by Jason Davis
Just like men never notice when kids go out without their coats or shoes on. She could never trust Roger to take care of their baby when she wasn’t home, which was why she hated working afternoon shift at the diner. She was never home when her baby needed her.
Thankfully, she had done a mid-shift today and had come home early. If she hadn’t, who knew how long it would have been before Roger figured out Joel was missing. He was watching some damn sports crap on television and hadn’t even noticed…or the fact the dog had crapped on the floor beside him.
Damn the man. Damn him, damn him, damn him.
Her fingers tapped on the surface of the table, her legs bouncing to their own worried song. So much pent-up energy inside her, bubbling up, wanting to escape. What was she supposed to do? Just sit there?
That was what the deputy told her to do. He asked if she called all Joel’s friends just to make sure none of them had seen him. Like she hadn’t already done that. Did the officer think she was completely dumb? Just because she had a slight southern accent, it didn’t make her ignorant. When she was nervous, the accent became more pronounced, but she had lived in the north for over ten years.
She guessed she could call all his friends again. She didn’t have to call Denise because Danny was also missing. Could he be with Joel? Probably. Those two were nearly inseparable most days. Maybe they had just run off and lost track of time.
God, she hoped so.
If Danny and Joel were together, maybe a few of his friends were with them. When she had called everybody before, she had only asked if they had seen Joel. Could other parents be worrying about their missing children, as well? If they were in a group, maybe they were all out somewhere. Nothing could happen to them if they were in a group, right? There was safety in numbers. Maybe she should call all the parents back.
But what if the kids were missing, like that Bobby kid?
At first, they had barely said anything about it, but by noon, it was the hot dish. It had somehow become bigger than politics. All her normal customers had gone out in the morning to search for him, walking through the woods and the slag pile. Tammy had told her one of the pastors had fought with the deputy, and that the police chief had been murdered.
Dean, a local knucklehead who came in nearly daily just to tick her off and pinch her butt, said the kid was murdered, too. He and that other guy she always saw with him…she forgot his name…had seen what looked like a boy’s arm at the dump. Tammy had cried bullshit at that and told him to stop telling stories. Samantha also figured he was full of it. If they’d found anything like that, people would have heard, the state police taking things over.
She remembered the days after Christina Locke’s body had been found just outside of town. Some kids discovered her car submerged in Big Sandy when they had snuck onto the property to go fishing. Big Sandy was one of the creeks outside of town that kids liked to sneak to and do various things they shouldn’t. Christina was found inside the car. It looked like an accident until the state troopers came in and ruled it homicide. Sure enough, they found out the boyfriend had strangled her and pushed the car into the water.
So she was sure if the boy’s body were found, the state police would be all over town. Right now, it was still just the town deputy, who seemed nice enough over the phone. She had no idea what he like in person, though, and had never seen him around town. At least, she didn’t think she had. He might have come into the diner on his days off, but he wouldn’t be in uniform.
She needed to focus, but it was hard with so much going through her head. She tried to think about anything and everything to stay away from considering the possibilities of what had happened to her little baby. Her little noel. Her Christmas joy whom she needed home.
She picked up the phone and started dialing. She actually wanted to hear about more missing kids because if there were more, they had to all be together. If they were together, they had to be safe. They just had to be…
She looked out the window at the street. Nothing moved. The town she had come to think of as home was so quiet, so unnerving. Her gaze focused on the cracks crisscrossing in their own uneven patchwork. In a town that now felt alien to her, she looked at those cracks. Were they spreading? Because the world around her was certainly falling apart.
* * * *
Jake glared at Joel as he held his arm to his chest. It was bleeding and stung like hell. The multiple little punctures had torn into his flesh, the dark red crimson now dripping down to the pale dirt below. The soil darkened and the blood seeped away. Jake’s glare did not. Joel had purposely swung the thorn bush branch at him.
Joel continued to smile, although it was more of a smirk, as he turned away, hurrying after Danny.
“Why did you do that?!” Jake called after him. He was not about to let it go. So far, things had gone pretty good with the others. He thought he might have finally started to fit in. Danny had even joked around with him about the new Call of Duty, asking Jake if he had an Xbox or PlayStation.
Jake had lied, of course. Knowing Danny liked the PS, he had said he was an Xbox player. He could add Danny to his friends on Xbox, but they wouldn’t be able to play together. He had created a Microsoft account long ago to let others think he really had one.
He had gotten used to the lie. Since most of the kids were all on PlayStation, nobody would catch on. Most didn’t have the money to have both systems, so he claimed to have the one no one else did. He was always worried someone would either eventually get an Xbox and he would get busted or would want to come over and play his.
“What, man? You can’t keep up,” Joel called back, not even looking over his shoulder.
“You know what I mean. You did that on purpose.”
“No pain, no gain.”
Obviously, Joel hadn’t liked Jake getting so chummy with Danny. The thorn bush was just the latest, but there had been other little taunts here and there. Joel wanted to make it clear that Jake was still an outsider.
“You try getting hit by a thorn branch and see how you like it.”
