empathy for all those mice and rats their family barn cats had dispatched with relative ease over the years. Spangles turned from Josh to face Sally as she cowered in the back seat with the ailing Trent. Perhaps he was reading too much into the situation, but it occurred to Josh that if the legend was true, that von Kraken might exact his initial revenge on the person who had actually removed Spangles from the mansion in the first place.
Whatever the case, it seemed as if Sally and/or Trent were to be the first targets of the possessed Spangles. As Josh watched the beast coil its leg muscles for an attack, he went into action. Just a second before Spangles was about to dive into the back seat, Josh reached over and corralled it by the tail and rear legs, dragging the protesting cat away from its’ intended target. As Josh dragged the cat backward, its claws lunging out in desperation for any type of purchase, but finding only the cloth and leather of the front seat of the car, he shouted at both Sally and Trent.
“Sally! Trent! Get out now! I’ll hold him off while I can but move!”
Trent was mobile but the shock and loss of blood was making him sluggish and not as agile as he might have otherwise been. However, using strength and power that she had no idea she possessed, Sally got her arms under both of Trent’s shoulders and drug him from the car as she looked back in sheer terror as Spangles roared in defiance, first at the two of them as they made their way clear of the car and then at Josh who had prevented it from getting to them.
“Just get clear of the car!” Josh shouted as Trent finally found his feet and hobbled along with Sally, who was still supporting him a bit.
They slipped and slid through the glue-like muck on the road, finally collapsing together just off the road in some overgrown weeds. Seeing they were relatively safe for the moment, Josh redirected his attention to the yowling bag of fur that was, at the moment, really pissed at him. Before he could react, Spangles spun in its stance and headed straight for Josh’s face. He was able to get one arm up in time to save his eyes, but the determined and demented cat managed to get its’ front paws around his protective arm. One claw went over and the other went under and the razor-sharp talons ripped away long swatches of skin and muscle in Josh’s forehead and cheek.
Josh’s howl of pain nearly matched good old Spangles for volume and intensity, and he grabbed the offending thing and tossed it as hard as he could into the back seat. As rivulets of blood rained down from his facial injuries, Josh slid over into the passenger’s seat to dig through his pack for anything to clear his vision. No sooner than Josh had moved, though, then the car roared to life and began to slowly and then more rapidly drive itself through the muck of the formerly dirt road, careening from side to side as the tires just could not seem to gain any purchase.
The Legend Lives
Savannah, GA
November 1, 2016, 1:30 AM
The sudden jostling of the car as it spun all over the road threw Josh hard into the passenger’s door as he wiped madly at the flow of blood cascading down his face. The wounds were not serious, but as anyone who has had a facial laceration can readily attest, the blood from one might make you think otherwise. Josh fought to get his equilibrium back while he wondered how it was a previously inert car was now ready for NASCAR, as well as where Spangles had landed and if he was contemplating a second assault. Just as Josh cleared his vision enough to see more clearly, the car did a wild 180-degree turn in the middle of the road and was heading back in the direction of the mansion at top speed, even in these conditions.
And when Josh was sure things could not possibly deteriorate any further, he looked out the gaping hole of the car, where the windshield used to be, to see both Sally and Trent stumbling along, trying to get their footing in the thick mud of the road. Oh shit…Josh said under his breath…this car is going to try and run them down! Josh moved to the opening and began to shout out warnings, though between the roar of the car engine and the ongoing storm, he thought the chances of either of his friends hearing him in time was slim to none.
“Sally! Trent! Get off the road! Now! Move! Move!”
The car seemed to find a new gear that Josh was sure was not a factory installed feature and it gunned harder, speeding up and tossing him back against the seat cushion. He sat up trying to hold himself steady against the wild ride. What he saw ahead of the racing death car made him go icy cold. Both Sally and Trent were still limping along, as Sally tried to pull Trent faster and faster, but he was just making them both viable targets. At some point, as Josh watched in horror, he saw Sally look back over her shoulder as they hobbled in the goo. He was sure she had not heard his warnings, but sure enough, she seemed to have heard the approaching roar of the car.
