by Baker Chris
Hoheria and Kevin had a hurried conversation before the others left. Kevin stepped up to Paki. ‘What’s for dinner?’ he asked.
‘He’s obsessed with his stomach,’ Hoheria said. ‘It’s the second most important thing in his life.’
Paki coughed politely. Cheryl laughed. ‘They’re all the same,’ she said. Then she turned serious. ‘But thanks for staying. We appreciate the support.’ Cheryl’s fingers twisted and wrung a handkerchief. Eric’s gaze went from one adult to the other.
That night everyone was full of roast goat and vegetables and comfortable in Paki and Cheryl’s home. They were all asleep except Hoheria, wide-awake and worried about Cheryl. It was after midnight. Moonlight lit the room. Hoheria heard a noise from Eric’s mattress. She watched as the boy stood up and stretched. Fascinated and horrified, she couldn’t tear her eyes away as he lifted his arms over his head, breathed deep and grew taller. Clothing split and fell away as Eric’s legs lengthened and his trunk thickened. His face twisted and contorted. Shark teeth sprouted and eyes bulged. His hands became claws. Scales covered his body. Unaware of Hoheria’s scrutiny he began a capering dance, leaping from side to side and up and down, almost high enough to touch the ceiling. He giggled, a high-pitched chittering noise, as he flexed his bony fingers and stepped away from his mattress. A lavender-stuffed pillow lay in his path. With a hiss he kicked it aside. The movement freed Hoheria from her paralysis and she leaped to her feet with a shout of ‘Haere atu! Leave us alone!’
The creature – it wasn’t Eric any more – stopped. It turned towards Hoheria, standing with her arms raised to ward it off. She looked right into its eyes. Not a trace of anything human looked back. It hissed, drew back its lips and prepared to leap.
It was still flexing its muscles when Paki hit it from one side and Kevin from the other, knocking it to its knees. But it regained its feet well before the two men. It swung an arm at Paki, striking him on the side of the head with an open-handed blow that lifted him off his feet and left him sprawled unmoving on the other side of the room. The monster turned its attention on Kevin, now standing, his knife drawn, his hands weaving. The creature swung at Kevin, claws extended. He heard it hiss as he ducked and the blow passed harmlessly overhead.
He struck in the instant before the creature recovered its balance. The thrust should have gone deep, up under the ribcage and right to the heart, but Kevin’s knife turned on the scales and he felt himself seized in a two-handed grip around the neck.
Kevin watched in helpless terror as the creature pulled him towards its mouth, grotesquely swollen with rows of shark teeth. He tried to wrench free but the grip was like steel.
Then he heard Hoheria shout and out of the corner of his eye he saw her standing, arms raised and blue flames dancing around her hands. Blue flames? What was going on? The monster saw too. It loosened its grip on Kevin’s throat and he wrenched himself free, leaping back out of reach. It peered at Hoheria like it wasn’t seeing too well, and Kevin sensed the uncertainty in it. Without thinking, he kicked it as hard as he could between the legs. With a shriek of outrage the creature leapt straight at the window. There was a splintering crash, a shower of broken glass, and it was gone.
Cheryl was the first to move. She’d been immobile with horror during the fight, but with the creature gone she ran to Paki. She lifted his head into her lap and started wailing.
Paki’s eyes opened and he drew in a shuddering breath. He looked around. ‘You guys okay?’ he asked. Cheryl cradled his head, hugging him tight.
Hoheria and Kevin looked at each other. Eye signals spoke a volume.
‘Probably,’ Kevin said. His throat hurt. ‘The window’s fucked though.’
Paki took in the room, wreckage and upheaval in the candlelight. ‘Now we know what Eric does,’ he said. ‘Wonder what happens next?’
They sat up all night talking about the monster. What had Eric turned into? And what was going on with Hoheria and the flames?
‘I don’t know,’ she said when Kevin asked her. ‘I don’t know where they came from or what they can do.’ She looked at her hands. ‘The fire doesn’t burn me.’
Paki sat deep in thought and finally he spoke. ‘You must be doing something to make the fire come.’ He remembered his Nanny Riria when she discovered he had Te Matakite. She’d told him repeatedly to concentrate, to get all his thoughts in order.
‘You’ve got a lot of power there, boy,’ she’d say. ‘You have to learn how to use it, before it starts using you.’
‘What were you thinking when the flames appeared?’ Paki asked Hoheria. ‘Were you angry at the creature? Did you want to hurt it?’
