by Brian Bowyer
Alicia clicked off the computer. She still had plenty of money. She decided to go somewhere nice and treat herself to breakfast.
• • •
Alicia spent the whole day away and then went home late that night.
In the living room, Alan and her mother were passed out on the sofa. Alan was drooling. Her mother still had a needle stuck in her arm.
Alicia went into the kitchen. She grabbed a pair of the disposable gloves her mother always wore when washing dishes and put them on. Then she went into their bedroom and grabbed Alan’s handgun off the nightstand.
Alicia took the gun into the living room. Alan and her mother were still asleep. She put the gun to the back of Alan’s head, pulled the trigger, and blew his brains out the front of his skull. The gunfire was deafening, but her mother never even stirred.
She took the gun into their bedroom and put it back down on the nightstand. Then she went into the bathroom and flushed the disposable gloves down the commode.
Alicia went into her bedroom. Cora was gone. Alan must have killed her before Alicia blew his brains out. There was now an orange octopus resting on the bottom of the aquarium.
Crying, she stretched out on the bed and closed her eyes. It was a long time before she fell asleep.
• • •
The next day, her mother shook her awake. “Alan’s dead,” she said. “Someone shot him in the head. The police will think it was me. Hell, it may have been me. I’m high as a kite and I don’t remember anything. We have to get out of here.”
Alicia sat up on the bed. “Where will we go?”
“My father has a cabin in the woods,” her mother said. “It’s in a very remote location about two hours upstate. He only uses it during hunting season, but he keeps the electricity on and the water running all year long. He also keeps it stocked with canned foods. I have a key. We’ll go hide out there for a while until I figure out what to do. So pack your suitcase. We’re leaving.”
Alicia said, “What all should I pack?”
“Just a few of your favorite outfits, mainly. You don’t have to take very many clothes. Alan left a briefcase full of money beneath the bed, so we’ll just buy some new clothes later on down the road. He also left a briefcase full of heroin, so I don’t have to worry about that. Don’t forget your toothbrush. Oh, and pack some books, so you don’t get bored. I know how much you love to read.”
Her mother left the room.
Alicia rose from bed and looked over at the aquarium on her desk. The octopus was dead. Most of the water had leaked from the tank and was now a puddle on the floor. Apparently the octopus had yanked out the aquarium’s drain plug sometime during the night.
Alicia got dressed. She put on the same pants that she had been wearing the past few days. The pants still had the black-cat bones in one of the pockets.
She went across the hall and brushed her teeth. She wrapped her toothbrush and the toothpaste up in a clean towel and took the towel into her bedroom. She put the towel in her suitcase, along with a few of her favorite clothes and all of her favorite books. She also packed her notebooks, a few pencils, and a couple of ink pens. Then she zipped the suitcase shut and set it down in the hallway.
Alicia went into her mother’s bedroom. Her mother was still packing her own suitcase, which was lying on her bed next to two open briefcases. One of the briefcases was full of cash; the other was full of heroin.
Alan’s handgun was still on the nightstand where Alicia had left it.
“We should take the gun,” Alicia said. “Just in case.”
“You’re right.” Her mother picked up the gun and put it in the briefcase full of heroin. She opened the nightstand, pulled out a box of bullets, and put that in the briefcase full of cash. She closed both briefcases and finished packing her suitcase.
Then they hit the road.
• • •
Two hours later, on a dirt road in the middle of a forest, the car they were riding in broke down.
“Fuck!” Alicia’s mother said. She managed to pull to the side of the road before the car completely stopped. Then she popped the hood and got out.
Moments later, she got back in. “The serpentine belt broke. We’ll have to walk the rest of the way. Fortunately, the cabin’s only about a mile or so up the road. But first, I have got to shoot up. I’m too sick to walk anywhere right now.”
She quickly prepared a syringe in the driver’s seat. Then she injected herself with heroin. Soon thereafter she had a faraway look in her eyes and was smiling dreamily. “Okay,” she said. “I’m ready.” She popped the trunk and they got out of the car.
Alicia’s mother took the handgun from the briefcase full of heroin and shoved it down in the waistband of her blue jeans. Then she grabbed her suitcase and the briefcase full of heroin. Alicia grabbed her suitcase and the briefcase full of cash. They took off walking.
It was a hot summer day. The cloudless sky was blue. The sun was blazing. They saw no signs of civilization whatsoever from the narrow dirt road while they walked through the forest.
They walked in silence for a while, and then Alicia’s mother pointed to a cabin straight ahead. “There it is.”
Several hills loomed behind the cabin, and there was a tower perched atop the tallest hill.
“What’s that tower for?” Alicia said.
Her mother shrugged. “Airplanes, probably. Or maybe cellphones. I used to date a guy whose job was to climb up those towers and change the lightbulbs.”
“Sounds like a scary job.”
“Yeah, but I think they paid him pretty good to do it.”
Soon they reached the cabin.
Alicia’s mother had a key, but she didn’t need it, because the lock on the front door had been broken. She set her suitcase down on the porch and withdrew the handgun from her waistband. “Someone broke in,” she told Alicia. “You wait here. I’ll go in first and check it out.”
