Sons of Dust

by P. Dalton Updyke

  No one spoke, each lost in his own thoughts. Finally, Vinny said, “Where do we start?”

  Kate rose to her feet. “I’m sure Bo already started. We can work from the basement up.”

  “No,” Marcus said. “The other way around. Each time you saw Lucien, he was in a bedroom. You told us it was a long hallway, leading to the bedroom. They were probably walled in upstairs.”

  “Yes,” Katie said. And she smiled, this time a true one. “You’re right.”

  Gina insisted on coming, so Vinny lifted her in his arms and carried her to the stairway. “I can walk,” Gina protested. “Just put me down and let me lean on your shoulder.”

  “Forget it,” Vinny told her. “You’re not putting any weight on that leg as long as I’m around. You’re bleeding again, too.”

  “It started a little while ago.”

  “Hurt?”

  Gina nodded, but didn’t say anything. Vinny kissed the top of her head and followed Marcus up the stairs. Kate was in the lead, holding a candle up high. Their shadows were long and distorted by the flickering light, painted on the wall as they climbed.

  “Attic?” Kate asked as she reached the top of the landing.

  Vinny couldn’t make out Marcus’s expression in the dim light, but he saw the nod. Kate lifted the candle again and began to climb the second flight. The stairway grew steeper, narrower, and by the time they reached the top, he was out of breath. His arms ached. Gina moved slightly and whispered, “Let me walk the rest.” He tightened his hold on her.

  Kate opened the door and they were in the attic, a black dusty space crammed with old furniture and boxes. Attic treasures, sure. A massive half circle window took up almost one whole end of the attic space. Rain splattered against the glass, making a sound like sand. The rest of the attic was typical junk. An old dress form, trunks, a bicycle, boxes of clothes, toys, a Radio Flyer sled. Vinny’s eyes were adjusting to the light. He could make out more of the things jammed against the walls; boxes stacked on top of one another. Newspapers tied with twine, old books swollen to twice their normal size. The smell was of dust and old clothes, a smell that was, in some ways, comforting.

  He turned, Gina in his arms and stopped. “There,” he said.

  Kate and Marcus were beside him in an instant. “Where?” Marcus asked.

  Vinny motioned with his head. “Pick the light up.”

  Kate did and the candlelight illuminated a patch of wall.

  “The angle up here is wrong,” Vinny said. “Look at the window, and then the walls. This side is off; it isn’t as wide as the other side.”

  Marcus took a couple of steps forward and touched the wall.

  “Look!” Katie said. She moved the candle to the right and Vinny inhaled. A poster was propped against the wall. A movie poster; Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable. Marcus shoved a box aside. The poster went askew.

  The hole was right behind it.

  The hole was wide enough to walk through, if you ducked and walked sideways. The rough opening had been cut into the plaster. Plaster dust drifted down in a shower of white. Vinny peered into the darkness, trying to judge the depth of the space. He couldn’t make it out. Dark. And dark.

  “She used Gone With the Wind.” Kate’s voice was hollow. “I told Bo that Lucien was dressed like Rhett Butler.”

  Marcus stepped into the hole. Doubled over, his shoulders brushed the edges of the wall.

  Kate followed, the candle flickering.

  “Put me down, Vincent,” Gina said. “Now’s the time for me to stand on my own two feet.”

  He hesitated, but knew there was no way he’d be able to get through the hole carrying her. He set her down, gently. She didn’t put her bad foot on the floor, held it slightly up, bearing her weight on her left leg. He slipped an arm around her waist. She was breathing heavy. Her hand gripped his, slick with sweat. “C’mon,” she said hoarsely. “They’re leaving us behind.”

  Holding Gina up, Vinny went through the opening first. Using his left hand to brace Gina, he helped her climb over the jagged edges of plaster.

  They were in a hallway. A long, narrow corridor that ran the length of the house. As Vinny took another step, he heard the mewing, the squeal and scamper of tiny claws against rough wood. “Careful,” he muttered to Gina. “This place is infested with rats.” He felt her shudder. They took another step. Rubble littered the pathway, pieces of plaster, hunks of wallboard, chunks of brick. The sound of the storm was distant.

