THE EVENT

by Jamie Heppner

  "When I was sitting in the car, I was just fiddling around. I know nothing works in there, I've been playing with it for weeks. Then I put my hands on the steering wheel and felt a tingle come from underneath my palms."

  Dawn started to nod energetically.

  "After a second the car radio started to crackle as static came from the speakers. Only when I saw the werewolf creeping towards the cabin did I think of trying the horn. I knew I had to warn everyone somehow, so I concentrated on the horn as hard as I could and pushed down on the button...then you heard what happened."

  "Hold on a second." Shade's father got up and started rummaging through a corner of the little cabin. He pulled aside things like their winter clothes and boots. Items that seemed odd since the winter still hadn't come. Eventually he let out a "yes" as he pulled something out of the mess. "Try it again with this."

  Shade reached out his hand and accepted a flashlight gingerly. The light was off as he grabbed it, but once again, he felt the light tingle on the palms of his hands as he held it between them. He concentrated hard on the feeling and it intensified under his hands, but nothing happened. Shade started to hand the flashlight back to his father once again, feeling like he was a failure. Was he truly the only one not to change by the events?

  Shade's mother spoke up just before he gave it back. "Turn the switch on Shade." Shade looked up from the flashlight to her and saw a weird smile on her lips. He once again held the flashlight in his hands and felt the tingle. With his thumb, he flicked the switch and at once, the small cabin was lit up with a brilliant beam of light. The shock caused him to drop the flashlight and it tumbled to the floor its light out once again.

  "Do that again." Shade's father spoke with a whisper. His eyes were intense as he stared at the floor with the flashlight slowly rocking back and forth.

  Shade reached down and touched the flashlight again on the floor. One finger brushed it and once again, a beam of light shot out of the front. Holding his finger on the case, he looked up to see his father staring at him with a huge smile on his face.

  "Now, that will be a useful talent I think."

  Shade hid the blush on his face by letting go of the flashlight once again, plunging the room back into its usual state of semi darkness.

  Eventually, the list of items Shade's father continued to bring out ended. He had him try to use almost every electrical item in the entire cabin. For the most part everything he tried would work, as long as it had worked before. Items that were broken still sat as lifeless as they had prior.

  The one item the General made him try a few times was the radio. Shade would hold it as his father spun the dial back and forth multiple times but only static came from the speaker. The General was disappointed, but didn't share why. The oddest part though was when he dug out his old digital watch and handed it to Shade.

  "You can have this now I think." He said as he strapped it on Shade's wrist. He had to use the smallest setting but it did fit. Within moments, the numbers on the blank face came to life once again and started to tick off the seconds.

  "We will have to guess at what time to set it tomorrow with the sun at noon. It won't be exact but close enough I guess."

  As the excitement around Shade's ability faded, he remembered Dawn pulling power from him to do something to the Werewolf.

  Dawn knew what he was going to ask even before he asked it; she had been letting him receive the attention for once and he didn't mind it at all.

  She once again placed her hands on the side of his temples and explained what happened. "It was like you finding out about your gift. I had an idea that if I could project an image of something into someone’s mind. Maybe I could do something else too. I sent him an image of bugs inside his own head at first. It seemed to be working but he was resisting. That’s when I used your power too. I sent him an image of him snapping his own neck. I didn't just show him though. I commended him to do it. He did."

  Dawn released her hands from his head and looked at his eyes. Her own eyes showing the power inside them she had learned she had. Shade relayed what she told him to his parents and the room was silent as they all sat staring at Dawn. Suddenly she didn't look like the young girl that had come into their lives so many months ago. Somehow, she was a lot bigger.

  The silence followed for some time and Dawn became more and more uncomfortable. Finally, after having had enough of the scrutiny she let out a loud breath and projected an image of herself to all the other people in the cabin. It was an image if her as a monster, long straggly hair and a wide mouth. Horns came out of her head and fire shot from her eyes. Dawn held it for a time longer to let it sink in then quickly cut it off.

  The silence continued for only a few more seconds until the whole group broke up in laughter, the hysterical image still fading from their minds.

  "I think that sums it up for her, she is NOT a monster." The General moved to the back of the cabin again and pulled out one of his old sabres from piles of rubbish. He brandished it before the group a moment flicking it back in forth with a style from his military training of before.

  "It would also be a good idea for the two of you to learn how to fight, and soon. Next time we might not get so lucky."

  Morning broke and true to his word, the General started their training. He wouldn’t let them touch the sword yet, afraid they would cut off their own fingers with it. For practice, he had some old dead wood shaved down to a very rough resemblance of a sword.

  Not long after some basics, he had the young couple were standing face to face and practicing some basic sword techniques. Shade picked it up slowly while Dawn grasped the basics fast and always wanted to learn more. With very little practice she could hold her own should the need arise.

  The days turned to weeks and the family of four got into a routine of waking, practicing, and eating. They would play in the woods and the lake, forage for food or game as was necessary, and then sit around the campfire inside the cabin talking about the day.

