Current

by Rian Harper

  “Don’t.” I pointed at him as he chuckled to himself and grinned his crooked smile. “I will hurt you.” I wasn’t entirely kidding. I was desperately uncomfortable at the moment and in no mood to be teased about the state I was in. Everett winked at me as he walked over to the window in the dining area.

  As the fire warmed the side of my body closest to it, I looked around at Everett, Jasmine, and Emma. Each of them were calm and quiet. Too calm and quiet I thought. There were three shifters stalking us, waiting for the perfect moment for the slaughter. But there was no sense of urgency to be felt in the house. Perhaps they were screaming internally as I was, overtaken by panic and anxiety about the situation. Maybe they could feel it in their bones as well; the feeling that death was lurking right around the corner. I shuddered as a shiver ran down my spine at the notion.

  Everett started walking back across the room to the window next to the door on the living room side of the area. He caught sight of me in deep thought.

  “You okay, bro?” He stopped in front of the window and looked at me with worry on his face.

  How could he ask that? No, I was not okay. The fact that he didn’t see that disturbed me slightly. Nothing about what was happening around us was okay. Nothing about what had happened up to that point had been okay. And we had no idea if anything in the future was going to be okay. So, no, I was not okay. That was something that was evident and something I shouldn’t have to explain.

  “Nate. What’s wrong?” Everett inquired again as he stepped closer to me.

  “Are you kidding?” I could feel my emotions coming to a head. “Why are you three acting so calm about all of this?”

  “What else are we supposed to do, Nate?” Jasmine interjected.

  “Come up with a plan. How do we handle this? What is our next move? Are none of you really thinking about this right now?”

  “Yeah, we’re thinking about it.” Everett’s voice was heavy with exasperation. “The question is are you thinking about it. What do you want to do right now, man? If we go outside of this cabin, we’re dead. It’s not our move anymore, Nate. We just have to sit here and wait it out.”

  That answer wasn’t sitting well with me. “I’m tired of this!” I swiftly stood up and faced Everett head on. “I will not wait around and have some maniac decide how and when I die! I will not sit back and pretend like everything is all right! I cannot accept that there is nothing we can do but stand by until that monster makes a move.”

  Everett softened his tone. “Nate, calm down.” He held his hand out toward me as if he were trying to placate a bucking horse.

  “Don’t tell me to calm down.” I growled the words through gritted teeth. “It’s my life that’s hanging in the balance.” I advanced toward Everett which made him straighten up and puff up his chest at my approach.

  “Back down, man.” Everett looked me in the eyes with that intensity he gets. He was taller than me but not by much so we were basically nose-to-nose.

  “Or what? All I have to do is touch you and you’d be unconscious before you knew what happened.”

  “Nate, stop this.” I heard Emma’s voice come from behind me, and I wanted to listen to her, but I didn’t budge.

  “You need to get out of my face.” Everett said the words slowly as if it were his last warning.

  Emma appeared next to Everett, but I kept my eyes drilled into his. “We understand how you feel, but we have to stay calm and figure this out together, okay? We are here for you, all of us. Now take a deep breath and step back.” She placed her hand on my shoulder and brought me back down to reality.

  What was I doing? I couldn’t explain it. There was some switch inside me that flipped into survival mode. I took in a breath as I fought back tears. Everett’s face softened as soon as he realized what I was doing. Before I knew it, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in for a hug.

  “I’m sorry, Everett.” I inhaled deeply, still trying to stifle my emotions.

  “I get it, bro.” He broke the embrace and put his hand on my shoulders. “Just do me a favor, man. Go put some clothes on.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. Leave it to Everett to break the tension with some humor. Emma walked away for a minute, then came back with warm clothes fresh out of the drier for me to put on. I stayed facing the window as I got dressed in the bedroom, not wanting to miss anything that might happen outside. The rain had subsided and it was now just a faint drizzle that I could barely make out against the gray sky. I hung the robe up in the closet to dry and returned my towel to the rack in the bathroom before joining the others in the main room.

  Jasmine was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher with what few dishes were left in the sink, and Emma was folding laundry and laying it out on the dining table. Everett was knelt down on the couch watching the tree line through the window. I knelt down on the cushion beside him as I joined in the surveillance. He slapped me on my back without looking away from the window. “Well, doesn’t look like we are going to get much sleep tonight.”

  Chapter 22

  Horror House

  Darkness had fallen hours before. While we still had daylight, we moved the armchair to the utility room where the back door was located and wedged it against the door to barricade it. Similarly, we used the dining table to fortify the front door, turning it up on its end and wedging the chairs and coffee table against it as well. They weren’t getting through the doors easily, but that wasn’t what worried me. It was all of the windows. We decided to keep the door to be bedroom closed and all stay out in the main room for the night, so that was one window we didn’t have to monitor. There were five windows in the front of the cabin, however, and the blinds and curtains that covered them were all wide open.

