The Inn

by D. R. Mather

  Kevin grabbed her and gave her a big wet kiss, “I just love you so much!”

  “Of course you do, I’m Judy!”

  Kevin turned to Beth and saw she had a few tears on her cheeks, “What, what’s wrong Beth?”

  “Oh, I’m just so glad to see Judy finally happy. You brought out what we all knew was hiding inside of her. It looks amazing in the light, that’s all.”

  This statement of course earned Beth a minute long group hug.

  “Did you want something, ya big lug?” asked Beth, pulling back.

  “Oh, ya, you steered me off the road for a minute with that kid. Can you go find Alex and April, have them meet us in the library please?”

  “On it boss.” She blew them both a kiss as she walked off.

  Judy turned to Kevin, “I knew Beth was one of us the minute you told me what this was all about and how you were here to find help. She’s a good soul.”

  “Well, aren’t you the little genius,” said Kevin as he put his arm around her and they walked up the stairs to the library. As they got to the top step, Beth popped out of the library.

  “Already beat you Kevin, that’s where I found them. They were both going through old folk tales and myth books.”

  Kevin held up the small book. “I think we found the answer,” he said, waving the book and continuing in. He then addressed the others, “Ok, for about ten minutes or so, just go about what you were doing, it seems I have some light reading to do first.”

  He heard a “Hi Kevin” from both. He returned the greetings and went over to a sofa to sit. Of course, Judy, being ‘glued to his ass’, followed, which was something he wouldn’t give up to save his own life. After about fifteen minutes, Kevin reached the book out for Beth to take.

  “Keep this safe okay?”

  Beth actually hesitated but not for long. She soon took the book.

  “Well, I think I have it figured out, thanks to someone else’s mistakes, who took the time to have it put into print I might add.”

  “There must always be a circle for starters. If I were to do this alone, just putting the two halves together forms the circle. If two or more use this talisman, the two who hold the halves naturally touch each other’s half from one hand each, and they hold their other hands together, again forming a circle. If several are involved, then the people with the two halves touch them together while in turn holding hands all around, so as to again form a complete circle. Just as we did when I shared my power with you. Everyone got it?” They all said they understood. “Now, the book says it’s wise to have either one or at the most, two people do this for the first time.” Kevin looked at Alex, April and Beth, “Your responsibility is to, well, guard us I guess; watch over our bodies. So, for this time at least, you can all just sit back and relax.”

  Kevin sat back down next to Judy, who in turn started to get up and move with the others.

  “Oh no young lady, you’re going with me.”

  “Oh, can I go put on my ‘lucky’ toe socks first?”

  “When did they become ‘lucky’?” Kevin laughed

  She smiled a wonderful smile and said, “I was wearing them when I fell in love with you.” She then leaned in and kissed him. Kevin was speechless.

  “Ahem, okay, Judy, your half please?”

  They both held their halves up in front of them, and slowly moved them closer together. When the halves were within an inch from touching, there was a shudder that shook the entire house. It wasn’t big, but everyone felt it. When the halves connected, there was a flash of blue and white light. Kevin instantly fell back to the back of the sofa, Judy started to fall forward towards the floor. Beth was at her in a heartbeat, maybe even quicker than that. She brought Judy’s body to rest against the back of the sofa. Alex and April just stared at them.

  “Looks just like they went to sleep,” said Alex

  “Yeah, speed sleep,” said April.

  ***

  Stan and Mark were sitting in Stan’s car, outside a grocery store, near the back of the lot. They were in Indiana – Terre Haute to be exact. Stan was waiting for someone who he had to meet. There hadn’t been any connecting phone calls made first, he was just told to be here, now. There wasn’t a lot of talking going on, other than Mark saying he liked the mountains better than this shithole. Stan couldn’t have given two shits what Mark liked or didn’t like. If he had the chance, he’d ‘off’ Mark as well.