She turned to Paki, puzzled. ‘That’s the thing,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t angry.’ She looked at Kevin. ‘I just wanted to keep you safe. I was thinking of Eric too. I could see him locked inside that monster, all hurt and confused.’ She looked from one hand to the other. ‘That’s when the flames came. With feelings of love, not hatred or anger.’
Paki nodded. ‘My nanny said something like that. Hatred clouds The Sight, she told me. It’s a poison. It weakens you and makes you sick. Love’s the key.’
‘Hard to love a thing like that when it’s trying to kill you,’ Kevin said. Paki put a hand on his shoulder.
‘That’s the trick,’ he said, his words meant for Hoheria. ‘You have to see past what’s right before your eyes.’ He laughed. A five-centimetre gash marked his cheek. ‘It isn’t always easy to stay focussed.’ He thought back to Nanny Riria’s advice after he got in a fight at school. ‘Fight as hard as you can, but you’re not allowed to hurt anyone.’
Nobody could sleep, they didn’t even try. They sat up drinking tea until the sun was high.
‘We’d better go to the markets,’ Paki said. ‘We’ll put the word around about Eric.’ He caressed Cheryl’s shoulders. The muscles were tight with tension. ‘I wonder if there are any others?’
‘There probably are,’ Hoheria said. ‘You and I’ll have our work cut out if we’re the only people who can see them.’
Paki looked like a tonne weight had descended on him. ‘We can do without this shit,’ he said.
They arrived at the markets just before lunch, a load of dried herbs ready to trade along with some of the clothes Cheryl had made, embroidered shirts and blouses and baggy patchwork trousers. Their tent was standing in its usual place, next to the people who were spit-roasting a goat and selling slices of meat served with dried-fruit-and-pūhā salad, and potatoes roasted in the hot ashes at the edges of the fire.
‘Gidday!’ they cried. ‘Where’s your boy?’
Cheryl looked at Paki. ‘What are we going to tell people?’ she asked.
Paki thought for a moment, then spoke to the middle-aged couple and the teenage boy tending the roasting goat. ‘He’s been crook, and he’s resting.’ He turned back to Cheryl. ‘Don’t worry, love, I’ll handle all that. Hoheria and I can check out what’s been happening. You and Kevin can run the stall.’
Kevin grinned at Cheryl. ‘I always fancied myself as a businessman.’ He leaned on the trestle table and opened his eyes wide at Hoheria. ‘Boy, have I ever got a deal for you!’
The first couple Hoheria and Paki saw, Charles and Carole, were nervous at the suggestion they might have seen anything strange. Charles was Chinese, Carole Pākehā. They’d been together since the aftermath of the Fever. They’d had their moments with the Ponaturi, and although Carole took the attacks by small, malevolent demons in her stride, Charles was disbelieving.
‘Possessed?’ he said. ‘Children? No way.’ He laughed and slapped the table laden with fresh vegetables. ‘Too much wacky baccy,’ he said with finality.
Paki knew from long experience when he was up against a shuttered mind. ‘Well do us all a favour,’ he said. ‘Anything funny happens, tell us.’
A similar thing happened at most of the stalls, except where Charles had been bluntly sceptical most of the people they saw listened politely and promised to pass on
news of any strangeness. But nonetheless they doubted the tale of possession. ‘It’s probably all too much for them,’ Hoheria told Paki. ‘They’d rather not believe.’
‘More fool them,’ Paki said. ‘They’ll find out the hard way.’
It took them over an hour to get right around the markets and when they arrived back at the stall a worried-looking Kevin was gesturing with his head to the interior of the tent. Cheryl was in there, bent over and embracing a small figure. Paki looked closely. It was Eric. The boy was wrapped in a blanket, his face was cut and streaked with dried blood, and his hair was muddied. He saw Paki and Hoheria approach and he burrowed into Cheryl. She raised her head and spoke. ‘He’s hurt. What are we going to do?’
Eric was having trouble standing upright, clutching his groin and emitting the occasional groan.
‘What’s the matter, dear?’ said Cheryl.
Eric buried his face in her bosom so his reply came out muffled. ‘Sore,’ he said. He was naked under the blanket and he shivered when Paki pulled it back to get a better look at him.
‘I did that, didn’t I,’ said Kevin. They all looked at him questioningly. ‘When I kicked that creature,’ he said. ‘Looks like Eric cops the knocks for the Ponaturi.’