  There’s something haunting about looking through a window at night. Peering into the blackness and not knowing what may be looking back at you. Watching you. Your mind starts going on a roller coaster ride of scenarios, filling your thoughts with macabre images of what monsters could be lurking only feet away from you. But it’s not just what you see, or more frighteningly, what you can’t see. It’s also about what you can hear, and even more frighteningly, what you can’t hear.

  The four of us sat in the middle of the room on a pile of blankets and pillows, all looking in different directions. The TV was on, but at a low volume so that we could hear if anything approached. It was all but drowned out by the soft drumming of the rain falling on the tin roof. The fire that had been going earlier had died out since we ran out of firewood, and no one dared venture outside to retrieve more.

  Emma was holding my hand, which was comforting in knowing that she was right beside me, and also that I had use of her powers should I need them for anything. I was facing the windows that shared a wall in the kitchen and dining area. I couldn’t see anything past the glow of the TV that lightly illuminated the whole room. Emma squeezed my hand with some vigor, which caused me to turn my attention to the window she was watching on the side of the front door where the dining table usually sat.

  “See something?” I spoke softly as I felt my heart rate start increasing.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” She turned her head toward the window Jasmine was watching just on the other side of the front door, behind the television console. I craned my neck to keep up with her line of sight. My concentration was broken by the sound of claws scraping against the front door. My pulse raced even faster as the sounds of the wood being carved away slowly filled my ears. All four of us, with our backs against each other, shifted around at the sound. A few minutes passed, which was spent frantically looking between the windows that I could see, before we heard banging coming from behind the bedroom door.

  Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass and a feline roar echoed through the house. Emma let out a whimper and clasped my hand even tighter.

  “Everett?” I was facing opposite him so I couldn’t see what he was thinking behind his eyes. He knew what I was asking.

  “No. We stay ri
ght here. They’re just trying to spook us.” He was acting commander-in-chief at this point, and we were going to listen to him.

  Another sound of claws digging into the side of the house next to the window behind the couch sent another set of chills down my spine. I couldn’t see a thing in the vastness of night as my eyes darted from window to window. I twisted my upper body enough so that I could look in the direction the claw scratching came from. I gazed past Everett’s head, trying to catch a glimpse of something, when I heard a knocking on the window in the dining area. I whipped my head around and met Cade’s eyes glaring at me from the other side of the glass. His face was barely lit from the glow coming from the television, the only source of light that was present in the room. He was stoic, which made him look all the more menacing.

  I lifted my hand toward the window, which was now aglow with a buildup of current. He didn’t budge. He stood there, daring me to release the energy I had within me toward him. Before I could act on my desire to maim him, my hand returned to normal. Emma had released her grip on me. Without asking, I knew why she removed her hand from mine. Blowing the window out in the room with a bolt of electricity would just have made it easier for Cade to get into the house if he wanted. And she knew I was acting impulsively lately. I knew it too, so I didn’t hold a grudge. Cade’s lips slowly curled up in a devilish grin as he no doubt realized how my power actually worked; that I had to be in contact with someone with abilities in order for mine to even awaken. He slowly backed away from the glass until I couldn’t discern the shape of his head any longer.

  “This is insane.” I stood up and swiveled about, looking around the room. “We can’t just sit here and wait for them to attack us. This isn’t safe.” Emma stood up next to me and grasped my hand again. I felt my power kick back on.

  “He’s right guys. I can’t take this anymore.” Emma shifted her weight from foot-to-foot, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

  With Emma in tow, I walked back to the utility room where the washing machine and drier were kept. It was about the same size as the bathroom, and fit all four of us easily, even with the arm chair taking up some of the space against the back door. Everett and Jasmine followed us in with some of the blankets and pillows that we had been sitting on. The utility room had no windows in it, so that took being on constant alert out of the equation. All we had to do was stay holed up in that room until we thought of what to do next.

  The back door rattled as one of the shifters pushed up against it over and over again. The cat outside growled and hissed, trying to claw its way through the door. A loud thud from overhead startled me, obviously coming from one of them jumping on the roof above us. The sound of their claws scraping across the tin metal was ear-splitting. More scraping sounds came from behind the outside wall of the utility room. Sounds of sharp, massive claws gouging their way through the log siding. All three of them were on the outside concentrating their efforts to just that room, trying to flush us back out into the main area.

  The sounds of the three cats clawing and growling went on for what seemed like hours, until abruptly it all stopped. All we could hear now were each other breathing.

  “Why’d they stop?” I looked up, listening for the sound of footsteps on the roof.

  “Who cares why they stopped? I’m just glad they did. The sound they make grates on my nerves.” Jasmine rubbed her hands over her ears.

  “I’m going to check the main room.” I was sitting closest to the door and was curious as to whether I could tell if anything else was happening that we needed to know about in the other room.

  Emma pulled at my arm as I reached up for the door knob. “Nate, no!” She forcefully whispered.

  “It’s okay. Just hold my hand so I can use your power in case something happens.”

  Emma wrapped her fingers through mine, then I felt another hand wrap around my wrist. I looked down before I turned the knob and saw Jasmine leaning over towards us, with her hand around my arm. She smiled quickly, “Just in case.”

