Authors: Justin David Walker
Good question. I was really getting sick of all of the questions in my life.
I grabbed the doorknob, turned and pushed.
There was a hissing sound. I looked up and had just a moment to see a small tube sticking out through the top of the doorframe. I sniffed, smelled licorice and oregano, and my world disappeared.
I am running. I am being chased. Hunted. Plants whip at my face, my breath comes in sharp gasps, a pain in my side, my heart thudding. My hand cramps as I squeeze her wrist, pulling her along. We can’t be separated. We can’t stop.
The sound of breathing behind us. Getting closer. Deep gasps, a roar with each breath, paws pounding on the ground, ripping up plants, the world vibrating with each of its steps.
She is yanked away from me. She is gone. I whirl around, see her there, so small, lying on the ground. She has tripped over a vine. I manage to stop, to start to reach back…
The thing bursts through the brush. It is huge, a grizzly bear, a rhinoceros, an elephant in size, but moving with the speed and grace of a cat. It is all tusks and horns, muscle and sinew, covered in gray fur-hide. Green eyes, fire bright, lock on her, still lying there, still helpless. Long, curved claws glint in the moonlight as it leaps into the air and there is nothing that is going to stop it from landing on her and my heart explodes with the sorrow and the terror of it as I realize that she is already…
I came back, lying next to Mr. Magellan’s garden, my chest heaving, my face wet, my throat sore. My ears were filled with a low, howling noise. For a moment, I thought that the creature was still following me, that it was about to plant those claws into me. Then I realized that the howling was coming from me.
A screen door slapped next door and there were voices, someone asking someone else if they’d heard screaming. Screaming? Had I been…? I tried to close my mouth, but it wanted to stay open, to keep wailing. I managed to clap a hand over it.
I heard more voices. Neighbor voices. We lived in a small town. If you hear someone screaming, you check it out, make sure that everyone is okay. I had to get up. If someone saw me, they’d recognize me. The Holland boy. Lives a block over. Making a ruckus. Better talk to his parents.
The memory of the monster flashed in my mind, so much different than the creatures in the movies. You knew that they were just make-believe, no matter how well the CGI people had done their work. But this thing had been real, as real as the grass under my fingers or the clothes on my back. I had been scared before, plenty of times, Chet and Robert made sure that it happened on a daily basis, but seeing that monster had just flipped a switch in my brain and I knew that if I didn’t get away from it, it would either kill me or my heart would just explode with my fear of it.
The howling was pushing its way out of my face again. I tried to push the memory aside. I couldn’t get out of here if I couldn’t stop shaking. But it wouldn’t go. I wasn’t sure that I could have freed myself from it even if I wasn’t on the memory pill. Instead, I managed to divert my thoughts to a different monster. The dragon puppet in Kiki’s video. Dancing to Mozart. Music. Hannah’s music. My brain latched on to it and her song filled my mind, finally pushing away the nightmare, and I had the strength to push myself to my feet.
You’re saving me again, Hannah.
The voices were closer. Mrs. Collins, a stay-at-home mother who lived next door, talking with Mr. Baxter, a retired commodities broker who lived two doors down. She was saying something about raccoons making a racket. Mr. Baxter agreed, but said that he should check it out since he thought that maybe Mr. Magellan was out of town. Neighborly kindness was going to get me thrown in jail.
I wiped my face with my hands, then my hands on my jeans. With a sniff, I walked around the other side of the house, slowly at first, a little quicker with each step
running running get away from it
. I had to steady myself on the drain spout. Unfortunately, it was loose and it smacked against the house.
Mr. Baxter and Mrs. Collins got quiet. I could hear him whisper something to her, something about the sheriff’s department. Then there was the unmistakable sound of three buttons being pushed on a phone. 9-1-1. I shook my head. Focus on the music and get out of here.
I reached the front yard, but the voices were there, right around the corner. I could make a run for it, but I’d get spotted and recognized before I made it to the sidewalk. I could duck back, try to hide, but the sheriff’s department would be there soon. I needed… I needed… I needed a nap. No! I needed a diversion. I needed a disguise.
