After he wiped the tears away, he pulled out his cell phone. He was never going to be able to read the carved-out words in this light. He clicked on his phone’s flashlight app and aimed it toward the door, stepping closer as the markings took new life in the light.
Whatever was written, it wasn’t done so in English. Without thinking, he opened his mouth and tried to pronounce what the writing said, skimming along with his flashlight.
ULTRA HAEC QUAEDAM TENEBRAE MANENT
The crowbar lost its grip and flung from his dad’s hands, zipping by, just inches away from hitting Toby. He startled, jumping backward. He took in a deep breath, which was a terrible mistake. He gagged on the rancid air.
Instead of being worried that he had just almost hit his son with a crowbar, his dad yelled at him.
“Grab it and fucking help!”
The swearing surprised Toby. He jumped into action, swooping the bar up and hurrying over to the door. He handed it back to him.
“I’m going to jam it in there again. Once I do, grab it and help. We need the bar to catch a footing.”
His dad stuck it in the crack where door hinges should have been, pressing it in with the full strength of his body weight. When he noticed his dad stop pushing, change position, and prepared himself to yank on the bar, Toby stepped in. He grabbed the center of the bar and did a combination of pushing inward, in hopes it would help keep the bar lodged, and pushing back, in the direction of his dad, helping to apply the breaking pressure.
They both grunted quietly, trying to breathe for life while also not breathing because of the smell. They both used all their strength, and while the teamwork did stop the bar from dislodging, it didn’t do a thing to force the door open. It remained still, completely unwavering against their combined strength, as if the door were actually made of stone.
“God dammit!” his dad yelled out, releasing the bar.
Toby let go as well, at the same time, allowing the bar to come loose and fall to the floor, bouncing as it hit the concrete.
“Jesus Christ!” He wound back and kicked the door.
Pain surged through his dad’s leg. He bent and grabbed his foot. Toby didn’t think it looked like anger in his dad’s eyes anymore, but rather, sadness. He thought he saw tears but wondered also if maybe it was due to the smell. All of Toby’s senses were thrown off, strained and burning, distracting them from anything else.
He looked back at the door, at the engraved words, aged and faded with time, wondering for a moment if his dad had noticed them. His dad walked over and picked up the bar. As he approached, he cranked back his arms like he was going for a homerun swing and smashed the bar into the door. It made a smack sound, which echoed through the hollow room like a gun going off.
The door didn’t even crack. There was no dent. You couldn’t even tell someone had hit the damn thing. His dad threw the bar down and stormed off without another word to Toby, heading straight up the stairs.
Toby turned back to the door, its very presence firm and strong. Like it was there, wasn’t planning on going anywhere, and wanted them to know, like those giant sequoia trees you found in California, broad and ancient, unafraid of anyone or anything. But it couldn’t be afraid because it was just a door. He was on one side and something else, something foul smelling, was on the other.
He stepped closer, now alone in the room, moving slowly as if a false step would set off the door, make it leap back and chomp its teeth at him. When he was finally right in front of it, he pulled his phone back out and lit the flashlight. There were more words than he had first noticed. They read in three stacked lines at the center of the door.
At the beginning, he started to read once again.
ULTRA HAEC QUAEDAM TENEBRAE MANENT
IPSAS UT LIBERES
VERBA CLAVE CANTA
25
Again, Trevor was too sick to leave with her. This left Paisley frustrated because just the day before he had been feeling so much better. She thought…she hoped, she had finally gotten her twin back. It seemed she couldn’t have been more wrong.
On her way out, she stopped in to see her brother. He looked even worse than he had the morning before visiting the doctor. She just didn’t understand how that could be.
She kicked a rock and watched it skip out into the road. When it came to a stop, the stone joined the silence around Paisley, the same silence that held its grip on Ripley Avenue at all times.
She hated this place.
It was hard to describe, this hatred, but it was absolute. Their life had been just fine at their old house. It wasn’t perfect, of course, they didn’t live in a big, fancy house, and they were far from wealthy, but they had each other, and a few friends as well. But here, all they had known was sorrow. Everybody was sick. And those that weren’t bedridden seemed to be going nuts. She felt alone for the first time in her life, truly alone.
She glanced back at the house, catching a quick glimpse of the stalking colonial structure before disappearing around the corner. Part of her wanted to walk, not stopping until she was miles away from this hell. But she couldn’t leave her family. Her little brother would scarcely admit it, but she knew he needed her. They all did. They needed each other.
She was on her way to meet with Eli. That was if he showed up, which she really hoped he did. He had acted so strangely the first time they met the day before, like there was something wrong with her and he was afraid to get too close. But something told her that he didn’t really mean it that way. He seemed nice. For the most part, he was the first other person she had really met since moving there.
The sky was clear, a major contrast from the day before. Birds chirped somewhere, and only a slight breeze blew at her hair. She heard the laughter of kids, but it came from in the distance so she couldn’t see exactly where it was coming from. It was as if the laughs were only sound effects edited in by a greater being to add life to the otherwise mostly lifeless scene.