  With both of their powers entwining through my body, I felt as prepared as I could be to open the door. I took a deep breath and cracked it slightly. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Everything was as we had left it. I opened the door slightly more and noticed something move past the window. I tensed up, ready to quickly close the door and lock it again.

  “Hello?” A muffled voice came from the area of the front porch. A man’s face with hands cupped around it came into view as whomever it was pressed against the window and peered in.

  “Jasmine?” The man knocked on the window.

  “Clark!” Jasmine released my arm and all but crawled over Emma and me to get through the door.

  “What?” Everett said out loud what I was thinking. What was Jasmine’s husband doing here and how did he find us?

  As I mulled over that, something else crossed my mind. Clark was outside with the shifters lurking around. I jumped up and followed Jasmine to the main room with Emma and Everett right behind me.

  “Help me get the door open!” Jasmine shouted back at us as she grabbed the coffee table and started dragging it away from the door.

  The rest of us got to work disassembling the blockade we had fashioned. As soon as Everett and I had the dining table out of the way, Jasmine hurriedly swung open the front door. The skies had cleared and it was apparently close to a full moon because I could now see ambient light all around outside. It cast Clark as a mere silhouette as he stood on the porch with a small bag in his hand. Jasmine reached out and grabbed the jacket he was wearing to pull him inside. Instead of stumbling forward into the cabin, he fell face-first over the threshold.

  I reached over and flipped the overhead light on and Jasmine let out a scream. I covered my mouth with my hand and turned away from the sight until I could process what I was seeing. Blood was pouring out from Clark’s lifeless body all over the laminate floors. They got to him before we could. With all of us concentrated on the dead man in front of us, we forgot to pay attention to what was happening beyond the porch. We all jumped back when Clark’s body flew away from us and down the front steps, leaving a trail of crimson liquid in its path. I looked up and noticed one of the cats dragging him away by his leg. The light from the house reflected off of the shifter’s eyes, the sight of which sent my stomach into knots.

  Everett lunged forward to slam the door shut and lock it.

  “Noooooo!!!!!” Jasmine wailed as she ran to the door, trying to get it unlocked so that she could run after her husband.

  Everett wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back. “Jas, he’s gone. He’s gone.”

  Panicked screams of agony came through the door, originating from where Clark had just been taken. Jasmine kicked and screamed, “He’s alive! He’s still alive!” Tears streamed down her face as she fought Everett to let her free.

  Everett met my eyes and for a second I was in sync with him. We had no choice but to try and help Clark if there was any possibility he was still alive. Something stopped me, however when Jasmine and Everett got back to the door.

  I wedged myself between them and the door. “No.”

  “No?! Nate, get out of my way!” Jasmine hit me over and over again on my arms and in my stomach, trying to get me to move.

  “No!” I yelled as I pushed her away. “Look at the blood on the floor!” I hated what I was doing, but logically what I was thinking made sense. “That’s too much for him to have survived. That wasn’t Clark screaming. They are trying to get us out in the open. It’s a trick.”

  Jasmine turned into Everett and sobbed as he put an arm around her and cursed out loud. They all knew I was right. I looked over beside me at Emma, who had her back against the wall. Her cheeks were wet for the sake of Clark, but probably mostly for the sake of Jasmine. Jasmine had lost everything the past two days. This cat-and-mouse game wasn’t just about me anymore. It was now also about Jasmine and getting her the justice she deserved.

  The s
ound of footsteps on the roof above us made us all look up at the ceiling. The log beams that ran along the vaulted ceiling shook under the weight of the cat. I carefully walked around the puddle of blood in the middle of the floor as I took Emma’s hand and started toward the utility room again. Everett pulled Jasmine along with him as she kept her face buried in his shirt. I stopped once I got to the door and noticed that the back door was opened slightly and the door frame broken apart. They had broken through.

  I closed the door to the utility room and turned toward the others. “They broke through the door. They are trying to keep us in the main room. Why?” I growled in frustration as I paced around the small area, trying to think about what to do next. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving in the fireplace. I looked over and noticed smoke, only there was no fire. Stranger still was that instead of the smoke rising through the chimney, it was billowing out into the room.

  I coughed as the gray noxious cloud quickly filled the area. I placed the front collar of my t-shirt over my nose to try and filter the air. Looking up at the ceiling where the chimney stack exited through the roof, I saw flames starting to spread out across the beams. My eyes widened as I realized what was happening. They set the cabin on fire.

  Chapter 23

  Ashes

  The flames danced across the wood ceiling, spreading quickly, consuming everything in their path. It wasn’t long before the walls were aflame as the fire leapt from surface to surface. The smoke filled my lungs and stung my eyes while the heat quickly became unbearable. I could barely make out the cats through the thick haze of fumes as they paced back and forth on the porch, waiting for us to surrender and exit the inferno they created. All I could think about was the decision we were going to have to make. Die an agonizing death in a house fire, or run out into the open teeth of three large cats. Escape seemed impossible.