Part 2

  Sheriff Johansons walkie-talkie kept going off with more and more reports from the station of strange figures attacking civilians.

  He cursed under his breath, trying to keep up with the cases as he drove through the town. The deputy was out doing the same. Johanson sped along the road. He kept an eye out for the boy. As he passed homes, he spoke on his car megaphone, telling people to stay inside and take shelter.

  He pulled to the side of the road, near downtown, where the first call came from. He walked to the door. It was cracked open, with scratches cutting through the oak and the handle sitting crushed in bits on the ground.

  He grasped his pistol and unlatched it from his belt.

  He nudged it open with the toe of his boots.

  His breath turned to fog in the cold air as he called out. “Is the Sheriff. We gotta call from this residence. Is anybody here?”

  There was no reply.

  He took another step and kept his flashlight hand crossed over the arm that held his pistol. The house was still and dark. The air was as cold and damp as the weather outside.

  He turned quickly to a movement near the kitchen. He spotted nothing and inspected the rest of the house. An older couple lived there. Lived. He stepped into the master bedroom. Blood stained the drapes and puddled into an ooze on the carpet. Johanson stepped on a finger. And shined the light on the corner of the room. Sheriff Johanson tried to wipe the expression from his face. But it seeped and he could feel his soul growing heavy at the sight.

  “Jesus. Fuck.” He muttered.

  In front of him were two bodies, mangled and bloody and raw beyond recognition. Chunks of their meat were spread throughout the room. What was once an older man holding his wife in protection, was now a couple of dissected bodies.

  Johanson ran out to the car in the rain, leaned, and vomited in the rainy street. Through his gags and gasps, he could hear a nearby howling, loud and still hungry.

  He turned toward the sound of footsteps nearby.

  “Stay back!” He yelled as it approached. He warned it again, but it didn’t stop. “This a warning. Take another step, and I’ll shoot.”

  But, it wasn’t human. It turned its head and cried to the moon, and he could see the fur and blood dripping from its snout. It turned back to him. It ran at the speed of a wolf. He pulled the trigger. Then, pulled it again, and again. It didn’t slow. He jumped in the car, started, and pulled it into reverse. The thing caught up and jumped on the front of the car, leaving a dent on the hood. Johanson sped backward as it scratched at the windshield. He took a quick turn launching it from the top of his cop car. He turned, slammed it into drive, and stomped on the accelerator. Revving toward the creature as it stood, slamming against the beast’s body and knocking it to the side of the road.

  He continued driving and didn’t look back. There was a yellow ooze that stuck to the numerous dents in the hood but washed in the speckles of rain. He drove to the Trident Grove Apartments.

  Terry looked up, he’d been walking for the last thirty minutes. Which was an average time through the woods, but the wet cold made it feel long and miserable. He saw a window with light creeping through its blinds. He could see the brick of the house. It was a home, a familiar one. A refuge in the storm.

  He knocked on the window, and if he remembered the structure of the house, it was one of the twins’ rooms. After a second, a hesitant hand peeked through the blinds.

  Muffled behind the window was a voice, “Terry?”

  They opened the window. It was Bella.

  “The heck are you doing outside? There’s a storm warning!” She stopped when she realized how dirty, cold, wet, and beaten up Terry was. “Get inside. I’ll let my mom know you’re here.”

  Cadence stretched her arms with a yawn. She stood on two legs that split from the tail she had in the water. Her legs were a scaly blue, and her eyes glowed red. She smirked at the dying sky and inhaled the air of decay.

  She stumbled a bit, but her legs would get used to walking again soon. She had only enough energy beforehand to try to get the crystal back from Terry, but now that everything had gone to plan, she could leave the fountain permanently. No longer bound to the fountain, she began to take strides to the next part of her plan.

  A cop car, reading ‘Sheriff’ on the side pulled up to the parking lot with a screech of tires. She kept walking, unbothered by his new presence. Sheriff Johanson stepped out of the car and pulled out his gun.

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  “Nice toy.” She sang.

  Johanson yelled, “End all this now, and I won shoot ya down.”

  She cackled at his joke and walked toward him.

  She said. “You are just like that red-headed fool. Things have been set into motion and, like waves of a storm, it cannot be stopped.”

  Johanson fired off his gun. He made every shot, but they passed through, and the holes in her body quickly healed. Cadence didn’t slow. Instead, she sang a song that rippled through his ears and warmed his body. It soothed his soul. He slowed down his shots, as they did nothing, and he fell into a trance with his hands by his side.

  She reached him and lifted his chin. She looked him in the eyes, as she sang in the tongue of another world.

  “You want me?” She asked.

  He nodded his head.

  She pierced her sharp nails through his chest. Leaving his bleeding body on the pavement, she walked on.

  “Boy, you are crazy for going out in the weather.” Misses Stephens wiped his forehead, and wrapped a bandage over the cut on his arm.

  Terry was wrapped in a blanket near the fireplace. Only certain parts of their house had electricity. The hearth was warm.

  “Something weird happened,” Terry said. He stared down at the carpet.

  Michael stood with his arms crossed and tried to hide his curiosity.

  Bella sat next to Terry with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands, she offered one to Terry but he declined.

