“We put a fence around the hole we had dug in the orchard so nobody else could get in there by accident, or on purpose, and that’s where it sat for a while. A few days later I went down into the temple by myself, and the remaining metal artifacts and treasures were gone, the ones we hadn’t picked up at first, they were all gone.”
“Oh, please close the window!” his grandmother yelled from the bedroom.
His grandfather left the table again to check on her.
“So Pastor John took everything?” Rebecca asked.
“What about that black slime in the gold bowl?” Michael asked.
“He’ll get to that.” Finn poured himself a cup of water and sat back down. “That’s when things get weird.”
His grandfather came back. “Mary thinks the window’s open. It’s shut tight.”
“Do you want me to keep an eye on her while you’re talking?” Finn asked.
“No, I put an extra blanket on her,” his grandfather said. “Maybe she’s cold.
“Where was I? Oh, yes. After I got home that evening I found some smaller objects in my jacket pockets, and I remembered I’d left some items in my car too. I hadn’t meant to steal anything. Nothing like that. It’s just we found so much stuff. I put everything in a box and intended to take it to PJ later, but I just forgot about it. We all got so busy analyzing the stuff at PJ’s house. We must have hauled a ton of metal into poor Bertha’s living room. She must have had a heart attack dealing with it all. We had that junk scattered everywhere. It was great fun to examine it all. Back then we were friends, and it was an exciting adventure for a bunch of older small town guys. We were hooting and hollering like kids at Christmas.
“He stopped talking about it about a year ago after his new temple got started, his Stone Hill Risen Temple.” Michael’s grandfather said the name like it was a joke. “Or Shirts as some of us like to call them. White Shirts. You notice all the people wearing white? Temple members.
“We all went back down there again later. The last time we all went down together and explored the tunnels further. We didn’t bring weapons. Why would we need to bring weapons? It’s just an old underground structure, right? But we brought along some artifacts we’d found to see if we could match them up to anything on the walls. That’s when we had our first encounter with a bessie.
“We went through the temple and tunnels as far as we could go until we heard these weird clicking sounds, like a woodpecker banging its head against a bone. Before you know it, this big squid-like thing is chasing us. Its arms were just like that snake we saw coming out of the well hole. We charged out of there like we’d seen a ghost. We pushed that big stone door shut behind us, and that thing crashed right into it. Good thing those doors were made of stone. Whoever built that temple knew what they were doing. They built those doors to stop the bessies, we could see that, because there was no way any of those things could get out.
“So anyway, that’s as far as we’ve gotten into the tunnels, but we’ve had a lot of run-ins with the bessies since then.”
“What’s a bessie?” Michael asked.
“Ray coined that term,” his grandfather said. “He said it reminded him of a child’s doll his sister kept in their room when he was little. He was terrified of that thing. He said the doll’s name was Bessie Sings-A-Lot and it used to start up singing on its own in the middle of the night. He had nightmares of it strangling him.
“Since then we’ve had many encounters with the things, always at night. Bullets slow them down, but they’re difficult to kill. Shoot off one limb, and the others keep coming at you.
“One more thing, within that temple we found a bathtub-sized stone box, like a burial crypt, full of this thick black substance. So Ray, our friend who gave his life for us last night, stuck his hand right into it like it was nothing. He pulled his hand out and let that slime drip down. Let me tell you something. Before he reached into that vat of sludge he had a deep ugly scar on the back of his hand from a farming accident. After he cleaned that crap off his hand the scar was gone. Completely gone.
“Well, Pastor John saw that and he about went nuts. He thought that was the most wonderful thing in the world. God’s miracle right in front of us. So we all helped him go back and get containers, and we emptied all that black stuff into them. He scraped up every drop. That’s what he’s been using this whole time to ‘heal’ people for his church while making it look like he’s some wonderful miracle worker. It’s all gone to his head now. But I think he’s running low on the stuff because in the last month I’ve seen a lot more activity around the church with it being fenced off and everything. Maybe he’s been going back down into those tunnels again looking for more of that black stuff. Maybe he’s already found more. I don’t know, but anyway that’s where it sits.”
“What happened to all those artifacts in Pastor John’s living room?” Rebecca asked.
“Old PJ got some friends in another town to melt down some gold. They used that money to buy all those white vans you see everywhere. And I’m sure they’ve got plenty of money left over. There was a ton of gold and silver in there. Shame they melted it down. The rest of the stuff is either at PJ’s house or in the church somewhere. Priceless treasures. I wish I could show you everything we found. I’ll dig out the items I’ve got stashed away some day and show you.”
Something crashed in his grandparents’ bedroom. His grandfather and Finn stood up, but before they could get to the bedroom, his grandmother came out and stood in the doorway. A thin trail of blood ran from her scalp down across her neck.
“That darn window,” his grandmother said.
14
Finn and Michael’s grandfather each grabbed an arm as his grandmother wobbled and then collapsed forward. Rebecca hurried to their side.
“Get her back in the bedroom,” his grandfather instructed.
Michael hurried around them and moved a desk chair that had toppled over below the window. The papers, photos, and trinkets lining the desk were scattered across the floor, but nothing had been broken.
