The ferry docked at Oakwood Island within a few minutes. Jack drove off the ramp and onto the land he called home. Rolling down his window, he felt the fresh sea air. Warmer here, and not as strong as on the ferry boat, it came in with a salty odour that filled up the truck. Jack felt himself at ease. Turning onto the main road, he noticed his feathered friend circling above the dock. He looked high above the coastline and waved to the crow.
“Let’s go see if we can get some answers, my friend.”
Chapter 1
Maggie
January
Running out into the cold January night was enough to snap Maggie back into reality. Her short legs, weak and tired already, began running shakily. On her feet were a pair of oversized men’s work boots that she had grabbed in haste at the trailer. Her legs shook with each pounding step she made in the white blanket that covered the ground. She had also grabbed a large parka from the dead body, along with the boots, to ensure she wouldn’t freeze during her sprint to safety. The coldness produced little vapour clouds escaping from her mouth every time she exhaled a deep and ragged breath. She could feel her lungs hurting already, trying to get as much air in her as possible. Though her eyesight was blurry, she kept on, trying to not think too much. Keeping her focus on her heavy and strenuous steps, she ran, her long brown hair sticking to her face from the sweat that had started forming on her forehead. Her body was reacting to whatever had been done to her. But she needed to keep those thoughts out of her mind and just get help.
Straight ahead, Maggie could see the driveway had not been plowed since the last storm. The navy blue van that had stopped and asked for directions was now parked in front of the trailer home, a white blanket masking the evil that resided within its metal and plastic body.
The day Maggie’s nightmare had begun started like any other Monday. As a thirty-two-year-old single woman, she loved her job as a waitress over at the Old Mill Restaurant located in the central area of Oakwood Island. She normally worked the breakfast shift and enjoyed seeing the customers who were also friends and almost like family to her. She knew most of them by name having grown up on the island herself. While she was an orphan and had shared a home with many other kids, she had known that the Oakwood Island community would always be there for her, like a big extended family.
Her apartment was just down the street and around the corner from the restaurant. However, it was during this short walk that the very essence of her life was severely changed. The darkness had not yet lifted in her corner of the world, the sun only starting to stretch its first signs of rays on the horizon. Her pace had been steady, with quick even steps as the first month of the New Year had brought about a fresh cold snap to the area. Maggie had been so occupied with getting to her destination that she never noticed the dark blue van that slowly passed her in the opposite direction and then turned to follow the last quick, even steps she would take.
As the van rolled alongside her and slowed to match her pace, Maggie turned her face and smiled at the man who peered back at her with inquisitive eyes. She pulled up the zipper of her white winter coat a bit and fluffed up her big red scarf before she approached the van as the passenger side window lowered. She came right up to the window, with her feet half on the curb and half dangling over, a balancing act between her current, normal, uneventful life and swinging towards the broken remains of the self she would become. Her blue jeans caught a bit of the salty mess on the side of the van but she wasn’t the type to worry about that sort of thing. She was too interested in the driver of the van. He was handsome, his hair dark, eyes a piercing green. His smile had been what drew her in closer, without hesitation or the usual precautions she might have taken.
The driver turned a bit in his seat to talk to Maggie.
“Sorry miss, I know it’s a pretty cold day and you look like you’re in a rush, so I won’t keep you for long.”
Bending at the waist and crossing her arms on the van’s passenger side door, she replied, “That’s alright, what can I help you with?”
In the instant she blinked, she saw what really lay before her, but had no time to escape. Maggie stood paralyzed in horror, her mouth trying to scream but her mind could not process what was happening fast enough to respond. The eyes that only seconds before had been warm and dare she say it, flirtatious, were now wide open, no lids covering the bright pulsating glow that came from the widened pupils. The smile she had seen seconds before morphed into a twisted protrusion of several sharp teeth. The man’s jaw was somehow opening wider than what should have been humanly possible. Maggie felt her body lift from the curb and pulled inside the van through the passenger window with violent force. The creature’s claws had pierced not only her winter jacket and hoodie, but also her soft skin. Maggie felt those punctures on her arms burning and throbbing just before everything went black. Her nightmare had only just begun.
* * *
The stench of something burning roused Maggie out of her sleep. Panic set in, her eyes flew open, but any movement was impossible.
Ankle and wrist restraints of some sort tied her down to a cold metal slab in a darkened room. The smoke she had smelled was coming from outside, there was but a trace of the smell now. A minute or so passed before her eyes adjusted. She seemed to be in some kind of dingy, homemade operating room. Looking down and past her feet, she could make out the outline of the only door to the room. The door was closed, but she saw a thin sliver of light peering in from the side and bottom. The walls offered no hint of any windows, at least none that she could make out in the dark. The complete stillness and quiet of the room made her uneasy; at first she hadn’t taken notice, as her rapid breathing and pounding heart had resonated loudly in her head. But as her breath evened, she felt the oppressive sound of silence to be even more terrifying.
