Clowders

by Vanessa Morgan

  The Tengu found its way through the crowd. All around it, people backed away. All eyes were drawn to it. A ghostly sight.

  Georges came up to them and pulled Eleonore away from Jess. Several other people, whom Jess recognized as neighbors, grabbed her little girl.

  He held Jess tightly with her hands around her back so she wouldn't be able to move.

  The Tengu came ever closer, the flickering lights casting a grotesque shadow on the pale walls of the houses surrounding the main square. Jess kicked her legs at the oncoming horror, trying to scare it away with her screams. She tried to free her arms, but her strength failed her. Georges wouldn't let go. The harder she pulled, the firmer he held onto her.

  Apart from the tourists, all the locals fell to their knees. They threw themselves at her feet, their hands and faces down, as if they were at prayer, hoping for mercy. The visitors first looked uncomprehendingly around them and then did the same.

  The Tengu was now only an inch away from Jess' face. It looked straight into her eyes.

  Jess' breath caught. She stared at the demon that was leering at her.

  “Please spare my daughter. It wasn't her fault,” Jess said helplessly. A tear slid down her face. “She's innocent. Like your cat was innocent.”

  The Tengu's mouth twisted, baring its fangs.

  Then it turned its head toward Eleonore. It looked back at Jess, then at her daughter again.

  Eleonore screamed her lungs out as the hideous creature approached.

  Like a vampire who was getting ready to bite, the Tengu canted its head to the side, its chin upward, its mouth giving it a perpetual smile.

  As it planted its long teeth in Eleonore's neck, a silence descended upon the town square. Would the tourists realize this was all real?

  The people got up. Troubled looks turned into smiles, and everyone began to cheer.

  Before the Tengu dragged Eleonore into the forest, she heard one of the townspeople say: “That's number seven. Now the wife and the husband, and she's done.”

  ***

  Officers Chadov and Debaillie pulled Jess away from the main square. They tied her hands with a rope before putting her in the back of the police car and then driving her into the forest. Once they were far enough from prying eyes, they dragged her into the thicket, taking her to a place where no one would ever look for her.

  She had no idea what these men were doing or what they were planning. She kept her eye open for Eleonore, but her daughter was nowhere to be seen. Jess could only hope her little girl would still be alive by the time she got out of there.

  Before she could think anything else, the two men picked her up and planted her on top of a scaffold, fastening a rope around her neck and arms.

  “Nothing personal,” Officer Debaillie whispered. “We prefer it to be you instead of us.”

  Were they going to hang her?

  No! It couldn't be.

  She wasn't ready to die. Not here. Not in this town. Not without her husband and her daughter by her side.

  Jess' breath hitched in her throat. Dread coiled itself around her belly. The fear left a burning sensation in her windpipe, but at the same time she felt resignation. She knew the terror that awaited her, and she couldn't do anything to stop it. Although she was afraid, she also felt numb, as if her own body had given her a tranquilizer so she could deal with the fear.

  “You're in her hands now,” Officer Debaillie said. “You're at fate's doorstep. You can only hope your death will be fast.”

  Then the two officers disappeared from sight, leaving Jess alone in the depths of the forest.

  CHAPTER 24

  Aidan wanted to park the car near the apartment, but because of the carnival, all the spaces were occupied. After a lot of searching, he found a spot near the edge of the forest, about a ten-minute walk from their home.

  He ran toward their apartment, not wanting to lose a single second, hoping that the Tengu didn't get there before him.

  When Aidan entered, there was a long, dead silence. Were Jess and Eleonore even home?

  Something wasn't right. Aidan nearly laughed when he realized it. It wasn't so much that the apartment was empty. It reminded him of his grandmother's house after she'd passed away. Though it still contained her belongings, it felt as if the place wasn't hers anymore. And now his own apartment felt as if it didn't belong to Jess and Eleonore. They could have gone to the cat fair, but his intuition told him they weren't coming home.

  He took his phone from the interior pocket of his jacket to call Jess and noticed she had left a message. He called his voice box to listen.

  The message came as a shock to him.

  Jess couldn't mean that, could she?

  Could she really have taken the train and left him behind? And that tone – she had never spoken to him that way before.

  Aidan called her, but she didn't pick up. He left a message to ask where he could find them, if they were still near the castle, and to say that he was ready to leave if they were.

  It only took Aidan a few seconds to get back outside and look for them in the town. Clervaux was minuscule. If Jess and Eleonore were still there, they'd probably bump into each other soon.

  Except for the cats, the small alleys of Clervaux looked deserted. Everyone had assembled on the town square or in the commercial streets for the festivities.

  Once in a while, a resident peeked out from behind closed curtains. Some made the gesture of a cross when they saw him before hiding again.

  Anxiety bubbled up as a vibration that resonated deep inside him. At first, he tried to ignore the strange feeling by admitting to himself that it was evident that something was wrong – people here were dangerous.

  But it was something else, something subtler, and the more he tried to ignore it, the more it destabilized him.

  He took a deep breath. Then he continued to walk down the alley that led toward the castle.

  This alley wasn't as deserted as he first thought.

  A noise.

  Footsteps.

