Sunblocked Summerhouse

by Mixi J Applebottom

  "No, medicine." Aurora smiled.

  He watched Barnett slam his fist into Wynne. She couldn't fight him off; he was twice her size and a full grown man. She was long and thin and gangly.

  But the concept of medicine surprised him. "For me?"

  "Yes,” said Aurora. And she held up the bottle. She had taken the top off slowly while she was walking. "You have to drink the whole thing, you have to drink it quickly. It will make you feel… better."

  "No,” said the boy, feeling alarmed. But Aurora moved quickly and jumped upon him, shoving the bottle in his mouth. The Nyquil gurgled down his throat as he choked.

  "What the fuck!" screamed Gregory. He was standing in the doorway staring at Barnett slamming his fist into Wynne and Aurora shoving medicine down the boy’s throat.

  Chapter Seventy-Eight

  The boy's mouth suddenly grew in size, dislocating and swallowing Aurora up to the elbow. He chomped down and Aurora let out a scream. The boy's eyes were cold and blazing.

  Gregory leaped forward and punched the boy in the eye. "Let her go!" But Aurora didn't seem to be trying to pull her arm out of the boy’s mouth. She screamed again as he chomped down, and Gregory could see the flesh of her arm start to tear and crack under the sharpened teeth.

  "I'm going to pull her out!" screamed Aurora between shrieks of pain. There was a weird sick smile on Aurora's face.

  Gregory tried to pull her back out, but Aurora started to crawl in further, forcing the boy’s mouth open and crawling inside him. He gagged on her body, then Barnett looked up just in time to see her curly blond hair go down his throat.

  Barnett screamed. He left Wynne, beaten unconscious on the floor, and charged, grabbing his wife's feet. He tried to pull her out of the boy. But he kept gagging her down slowly.

  Gregory had this vision in his head as soon as Aurora was swallowed, Barnett would dive in too.

  So he slammed the other man backward. "Let her go. We can't help her." As her feet vanished, the boy looked queasy.

  The room seemed painfully quiet for a moment.

  The boy let out a belch. His jaw suddenly snapped back in place. "I'll be back," he said, his stomach protruding from his skinny little frame. He looked like he was going to vomit.

  Barnett started to wail terrible sobs.

  Chapter Seventy-Nine

  Gregory turned to Barnett. "Why were you hitting Wynne?" He was exasperated and walked over to check the girl.

  "Aurora. She's gone," Barnett said, his head in his hands.

  Gregory turned and looked at his friend unconscious on the floor. But her eyes were swollen shut. Her lips were turning purple. "Fuck."

  He felt defeated, his arm still useless in the sling. He stared at the table, and the book sitting next to Wynne on the floor.

  The exorcism. He knew immediately, Witchcraft and Demons. She had gotten it ready.

  He'd have to continue.

  "Barnett. I think Wynne is trying to exorcise the ghost. We have to help." Gregory left her on the ground and moved into position. He could see Calleo sitting on the table, eyes shut.

  "Aurora," whimpered Barnett and he sat on the floor with his hands covering his eyes, weeping.

  Gregory quickly flipped through the book and skimmed the section so he wouldn't forget anything. "Barnett, you're going to have to help me. Sit down."

  Gregory took Wynne's spot at the head of the table.

  Barnett just lay slumped on the floor, still weeping.

  "Barnett!" the man yelled. "If you want to even have a chance to get out of here, to get your wife and daughter back, then you need to sit the fuck down."

  Barnett seemed dazed, but he moved to the seat that Gregory was pointing at. Wynne was still unconscious on the floor. Calleo suddenly opened his eyes and scooted a little closer. "Okay, the three of us. That's how many we need."

  Gregory quickly scanned down the page, reading it as quickly as he could. "Barnett, hold my hand. Touch the cat." Calleo was lying stretched out, his tail just barely in Barnett's reach. The man reached over and put his hand on the tail. Barnett and Gregory held hands, with Barnett holding Greg's hand in the sling. Then Gregory reached over and placed his hand on Calleo's head.

  "Fuck, I hope this works," whispered Gregory, and then he began.