‘Then we’d better get it out of him,’ said Hoheria. ‘But how?’
8
We’re Not Hurting Eric
‘The Ponaturi’s still in there,’ said Hoheria, trying to hide her revulsion at the monster lurking within the child’s flesh. ‘We’d better move fast.’
Paki was impassive. ‘I know. This might get really hard.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The poor little bugger’s probably done for.’
Hoheria’s jaw dropped. She gasped. ‘No way! There must be something we can do!’
‘Can you fight that thing? It’s too strong for the kid. I’m worried that it’s too strong for me. I can’t stop it. How can we kill it without hurting Eric?’
Hoheria looked at Eric in the tent and Cheryl holding him close.
‘There has to be a way,’ she said. ‘We can’t hurt the boy any more.’ Tears showed in her eyes. This was really important. She simply had to look after Eric. What hope was there for any of them if she couldn’t? She’d do whatever was necessary to protect the young boy. Then she heard Cheryl’s voice behind her.
‘I don’t care if that monster kills all of us. We’re not hurting Eric.’ She was standing in front of the boy, who was peering around her, frightened and confused.
‘Okay,’ said Paki. ‘We’ll take him home with us. And we’ve got eight hours before he changes and kills us all.’ He looked resigned. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’
Back at home, after a good meal of roast chicken and vegetables, they sat around the table, Eric between Cheryl and Hoheria
‘Well?’ said Cheryl. ‘Are we going to tell him, or what?’
‘Best we do,’ said Kevin. He looked questioningly at Paki. ‘He’s only a little kid, but I think he still needs to know, doesn’t he? It’s his life. If I was him I’d want someone to tell me.’
‘I agree,’ said Paki. ‘As long as we can do it without terrifying him. We owe it to the boy. He’s only small, but he’s smart enough to handle the truth.’
They all looked at Eric. He’s so young, thought Hoheria, so frail.
‘Tell me what?’ said Eric.
Paki took a deep breath. ‘Tell you why you feel the way you do.’
‘Why?’ Eric sounded frightened.
Paki put his hands on Eric’s shoulders. He felt the faint stirring of misgivings. He wondered if the others shared them. He suspected Hoheria was having second thoughts.
‘You have to be strong to hear this.’
Eric cowered away.
Maybe they should just keep quiet, Paki thought. He recalled his own childhood. Had people been so concerned about his feelings?
Eric’s eyes searched Paki’s face, looking for clues.
‘You’ve got one of the Ponaturi living inside you,’ Paki said.
The boy gasped. ‘What does it do?’
‘You know when you can’t remember what happens?’
Cheryl put a protective arm around Eric. The boy nodded.
Paki continued. ‘It makes you change. Into something not very nice. It isn’t you, though. You’re trapped inside the creature then.’
The boy looked aghast at Paki. ‘It makes me change? Into something horrible?’ He looked around the table at everyone, then burst into tears. ‘I don’t want to be a monster,’ he choked out between his sobs. ‘Please help me.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Paki. ‘We can save you. You’ll be okay.’ He worked on making his words sound confident, and he watched Eric’s face relax slightly. He wished he felt reassured himself. What could they do? What was going to happen?
‘There’s no book of instructions for this situation,’ Paki reminded everyone later. ‘We’re on our own. Whatever we do, there’s nobody but us.’
‘Thanks,’ said Kevin. ‘That’s just the sort of cheerful shit I needed to hear.’
He turned to Eric, huddled in Cheryl’s arms and suddenly looking worried again. ‘Do you remember anything that happened last night?’
The boy thought for a moment. ‘I remember lying in my bed by the stove. Next thing, I was waking up in a veggie garden in the daytime.’ He shivered and blushed at the same time. ‘I didn’t have any clothes on. I had to take a blanket off a clothesline. I hope the people aren’t mad at me.’
‘They’ll be fine,’ said Cheryl. ‘Anyway, we’ll take the blanket back and explain to them. They’ll understand.’ She turned to Paki. ‘Did you find out anything useful today? Is there anyone else?’ She held Eric close and stroked his hair.
‘Not a thing,’ said Paki. ‘But I’ll bet there’re others.’
In the end it was Kevin who defined the real problem. ‘We’ve all been talking about driving the Ponaturi out,’ he said. ‘That’s probably the easy bit. The hard bit is what we do once it’s out.’ He leaned across the table to Eric. ‘You’ll be right, little brother.’
