by Jerry Hart
“What does it do?”
Jason smiled. “You’re very curious. I like that, however, I cannot tell you what it does. Not because I don’t know, but because it’s a secret. Life is full of secrets, isn’t it? That’s what makes it so interesting. You can understand, can’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
Jason laughed. He grabbed the bag with Marco’s head and dropped it into the hole.
“This is a fine hole you’ve dug. I think it will do just fine.”
“Would you like to come in and say hi?” Les asked, indicating his house.
“No, I mustn’t. I don’t want to distract Michael from his task. He was already reluctant to begin in the first place,” Jason said, shaking his head. “If he sees me, he’ll beg me to come back home, and what I have charged him with must be done. Tell him to take care of the device. I would hold on to it myself, but Michael needs it more than I.”
“Your brother killed this guy,” Les said hastily, pointing to the bag in the hole.
“I figured he would. I told him to do whatever it takes to get the job done. It’s nice to see he’s listening.”
“But,” Les said, utterly shocked, “he didn’t have to kill this guy. Michael only did it because the guy got on his nerves.”
Jason shrugged his shoulders and said, “Boys will be boys, you know.”
Les couldn’t believe it. He was surrounded by crazy people. These brothers looked at murder as a minor thing.
Suddenly he was aware Jason was no longer standing next to him. Les turned and saw him returning to where he had come from.
“What are you doing?” Les asked.
“Retreating into the darkness, of course,” Jason replied, and it seemed he was doing just that, for he disappeared before Les’s very eyes, in the corner of his yard where the darkness was absolute.
Les went back to his room and found Michael holding a sack full of purple crystals.
“What are these?” Michael asked.
Damn it, Les thought. I knew he’d go through my stuff.
“Burgani crystals,” he said. “I use them to protect myself from evil spirits.”
Michael laughed and put them back in Les’s desk drawer. That’s when Les handed him the bag Jason had given him.
“This is for you.”
Michael stared at the bag for a moment, then took it. He opened it slowly and pulled out what looked like a dark-red bowling ball, only it didn’t have finger holes. For a long while, he just stared at it, not saying a word.
“My brother was here?” he finally asked Les.
“Yeah.”
Les became more nervous as Michael sat there at his desk, staring at the strange ball, its dark, shiny red surface barely reflecting anything around it.
“So, you don’t know how to use that thing?” Les asked.
“It’s weird, I have a faint idea of how to use it,” Michael responded. “I just can’t actually use it.”
“That must be frustrating.”
“Very.”
Michael noticed a Rubik’s cube sitting on Les’s desk. He put down the ball, picked up the cube, and started playing with it. An awkward silence followed.
“Why did you say what you said to Curtis at the arcade?” Les suddenly asked, breaking the silence and changing the subject at the same time.
Michael continued to play with the cube. “As soon as I met him, the thought just came to mind.”
“You’re not racist, are you?”
Michael laughed at that. “No, it’s not like that. I can sense things about people when I’m near them. I could sense some friction between you two.”
He set down the cube, with all colored sides matching.
“Could you really sense something from me?”
“Clear as day, my friend.” Michael went back to the ball, studying it.
Les looked at the Rubik’s cube again. “You must be really smart; I’ve been working on that cube for years.”
Michael didn’t respond.
“So,” Les said, “you and your brother are looking for someone to help you activate the ball...to do what?”
Michael finally looked up from the orb and stared at Les, his eyes suddenly alive. “Before I tell you, you have to promise you’ll still help me, no matter what.”
Les didn’t like that. There was no way he was going to make a promise to something if he didn’t know what it was first.
“I promise,” he said, hating himself for it.
“I know what this thing does, but not how to use it. My brother plans to enslave the human race and take over the world.”
Les sat silently on his bed, many thoughts running through his head now. And then, he laughed uncontrollably. Michael smiled.
“You’re joking, right?” Les asked.
“No. I’m serious. I’m certain this orb can help us do that. I told my brother and he came up with the plan to use it.”
“How do you know what it does?” Les asked.
“I saw it in a dream. I saw me and another person building it at the same time. We were in a green room, surrounded by creatures in cages. I don’t know what the other person looks like, but I know he or she is here in this city. There’s a link between us.”
Les listened intently. He could tell by Michael’s tone he was indeed serious. About everything.
“It can do other things, too,” Michael said with a grin. “The orb, I mean. Terrible things.”
“What?” Les asked.
“You don’t want to know.”
“How did you get this?” Les asked.
“I don’t know. It just came to us.”
Michael seemed at a loss for words now. He sat there, staring at the orb again.
“You said you and your brother are planning to take over the world?”
“He’s planning it, not me,” said Michael.
“But why?”
“Are you telling me if you had the chance to take over the world, you wouldn’t seize it?” Michael asked.
Les didn’t want to answer that question. “What about me? Am I going to be a slave, too?”
“I’ll take care of you.”