  Marcus and Kate were up ahead; Vinny could barely make them out in the gloom. They moved down the corridor, kicking trash out of the way as they went. There were no doors in this hall; it was like Kate’s vision in some ways, but not in others. Ahead of them. Marcus stopped.

  “What is it?” Vinny called.

  “Brick,” Marcus’s voice floated back. “There’s a patch of brick here. Goes all the way to the ceiling.”

  Next to him, Gina stumbled. He went to lift her again, but she brushed his hands away. “I can do it,” she said. “Let me.”

  As they got closer to Marcus and Kate, Vinny was able to make out the bricked portion of the wall. The bricks were old and crumbling, more gray than red. Ancient. “What now?” he asked.

  “We break the wall,” Kate answered.

  “Maybe it will be like before,” Gina’s voice was frail. “Magic.”

  Vinny stretched out both hands and touched the brick. It was cool under his touch, cold and damp. He expected it to disintegrate like it had when they were children, expected the brick to turn to ash and drift over his shoes.

  Nothing happened.

  Marcus disappeared into the darkness and when he materialized again, he was holding a long length of steel in his hand. “Not going to be easy,” he muttered as he swung the pipe against brick.

  Did the wall shudder, or was that just his imagination? Vinny wasn’t sure. Marcus swung the pipe and the wall moved. Dust drifted from crevices between the bricks. Vinny looked over his shoulder, saw another length of pipe on the floor and picked it up, swung. When the pipe hit the wall, a vibration traveled up Vinny’s arm. His hand tingled. He swung again, harder this time, grunting with effort. His work was rewarded by a small hole. Grunting, Vinny swung, hit the wall, the vibration stronger, the hole larger.

  Beside him, Marcus kept pace. He’d made a hole slightly larger than Vinny’s. Propping the pipe against the wall, Vinny used his hands to clear away more of the brick and mortar. When he had enough space, he shoved his fist through the hole. His hand closed on something soft, squishy. He jerked his hand back and opened his fingers.

  “Gross,” Marcus breathed next to him. “Maggots.”

  Vinny fought the urge to vomit. His hand was covered with fat white slugs that writhed and twisted between his fingers, only these maggots had teeth. His skin was dotted with blood.

  Vinny shook his hand frantically, the slugs flying off and hitting the wall with a splat sound that for some mad reason made him want to laugh. When he looked at his hand again, the worms were gone. His flesh was tattooed with tiny bites and the skin where he’d been bitten was beginning to swell.

  “Here,” Kate thrust something at Vinny. “Wrap your hand with this.”

  It was her scarf. Wrapping it tightly around his hand, Vinny picked up the piece of pipe and went back to work. It’s only worms, He told himself. Maggots. The biggest fucking maggots I’ve ever seen. Shuddering, he swung the pipe.

  The stench hit them as soon as the hole was big enough to peer through. The scent was shit, garbage, sour skin. Death. They worked in silence, banging the brick away, more and more of the black space beyond the corridor visible with each swing. At last, Vinny wiped the sweat off his head with a shaking hand. “Who’s first?” he asked hoarsely.

  Marcus put down his pipe. “I’ll go,” he said. “Then the women, then you, Vinny, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Marcus disappeared through the hole, followed by Kate. She turned and held both hands out to Gina. Gina
took Kate’s hands and pulled herself up and through.

  Taking a deep breath, Vinny climbed over the jagged pieces of brick.

  A match sputtered in the darkness. Vinny squinted, but it was blacker here, deeper black than any place he’d ever been. Marcus swore softly and then the match flame grew bigger and Vinny realized Marcus had lit another candle. When he lifted the candle, the room was a little more illuminated. He thought the wall they’d climbed through was white. As he turned, he realized the whole room was white. Eerie white. Thick white, white that moved—

  His body jerked and he reached instinctively for Gina. “What’s wrong?” she asked. Vinny raised a shaking hand and pointed at the walls.

  “Maggots,” he said. He swallowed; his throat made a clicking noise. “The whole place. Covered with them.”