  From a side street emerged a male figure wearing a white, plastic cat mask with chartreuse green eyes. The mask was so smooth it looked sinister.

  The figure came ever closer.

  And closer.

  Aidan's heart pounded in his throat, and an anxious wail emerged.

  With trembling legs, he took a few steps backward. What did it want from him? He wanted to run away – away from the chilling face.

  The figure passed.

  It was probably a tourist taking the cat theme too seriously.

  Nevertheless, the vague fear continued to invade his mind. Did he somehow feel the real monster lurking within reach?

  He arrived at the castle and found his way through the crowd, shouting his wife and daughter's names. The only ones who reacted were the townspeople with expressions that flitted between pity and anger. The tourists, on the other hand, didn't react to his presence.

  He passed Georges who was probably on his way back to the bakery.

  “Georges, have you seen my wife and daughter?” Aidan tried to keep the panic out of his voice but wasn't very effective in doing so.

  “They're gone,” Georges said.

  “What do you mean?”

  Georges lifted his shoulders in a shrug, but it looked like he knew more.

  Aidan wanted to ask where he'd seen them last, but Georges had already disappeared into the crowd.

  He tried to call Jess again. Still nothing.

  He checked out the town once more, but it was to no avail. The uncomfortable feelings became stronger with each step he took and turned into raw fear. A sob tore itself out of Aidan's heart, punching through his chest at the thought of having lost them.

  Then, in the middle of the marketplace, he found a small puddle of blood. Drips trailed toward the forest like scarlet breadcrumbs.

  Dusk would soon be setting in. If Aidan were to go into the forest, he would never find Jess and Eleonore without a flashlight. He bought on
e in the supermarket and followed the trail leading uphill.

  The sun was setting faster than he had anticipated, and the pale purple grew dark around the edges. Occasionally, strange sounds erupted from the depths of the forest, enhancing the threat.

  “Jess? Eleonore?” Aidan yelled into the wind but he received no reply.

  Aidan looked around and picked up the pace as he continued up the road toward the top of the hill. He was out of breath. Perspiration dotted his forehead. Side stitches stabbed through his right side and spread out toward the tip of his shoulder, making it harder to go on. Despite the pain, he had to keep walking. It was the only way to find them.

  The farther Aidan walked, the more disoriented he became. He swore he was passing the same landmarks. Even by car, the roads and paths around Clervaux made you go in circles, even though you thought you were going straight.

  In the far distance, he could hear the hustle and bustle of the carnival's festivities. They were a comforting reminder that he wasn't as far from civilization as he felt. But the sounds faded fast, and less than five minutes later, the forest had become deadly silent.

  Aidan turned in a circle, his gaze scanning the forest. For half a second, he couldn't remember which way he had come. But eventually regaining his bearings, he continued onward, even when the well-worn trail became nothing but a meandering line of stomped-down earth. He knew that if he were lost, he'd stay lost whether he kept going forward or tried to go back. And if he weren't lost, he'd eventually come across what he was seeking. His instinct assured him that the second thought was correct, to disregard the first. And so he kept going because there was nothing left to do.

  Yet he didn't find what he was looking for. Setting eyes on something that belonged to Jess and Eleonore would have meant hope, but finding nothing was the worst. He wasn't even sure the trail of blood belonged to one of them. Right now, though, it was the only thing he could hold onto.

  By the time he reached the nearest town, he knew it was time to return. Whatever the Tengu was, it belonged to Clervaux, and it would never leave or take its victims out of there. And if Jess and Eleonore had taken the train, they would be far away by now. This time, the thought of Jess having left him sounded appealing because it meant they'd be safe.

  He whipped around and began to descend, taking the path that led in the other direction.

  There was a rustling in the bushes.

  Aidan stared at the place from where the sound had emerged. Something moved inside the juniper bushes that lined the muddy road.

  An orange-striped cat skittered away as he approached. Another cat, a tawny white one, sat on a branch above and stared at him with shimmering, predator eyes. The animal filled Aidan with intense feelings of impending doom similar to the ones he had felt earlier that day. He assumed it meant that the Tengu was nearby, but he couldn't be sure. Chewing on his upper lip, he scanned the trunks and branches ahead of him, waiting for the monster to launch itself at him before he could defend himself.

  He hastened his step, driven by this sudden sense of urgency. His feet slipped on the steep decline, which was spongy with moss and waterlogged leaves. He had a hard time retrieving his balance.

  More and more cats prowled beyond the tree line, their shadows seemingly more active than ever. Where did they all come from? It made him nervous because he knew what these animals sneaking up to him represented. The possibility of an ambush made his hair follicles tingle. One thing he knew for sure was that something very unnerving was about to happen.

  He accelerated his step, walking faster down the path that led toward the town. The trees whizzed by him. As he twisted mid-run, casting a wild-eyed look over his shoulder, he was sure he'd seen something.

  The farther Aidan went down the path, the more cats he saw, lined up like soldiers beyond the trees, still hidden by branches as if afraid to come into full view.

  Then his eyes snagged on something swaying in the forest.

  His eyes opened wide, only to shut tightly a second later. He couldn't help the scream that punched its way out of his lungs.

