The Beast Cometh

by Constance Barker

  “Not enough,” She said with a smile. “Amber has just about gone crazy, you and Becky were supposed to help her set up at Hazel’s.” I had completely forgotten that Amber was hosting an election party at the diner and Becky and I had ‘volunteered’ to help.

  “Oh no,” I said, putting my head in my hands. I rubbed my palms against my eyes producing red splotches of light against them. In the moment that my eyes were closed, I felt sleep calling to me again. “I missed all of the set up?” I asked guilty. Fern nodded with mock annoyance. She didn’t care about the party as much as I didn’t care for Amber.

  “Becky too,” she added for my benefit. At least I wasn’t the only one who left her hanging. “She’s awake now, but that poor girl looks like she’ll never sleep off last nights work.” Fern shook her head and I could see the concern in the movement. If we couldn’t handle a single lesson, then how were we going to defeat the coming evil?

  “We’ll be okay,” I said sounding more confident than I actually felt. Moody had jumped back on the bed and gave me a knowing look. It didn’t escape me or Fern who’s eyes narrowed but she smiled and nodded regardless.

  “Get ready,” she said shortly. She waited a moment to see if Moody was going to follow her out or not and when it became clear she was staying Fern left, closing the door behind her. Moody made her way to my lap and curled up as I absent-mindedly stroked her head. It wasn’t often that she cuddled, but it was nice in those rare moments when she acted like a regular cat. I wanted nothing more than to lie back down and sleep more.

  “Was it a lie?” Moody asked after Fern’s footsteps had faded and we could now hear her clearly in the kitchen. I was also now aware that the television was on and I could hear the ghosts and Becky talk over the sound of it.

  “Was what a lie?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. Moody just looked up at me with another knowing glance. My response was enough for her to know that it had been a lie when I said we would all be okay. “I don’t know anything for sure,” I said frustrated. We had ignored my gut instincts more times than I could count and things turned out fine. It wasn’t until we discovered, very recently, that it was my ability that came with being a witch. Now it felt like there was almost too much stock put into it.

  “No one does,” Moody replied darkly. “But you have a better idea than most of us,” She reminded me. I grimaced at her, I wasn’t interested in having that much responsibility. I also didn’t feel I knew enough about my ability yet to trust it so completely.

  “I have no idea,” I replied icily. I pushed her from my lap and rolled out of bed. She hissed at me in annoyance, but didn’t press it too much more.

  “If you know that we aren’t going to make it, you might want to think about sharing that information before we all end up killed.” I paused at this, looking back at Moody. I realized with an ounce of shame that she was scared and she was trying very hard to hide it.

  “None of us are going to die,” I said in a whisper so that no one outside of my room could hear our discussion. I didn’t want to upset them. “I promise,” I added for good measure. Moody didn’t seem to buy it and leaped from the bed standing at the door to be let out.

  “Tell that to your suitcase next time you pack it,” she replied as I rolled my eyes opening the door for her. At the sound of my door creaking open, Becky came skipping towards my room.

  “Good, you’re up!” She said sounding well rested. My wonder at Fern’s comment about Becky needing more sleep was answered when I looked up to see her. She sounded rested, but she certainly didn’t look it. Her eyes were puffy from the lack of sleep, with deep blue and purple circles under her eyes. “When you’re ready I need a ride home to change for the party,” she said taking in my own horrible appearance. “No rush,” she added with a smile before leaving.

  I got into the shower before anyone else had the chance to steal it from me. Unfortunately the hot water was so relaxing I was in danger of falling asleep again. The heat relaxed my muscles and I felt the exhaustion from last night once more. I traced the scar on my palm, it had grown less intense with the short amount of time that had passed. It looked less red and angry today, more like a scar that had been there since childhood. I turned the water cold forcing myself to stand in the chill to wake up a bit more. Once out of the shower I got ready quickly. I was never one for a fuss anyways, and I didn’t want Becky to have no time to get ready.

  “I’ll be ready in a minute,” I shouted out to no one in particular. I was responded to with a chorus of ‘okay’s’ from nearly everyone in the house. It was then that my vision started to blur and all of a sudden, everything went dark. I kept my composure as well as I could, not wanting to alert the others. If I could see myself in the mirror, I know I would have eyes devoid of color, only the whites remaining. I did not have visions the way that my sister did. The recently deceased could show her what happened to them in their final moments, and it was strongest when touching the corpse. I did not see anything now, but I did feel. It was as though my ability needed to take away my sight to heighten my ability to feel my instinct and listen to my gut. I knew then that whatever was coming would be revealed to us tonight.

  I pulled myself together after the moment passed and made my way out of the bathroom. Fern wordlessly passed me a mug of freshly brewed coffee as I entered the kitchen. “Oh, thank you,” I said taking a sip of the glorious drink. With the combination of my non-vision, the blast of cold water from my shower and the coffee, I was more awake than I could ever hope to be. “It’ll happen tonight,” I said without explaining any further.

