Tarizon: Desert Swarm

by William Manchee

  Chapter 20

  Deadly Souvenir

  Deputy Mark Hanson lived with his wife and two kids in an old stone house in Death Valley Junction off of State Line Road. It was an old house that had been built by miners who settled in the area in the early 1900's. He was a good old boy with little ambition and was content with his job as a sheriff’s deputy. His wife Amanda loved him dearly and smiled when he walked in the front door.

  “Oh, good. You’re home early. Now you can eat a hot supper for a change.”

  One of the disadvantages of being a sheriff’s deputy were the long hours, frequent overtime, and danger that, at any moment, your life could be in danger. Amanda could handle the danger and the long hours, but the overtime that always seemed to come at inopportune times, angered her. And for the past month there had been so much overtime that Amanda feared the children would forget what their father looked like.

  “Children! Daddy’s home,” she yelled.

  Mark made a beeline for the refrigerator, took out a beer and collapsed on the sofa. He was still reeling from seeing the horror in Randy’s eyes when he discovered the body.

  “Have a tough day?” Amanda asked.

  “A horrible day,” he replied. “Randy Perkins was murdered and I found the body.”

  Amanda stopped what she was doing and came over to the sofa and sat down. “Oh, my God! Who murdered him?” she asked.

  “Don’t know. There must have been several of them, though. They staked him out and then slit his wrists, ankles and neck all at the same time.”

  “Oh, that’s sick!”

  “Tell me about it,” Mark agreed.

  “Why would they do that? Randy was such a nice guy.”

  “You should have seen the look on his face.”

  “Don’t tell the children. I don’t want them to have dreams.”

  “Daddy! Daddy!” Melissa, their youngest, screamed as she came running into the living room. She launched herself into her father’s lap.

  “Hey little butterfly. How are you?” Mark asked.

  “Fine. You’re home in time for supper,” she noted.

  “Yes, I am. What are we having?”

  “Spaghetti!’

  “Oh, I love spaghetti,” he replied tickling her belly. She laughed and ran to the table.

  “I’m hungry, is it time to eat?”

  “Yes,” Amanda said rising to go put the food out as Josh and David entered the room.

  “Oh, boys. I brought you something?”

  “What is it?” David asked.

  “It’s a souvenir of the Bat Mountain Uplift,” he advised, taking the rock out of his pocket and tossing it to David.

  David caught it and began examining it carefully. “Wow. This is cool looking.”

  “Will it grow like the walls are growing?”

  “No. Not likely. The uplift isn’t really growing. It’s just coming up from under the ground.”

  “That’s not what Reverend Little says,” Amanda disagreed worriedly. “He says God has commanded it to grow and it’s doing it.”

  “Rubbish. The government’s already done a study and they say it’s just a crystal formation that is slowly coming out of the ground due to a recent earthquake.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe you shouldn’t have brought it home.”

  “Nonsense. The kids can take it to school for show and tell. Nobody else has a specimen.”

  “Yeah, mom.” Josh said. “I want to take it for show and tell. “Can I take it first, Daddy?”

  “Sure, you’re the oldest.”

  “Dad, let me take it first?” Melissa said. “Ladies first, that’s what you always say.”

  “Not this time my little butterfly,” Mark said. “Eldest first when it comes to school.”

  “Oh, shucks, daddy. That’s not fair.”

  “Don’t argue with your father,’ Amanda scolded. “Okay, supper’s ready. Come and get it.”

  Everyone got up and made their way to the kitchen table. Amanda nodded at Melissa to say grace.

  “Rub- a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub,” Melissa said laughing. The boys joined in the laughter.

  “No. No. Say it right,” Amanda demanded.

  Melissa took an exaggerated deep breath. “Oh, alright. Thank you dear Lord for what we are about to receive from your bounty, and let us be truly grateful. Amen.”

  “Thank you. That’s much better,” Amanda said and started dishing out spaghetti.

  While they ate, the rock sample Mark had brought home lay on the floor in the living room where Josh had left it when he was called for supper. While the Hanson’s were eating, Melissa looked over at the rock and was surprised to see it had shrunk. She didn’t say anything, but just stared at it as it flattened out and changed color.

