Aspen Vale: A Tale of the Gone

by Lopeman, Kenneth

  John pointed at the letters. “This is the Rome,” he said. “When my Dad brought me here, he said that a lot of the patrols he went on avoided this building as much as they did the Gardens. But they can’t, really, cuz this is the best road to get to the townships from Independence Pass.”

  “Mother have mercy,” Jo breathed. “If the Gardens are darker than this place, then I never want to see them. Can you all feel it?” Every one of them nodded. There was a presence there, looking back out at them through dark windows.

  “My Dad told me that he thought Lord Jezias lives here, and not in the Gardens,” said John in a quiet voice. “He said that one of the Scouts went in, and when he came out his hair was ghost white, and he died the next day. And when my Dad died… I heard my Ma, talking to a friend. She said that my Dad had told her that he had seen a little boy in the window, looking at him. When my Dad walked toward him, the boy disappeared. The next day that mountain lion mauled him when he was on patrol. My Ma thinks that little boy was Lord Jezias himself.”

  “Oh, come on,” said Tommy. “That sort of kak may work on the kids you usually talk to, but we’re a little old for ghost stories.”

  “It’s not a story!” John exclaimed. They stopped as his voice echoed down the street, among the broken buildings. When the boy went on, he spoke much more quietly. “It’s not a story, Tommy. I know what my Dad told me. I know what my Mom said. I wouldn’t lie about Lord Jezias. Not here.”

  Silence greeted that statement, as each of them mulled it over. “I think we should go,” said Abby, her voice small.

  “Oh, come on!” Tommy said again. “We just got here! We wanted haunted…it doesn’t get much more haunted then this! I’m going in there.”

  John’s eyes grew wide. “Why? Didn’t you hear what I said?”

  “Yeah, I heard you,” said Tommy. “All week long, that’s all I’ve heard. Jezias this, Jezias that. Well, I’m sick of it, and I’m sick of him. I’m going to go in there and tell him what I think of him.”

  “Thomas. You knock this off right now,” said Abby sternly and a little desperately. “We’re going home. Now.”

  “What are you going to do, tell Dad? You’ll get into as much trouble as I will.”

  “I don’t care,” said Abby. “I won’t let you do this.”

  “Oh, for the Mother’s sake, don’t you see? Don’t any of you see?” asked Tommy, turning to face them. “There IS no Jezias! He’s made up! Someone somewhere needed something to explain all the bad stuff in the world. Why not a god who controls death, even controls the Gone? The scariest things there are?”

  “And the Father and Mother. The Mother you just swore to? I suppose they’re made up too?” Seth asked his friend, heaping scorn into his voice to convey how ridiculous Tommy sounded.

  “Yes! All of it!” exclaimed Tommy, oblivious. “There is no one watching us, no one watching the Gone, no one protecting some dumb holes in the hills. There sure as hell isn’t a god living in an old, worn down building. And I’m going in, to prove it to you.”

  “Going in there only proves how stupid you are,” said Seth. “Just because the outside looks fine doesn’t mean that the inside is. The floors could be rotted. If they have one of those “basement” things, you could fall right through, and how would you ever get out?”

  That gave Tommy pause, but only for a minute. “No,” he said. “I have to go in. I have to know.”

  “Know what?” asked Seth, confused. Tommy didn’t answer. He just turned back to the building, and slowly started walking towards it. Seth followed after him. “Damn it….Tommy, wait.”

  “Wait for what?” Tommy asked over his shoulder irritably.

  “Me,” said Seth with a sigh. Abby made a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a cry, which he ignored. “I can’t let you go in there by yourself. If you do get your dumb ass stuck somewhere, you need someone to pull you out. Jo, John, stay back here with Abby. If anything happens, run to the Scout post and get help as quick as you can.”

  “You’re both idiots,” said John as Seth joined his friend in front of the withered trees. “What you believe doesn’t matter! If you’re wrong, you’re dead! Why take that risk?”

  Seth privately agreed, but Tommy didn’t answer. Instead, he started climbing over the rubble towards the door. With a sigh, Seth followed. When they tried to open the door, it was stuck fast. Seth hoped that would be the end of it, but no such luck. Tommy backed up a bit, then rammed the door with his shoulder. It opened on the first try, the momentum of the blow sending him a couple steps into the building before he could stop himself.