  One conversation always came up more often than others did. What to do about the lack of weather change. Was it something they needed to worry about was the main concern?

  The General was the one who thought it would become a problem one day. However, he couldn't explain why the lake wasn't receding, or the trees up near the edge of the valley weren't dying. He had gone and looked himself. It had only taken him about two hours.

  The rest of the family thought he did it just to see how fast he could go but he swore it was to see if things had changed. "Eventually something has to give," he would say. "Things just can't work this way forever." Spring came to their valley the exact same way winter had, clear skies and no rain or snow. Shade had managed to calculate about what day it should be and programmed it into the watch that he now wore every day. At first, he had felt like there was always a small drain on his life when he wore it but eventually it had faded away until only the weight of it on his wrist was all he felt. Shade even had to expand the strap one day when he noticed pressure on his wrist from it being so tight.

  Spring passed with the same routine as the whole of last year. While no more animals seemed to be coming into the valley than there were before, there was a certain something in the air.

  Shade noticed he was walking a lot taller than he had before and his stamina had grown a lot since the hike down the mountain that terrible day. He would split wood alongside his father and for the most part keep pace, unless of course the General felt like showing off, as he did every occasionally, he split the lumber so fast he would often have to replace the handle when he was finished. It would crack and splinter under the hammering blows.

  It wasn't until late spring when his mother called him into the cabin. Dawn and Shade had decided to start a small garden with the seeds the General had brought back from his only excursion into town so long ago. Shade brushed off his hands as best as he could and proceeded to enter into the dimly lit cabin. Dawn and the General were lagging behind him for some rea
son but he shrugged it off and stepped inside. Shade's mother had her back turned to him and slowly spun around to face him.

  "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" She exclaimed while holding a slightly lopsided cake lit with seventeen candles. Then the other two blocked off the door behind him so he couldn't run while they all sang happy birthday to him in the much off key way that families usually do.

  "How did you know? I don't even know for sure."

  "We don't." The Oracle replied, "But it says so on your watch and we all believe it should be close enough that we should celebrate it! After all, you only turn seventeen once."

  Shade looked down at his watch, and true to their word, the date sat there. How could he have missed it? Time and events had just swept them along so fast it was easy to see how it could have happened.

  "We missed your birthday mom!" Shade looked at her and felt such guilt for not thinking about it before hand.

  "Ohh don't worry about that, I will be turning forty many more times, and you can catch the next one. It won't bother me. Besides, your father and I celebrated it in our own way so don't think about it anymore."

  The General’s face started to blush, but he came farther into the cabin to claim a small, carved wooden box and hand it over to Shade.

  "We all agreed that there weren't a lot of things that we could get you so we all pitched in to do this for you. It's not much but we hope you like it."

  Shade picked up the box; it was fairly small and fit lightly inside his palm. The wood carved in an intricate pattern that swam before his eyes. The knots twisting around each other it looked like they were moving. Shade moved the box over and over looking for the latch to open it up but couldn’t find it."

  The General chuckled to himself, "I made the box, but Dawn carved it for you, don't ask me how she did it either, that young woman has many skills it seems. As for the getting inside, I used some spare parts from the old junk we have around here. It's an electric lock. So, without smashing it open, I'm betting you are the only one in the world that can get inside it. Once we closed it up, it stayed that way."

  Shade placed his hands on the sides to open the box, but his father stopped him. "Maybe you will want to open it later when you have some free time to yourself." Then he smiled and lunged for the cake making everyone jump.

  "I'm Hungry!"

  The dinner progressed with some good conversation. Shade's mother had been saving a few things it seemed to spice up the night and they used them all with joy. Once the night had twisted down and everyone began to retire, Shade stepped out under the stars. The wooden box held lightly in his hands. Gazing up at the stars, he thought to himself for a while.

  "Seventeen...I guess that explains why my clothes have fit so poorly lately. I will have to try to do something about that soon or end up running around with a towel around my waist.

  The General broke his silence as he came up behind his son and had to reach up a little to place his hand on Shade's shoulder.

  "You have grown a lot this last year son. I think we all have, but you the most, Happy Birthday. You will probably want to look inside that box soon, but let me tell you something about it now. I don't know what it is. I found it when we first got here and didn't think much of it at the time. Only after I... changed, did it occur to me it might be special somehow. Take a look when you're ready and we can talk about it tomorrow if you like." Shade's father stepped back inside the cabin and closed the door quietly behind him, letting Shade be alone again under the stars.

  Time passed slowly as Shade looked up to the heavens, pondering where they were and how they had gotten there. So much had changed, yet it all seemed so natural. Shade looked down again at the box in his hands. The stars were bright and it offered more than enough light to see the details carved into its surface. Placing his hands on either side of the box Shade sent a small pulse through the wooden surface making a faint "click" sound, and a small seam opened around one side. Shade pulled the box open careful but its construction was very sturdy. His father rarely did anything half way. Inside the box was a picture of Shade's family, it was a few years old but his parents looked out of it at him smiling. Shade pulled the picture out to take a better look at it and underneath it was a stone.