They carried Mary back to bed. Rebecca sat at the edge of the bed and cleaned the blood from her face.
“I’ll take Mary into town,” his grandfather said. “She’ll be safer at the nursing home anyway.”
“Good idea,” Finn said.
His grandfather pulled clothes from their drawers and tossed them on the bed next to her.
“Are you going somewhere?” his grandmother asked.
“I think Grandpa’s taking you into town.” Michael said as he stood over Rebecca.
“Yep,” she confirmed, turning toward the growing pile of clothes at her side.
His grandfather placed a suitcase on the bed next to the pile of clothes and stuffed in most of them. As he did so, his grandmother sat up and unpacked them, throwing them in heaps on the floor.
Rebecca leaned forward and held Mary’s hand.
His grandmother’s eyes were fixed forward to a painting on the wall beside the desk. “That’s a beautiful painting. Did you make that?”
“You painted it, Mary.”
His grandmother chuckled. “I can’t paint.”
“Sure, you can. You painted all of those.” Rebecca stood up and walked over to one portrait of a clown. “I’ve always loved this one, Mary.”
While Rebecca distracted her, Michael folded the clothes back into the suitcase as best he could. He closed it and struggled with the latches until Finn stepped in and forced it closed. Finn yanked the suitcase off the bed and it thudded against the floor.
His grandfather stared at his grandmother with drooping eyes. He went to her side and put his hand under her shoulder. “Can you stand up, sweetheart?”
She wobbled like an infant learning to walk. Rebecca held her other arm, and they inched her back out to the kitchen.
Michael raced ahead to open the door.
“Where are we going?” his grandmother asked him as they passed through the backdoor.
“Into town, Grandma.”
“Is Michael’s son coming with?” she asked. “I miss him.”
Finn went ahead out to the car with the suitcase.
“Michael,” his grandfather said, “go back and gather up all of her prescriptions next to the bed. Just grab anything you see there. We’re taking it all.”
Michael ran back in the bedroom and dropped all the pill bottles from the nightstand into a plastic bag he’d found. A half-painted canvas on the floor caught his attention as he headed out. It was a detailed portrait of his grandfather, and in the background, a dark flowing shape moved toward him. A trick of light? But the shadow stretched out and touched his grandfather’s neck. Then it grew like a vine and circled his throat. His grandfather’s face turned blue, then white, then black.
A chill flashed through him, and he turned away. He hurried outside with the bag.
His grandfather and Rebecca escorted his grandmother down the sidewalk to the driveway, and Mary laughed as Michael passed her. The sun lit up her face. “Aw, that feels good. I need to get out more.”
Michael hurried across the driveway to the car and set the bag of prescriptions into the backseat. Finn had already opened the passenger side front door and stood waiting as they shuffled forward.
She groaned and then chuckled as she bent into the front passenger seat. They adjusted her like a frail, precious doll made of glass.
The door closed, and a minute later they were gone.
As the car sped toward town, two white vans came into focus a little further down the road, each parked on either side of the road facing in opposite directions near the driveway of Rebecca’s house. One van took off after his grandfather’s car passed. The other van faced his grandparent’s house and sat motionless.
“Looks like the temple is keeping an eye on us now,” Finn said. “That’s why it’s a good idea to get you guys out of here. Let’s get you two packed.”
“Where are we going?” Michael asked.
“You’re going to my brother Quint’s house in Green Hills for the night. He’ll be putting you on a plane back to California in the morning so grab your stuff.” Finn turned and led them toward the house. “Rebecca, do you have a family member or someone out of town who’d take you in until we find your mom?”
“I have an aunt in Larston Lake.”
“I’m taking you there. You can call them from my brother’s house in Green Hills to give them a heads up you’re coming. We’ll stop at your house on the way to get your things.”
“I thought we would look for my mom today.” She took a step back. “I don’t want to leave yet.”
The light wind blew a section of Finn’s hair forward revealing a patch of baldness. “Art and I will find her after we drop you two off. I promise, but you’re not safe here.”
“Then I’ll stay at my house. We should look for her right now.” Her voice cracked and her eyes became red and watery.
“I understand.” Finn put his hand on her shoulder and looked her straight in her eyes. “But right now I need to keep you safe. We need to get you two out of town because we believe you’re in danger. Do you want to find your mom?”
Rebecca nodded.
“So do I. Do you need to get anything from upstairs?”
She nodded.
“All right. Please go upstairs and get your stuff.” He opened the door and gestured for them to go inside. “Michael, go pack everything. You’ll be staying at Quint’s place tonight.”
Michael followed Rebecca upstairs. She hunched forward and drifted at the top step. She waited until he stepped up next to her. “We can’t just leave my mom out there.”
“They’ll find her,” he said.
Michael went to his room and stuffed his backpack first. He wadded up his dirty clothes, which sat in a pile on the floor, and dropped them into a garbage bag he’d found in the corner. He piled all of his things back into the two suitcases he’d brought and dragged them to the doorway.
Rebecca stood at the top of the stairs. She slipped on her baseball cap, capturing her hair before pulling it through the back.