  Misses Stephens asked, “what happened?”

  Mister Stephens interrupted and walked with a radio into the living room. “I got a signal.”

  It cut out occasionally, but through static, the local station had the host talking, and he spoke on a recording. “The storm doesn’t seem to be calming except for near downtown where the eye is seeming to stay— There’s a warning to stay indoors and not step out whatso— Board your doors. There have been multiple cases— and murders throughout the area.— strange monsters— please stay safe, y’all.” Then it was repeated in a loop.

  Mister and Misses Stephens looked at each other with concern. They stepped out of the room, away from the kids, to talk.

  Bella and Michael looked at Terry.

  “What happened?”

  Terry shook his head and huddled the covers closer to himself as he spoke. “Something weird was in the trees. It attacked me.”

  “That where ya got the cut?” Michael asked.

  Terry felt the bandage on his arm and nodded.

  “The thing said there was a lot of murders going on, maybe you ran into a culprit.” Bella said.

  “It wasn’t human.”

  They both stared at him. Michael vocally dismissed it as a coyote or a weird bird. Bella didn’t say anything. Instead, she thought about the little girl Terry had mentioned by the tree.

  The flames of the fire licked the firewood, slowly consuming it. The wood flickered and occasionally popped, causing small bits of ash to rise up the chimney. Most of the house was lit with candles. Only a few appliances and rooms still worked thanks to a generator Mister Stephens used. The storm rumbled outside, but the house was a brick fortress and didn’t shake from the thunder.

  “Anyway, we’re safe here. So I’mma take a nap.” Michael said.

  He laid down, and the ground shook from another tremor. He groaned and ran off to his room.

  “You think it has something to do with that girl you saw that disappeared?” Bella finally asked.

  Terry shrugged. “Maybe. A lotta weird stuff has been happening.”

  “It’s gotta be connected to something, right?”

  Terry shrugged again.

  Her eagerness was making him feel bitter. He just wanted to lie down, relax, and forget everything. She backed away a bit after seeing his expression.

  Terry thought to himself. Maybe she was right. Mister Clines mentioned something important about the world ending. The world definitely felt like it was ending all around him. Then, there was Cadence. He wondered if the monster was bathing in the fountain at that very moment. He couldn’t forgive her for killing Mister Clines. There was the crystal that he stole before that. Then there was the Sheriff, who told him they needed to talk, in the middle of the storm.

  Bella noticed Terry staring into space. “You okay?” she asked.

  Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

  “The hell’d be knockin’ on the door in this weather?” Misses Stephens called from the kitchen.

  She walked to the front door and squinted an eye through the peephole. The porchlight didn’t light up the doorway. She turned from the door to look at Mister Stephens. They gave each other a look of confusion.

  There was a rumble, another tremor from the Earth. The rain died down slowly, and the pelting on the roof grew quiet.

  The door knocked again. Hesitant, Misses Stephens looked back through the peephole.

  “There’s a woman.” She said.

  The kids looked up. The woman knocked again, this time more patient.

  Mister Stephens said, “I guess ask her what she needs.”

  The door creaked as Misses Stephens cracked it, and leaned her head out.

  “Hi, Ma’am. What brings you here?”

  The woman spoke with a rhythm, soft and friendly, yet alluring, and almost a song. Terry looked up as soon as she talked and recognized it. It was Cadence.

  She said. “Hello, Ma’am, I seem to have become lost in the storm. I was wondering if I could take refuge in your home.”

  Misses Stephens looked around, “There doesn’t seem to be much of a storm any more.”

  She was right. There was lightning in the distance, but no more rain. It was still cold, and the sky was purple and gray, but now fog covered most of the ground.

  She opened up the doorway wider. Terry ran to the door with the blanket still covering him. He made eye contact with Cadence. She gave a smug smile at him. He knew it was her, but she had legs. How did she escape the fountain?

  “Come on in,” Misses Stephens said.

  “Don’t let her in.” Terry said sternly.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Please, don’t let her in.”

  Bella stepped up beside Terry. All eyes were on him. Cadence gave him an ugly look.

  “If it is too much trouble.” Cadence said.

  Mister Stephens spoke up. “Of course not, you’re welcome here. Don’t mind the kiddo.”

  Terry grunted and ran to the fire. Bella followed, as confused as everybody else was. Cadence stepped in. The parents locked the door behind them.

  Cadence was given a towel to dry off, and a pair of clothes and she shortly joined them in the living room. Everybody but Michael was there. He was still taking a nap in his room.

  “Weird weather we’re having, huh?”

  “Oh, it’ll pass soon, once everything has settled.” Cadence said.

  Every little bit during the conversation, Terry would find Cadence staring at him. The parents went to the kitchen, and only Terry, Bella, and Cadence remained in the living room.

  Bella observed as the two talked.

  “What do you want?” Terry said.

  Cadence laughed. “You know what I am here for, don’t you?”

  “I don’t.”

  “The Crystal. I need it.”

  “I ain’t got the crystal.”

  “Crystal?” Bella interrupted.

  Cadence continued. “Where are you hiding it?”

  “I ain’t got it.” Terry said more sternly.

  Cadence finally stood, fuming with frustration. “It seems I will have to force you to show me where it is.”