  The stone was very odd to Shade; the first thing he noticed was it had life in it. Exactly like the plants and animals and his family. A strong life, it almost made the stone seem like it shone with its own light like a lantern yet it cast no light of its own. The surface was deepest of black and polished to a high shine making it look like you could stick your hand down inside of it. Shade couldn't be sure but it seemed that the stone was drawing the light into itself, pulling at the glow from the stars. Shade lifted it out and felt a small pull from him as well, nothing strong at all but the odd stone was pulling a tiny bit of light from him almost the same as the watch did on his wrist.

  Carefully he replaced it back in the box and put the picture carefully on top again. With a gentle push, he once again closed the lid and heard the click inside as the seam once again disappeared. With one last look up at the stars, Shade quietly snuck back inside the cabin to find his place for the night.

  Morning broke clear as usual. The General spoke up after they had eaten breakfast and were about to go on their usual daily routines.

  "So, I think it's time I went back into town, Shade needs some new clothes as well as Dawn here, and it wouldn't hurt to see if there is any news of what’s going on in the world. Perhaps there are other survivors."

  "NO!" Shade's mother yelled so loud that everyone in the crowded cabin jumped at the outburst.

  The General looked at her with an odd expression in his face. The yellow on black eyes concentrated on her so hard had she been able to see him she would have shrunk back.

  "No" she repeated again. "You can't leave this valley."The General started to protest but she raised a hand and he stopped short."If you leave here, ever, you will never come back again. I saw it, long ago."

  The General drew back a bit at that and looked around the room for support. Neither Shade nor Dawn offered him any though so his shoulders slumped and he spoke in a defeated tone.

  "Well then, I guess Shade and Dawn will have to go themselves. Shade is seventeen now and even if he's not as good at a blade as I would like, with Dawn there as well they should be able to protect themselves."

  Shade's mother turned her head to the side a moment as though listening to something.

  "Yes, that will be ok I think."

  Shade practically bounced out of his skin with excitement. He spared a glance at Dawn and she too looked ready to start running for the town at this very minute.

  "Well, if I'm trapped here then perhaps I will see what I can do about expanding this cabin some. I found many fallen trees near here a while back and something tells me I can drag them over here easy. I think it might be time we added another room or two onto this place, what with these two growing so fast its getting a tad crowded in here."

  Shade's parents decided that the morning would be the best time to leave; it would give them all day for preparations. The waiting was almost too much for Shade. Only with the prospect of being able to leave their little place did he realize exactly how much he wanted to do something different. The trip itself wouldn't be very far, but the excitement of something new kept causing him to lose concentration.

  During their blade practice, Dawn gave him a couple of good hits with the practice sword. Normally he could fend her off fairly well. Today just wasn't his day. After a particularly good hit, he raised his hands in defeat.

  "I have to stop before you hurt me so bad I can't go tomorrow."

  Dawn nodded and lowered her practice sword. A smile played across her lips as she put the blades away.

  "You are just as excited as I am, aren't you?"

  Dawn looked back over her shoulder and the smile was brighter.

  "Yeah, I thought so."

  Time itself seemed to slow that day, the sun held its place in t
he sky for so long the two youths must have felt that the earth itself had ceased to spin in the heavens. However, ever so slowly it began its downward fall to the mountains again. When they got back to the cabin, there were two packs inside the door, prepared for their departure in the morning. Shade snuck a peek inside to see that the basics were there. It was mostly water and dried food. The box he had gotten for his birthday tucked in a corner of the pack. Shade looked up to see his mother looking at him while making the evening meal.

  "I can't say you will need it, I don't even really know what it does. Something in the role it plays in our future is hidden, but I think it's better that you have it with you than it being left behind."

  "Thanks Mom." Shade said with a smile, as he stood tall. Is it me or is my mom getting shorter. Shade thought to himself as he stepped to her and gave her a large hug.

  "I'm pretty excited about being able to do something different."

  "I can tell." She pulled away from him to stir the mixture she had on top of the old wood oven. "Just don't let it cloud your eyes. There are things out there we don't know about yet. Things I only get glimpses of, you have to keep your wits about you and keep Dawn close. Something is happening out there and I can't see it all. The glimpses of the future are so brief sometimes it's hard to see what they are trying to tell me." Shade nodded to his mother then remembered she couldn't see. It was so odd sometimes to think that the way she moved with such confidence.

  "I will mom, don't worry. We will be fine."

  "Good, now go track down your father, dinner is almost ready."

  Shade and Dawn stepped out to see where the General had gone off too.

  As Dawn closed the door behind her, she heard the Oracle whisper to herself.

  "Whatever is out there, it scares me."

  Morning broke. Shade and Dawn were up dressed and ate as fast as they could, eager to be on their way. After settling their light packs on their backs, the General stopped them from practically running out the door and down the path.