The Shadows' Empress (Part 9)

Jacob ended his call with the pizza restaurant and went into the living room to see which movie his youngest children selected. He looked at the title stamped across the large screen in LED lights: ‘Suicide Squad’. This was the fourth or fifth time they had watched this movie.

            “Again?” Jacob asked, wondering if he should laugh or be concerned that his young twins were so interested in the concept of the bad guys being made to do good deeds. But still, their excitement made him smile. He especially thought it was cute when Spencer giggled at the screen when one of the characters said something funny.

            ‘He must be smarter than I thought if none of these jokes are going over his head,’ Jacob thought as he looked over at his oldest son who had been scowling since the movie started. ‘Either he doesn’t wanna watch this movie again, or he’s having one of those mood swings teenagers deal with.’

            The chiming of the doorbell rang through the house.

            “Pizza’s here!” Jacob proclaimed, eliciting happy cheering from his children and, in Roland’s case, growling from his stomach despite the look on his face. Although, with the lights on, Roland seemed less angry. He was probably angry about something and didn’t want them to know.

            “You mind helping me out, Roland?” Jacob didn’t need help to carry four pizzas to the living room. He just wanted to talk. And maybe get him to bring the drinks, because it had been a long day, and papa needed a cold one.

            Roland didn’t answer, but he got up from his spot on the couch between his brother and sister and walked over to meet his father in the kitchen. Jacob paid the delivery guy and gave him a decent tip considering he had to drive out to the country to deliver the pizzas. Putting them on the table, Jacob asked, “everything alright, buddy? You’ve been quiet and kinda angry all night…”

            “I’m fine…” Roland muttered, thinking about the dream he’d had. Given the circumstances, he couldn’t just pretend it wasn’t real. How does a picture you took in your dream show up on your phone in real life?

Jacob sighed. He knew better than to believe a child when they said they were “fine”.

“Let me rephrase that. I know something’s wrong. What is it?” Jacob asked putting his arm around his son, so Roland couldn’t try to avoid the conversation.

For the first time since in his entire life, Roland felt uncomfortable around his father. By now, he’d decided it was obvious that Jacob had been lying to him about his mother’s death. Roland even tried to justify his father’s lies. Who wants to tell a young boy his mother died because of something that wasn’t an accident? What would happen to someone so young, mentally, if they knew had that kind of information? Could someone as young as Roland was at the time even understand the situation? Roland figured the reason he’d felt so betrayed was because he’d like to think he was smart enough to grasp the concept of death without potentially going crazy. Besides, nobody likes being lied to in any circumstance.

Roland took a deep breath, slowly in and out. He looked over his shoulder into the living room to make sure his younger siblings weren’t listening. The young man had just realized what the real reason was; no child should have to worry about something as grim as death.

“How did Mom really die?” Roland stared into his father’s eyes who appeared shocked at the question. Roland was just as shocked, himself. He was planning on coming up with something else to convince Jacob that something completely different was bugging him. But, his real concern ejected itself from his mouth.

The pair stared at each other for a moment before Jacob gave his son a gentle smile.

“You’re a smart kid, so I guess I should’ve seen that one coming…” Jacob said softly so the twins didn’t hear. Surely by now they’d be peering into the kitchen to see what was taking them so long to bring the pizza into the living room, so they could eat while continuing their movie.

“You wanna talk about it? Say, after we eat? The Scarlet and Spencer will probably eat us if we don’t bring them their food,” Jacob chuckled.

“Sure…” Roland said, feeling a bit better about the situation, and also sort of scared. ‘What if Dad’s just thinking of another lie or a way to…kill me, too?’ Roland decided he needed to stop being so paranoid and just let things happen.

Jacob face his son and pulled Roland into a big, bear hug, whispering, “I love you, buddy. And, even if you don’t like what I have to say, everything is gonna be fine.”

The Shadow Man (Part 12)

The police officers had all of the reports they needed to take. The ambulance that was called to take Jesse to the hospital, begrudgingly, left the scene without Jesse. Having spent much more time in the hospital after his accident than he’d liked, Jesse convinced all involved that he didn’t need to go back.

“I’m just not used to taking my pain meds,” he’d told the paramedics. “I’m sorry to bother you when you could’ve been on a more important call…” Jesse hung his head, staring at the crack in the sidewalk between his shoes. He wasn’t lying. He was embarrassed that the police and an ambulance was called for something that Jesse didn’t think was a big deal, when his best friend was missing. Although, he was sure part of the reason for them showing up was because he’d found a clue relating to Olivia’s abduction.

