IS

This place that had once, not so long ago, been my haven, had now become my hell. I stepped out onto the deck, feeling the cool damp chill of the night rest upon me. It was quiet—quiet and dark. Only the sound of the wind surging through the pines could be heard.

In days gone past, that same sound had been relaxing, a sound that was synonymous with living in a park-like setting. It was something that had originally enticed us to purchase this place to begin with.

But as I stepped down and into the yard, that same sound had now taken on a resonance more ominous and frightful. Even the pine smell had now dissipated, replaced by mold and decay, and now, superseded by two accounts of death.

The legacy of my knowing, the answer to my finding-–has now led to this night.

As I continued across my yard and over the berm into the schoolyard, I felt that this had all been too surreal; that I had been playing some sick game to which the end was now at hand. I couldn’t stop shaking as I progressed further into the darkness and into its temporary playground one last time.

I had found a small, but very bright flashlight and taped it to the barrel of the gun before I left. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in fear, I’m sure I would have spent more time patting myself on the back for such a random act of genius.

I stopped before entering the cluster of tall trees. Somehow, I would have to find more courage from within myself to move any further. I thought about Hercules, and how the children would flock to him whenever he came around. Not the Hercules that bared his teeth to me that night in Dave’s back yard, and certainly not the repulsive remains of him found in my shed, but rather, the tenderhearted and lovable canine friend to everyone who knew him, and how his life had carelessly been taken away.

What I thought would spark my anger and bring me courage, instead sent me wallowing in guilt. For I knew, it was because of me that he was killed. Ultimately, I was responsible for his death. If anything, the thought of that alone should have triggered some anger.

He was gone and it was my fault. There was nothing I could do about that now. It was working, I was feeling outrage. But the fear of where I was now standing, alone, seemed to overpower any amount of anger that I could have hoped to obtain.

It was much too dark without the natural light of the moon’s glow to help me. My genius had come back to bite me in the ass, as I was in need of that flashlight but it was much too soon to bring out the gun. And I had done such an awesome job of taping it too! Dammit! I should have thought that through a little better.

I knelt down in the tall wet grass and pulled the knife from my back pocket. Just at that time, just when I was about to cut the light free from the barrel, a mist of rain joined the strong breeze, and I swore I could hear something stirring in the not so distant void of blackness ahead of me.

I froze in place and held my breath, listening hard. I heard it again. It sounded like a child crying, weeping in distress. It had to be a trick. I was getting all too wary of its games now. I looked down and sliced the light free. Next, I placed the gun back into its secretive place again and stood up, aiming the light into the trees.

“Forget the games, you son-of-a-bitch!” I shouted. “I’m here! Where are you? You don’t have the balls to face me now, you fucking pussy?”

All I heard after that was the rain, while my face and eyes were browbeaten by the force of the wind behind it.

“Well?” I shouted again, and then listened into the quiet dark. There was nothing. I was about to turn around, when something stopped me.

Maybe it was the cold chill that crept into the back of my neck and made its way down my spine. Or maybe, it was the sickening stench of death that turned my stomach. I could delay the inevitable no longer. I snapped my head around, but to my fortunate dismay, saw nothing.

“More games?” I shouted. I then turned around and was met by its malevolent stare, inches from mine.

I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I just stood there, helpless to whatever it wanted. Eventually, I realized that I still had the knife in my hand. It was when I looked to it, that its black eyes followed mine. It then looked back to me again, smiling, as if it was daring me to use it; testing and taunting my human will for survival.

My will was still strong, my courage only needed to catch up to it. I finally drove the shiny blade forward. My wrist was stopped and my throat was seized, when I was lifted into the air by my neck, and then slammed into a tree, pinned against it. I was powerless, weak and without hope.

Choking, moving close to unconscious, I reached behind for the gun, not knowing if I’d even have the strength to pull the trigger. In the midst of kicking my feet, I lifted the gun and prayed.