  Jess' name came from his lips. He didn't want to believe what his eyes told him. With shaking legs, Aidan took a few steps forward and put his hands in front of his mouth.

  Jess hung from the thick branch of a tree, her pale green dress glazing eerily in the waning light from his torch. Her hands were tied behind her back and she had been suspended with a piece of hemp rope. Jess' feet dangled above the muddy floor, her toes pointing downward. Aidan suspected the fall hadn't broken her neck. Instead, Jess must have suffered a slow, painful death. She must have been aware of every passing, terrifying second. Her head hung face down, her eyes half open and glassy. She wasn't mutilated, not even visibly harmed, which gave her face an uncanny flawlessness as if her eyes could open at any time. Traces of tears were still visible, so whoever did this couldn't have gone far.

  But the worst part was the cats.

  Dozens of them…

  The animals were all heading in one direction, and with one aim in mind. They were crawling toward Jess, onto Jess, scrambling up her legs, arms, and torso, right to the top of her as if they were climbing a curtain. Some clung to her body, while others held guard on the branches above, claiming Jess as their victim.

  Within seconds, they were all over her – an impenetrable mass, getting closer and darker still, like a living shroud.

  Aidan hesitated. His mind scrambled for solutions. He could turn around and run away. But then he thought about how Jess might still be alive, however small that chance, and with a shock, he started moving again. The only option was taking responsibility.

  He ran toward his wife, pulled the cats off her, but each time, they pinned themselves onto her body again. He grabbed the rope around Jess' neck and started to untie it.

  Beside him, Jess' head rolled sideways and her green eyes stared at him.

  For a moment, Aidan felt relieved.

  She's alive!

  But Jess didn't look at him.

  Her eyes were expressionless – a dead person's eyes.

  The relief disappeared immediately.

  Only when he took a few steps back did the realization hit him. A chill with such primal intensity overtook him that his chest felt too tight to breathe.

  ***

  After Aidan had trudged down the slope for an extra 40 minutes, he arrived back in Clervaux. He emerged right behind the hotels of the town's square, before hurrying uphill toward the police station in front of the cemetery.

  Pushing the door to the sheriff's office open, he rushed to the front counter, where an officer caressed his cat. Aidan recognized the man. It was the grumpy Mr. Debaillie who had hit him during his first day at work. His cat, Mixor, was still alive, though he looked as scrawny as a mouse.

  Officer Chadov was there as well. He sat at his desk in the office behind the front counter.

  “Can I help you?” Officer Debaillie asked, sitting straighter.

  It was only when Aidan spoke that he realized how out of breath he was. “My daughter has disappeared.” He took a breath, tried to calm himself. Now that Jess was dead, Aidan feared he might never find his little girl alive.

  The deputy regarded him calmly. “May I see some identification, please?”

  Aidan pulled out an ID and handed it to him. “I, uh, I also found my wife, Jess. She has been killed, in the forest.” His words just barely leaked out of him. “I can't explain where she is, but I'm sure I can find it by walking.”

  The deputy arched a brow over one eye. “What were you doing in the forest?”

  “Looking for my wife and daughter.”

  “Why would they be in the forest when there's a carnival going on?”

  “I don't know.” Aidan didn't know what to believe anymore.

  Mixor, the cat, sat on the desk, and the police officer rubbed his back for the entire length of the conversation. “Tell me what happened,” Mr. Debaillie directed. “Exactly.”

  A
idan leaned back in his chair, sucked a breath in through his nose, and explained everything.

  Officer Chadov listened in. “Are you and your wife the ones who ran over that cat last week?”

  “Yes--”

  Officer Chadov sighed and slapped his pencil down on the pad. “You do get what happened to them, don't you?”

  “Get what?” Aidan muttered. “No, it's not that easy. Something's wrong. You have to help me.”

  “I'm afraid this is beyond my help.”

  “My daughter may still be alive. I can't find her, and I know something's wrong.”

  “I know. I know what happened,” Officer Debaillie reached for his cat and picked him up, stroking him continuously.

  “Can you at least try to protect her?” Aidan pleaded.

  “I can't.”

  Aidan was growing irate, and his voice rose. He felt the heat of anger flush his features. “If you would put down your cat and come outside, I would appreciate it.”

  “What's your name again?”

  “Aidan Burns.”

  “Mr. Burns, can I level with you?”

  Aidan nodded again, and Mr. Debaillie glanced over his shoulder before proceeding. “Sooner or later, you will have to do penance, too. There's no escaping the Tengu.”

  Officer Chadov offered Aidan a faint nod.

  ***

  As soon as Aidan left the police station, the two officers looked at each other.

  “That wasn't very tactful,” Officer Chadov said.

  “I couldn't lie, could I?”

  “Sometimes hope is the best gift you can offer someone.”

  There was a moment of silence, as Officer Debaillie pondered the remark. “He'll never survive,” he said after a while. “It'll only be a couple of hours. If that much.”

  He hoped it would never happen to him and his family. He opened the top drawer from his desk and pulled out a sachet with cat treats. “I'll be good to you,” he told Mixor while feeding him treats. “I'll be good to all of you.”

  CHAPTER 25