“You going to cry home to Mommy and Daddy? Going to have Daddy arrest me?”
“A-hole.”
“What was that, twerp?” Joel said, whirling around to look down at Jake. Joel towered over him, his chin inchesaway from Jake’s nose.
“You heard me.”
“You know, no one can hear you if you cry out up here. You might want to watch your mouth.”
“You gonna beat me up?”
“That’s enough, Joel.” Chris stepped in between the two boys, pushing Joel back a step. Joel looked at him, his face red, his breathing deep. They were both pissed, and Jake had never wanted to punch another kid so much in his life. He was raised to turn the other cheek and walk away, but he didn’t want to hold back this time. He wanted to take a swing at Joel, his mother be damned.
Breathe. Remember what dad told you.
His dad said many things…“Be a good worker.” “Always treat women right.” Those were the ones he said often, but there were others. There was one that didn’t help with his anger, but helped explain why. “If you can explain it, you can fight it.” However, when his dad had said that to him, he had lost that particular fight.
Jake loved spending time with him. Some of his favorite memories were helping his dad work on the car. He’d usually grab the tools while his dad was under the hood. One time, he even had to remind his dad to put the oil plug back in before putting in the oil. He had joked it would have been a mess. Jake had saved the day.
As with anything, there were good days and bad. It was sometimes the bad days that gave the best life lessons. It always seemed like they led to those “this is how you should live” talks. The one time his dad smacked his head on the hood had definitely been one of the bad days. Jake had asked him if he was okay, which seemed to infuriatehis dad even more. He had turned, yelling at Jake for disrupting him. Somehow, hitting his head had become Jake’s fault. He had handed him the wrong tool, whi
ch wasn’t true, and that made him hit the hood.
Jake had run to his room, crying, believing his dad was really mad at him. He flung himself on his bed and buried his face to the pillow, the tears soaking it.
About a half-hour later, his dad had come in to apologize. He told him that when a person hurt themselves, they sometimes had a surge of adrenaline, often saying things they didn’t mean.
Jake knew the anger he felt now must have been what his dad meant. He actually felt the adrenaline. He wanted to hit Joel more than he had ever wanted to hit a person. He had to fight to slow his breathing, his eyes unfocused. It didn’t matter if Joel was bigger. Jake wanted to make him pay for hurting him.
Joel studied Chris, then glared back at Jake, who stood with his fists balled, ready to fight. He scoffed at him and turned around.
“Let’s just keep looking. The spot is up here past another bunch of thorn bushes. Don’t get yourself cut on these, ya pansy ass. You got me?” Joel said to Jake as he stepped around the rest of the group and took the lead. Danny fell in quickly behind him.
“Thanks,” Jake said to Chris, feeling the anger edge away.
“Don’t let Joel bother you. He’s used to being the bully. He’s going to have a lot to learn next year because he’s not going to be the big dog anymore.”
Jake nodded as they turned to follow the others. “Do you think we’ll find anything?” he asked.
“Nah. Your dad had people up here searching all morning, right? I can’t see how that many people could have missed anything. It’s not like the woods are that big. But what else we got to do? I was kinda getting bored of playing Superman.”
“You weren’t Superman. You were Robin.”
“But Robin doesn’t fly.”
“Yours did.”
“No. We were both Superman.”
“Okay, but I was the good Superman. You were red kryptonite Superman.”
“No way.”
“Yeah. I’m too good to be bad.”
“That’s bull,” Chris laughed.
“And I’m too pretty.” Jake smiled wide and made some waving motions in the air, then took a bow.
“What the hell are you guys doing back there?” Julie asked. Jake looked up to see her looking at him funny.
“We we’re playing Superman before you guys dragged us along.”
“No one made you come with.”
“How were you playing Superman?” John asked.
“It’s right over here,” Joel growled as he pushed through more thorn bushes, not even looking back or holding any of the branches out of the way for them. He just rushed forward, the branches completely enveloping him.
Jake looked around the woods. The sun had started to set, the long shadows of the trees dancing around them as the wind picked up. He had a jacket on, his mom wouldn’t ever let him go out without one, but it suddenly didn’t feel warm enough.
“Hey, man, you okay in there?” Danny eased into the thick bushes, tentatively pulling the branches aside. Jake guessed he didn’t come up there as much.
“Come on. Hurry up,” they heard Joel yell from deep in the bushes. “I need someone to help me lift this grate.”
Jake hurried up behind Danny, grabbing at the branches before they fell. If they did, it would hurt, but he could deal with it. When he heard a branch snap behind him, he looked back to see Chris right behind him. John and Julie seemed happy to stay on the path.
He felt a sting when he missed a branch. New spots on his arm started to ooze. He wanted to scratch at the burning sensation.
Danny pushed past the largest bush, disappearing. The branches threatened to spring back at Jake, but he reached out to catch them, moving past.
He stepped into a clearing. There were two stumps in the center, as if to sit on, but what really drew Jake’s attention was the object both Danny and Joel studied. It was a large, rusted metal grate. Most the slots were filled in with nasty dirt and grime that looked like it had been worn in over a long period of time.
