Kachina

by Rada, J. R.

  Sheriff Harding tapped his finger on David’s chest.

  “So you say, but this a small town so I don’t have a lot of choice in suspects do I? Whether you like it or not, you’re my prime suspect. So until I find a murderer, you had better try to stay on my good side.”

  David ducked to get into his car. “Goodbye Sheriff.”

  Sheriff Harding held the door open and leaned down close to David. “If I have to, Purcell, I’ll arrest you. I’d be willing to risk a lawsuit if I thought it would keep a murderer off the street. If you’re the one, believe me, you won’t get away with it.”

  David pulled the door shut. Why had he come back? He had been safe in Oraibi. Safe from the Bow Clan and safe from the sheriff’s suspicions. Now the sheriff was probably even more convinced he had murdered Terrie, and sooner or later the Bow Clan would come for him again.

  CHAPTER 39

  In the corner furthest away from the tall doors of his immense chamber, the darkest of the dark kachinas stirred at the intrusion of light into his sanctuary. Light was forbidden. He hated the light. It was deadly. This was a place of absolute darkness. Because of the light, the twin sons of Taiowa had driven him and the other eight kachinas into the chambers that had become their prisons. And now the light was invading his chamber.

  Soon though, very soon, there would be no light to hold him a prisoner in his world. The power of Taiowa would soon fade enough that the dark kachinas would be able to venture out into Kuskurza once again. Then the dark kachinas would quickly put an end to the Sun Clan and their leader who dared call himself Ma´saw.

  The tall doors of the chamber swung inward just far enough for two Bow Clansmen to push the woman into the dark void. The darkest kachina screamed at the intrusion, and the Bow Clansman bowed quickly as they shut and sealed the huge door. The woman fell forward onto the stone floor, thrown into total darkness before she could stand.

  She curled up in a small ball on the floor and cried. The darkest kachina ignored her for the moment. Let her taste the fear that came with failure to serve the dark kachinas. She was one of the women recaptured from the Sun Clan. If she would not bear children for the Bow Clan, then she would not bear children; she would not live. When he hungered, he would take her.

  With the doors closed, there was no light within the chamber to harm him in the slightest. It was as it should be once again. There should be no light in Kuskurza. It was needed only by the weak Outlanders. It was their shield, their protection, against the power of the dark kachinas. By bringing the sun into Kuskurza, the twin sons of Taiowa had imprisoned the dark kachinas within their temples for as long as the light was bright enough to keep them inside the temples. Even the weak light of Kuskurza could still hurt the dark kachinas, though it would not destroy them as it once would have. While the twins had imprisoned their essence, they could not imprison their thoughts. Though the dark kachinas could not sense anything within Kuskurza because of the cursed light, they could sense movement in the dark passages that lead to the Fourth World.

  The dark kachinas had sought out the minds of those who were trapped in Kuskurza with them and commanded the people to rebuild Kuskurza once the flood waters had receded. From the handful of remaining Bow Clansmen, the dark kachinas had rebuilt their world. The weakest of the Bow Clan became slaves who performed the labors, and the stronger Bow Clansmen became the private guard of the dark kachinas and kept light away from the dark kachinas and the Sun Clan away from the Fourth World.

  But even the Bow Clan had not been able to stop the Sun Clan from being reborn in Kuskurza. The original Ma´saw had planted his seed of rebellion among the slaves and it had multiplied though the dark kachinas had commanded that the slaves be made sterile. Now that David and the Sun Clan had freed most of the women, the Sun Clan might be able to breed them in the same way the dark kachinas had. Controlling the slaves would become nearly impossible. The Sun Clan might eventually even outnumber the Bow Clan.

  The darkest kachina yelled at his frustration at not being able to end Ma´saw’s control over the Sun Clan. The woman lying on the floor screamed at the sound and covered her ears. She could not see the darkest kachina in the darkness, but she would be his to take when he wanted.

  The darkest kachina started forward and circled the woman waiting for her to sense his presence. She suddenly sat up and looked all around herself. He reached out to touch her face; to let the shadows touch her.

  She screamed at his touch and scurried away from him. He smiled and moved forward again. Better to let her wonder what would happen next.

  He stopped. Someone was in the caves. He could sense their presence as they chased away the darkness with their lights. They were still near the surface and not at all close to Kuskurza, but they were in the correct passage. They had entered the chasm and they might follow it to its end.

  How had the Sun Clan gotten so far away from Kuskurza without the dark kachinas sensing them before now? No one had ever gotten this far from Kuskurza without the dark kachinas’ knowledge. The darkest kachina paused and re-evaluated his information. His sense of the intruder was weak because their distance from Kuskurza, but he decided the intruder he sensed were not of the Sun Clan. This was an Outlander. No, it was a group of Outlanders.

  To´chi and Kel´hoya had failed to kill Pahana before he told other Outlanders of what lay below the surface. The darkest kachina had known they would fail, of course, but he had to send them after Pahana just the same. His vision was vague, at best, in predicting the future, and they might have succeeded.

  He contacted the other eight dark kachinas with his thoughts.

  Do you sense them? he asked in his thoughts.