  Chapter Eighty

  "Release this house,” said Gregory. He squeezed Barnett's hand.

  Barnett did nothing, just still wept.

  "Barnett, you have to repeat." His frustration with the man was growing thin. Fuck, he wished Wynne was awake.

  "Release this house." Barnett’s mouth moved, no audible sound coming out of his mouth.

  Gregory hoped that would be enough, the man's barely participating, but hopefully, it would be enough.

  "Release the girl and her mother,” said Gregory. The floor started to rumble. The rumbling terrified Gregory, was the opposite of what he wanted to have happen. He didn't want the boy to interfere.

  "I command you to release this house, release the girl, release her mother, release us all," Gregory said slowly, waiting for Barnett to repeat before he continued.

  "To the place you belong. Moved to the afterlife," whispered Gregory.

  Barnett mumbled along like a bumbling fool. Like someone who was not even listening.

  "Release this house," Gregory said one more time. "Accept our sacrifice." He hesitated and picked up the knife. Calleo rolled over, exposing his chest. He drove the blade swiftly into the cat. He never made a sound.

  "No,” said the boy. He was not looking sick anymore, and he was standing in the middle of the table. He took the crystal ball and he yanked it from its string on the ceiling and threw it down into the shards of mirror. The salt scattered, the mirror shattered. Gregory let out a scream.

  Gregory turned to run, but Wynne started to wake. She sat up slowly, her hand touching her head, her face completely unrecognizable from the beating. "Hairball," was what she said.

  Chapter Eighty-One

  Calleo suddenly started making a terrible retching noise, the sound cats make right before they vomit. His mouth was open and he was slowly and agonizingly starting to retch.

  Gregory's stomach suddenly turned. Calleo hadn't died. The knife was still protruding from the cat. The sound was making him gag. Barnett continued weeping, completely disconnected.

  But Wynne had her swollen eyes shut and Gregory could feel her. In the air, there was an electric clicking, popping noise. The boy's eyes went wide and startled. "What?" screamed the boy. There was a mix of fury and surprise.

  Suddenly, he gagged.

  Not once, but twice. Until his jaw was descending, cracking apart, his mouth opening wide. His eyes were so full of shock as he hurled, first spittle, but then feet started to appear. Aurora came out piece by piece, until just her hands were still in the boy. Calleo kept gagging, and Pear was dragged out moments later. They were both wet and slick and covered in puke.

  But Pear was furious. "You don't belong here!" screamed Pear. Her eyes were both glowing bright. "You killed Mike,” she hissed. She pointed at the boy accusingly.

  Suddenly, the boy slammed into the wall behind him and the whole house started to rumble and shake. "But why am I here?" cried the boy, this time sounding painfully sad.

  "Pear! Please, it's too much,” screamed Wynne, her odd eyes catching fire, just like Pear’s. Both of their eyes radiated bright electric light. She could feel the electricity in the room. It was painful and bright. She helped push.

  Pear was powerful, and Wynne felt like her apprentice. Where Pear led, Wynne followed, hoping that she was pushing the right way.

  The house started to crack and crumble. There was wind spinning around them. The boy suddenly was spinning too, with pieces of the table and bits of salt flying into the air. Gregory and Barnett, Aurora and Calleo were sucked into the middle, pressed tightly to Pear's little feet. But Wynne held her ground. "Pear, this not a good idea. We might…"

  But then Pear pushed. Wynne could
feel it, the boy being pushed through the layers of this world and into the afterlife. One after another, they could feel each layer of the house, each a carbon copy of itself, with a few things missing; first physical presence, then sound, then thought, then light… Until suddenly, they were pushed into the depths of Hell.

  In that dark, terrible place, they felt such overwhelming pain and terror. Wynne reached over and grasped the little girl's hand. The child whimpered, "Wynne, I'm afraid. This place is bad."

  "We can leave him here," whispered Wynne. "Let's leave it all. We don't need this. We shouldn't have it; it's too big. It will kill us."