Jake glanced around, taking in more details as he heard Chris cursing the thorn branches. He must have let go and gotten cut. It was hard not to. The thorn patches were thick and it was hard to push through all of them. But once inside the clearing, it was as if no life grew. There was no grass on the ground, the tree branches didn’t hang over. There was nothing like what he would expect this far in the woods. It was as if the thorn bushes guarded this place, keeping any unwanted visitors at bay.
This was the hidden place the kids always tried to find. That secret garden only they could see in their imaginations. The wondrous place to hide from parents and bullies, to disappear from everything for a while. It was where adventures happened, journeys to other planets possible.
Staring up, he saw the first couple stars in the darkening sky. This was the place to come to start his journey into space. While he sat on the stump, he could see himself flying on a spaceship among those stars. This place was…
Wrong.
It slammed into him. There was something else there with them, all around them. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck lifting, goosebumps forming along his arm. It watched them, and it was hungry.
The wind picked up again. This time, it wasn’t just cool. It was cold and bitter. It rushed through the trees and thorn bushes, making him take a step back to keep his balance. It felt like a hand trying to push them away. They had disturbed something otherwordly and it was making its presence known. It wanted them out.
When he turned to watch the lingering shadows, he saw the dancing army. Shapes surrounded them, dark forms slipping among the thorns.
Jake looked back at Chris, who had made his way clear of the thorns and didn’t seem to notice the wind. He was focused on the grate, just like Danny and Joel.
“Get your ass over here, momma’s boy,” Joel grunted as he and Danny fought to lift the metal. It didn’t look like it should be that heavy, but both of them strained, the grate not budging. Chris hurried over to Danny’s side, but even the three of them couldn’t get it to move.
As Jake grabbed the side closest to him, he looked down into the hole. It was so dark down there, like the pit fell into nothingness.
He shivered, but not from the cold. There was something down there. He put a face to it, a face from his own childhood nightmares. A dark blue face with fangs and large round, orange eyes. He saw that face in his mind’s eye as he stared down into the black. Any time now, he knew it was going to come at him. It would shoot a hand out, reach through the grate, and pull him through it.
“What the hell are you waiting for? A written invitation?”
Jake snapped his head up to see they waited for him to grab his end. He hadn't realized he had pulled back, unconditionally afraid of what was going to come after them. He breathed deeply, finding courage as he reached for it, sure something was going to attack his fingers as he wrapped them around the cold steel.
“Come on, man. Lift,” Danny grunted.
Jake adjusted his stance and pulled, joining in the struggle with the other three boys.
The grate just wouldn’t budge. For a second, it felt like it was moving, then it pulled against them and became firm again. It were as if someone held it from the other side.
Jake pulled harder, his arms hurting from the strain. The metal bit into his hands. His back and legs burned with the pressure. He put everything he had into pulling on the grate, knowing Chris, Joel, and Danny did the same.
The ground shook, but he didn’t know if the tremors were actually in the ground or his own legs. He could hear the wind rustling through the trees, whipping around him. The woods had come alive, protesting them being there. The little bit of light faded. It should be a full moon tonight, but he didn’t see any light coming into the clearing. Everything had gotten dark way too fast.
Was it even darker by the grate? Jake knew it would be, but it seemed like there was something more to the darkness. A fog seemed to rise above the rusted metal and hover
there. He could see…
No, that can’t be right. It looked like the fog had taken the shape of hands gripping onto the grate.
Jake looked around to see if anyone else saw it. The other three were focused on lifting the grate, not noticing anything happening around them. He must be imagining things.
“Come on. Put your backs into it. This shouldn’t be that heavy,” Joel said, the exhaustion showing on his face.
“I am,” Chris barked. Jake could see the muscles in his arms. He knew he worked out sometimes and it showed.
Then Jake saw it. The dark fog seemed to let go and fade back into the grate. It gave up, if it had even really been there. The wind quieted down. Everything went back to normal, making him question if he had really seen any of it.
When the grate finally lifted, they eased it up and over onto the side, moving quickly to get out of the way. They didn’t look to see what was below. Moving the grate was more just to see if they could rather than actually wanting to know what was below it.
Then he heard the scream. He spun to see Julie standing in the clearing, covering her mouth and pointing. He looked to see what she was pointing at.
A hand had been holding the grate. When they lifted it, it had dropped to the side. It was pale and lifeless, but Jake recognized the wedding band. He knew that ring. It belonged to his dad’s boss. It belonged to the chief.
CHAPTER 15
That familiar feeling in his chest was back. His heart pounding so hard, he thought it would explode out of him. The lump forming in his throat. The dryness in his mouth preventing him from talking. His head playing a drum that felt like it belonged in a marching band. The world around him blurring.
He recognized the symptoms, closing his eyes to cut off the outside stimuli. Oh yes, he recognized the panic trying to overtake him. These attacks had become more common after surviving the meth lab explosion, then the incident last year.