by Aubert, Remi
"Shaney, we need to leave now." She slowly approached her sister. She held out one hand.
"Let's go, Shaney. We can't be here." She reached out to take her sister's hand from her face.
"Gail," she heard Pip say in a quivering voice. "We need to hurry. They're... They're getting nearer." He began tugging at Gail's sleeve.
"C'mon, Shaney." She held Shaney's hand and tried to pull her to stand up. As soon as she could see Shaney's face, she noticed that her sister was grinning, but Gail didn't think too deeply on it. Her priority was to leave at once and find some place to hide until they could find a way to escape or look for the sheriff again.
She pulled Shaney to her feet.
"Grab her hand, Pip!" she cried out. They both began to pull Shaney by the hands and got her to stumble forward. She and Pip hobbled down the porch and continued to drag Shaney. Her eyes were blank stares, but the grin on her face remained. It was starting to bother Gail. She slid her hands underneath Shaney's legs and began to carry her in her arms and for once, she felt a horrible gratitude that her sister was thin and light.
Despite this, her body felt powerful as adrenaline flooded her veins and helped her to run toward their home. She couldn't think of anywhere else to go.
Lock ourselves in, her thoughts began to race. Get Pa's rifle. Lock ourselves in. Get Pa's rifle. Lock ourselves in...
"Ah! There she is!" she could hear someone from afar shout. It sounded like Mr. McLaw, but she didn't care enough to want to find out.
Lock ourselves in. Get Pa's rifle. her mind continued to scream.
Pip tripped and fell on the ground. She stopped, but only for a second to say, "Hurry!", before she continued to run. She heard Camille's blood curdling scream coming from the crowd.
When they finally reached the front door, she placed Shaney on the ground and fumbled for the key, which she wore on a necklace and kept underneath her shirt. Her hands trembled as she tried several times to insert the key into the keyhole.
She could hear herself blubbering in panic when she finally got it in. She twisted the key, turned the knob, and pushed herself into their house.
As soon as she got in, she heard Pip scream.
"GAIL!" Pip was holding onto Shaney, who was trying to run toward the crowd. He could barely hold on to her, as he was so much smaller and even thinner.
She ran toward them and wrapped her arms around Shaney's waist then she lifted her kicking and screaming sister and quickly carried her into their house. Pip quickly followed. When they got inside the house, Pip slammed the door shut.
Gail placed Shaney, who had calmed down, on the ground. She secured the bolts on the door.
"We're going up to the attic," she quickly told Pip. "They can't get up there easily." She turned and grabbed Shaney by the hand. She raced up the stairs to the second floor, Pip following close behind her. She then opened a closet door and stepped inside. It was very dark, but she knew her way around easily. She pulled at a rope that was hanging from the ceiling and it brought down the pull-down stairs that led to the attic.
"C'mon!" she barked as she pushed Shaney to climb up. Her sister simply clambered up without resistance.
"You're next, Pip!" she said as she pushed Pip up the stairs as well. She could hear the noise of the crowd coming closer to their front yard.
As soon as the two were up there, she pushed the stairs back up again.
"But what about you?" Pip cried out.
"I have to get Pa's rifle," Gail replied in a hurried voice. "Watch over Shaney." She swung the rope up toward Pip, who hurriedly caught it.
"Call out so I push the stairs down again." Pip said right before the hatch was shut.
She ran out of the closet, closing the door behind her, then rushed to her father's room.
Pa's rifle, which was usually hung on pegs right above the door frame inside the room, was not where it should be. She only had the moonlight coming in through the windows as she frantically started searching for the rifle.
CRASH! CRASH!
She could hear the windows from downstairs being smashed, and the door being struck violently by what sounded like a log.
"Open up, kids!" She heard Mr. Stammer cry out. "We're not going to bite!"
Gail tried not to be distracted by the noise as she began to search for the rifle. After she checked the bureau drawers and ran her hands across the shelves, she realized that her pa must have placed it underneath the bed.