Jesse’s mother decided to walk Mrs. Sandoval home. The woman was a mess, and rightfully so. Mrs. Sandoval hadn’t stopped crying the entire time, except to answer questions the police asked her, and when she’d found Jesse unconscious. Neither of Jesse’s parents thought it would be a good thing for her to walk home alone. And, as they were amazed Mr. Sandoval never came to the scene when he knew it involved his missing daughter, Mrs. Sandoval had no one to walk her home. In the meantime, Jesse and his dad decided to walk home together. Jesse’s dad felt that it would give them some time to bond before they reached their house.

“So, what made you start taking your meds, mijo?” Jesse heard his father’s words but wasn’t sure how to answer them. “Are you still in pain even when you’re not putting pressure on your injuries?”

“Not normally.” Jesse said. “But my arm was killing me, last night, so…”

“You finally gave in, huh?”

“Yeah…”

Looking down at the cast on his left arm, Jesse thought about the real reason he took his meds. Why he took more than what was prescribed for one dose. To be entirely honest, Jesse was angry when he woke up. He hoped that he would just fall asleep and never see another day. He was tired of dealing with the shadow figures, the family drama, and worried he’d never see Olivia again. Jesse thought of the suicide note he’d written before his accident. He remembered every word because he wrote it as a poem and read it repeatedly until he felt better. Or at least, until he decided suicide wasn’t the way to handle his problems:

I get closer to the end every day. Having taken more pills than what was prescribed I let the feeling of it wash over me like the ocean I'm too afraid to drown in. This is where the contrary thoughts begin. I wonder if killing myself is the right thing to do. And before I can convince myself it's not I feel it; the drunkenness. Becoming dizzier I see the world through double vision. I see that I was right to do this. I lie in bed praying God understands my decision and hope He doesn't forsake me for it. I feel alone enough as it is. My hands shake, and I see my past flash before my eyes; I didn't have much of a life. He undoes his pants. My heartbeat quickens. He exposes himself to me. I feel sick. His hands touch my body in places I was told never to touch myself. I realize overdosing is not a good way to go, but it does the trick. It gets dark. It's never been so dark before. Not outside of my heart, anyways. I hear my mom say, "he's only four!" And I laugh to myself. Who acts like they care but does nothing to help? On to the next vision. 10 years later, same old shit, and I remember how done with life I was at that age. But I can't help but cry as he says, "You belong to me", as a reminder that my life was never mine to begin with. I try to imagine a happy place. The beach. The sand. I think maybe if I try hard enough to drag myself to the ocean I can change my mind and drown myself instead, but that's not water. It's regret, hate, and blood all mixed together. Don't touch that! Just wait until the moon rises and brings the tide with it. It will cover you in blood when it's good and ready. Now I wake up. Once again, I was too chicken shit to take enough pills to do the job right. I go about my day as if nothing happened and tell myself that what I saw does not define me. Maybe if I say it enough I'll believe it. If I don't, it's fine. I'll just go home. Get back into my black hole of a bed and take one more pill than I did the night before. 

But still, he was glad he was alive. If there was anything he’d learned from the depression from which he suffered it was that everyone had something their meant to do with their time on this planet. And everyone had someone to live for: themselves.

“What do you say we go get your brother and head out for some ice cream?” Jesse’s old man smiled down at him the way he did when he tried to fix bad situations. Or, when the sun was shining in his eyes.

Jesse returned the smile. “Sure! I’d race you to the house, but I’d need more meds for that.”

The two laughed, continuing to do so until they reached their house which was not too far away.

“Ill be right back,” said Jesse’s father, pointing to the stairs. “I’m gonna get your brother.”

“Okay, Jesse said as he sat down on the couch in the living room. Walking out to where he’d found Olivia’s watch, and the subsequent run into the woods after the shadow that hid behind the trees didn’t take as much out of him as the walk back did. He sat there in the quiet, catching his breath, looking around the room. Just as Jesse felt a sense of calm he hadn’t felt…ever, he heard a panicked scream coming from upstairs; it was his dad.

Jesse stood up, running over to the stairs. But, he didn’t make it too far up. His father had rushed to the stairs and was walking down the stairs himself, yelling and crying at the same time; something Jesse had also never heard before. As the father got to the base of the stairs, Jesse realized his dad was holding his hands out, palms upward, dripping blood all the way down his forearms, with some smeared across the front of his grey jacket.

“I-it’s Izzy! Oh, my God! My poor boy!”