Snapping her head quickly to the left and then to the right, she saw only shadows. Darkness peered back at her with its mocking grin, omnipresent in every sense. Maggie shook uncontrollably on the table, though still wearing her jeans and hoodie, her jacket and boots were gone. The room had no heat and she shivered on the metal slab. She tried to free her hands from the large metal straps, useless. The metal pressed tightly against the back of her wrists, so much so that she could only move her hand about half an inch left or right. Her ankles felt shackled in the same fashion.
Her scream shattered the silence, uncontainable. It echoed throughout the room, slamming back into her. It stopped as fast as it had started, realizing she was putting herself in danger by announcing she was awake to…to that thing. Maggie dredged the memory from the back of her mind, surely it was a dream; being grabbed by the man – creature – and knocked out. Surely she had imagined it all. Tears welled up in her eyes as she could not be certain anymore. The eyes, they had appeared surreal, not even animal-like. They had been pulsating! Like a heartbeat, the pupils had been bright yellow, glowing internally, with each throbbing push they had pulsed brighter still. The room became darker and Maggie’s eyes closed again, her body limp on the table. In the coming days, she would wish for the ability to faint, if only temporary, to block out the horror she would encounter.
The man stood just a foot away from the door to the dark room where Maggie lay shackled to the metal table. The reasoning, a part of him thought, was that even though she would lose her life by his hands, his own would have served a greater purpose. This curse he was afflicted with would become hers too, but only for order to be restored. In his mind, this made perfect sense.
* * *
Outside the trailer, a crow picked at the decaying carcass of a large animal, a moose perhaps, common in the area. The crow hopped over the putrid thing, its eyes shifting towards the structure. The sounds coming from the trailer were nothing like it had ever heard before. The frequency at which the noise was emitted resounded like a train rushing through a tunnel, whooshing and rushing through. The crow, having its fill for the day, lifted
itself from the buffet it had at its claws and took flight to the north. It would return in the morning, to feast once more and to ponder the strange noises coming from the big box in the field.
* * *
The door, now ajar, gave Maggie a brief sense of comfort. The darkness had been her only companion during her first night. No sound. No light. Only her body pressed against this damn metal slab. The small punctures in her arms where the man-thing grasped her stung like burns. She had drifted into unconsciousness once but only for a short while. The night had been long, frightening, and lonely. She wondered if she was being left here for dead. Maybe this was a black market organ operation, and some psychotic mad doctor would remove her organs while she looked down at the process. She closed her eyes for a minute, trying to compile some kind of rational reasoning as to why she was being held captive in this dark room. If her captor had wanted her dead would he not have already stolen her last breath?
The only things keeping Maggie from screaming out and losing her mind were the questions that she kept bouncing around and the daylight that slowly crept in through thin slits on each side of the tattered, dark curtains that hung on the only window in the room. As the sun rose and the room became lighter, Maggie scanned her surroundings as best she could one wall at a time. Turning her head from the window-wall to her right and arching her neck to look at the wall immediately behind her, here there was some kind of shelving with large jars, most of them appearing empty, but a few contained some kind of liquid. Trying to read the labels proved difficult in this position.
The room filled with a fluorescent brightness that caused Maggie to cry out, her eyes blinded from the sudden influx of light. Her hands reflexed to cover her eyes, but her metal restraints pinned her wrists just as abruptly. Maggie’s eyes re-adjusted to the brightness. Standing a few feet away was the man she had initially approached so carelessly and without regard for her own safety the day before.
He was of average build, a slender frame of around average height. It wasn’t a wonder why she had trusted him at first glance. His features came together and formed an all too perfect face, green eyes that seemed to look right into her soul. Maggie distrusted the thing as much as a wild dog, but felt the need to plead if she ever wanted to come out of this room alive and breathing.
“Please....I don’t know why I’m here....who are you?” Her pleas came out in short, breathless bursts. The man turned his back to her. He reached for something on the shelf that was adorning the wall. When he turned to face her again, Maggie screamed and struggled to free herself. The long needle he held in his hand was filled with a yellow, bright liquid. The man appeared to be hesitant to approach her.
“Please, don’t....don’t do this...please!” Maggie’s tears streaked her cheeks.
The man appeared perplexed, confused. He examined her face like she was a new discovery.
“Why are you doing this? Please, just talk to me!” She couldn’t stand his eyes on her face. No emotion, no trace of compassion. Just a look of interest and pure curiosity.
He slowly turned and placed the needle back on the shelf. When he faced Maggie again, his eyes were glowing the same yellowish glow as the liquid in the needle reservoir. Disturbing, however it was not to the extent of the morphing monster that had grabbed her a day prior. It seemed gentler, even hesitant to approach her. His arms lifted, and as he closed his inhumane eyes, a rustling sound began to resonate in the small room. The shelves began rattling, the old curtain waved in small ripples as the sound grew louder and intensified. Gradually it gained strength and as the man’s eyes flew open, the metal clasps that had held Maggie down for nearly twenty-four hours now unlocked and flew open. First around her hands, then her ankles.