When the playground finally came into view, it looked livelier in the light than she remembered. A smile grew and her cheeks lifted. She was more excited to see Eli than she had realized. But when the swing set entered view, it was empty, all the swings resting in place, motionless. The smile drained away. Why hadn’t he come? Maybe there was something wrong with her after all.
She stopped on the sidewalk that ran off to the side, along one end of the park. She wondered if she should stay and wait. Maybe he was just late. It didn’t seem likely given that he lived so close by, but it was always possible. And she didn’t want to go back home.
A figure caught her eye in the distance. It stood underneath a part of the playground that lifted up into the air, ending where a slide started. When a cloud drifted by, allowing sun to rain down, she saw with a smile that it was Eli.
He waved when he noticed her in return. She was so excited she jogged straight over to him. As she approached, she felt a little bit better about being strangely excited because she saw that he, too, had a big smile on his face.
“Hey!” he said, stepping out from the shadows.
“Hey, Eli,” she replied.
A silence overtook them for just a moment as they both looked at each other nervously. One thing she noticed in that second was that he looked nicer this time around. The day before, he didn’t exactly look bad or anything; he just looked like he had thrown his clothes on quickly and made a break from his house as if it were on fire. The clothes he wore now were straighter, brighter, and just tidier overall. All of him was.
“How are you?” she asked.
His fingers fiddled nervously. “I’m all right. How about you?”
She hesitated. She wasn’t all right, not at all, actually. But she didn’t want to put that on him. This was her time away, her time to get her thoughts off all the crap she had been experiencing lately.
“I’m fine,” she lied, looking away as she said the words, hoping he wouldn’t read the lie in her eyes.
He nodded. “That’s good.”
He stuck his hands in his jean pockets and turned so he wasn’t facing straight at her. She thought he looked anxious. She wanted to do something to ease the tension that held its grip on the air for no apparent reason. So, perhaps insanely, she reached out and hugged her new friend. He practically jumped, surprised at first, but then relaxed and hugged her back.
“Sorry,” she said as she released him. “My day hasn’t been all that great, honestly. I think I needed that.”
He stuttered. “It’s—it’s all right. I don’t mind.”
“So, what do you want to do?” she asked.
He considered the question. “I’m not sure. I usually just sit here.”
She thought he was kidding at first but realized quickly he was not. “Okay, ummmm. Well, are you hungry?” She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she could eat, and it was better than nothing. If they did nothing, her mind would wander back to her brother and that house.
“I suppose so, but…”
He let the word trail off.
“But what?” Paisley asked.
“Nothing.”
“Okay…” she said. “Then…food it is. But where do people go to eat around here? I only have like twenty dollars, so we have to take it easy.”
“No! I mean, sorry. I just mean that I can run home and get some money for myself. You don’t have to pay for me.”
She wasn’t going to argue with that. It was her only twenty dollars. He seemed reluctant at first, but when she started following him toward his house, he didn’t stop her. They walked across an open field at the back of the playground. As she reached Eli’s house and looked back, it felt almost as if the playground was really his backyard.
He told her to wait there. He creeped around the side of his house, checking if there was a car in the driveway. There was. He had said he wasn’t sure if anybody would be home. His dad was at work, he knew, but his mother only worked part-time but had said she needed to go somewhere not all that long before he left the house. Meaning she hadn’t left yet or was already back.
He disappeared through a side door. She turned, taking in the contents of their backyard. There were three bicycles leaning against each other, the entire mass of bikes propped against the back of the house. A shed stood at one end of the yard, creating what seemed like an imaginary border between the yard and the field. Near the center was a circle of grey bricks in the shape of a small firepit. Around it were several lawn chairs. Closer, she saw piles of grey and black ash and partially charred logs filling the inside. There were a few toys scattered throughout the yard, a toy gun and a large pool ball. She wondered if Eli had a little sister or, more likely, a little brother.
Eli came back out the door in a hurry. “Go!”
But before she could even process what was going on, a woman came trailing out behind him. The woman’s face turned red when her eyes landed on Paisley.
“Oh!” She blushed.
“Mom,” Eli said sternly.
“I’m sorry. You just left in such a hurry and were acting all secretive.”
“I was just trying to get going, Mom. I’m hungry.”
“Right. Of course.” She hurried over, putting her hand out for Paisley, then pulled it back in, glancing awkwardly at Eli before putting it back out. “I’m Eli’s mother. It’s nice to meet you.”
Paisley took her hand in her own, shaking it with a slightly forced smile. “I’m Paisley.”
“I didn’t realize he was getting food with a girl.”
Paisley, catching what the woman was implying, joined in on the blushing. “Oh, no, I don’t think it’s like that. We’re just hungry.”
“Oh, of course not!” She looked over to her son with the biggest smile Paisley had ever seen. “So, I haven’t seen you around before,” Eli’s mom continued. “Where do you live?”
“Ri—”
“Abbott!” Eli cut Paisley off. “She lives on Abbott. She just moved back. She used to live here, but her family moved away. They just moved back.”
“That’s great! Black Falls is a good place. And it should be getting even better soon!”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Eli cut in again. “Mom, we have to get going.”
