A Dark Lesson pt. 4

Debbie, now dressed in a plain white t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants, sat in the small nurses office tucked in the back of the Youth Center.  Her head was bowed, her wet hair covering her face, and her hands were clasped tightly in her lap.  Amanda did her best not to stare, to try and see the traces of those scars through the thin white fabric of the t-shirt. 

Debbie had cried for only a little while, and then had gone silent, pulling herself away from Amanda, and stepping into the shower before Amanda could protest.  A crime had been committed.  The scars were proof of that.  The shower would wash away important evidence.  But before Amanda could say anything Debbie was already under the stream of water, the dirt and dried blood rushing down the drain. 

“Debbie?”  Joanna stepped into the nurses office, her clipboard in hand. “My name is Joanna.  Amanda here wants me to give you a quick check up, to make sure you’re alright.” 

Debbie just shook her head. “But I’m not alright.”

Without any prompting Debbie lifted her shirt, revealing the pink, puckered scars.  Joanna’s eyes went wide, and then she gripped Amanda’s arm. 

“Call Clare.”  Her voice was a harsh whisper. 

“What? Why?” Amanda shook her head, confused. 

“I… I recognize those markings.  Don’t ask me how, but I do.” Joanna turned to face Amanda. “Call Clare.”

Amanda paused.  Sure, those markings were odd, but… supernatural?  Maybe some psychotic could have done it, thinking it was part of a ritual, but something supernatural? Demonic, even?

“Whose Clare?” Debbie watched them both, her eyes wide and curious. 

Joanna cleared her throat. “Clare is a friend of mine.  She and her company handle… odd cases. Those scars… they remind me of something, and I think Clare might be able to give us a few answers.” 

“I know what they are.”  Debbie’s voice was mumbled, almost child like.  “They aren’t complete though.  They failed.”  She lowered her shirt.  “They tried to trap my soul, but it didn’t work.  My soul came back with me. That’s why they failed.”

Amanda couldn’t believe what she was hearing. 

Joanna looked at Amanda, her face more determined than before.  “Like I said, call Clare.”

All Amanda could do was nod.

Tentacle University pt. 3

Charlotte Westgate watched the police extracting the bodies from a safe distance.  She didn’t need her students to see her there.  As the Dean of Hartmore could not be seen watching something as morbid as a crime scene being worked over.  She needed to remain impassive and strong, and most importantly, she needed to seem distant.  She needed to be a pillar for the school community, especially now as the student body was sure to be facing a heartbreaking challenge. 

A frown twitched at the edge of her lips. 

She had been prepared for this.  Expecting it.  From the first moment she had seen that shooting star pass over campus, she knew that something like this was coming.  It had only taken a week.  Now, she was certain, similar attacks would become more common. 

“Ma’am.” Her assistant, Whitley, stepped up next to her, a cellphone clutched in his hand.  “I made the call.”

“What did they tell you?”  She glanced at him, her demeanor softening.

“Wait and see.  We are on our own for now.” He handed her the cellphone. 

“You don’t need to call me ma’am.” Charlotte sighed. 

“The students are watching.” He scanned the crowd.  “I have to keep up appearances.  Just in case.”

Whitely was one of the few people she felt calm around.  He understood her, and he understood her purpose.  They had trained together, years ago, and his position as her assistant was for show.  Whitley was her partner, the man she had gone to hell and back with.

Charlotte was tall, with short, white blonde hair, ice blue eyes and pale skin.  Her face, while striking, held a stern look, and she had perfected the death stare.  Whitley was short and stocky, with dark brown skin and short cropped hair.  He filled out his suit nicely, but a closer look at his scarred, rugged features gave away his past as a soldier. 

No matter what titles they had to live by in public, in private they both had the same objective.

They were to defeat the Mythos. 

Those damn Mythos, monstrous creatures that snuck through brief dimensional rips.  They prayed on the life force of humans.  Each had their own particular flavor, for lack of a better term.  Some preferred the elderly, others children.  This one, it seemed preferred young men. 

