The bats closed in, gliding effortlessly through the sky toward them, and Carmen and Tommy knew they would be picked apart if they didn't find somewhere to hide.
The storm tunnel approached like a dark but welcoming beacon. They didn't have any choice. They ran for it.
The Tunnels
The bats swooped down and mercilessly attacked them. They shielded their faces and flailed their arms around, trying to hold off the offensive. The bottom of the tunnel was filled with a shallow layer of water, and their feet splashed through it as they tried to escape. The water made it hard for them to run, and Carmen tripped and fell to her knees, a big splash of water launching up and soaking her. A hundred tiny wings slapped against her and she felt stinging bites against the back of her neck. She screamed and got back up to her feet, flailing around.
"Come on!" Tommy urged, running ahead of her.
They fled deeper into the tunnel, which was lit up with bright work lights on either side that were spaced out periodically.
Once they got far enough in, the bulk of the bats gave up their pursuit, either turning and flying out of the tunnel, or taking a temporary refuge inside, turning upside down and clinging to the ceiling and blocking their escape.
Carmen and Tommy came to a junction and the tunnel stretched off ahead of them in two different directions. They stopped. Carmen spun around and stared down the tunnel they'd come through. Her eyes were wide and her chest heaved in and out. It felt like the bats were still attacking her, but that was just the residual stinging pain she was feeling.
Tommy was bitten too, but not as badly as Carmen. "How does it look?" she asked him. She bent down and he walked around her, looking at the damage on her neck. "Ow!" she said as his fingers touched her wounds.
"It's not too bad," Tommy said, giving his honest opinion. "You're bleeding a little bit, but I think you'll be okay."
She trusted his opinion and she settled down a little. "Let me have a look at you," she said, reaching out for him. He stepped forward and she spun him around, inspecting the back of his neck and his hands. He had a couple of cuts, but nothing to worry about. She feared that some of the bats could have rabies, but there would be nothing they could do about that now, anyway. The only thing they needed to focus on was finding a way out of here. Carmen lifted his shirt and looked at his torso, seeing the bruise forming over his stomach. She gently pressed her fingers around his ribs. "Does this hurt?" she asked.
He grimaced. "Yeah. Are they broken?"
She judged based on his reaction and how much pressure she used, and she said, "No, maybe just bruised."
"Help!"
Carmen and Tommy looked down one of the new pathways. A distant voice echoed off the walls, and they both heard it.
"Help!" the voice said again, and they both recognized it.
"Who is that?" Carmen said.
They looked at each of the two tunnels, trying to figure where it had come from, but being in such an enclosed space played strange tricks on the sound.
"I think it came from here," Tommy said, picking the right path. Carmen held his hand and they went down it, splashing through the water.
When they slowed down, they could hear frantic sloshing somewhere else in the system of storm tunnels. There was another junction up ahead and they picked up the pace. When they got to it, they collided right into someone else, and the three of them were knocked backward and fell into the water.
They all saw stars, and when they regained their composure and got up, they stared at each other in the stark light.
It was Shawn. "Tommy... What are you doing here?"
"We were attacked by bats and chased into here," he said. "Why are you here?"
"Same," Shawn said. "I was with Brett and Randy, and after the bats attacked us, we all kinda split up. Brett went somewhere else, and Randy and I ran in here. But I think there's something else in here following us."
"The witch," Tommy said, barely above a whisper.
Shawn's eyes widened. "Shh! Don't say that!"
"Where's Randy?" Carmen asked, cutting in.
"Help!" the voice came again, and they all snapped their heads toward the tunnel.
"We were attacked in here, and we split up," Shawn explained. "All I saw was black robes walking through the tunnel for us. But it wasn't really walking, it was like it was floating." He paused, then he added, "But don't say witch! Don't say witch, don't say witch..."
Carmen clapped a hand on his shoulder and brought him back to reality. "We need to get your friend and get out of here," she told him.
"Right," Shawn said. He looked over his shoulder. "I think he's somewhere down this way." Shawn pointed the way and Carmen and Tommy followed him. They worked their way through the tunnels, often coming up to various branching paths. They relied on Shawn's instincts, having already been trapped in the tunnel for a little while, and they also utilized Randy's frantic movements and cries to pinpoint his location.
"Randy!" Shawn cried.
"Over here!" Randy shouted. "Oh God, man! I think she's coming for me!"
The three of them came to another junction, and they looked down the path to the left, hearing Randy's noises very close now. They stopped and watched as hurried footsteps approached them. Around the corner, Randy popped into view, running as fast as he could for them. "She's coming!" he cried. The three of them watched in horror and fascination at the end of the tunnel behind him, waiting to see something. But nothing was chasing him. Randy got closer and closer to them, and in a few more strides, he would reach them.
And then the witch came into view, gliding over the water and moving faster than any of them could. Her figure was short and stocky, but she moved with an incredibly lithe agility. Her face was hidden underneath her wide black hat, but her long, stringy white hair flowed out and it slowly fluttered from side to side in the air as she moved, like the laws of physics had no effect on her. The only other part of her that could be seen were her hands. They were pale, almost translucent. In one of them she held a short, gnarled length of wood.