  A dark green car pulled in and drove over to Stan’s side, then stopped. A powered window went down on the dark green car and Stan had to match it while hand cranking his own down. He couldn’t make out the faces, but he saw the silhouettes of four people in the car. A voice came from the green car.

  “I understand that you and I have to form a partnership.”

  “Yeah we’re supo…..” Mark said. He was abruptly stopped with the back of Stan’s fist as it connected with Mark’s mouth. Mark slunk back in his seat and shut up; he could taste his own blood.

  “First thing you need to do is curb that dog right?”

  Stan looked out his window, “Done.”

  “I’ll set up a ‘get to know each other’ in the next few days, you got a way to get a hold of you?”

  Stan slipped out a piece of paper with his cell phone number on it, and handed it to the faceless man.

  “Good deal, wait for a call.” The car sped off.

  Stan turned to Mark, “If you ever speak out of turn again, I will personally rip your beating heart right out of your chest and show it to you, you got that?”

  Mark only shook his head up and down. Mark got that, clear as a bell.

  “We have to find a place to shack up, but I’m low on cash. How are you fixed?”

  Mark took out his wallet and opened it, “Thirty four bucks.”

  “Shit, I ain’t sleeping in no flop house. Get behind the wheel and start the car, I’ll be right back.”

  Stan ran off and into the store. Two minutes later, he ran as fast as he could to the car, slid around to the passenger’s side and jumped in.

  “MOVE!”

  Mark hit the gas and took off. After they hit the interstate, Stan pulled up a small bag full of money.

  “That’s more like it. The bitch inside didn’t want to give it to me so I had to punch her in the face. Amazing what a little ‘convincing’ can do huh, Mark?”

  Mark just drove in silence, he didn’t seem to know what he’s gotten himself into now. All he’d wanted was April; he thought if he helped Stan get rid of Kevin, he could get her back. Only, there wasn’t any ‘back’ to get. April had never liked Mark. He thought she was just playing hard to get. Suddenly he was speeding down a highway in Indiana. Life sure was weird.

  Stan saw a hotel up the road and had Mark take the exit for it. After they got the double room, Stan sat on the bed and shook out the bag from the robbery. His eyes were glazed over as he counted. In Stan’s life there were only two things: Judy and money. Sometimes he couldn’t tell which one he wanted more. For now, it was money. Judy’s parents were millionaires, which was money as well.

  “Hey, we hit the jackpot – eighteen hundred bucks!”

  “Alright,” said Mark, “Nice deal Stan!”

  Stan looked at Mark. “We need to do some serious partying bud. Maybe get a few hookers, right?”

  Mark looked at Stan, “But, what about April? I can’t cheat on her.”

  Stan got off the bed, “Are you shitting me? Fuck April. In fact, maybe one of the hookers will be named April, and then you CAN fuck April after all!”

  “Don’t you ever say…” Mark attacked. However, Mark never finished. Stan lashed out with one punch and put Mark out cold for the night. He never even bothered to get Mark to his bed; Mark slept the night away on the floor. Stan just sat on his bed, thinking.

  Chapter Nineteen

  There wasn’t anything like clouds or fog. There wasn’t a fancy blinding light. Kevin and Judy were simply standing in a hallway. The walls were weird though, as
they seemed to have colors flowing left to right and back again. Not specks, but more like streaks of colors. Yet, to Kevin they looked just like regular walls – only with a flair! The floor seemed to be tiled, but not in a normal way. It looked like, well, like steel and stone blended together. Not a square of one and then a square of the other; no, ‘blended’ together to make a whole tile. The ceiling seemed normal except it had the same colored lights moving back and forth through it. Kevin stared at it for a few seconds and then noticed that it moved in the opposite direction to the walls. As the wall colors moved towards them, the ceiling colors seemed to be moving away. The pattern kept repeating itself endlessly.

  “I know why it’s doing this. It’s so you can tell which is wall and which is ceiling, or else your eyes would get all screwed up and your ass would land on the rock and steel floor!” Kevin explained to Judy.