She lay flat on her stomach next to the bed and slid her arm underneath. She began to feel around, when she felt the cold barrel of her pa's hunting rifle. Quickly, she pulled it out and checked to see if it was loaded. Her pa had taught her how to use it once, and she hoped that she won't miss if she had to use it.
As quickly as she could, she ran out of the bedroom and toward the closet door just as she heard their front door give in to the crowd's incessant banging. She heard them walk into their hallway as she slid as quietly as she could back into the closet. She locked the closet door from inside and willed herself to be still. It was pitch dark.
Stay calm now, Gail, she thought.
But she didn't know what else to do.
She was trapped.
Chapter 7 - Moonshine
Gail couldn't call to Pip to get him to push the stairs down, so she simply sat on the bare floor and pointed the rifle at the closet door.
Anything that comes through, just shoot it, she thought to herself.
She began to listen to the group of people moving about outside. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs, doors being opened and shut, and some furniture being turned over. Some of the people were chuckling and bantering, and one of them was whistling an old tune.
Sweat trickled down the side of Gail's face as she concentrated on keeping the rifle steady. She inhaled and exhaled slowly and as quietly as she could, afraid her mere breath could draw their attention.
Then, she heard someone trying to open the closet door.
"Ooh, I think someone's in here!" It was a young woman's voice.
She braced herself to shoot as soon as the door opened.
But she never got the chance because at that instant, she heard a commotion coming from outside. The person who was trying to open the door had given up and she could hear the woman's footsteps walking away from the closet and going down the stairs.
Gail heard the sound of a moving vehicle that seemed to have entered their front yard. She heard some men shouting, then several gunshots. Her heart skipped a beat as she heard Sheriff Farce's voice.
"Get back! Get back all a' yeh!"
More gunshots. It sounded like three or more guns were being fired. She wanted to come outside, but just before she made the decision, she heard the hatch that led to the attic move. A bit of light from the attic caused her to squint as she looked up.
It was Shaney.
Gail watched her push the stairs down. Her sister's eyes were wide, and Gail saw that she was grinning again.
Gail slid the strap of the rifle through her right arm and began to climb up the attic stairs. Shaney had gone farther back.
"Shaney, wait."
As soon as she entered the attic, she pulled up the stairs again.
The attic had round glass windows with the moonlight flooding in through them. At the far end of the attic, Gail could see Pip lying, face down, on the floor.
"Pip?" she called out softly. No response. Shaney was sitting cross-legged next to Pip. Gail felt a hard lump on her throat as soon as she saw the pool of blood surrounding Pip's thin body.
"No!" she cried. She turned Pip's dead body to face her. She could see that his eyeballs had been gouged out carelessly, and all that was left were gaping, bloody, fleshy holes.
She could barely breathe as she turned to face Shaney, who was rubbing her own eyes vigorously.
"Shaney..." she croaked. "Shaney... Why..."
Shaney stopped rubbing and stared at her. She began to grin again.
"No one leav
es..." Shaney said in a singsong voice. "No one should ever leave..." Then she lunged at Gail. Her bloodstained fingers aimed for Gail's eyes, but Gail used the butt of the rifle to push her sister back. She had aimed for Shaney's chest, but it landed on one side of her head, knocking her sister unconscious.
Gail was still sobbing and cradling her sister's head on her lap when she heard Sheriff Farce calling her name from below. She heard someone fumble with the hatch, then pull the attic stairs down. It was strangely quiet now, except for the sound of the sheriff's voice from downstairs along with his officers.
But what made her lift her head up was her pa's voice.
"Gail! Is your sister alright?"
"Pa!" she cried out. "Oh, Pa..." She then wiped her tears from her face with the back of her hand. She lifted her head to say something to her father, but when she saw her pa, she gasped.
In the moonlight, she could clearly see Pa's pale gray eyes staring at her.