“Are you sure the male was the only one… fed upon?” Charlotte watched as the stretcher was loaded into the back of an ambulance.

“Yes.  The female was brutalized, but not drained,” he said. 

“Interesting.” Her eyes wandered from the ambulance to the rest of the crowd. 

She and Whitley had been sent to this school to protect these students.  She had already failed.  Two people were dead.  There was no excuse.  They had ample warning.  The shooting star signaled the rip, and that meant that a Mythos was not far off.  There were steps she could have taken, barriers they could have constructed, but both she and Whitley had thought they had more time. 

They were naïve.

“What do you think we should do?” She turned to Whitley, her ice blue eyes glittering with tears. 

“We hunt when we can.” He ran a thick, callused hand through his short hair.  “We may not know where the thing is, but we know it is here, and both of us have trained long enough to spot the warning signs of an impending attack.  We search for a lair, and force it out.  Then, we kill it.” 

“You make it sound so simple.” Charlotte couldn’t help but laugh.  “If only it was.”

Before turning away from the crime scene, she gave the growing crowd one final look. 

Who would be next? Could they move fast enough to make sure that answer was no one?

Sadly, she doubted it. 

Eye See You: Randy Connects pt. 20

We lay together in bed.  Luke was out cold, unmoving.
I couldn’t fall asleep. 

My mind was racing, going over everything that had happened recently.

Something had changed.

Something about the game was different.

Something about Luke was different.

I just needed to know what it was. 

I glanced at the dresser. 

Luke’s phone sat next to his wallet. 

All I needed to do was check.

If the video was there then that meant at least he wasn’t lying to me.

I slipped out of bed as gently as possible and crept across the room.

I picked up his phone, and stepped into the living room. 

The lack of passcode was a positive sign.

I checked his messages.

I scrolled down a bit to find the one I was looking for. 

The one marked Unknown Sender. 

I tap on it.

…

The last message was weeks ago.

There is no video.  

My heart sinks and my stomach tightens into a knot.

He lied.

“Find what you’re looking for?”

Luke’s voice freezes me in place.

I don’t even get a chance to turn around before I feel a sudden pain in the back of my head. 

The room goes black.

The last thing I hear before I slip into unconsciousness is Luke’s voice. 

“I’m doing this for you, Randy.  I’m doing this for us.”

Ruins pt. 35

“Here we are.”

Alana raised her arm and gestured forwards.

Wheaton…

No, this was no longer Wheaton.

This was the New Eden.

New Eden seemed to burst with life. 

The buildings were whole, ivy growing up the sides.

There were people.

Clean, happy people.

Children ran and played in the street.

There was sun, there was light, there was life. 

Alana motioned towards a set of large stairs leading up towards a thriving park. 

“Come on.  I’ll introduce you to my father.  He spends most of his day up in Lilac Park helping out with the garden.”

“Whose your dad, anyways? I have no idea who the mayor of Wheaton is.”

Kay was following closely behind Alana.

“Marcus Anderson.”

Doug seemed to stumble a bit.

His cheeks were going red.

Guess Marcus was one of those things that scared him more than demons.

Eye See You: Randy Connects pt. 19

The message came while I was half asleep on Luke’s couch. 

He hadn’t come out of the bathroom for a while, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make out any part of his conversation. 

So I let the shock and exhaustion take me over, and I collapsed. 

The vibration of the phone woke me up. 

I had almost forgotten that Dave had given me the phone back to me when we found…

It was another message from Janelle.

Bella wasn’t part of the original game.  There’s a new game master.

What the hell did that even mean?

The message made me think again about how I still hadn’t received a new list or video. 

Luke said he got the video though…

I glanced around the living room, then got up and checked the bedroom.

No cellphone.

It was probably on him.

I didn’t like where all this was leading me.  I didn’t like doubting the one man who had been my only support since this whole thing started. 

My trust in him was shaken, but I still loved him. 

Was this someone trying to warn me, or was this just another part of the game?

I couldn’t tell anymore.