The three of them that were standing still immediately turned and ran as Randy caught up to them in midstride. From behind them, the witch pointed the thin length of wood at them and shrieked something.
Suddenly the lights in the tunnel went out one by one, quickly catching up to and overcoming them until they were left in blackness. Their loss of vision caused them to stumble and slow down, and the fact that they couldn't even hear the witch moving through the water behind them made everything all the more terrifying. The four of them held their hands out to stop them from slamming into a wall. They attempted to stay together, but it was hard to tell where they were in the dark.
"I see lights!" Randy shouted. And so did the rest of them. They ran for it, still not knowing how close the witch was, and when they came to a brightly-lit four-way intersection, Carmen stopped and turned around.
The others followed. The tunnel they'd just come through was completely lit up now, and there was no sign of the witch anywhere. Each of the four of them looked down a different tunnel, keeping their backs to each other.
"I don't see her," Tommy said.
"She's out there!" Randy said, softly bouncing up and down on the spot. "I'm telling you, man! She's out there!"
The four of them backed up slowly, their heels dragging through the water. As they all closed to within a foot of each other, they heard the sound of bubbling water. They each stared even more intensely down their respective tunnels, but still they couldn't see anything.
"Where's that coming from?" Randy shouted.
"Um, guys?" Shawn said.
They all turned around to look at him, and then they saw that he was staring down at the small patch of water between them.
The water bubbled for seemingly no reason, like it had been brought to a boil. A frog leapt out from under the surface, jumping high and bouncing off Tommy's chest. Tommy stumbled backward into the wall in surprise, and another frog leapt out o
f the water, then another. Soon, the bubbling surface was covered more in frogs than water as hundreds of them were dredged up, jumping out at them like popcorn. The four of them backed up as the frogs continued to multiply. Then the amphibians rose into the air as the witch stretched up from underneath the surface of the water.
"Run!" Carmen shouted. Tommy turned to sprint in the opposite direction, but Carmen grabbed his arm and pulled him toward her. She took off down the tunnel with her brother's arm in her hand, and Randy and Shawn split off in other directions. They fled through the maze, taking paths at random, and still not seeing a way out. Carmen came up to another junction and turned down the left path. But it only went for a little ways before the rest of the path was blocked off by a set of iron bars. Shawn rounded the corner on the other side and came up to them.
The witch followed, and he spun around and pressed his back to the bars.
"No!" he shouted. Shawn turned and tried to slip through the bars, but the space between them was too narrow. Tommy and Carmen tried to pull him through, but he just got stuck. In the flash of an eye, Shawn's feet were pulled out from under him and his body hit the water with a mighty splash. Then the witch took off with him at an incredible speed as his body hydroplaned through the water and whipped around the corner out of view, his screams trailing off in the distance.
"Come on!" Carmen said, pulling Tommy by the shoulders. They turned around and went to the other end of the tunnel they were in. They came up to a junction at the end of it and Randy sped by from the right.
"A ladder! I see it!" he cried, pointing. Carmen and Tommy followed him and when they reached the bottom of it, they all stopped and looked up. The ladder led to a manhole, and the three of them saw their salvation.
Randy turned and looked down the tunnel they'd come from and yelped when he saw the witch gliding toward them.
"I'll open it!" Carmen said, then she started climbing the ladder. Tommy was right on her heels, and Randy behind him. When she reached the top, she braced herself against the rungs, then she pushed up on the manhole cover. It was incredibly heavy, and at first her heart sank, thinking that it wouldn't budge at all, but she stepped up to the next rung to get more leverage and she pushed her legs and her shoulder into it as hard as she could. It slowly lifted and she nudged it to the side. When the edge of it was on the pavement above, she reached up and shoved it enough for them to slip through.
She climbed out of the sewer and found herself on Rosedale Avenue, not far from her house. She spun around on her hands and knees and looked down the hole. Tommy was almost to the top, but her heart leapt when she saw the witch come into view.
"Noooo!" Randy cried as he was yanked off the rungs and dragged through the water.
Tommy came up through the hole, then Carmen grabbed the edge of the cover and shoved with all her might to put it back into place. She stood up and grabbed her brother's hand, then they ran home.
They nearly crashed through the front door, and Carmen slammed it behind them and locked it. They looked around, but their father wasn't home. Still soaking wet and reeking of mold and mildew, the two of them went to the bathroom and took turns changing out of their clothes and showering, putting on their pajamas and trying to settle in for the night.
They both hid in Tommy's cubbyhole the entire night, Carmen clutching the witch mirror from Peter. They stayed awake for a long time, waiting to hear the front door open and hear the sound of their father's footsteps. But he never came home that night, and Carmen was glad for it. Eventually, when tiredness came over them, their eyes closed and they drifted off to sleep. They spent the entire night resting peacefully and undisturbed.
And so did the gingerbread man sitting on Tommy's windowsill outside.
Jail Talk Redux
Carmen and Tommy stood in the school's parking lot, shivering in the morning light. They searched around, waiting for Peter to show up.