  Pear was silent for a moment. Then she said, "Yes." But she saved a bit, a bit of the power to push them back through the layers, back through the air, back to the house. And soon they all were in the formal kitchen.

  When Gregory sat up, both Wynne and Pear were unconscious.

  Chapter Eighty-Two

  Mike was dead. But the front door now opened easily. The house was back to a normal size, and to Gregory’s astonishment, it had several new rooms, like a library and a living room. As he helped carry Wynne out, he noticed she wasn't as long; instead, she seemed short, tiny even. Her face was still bloodied and beaten.

  Gregory was still quite confused, but both Wynne and Pear had not woken up yet. "What now?"

  "We hope they live,” said Aurora. She was holding her daughter, who still hadn't made a single sound.

  A month later, Aurora called Gregory and told him that Wynne had finally woken up. She had been in a coma the whole time.

  Pear woke up on the same day, at the same hour.

  Both of them had brown eyes now. Pear’s original green eyes were not returned to her.

  Gregory rushed to the hospital to visit Wynne. He had been thinking about her nonstop and visited weekly. If Lorelei and he hadn’t been fighting, he would have called her. But in the end, he couldn’t call his sister. He stared at Wynne, her face looking smooth and soft now. "Are you okay?"

  "I think we won. We left the boy there, in the layer of Hell. At least I think that's what it was. I don't know what else to call it. It was… bad,” said Wynne.

  "Okay,” said Gregory, not sure what else to say.

  "I think Pear gave Calleo back his powers. I… I think she's going to be normal now. I feel normal,” said Wynne.

  "Aurora says she doesn't remember anything, nothing of the ghosts,” said Gregory nervously. "I thought you might have forgotten too."

  "I think maybe she gave him back too much. Maybe she gave her soul. I don't know anymore."

  "This is over. It's over. Don't worry,” said Gregory. And he wrapped his arms around the young girl.

  "Definitely,” she said with a smile. "How is he? How is Calleo?"

  "Aurora didn't tell you? Calleo is missing, he vanished," Gregory said.

  Next book: Firelocked Funhouse

  Firelocked Funhouse

  Gregory slipped out of the darkness and fell into a bouncy room. The floor was spongy and soft and full of air. He grinned and jumped and tumbled around on it. It was such a relief to find something familiar and safe and fun. A bouncy house room.

  Colorado, Miles and Lorelei fell into the room, and soon all three children were bouncing and laughing. They jumped until they were tired and then laid on the cool soft material and rested for a bit. "What do you think we should do next?" Greg said.

  "I want to find mom." Miles said.

  Lorelei looked around. "Do you even know how we can leave this place?"

  Greg slowly sat up and looked around. The room was square, and the walls were inflated and solid on all four sides. The slide was about three feet off the bouncy floor. It would be difficult to get back up it if that was the way they wanted to go. "Maybe we have to push on one of the walls."

  "I want mom." Miles said, seriously. "I don't like this place. I wish we had never come in here."

  "Oh, come on, don't be a spoil sport. It's not been 'the most fun ever' but it's not like we're being tortured in here. Come on, we can get out of here." Greg ran and pushed on the walls. They moved back and forth but it didn't seem like a way to exit.

  Lorelei tried to climb another wall. "Maybe we have to go over them?"

  But it was Colorado who found the way out. Miles stood up and went to Lorelei to help her up the wall, and the little white bear with the bright blue shirt fell to the ground. The inflated bounciness swallowed the bear as it slid between the crack on the corner of the room. Between the wall and the floor, the bear almost disappeared, with only his ear sticking out. "Colorado!" Miles screamed, and dove for the bear like his life depended upon it. His movement were too fast, and he popped underneath the wall, sliding into the next room with Colorado in his hands out in front of him. Not even his feet stayed in the bouncy room.

  Lorelei shouted, "wait for me!" but before she too could charge the corner of the room and slip underneath the wall, Gregory charged first. He popped out behind Miles like a little room giving birth to preteens. Lorelei lost all momentum and tried to worm and wiggle her way out, but got stuck halfway. "Guys?"

  Gregory turned and helped drag her out of the inflated room.