She went inside. Moments later, she came back out on the porch and picked up her suitcase. “There’s no one in there,” she said. “Come on in.”
Alicia followed her mother inside.
The cabin was small, consisting of a kitchenette, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a living room that comprised the bulk of the place.
“You can have the bedroom,” Alicia’s mother said. “I’ll sleep out here in the living room.” She sat down on the couch. She prepared a syringe and injected herself with heroin. Soon thereafter, she passed out. She slept for about an hour. When she woke up, Alicia was sitting beside her, reading a book. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes,” Alicia said. “I haven’t eaten since yesterday. I thought you said your father keeps the cabin stocked with food.”
“He does.”
“There’s no food here. I already looked.”
Her mother got up and walked into the kitchenette. She looked for food, but didn’t find any. There was running water, so they would have plenty to drink. She found clean dishes, silverware, pots and pans, a can opener—even a knife set. But there was absolutely nothing to eat. “Great,” she said. “The burglars must have stolen all the food when they broke in. The nearest town’s about twenty miles back, and our car’s not going anywhere. I’ll have to call a tow truck.”
She pulled her cellphone out. The phone was dead. “Fuck! I hope I remembered to pack a goddamn charger.”
She dashed into the living room and frantically searched her suitcase, but found no charger. “Oh my god. I totally forgot to bring a charger. We are so fucked.”
“Do you think your father has one,” Alicia said, “around here somewhere in the cabin?”
Her mother shook her head. “Doubt it. I don’t even think he has a cellphone. But we can look.”
They searched the cabin. They did not find a phone charger.
Her mother prepared another syringe and injected herself with heroin. She got wasted and pretty much stayed that way.
Alicia drank plenty of water.
Several days
passed before she ate. She stopped counting at eight.
• • •
There was no TV in the cabin, but there was an old transistor radio in the living room. Her mother had kept it tuned to an FM rock station since they got there, but Alicia was sick of listening to music. One night (Alicia had no idea what day it was anymore) while her mother was passed out, Alicia switched to AM radio and began scanning the dial.
She stopped when she heard a familiar voice. She recognized it even before he said the words black-cat bones. She hadn’t seen him since he’d been yanked from the witch’s apartment, but somehow Darnell Staples was talking on the radio, rambling about black-cat bones.
And then she remembered that she had some black-cat bones in her pocket. She’d been wearing the same pants for a couple of weeks.
Dogs eat bones, Alicia thought, and so can I.
She took the bones from her pocket and ate them. Nothing in her life had ever tasted better. She could have eaten many more, but a couple of bones were better than nothing.
For dessert, she had a glass of water. Then she just sat back and listened to Darnell ramble on the radio.
“These are hard and troubled times for us all,” Darnell said, “so whatever it is you’re going through out there, just know you’re not alone. All of us are going through these hard and troubled times together. And whatever it is you’re doing to cope with all these black-cat bones, well hey, more power to you. Once upon a time, long ago, when I was young, I used to pray to God for guidance when I was lost, but it’s been a long, long time since I have prayed for anything. And I’m not going to lie to you: before I got to where I’m sitting right now, there were times when all I wanted to do was climb a clock tower with a high-powered rifle and start killing people just to put them out of their misery and despair. But I didn’t do it, and neither should you, even though I know that many of you feel the same way I used to. I’m not lost anymore, however, and hopefully, you won’t be lost for too much longer. So again, whatever it is you’re doing to cope with all these black-cat bones, brothers and sisters, more power to you.”
Alicia fell asleep on the floor in front of the radio.
• • •
She woke up more hungry than she could ever remember being. Her mother had changed the radio back to a rock station. She got up from the floor and saw that her mother was awake. Her mother was sitting upright on the couch and covered from the waist down by a thick black blanket, despite the fact that it was sweltering inside the cabin. Perhaps her mother was getting sick. Alicia knew that her mother had to be just as hungry as she was. She also knew that her mother was very high by the look in her eyes.
“There’s meat on the stove,” her mother said, “but you’ll have to cook it. You know how to cook, don’t you?”
“I know how to make French toast and scrambled eggs.”
“Meat’s no different. Just cook it over the heat until it’s done.”
Alicia cocked her head. “Where did you get the meat?”
Her mother nodded at the handgun on the coffee table. There were also a couple of bloody steak knives and a bloody butcher’s knife on the coffee table. “I killed us a big old rabbit while you were sleeping. I already ate my share. The rest is yours. Enjoy.”
Her mother stuck a needle in her arm.
Alicia went into the kitchenette. She cooked the meat and ate it. The meat was delicious.
• • •
That night, while her mother slept, Alicia switched to AM radio and listened to Darnell Staples. The radio didn’t pick up many AM stations to begin with, and the few that it did pick up were fuzzy at best, but Darnell’s voice came through so clearly that he may as well have been sitting in the cabin’s living room right beside her.