Eric looked almost desperate, wanting to believe, but still not sure.
Kevin collected his thoughts. ‘We just have to deal with the thing once it’s out. Stop it getting back in.’
‘How?’ said Hoheria.
‘Not sure. Maybe you can use that blue fire.’ He laughed. ‘It’s got to be more than just a good look at parties.’
‘Parties? They’re a thing of the past.’
They started by running a deep bath and adding a potful of lavender tea.
‘Yuck,’ said Kevin. ‘I’m glad I don’t have to drink this stuff.’
‘Spare a thought for Eric,’ Cheryl said. ‘He does.’
As well as the tea they added a bottle of lavender oil to the hot water and when everything was ready, Hoheria handed a cup of lavender tea to Eric.
‘It tastes like medicine,’ she told the boy. ‘Try and drink it all down in one go, then jump in the water.’
‘What’s going to happen?’
‘I don’t know. But the creature should be driven out.’
Eric drank the tea, swallowing the cupful of lukewarm liquid in three gulps. For a few seconds nothing happened. They all stood in the bathroom, uncertain in the candlelight. Then the boy gave a cry of pain and convulsed. He didn’t even get time to step towards the bath before he was doubled up, retching. His eyes bulged. They looked like they were about to pop out of his head. His lips drew back, his body twitched and heaved. Quickly Paki stepped forward, picked him up and placed him gently in the water. As soon as he felt it, Eric started thrashing, flailing his arms and yelling in pain.
‘Stop it!’ he cried. ‘It hurts. Get me out!’ In answer Hoheria bent over the boy and while holding him down with one hand managed to get her other arm around his neck. She kept his head from slipping under the water and she kept the rest of Eric submerged. But because of the way she was standi
ng she was the only one who saw, in the dim light, what happened.
The creature emerged from Eric’s mouth, vile and ectoplasmic, a formless green shape. It gathered itself above Eric’s face and before Hoheria’s horrified gaze turned into a small Ponaturi with a wide hāpuku mouth and many-jointed lobster limbs. Paki pushed forward, just in time to see the creature spring off Eric’s chest and attach itself to Hoheria’s face. He reached for it to pluck it off and hurl it away, but his fingers closed on air as the creature turned back into something like green smoke and vanished into Hoheria’s mouth. She immediately fell backwards. Paki caught her before she hit the floor.
‘What happened?’ cried Kevin. ‘Are you okay, girl?’
There wasn’t any answer. Hoheria was unconscious in Paki’s arms.
They lay Hoheria on a mattress by the stove. Kevin stretched out beside her, his arms around the young woman.
‘What do we do now?’ Cheryl said. ‘She looks well enough. Her pulse is strong.’ She held Eric close. The boy was exhausted.
‘I’m not sure how we handle this,’ said Paki. He looked at Kevin. ‘Your call, brother. But for my money we have to try a repeat of what we did with Eric and this time be ready for the creature.’
‘Sure,’ said Kevin. ‘We have to get it out of her.’ Hoheria’s hair was draped across his face. ‘I don’t even care if it gets in me next. As long as it’s out of her.’ Tears started. He coughed and swallowed. ‘What’s it doing in there? What’s it going to make her do?’
That night they tried to get Hoheria to take food and drink. Kevin sat her up, but her head lolled, her eyes stared, and her mouth hung open. The young woman remained unconscious.
But something was going on, Paki insisted. ‘Don’t ask me how I know,’ he said. ‘But everything looks different to how it was with Eric. I can see the Ponaturi. It isn’t grinning, either. I think we just have to wait and see. Maybe we should hold off on the lavender bath.’
Only Eric slept. They could feel his relief as he snuffled and snored lightly, asleep in Cheryl’s arms. Everyone else looked nervously around the room, dimly lit by a beeswax candle. Kevin continued to hold Hoheria. The candle guttered, almost finished. Paki rose to replace it and Hoheria’s breathing changed. As Paki lit the new candle she opened her eyes and focussed on him, peering over Kevin’s shoulder. Paki stopped, transfixed by Hoheria’s gaze. She seemed to see right into him and he had the sudden, terrible sensation of somebody walking around inside his head, picking up and examining old memories, rummaging through the most precious things from his past. He wanted to yell, ‘Knock it off!’ but he was powerless and while he stood immobile Hoheria began to change.