  Miles stared at the crazy scene in front of him. There were balls everywhere, being shot from every direction. Another ball zone, but this one was filled to the brim with children. They were laughing and shooting balls and as they stood there, the alarm went off. The big red button flashed, and the funnel dumped, balls raining from every direction.

  It felt familiar, and almost, almost safe. So the children stayed and played another twenty minutes before Miles brought them back again and said, "I want mom."

  Gregory tapped a tall, thin boy and said, "How do we get out of here?"

  The boy was startled, and he shook his red hair from his face. "Why do you want to get out of here?"

  "We've been here a while." Greg said. "Do you know how to leave?"

  "No." Then the boy dove into a pile of balls and went back to playing.

  A bell rang, a loud booming dingaling, like a casino machine ringing in loads of cash. And the ceiling opened a panel and down dropped a long pink stretch of fabric. It fell all the way to the floor like a long rope. Immediately kids grabbed at it and tried to climb it. Until they heard the loud booming voice.

  On the long silk scarf was a clown. She had big pigtails that were pink. Her face looked happy. She had the brightest freckles painted on her face. Her laugh was like a tinkling fairy. She held on to the scarf with only her legs and slowly spun down it. She was juggling three pink balls as she slid down the scarf. "Hello children! Do you want to play a game?"

  Everyone stopped manning the ball guns and dropped what they were doing. They slowly gathered at the base of the scarf, enchanted by this new clown. She had striped stockings on her legs and a fluffy yellow skirt.

  Miles, Lorelei and Gregory stood back nervously. They didn't trust clowns anymore, and at this point in the day it was only about to get worse.

  She stopped juggling as she got to the bottom of the scarf, her feet daintily set upon the top of the balls below. It was like walking on water. One arm still wrapped around the scarf as she balanced seemingly on nothing.

  "Do you want to play a game?" The children cheered. Miles stuffed Colorado back in his pocket, so he wouldn't get lost. Then he gripped his sister's hand. The three of them stepped backward again.

  "Come closer, children, this game will be super fun." She said again, but there was a look in her eye, when she glanced at Lorelei that was frightening.

  "It's a game of hide and seek. You hide. And we will find you." She said. And then the ceiling panels opened again and the fat, scary clown rolled down in his own scarf. He was holding a knife. The long legs of the super tall clowns slid out of the ceiling.

  "We will count to ten." The children shuddered underneath. Several screamed, and at least three of the kids were crying.

  The clowns were talking together in unison now.

  "One
"

  "Two" The girl clown covered her eyes with her feet, still dangling from the scarf.

  "Three." Gregory whispered, "Let's try to get back into the bouncy room. And then up the slide."

  "Four." The three kids backed up quickly, looking for the soft wall they had climbed through.

  "Five." Lorelei was too frightened to cry, and too frightened to scream. She held tightly to Miles. He was shivering again, and had wet his pants.

  "Six." The super tall juggling clowns were on the ground now, tossing sharp knives back and forth. One of them paused, and threw a sharp knife into the wall next to Gregory's hand. Gregory screamed.

  "Seven." The children that had gathered underneath the girl clown were now scrambling away on platforms. A small girl was sobbing and pressing the big red button, trying to dump the funnel of balls.

  "Eight." Lorelei whispered frantically to Greg, "I can't find it. Where did we come in?"

  "Nine." Greg looked at her, and said, "We will have to fight them." And he pulled the sharp knife from the wall.

  "Ten." All four clowns laughed hysterically, in shrill terrifying noises. The fat one wasn't laughing, he was roaring.

  And the floor beneath them fell.

  The balls, and the children were flushed away. The clowns still midair on the scarves, laughing and shouting. "We're coming to find you. Do try to hide." The female clown said, with a loud shrill scream.

  Next book: Firelocked Funhouse

  About the Author

  Hello Gorgeous,

  It’s Mixi.

  Okay, we are wrapping up Pear’s story, but Gregory still has more to tell. His story is up next in, the Firelocked Funhouse

  If you enjoyed this, please leave a review, it does help small authors like me sell more books, and helps push us forward on our publishing career.