Maggie was frozen in horror. She felt she would surely die at the hands of this thing. She wanted to jump up and run, but she just lay there, paralysed with fear. For a brief moment she felt as if something else was in the room with them. Now the thing that was holding her was staring down at her, his face directly above hers. Its hand reached down to her face. Maggie winced and new tears rolled down her cheek.
It poked at her face, touching her tears then inspecting them closely. It sensed the fear she had in each tear drop, her panic and her confusion concentrated in the tears she shed. Overwhelming, such emotions compacted into liquid form, sliding down its fingers, along its wrist. It began to back away, slowly, looking at its hand, then at her again. It ran out of the room, the door slamming shut and the bolt setting itself into place.
Maggie at once jumped to her feet. She ran to the door and tried to yank it open, but it wouldn’t budge. She turned and ran to the window where the dust covered curtain had danced just moments before. She lifted the drape with determination to find an escape route through the window. The metal bars spaced every six inches across the window cut her hope into shreds. The man thing had come in to give her an injection, and now he had turned and run like a frightened child. It had acted as though it didn’t feel emotions, and when he’d touched her, she was certain she had seen his face contort in pain, then sorrow.
She darted around the room, searching for something she could pry the metal bars with. On the first shelf there were syringes, but all of them empty. He had brought with him the one filled with the luminescent fluid. A flash of memory of previous injections came flooding back. She remembered different shades of yellow liquid in the syringes. She quickly wondered what he had done to her but her thoughts were cut short. From beyond the door, a shrill scream escaped the man. Maggie froze as his steps approached the door again.
* * *
The moose’s eyes had begun to decompose, their fixed, dead stare now collapsing into the carcass. The black bird had returned, as it had planned the previous day, to feed once more on the feast of decay next to the big box in the field. The crow picked and clawed, stripping away fur to reach the meat that would fill him for another day. Once it was full, it flew closer to the box in the field. It heard the scream of a human and felt the panic in its sound. The crow tried to peer inside the box. It was sealed. No way in. No way out. The bird waited.
* * *
The door to the room flew open. The man had morphed into the terrifying creature once more. Its mouth exposing those sharp teeth, as its tongue lashed about searching for prey. But those eyes, pulsating yellow liquid, the pupils were as wide as the eyes now, and appeared like they would explode. From the creature there came a low guttural sound as it stood in the doorway. Any compassion that might have resided in this thing just moments before had now dissipated. Its breathing was rapid and the animalistic groans that escaped it served as a warning that things were about to get ugly.
Maggie ran to the opposite side of the room, putting the metal table between herself and the creature. The creature raised its hands, now covered with dark hair, human looking, but very thick. One of its hands held the syringe high over its head. It jumped in one leap on top of the metal table, standing over Maggie who was now backed up against the far corner of the room, opposite the open door. The only escape from this nightmare was that opening. It held the life that Maggie had once known, the normalcy of her days in this town where she grew up. That doorway was the only hope she had to returning to her life. It was in that split second of recognition that she decided she had nothing to lose. She lunged to the left sprawling on the floor just as the creature sprung forward with the syringe ready to inject her with more of the yellow substance. She scrambled to her feet, pushing herself forward with every muscle of her body, getting closer to the open door. Her right wrist smashed against the side corner of the metal table, a searing pain shot through her arm. Her legs continued pushing forward, getting closer to the doorway.
She felt a sharp pain in her neck, pinching and immobilizing her body. The door seemed further now, and moving. Her body crumpling beneath her, Maggie’s eyes turned upward and she saw the man staring down at her. She felt the syringe deep inside
her jugular, yet another version of the yellow liquid pumping into her bloodstream. How many times had he injected her, she wondered? She felt the answer now burning in her veins and it was too many. With her body lying on the freezing floor of the small room, Maggie closed her eyes just as her pupils began dilating and morphing.
* * *
The black bird stood erect on the power line just above the trailer. It seemed more alert now as it watched and waited. The crow held its gaze steady on the front door. The snow had covered the tracks and the path had disappeared leading in or out to the box, but it knew the thing was still inside, and it was not alone. It kept watch for it knew the thing would eventually set out again. It had kept this routine for weeks now, ever since it had arrived and taken over the man’s body. The crow sat perched, silently waiting for a sign from inside.
* * *
The creature carried the body back to the table and didn’t bother to shackle her wrists and ankles. It examined her newest injection closely. This new liquid had begun spreading throughout her system. Pupils fully dilated, yellow instead of blue, they pulsated with her heartbeat. A transformation had begun. It would take at least a month for its completion, but the successful invasion of the organism into a human was cause for celebration.
The creature halted and looked up towards the ceiling. It listened carefully to the voice that only it could hear. Nodding approval, it quickly made its way out of the room. Its subject would need food and water to survive during the transformation period. It began to head out to gather some supplies to feed its subject. It made its way through the dark and decrepit trailer, stepping over the cadavers of its previously failed attempts of transformations. It moved its legs faster, excitement growing with each step.
Oakwood Island Page 2