  “Daddy the rock looks different?” Melissa said.

  Mark, who had just put half a meatball into his mouth frowned. “Huh?” he said, his voice muffled from the meatball. He twisted his head to look into the living room. The rock did look different, he thought, but he couldn’t put his finger on what had changed.

  “What happened to it?” he asked.

  “Daddy, I saw it change colors and then there was a puff of grey smoke.”

  “That’s impossible,” Mark said irritably.

  “You find that rock and take it outside,” Amanda said worriedly. “I won’t be able to sleep tonight if I don’t know where it is. . . . I could kill you for bringing that thing home.”

  “It’s just a rock,” Mark replied. “It can’t hurt you.”

  “You said there was another murder. That means there’s been two murders ever since the uplift was discovered. How do you know the rock isn’t cursed?”

  “It’s not cursed. Don’t be silly.”

  They all reluctantly went back to the table and finished their dinner. Afterwards they all examined the rock, wondering why it looked different. That night Mark put the rock in a lunch bag and set it on top of the refrigerator, so it wouldn’t get lost. When they went to bed Amanda couldn’t sleep. Visions of her children strung up with thick wire haunted her. When she finally nodded off her visions turned to horrible nightmares. The next morning when the sun finally came up she jumped out of bed and checked the children. They all seemed fine so she breathed a sigh of relief and went into the kitchen to fix breakfast. After she turned on the gas stove and put on some milk to warm for hot chocolate she decided to go get the newspaper. As she moved past the front door she did a double take. The usually dark brown door was white. She went over to it and was horrified to see it was covered by a hard clear substance. She tried to twist the door handle but couldn’t get her hand around it as it was covered as well.

  “Mark! Mark! Look at this!” she screamed. “Oh, my god. What’s happening?”

  Mark came running in from the bedroom and swallowed hard when he saw the sealed doorway. “Quick! Get the kids. We’ll try the back door.”

  Melissa ran into the bedrooms, woke the children and brought them into the family room where Mark was trying to break through the crystal seal over the patio door with a golf club.

  “What about the bedroom windows,” she screamed.

  Mark nodded and ran into the master bedroom.

  In the kitchen the milk began to boil.

  In the master bedroom there were two windows and they were both sealed so Mark went into the bathroom. The bathroom window was small but it appeared normal so Mark went over to it and tried to open it but without success. Up close he noticed the crystal was starting to work its way inward from the wall but hadn’t covered the entire window yet, so he took a swing with the golf club and smashed the window to pieces.

  In the kitchen the milk boiled over extinguishing the flame on the old stove. Natural gas began flowing into the air.

  “Come quick, there’s enough room for the kids to get out,” Mark yelled.

  Everyone scrambled to the small bathroom. Melissa went out first, then the two boys but the window wasn’t bi
g enough for Mark or Amanda.”

  “Go get help!” Amanda screamed to them.

  “Tell them to call the Sheriff’s office!” Mark added “And tell them to hurry!”

  As they looked out the window it started to fog over. “Mark? What’s happening? I’m so scared,” Amanda said, her hands trembling.

  Mark took her in his arms and held her tightly. “I don’t know, but it will be alright, honey. They’ll break us out of here in a few minutes.”

  Ten minutes went by as natural gas filled the kitchen and began spreading throughout the house.

  “It’s that rock. It’s possessed by the devil. The evil that’s within it is going to seal up the house and then suffocate us. It’s going to kill us like it did Randy.”

  “No. There’s lots of air in the house. It would take hours to suffocate us,” Mark said crinkling up his nose. “What’s that smell?”

  Amanda sniffed the air. “I don’t know. . . . Gas? Oh, shit!”

  “What?”

  “I left milk on the stove.”

  Mark ran into the kitchen and saw the burner on the gas stove was wide open. He ran over and shut it off.

  “Shit! This can’t be happening.” He looked around frantically wanting to open doors and windows but knew they were all sealed. Then his heart sank when he heard the thermostat come on. “Oh, fuck!” he said as the house exploded into a fiery inferno.