Grandma gave her a big squeeze and said, "And you were such a good little girl the whole way over!" Grandma leaned over and gave her a great big kiss on the cheek.
Bethie giggled and said, "I love you, Grandma, you're silly!"
"I love you too, Sweetheart," Grandma said, "And your Aunty Charlotte is going to be so happy to see you." As she said this last part, the smile left her face and all of the sudden Bethie's grandma looked worried again. It was the same look that Mommy had sometimes when she couldn't find her medicine, but it was almost always on the couch.
Bethie didn't like seeing her grandma looking sad so she put her hand on Grandma's hand and said, "Don't be worried, Grandma. Everything is going to be okay and we'll all be happy, I promise." The space where her two front teeth were missing made this come out sounding like, "I plomise". Grandma's smile came back.
"Of course it is sweetie," she said, "We're all going to have such a wonderful time this weekend!"
Bethie knew she was going to have fun the most fun ever this weekend. Last year she ran around with her cousins and played hide and seek down in Uncle Clarence's horse house place, she thought it was called a staple, or something. But this year she was six and was definitely a big kid now. She was already losing her dumb baby teeth and this year in school she might learn a little bit of how to read. So, being a big kid now meant that she was going to be way faster and smarter at finding hiding places and stuff, so she would probably win a whole bunch of games this weekend.
As the car came to a stop, Bethie noticed Grandma was looking around the empty drive way with that worried look again.
"Dennis," Grandma said to Daddy, "Her truck isn't here. That's kind of odd, don't you think?"
"Why would that be odd, Mom?" Bethie's daddy said back to Grandma, "She probably just went into town for something. She probably needed to get some stuff for dinner tonight."
"Yes, I suppose I'm just being silly." Grandma said, but still looked worried.
Silly Grandma, Bethie thought, I told her everything was going to be fine.
Daddy reached over and shook Mommy a little bit to wake her up. Bethie supposed she took one of her "mommy pills", at least that's what mommy called them whenever she'd catch Bethie playing with the bottle, shaking like a tambourine and laughing. Every time she took one she'd just lay there on the couch watching TV while Bethie played around the house and front yard.
Sometimes Mommy would pick up Bethie and bounce her on her lap for a few minutes or so. Mommy would look right into Bethie's eyes and say, "Mommy wishes you were stillborn."
Bethie would giggle back at Mommy and say, "You're so silly! I am still born! If I wasn’t still born then I would be back in your tummy!"
Daddy shook Mommy once more and said in his funny baby voice, "Wake up, sleepy-head, we're here!"
Bethie could see Mommy's face reflected in the car window she had her head against. She was making that funny face where she pointed her eyeballs up toward the top of her head while make a weird frowny face with her lips. Bethie watched Mommy make this face most times Daddy said something and she was face the other way. Mommy was silly too.
"Oh, did I sleep the whole way?" Mommy asked.
"Sure did," Daddy said with big grin, "I've heard of car sickness, but never car narcolepsy!' Daddy laughed really loud after he said this. Mommy made a kind of laughing sound too, but Bethie didn't think it sounded like a real laugh.
~
As Dennis shut the door of the Porsche Cayenne behind him he let the warm evening air fill his lungs as he took in a deep breath and then let out a nice, long sigh of relief.
"Man, it always feels so good to be back on the old family ranch! Right honey?" He said to his wife.
"Sure," she said through a yawn, "It's great."
Bethie ran around the parked SUV and latched onto her father's right leg, gripping it in a merciless bear hug, "Where are Alyssa and Bradley, Daddy?" she asked, "I want to show them my missing teeth!"
"Elizabeth," Paula said to her daughter, "I don't think that your cousins want to see your 'missing teeth' holes."
Dennis hoisted the small child up onto his shoulders and said, "Your cousins Alyssa and Bradley will be here soon, your Uncle Charley isn't exactly known for being punctual."
"Hee, heee," she giggled down from her perch, "Uncle Charley's not known for punshool!"