  Only they weren’t maggots, really. They were bigger, thicker. More like grubs or slugs, thick white worms with legs and red heads. Vinny stared, unable to tear his eyes away. Two fell off the ceiling and landed on Gina. Gina screamed and beat at them with her hands. She hit one and it exploded, oozing greenish junk. “They bite!” she cried.

  She batted at the second one, and then more were falling off the ceiling, more were falling off the walls. Kate screamed, a thin, breathless sound and Marcus swore. Vinny didn’t move. He felt as though he’d been paralyzed.

  A maggot landed on his cheek. His skin tingled as it bit him. A second plopped into his neck, slithered up to his ear. The tingling pain was needle-like; sharp. Gina and Kate were screaming, screaming. He could see them, frantically beating at their bodies, flinging away white worms that writhed and twisted on their flesh.

  Marcus was breathing with great gasps. His chest was all but covered. As Vinny stared, a slug worked its way up Marcus’s neck, slithered across his face, working its way to his eye.

  His eye.

  Jesus Christ, his eye.

  Vinny jerked as if out of a deep sleep and took a step toward Marcus. The ground squished under his feet. He looked down; the floor was covered with the same twisting, biting parasites.

  “ ‘Worms shall be their blanket!’ ” he shouted. “Remember Kate!” He wasn’t sure if she heard him because her screaming was louder now, harsher. “Kate!” he raised his voice. “Worms shall be their blanket!!”

  Kate’s hands stopped flailing. Vinny could see the panic in her; could feel it, coming from her in waves. “Remember, Katie? The scripture Bo left you in the note? This is the place! It has to be! The chain is here!!”

  Gina cried out, slapping a hand against her ear. Yellow pus oozed between her fingers. “Let’s just find it and get out of here!”

  Marcus plucked away the worm crawling on his face, closed his fist around it with a cry. Vinny could see the fear and revulsion on Marcus’s face, but Marcus, bless him, didn’t slow down. In a second, he was beside Vinny.

  “See it?” Vinny asked.

  There was a bed against the wall; he could make out the frame in the murky light. A worm landed on Vinny’s shoulder. He killed it, squeezing it between his fingers almost absentmindedly. Gina was still screaming, but he pushed her voice out of his head. There was work to be done.

  The bed was little more than a frame. It was cracked and broken and as Vinny took another step, the floor trembled. Part of the frame broke apart, landing on the floor with a sickening thump. As it fell, Vinny saw something on the floor. Something long and linked.

  He went towards it.

  The chain was next to the bed, covered by masses of squirming maggots. As Vinny got closer, he thought his first impression was wrong; there was no chain here, nothing but worms and more worms…but then one of the slugs fell off and he saw the gray white bone underneath. Vinny put out a shaking hand for it. He swiped the twisting maggots away and his fingers closed over a circle of bone.

  “ ‘Maggots are your sheet, worms your blanket.’ ” Vinny wasn’t sure if it was his touch on the bone, or the verse he uttered, but as he pulled the ancient chain up, the maggots disappeared. He looked up and saw brick walls, thank God, brick, not slugs. Lightning flashed.

  And all hell broke loose.

  Chapter 42

  Kate

  Kate saw Vinny reach for the chain. His hand was shaking. As his fingers closed over the links, the maggots disappeared. Relief barely had time to register when lightning flashed. Gina screamed out, “He’s here!” There was a roar of sound behind them and Kate whirled and saw the shadow of Lucien tattooed on the wall.

  The shadow was more than she remembered. Humped and distorted, his hands claws with long, curved nails. He lifted his arms above his head and howled. But Kate couldn’t see the creature casting the shadow. She stared into the darkness, probing the blackness for Lucien.

  Nothing.

  Black broken only by flickering candle flame, illuminating patches of wall and ceiling, a slice of floor. Marcus was kneeling next to Vinny. Gina was leaning against the bed frame, her body canted at an odd angle. Kate turned, slowly, searching for the demon.

  The shadow was gone.

  “Got it!” Vinny held up the links, and even in the dim light, Kate could see that the chain was long. And broken. “You were right, Kate! He was here, all the time!”

  But that was wrong, wasn’t it? There was something missing, something—

  There was a sound beyond them, a shuffling sound and Kate’s heart missed a beat, then began to thud in her chest. The noise reverberated through the walls, echoed against the brick. The shuffling sound grew louder and it wasn’t just a shuffle anymore; it dragged.