"Where is he?" Carmen muttered under her breath.
"Maybe he's not coming," Tommy said.
With each car that rolled down the road in front of them, their expectations rose, only to fall when they saw the blank expression on a random face, staring at the road as they drove.
Carmen glanced to the left and saw another car cutting down the road. When she saw what it was, her heart sank.
The police cruiser crept toward the school, then turned into the parking lot. Robert was behind the wheel, and he stared, expressionless, at his two children. He pulled the cruiser to a stop and put it into park, then he opened his door and stepped out.
"Are you waiting for someone?" Robert asked.
As soon as he said the words, Carmen knew immediately what happened. Peter had been taken and locked up again, and any help they were hoping to get from him to stop what was going on was completely dashed now.
"Come on, I'll take you two home," he said.
Tommy looked up at his sister, uncertainty swimming in his eyes.
"No," Carmen said. "We're not going with you."
"I insist," their father said. His eyes turned to Tommy, burning into him with a crazed intensity. "Tommy, too."
Tommy looked up at his sister again, a strained look on his face. He knew there was something wrong with his dad, but he was never one to disobey his direct authority. He took a step toward the car, but Carmen grabbed him and held him in place.
"You can take me," Carmen said. "Only me. Not Tommy." She turned to her brother and knelt down. "You go on home, okay?" she whispered. "Don't stop, don't talk to anyone, no matter what happens; just get home. Lock all the doors, hide, and stay there. I'll be back there as soon as I can."
"Where is he gonna take you?" Tommy asked, scared.
"Don't worry about me," she said, then she gave him a loving bop with her finger on the tip of his nose. She stood up and gave the back of his shoulders a shove. "Go," she said.
Tommy started to walk toward the schoolyard to cut across it and head home, but he only made it a few steps before he slowed down and looked between his sister and his father.
"Go!" Carmen said.
"Come on, son. Get in the car," Robert said, staring at him like he was a big meal.
Tommy was torn with indecision, but the look of determination on Carmen's face gave him the strength he needed to turn away from his father and run across the field. He didn't look back, and Carmen made sure that their father stayed put while he ran.
Robert watched him go, not taking his eyes off of him.
"Let's go, Dad." Carmen said. She walked over to the cruiser and climbed in the passenger door.
Robert stood there staring at Tommy for another few moments before he finally sank down into the driver's seat and closed the door.
"Take me to the station," Carmen insisted.
"I'll take you home," he said slowly.
"No, to the station. Now." Her words were slow and forceful.
Robert's face twisted into a grimace and he rubbed the back of his neck roughly. The moment of anguish painted on him lasted for a few more seconds, then it washed away and his eyes took on the familiar glazed-over look as he robotically drove Carmen to the police station.
Carmen subtly tried to twist around in her seat and look at the back seat through the cage for her cell phone. She didn't see it, and when she turned back around, Robert held it up in his hand.
His head swiveled toward her. "You dropped this," he said without emotion.
She considered him, then she timidly reached out and took her phone from him. She stared back at him, and she prepared an excuse, but he just stared straight ahead without a word for the rest of the ride.
When they got to the station, Carmen didn't wait for him to even pulled to a full stop; she got out of the car and rushed into the station, moving down the hallway to the jail cells.
"Hey, what are you doing in here!" the rotund officer said from behind his desk.
"Shut up!" Carmen said, rushing past him. She moved along the cells, looking in each one, and she found
Peter lying on the cot in the same cell as he was before. Carmen turned her head to the side and saw the officer get up from his desk, but she gave him a vicious look and he sat back down.
"Carmen..." Peter said, noticing her. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you," she said, wrapping her hands around the bars. "What did they lock you up for?"
"They wouldn't say, but I can take a guess."
"So can I," she said. "Things are getting worse."
"Not much time now," he said.
"Did you find anything?"
Peter sat up and faced her. He stood and walked to the bars, pressing his face between them and twisting his neck to see if anyone else was nearby and listening in. There was a window high up in the wall just outside of his cell, and he eyed it suspiciously before he spoke.
"I think the witch is trying to regenerate herself," he said. "That's why she needs the children."
"Regenerate herself? Why?"
"She was killed," Peter explained, "but not fully. She's trapped in a limbo state between life and death. And now she's much weaker than she was when she was alive."
"What?"
"It sounds hard to believe," he continued, "but if you think she's powerful now, just imagine what she could do if she were restored to her full vitality. The only reason this town existed for so many years was because of her good graces to leave it well enough alone. But now the truce is broken, and she won't stop ever again. Children have the most potent lifeblood, and she needs them."
"My brother and I went to the house," Carmen said.
Peter's eyes widened. "Her... house?"
She nodded. "We followed my dad up there. He delivered a box to the house, but we don't know why. The whole place was empty, and when we looked in the box, we found children's clothing, and a bunch of other stuff like dead bugs and flowers and slime."
A flash of excitement crossed Peter's face. "That's what I thought," he said. "She's going to create a witch's brew."
The Box Set of Hauntings and Horrors Page 12