  “Wow hun, I was about to ask you and you go and tell me. You’re fast!”

  “It’s building baby, doesn’t matter with what or where, it’s all the same.”

  “Welcome,” said multiple voices at the same time. “Very well done Kevin, so far you are the only visitor who didn’t have to ask about the walls.”

  They both looked to where the voices were coming from and saw that about seventy feet up the hall, there stood three figures. Judy jumped a bit, but Kevin had her hand and squeezed it as if to say, “I’ve got you”. Judy settled back down. Kevin started to walk towards the figures with Judy completely behind him, except for her head. As they got closer, the three figures didn’t talk, but simply waited for them to reach the distance. As they got closer, both of them saw what was standing there, waiting for them. They were massive in height, close to ten feet if Kevin were to guess, yet amazingly thin in body mass. If you placed your hands out in front of you, palms down, stretched both thumbs out to the side as far as they could go, then touched the tips of your thumbs together, that would have been a close estimate as to how thick these beings were. Their heads seemed to be normal sized which made their heads look huge, because their necks, arms and legs all seemed to be about the same diameter around. This was about the size of a tube of calking. And, as Judy pointed out to Kevin just before they got really close to them, “They’re white.” Not as in Caucasian white, but more like paint white. Until you got close to them, then they saw shades of light grey randomly mixed in to their skin.

  Kevin thought, ’Maybe that’s how they tell each other apart?’

  They had the most beautiful eyes. They were mostly black with no retinas or irises. They also had no eyelashes or hair – not as far as he could see anyway. The eyes were almost round, but they had a slight shape to them. The nose was almost non-existent; only a tip came out at the bottom, just above the mouth. Overall, they were peaceful to look at, almost like they were sad all the time. Their faces were somewhat elongated, not like the Roswell kind, but just a little. Their faces were very thin, almost as if there were no bone structure there. As they talked, you could tell there was though. All in all, this was one very thin being.

  “Welcome, Kevin and Judy. We see you have found the amulet which allows you to come to us.”

  “Well, we didn’t find it, we….”

  “Yes, yes, we are aware of how it returned.” And the being raised its hand with an ‘it’s not important’ wag. “Please, if you would both follow us?”

  Kevin shrugged, “Sure thing, are you taking me to your leader?”

  Judy poked him in his ribs, it really hurt.

  “You’re gonna pay for that one girly girl,” he said and smiled at her.

  She looked scared to death. Kevin pulled her close and tight. She may have summed it up best when she whispered to Kevin that they all sounded the same. She said “They all sound like Teddy Ruxpin!”

  Another hundred feet or more and the beings turned left into another room. When Kevin and Judy reached the place, they saw five beings in the room.

  “Please, come in if you will.”

  He hesitated a bit, but then went in. There was a huge round table in the center of the room and nothing else. “Please, come over to the viewing table.”

  Kevin and Judy went in, but only half way, then they stopped. Kevin wasn’t quite sure what the table was viewing because to him and Judy, it just looked like a table, nothing more.

  One of the beings dispersed from the group and came forward to speak, “How nice it is to finally meet you in person Kevin.”

  “And who are you?”

  “I am your ‘voice’ Kevin.”

  “Hmmm, no you’re not. The ‘voice’ sounds like a normal man, it’s even kind of gravely and lower toned.”

  “As you wish, if this is what you prefer.”

  Kevin heard the ‘voice’ come out of the being – no Teddy Ruxpin at all.

  “That’s a nice parlor trick,” said Kevin.

  “We do it because you have more comfort that way. There is a normal level of trust if we use a voice which comes from your people.”

  “Okay, I do get the point. Your real voice would probably have had me running down the street and pulling out my hair, so yeah, I get it.”

  “Kevin and Judy, we have some things to discuss together and then some things to discuss with you individually.”

  A being moved forward now and headed to both of them. It seemed to be more feminine than the others, although it was hard to tell for the most part. The differences were really subtle. The being reached out its hand and spoke, “Judy, if you will come with me, we have a few things to discuss.”