"That's right!" Dennis said as they made their way up the front patio steps.
Carla stopped just short of the steps and said to the rest of the group, "You know what? I think I'm actually going to head down the path to Clarence's place. Charlotte did say that he was under the weather in her message so I feel I should at least go down to check on him, see if he needs anything. You have the keys so how about you three just go on in and grab yourself some coffee or snacks or something and I should be back up in just a few."
Dennis smiled back at his mother and said, "Sounds good to me, be sure to watch out for rattlesnakes going down that old path."
"I'll be fine, Dennis," she said as she smiled up at Bethie, "You guys just go in and get comfortable and I'll be back before you know it."
She winked at Bethie before she tuned and made her way around the back toward the apple orchard and the path beyond it. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and checked the time, it was 6:00pm, and then she dialed her sister in law one more time. There was no answer but she could have sworn she heard "Don't Worry, Be Happy" playing from out one of the back windows as she crossed through the backyard and into the apple orchard. She stopped and turned to face the ranch house, eyeing each window trying to pinpoint the source of the song. When the line stopped ring and Charlotte's voicemail picked up, Carla hit the "end call" button and listened. In just a second the music stopped. Carla immediately tried Charlotte's number again and sure enough she could faintly hear the music ringtone playing out from the house. Best she could tell after moving closer until she was right up next to the house, it was coming from the master bathroom on the third floor.
Carla came to the conclusion that her sister in law must have taken bath in the tub and left her phone plugged in to charge. Then she must have gone in to town for some errand, probably for dinner just like Dennis had said, and left her phone in the house when she ran out. Carla did feel an enormous amount of relief as she realized this was by far the most reasonable scenario. When she turned around to make her way back toward the path to Clarence's, she noticed a section of the grass had gone completely dead. It was in stark contrast to the rest of the well-manicured and well-watered green lawn. Carla eyed it with some curiosity, Clarence was always so obsessive about taking such great care of the landscaping that it seemed quite strange that this section of grass would just die on his watch. It looked as if someone had spilled something highly toxic, perhaps anti-freeze or motor oil, onto the otherwise healthy lawn.
"Hmm, I'll have to let the old man know about this," she said to herself as she continued past the dead patch and into the apple orchard, "I'm sure he'll throw some seed or something on it."
Carla reached the hillside at the end of the orchard and began her way down the path towards Clarence's house. She noticed a movement in the window then looked out from the kitchen in Clarence's living room. It was still too far away for her to get a really good look but best she could tell it was someone standing in the kitchen moving back and forth across the frame of the window. A sudden uneasiness swept across Carla and she paused there on the path. She looked down at the window, squinting and holding her hand over her eyes to shield her vision from the sun.
The figure was now standing still in the window. It had to be Clarence, who else could it be? Carla convinced herself that she was just being over anxious again, just like she was when Charlotte wasn't returning her call, and took a few steps closer until she could see the figure more clearly. It was Clarence, but something looked really off about him. He was hunched over the kitchen sink, looking down into it like he was looking for something important. He als
o appeared to be shirtless, and his exposed skin was pale as death. Carla could see strange blue veins winding up his arm and neck, and it looked as if he had lost all of his hair.
"Oh, dear," Carla said with a gasp as she brought her right hand up to her mouth, "Please don't tell me it's cancer!"
She quickened her pace as she made her way down to his modest one story abode. She felt her heart sink as she thought of her beloved friend enduring any more hardships. The poor old guy suffered enough when he lost Jenny and he must be so lonely out here all alone, the last thing he needed was a major health scare. She glanced back up to the window as she approached the end of the hill and the beginning of his backyard to see if he'd noticed her, she didn't want to catch him too of guard if was as sick as he seemed.
He was gone.
Must have seen me and went to get a shirt on before I get there. Hell, he might not have even had pants on, I could only see his upper half, thank God!