  Shuffle, drag, Shuffle, drag.

  The wall next to the bed shook as whatever it was slammed into it. Gina made a sound and Kate was suddenly aware of the silence in the room, the sound of their breathing. No one spoke. They stood, frozen, listening to the shuffling step of madness, waiting.

  “What the fu--” Marcus began, but Vinny shushed him.

  Vinny’s face was lit by the candle flame. He swallowed, his eyes bulging. The chain was held tight in his hands but it was shaking now, the links tapping against the floor. The shuffling stopped, right outside the hole they’d made in the brick and Kate had time to wonder what it was, what animal Lucien had sent and then the brick exploded inward as a fist crashed through it.

  Gina screamed and more brick exploded inward. Dust swirled around them and the hole was bigger now, big enough for them to see the thing standing on the other side. At first, Kate didn’t understand what she was looking at it; a shadow? But then the shadow spoke and Vinny moaned.

  “How many times I gotta tell ya,” the shadow said. Its voice was a deep slur. “How many times I gotta say it?”

  “Please,” Vinny whispered. “Don’t, Daddy.”

  And then Kate saw it, clearly. And understood.

  It was Vinny’s father on the other side, Vinny’s father peering in at them through the jagged hole. His gray hair, cut in a brush cut when they were kids, stood on end. His face was dark with stubble, his eyes bulged. He grinned and Vinny made another sound. More brick crashed inward and then Vinny’s father stepped through the hole, his massive shoulders brushing against the ragged edges of broken wall.

  He was dressed in his work clothes, stained dark under the arms and down his chest by sweat. His name was stitched in gold thread over the breast pocket. Keys jangled from his belt. “I been telling you, Vincent. I know I been saying it. And I know you been hearing it. How many times do I gotta say it? You supposed to listen to your elders and betters, Vincent. You supposed to show respect. RESPECT.”

  He took another step into the room, his hand straying toward his belt buckle.

  But Vinny’s father is dead, Kate’s mind screamed, he died when we were kids! He’s dead and gone—

  “But not forgotten.” The thing leered at Kate, showing teeth stained yellow by tobacco. “I ain’t never been forgotten, right, boy?”

  Vinny had shrunken. He looked smaller, hunched over and sick. “Daddy, don’t.”

&
nbsp; The large hand was undoing the belt buckle now and the thing that was Vinny’s father grinned wider. “You’re not supposed to be in here, are you, Vincent? You supposed to be in this house?”

  “I didn’t--”

  “DON’T TELL ME YOU DIDN’T!” the thing roared as it pulled the belt free from its loops. It dangled from a massive fist like a snake. “I BEEN AT WORK ALL DAY, AND WHEN I GET HOME, WHAT DO I GET FROM YOU? SHIT! DISRESPECT!”

  The silver buckle flashed as Vinny’s father swung the belt. The sound of leather cracking was explosive. Vinny flinched as it hit him, but he held his ground and didn’t make a sound. “I’ll go easy on you, boy,” the thing said, “if you hand it over now. Give it to me and it won’t be so bad.” The thing held out a hand toward Vinny, reaching for the chain, and Kate’s paralysis was finally broken.

  “NO!” she screamed. “Don’t do it, Vinny! It’s a trick! It’s Lucien!”

  The thing roared and whirled toward her and Kate had time to see the buckle flash before the leather struck her face and neck. The pain was instant, stinging, like she’d been branded with a stripe of heat.

  “NO!” Vinny thundered. “Don’t you touch her!”

  He darted forward and the thing grinned and reached for the chain. “Give it to me, boy! Give it and I’ll leave them alone!”

  Vinny hesitated. Kate read his uncertainty, but before she had a chance to react, Gina pushed herself away from the bed, and stepped in front of Vinny.

  “No,” Gina said. Her face was calm. “Vinny will never give in to you again.”

  The thing howled and the belt lashed out. The strap caught Gina across the cheek; her head snapped to the right, but she didn’t cry out and then Vinny was roaring, pushing Gina aside. Kate had time to see the chain, still in Vinny’s hand.