“You make it sound like you don’t want any part of this plan. If that’s true, then just don’t do it.” Les got up from the bed and grabbed the orb from Michael. “Just destroy it.”
“I can’t,” Michael said. “I have to do this.”
“Why?”
“Because he told me to,” said Michael. “My brother said it was the only way to make things right.”
The orb was warm in Les’s hand. Michael stared at him, his eyes suddenly full of rage. Les slowly handed the orb back to him.
“Thank you,” Michael said silently.
Les hated the way the orb felt in his hands. It had seemed slimy, yet his hands were dry. It felt warm and evil. He could feel it in his body now.
“Now, back to the other matter,” Michael suddenly said, making Les jump. “We have to find the one who can activate it.”
“Do you think you would know them if you saw them?”
“I would probably sense them, yes.”
“I can take you to some places where a lot of people go. We could see if you pick up anything.”
Michael considered this. Les already regretted bringing it up. The thought of taking this guy out in public was scary; anything could happen.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Michael said. “But first, I need a nap.”
Michael lay down on Les’s bed and was instantly asleep.
* * *
Jason loved his brother and would do almost anything for him. But, at the moment, he was mad at Michael. The way he’d just disappeared from the hotel like that was completely irresponsible.
Standing at Les’s window, he watched through the blinds as the portly boy handed the orb to Michael. Jason hadn’t doubted Les would do what was asked of him, but he’d decided to make sure the task had been done properly.
Eventually, Jason would have to t
alk to Michael. Now did not seem to be the proper time, though Jason wanted his brother to realize what he’d done was wrong. He wanted Michael to feel he had shamed his older brother by wandering off when they had something important to do.
As Jason stood there, staring at his baby brother through the window, he was reminded of how they had been driven from their home like they were monsters. The brothers had been shunned because of their birth parents. More specifically, their father.
The townspeople had discovered Jason and Michael were the sons of him. The Beast with Orange Eyes (as people had come to call Father), who’d almost taken over the world. Jason hadn’t known at the time what his father really was. He had vague memories of life with his natural parents, before being adopted.
That soon changed when, one night, a man came to Jason and told him the truth. At first, he had thought the man to be a dream or a ghost. Jason had only been a child at the time.
For a while, the man visited Jason and Michael, telling them tales of fantastical worlds and creatures. They were bedtime stories the “fosters” never told. The two boys had loved those stories. And then he revealed his true identity to the brothers.
“If you’re our daddy,” Michael said in a pre-puberty squeak, “why can’t we live with you?”
“Because,” said their father, “it’s not safe just yet. But soon, we’ll be together; we’ll be a family. You live in a world that hates me, though they should love me. After all, I’m the reason they’re all here.”
Jason remembered his father’s orange eyes and long brown hair, pulled back in a ponytail. Jason had been fifteen when his dad last visited and told them he wouldn’t be able to see them for a while. But he promised his children they would be together soon, that he was planning something big.
He told them the world would pay for its “betrayal.”
Jason hadn’t understood at the time what his father meant, but he did now. Years later, Michael had come across something in a field. The seventeen-year-old showed it to Jason. It was a ship of some kind.
After examining the strange round ship in the field, Jason and Michael managed to open it. The inside was fairly large, with blue-silver seats all around. There had been a jar on the floor with a strange mist swirling inside.
Michael had gotten to the jar first. He picked it up and studied it.
“Let me see,” Jason said, and when Michael tried to hand it over, the jar slipped from his hands, smashing on the floor. The mist had climbed up to Michael’s face and seeped into his nose and mouth.
And then he collapsed. Whatever had been in that jar put poor Michael in a coma for months. Jason did his best to care for him, considering they were on the run for their lives.
It was during those months Jason had found out about the orb. Michael, in his comatose state, began mumbling something about the orb and the power it contained. Jason didn’t know what to think or say to this. Even though Michael was talking, nothing about his condition had changed.
But Jason never gave up hope. He continued to care for his little brother the best he could. Whenever Michael whispered about the orb and its power, Jason listened.
“Where is the orb?” Jason finally asked, not knowing what else to do.
“The ship,” Michael replied. “The ship.”
Of course, Jason thought. After Michael had collapsed, Jason had immediately taken him to an abandoned house nearby. After making sure Michael was safe, Jason returned to the field, but the ship was gone. There had been an indentation in the grass, but no ship.
Shortly after, Jason returned to the field, not knowing where else to go. It had been days since he’d visited that place, but he had to know for sure. Why else would Michael be talking about the orb and ship now?
When Jason got there, he immediately saw the blue-silver ship where he’d first seen it. It was like it had never moved. Maybe it turned invisible, he thought. That was a crazy thought, and considering he had been nineteen at the time, he felt himself too old for fantastical ideas.
But he saw the ship then, upon his return to the field. There could be no denying something strange was going on. Could the ship possibly have belonged to aliens? Jason thought so, but where was the pilot now?