In desperation, Josh reached over and yanked the keys from the ignition, but the car continued on. He then took both hands and wrenched the gear shift from drive to park, but the shift lever just snapped off in his grip as the car continued on its way. Despite his pain and impairment, Trent stood his ground and shoved Sally roughly away from the road and watched as she slid through the slop and came to a half-rolling, half-sliding stop just at the edge of the road. Trent then dove to the left and began to claw his way to the opposite side and collapsed from exhaustion. He had apparently used his last bit of strength and energy to save Sally.
Trent forced himself to his knees as the car went flying by and he spotted Sally just across the road and slightly behind where he was kneeling. The car jammed on its brakes and spun back around again to come back for another run at the couple. The sudden change in direction threw Josh forward and he hit his head on the dash, dazing him. As he slid into the footwell of the passenger’s side of the car, the vehicle once again fired up and roared back down the much-degraded Wild Heron Road at top speed. Trent sat up on his knees and did his best to make Sally understand she had to get off the road and behind any obstacle she could get to…a tree, big rock…anything. But in her panic and fright, Sally misinterpreted Trent’s warning as a cry for help. She pushed herself up and began to run over to where Trent was kneeling.
Josh finally shook the cobwebs from his head and rose just as he saw the car, with him as an unwilling passenger, bearing down on the form of Sally Joseph. Josh and Trent both were screaming at her, but she was just oblivious and Josh screamed every obscenity he had ever known as he felt the heft of the car smash into Sally and completely crush her formerly petite and lithe body into mulch. She bounced off the front grill with the most sickening sound Josh had ever heard, throwing her far ahead to allow the car to rumble over her prone, and Josh hoped, already lifeless body. The reverberations of each set of wheels grinding Sally into the mud of the road were more than Josh could take and he leaned out the hole where the passenger window had once been and vomited.
As he regained himself, Josh braced against the glass littered frame of the window as the car once again hit the brakes and whipped around to go back once again. Long lines of slimy vomit and saliva draped from Josh’s lips and onto the metal of the car as he looked up to witness the final voyage of the death mobile. Sally’s torn and emaciated corpse lay well off to the side of the road, but Josh could see with clarity that Sally was no longer its intended victim. He wiped away the blowing trails of his sick to see Trent kneeling in the center of the road. He was guessing at this point, but Josh figured that Trent saw no point in running away.
Perhaps, Josh thought, as the car bore down on
the kneeling figure of his college comrade, that Trent had come to accept his fate as being part of the mansion incursion and that one way or another his death was inescapable. And Josh would never have sworn to this in court, but just before the car dispatched Trent in much the same manner as it had Sally, Josh could have sworn he saw Trent crying for Sally. Again, the hideous and revolting reverberation of the car running over Trent vibrated up through the car’s frame and filled each and every bone, muscle, and cell of Josh’s being. However, he was no numb at this point, that he had no reaction. Josh collapsed back in his seat and stared incomprehensibly out the front of the car as it slid in the mud and came to a final stop.
Josh looked over and all the lights, panel indicators and other electronics of the car went dark and cold. The car was once again just as inoperable as it had been when the three of them were departing the mansion with Spangles, the cat from hell, and it had gone dead for no logical reason. Speaking of which, Josh thought, where is that homicidal feline anyway? Maybe I broke its’ little neck when I tossed him into the back seat? Or maybe he got thrown free in one of those severe maneuvers this car was making when the ghost driver was trying to qualify for Talladega? He had no idea. The night seemed deathly quiet now compared to no longer having the roar of the engine of the car in his ears.
All Josh could hear now was the gentle patter of rain on the mud in the road and off the heavy vegetation on either side of the road. He glanced around the interior of the car, but there was no sign of the damn cat anywhere. Josh exhaled deeply and leaned his head back on the headrest, still trying to take in all that had occurred that night. All they had wanted to do was goof around in a supposedly haunted house. And what had been the outcome? Both of Josh’s best friends from Troy were dead. He had been so anxious to get away from Indiana and all its small-town bullshit. Now all Josh wanted was to go home and never think about Troy University and Sally Joseph and Trent Ryder again. Though he as quite sure his nightmares would be full of all of this night for a very long time.
Haunted House Tales Page 80