“You can hear everything in the forest,” Darnell said. “The buzzing of insects. The wings of bats. The mad howling of wolves. Occasionally those noises fall away and I can hear the more terrifying sounds that lurk beneath the normal nocturnal pandemonium. The forest whispers to me, telling me of things I never even knew existed, sharing secrets older than planet Earth itself, and I write these secrets down, as I have apparently been ordered by the cosmos to do so.”
Alicia could hear the microphone picking up the sounds of papers being shuffled around on a desk. Then Darnell started talking again.
“I will broadcast these secrets when I can, whether or not anyone is even listening to me, but writing the secrets down is the key, and I have been diligent, as were the chosen few who came before me. Their words are here in this mysterious studio with me, and I have been reading them, and I will continue to read them until I die, or until someone else comes to take my place. I’m surrounded by manuscripts stacked from the floor to the ceiling, and I’ve been busy composing my own manuscripts ever since my arrival here not too long ago. Although perhaps I shouldn’t have used the word arrival, for I didn’t simply arrive at this place. Oh no. I was literally snatched from the city by a force from another dimension and brought to this remote location in the forest.”
Alicia heard more papers being shuffled. She also heard a few drinks of liquid being swallowed. Then Darnell started talking again.
“This place is a studio full of both old and modern radio equipment. But it’s also a bunker full of canned food, weapons, and ammunition. There’s enough beer, liquor, and wine here to last several lifetimes. I don’t know who pays for the water and the electricity, and I don’t suppose I need to know. Maybe no one pays for it. Maybe it’s just here and always will be. Who knows? Not me. Not yet, anyway. But the forest tells me secrets, and I’m listening. I’m also signing off for now. I have work to do. If you’re listening, keep on doing whatever it is you have to do to cope with all the madness and the black-cat bones.”
Alicia switched the radio back to an FM station and fell asleep.
• • •
Sunlight through the window woke her up. Hungry, Alicia rose from the floor and stretched.
Her mother was already awake, sitting on the couch with the blanket over her legs. She looked awful. She also looked incredibly high. “There’s some more meat on the stove. Just needs to be cooked. I killed us another rabbit while you were sleeping.”
Her mother stuck a needle in her arm.
Alicia cooked the meat and ate it.
• • •
Alicia spent the day reading. Her mother spent the day injecting herself with heroin. Her mother drifted in and out of consciousness like she always did, but Alicia was worried about her mother. Her mother’s health had obviously deteriorated the past few days, and now she looked like she was dying. When she finally staggered into the bathroom several hours after nightfall (shivering despite the heat and wrapped in the black blanket), it was the first time Alicia had seen her rise from the couch in a couple of days. Then her mother staggered back to the couch, injected herself with heroin, and passed out.
Alicia switched to AM radio and listened to Darnell Staples.
“I haven’t been here long,” Darnell said. “It’s early in my mission, and I’m excited by the things that I’ve discovered here. When I first got here, and started flipping through some of the manuscripts that surround me, I noticed that many of the dates went back several hundred years, and I realized that this was not just a broadcast booth, but a library of arcane knowledge and antiquated information far beyond my prior imagination. I’m talking about highly advanced learning. Mind-bending mathematics and quantum physics combined with previously unknown history and a shocking understanding of magic and inter-dimensional travel.”
Alicia heard some papers being shuffled around.
“I speak,” Darnell said, “of some of the things that I have read in these manuscripts, but I also speak of what the forest has whispered to me. I’m talking about gods and monsters. I’m talking about creation and eternal life. And we most certainly were created, by the way. We didn’t just emerge from some primordial soup and evolve into what we are today. Oh no. We were created through
true magic, and tiny sparks of that true magic reside within us all. In some of us more than others, certainly, but it resides within us all nevertheless.”
Alicia heard Darnell swallow a drink of liquid.
“We don’t even know what we’re capable of,” Darnell said. “We built the pyramids thousands of years ago, and we still don’t know how the hell we did it. And we most certainly were not created to live our entire lives as blind and as ignorant as insects. Oh no. And so the work must go on, and it will go on. The truth must be told, and it will be told. The lost knowledge given to us from beyond—the outer technology; the sacred geometry; the true magic—will not only be reacquired, but expanded upon, and we will not only rise to those glorious dimensional heights that we once knew as a young civilization, but we will surpass them. I’m talking about liberation. I’m talking about transcendence. I’m talking about eternal life. That is the mission. With that, I’m signing off. I have work to do. If you’re listening, be vigilant. And for God’s sake, beware those black-cat bones.”
Alicia switched to FM radio and fell asleep.
• • •
The sound of something crashing in the bathroom woke her up. Alicia rose from the floor and didn’t see her mother on the couch. She also didn’t see her mother’s blanket. She walked to the bathroom in the back of the cabin. The door was closed. She tried to open the door, but it was locked. “Mother? Are you okay?”
“Be right out,” her mother said.
Moments later, her mother opened the door. She was wrapped in the black blanket. She looked horrible. She looked like an animated corpse.
Alicia saw blood on the floor. “Mother, you’re bleeding.”
“I fell. It’s no big deal.” Her mother staggered into the living room.
Alicia followed.
Her mother sat down on the couch. “I killed another rabbit while you were sleeping. So there’s some meat on the stove, if you’re hungry.”