  When Seth followed, he was greeted by a sight that took his breath away. Snow had drifted through the broken windows into the building, covering what was left of once been beautiful furniture in a soft blanket of white. On the walls, paintings had been hung, most too faded now to be recognizable. As their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they could make out several generations of spider webs in among the beams of the roof. Despite the decay, though, the room still conveyed a sense of magnificence that he had never seen before. “I wonder what they used this building for,” Tommy said quietly, looking at the room with his mouth hanging open.

  Seth wasn’t sure if his friend was actually directing that towards him or not, but answered anyway. “It could have been used for anything. Maybe it was a temple to Jezias that they could use when it was too cold out in the Gardens. This stuff looks like it used to be really fancy.” “Fancy” felt like a gross understatement to him, but he didn’t have the words to describe the room accurately.

  “Maybe… but that doesn’t feel right to me,” said Tommy. “This looks like somewhere you’d go to relax, not to worship. I think you’re just spooked by John’s story.”

  “I’m spooked as hell by John’s story,” Seth admitted. “But if you tell me that you don’t feel something watching us right now, I’ll call you a liar to your face.” It was the creepiest feeling Seth had ever had. He couldn’t see anything but snow and the ruins of what the building had once been. He couldn’t see any tracks in the snow other than the few he and Tommy had made. If something had been here before the snowstorm, though, there was no reason he would have seen tracks, either. He could feel eyes on him, seeming to come from everywhere, and the chills up his spine suggested that they were not happy to see him. When Tommy didn’t respond, Seth knew that he wasn’t alone in his feeling. “Even if it’s not the Lord of Death, some animal could have easily made its den here. It’s stupid to be in here.”

  “Shut up, Seth,” said his friend irritably. “A man can’t always do the smart thing. Sometimes he has to do something dumb, just to remind himself he’s alive.” Seth heard his mother respond to that statement in his mind’s ear, and what she had to say was not complimentary to their intelligence. Tommy stepped further into the room. “Alright, Lord Jezias,” he said, “here I am! Show yourself! I’m not afraid of you!”

  “What are you doing?” hissed Seth.

  Tommy ignored him. “Everyone’s so afraid of you,” he continued, “but I’m not! You’re not even real! You’re a boogeyman made up to scare children. I’m not a child anymore!” Tommy fell silent, looking around the empty great room. “Or maybe you are real,” he continued. “Maybe you’re real, and are just a rutting prick. All you want to do is cause pain. You take everything and everyone we love for yourself. You’re a selfish bastard. Well, you want to come try me? Or do you stick to old ladies who can’t fight you?” Tommy waited, but the only response he got was silence. After a moment, he sniffed. “That’s what I thought,” he said scornfully.

  And something dashed behind the bar.

  Seth hadn’t got a good look at it, but there had clearly been a dark mass that had moved from the back of the room, behind the wooden bar to his left. The ancient chandeliers still hung above it, and they were swaying. There is a window nearby, he thought to himself. It’s just the wind. He turned back to Tommy, expecting him to continue on with his diatr
ibe. But his friend’s eyes were fixed on the bar, as well. “You saw it, didn’t you?” Seth asked.

  “I… saw something,” Tommy admitted. “It didn’t look very big. A fox maybe?”

  “Where did it come from, though? It wasn’t there, and then it was. And I didn’t hear anything when it moved. I just saw a blur.”

  “A fox wouldn’t catch many rabbits if it made a lot of noise, now would it?” Tommy retorted. “I’m gonna go check it out.”

  “Mother of the Mountains!” Seth exclaimed, exasperated. “You really are trying to get yourself hurt, aren’t you?”

  “You know, I never thought you’d turn into such a mouse in your old age,” said Tommy, still walking slowly, testing the floor to make sure it would bear his weight. “If it is a fox, it’ll probably just run back to where it was, or jump out the window. Unless it’s hunting mice, of course.”

  “Fine. But I’m going to stay right here. And I’m gonna laugh my ass of when the little fucker claws you in the face.” Seth knew he sounded petty, but he couldn’t help it. And he thought it better to sound petty than scared.