Normally, if Clarence didn't meet her out on his front porch, Carla would just go ahead and let herself in, knowing Clarence preferred anyone to just come right on in. This time, however she lightly rapped her knuckles on his front door, in respect for his modesty just in case he did need to make himself decent.
"Hey there, Uncle C.," she called in to him, "I heard you're not feeling so hot."
No response.
"Uncle C?" She knocked again. And again there was no reply.
Fear crept down her neck and through the pit of her stomach. Her instincts were screaming at her to just turn and run as fast as she could. But her rationally thinking mind was telling her that she was letting herself getting all worked up again over nothing. She knew that she had absolutely nothing to fear. This was Clarence in there and if she was afraid of anything, it should be fear for him, not of him. He was sick and needed help. She became worried that he might have actually fallen as he dressed and could be laying on the floor unconscious with a cracked skull or an injured hip.
She opened the front door and was greeted with a gust of putrid, foul smelling air. She gagged so hard she thought for sure she would vomit. The air was filled with the stench of what seemed to be rancid meat and putrid bodily excretions.
"Clarence!" She called out as she covered her mouth and nose and swung the door fully open with her foot, "What's going on with this smell? It's horrible!"
She looked around the living room and into the kitchen and found no sign of Clarence in either. She noticed that door to his bedroom was closed, that was the only other place in the small house he could be.
"Clarence? I think you might need some help, this smell! You can't be down here with...what is it that smells?" She knocked on his bedroom door, "Hey, if you don't say something I'm coming in, you got me worried here."
Again nothing in response. She turned the knob slowly and cracked the door open.
Something growled inside the room.
Carla jumped back, pulling the door shut as she went.
"Oh my God!" She said as the hair on her arms stood up and a chill ran up her arms. "Cl..cla..Clarence?" Her voice tremble in fear as she tried to speak, "Wh..what is going..." She was cut off by another strange growl. This one deeper, more guttural.
Something pounded against the door on the other side, causing Carla to let out a quick shriek as she jumped back again. When she did, she lost her footing and tumble backwards, painfully hitting her tailbone on the hardwood floor of the hallway. She cried out in pain, as she did another strange sound came from the bedroom. It sounded like something was tearing, and it was accompanied by a deep, gurgling moan.
Carla sat for a few seconds, frozen in terror and disbelief. Is there some animal in there with him? Am I hearing him being eaten alive by some bear or cougar?!
There was a scratching sound, like claws running down the wood on the other side of the door.
Carla finally got her bearing and pulled herself up off the floor. She needed to get out of here quickly but she was torn by the thought of Clarence being stuck in there as he was mauled by some vicious wild animal. Oh God in Heaven! What can I possibly do?! She thought.
What she heard next terrified her beyond all comprehension, she felt her mouth turn dry and her heart pound.
Someone was laughing in there. She knew exactly what Clarence Wilkerson's laugh sounded like, everyone did, and this could not be him. It began slow and deep, and soon erupted into a mad cackle. It was the sound of utter madness, the sound of a lunatic laughing at the walls of his asylum cell.
Carla screamed and the maniacal cackling became louder. The pounding on the door began again, each pound cracked the frame of the door jamb a little bit more.
Carla turned and ran out the front door. When she exited the house and made her way off the porch she noticed something else that scared her to her core. Over at the stables, about twenty yards from the porch, Charlotte's Dodge pickup truck was parked right next to Clarence's old Ford. She ran over to the truck and looked inside, not sure what she expected to find but still desperate for some sort of clue to tell her what was happening, and perhaps Charlotte herself would be in there, hiding from the wild animal that had somehow gotten at them. But that laughing! That was no animal!
The truck was empty, no sign of Charlotte anywhere. Carla leaned forward and rested her forehead on the driver’s side window and began to cry as she began to accept the obvious fact that everything was not going to fine and her sister in law had not ran into town for dinner. She wondered if Dennis and they might have heard her screams. Of course not, she thought, not once they were inside that big old house way up the hill. No way had they heard. I need to get back up there to them.