A shot was fired, and then another. I found myself on the ground, coughing, and sucking for air. But I had only pulled at the trigger once. My vision was dark, but my ears were clear, when I then heard a familiar voice call my name. I tried to get to my knees.

“Scott?” I was amazed, while still unsure. “Is that you, brother?” I called out through the rasp of my injured throat.

“I’m here bro… you didn’t think I would actually leave you here to have all the fun, did you?” I could hear his breathing, rapid and ramped up with excitement. My sight was coming back to me now. I could see his worried face.

“You have to leave, Scott.” I grabbed hold of his shirt as tight as my fear demanded.

“Josh, it’s okay. I got him.” He was doing his best to put my worries to rest. “It’s all right. I killed him.”

I stopped myself, and stared into Scott’s eyes. “Are you sure?” I couldn’t believe it was over. It seemed to end too easily. It couldn’t have been that easy.

“Where is it?” I asked, still coughing between sentences.

“Where is what?” he returned.

“It! The body! Where is it?” I frantically shouted.

“Oh, he’s lying just over there, in the tall weeds next to that tree,” he answered.

“Scott, look at me!” I yelled. “This isn’t fucking human, and I’m not fucking kidding, you’ve got to get the hell away from here-–now!”

And then I could see by the look on his face that my pleas had come too late. I could read the sudden twist of fear in his eyes. He began to shake; not from fear alone, but violently, from a powerful and immoral will. Blood was now coming from his mouth and his nose, and he displayed a look of immeasurable pain, while uncontrollably vibrating toward his death.

“Stop!” I screamed.

It threw its arms up, sending Scott through the air and to the ground in a heap of tormented human flesh and bones at least twenty yards away. I felt a sense of relief to see him finally move, seconds later.

And then I felt a fiery pulling sensation in my stomach and chest. It began to grow, when I too started to vibrate with unfathomable pain, as well.

Amidst the aching, silenced agony of a lost battle, the silhouette of a small child appeared alone in the field as the clouds rolled away, releasing the moon’s welcomed glow, and announcing the presence of retribution in its tiniest human form.

It looked at her and released its hold on me for the moment. I fell into the damp weeds, writhing in pain.

It then tipped its head as if to wonder what to do with the new intruder. It’s smile then faded to a lesser confident expression, acknowledging a power it hadn’t expected within the diminutive, human frame which now was standing strong to confront it.

I looked over to Scott’s body. He was still, when I prayed that he was still alive. I then looked to the presence in the field.

It was Alley. It was my little girl. Even in the moon’s light I couldn’t see her face, but I knew it was her. And after everything that Powder had confessed to me about her, I knew why she was here.

“Alley!” I called out. The white beast looked my way and smiled again. It moved toward me as if to finally complete its mission, its purpose.

I heard her small voice cry, “Stop!” and I saw her throw a hand out in front of her and drop her head forward.

It fell to its knees before reaching me. When it looked as though it had actually experienced a jolt of pain. It lifted its face to me and I could see an obscure version of agony and disorientation, and yes once again-–tears. Finally, it climbed to its feet and turned around to face its human, but very powerful adversary.

“This doesn’t have to happen like this!” she cried out. “You could leave now, and this could all be over. I feel-–I know that you are only doing what you are supposed to do, that you are fulfilling your destiny, and I’m sorry. But I can’t let you do that.”

It looked back to me again, and then back to her, as if it were contemplating what to do next. And then I saw it bring its arms up and out at each side, and I knew what it had decided. It tipped its head back and I feared for my little girl.

“Alley, look out!” I screamed.

It threw its arms forward at her, and she raised her hands to block it. The powerful force pushed her back, but only a modest ten feet. She reciprocated with a force of her own that violently drove it back into a tree, and then it fell to the ground.

Her nose was bleeding profusely, and her brain was aching beyond anything she had ever encountered before. But even so, it knew that it had been outmatched by a power only known to their kind from legendary myths. The possibility of a human child not only discovering, but actually mastering the endowed power to which it had been given was, until now, not only improbable, but not possible… ever.