  At any rate, Tommy didn’t take any notice of his tone. He slowly crept towards the old wooden bar. It was in as strangely good shape as the rest of the building, perhaps because the window next to it still had a full pane of dirt encrusted glass. He watched his friend brace his hands on the bar, and lift himself up, peering over. And then, with a yelp of terror, he threw himself backwards, falling on his ass. He started crawling away, as fast he could, till he hit a chair and froze. Seth hurried over to him, not bothering to test the floor; if it had held Tommy’s weight, than hopefully it would hold his, too.

  “What was it?” he asked anxiously. “What did you see?”

  Tommy’s face was as white as the snow he was sitting on, his eyes bugging out of his head. “I saw…” he said, stammering. “I saw…” He went on like this for a good minute, never saying anything more.

  Seth helped him to his feet. “Come on, let’s get the hell out of here,” he said. Tommy didn’t respond, just leaned on Seth as they made their way back to the door. As they were approaching, Seth could have sworn he heard a child, laughing. Tommy froze, paralyzed by fear. “Come ON!” Seth exhorted, half dragging Tommy out the door. Once they were outside, he sat Tommy on a pile of debris, and then sat down himself, staring back into the great room they had just left. A strong gust of wind came down from the east, and the door slammed shut.

  The two of them sat there in the rubble, trying to catch their breath. Seth gave a start when he felt hands on his shoulders, but it was just Abby. “What happened?” she asked.

  “I’m not really sure,” said Seth, looking over at Tommy. The other two boys were over by him, asking the same question. Tommy didn’t answer. He just stared at the now closed door. “There was something behind the bar, and your brother freaked out, and we got out of there.”

  “There was nothing there,” said Tommy finally, still not taking his eyes off the building. “I thought I saw something for a second, but what I saw couldn’t have been there.”

  “What did you think you saw?” asked Joe.

  “A…a rutting KID,” said Tommy. “But he was soaked. Like he had just gotten out of the bath or something. He even had a towel on. He looked up at me, and I couldn’t see his eyes. Then he just disappeared.”

  “By the Mother,” said John softly. “That’s exactly what happened to my Dad.”

  “Shut up, John,” said Jo. “He said that’s what he THOUGHT he saw. It could have been anything, right? It could have been that stupid story you told before they went in, playing tricks on his mind.”

  “I never said the kid my dad saw was wearing a towel,” said John. “I left that part out, because it didn’t make any sense.”

  “I said shut up,” Jo said, more urgently. “No one is going to die. Why would Lord Jezias want to look like a child? No one is going to die.” He looked to the building, and then to Tommy. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “Hey! What the hell are you kids doing?” a voice shouted out. With a groan of dread, Seth looked towards the voice. A man was coming toward them, one of the Scouts. “No one is allowed in the Ruins!

  All five of them gave a sigh of acceptance. The only thing left to find out was how much trouble they were about to get in.

  Chapter 8

  “Were you discovered?”

  “Come on. By kids? I’m better than THAT, I hope. There is a problem, though. They got caught by a patrol. They will almost certainly tell whoever is in charge how they snuck in. Which means that my original observation point is compromised.”

  “The boss already figured that out. He wants to know if you have a secondary spot picked out.”

  “Two, actually. I’ll be able to at least partially observe from there. It’s a little bit more exposed, though. The second is in the ruins themselves. Locals seem to be scared of them. I can always observe the aftermath from there. Bad and worse choices, but I don’t think we have a choice unless we want to scrap it.”

  “I already asked him. Our orders are to go ahead. Hope you have nose plugs.”

  Jake leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. Rory McEoun slumped next to him. “By the Three, those damned benches are heavy,” the rifleman said as he lit a tobacco cigarette. “Why the blazes don’t you just leave them out?”

  “Beth says it looks cluttered. It’s not like we have that many meetings. She also doesn’t like people to smoke in the house, but you knew that,” said Jake.

  “Mother be good, not even in here?” he said, walking to the door that led outside. He removed the ember from the tip into the snow and stepped on it, putting the rest of it into his shirt pocket. “How the rutting hell is a man supposed to have a bad habit in this house?”

  “If Beth has her way, he doesn’t,” said Jake, following him out. The air was crisp, but not cold; it was definitely beginning to warm. Jake hoped that trend continued, but he knew that he couldn’t count on it. Even now, the sky was beginning to cloud up. “Are you saying Charlotte lets you smoke indoors?”