  There are three that have found the passage.

  I think I sense one other on the far side of the passage, as well, thought another.

  Yes, one dark kachina agreed. There are four.

  They are leaving. Perhaps we should let them go. They have found nothing. It will be four cycles before the Bow Clan can reach the blockage. The Outlanders will be gone by then.

  But they will return. Send the Bow Clan quickly before the Outlanders return in greater numbers. We cannot risk more contact being made between the Outlanders and the Sun Clan. Such contact nearly destroyed us before when Pahana rallied them. We cannot allow it to do so this time.

  Kill them all, another thought.

  Kill them all, they all agreed as they sent the command to the Bow Clan.

  The darkest kachina retreated back into his own thoughts hungry from his exertion. The woman’s smell seemed stronger now in the midst of his hunger. He moved to her side and surrounded her. She screamed and tried to run, but he made the darkness around her solid and gave her no path to escape. She screamed and flung her arm ineffectually in the darkness. The darkest kachina watched the display with mild amusement, then he pressed in on her until her screams stopped and his appetite was quenched.

  CHAPTER 40

  The further the sun sunk below the horizon, the deeper David’s stomach seemed to sink. Much further and he would be wearing it for a shoe. David was glad his parents had left for Provo a little after seven o’clock while the sun was still up. If his mother had seen how shaky he was now, she would have insisted on staying, and that would have been a mistake. He must not endanger anyone else.

  David turned on the television so that he wouldn’t have to sit alone in his apartment and wait for the night to creep up on him. By the time the late news came on at ten o’clock, he was getting sleepy. The five cups of soda he drank weren’t helping to keep him awake, but they were weighing heavily on his bladder.

  He had a choice. He could continue to sit on the couch and fall asleep, or he could get up, do his business, and go to bed. It wasn’t a hard choice to make. His bladder hurt.

  Why didn’t you let your mother stay? he asked himself as he passed by the mirror over the sink in the bathroom.

  He ignored the question and sat down.

  She was only trying to h
elp, you know, and you nearly bit her head off. A fine son you are.

  “It’s too dangerous for her to be here,” David mumbled to himself.

  Dangerous? If it’s so dangerous, why are you here? You’re no hero. Besides you don’t even know if you were seeing through someone else’s eyes. You’re taking Sarah’s word for it and letting your imagination fill in the rest. You’ve never been psychic before. Does falling in a deep hole suddenly make you a god?

  “I know what I saw.”

  David left the bathroom and crossed the hall into his bedroom. He fell backwards onto his bed. This would be only the third night in over six weeks he slept in his own bed.

  Why did he think it was dangerous for his mother to be here, but not him? But he did think it was dangerous for him. However, he had no place he could run to escape the danger. If he was somehow psychically connected with one of the Bow Clan, and apparently he was, the Bow Clansman would find him wherever he went. David could even be tracked to Oraibi. It might take some time, but if the Bow Clansman was determined, he would find David. His mother and father could leave and they would be safe. He couldn’t. There was no place to hide so he might as well be comfortable.

  David rolled onto his side and switched off the lamp on his nightstand. He regretted his move almost immediately. The darkness that flooded over the room reminded him too much of the cave. He started to turn the lamp back on, but he stopped himself. He couldn’t give into his fear. He was acting like a five-year-old child. There was nothing to be afraid of. There were no monsters in his closet waiting for the lights to be turned off.

  He laid back on his pillows and tried to relax. It took over an hour, but gradually the tenseness did fade from his muscles and he fell asleep. It was far from a restful sleep, though. He was too afraid that he would see another murder in his dreams.

  Instead, he saw something else.

  In his dream, he was alone again and walking in the dark. He thought he must be in the cave, but it was only a dream version of the cave he had fallen into he reminded himself.

  He was lost.

  Had he heard something? David waited wondering if he would hear it again.

  He did. Far off to his right. Or was it behind him? He couldn’t tell with the echo. It sounded like a rock striking another rock.

  What had caused it?

  He waited to see if it would happen again. It did. Only this time he thought it sounded slightly closer.

  He had heard stories about the type of animals that lived in caves. Blood-sucking bats. Bears with claws three inches long. Snakes as thick as his arm. It could be any one of those things.

  Or it could be something else.

  What was he hearing? A bat or a snake wouldn’t knock over rocks, and he didn’t think a bear would venture this far back into a cave. That left the something else. Another dying man like the pale man he had seen earlier?

  Where was his father?

  The temperature in the cave was cool, but he was sweating. David wiped away the sweat that had beaded up on his forehead with the back of his hand.

  Something was out there, and it was moving closer to him.

  David turned and moved in the opposite direction hoping to get away from whatever was out there. If he could get far enough away, whatever it was might pass him by. It had to be just as blind in the cave as he was.

  His hand slid into a crevice in the wall hoping it was a way out. It was only a foot wide and maybe five feet high. He shoved his hand back into it. His fingers touched rock about two feet in.

  What if he hid himself in the crevice? Would it do any good or could whatever was making the noise sense him in a way David didn’t realize? He heard a scratching sound a few yards behind him and made his decision.