Even so, it would never give up; it would do everything in its power to finish its purpose. Ignoring Alley, it started to climb to its feet once again, ascending to make its final attempt to kill me. I was sitting up and crawling backwards into the cool wetness of more unexplored territory as it continued to move towards me. I wondered why it hadn’t just used its power to finish me; why it was now resorting to physically finishing its mission.

“Stop, now!” Alley cried out, convulsing in pain, as she threw both hands forward and then abruptly to the ground.

Both the creature’s arms snapped backwards, while its neck snapped with a loud and ghastly sound, as well—tipping the weight of its head to one side for the very last time, as it fell helpless, and finally lifeless, to the damp earthly ground beneath it.

I saw my daughter fall to her knees in the distance. I struggled to get to my feet, moving as fast as I possibly could to reach her. When I finally got within ten feet, I stopped and called her name. She looked up at me, face bloodied but slowly being cleansed by yet another rainfall that had started.

We had no words to speak. She stood up and we embraced, crying and releasing the one human emotion that mattered now.

The wind had somewhat died down, when I became aware of his smell.

“And where the hell were you?” I said, without even bothering to look.

“Watching my plan work, Joshua,” I heard my voice answer. “I am sorry that I disobeyed your request, my friend,” he added, when Alley and I turned to greet him.

“I am very thankful that you did, my friend. We owe our lives to you.” I then looked around the grounds. “Two gun shots, and no police? How is that even possible?” I asked.

“I stopped its sound from traveling outside us,” he answered. “I thought it might bring others that would only make this more difficult.”

“More difficult?” I asked, as I smiled at him.

“I did good, Joshua?” he asked.

“You did very good,” Alley replied, smiling, and taking hold of his hands.

“Oh, shit!” I blurted out, when I heard Scott moaning, and then saw him trying to sit up.

“What happens now, Powder? I mean, what happens to you, and us?”

“I do not know, Joshua,” he answered.

And then there was a bright light that numbed our senses and pained our eyes. I felt as though I were about to sleep, when I came awake, alert to the presence of three beings identical to Powder, only dressed in white, rather than black.

My first thought was that we were all dead, or about to be. I took hold of my daughter’s hand and began to move back. I watched Powder drop to his knees, when I then realized that we were possibly in the presence of what would be considered sovereigns to his race—overseers to his kind.

They didn’t speak. All three of them stared at Powder and he kept nodding, responding to something they must have been saying to him.

One at a time, they took turns approaching him, each lightly touching the top of his head before moving back to their original place of standing.

After they had all finished, they all, at the same time, looked at Alley and I. Then, surprising the other two, one of them moved to approach us. He came to face me and smiled, slowly nodding once in greeting.

Then he turned and looked down to Alley. He smiled, and bent down to touch her face. She was very accepting, smiling also. She began to nod, just as Powder did, as if to answer or agree with what he was conveying to her.

Before long, he moved to join the other two, and everything went bright again. I closed my eyes. When I opened them, the visitors had gone.

“What just happened?” I asked.

“We have just been graced by what you would consider to be kings, in your world,” Powder said. “And once more, your lives will be spared,” he added.

I can’t believe this!” I said, looking to Alley, who was smiling, but quiet. “Wait. What did you mean when you said, we will be spared—as if we had to do something to earn it?”

I looked to the place where Powder’s evil twin had been, and it was gone. Scott was gone also. I panicked. “Where the hell is Scott, Powder?” I yelled.

“Do not worry for him, Joshua. Your friend is lying asleep in his back yard, resting peacefully in a chair. He will remember none of this, once he awakes.”

“That’s good, right?” I asked. “I mean, he’ll be okay, he just won’t remember any of this, right?”

“That is correct, Joshua. Even his injuries will have been gone by the time a new day is here, just the same as you.”

“Just the same as me what?” I asked.