  “You’re sure?” Fern asked in a whisper. I nodded once, trying to hide my fear behind taking another sip of my coffee. Becky gasped quietly but didn’t say anything.

  “The beast comes tonight?” Little Timmy asked, his attention pulled from the television screen. I hadn’t heard it referred to as a beast, but somehow it seemed fitting, like it was a perfect descriptor for what was to come.

  “Yes, it does.” If there was one thing I was more certain of than that, it was that we weren’t ready for it.

  Chapter Six

  The party that Amber had thrown together on her own was far more than anyone of us had expected. Especially considering the fact that in the end she had to put it together all by herself, with, I’m sure, very unwilling help from Hazel. The diner looked nicer than I had ever seen it. Amber had created center pieces for each of the tables, and all the chairs had bows tied to them. There were balloons hanging from the ceiling and a large sign that read ‘CONGRATULATIONS Sheriff’ hanging across the wall. Fern let out a long sigh as she stared at the sign.

  “Really?” She asked looking at Amber who offered nothing more than a shrug in response. I knew that Fern would win the election, I didn’t know if it was my intuition or if I just knew that the majority of the town was as sick of Sheriff Brown as we were.

  “It’ll be true soon enough,” I assured her.

  “Did you guys have to bring the cat?” Amber asked glaring at Moody. “It’s not very sanitary.” It was moments like these that I marveled at Moody’s ability to keep her mouth shut, especially since she was such a big mouth in private.

  “Yes, Moody is a part of this too,” Fern said with a smile as she picked Moody up and took her away from Amber as quickly as she could. As she walked away from her, Moody glowered at Amber darkly. If Fern hadn’t taken her away so quickly she might have taken a swipe at her or at the very least given her a fierce growl. I could hear Fern quietly trying to calm down our poor kitty.

  “You did a great job,” I said in spite of myself. I was impressed by how much Amber had gotten done in such a short time. I realized it had been quite a while, but my sleeping through the day made it seem much shorter.

  “Yes, I did,” Amber said giving me a look. “All by myself,” she added even though it wasn’t necessary. I had already heard her say basically the same thing to Becky a minute or two earlier. I was glad that we missed out on d
ecorating. It would have been a terrible time and Amber would have taken all the credit regardless.

  “When do people start arriving?” I asked looking around. There weren’t many people in the diner, only the usual group. Fang was sitting at his usual seat with Jimmy Jack next to him and Becky had taken her place next to him. They looked like a natural couple, though I knew Becky was nervous about keeping such a big secret from him, especially when his father was involved. I couldn’t see Hazel, but I knew that she was in the kitchen cooking for the party. Then of course there was Fern and Moody.

  “They should be here soon,” Amber said, but she sounded worried, like no one was going to show up. Her worries were very short lived as people started to arrive only moments later. There was a small, old television in the diner hanging above the bar top. The local news was playing on it with the volume turned mostly down. Someone had turned the captions on but they were very out of sync, the sentence being written showed up after the news anchor had already moved on. The election results would be on soon, and I watched intently waiting for them to pop up.

  I didn’t personally know most of the people arriving. I knew all of them in the way that you do growing up and living in a small town, but I was close with none of them. Most of them probably only recognized me from the museum or from doing house to house campaigning. They offered only polite smiles to me, but treated Fern with warmth and often times a hug. She was a beloved figure in the town and had helped many of them with issues both large and small. Before Fern was a detective, she was a cop and a well liked one at that. It was another reason why I was sure that Fern was going to win. Fern hid her nerves well, but I could see how nervous she really was. Every time she thought that no one was looking she stared at the television with weary eyes. I couldn’t tell if she was more nervous about the election or about the trouble coming tonight. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Little Timmy had called it the beast. As soon as I heard the word I knew how accurate it was. What was coming was almost certainly a beast.

  “It’s coming tonight,” I said to Hazel, escaping for a moment into the kitchen. I was getting tired of the monotony of greeting people.

  “Tonight?” She asked, without needing an explanation of why I knew it. I nodded in response. She looked at me gravely, the weight of what was to come and what had already happened clear in her eyes. “I hope we will be ready then.”

  “I hope so too,” I said rubbing my neck. I was about to ask her how Fang had so much knowledge of magic and how to preform it while having so little power himself, but I got distracted by a familiar voice in the dining room. I smiled at Hazel and left to see if it was who I thought.

  “Office Mulberry, nice to see you,” Fern said confirming my suspicions. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  “I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” he replied with a shrug and a grin. “You can call me Cal.” He smiled at her as I watched their interaction with interest. My suspicion of him wasn’t gone entirely, but it was replaced with a new realization. He liked Fern, and was almost definitely interested in her. He was surprisingly handsome, something I hadn’t noticed before. It was the first time I had seen him out of his uniform. If I didn’t distrust him completely, he might make a good match for Fern.

  It wasn’t too long until the entire diner was full of too many people. Hazel was bringing hors d’oeuvres to the large group of people who had accumulated in the diner. Amber looked pleased with herself as she stood surveying the party from a distance. She clearly felt victorious, regardless of whether Fern won or not.