It would be faster for her to just get in Charlotte's truck and drive up to the ranch house. All she had to do was take the side road that went from the other side of Clarence house up to where it connected to the main driveway right before the entrance gate. She could make it back up to the house in just about a minute or two and run right in to Dennis and make him call for help. Then she remembered her cell phone. She pulled her phone out and dialed 911. Only silence came out from the phone. She pulled the phone back from her face and saw that she had no service. This was typical for this part of the ranch, it was nearly impossible to get a signal down in the valley. She tossed the phone aside and turned the key in the truck's ignition.
The truck would not start, it didn't even turn over when she turned the key, completely dead.
She was going to have to run. She assumed that the truck was tampered with by whatever thing had gotten at Clarence and, she assumed with wrenching grief, her sister in law. Perhaps the battery cables were disconnected or the starter had been sabotaged, but she didn't exactly have time to check under the hood and fix the situation. Clarence was standing right there on the porch, his head pointed down like when she'd seen him through the window standing over his sink. She opened the driver’s side door and stepped back out of the pickup.
She saw that he did in fact have his overalls on but she could see why she had thought he was shirtless from afar. The skin on his body has gone completely pale, and those strange, blue veins snaked their way up and down his arms and torso. His skin had bloated out in many places, causing him to have a grotesque, lump appearance. His overalls were connected by just one shoulder strap, and his skin looked as if it was growing over the strap.
He was just standing there, looking at the ground, kind of swaying back and forth as if he were drunk. A thick, slimy phlegm was dripping down from his face and collecting on the wood of the porch by his feet.
"Clarence?" she whispered, not sure if she meant to get his attention or if she was asking if that's who he was.
She noticed the puddle of drool at his feet was thick and black, with streaks of grey swirling through it like mercury. It was eating through the porch.
"Oh. Sweet, Jesus!" Carla cried out.
"Jee...ee...sus,” Clarence said back to her in a voice that sounded not his own. Sounded inhuman! It was the sound
of something gargling out words through a throat filled with dirt and wet mud. His head continued to shake back and forth, his face toward the dirt.
Very slowly, he raised his head. His eyes had gone completely white, like a blind man's eyes. But Carla could tell he was not blind, he was looking right at her. His head cocked to the side and a quick, jerking motion and then snapped back in the other direction. He snarled at her as his mouth twisted around into a disturbing, sadistic looking grin.
"Jesus," He repeated as black ooze continued to drip from his mouth as he made a loud hissing sound, exposing his teeth. My God! His teeth! Clarence's teeth were all pointed like they had been filed. He stuck his tongue out, it was long and black and writhed around like it was a snake hanging from a branch.
Carla felt her sanity fragmenting and cracking at the sight she was witnessing. The human brain can only take so much, when seeing something that you know cannot be real but is most definitely happening, it can simply be too much to process. She knew that if she broke down into hysterics she stood no chance. She forced herself to hold it together just long enough to escape, then she could deal with her sanity when she was away from this terrible threat.
She darted off toward the path, hoping that this strange Clarence thing would just stand there drooling as she sprinted her way back to the house. No such luck.
As soon as she broke into a run it was on her.
It moved so fast she didn’t even have time to scream before it grabbed her by the right shoulder and spun her around, his ghostly white eyes staring directly into her. It raised it's free hand, each finger was tipped with long, curved talon like claws. It slashed its clawed hand across Carla's face, sending a spray of blood across its face and onto the grass. Across her face three long gashes opened up and the blood swelled at the surface of each wound for a split second before pouring out in red torrents. A fourth gash had slashed across her throat just deep enough to make her gurgle up blood, not deep enough to be fatal but just enough to silence the scream that Carla tried her best to emit in the seconds after her brain adjusted to the shock of her maiming. The Clarence creature just held her and made that sadistic laughing noise as it watched her squirming and thrashing in the air, and then it simply dropped her to the ground and watched her try to crawl away, clutching her throat she gargled blood out of her mouth.
Becoming the Gateway Page 7