“That is your gift, Joshua. After tonight, it will be as such that none of this had actually happened.”

Alley’s smile had faded somewhat. She held her father’s hand tighter than ever before. There were things she didn’t want to forget, faces she had grown accustomed to.

“And what about you? What happens to you, now?” I asked.

“My fate was sealed long before all of this, my friend,” he answered. “Our laws have been altered just this once for the three of you. Everything else will remain just as it was. Just as it was always meant to be.”

“I won’t ever see you again after tonight, will I?” I asked.

“No Joshua, you will not. Just as I will never see you.”

“Since after tonight, I won’t remember any of this, and I won’t remember you, I want you to remember something for me. Will you do that?”

“Of course Joshua, what is it?”

“I want you to remember that I was your friend, and that you were a good friend to me. I don’t want you to ever forget that, and I don’t want you to forget me.”

He then smiled and held out his hand. There were some things I would miss after tonight, if I could, and some things I would be blessed to have forgotten. I didn’t know what his law had in store for him. I guess it was better that I didn’t find out. All I knew for sure was that it was over, and that after tonight, life could go back to how it used to be.

After watching Powder leave into the forest, Alley and I began to head across the field and toward our home. She was very quiet. I figured the whole confrontation of the battle had left her in some sort of mild shock. I stopped walking and knelt down to her. I looked her in the eyes and tried to find my daughter again. “Alley, it’s going to be okay, you know that, right? Powder said—”

“I know what Powder said, Dad!” she interrupted, and then looked away, as if she couldn’t bear to look at me.

“I’ll be all right. Everyone will be all right. He told me so.”

And then she turned to me with a pretentious smile and drenched eyes that made me think she was keeping something at bay; that her pain hadn’t left her. I didn’t take it too seriously, seeing as how it would all be over and done with by the time a new day came.

I stood up and hugged her. She held me so tight, I felt she would never let go. “I love you, daddy,” she whispered. “I’ll always love you,” she whispered again, a bit softer.

“I love you too, Peanut,” I answered back. “Let’s go home.”

The clouds had all moved on to some other place by then, and the moon and stars held court over the existing night, now transitioning into morning. The plants and trees all glistened in the aftermath of nature’s shower, when even life for them had been taken care of, yet again.

Within a short while, the massive warmth of the sun would rekindle the start of another day, overseeing human life and everything alive within it. But life here on Earth was always in the midst of change. And change would sometimes come as unusual, or uncertain.

Or sometimes, encrypted into what would appear to be normal and uneventful days.

He was standing alone, looking over the playground, and into the woods beyond. He didn’t know why. It was just something he liked to do; something he felt compelled to do.

He glanced across the field and saw Scott cutting his grass. Scott felt his gaze and looked over to Josh for a brief second, but then turned away as if he hadn’t noticed him. He returned his attention to the woods again.

“Honey?” It was Corey’s voice behind him. “Honey. We need to go now. It’s time.”

“Time for what?” he asked, holding his gaze.

“Josh, we talked about this. Everything’s going to be okay. Doctor Daniels said…”

“Daniels?” he responded.

“Yeah, Josh. You’ve met Doctor Daniels. He says he can help us. You, Josh. He said he can help you. It’s just going to take some time, that’s all.”

His eyes were frozen on a cardinal that had landed on a branch ten yards ahead of him. She liked cardinals. Cardinals and blue jays.

“I’ll be all right. Everyone will be all right. He told me so.”

“Honey, why do you keep saying that? Who’s he? Did Doctor Daniels tell you that?”

Josh finally broke his stare and turned around to face his pregnant wife and three year old son, Shane. He blinked hard, as if it would change what he saw.

“Honey, it’s the stories–-the story. We can’t do this anymore. Doctor Daniels wants to do some tests. He thinks it’s something in your brain that can be fi…” she wanted to say ‘fixed’, but ‘dealt with’ was something she could say without lying…she didn’t like to lie.

The End