  “Everyone! Everyone!” Amber shouted tapping her glass to get everyone’s attention even though she already had it. “Listen up, the result will be in in a moment! I for one would like to thank Fern for stepping up and deciding to be part of the change that Stillwater needs to become a better, safer town for everyone.” I didn’t disagree with her sentiment, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t annoying. I should have been up there saying something like that, and I would be if she hadn’t forced her way into being the campaign manger. The whole of the diner erupted into applause after she finished and as Fern made her way to where she was standing.

  “I just wanted to thank everyone for coming and for supporting me by being here and casting your vote. I would like to promise that no matter the results, I will still be here for this town whether it be in a Sheriff capacity or as a Detective. I will be here for each and every one of you, no matter what,” she said earnestly. No one could doubt her sincerity, though only a few of us in the room knew the true weight of what it meant to be a protector of this town. I watched everyone’s faces as they clapped for my sister. They seemed hopeful, a new promise of a police force that wasn’t inept or corrupt. I wanted to warn them all, tell them to get out of town, that something terrible was coming. I didn’t though, and the guilt of that would weigh on me for a long time.

  “It’s almost time,” Amber announced and the diner went silent with anticipation. It was almost comical as the volume on the television didn’t go up high enough that it could actually be heard. Even with everyone being silent, it was still barely a muffled whisper with captions lagging behind what was being said. Less than a minute passed as the images on the screen showed a poll graphic of the votes for either Sheriff Brown and Fern. In the end it was these that told us that Fern had won. In an anti climactic moment the poll showed that Fern had pushed ahead and then it switched back to the anchor who announced to us a few moments after her mouth started to move that Fern had won. It didn’t make the celebration any less ecstatic. The room broke into cheers that were so loud I had to cover my ears. I could see Moody dart from the dining room into the kitchen to get away from the noise.

  “Congratulations Fern!” I said yelling above everyone else, and pushing to the front of the crowd to get to her. She smiled brightly at me, some of her worry finally disappearing. I pulled her into a hug before she got whisked away by the rest of the crowd congratulating her. I slipped away standing behind the bar, getting away from the hoards of people. Even I felt lighter with the announcement, I didn’t know that the election had been weighing on me so much. In the end, without the worry about the election, it made more space for me to worry about what was to come. I noticed Officer Mulberry leave only a few minutes after the announcement and my suspicion of him grew stronger. I had a feeling that I knew exactly where he was headed, to the former Sheriff. The only thing was I didn’t know why.

  Chapter Seven

  It took a long time for everyone to filter out of the diner and head home. Moody had eventually made her way onto my lap and curled up falling asleep. I knew that if she had the option of Fern, she would have much rather slept on her lap, but Fern was more than occupied saying her thanks to each person that came to the party. She was a natural leader and had already gracefully stepped into the shoes as Sheriff...she didn’t have to do anything in order for this to happen. It was just the way she was. Jimmy Jack and Fang were the last to leave. An added complication in keeping Jimmy Jack out of everything was that it would be nearly impossible to have Fang stick around without his son.

  In any other situation, I’d be close to falling asleep after all the excitement of the party. I could tell that nearly everyone around me felt the same way. All exhausted but simultaneously too wired to sleep. We all knew that our work was not nearly done for the night. “So what are we going to do?” Becky asked, leaning her cheek against the table.

  “I’m not sure we can do anything,” Hazel replied passing out cups of coffee to each of us. She had insisted on putting on a pot, probably because she was far more exhausted than everyone else. She had maybe gotten an hour of rest before she had to go to the diner, and I hadn’t seen her sit once for the entire evening. Finally she sat down wearily after the coffee had all been passed out.

  “So we just let it happen?” I asked, frustrated with her non-answer.

  “If we don’t even know what it is, how can we possibly stop it?” Hazel asked
logically.

  “Well, you were here once before, you know the patterns and what is going to happen,” Fern said, also not accepting the suggestion to just wait. I felt bad that Fern wasn’t able to truly celebrate her victory...it was already tainted by the fear of whatever beast was on its way to Stillwater. Not only did we know it was going to strike tonight, but we knew that the time right after her election was going to be one of strife and difficulty.

  “I have no clue what is going to happen, where or why,” Hazel said her tone pleading. I felt guilty that the way Fern and I reacted made her feel like she had to defend herself. She wasn’t wrong, none of us were really in a position to stop anything from happening, at the same time I couldn’t sit back and do nothing.

  “Well, Sheriff,” I said turning to Fern. “What should we do?” I asked, not sure that there was a correct answer to the question.

  “I don’t know,” Fern said distressed shaking her head. “I don’t know.”

  “I don’t think we can do anything,” Becky said quietly and I knew that she was racked with guilt over the statement. She had hidden her face by turning her head so her forehead was resting on the table. I was struck with the dread that she and Hazel were right. The dread of my non vision that morning was finally clear to me. It wasn’t just that the beast was coming tonight, it was that we weren’t going to be able to do anything to stop it.