  David bent his knees slightly and slid sideways into the crevice. He kept his eyes open and staring out into the cave. He didn’t know why he was doing it. He certainly couldn’t see anything. Even when he held his hand up in front of his face, David couldn’t see it. It was just too dark.

  He tried to slow his breathing so he wouldn’t make so much noise. He wanted whatever was out there to pass him by. Whatever it was, David was sure it wasn’t friendly.

  There was no sound at all in the cave for two minutes, then he heard something scraping along the wall of the cave. Closer. It was definitely closer. But how could it be following him? Did it smell him? Was it an animal like a wolf or coyote with an acute sense of smell?

  He wanted to scream. He wanted to yell as loud as he could and run for the exit. But which way was the exit? And how fast was whatever was out there? David bit his tongue and waited.

  David saw the beam of light first and thought it was someone from his troop who had found him. Just as he was about to call out, he saw the pale man behind the light. The man almost seemed to glow in the dark. The pale man turned and his light fell upon David.

  The man moved closer.

  David pawed in his pockets hoping to find something that would help him. A compass, a kerchief, his canteen. He didn’t have anything he could use. Wasn’t a Boy Scout always supposed to be prepared? David was going to have to tell them they needed to come up with a GetAway-Monster Spray.

  David found a whistle and blew it as loudly as he could. The shrill sound echoed through the caverns and the pale man grabbed his ears. When the sound died away, the man came at David again. David blew the whistle. Not surprised, this time the man kept coming.

  David shined his flashlight in the man’s eyes. The pale man blinked but kept coming. He yelled and charged David.

  Instinctively, David raised his hands to protect himself. With his hands, came his walking stick he had been using on the hike. The pale man impaled himself on the end of the wooden stick.

  The pale man screamed.

  David screamed.

  David sat straight up in his bed. As he did, he pulled a muscle in his lower back. He was so frightened, though, that he wouldn’t notice it until later in the morning.

  The first thought that went through his mind was that he was still dreaming. He was still twelve-years old and lost in the dark. He realized he was clutching his blanket and not the crevices of a cave wall. And he could see shapes. His bed. The window. The bureau. And...

  He couldn’t place the shape against the wall off to his right. It wasn’t furniture. That area of his wall should have been bare.

  The shadow moved.

  David rolled onto his side and reached for his lamp. He switched it on and washed the room in one-hundred-watt light.

  The shadow disappeared.

  Had it even been there? David wondered if his imagination had gone into overdrive. He leaned back against the headboard and sighed. It was because of his amnesia. Something was wrong with his mind. His mind was making him see things that weren’t there and believe things that weren’t true. Until he was able to remember what had happened to him in the cave - both times - he would never be normal. He hoped that when he remembered his time in the caves, he would somehow learn whose eyes he was seeing through.

  David threw back his top sheet and swung his feet over the floor. He hesitated just before his feet touched the floor.

  Boogeymen under the bed?

  Now he knew he was in trouble. He was imagining the same things a child imagined. He chuckled nervously and set his feet on the floor. The cold floor shocked him.

  Nothing else happened.

  He walked into the living room and made sure the front door was locked. To be certain it would stay locked, he flipped the deadbolt down, which was something he rarely did. Before he went back to his bedroom, he also made sure his patio door was locked and the charlie bar was down.

  Hobbling back into his bedroom, David closed and locked the door behind himself, again something he had never done before. Since he lived alone in the apartment, there had never been any need.

  Even with the precautions he had taken, he still felt he needed to do something more. What could he do though against someone who cou
ld read his thoughts?

  He climbed back in his bed without turning off the lights this time. If he woke up, he wanted to know where he was immediately.

  David had nearly fallen asleep when he heard something scratching at his window. He rolled onto his side and looked at the window. With his lamp on, his window was a mirror of the room. He couldn’t see outside.

  The scratching stopped, and David continued to stare outside. He couldn’t get over the fact that something was watching him from outside the window. He might have turned off the light so that he could see whether he was right or not, but he was too afraid to be in the dark.

  He was too afraid of what he might see outside the window. David laid back in the bed.

  His window shattered inward spraying glass over David. The remaining Bow Clansman flew through the hole on his feathered-hide saucer. David had almost no time to react, but his Army Reserve training had taught him how to react quickly. Though startled by what he was seeing, he threw his blanket at his attacker and rolled out of his bed.

  He hit the floor on his knees and scrambled for his closed bedroom door. The Bow Clansman threw off the blanket and flew toward David. David grabbed the lamp on the bureau next to the door and threw it as hard as he could. It hit the pale-skinned man and he tumbled from the saucer. The saucer dropped like a rock to the floor.

  David opened the door and slipped out shutting it behind him. He grabbed his wallet and keys from his dining room table and ran out of his apartment.

  As he climbed into his car, he saw the Bow Clansman fly out his bedroom window on the saucer. The Bow Clansman dived at him as he climbed into the Corolla. David pressed in on the horn and held it. The loud noise startled the Bow Clansman and his shield plummeted to the ground. The Bow Clansman hit the ground and rolled. David hoped he was knocked out, but the man rolled into a squatting position and scrambled for his saucer.