Auggie parked next to the restaurant side, and Evelyn let us in through the back door. We traipsed upstairs to her apartment. She flipped on some lights as Auggie and I collapsed on her sofa. We soon smelled the soothing aroma of fresh coffee.
She’d laid the laptop on her dining table, and motioned us over. “Can you two see if you can get this going? I need to visit my powder room.”
I plugged in the cord and turned it on. The welcome screen materialized.
“There’s a bit of luck,” Auggie said as he sat in front of it. “There’s no initial password, anyhow.” The icons popped into view.
I dragged a chair up beside him. “That is lucky. I’m definitely not a hacker.” We surveyed the icons, the usual stuff. I pointed at the screen. “That’s the one she will be most interested in.”
Evelyn came back through the hall. “Is it working?”
“Very well,” I answered. “So far, anyway.”
She bent over our shoulders. “Try that one.”
Auggie double-clicked the BANKING icon. It led us to the website for the city bank that Tony must have used. “That’s Richard’s bank,” she added. The menu advertised a variety of services, password protected.
“Hmmm,” said Auggie, “now we do need to do some hacking.”
“What is the one most important thing to Richard and Tony?” I asked.
“Themselves, most definitely,” said Evelyn.
We tried several differing combinations of names, letters, anything we thought Tony might have used, but to no avail. “We’re not getting into the bank site,” said Auggie. “Let’s try this one that says Accounts.” It turned out to be a private database of Tony’s legers – password required.
Auggie tried RICHARD. BABY. BABIES. ANTHONY. WAVERLY. He hit pay dirt with LOZANO. “Should have known, conceited bastard that he was.”
LOZANO got us access to several choices. Evelyn first selected the one with Richard’s name. She gasped as she saw the available balance. “Go back, Auggie. See what else there is.”
By the time we’d investigated the various sections, we’d found a huge amount of money. Tony’s private account also indicated a transfer that same day into it, from Richard’s. “If Richard found this out, that would have been enough for him to finish Tony,” observed Auggie.
Evelyn sighed. “Absolutely. Well, now we know where the money is. The next thing to figure out will be how to get it out of there, and I’m pretty sure that’s beyond our capabilities – but I think I know someone who will be happy to help. Especially for a substantial reward.”
Her land line phone rang. We looked at each other.
The phone did not stop ringing. After the tenth ring, she answered.
“Yes?”
Auggie and I watched the color drain from her face. “I’ll be up as soon as I get dressed.” She laid the phone on the table. “That was Richard,” she said as she sank into her papa-san chair. “He wants me to come to the House. He said if I don’t he’ll start shooting the girls one by one until I do. He said I’ll be able to hear the gunfire.”
Evelyn picked up the laptop and stowed it in a tote bag along with the cord.
We all got in the Tahoe and drove the dirt ribbon road.
33
Auggie parked behind the company van, in the front driveway. The door itself was standing open, buffeted by the wind. My skin crawled as I watched it swing.
Death came from the Pit in the form of a thick blanket of mud, slime, and corrosives. The edge scoured the ground it touched, a lava flow of revenge. The faces hovered around the progressive edge of the onslaught, monitoring the progress, guiding the way. Hundreds of faces were joined by tens of hundreds more. Translucent bubbles with features cast a silent glow across the desert. Patterns of skull and bone dotted the surface of the blanket, macabre weeds in a dark field.
It reached the edge of the back driveway as we stood on the front steps.
Evelyn went in through the front door. There was no one in sight. Auggie followed her, me trailing as we walked through the hall. The only light came from within the office of Richard Waverly.
She paused in the doorway; the man himself was sitting at his desk, his gun lying on the desktop in front of him. “I’m here, Richard,” she said. “What do you want of me?” Her voice was strong and sure and I felt her radiating confidence.
“Come in, dear. Leave your friends at the door, however.”
She turned to us, placing her hands on each of our shoulders. “Go upstairs, very quietly,” she whispered. “Get the girls out of here. I’ll be fine. Quickly!”
