In the darkness, something moved.
“Whose there?” Will asked.
There was no fear in his voice. He was a man with nothing to lose. He took another step inside and tried to see a little better. His eyes were slowly but surely adjusting to the darkness.
“Only me,” a deep voice answered him from the darkness.
“Who is me?” Will asked, nonplused
“That’s not important, but what I can do for you is,” the voice said.
The owner of the voice moved again as more lightning struck and Will thought he saw something but he wasn’t sure. Whatever it was it didn’t look human and it seemed to be doing its best to avoid the hole in the roof.
“What is it that you can do for me exactly?” Will asked.
“I can give your family back,” the voice said.
Will froze where he was. Now he felt something and that something was fear. Not that fear that he was in danger or anything like that. No this fear was that someone was messing with him, and if that was the case he didn’t think he would be able to take it.
“How?” Will asked, his voice sticking in his throat.
“Really easy. We make a deal, you go to sleep and when you wake up they will be here,” the voice said.
“If we are making a deal and I get my family what do you get?” Will asked.
“The future,” the thing replied.
“The future?” Will asked.
“I eat the future,” the thing said.
“So it’s a life for a life thing?” Will asked.
“You could say that,” the voice replied.
“Done,” Will answered without hesitation.
Will went to sleep.
The sound of the alarm was like shrapnel penetrating deep into his eardrum. Will hadn’t even opened his eyes yet and he already knew that he wasn’t ready to deal with the day, not yet. Still keeping his eyes closed, he reached for the alarm clock blindly and brought his hand down on top of it, bringing peaceful silence back to his world. He repositioned himself and got comfortable again. Will knew he had time before he absolutely had to get up because just like everyone else he set his alarm for earlier than he needed. This was the first snooze hit; he still had two more before he had to get up. Just as he was starting to drift back to sleep he felt his wife, Claire, stir next to him. He smiled inwardly to himself; today was her day. Will laid there for another second and then his eyes shot open. He jumped out of bed so fast that he scared Claire and she let out a little yelp. He jumped across the bed and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her as he lifted her up off the floor. Claire laughed.
“What are you doing, you are being silly,” she said.
He put her down and kissed her again, seriously this time.
“Are you okay?” Claire asked.
“I’m great,” he replied.
“Well tone down your great, I have to go get Grayson up,” she said.
“No, I got it,” Will said, and ran from the room before she could say anything.
When Claire finished getting ready and came downstairs she found Will and Grayson both eating cereal in the kitchen. She finished putting in her earrings as she walked into the room and fussed with her hair.
“You look great honey,” Will said.
Claire smiled at him.
“You got to finish up or we’re going to be late,” she said to Grayson.
“Actually I’m going to take you guys this morning,” Will said.
“Why?” Claire asked.
“The car was making a weird noise and I didn’t like the way it was handling last night when I went to the store. I don’t want you to drive it in this weather,” Will said.
“Awesome,” Grayson said.
They made their way out to the garage and climbed in the car. Will opened the door for Grayson and shut it once he was inside. He didn’t wait to check Grayson’s belt or even watch him put it on. Claire noticed and opened her mouth to say something but Will cut her off.
“He’s a big boy, he’s got this,” he said.
“Yeah, I’m a big boy,” Grayson repeated from the backseat.
Will fired up the car and Claire caught a look at the gas gauge.
“You didn’t get gas like you were supposed to,” Claire said.
“I know. I got it,” Will replied.
Ten minutes later Will was pulling into the BP just like Claire had before, and just like Claire he got out and filled up without incident. He jumped back in the car and turned it over but didn’t move. After they sat there from a couple minutes Claire started to get impatient.
“Will what are you doing, we are going to be late,” she said.
“You don’t hear that?” Will asked.
“Hear what?”
“The little knock in the engine, and there is a little play in the steering wheel,” he lied.
He remembered the conversation with the two officers and reading about the accident in the paper. He had read the article so many times that he had it committed to memory. In another minute or two Jasper Riley was going to go through the stop sign with his SUV, he just had to wait him out. Almost as if that was his cue Jasper’s SUV showed up and went through the sign, and continued on past the gas station without incident. Jasper had no idea that his life had just been saved, but Will knew.
“Did you see that?” Claire asked.
“The guy that went through the stop sign? Yeah I saw it,” Will said.
“If you hadn’t been listening to the car we would have been right there,” Claire said.
“Maybe,” Will replied and pulled out of the gas station.
III
That night after Grayson went to bed Will took Claire in his arms and gave her another kiss. Afterwards he just held her for a couple of minutes. Smelling her hair, feeling the weight of her in his arms. For her only a night had passed, she had no idea of that other life, that life where he had been without her for three months. Claire giggled.
“What is up with you today?” She asked.
“I love you,” Will said.
“I love you too,” she replied.