His mom smiled and nodded. “Okay, you two have a good time.”
She turned and headed back inside, offering her son a final glance and smile as she opened the door and disappeared inside. Eli let out a breath as he touched Paisley’s arm and guided her away from the house, back toward the playground.
“What did she mean? About the town getting better?”
“Oh, I don’t know. She’s weird sometimes.”
Paisley nodded, fine with the answer, she supposed. But that didn’t answer the bigger question that she was about to ask.
She stopped. He kept going but only for a moment before noticing she was behind. “Why did you lie about where I live?”
His gaze diverted to the ground then came back up but still didn’t meet her eyes. “I just didn’t want her gossiping. I know her. She’s going to call up all her friends and ask about you. At least this way, I’ll have her thrown off the trail for a little while.”
She couldn’t tell if he was lying. The story in itself seemed like it made a fair amount of sense. And she trusted this kid. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because she just felt like she needed someone, or maybe it was because he looked about as alone as she felt, but she really did trust him.
“So, where should we eat?” she asked.
“There’s a place a few streets from here.” He pointed beyond the playground in a direction Paisley had never been before.
26
At the top of the stairs, Toby heard gagging. He entered the kitchen to find his dad hunched over the sink vomiting. His head was partially hidden in the sink’s depths. The splatter against its metal interior was audible. The stink of the vomit mixed with that of the air and almost made Toby puke as well.
He gagged, feeling acid rise painfully up his throat, but forced it back down before it could erupt like a volcano. He hurried into the kitchen to help his dad, but when he got close, his dad lifted his hand to hold him back. He didn’t want help, which left Toby standing there, watching his dad projectile vomit into the sink. He turned away, afraid that one more second of it would have him painting the floor with his own innards.
Something occurred to him just then. His dad’s gagging was very loud, and the house was empty silent. Why hadn’t his mom come rushing in yet? Where was she?
“Mom?!” he called out from the downstairs hallway.
No response came. But she was definitely there. She had been upstairs before they went down into the basement. He recalled his dad going up there, he assumed, to talk to her, probably about them not finding the key. But she hadn’t come down with him when he came down.
He gave one last glance at his dad, who had cranked on the water to drain out the sink. He wasn’t done, but he was gagging far less than he had been a few moments earlier. Hesitantly, Toby left the kitchen and headed up the stairs, unsure, and a little afraid, of what he may find.
He heard new gags as soon as he reached the peak of the stairway. Only these were coming from down the hall, in the bathroom, not from downstairs. He moved quickly, pulling open the bathroom door without a knock. His mom was sitting on the floor, in a way that told him she had been there for a while, laying back against the tub, her head tilted to one side, her eyes directed at the floor. The smell of vomit was thick in the air. She looked up, noticing Toby in the doorway.
“Hey, honey,” she said, her words slurred like she was intoxicated.
“Dad, he’s—he’s sick,” But she was, too. “He was puking in the sink downstairs.”
“It’s all right, I’ll take care of it.” With the tub edge as a crutch, she pushed herself to her feet. He hurried to her side, but like his dad, she held out her hand, refusing his assistance. “I’m fine. I’ve got it. I was just feeling a bit off e
arlier.” She looked down in the toilet, cringing as she flushed it.
When she started moving toward the door, he stepped out into the hall, out of her way. She moved past him and began toward the stairway. She seemed to be walking stably, a small amount of weight falling off his shoulders at the fact. He felt fine, only the slightest hint of a pain gnawing at his insides, but it was so slight, and so faint, that he didn’t even notice it unless he tried to.
But what of his brother? And his uncle? Once his mother was gone from view, he quietly pushed open Trevor’s door. His little brother was lying in bed, facing the wall, a soft snore emanating from his location. He was alive, which was half of what he was looking for. He had hardly seen his brother lately and knew little of his current state other than he was still sick. But he was breathing, and that was what was important. He closed the door slowly, not wanting to wake the sick kid.
It wasn’t until he was leaving, as he was closing the door behind him, that he noticed the smell inside Trevor’s bedroom. He froze in place. It had been faint, but he was sure that it had been there. He reopened the door and allowed the room’s aroma to infiltrate his nostrils. He was right. The scent was weak, barely there, and barely different from the similar smell that had spread throughout the house. But what was in the room was something stronger, something worse. It was the same putrid, vile, nearly intolerable scent that claimed a certain area in the basement, a specific location, right in front of the locked door.
He wondered then if he would smell the same thing when he entered his uncle’s bedroom. He did. It engulfed him the moment he opened the door, even stronger there than in Trevor’s room. He had to step back. He almost closed the door right then but remembered why he was there. He listened closely, waiting for some sign that his uncle was still alive. He heard breaths, shallow, but definitely there.
He closed the door the moment the breaths registered in his mind. His stomach spiraled and his vision sputtered. Was there nowhere safe to exist in the house anymore? He wanted away from the bedrooms, heading for the downstairs. But down there was closer to the basement. The upstairs had once been the safe haven from the stench, but now, there was no such thing.
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