The dark blanket began to mount the rear steps to the back door. The tendrils outside the House were thick and black, and many faces inspected them with evident pride. Bones began to wedge themselves into the adobe.
Auggie whispered, “I’ll go upstairs. You get Corazon and Lupe.” He pointed to the two bedroom doors nearby, just across from the kitchen. I nodded. He mounted the steps.
Raised voices came from the office.
I paused for a moment, my eyes drawn to the back door down the hall.
An unearthly glow illumined the window and I nearly lost my bladder. “Oh dear God,” I breathed.
I turned the knob of the nearest door, entered, and dashed to Lupe’s bed. I shook her. “Lupe!” Her eyes opened slowly, then wide as she gasped and sat up. “Please. We’ve got to get all the girls out. Something really BAD is happening. I’m going for Corazon, Auggie is upstairs. Help him!” She nodded, threw off her sheets, and grabbed her robe.
Cora and I soon darted into the hall from her room. “Look!” she hissed. A dark sludge was leaching into the hall from underneath the back door, the stench of it comprised of a thousand dead and dying. “”Dios Mio!” she cried, gagging. We turned away and dashed to the foot of the stairs.
Shouted words ricocheted like poison arrows through the hall. I glanced at the office door, now shut.
Sounds of a thousand heartbeats began to reverberate throughout the walls.
Ka-THUMP. Ka-THUMP. Ka-THUMP.
The tendrils covered the House, a dark web of death. Their roots bulged as the blanket of sludge formed a moat most of the way around the House, and fed them.
Ka-THUMP.
Long bones protruded from the web work and provided a grip for the advancement of the cause. The faces approved as the wind passed through them without effect.
Ka-THUMP.
Two of the girls were headed down the stairs when the shots rang out from within the office, shattering what remained of any sanity in the House. I dashed to the office door.
Ka-THUMP.
Evelyn stood over Richard’s body, the gun on the floor at her feet. As I watched, several tendrils of something I never wanted to touch broke through the hardwood flooring beneath his body and prodded him. “Evelyn!” I screamed. “Come on!”
Ka-THUMP.
Her eyes met mine for the briefest of moments, but an eternity of pain. I grabbed her arm. “Come! We have to save the girls!” Black tendrils dangled down through the chimney, caressing the andirons. One encircled Waverly’s neck as we gasped. Both of us gagged from the stench.
Ka-THUMP.
I watched for a half a second as faces came to inspect him.
Ka-THUMP.
We dashed into the hall, where the women were coming down as fast as they could with their bellies.
Ka-THUMP.
Lupe was outside with several. Cora paused at the foot of the staircase; she looked up and saw Auggie at the top. “Ten, Auggie,” she screamed.
KA-THUMP
“Here’s eleven!” he shouted as he and Estrella leaped down the last steps.
KA-THUMP
Small bones skittered across the oak floors in advance of the endless black.
KA-THUMP
“GET IN THE CARS!” Auggie screamed.
KA-THUMP
I scrambled into the van, frantically fumbling to see if the keys were in it. I snatched at the visor, and th
ey dropped down.
KA-THUMP
I shook as I jammed them in the ignition.
KA-THUMP
The girls scattered, yanking each other up into the vehicles.
KA-THUMP
As the last girl leapt into the Tahoe, the edge of the slime arrived.
KA-THUMP
Auggie gunned his engine as I floored the van. Beside me I saw Evelyn watching behind us with an expression of unmatched horror as I tore across the driveway and on to the dirt ribbon road.
KA-THUMP KA-THUMP KA-THUMP
The Tahoe was right on our bumper.
KA-THUMP KA-THUMP KA-THUMP
The tendrils were thick and black, and very nearly shrouded the entire House. The blanket of sludge and bones was rising steadily, now nearly over the windows of the first floor. The front door was totally blocked. All of us could hear and feel the vibration through the floorboards of the vehicles, despite the rough dirt road.
The sound beat its drum within our brains.