He let her go long enough to walk over to the stereo and turn it on. He fiddled with the records and record player until he got the one he wanted. The living room was filled with a low static like hum as the record player needle made contact with the record and began to travel it’s circular journey in the groove. It was a sound Will loved. He loved listening to records, the sound was rawer, more immediate, it was almost like you were there. He walked back over to Claire and took her hand in his head and put his free hand in the small of her back. As the Five Satins began to sing Shoo doo shoo bee doo Will and Claire began to dance.
“In the still, of the night. I held you, held you tight,” Will sang.
“Cause I love, love you so. Promise I’ll never, let you go,” Claire joined in.
Will pulled her in close as they continued to dance around the living room until the song was over.
After that night, five long years seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. Christmases, birthdays, squirt gun fights, everything that at one time Will was never going to have again. Soon he started to forget about that other life completely as the days went by. He still got antsy when Claire would go out when the weather was bad but she always came home. Originally Will’s thoughts would always turn towards the deal he made that night in the shed and whatever it was he had made the deal with. When would he show up again? Would Will go with him when he did? He did make a deal after all and as long as it meant that Claire and Grayson would get to live he would go willingly. As the days past he thought about the deal in the shed less and less, until he almost forgot about it completely. That is until the night of another storm when life seemed to be the best it had ever been. Grayson had been put down to bed for an hour and Will and Claire were putting around the kitchen. It had over all been a great day, Will and Grayson had participated in quite the squirt gun battle and Grayson’s super soaker, the same
one that Will had moved to the garage in another life, was sitting on the counter. He picked it up and was surprised by the weight of it. He had expected it to be empty not full. He sat it back down on the counter and went about what he was doing. Claire took out a pot, filled it with water and sat it on the stove to boil. She liked to unwind with tea before bed.
“So how was your day?” Will asked.
“Great, work was a little rough but you know how it is,” she replied.
Will was about to say something else when there was a loud crack of thunder and the lights went out, plunging them into darkness.
“Will,” he heard the thing in the darkness with the deep voice say his name.
Will tensed up while Claire let out a scream.
“Who is in here with us?” Claire asked.
The lights came back on and Claire screamed again, Will visibly recoiled. He had never got a good look at the thing that night in the shed but now it was here in the kitchen, right out in the open and in the light. The thing looked like a cross between a ghoul and a gremlin. It had green, scaly, slimy skin. Its eyes were reptilian and it had a mouthful of sharp, pointy teeth. The thing reeked like an open sewer; Will didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed the smell that night. The scariest thing of all though was that all of the things previously listed came in a nice big six foot seven package. It towered over them. The thing took a step forward and now Will could see it’s hands or more accurately it’s claws. The hand only had three fingers but all three were long and bony, each one topped off with a yellowing, two inch long nail.
“Oh my God, what is it?” Claire asked.
“I’ve come for what was promised,” the thing said to Will, its deep voice reverberating in the kitchen. It ignored Claire like she wasn’t even there.
“A life for a life,” Will said.
“Will, what is he talking about?” Claire asked.
“Five years ago, you and Grayson died,” Will said.
Claire stared at him incredulously.
“I think I’d remember something like that,” Claire said.
Will turned to her.
“You were both killed in a car accident the morning with the storm. Remember how I sat in the car and waited and the car ran the stop sign. I lied about the engine. I knew I had to wait because you and that car were in a wreck. You, Grayson, the man driving the other car, you all died,” Will said.
“You are talking crazy,” Claire replied.
Will looked at her and the look on his face made her fall silent. There was no way what he was saying could be true but that look almost made her a believer.
“You were gone for three months. I spent three long, agonizing months alone. Waking to wander the house every night, trying to think of the best way to kill myself and I exhausted them all. I considered hanging, sticking my head in the oven, starting the car in the garage and just letting it run. Anything for a way out, and then one stormy night he showed up,” Will said and gestured towards the thing.
“He said he could bring you all back,” Will added.
“ So now I’m here for what I’m owed,” the thing said.
“I will go with you willingly,” Will said.
Claire started to protest but it was the thing that stopped Will.
“I’m not here for you,” the thing said.
“That night you said you eat the future, I figured it was my future. I traded it for them,” Will said.
The thing laughed now and it sounded horrible.
“Children are the future,” it said.
Will took a step back as the implications of what the thing just said sank in. The thing wanted to eat Grayson.
“Not going to happen,” Will said.
“It will, he is mine,” the thing said and stepped forward.
Claire grabbed the pot off the stove and swung it as hard as she could. She didn’t connect with the pot but the water that was inside splashed all over the thing. It screamed and retreated as its skin started to hiss and blister. It hit the kitchen table and tumbled. Will looked at the thing in shock, the water in the pot was warm, sure but it wasn’t boiling, it wasn’t on long enough. The night in the shed came back to him now and he remembered how the thing had positioned itself in the shed, being sure to avoid the hole in the roof where the water had been coming in. It was the water period. He grabbed Grayson’s super soaker off the counter and started pumping it as he advanced. Will put his foot over the thing’s throat and aimed the gun right at his face.