  “Are you kidding? She’d beat my ass bloody if she saw me light up. She says the things stink like cow kak.” The rifleman gave Jake a serious look. “Remind me why being married is so rutting great?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll ask Charlotte next time I see her,” said Jake, grinning. Rory suggested that Jake do something else instead, which was as inflammatory as it was physically impossible. Jake let him go on for a bit, and then looked up to the sky. “Sun’s past its midpoint. Where is everyone?”

  “Off picking their asses somewhere, I’m sure,” said Rory. “Once they get tired of that, I’m sure they’ll start trickling in.”

  And they did, almost on cue. A group of Longshooters came in the door that connected to the house; apparently they had come to the front door instead of around back to the meeting hall. Beth was there, and graciously took their coats. She gave Jake a look that promised a talk later, but he simply shrugged back at her. Those boys should know better by now, after all; it wasn’t HIS fault they’d come to the wrong door. “Remind me why being married is so great?” he said quietly to Rory. His friend just snickered.

  To his relief, everyone else came in the correct door. He shook hands with everyone, inviting them to sit on the benches he and Rory had put out. Jay Carpenter came accompanied by Kyle Beaupre. “I suggested he come,” Jay said by way of greeting. “Everyone in town knows he’s here, and have probably figured out that he’s the reason for the meeting. It would look far more suspicious if he hadn’t been here; folks might have thought we were holding out on them.”

  “Well, you’re sure as hell holding out on ME,” said Rory before Jake could respond. Thankfully, he said it quietly, but the older man looked none too pleased.

  Jake mentally cursed; he wasn’t much used to keeping secrets. By the look on Jay’s face, the Longshooter captain was thinking the same thing. “I promise to fill you in after,”
Jake promised him. “When I tell you, you’ll understand why we’re being so circumspect."

  “Circumspect? Is that a big word that means ‘lying through your rutting teeth’?” said Rory, still quietly. “I’m not much for falsehood, Jake, you know that. You end up digging yourself into a pile of kak, and when you try to dig yourself out of it, you usually end up just end up at the bottom of the pile.”

  “Trust me?” Jake implored. Rory gave a soft curse, but nodded. “I’ll let you hear it straight from Mr. Beaupre’s mouth, so that you can judge for yourself. Have you met Mr. Beaupre?”

  “Kyle,” said Beaupre, extending a hand. Rory shook it begrudgingly. “Nice to meet you.”

  Rory shook the Kenoshan’s hand begrudgingly. “Can’t say likewise,” the rifleman said. “Town’s been in an uproar since you got here. You’d best be worth it, Kenoshan.” With that, he gave Jake a look and sat down himself near the front, crossing his arms.

  Jay sighed. “Don’t mind Rory, Mr. Beaupre. He’s... an acquired taste.”

  Beaupre shrugged. “I’ve been treated worse. And I can see where he’s coming from. How long until this thing starts?”

  “Almost everyone is here now,” said Jake. “Just waiting for the Scouts I had posted by the Ruins. I asked them to do a quick patrol before they came in.”

  “Have you figured out what you’re going to tell everyone?” the Kenoshan asked.

  “The Gone. The idea of a real herd will scare them enough. I won’t tell them about them moving in the cold, though. Hopefully the thaw comes before they do.”

  “Here’s hoping,” said Beaupre. It was clear from his tone of voice that he didn’t really believe that.

  It was actually a good half an hour more before the Scouts he had posted at the Ruins came in. Apparently some kids had picked today to venture into the Ruins. That was nothing new; every kid in Aspen Vale did it at some point or another, and once in a while they would catch a few from the Ranch as well. They started to give a more full report, but Jake waved that away and asked them to sit down. By that time the clouds had really set in. Looks like we’re in for another storm, Jake thought to himself. So much for it staying warmer. With a sigh, he headed inside and closed the door behind him. The room was a bit raucous, with the men talking among themselves. Beaupre was seated next to Jay and Rory, though a stony silence seemed to be prevalent among them. He took his place at the table in the front of the hall, and waved for Jay to come join him. “Alright, quiet everyone!” he called. “Let’s get this started.”