KA-THUMP
As we got to the edge of the Junction property, we skidded to stops and some jumped out, others watched through the windows in terror.
KA-THUMP
The tendrils and sludge were ripping and pulling the House apart at its seams.
KA-THUMP
We could hear the sickening crash and crumble of its sturdy timbers, no match for the vengeance of the faces.
KA-THUMP KA-THUMP KA-THUMP
KA-THUMPKA-KATHUMPKA-THUMPKA-THUMP-KA-THUMP
And then, silence. Wind howled with the chill of the dead through the open doors of the vehicles.
The House was gone.
We were piling back into the cars when the far gas station exploded into the night with a huge KA-BOOM! and a massive fireball.
“GOOD CHRIST!” screamed Evelyn.
Beneath our tires, the ground convulsed.
KA-THUMP
“IT’S BACK!” screamed Cora.
KA-THUMP KA-THUMP KA-THUMP
We sped toward the row of rooms and the children. Lights had popped on in the housing and the rest of the workers were scrambling into their vehicles. Auggie slid the Tahoe to a stop in front of mine and Donna’s rooms, jumped out and ran to her door. She was just running out with the girls. Auggie snatched Bryan up, hugged him to his chest, and ran madly back to the Tahoe.
KA-THUMP
Gravel and dirt spun from tires as the Junction became a literal ghost town.
Fire alarms went off as the Junction erupted into flame. The gas station fire quickly spread into the nearby gift shop, and the adjacent cooking equipment and natural gas lines. A volcano blew Evelyn’s apartment into oblivion. The giant JOHNSON JUNCTION sign launched from the roof, landing on the other gas facility. The gas pumps there fed a third huge fireball which mushroomed and enveloped the ancient housing row.
About five miles down the highway we pulled the vehicles off on an exit ramp. We stopped at the top of the ramp and watched the cleansing.
It was definitely WORTH THE WAIT.
It’s been many years since Auggie and I met at the Junction. We’ve been in the Pacific Northwest ever since. We settled in a small coastal town needing a doctor – Auggie happily rediscovered his life’s work, often trading services for carpentry work or freshly caught fish. Bry’s in high school, working part time, an honor student in Advanced Placement classes. He’s already filling out applications for a wide selection of universities. I spend my days working in our own garden, keeping house, and occasionally writing and sewing. We spend some of our free time in long romantic walks on the endlessly evolving beach.
For me, the faces will never disappear.
Donna and Jessie and Julie returned to their ancestral home on the reservation. Their grandparents were overjoyed, and Donna sends me beautiful jewelry she’s created from time to time. I mail her garments of my own creation in return.
Evelyn found a wonderful hacker who was more than willing to risk imprisonment for a tenth of the take. He left the area soon thereafter and disappeared.
We reunited the girls with their families, and Evelyn administered their relocations. In a strange twist of fate she feels responsibility for all those grandchildren. All of the families prospered – and all of them kept their babies. Evelyn keeps in close touch with them, her Spanish improving with each letter she writes. She emailed me a photo of her tutor – a very handsome man.
She was generous in her division of the remaining funds.
Will we each remember this lifetime of suffering, our loneliness, our pain?
Auggie made me forget.
But I often dream of the faces.
Author’s Note:
This is, of course, a work of fiction.
However – dear reader, parts of the novel stem directly from my own life experience. A time of my life that I would rather be able to forget, a real place that still sends bad energy whirling around me when I pass by. People that have haunted me. Perhaps in writing I have found some bizarre catharsis, only time will confirm. Perhaps not. The wonderful people were truly that, the horrible people truly horrible.
And the House? The House is real – although it burned to a shell a few years ago. But it does exist and the times in my life I have physically stood before it, barred from entering its abandonment by a barrier surrounding the property, I have felt my own skin crawl with delicious unrecognized memories. I am connected to the House through time and space, nebulous feelings only in this current life I live. I am a part of its history in some way, a character in its own story, a ghostly wisp floating through its many rooms.
And I won’t really remember, will I?
J. W. DeBrock
Johnson Junction Page 16