He approached the ship and searched inside. It was night and hard to see, but he eventually found a small, dark-red object under the seats, behind some kind of tool cart. It looked like a bowling ball without finger holes, but he knew better.
He took it back to the house and said to Michael, “I found the orb.”
That very instant, Michael awoke from his coma.
And now, there he was, telling Les everything; Jason could hear through the glass. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that they find the one who could power the orb. Michael had followed his senses to San Sebastian, like a magnet to metal. After getting to the city, though, he complained of interference from all the buildings surrounding them. He said it was like sound bouncing off walls. Michael couldn’t pinpoint the exact location of the one with the other half of the mysterious mist that inhabited him.
That half hadn’t been in the jar, though, so there was no telling how the other person had gotten hold of it. Michael had known from the dreams there was another half to this powerful mist. Maybe the other person, the one they were looking for, was the pilot of the ship.
If telling Les everything helped them find their quarry faster, so be it. Jason decided he would speak to his brother the following morning. By then, Michael would have been punished enough.
A little punishment was instrumental in the learning process, and if Jason didn’t teach Michael, no one would.
Chapter 8. The Metal Man
Alyssa knew she shouldn’t be out here with Anna and Naomi, but she couldn’t help it; they hadn’t spent enough time on the beach earlier, and their parents were asleep now.
The Turner family lived in Houston, but rarely did they have the time to visit the beach. The twins Anna and Naomi, both thirteen, always had more fun than anyone running along the shore, splashing in the water and poking at jellyfish. Today had been a rather ugly day, with a dark, storm-ridden sky, and Mom and Dad had wanted the girls out of the water, in case of lightning.
But the clouds were gone now. They had cleared after Mom and Dad had gone to sleep, and Alyssa had taken it upon herself to treat her sisters to some more time on the beach.
She watched the girls run along the shore, chasing each other. The moon shone down on them as they giggled merrily. Alyssa grabbed her digital camera and took pictures of them, and then of herself. Why not? She was extremely photogenic and didn’t apologize for what was given to her.
The first scream startled her. The second scream was even worse.
Alyssa looked to the beach and saw the girls being dragged into the water, screaming and clawing at the wet sand. She ran up to them and grabbed both of their hands, but they were being pulled in by something very strong.
And then she saw what looked like snakes, wrapped around the girls’ ankles. Alyssa fell on her stomach, saltwater filling her nostrils. She screamed, but no one was around. The girls were pulled under the waves.
Alyssa got up and started to run farther into the water when something broke the surface. It was a shadowy figure, absolutely featureless. Alyssa had seen it many times, but never in this dream, the dream she had so often she was surprised she hadn’t gone insane.
The shadowy figure approached her, reaching out. She backed away, same as always, but this time another figure appeared behind it. It walked over to the side and just stood there, watching. This new figure was similar to the one reaching out for her, but it merely watched, shadowy arms crossed.
Alyssa stared at the dormant one and could almost see hair on top of its head—blond hair. She looked to the one approaching her and saw hair on its head as well—red. She screamed, like always, as it grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her apart.
* * *
It was four in the morning when Alyssa a
woke. Her TV was still on. She lay there for a moment, watching the light from the TV flicker off of the wall behind her. She knew there was no way she was going to get any more sleep now. Not after that nightmare.
For a while, Alyssa had been having nightmares in which some unseen force killed her—not just killed her, but destroyed her. She was always being torn limb from limb by the nightmare-creature. She had no idea what the monster actually looked like; every time she looked at it in the nightmare, it was always nothing but a blur.
Except this time, she saw more details: the hair. And this time, there were two of them.
Every day since the nightmares began, she’d been filled with a horrible sense of dread, scared death would pop up from around a corner and take her. That was the real reason she stopped going on missions with the others: Alyssa had, at one point, seized a golden opportunity to make her reasons about something else entirely, and she’d felt guilty about it ever since.
Chris had asked her to buy them another car—for Owen—so they wouldn’t have to share rides all the time. Alyssa, who had actually thought the idea to be a good one, decided to turn it to her advantage.
“Wow,” she had said. “Am I the money machine or something? I pay for everything around here. Can’t you buy it?”
“You know I can’t,” Chris responded. “What’s up with you?”
Alyssa had felt her throat closing with fear and frustration...and guilt. She hadn’t really wanted to make a big deal out of nothing at all, but she couldn’t bring herself to admit she was too scared to hunt monsters with them anymore, not after all she had invested. She bought the condo in which they all lived and which served as headquarters; she paid for Daniel’s equipment so he could make their weapons. She did all of these things because she wanted to, and now she was trying to say otherwise, trying to make her friends feel guilty about asking her to do things she actually did willingly.
“I just think you guys should get real jobs and contribute around here,” she had added.
“Are you serious?” Daniel asked, joining in. This had been a week before he’d broken his arm helping take down a couple of vampires they’d tracked down, thanks to David Hernandez‘s tip-off. If Alyssa had gone with them, that would have been the only time all four of them worked together against the enemy.