“Well, I’m ready to go,” she said. “Let me help you.”
She grabbed the smaller of Michael’s two suitcases and they plodded down the stairs. Michael’s suitcase crashed against each step.
In the kitchen, Finn stood at the back door with his keys in his hand. He looked at Rebecca. “Artie and I will look for your mom as soon as we get back.”
They headed out to Finn’s truck. Michael opened the passenger door to discover the seats in the back only left enough room for a small child, much less a teenager.
“Is that where your kids sit?” Michael squeezed himself into the back seat.
Finn laughed. “No kids, no grandkids. Don’t think you can fit back there?”
Michael shrugged. The truck towered over the row of bushes lining the edge of his grandparents’ driveway. Finn and Rebecca buckled up in the front seat, and the engine revved as they left the driveway.
Finn drove to Rebecca’s driveway and parked behind Rebecca’s car.
“I don’t think I can go back in there yet,” Rebecca said.
“Understood,” Finn said. “I’ll go in.”
Rebecca gave Finn the information so he could find her backpack and warm clothes, and then he darted off to retrieve the items. The house swallowed him in darkness despite sunlight pouring in through the uncovered windows. He emerged soon after with a white bag made from a bedsheet slung over his shoulder like Santa Claus. A pink and purple backpack hung next to the white bag. Popular music groups scribbled in black marker covered every surface.
Finn tossed everything into the back of the truck with the other supplies, and jumped back into the driver’s seat a moment later. “Everything was right where you said it would be.”
Finn’s truck backed onto the road and they took off toward town. Only a minute had passed before they spotted a white van up ahead at the side of the road. The driver stood next to the wide open driver’s door as Finn’s truck approached. Finn accelerated and the white van’s driver jumped back in the driver’s seat and eyed them as they sped past, kicking up a tornado of dust. The van followed them.
“Maybe we should have taken a different road out,” Michael said.
“Wouldn’t have made any difference. They’d have followed us either way.”
Finn floored the accelerator, and Michael stomped his foot onto an invisible brake. Michael clung to a handle over his head as the truck swayed back and forth. The dust storm behind them fanned out across the fields.
Finn made a sharp left down an alternate road before they got into town. They soared up over a hill and back down to an intersection where the dirt road ended. As they approached it, the pulsing lights from a police car came into view. Two policemen stood beside their cars and aimed their pistols at them.
“Well, this will be interesting,” Finn said.
Finn slowed his truck before reaching the police and coming to a stop. One officer crept over to the driver’s side with his gun still drawn. Rebecca raised her hands as if under arrest. The officer pointed the gun toward Finn’s head while he rolled down the window. The police officer didn’t lower his gun once the window was open either. “You need to head back home, Mr. Hardwick.”
“I’m taking these kids to Green Hills,” he replied.
The officer stared at Finn without blinking. “Not today, you’re not. Turn this truck around, or I will have you arrested for kidnapping of a minor.”
Finn shook his head. “You boys have gone too far.” He rolled up his window.
The officers didn’t lower their pistols, and Finn grumbled as he backed up. The white van that had followed them pulled off to the side of the road.
“Can’t we get through?” Michael asked.
“I guess I could drive around them, but they’d chase us and shoot out our tires or shoot us dead. Who knows what they’d do. They’re nuts. I’d rather not be one of those peopl
e who disappear. Let me think about this.”
The truck rumbled beneath Michael like he were hitching a ride on the back of a dragon. Finn made a U-turn and headed back the way they came.
“The temple has the police in their pocket,” he said. “I hope Art got Mary to the nursing home without trouble.”
“Is there another way out?”
“Yes, there is.” Finn sped up and made a sharp right turn.
They sped past Rebecca’s house, her eyes locked on the front door as if her mother might be standing there, and they passed his grandfather’s house. The driveway was empty. He searched the cloud of dust behind them, but he didn’t see the white van. Maybe they’d outrun them. The truck roared over bumps and sailed over a hill.
“This is another way out,” Finn said. “It’ll get us there.”
An asphalt road sliced across a gravel road ahead, and Finn slowed the truck as he approached it. Two white vans were parked on both sides of the road, tipping into the ditches. Two men in camouflage fatigues jumped out and stood between the trucks, aiming rifles toward them.
Finn slowed and stopped his truck before he got close. “Those, I’m afraid, are assault rifles. They aren’t fucking around.”
“Why are they doing this?” Rebecca looked at Finn.
“They don’t want us to leave.” Finn turned the truck around again.
“Why won’t they let us leave?” Rebecca asked.
“Rebecca, honey, I know it’s hard to believe, but your temple is a cult and Pastor John is a fraud.” Finn glanced at her. “He’s tricked you all into thinking he’s a miracle worker. He ain’t no Jesus. I guarantee you that.”
“But he can do miracles. We saw them, right Michael?”
“I saw something.”
“It’s no miracle.” Finn grunted. “It has something to do with what’s under that church. Something to do with that temple we found down there years ago. But your grandfather and I are the only people, besides the pastor, who know what’s going on, and we have to stop it. It’s gotten way out of control.”
Rebecca was silent.
Shadows Rising Page 11