It didn’t make the evening newscast out of Westertonville. The weekly Coralberry newspaper simply described the incident as a “Report of Trespassing Investigated.” But the story quickly spread around the neighborhood of the would-be burglar who hid his identity by covering himself from head to toe in purple soap bubbles and had run away. Mr. Baxter would tell all who would listen that the perpetrator was small, “probably a midget,” and that he would have tackled him, but somehow the thief had managed to cover the ground with more purple foam, and Mr. Baxter hadn’t wanted to slip and break his hip again.
I took the long way home, getting rid of the bubbles when Mr. Magellan’s house was out of sight. I focused my attention on putting one foot in front of the other and I tried not to think.
Eventually, I made my way back to the field by my house and I collapsed into the tall grass. Once there, I couldn’t stop the memories of the creature from coming back. I don’t know how long I huddled there, shaking, trying not to make a sound. But a question that had been lurking in the back of my mind started to push its way forward, past the memory replay, until it was front and center.
What had just happened to me?
The tube sticking out of the top of Mr. Magellan’s door. It had sprayed something on me, something that had smelled like… like the pills tasted. Then I’d had… what? A hallucination? I’d never hallucinated before, but it had seemed way, way too real for that. It seemed as real as…
I blinked. It seemed as real as any of my pill-enhanced memories.
Well, clearly the spray hadn’t pulled up one of my memories. I’d certainly never run through a jungle while being chased by a monster. I’d certainly never had a… daughter?
I sat up, my brain racing. That creature had just been... well, horrifying seemed like an old-fashioned word, but I couldn’t think of another one that fit so well. But as horrifying as the thing seemed to me, I knew that it wasn’t just my own fear that I’d experienced. It was like I was… no, it wasn’t “like” anything. I had experienced someone’s memories, someone else’s fear and someone else’s grief as their daughter had…
It almost pulled me down again. I shook my head. Nope. Wasn’t going to go there. But if I was experiencing someone else’s memories, who did they belong to, and better question, how was the memory even possible, because near as I knew, monsters like that didn’t even exist?
Near as I knew.
Had to stop thinking about this. Didn’t have any answers and it was just going to make my brain explode. Did know one thing, though. I shoved my hand in my pocket and pulled out the little envelope with the last of Mr. Magellan’s pills. What kind of a man would set a booby trap at his house with some kind of chemical weapon? I didn’t know, but I sure wasn’t going to trust anymore that what he’d given me wasn’t going to hurt me. A little voice in the back of my mind spoke up, trying to tell me that there hadn’t been any side effects up to that point and that I needed the last pill in case Chet came after me.
I thought about the nightmare again and stomped the little voice out. Then I turned my hand over, allowing the envelope to fall into the tall grass. I walked away from it, headed for home, not daring to look back.
Chapter 13
W
hen I reached our driveway, I looked at Mom’s minivan. The windows were all down and it stilled smelled nasty from taking the twins to the hospital. A little foam and Dad was spared a trip to get it cleaned.
Inside the house, I went from room to room, keeping out of Mom’s way, shampooing carpets, wiping out dust, de-streaking windows. I took care of all of my chores and more. I kept busy. I didn’t think.
It was a relief when the effects of the pill faded, but I had been right. The nightmare didn’t fade with it. So I just parked in front of the television for the rest of the day, trying to distract my brain, and since I was done with my work, Mom didn’t complain. Robert stayed in his room. Dad was still at the hospital with Chet, who was expected to get released later. Apparently, his esophagus wasn’t torn after all. He was still sore, and they still couldn’t figure out why he’d puked, but he appeared to be “out of the woods.”
Needless to say, I had mixed feelings about that.
I forgot to set the table before supper. Mom tsked and shook her head when she had to remind me. I guess the fact that the house was spotless didn’t earn me the cutting of any slack.
Robert came down when Mom called. At least, I was pretty sure that it was Robert. I realized that this was the first time I’d seen my brother since I’d covered him in bubbles that morning. His hair was all shiny and clean. His face was pimple-free for the first time since… ever. He didn’t smell. Pretty amazing.
Robert glanced at me, noticed that I was staring, and grimaced. The meal passed quietly. Mom cooed at Kiki whenever she ate a bite. Robert stuffed pieces of chef salad into his mouth with his fingers. I chewed, not really paying attention to the food. Nobody spoke, except for the occasional babble from Kiki.