  ‘Well, the voice solved that question, it’s absolutely a female,’ thought Kevin.

  Judy said nothing, but took the female’s hand. It was warm, just like her own. As they walked into a second, deeper room Judy turned back and looked desperately at Kevin. He smiled and shooed her ahead.

  “Kevin, shall we?”

  He turned to the group that remained in the room. They gestured to him to come up to the table where they now stood. Oddly, they seemed to be the exact same distance apart from each other. Kevin hadn’t moved for a few minutes now, and no one talked.

  Judy was ushered back into the room and brought up to the table by the female, who then took a place at the same distance away as the others. Only after seeing Judy return did Kevin move. Kevin stepped up to the table. At his feet, the floor lit up in a rectangle shape which suggested to him that he should stand on it. As his second foot landed on it, the whole table glowed a bright white.

  “We are in the circle, the circle of life. We are the protectors of all humanity, we are the ONE…”

  Just as fast as it began, it was over. The beings stepped back; Judy and Kevin saw this and did the same. The light went out and everything was back to normal. Well, whatever it was you’d want to call ‘normal’ in this place. The beings left the room, save two; the ‘voice’ and the female. Judy made her way back to Kevin and showed him the most wonderful smile. He took her hand and looked at the two who remained. He just knew he had seen the female swoon just a tiny bit when she saw Kevin and Judy hold hands.

  “Kevin,” the ‘voice’ said, “we have a grave situation to deal with. We need to know that we can count on you and your fellow friends to help us. You are the one who holds the key to the future of mankind. There have been others who have done missions as you have done, but they did their arrangements and finished. You, however, have been chosen for a far greater purpose. Everything that you have done up to this point was simply to prove your self-worth to yourself and to humanity.”

  “Well hold up a second,” Kevin said, “this place I’m in, the Coburn Inn, it’s connected to you. Why?”

  “Because Will’s great-grandfather was as you are, a savior; a dispatcher of evil. We allowed him to place the mosaic and the fountains as a tribute to us. We knew that other humans could never figure out that they had purpose, so we allowed it to be done.”

  “I see, and his riches are also from you?”

  “The man had a way of do
ing things. He didn’t simply want to be handed riches, he just asked that we show him where riches lay, and he would do the work.”

  “And my wallet, does it hold my riches as well?”

  “No Kevin, I’m afraid when the task is complete, the wallet will just seem to vanish. It is merely to assist you in your needs.”

  “So what’s to stop me from destroying the U.S. economy with this wallet?”

  “The wallet is linked to your earthbound system. We merely collect all of the stolen money, lost coins and things which have been forgotten, and we give it back through the wallet. No new money is ever created.”

  Kevin thought this over for a second, “So it has its limits?”

  “Kevin, you have no concept of the amount of money and valuables that are lost, stolen or swindled in a single year alone; as well as the fact that we also ‘dabble in the stock market’ as you would say it. Only, we do it a bit differently; when we see brokers and bankers stealing millions and millions from the people, we have ‘ways’ of removing small amounts of it without their noticing. If billions is what you call ‘limits’, then yes, your wallet does have limits I suppose.”

  Kevin and Judy’s eyes both bulged just a tiny bit at the word ‘billions’.

  “So this power you gave me, will it also go away?”

  “Enough questions for this visit Kevin, we need to talk of more important things now. There is a very powerful force which is trying to take over your people. It is almost as powerful as us, though it lacks love, the true secret of survival and existence. This force sees love as an enemy which must ultimately be destroyed. Our reason for being here is to stop that force at all costs. Kevin, know this now, many more beings, not just humans, have the same stake in this.”

  Kevin didn’t miss that. “So you just told me there is life on other planets. Have they been to earth?”

  “No, they have different technologies to you, but have never succeeded; we have made sure of that. It is a part of our duties. I will say no more on this for now, perhaps on another journey here.”