“Think about what you are doing. You still get to keep your wife, think of the other man, Jasper Riley. You could be taking him away from his family. How do you know killing me won’t undo the deal,” the thing said.
“I don’t,” Will said.
Claire came up beside him and took his free hand.
“Just in case, I love you,” she said.
“I love you too,” Will replied.
He tried to remember all of the good that happened over the five years. All of the nights with Claire, all of Grayson’s smiles, because in a moment they might be the only thing he had to get him through what his life was going to be.
Will pulled the trigger.
THE HIJACKERS
NOTE:
I’m just a normal kid in high school.
What you are about to read are my
journal entries for the week of April
11th to April 15th, and you may have
a hard time believing what you are
about to read, but I assure you it really
happened…. All of it.
Monday April, 11th
My name is Eric Brewer, I’m sixteen years old and I live in a small town called Brighton Heights. Up until a few days ago I thought Brighton was just like every other town. Man was I wrong. Also I should put out there that up until a couple of days ago I wasn’t really the keep a journal type, but with what happened I felt something should be recorded. Alright, well let’s get to it.
This Monday started like every other. I woke up this morning and got ready for school. I turned on the television in my room but didn’t really pay attention to it, I never did. It was mainly used for background noise while I got ready for school and this morning was no exception. I put on my pants and rummaged around for a shirt. As I was putting on my shirt I caught bits and pieces about a farmer out on the edge of town finding some of his cows dead when he went to check on them this morning. I didn’t really give it a second thought as I grabbed my car keys, turned off the television and headed out the door.
The first stop of the day was my friend Gordon, he was my first stop every morning. When I picked him up this morning he was already agitated. I have known Gordon since second grade and there was only one other time in our lives that I saw him this agitated over something.
“Did you see the news this morning?” He asked as soon as he got in the car.
“Some, please tell me you aren’t this worked up over some dead cows,” I said.
He gave me a look that I was used to getting from him, it was a deadpan, I can’t believe you even just said that kind of stare.
“Yes, I am this worked up over some dead cows. They weren’t just dead, they were mutilated and there is only one thing that mutilates cows. Aliens,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. Gordon is a big science fiction and horror movie nut, the only problem is that he gets so wrapped up in the movies that he starts looking for signs that those things are happening or can really happen. One time when we were ten years old he watched all seven Nightmare on Elm Street movies in one day. That night he had a dream that Freddy Krueger came for him and cut him. When he woke up he noticed that he had a cut in the same exact place as in the dream, and for the next week he thought Freddy Krueger was after him and I had to watch him sleep until he remembered that he had got the cut when he had fell off his bike a couple of days before.
“There are no such things as Aliens,” I said.
“Whatever, you believe what you want,”
he replied.
Beverly Thomas is my other best friend and has been since we were like five. She was waiting outside of school when we pulled in. She came over to the car and smiled at Gordon mischievously.
“Did you see the news this morning Fink?” She asked.
Fink is Gordon’s last name and he absolutely hates being called by it, but he let’s her get away with it for some reason. I called him Fink once and we just about came to blows.
“Please don’t get him started again,” I said.
She laughed and put her arm around my shoulders, sometimes I got the feeling that she wanted to be more than friends but I didn’t really think about that a lot.
“But it is fun,” she said and rubbed her throat.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing, my throat is just dry. I’ve been thirsty all morning,” she replied.
“You two won’t think it is so funny when you are being put into pods,” Gordon said.
“Oh calm down Fink, I live out by that farm and I didn’t see anything amiss,” Beverly replied.
*Authors Note: What follows next is a dramatization. I don’t know if this is exactly as it happened. I’m positing a theory based on information that was available to me at a later date. *
The rain started shortly after noon. My neighbor Dan Taylor was on his way home from work for a lunch date with his wife. He had his windshield wipers on as high as they would go to try to keep the rain from obstructing his vision. A moment later he came upon a body lying in the road. He slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop just mere inches away from the man’s wrist. Dan opened the door and got out of the car. He knelt down beside the body and felt for a pulse, there was none. As he turned from the body to contemplate his next move the arm of the body shot up and grabbed him by the throat. Dan grabbed the man’s wrist and tried to pry him off but it wouldn’t budge. The man’s mouth opened and a tiny screeching sound came out as something slimy wriggled its way out of the body’s open mouth. Dan continued to try and get loose but the lack of air was starting to take its toll. Finally he succumbed and fell to the pavement. Once he was down the slimy thing wriggled across the pavement. It looked like a fat slimy slug, wide in girth but not very long, almost the size of a fat pointer finger. It continued to slide across the pavement, making its way to Dan’s unconscious body. It crawled up Dan’s chin and made it’s way into his mouth, the tail of the thing wiggling back and forth as it forced its way in. It left a thick, clear, syrupy in consistency like substance around Dan’s mouth. Dan opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around, gathering himself. After looking around he wiped his mouth and got to his feet. He grabbed the body by the arms and dragged it off the road. When that was done he got back in the car and headed for home.
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