Finally, with another glance at me, Robert stood up from the table and mumbled, “Goin’ out.”
Mom didn’t even look up as she said, “Okay, be back before ten.” Robert was out the backdoor before she’d finished the sentence. I idly wondered where he was going and how he had managed to decide on a destination without Chet’s help.
With everything I’d gone through, I just felt shredded. So I went to bed right after dinner again, even though I figured it’d take me forever to fall asleep and I really wasn’t looking forward to the nightmares that would follow. Fortunately, mercifully, I was pretty much out as soon as my head hit the pillow, and my sleep was deep and dreamless. Guess my brain recognized my need to just shut down, to escape for the next eight to twelve hours, and it would have been really awesome if I’d gotten to sleep that long.
I’d forgotten that I needed to be on guard again.
My eyes flew open when I felt the hand on my face. Moonlight streamed through my curtains and I could just make out my brothers. Robert was standing by the door, apparently on lookout, although he was looking down at his feet. Chet was sitting on the side of my bed, his hand over my mouth. The chef salad in my stomach did a flip and I was pretty sure that the glass of water I drank before bed was about to escape.
Chet leaned in and asked, “Can you hear me okay?” His voice was a hoarse, whispery croak, but his tone was conversational. “I can’t speak too loudly. Mom and Dad are still awake downstairs and my throat is pretty sore.”
This was so bad.
“I guess you can’t answer me. Here.” Chet moved his hand up and down, making me nod. “That’s better. The parents will be up soon to check on me, so I’ll make this quick. Robert tells me he’s been too freaked out to do anything to you today. Scared you’ll make him even prettier, I guess.” Chet chuckled. “But, that’s okay. I’d rather take care of this myself.” He leaned in even closer and I could smell the hospital on him.
“I’ve spent a lot of time the last two days wondering what to do about you. Things are out of order around here, and that’s pretty much your fault. Right?” He nodded my head again. I was having problems breathing by that point. “Yeah. Thought so. Figured I’d just take you out to the woods and pound on you for a while, teach you your place in the universe again, but then something occurred to me. Something that I think will be a lot more effective.”
His eyes flashed in the moonlight. “Your girlfriend. I know she goes and shoots baskets every morning, bright and early. So we’re going to get up brighter and earlier and go visit her. Then you can watch while I teach her not to put her nose where it doesn’t belong, and when you hear her cry, I want you to remember that it’s all because you forgot your place, little brother. You introduced chaos into our little family. So what happens to Hannah will be your fault. I want you to remember that, and never forget it ever again. ‘Kay?”
Chet nodded my head a final time, let go of my face and patted my cheek, almost gently. “Good night, shrimp. See you in the morning.”
Chapter 14
A
fter my visit from Chet, I nodded off to sleep again and dreamed of pink unicorns and fuzzy rainbows all night long.
Right.
I laid there and thought about Chet’s words until the terror and guilt reached down my throat and I had to spring up out of bed and run to the bathroom. I barely made it to the toilet before the chef salad made a return appearance. Talk about ironic.
Back in my room, I paced the floor, trying to calm down and figure out my options. It didn’t take long. I didn’t have any. I mean, sure, I could try to tell Mom and Dad, but I knew that they wouldn’t believe me. Probably tell me that I’d had a nightmare or something. After all, Chet was the “Good Son,” the star-athlete, the guy who shoveled the sidewalks of all of the elderly ladies in our neighborhood every time it snowed, the guy who’d taken me out trick-or-treating every year since I could walk (and you can imagine how much fun that’d been.) No way could he be a psychopath who was threatening a neighbor girl because his baby brother had gotten out of line.
What did that leave me? I could try to fight back, but that would last all of two seconds. I could try to run and warn Hannah in the morning, but Chet was bigger and faster than me. No way could I beat him to the park.
So despite what had happened at Mr. Magellan’s house, I knew that the only way I had out of my mess was to take the last pill. Unfortunately, I’d left that pill in just about the perfect hiding space. Not quite a needle in a haystack, but pretty close. For a crazy moment, I considered grabbing a flashlight and sneaking out to try to find the envelope in the dark.