Roulette (1)

“Come on! It’ll be fun!” Jenna said with almost too much enthusiasm. It was finally winter break, and they had a few weeks off from school to do something fun. Although, hanging out at a secluded cabin in Hillsdale wasn’t Luka’s idea of fun. He’d rather lock himself in his room to play videogames and draw, particularly because he got paid for the latter. But He was invited to the spend a week at KayZee’s cabin along with Jenna and a few others, and Jenna was doing her damnedest to convince her best friend to come along.

“It’ll be fun for you because you’re friends with pretty much everyone who’s gonna be there,” Luka reminded Jenna. “I only know KayZee and you.”

“But Mateo will be there,” Jenna said in that sing-song voice that people use, making it seem like they’re dangling a prize in front of someone’s face.

“I don’t know him…” Luka said, feeling his ears become hot. If he knew they were turning red that meant Jenna did, too and could tell she was winning.

“But you like him, and he’s going to be there,” Jenna teased. She shot Luka a glance displaying her confusion with a bit of disbelief. “How do you have a crush on someone you don’t know?”

“First of all,” Luka reached for a bag just big enough to fit in a week’s worth of clean clothes and his laptop. “I don’t have a crush on him. And, isn’t that how…life works? Have you never heard of the phrase ‘Love at first sight’?”

“Aww, is that what it was between you two?”

Luka gave his friend his best ‘you can’t be serious’ face and threw a pair of his underwear at her.

“Ooh, yes! Bring these!” She squealed. “They’re cute! And Mateo likes cute.”

“He’s not going to see them even if I wear them! Besides, he has a girlfriend.”

“So? He’s on the football team. Those guys don’t even know what monogamy means, much less how to spell it.”

“You’re kinda mean,” Luka laughed as he stuffed his things into the bag. He’d just organize it all when he got there. If they didn’t leave soon, they’d be late. And Luka didn’t mind spending a week with Mateo.

“I’m also kinda right.”

***

            “Why do we have to take your car, again?” Mateo groaned while climbing into one of the back seats. He decided to sit next to the window hoping something in the passing scenery would keep him awake. According to Mateo, the worst thing in the worlds were road trips, and this would be a long one.

            “Because my car is bigger than yours,” Miles laughed. “Like a lot of other things.”

            Mateo glared at the back of Miles’ head who elected to sit in the middle row, next to the window. Miles knew Mateo was staring at him and was inwardly laughing at how worked up his friend got about things. Like the time in elementary school when the two were camping in Miles’ backyard, and Mateo demanded to walk home, just next door, early because he peed in his sleeping bag after a nightmare. Miles thought he was just going to change, but he left crying and never came back.

            “I can still feel you burning holes through my head, bro. Calm down!” Miles said without looking back at Mateo. He preferred to imagine heat radiating from the top of Mateo’s head. It was funnier that way. “I was just joking!”

            “Hahaha, fuck you…” Mateo mumbled. He knew Miles was joking, and that was the problem. The guy never took anything seriously. Including what he said to people. Miles figured because they were friends he could say whatever he wanted and expect there to be no consequences. Despite being best friends, his joking nature was the one think Mateo hated about him.

            KayZee walked around to the driver side and opened the door. “Can you guys keep it down?” She asked, annoyed at the two boys who would be sitting behind her. “I could hear you when I was locking my front door!”

            “Sorry…” muttered Mateo. He knew KayZee was being a little dramatic, but he and Miles did get a little loud when they were around each other. He thought about that but couldn’t come up with an answer as to why.

            “Sure,” Miles said sarcastically, handing his car keys to KayZee. “Just…please don’t wreck my baby. I beg of you!”

            “You drive a Honda Odyssey. It’ll be fine no matter what I do to it.” KayZee started the large, blue van as she sat in the driver’s seat. “Jesus, Miles. You wanna be a soccer mom when you grow up?”

            “Don’t mock the van. Last time I did that I was stranded on eighty-one outside of Scranton.” Miles shuddered in remembrance of his most difficult time in the snow.

            “That’s because you’re terrible at judging how far you can go on an empty tank,” Jenna said as she got into the car in the same row as Miles. That way Luka, who got in after her, would be forced to sit with Mateo, or risk making thinks awkward. “Heads up, it’s usually nowhere far enough to make a difference.”

            Luka sat down in the opposite side of the back row, avoiding eye contact with Mateo as best as he could. He even took his phone out and stared at the home screen to pretend he was busy. If Harper hadn’t called shotgun twenty minutes ago he would have sat in the front passenger seat. But now he had to act as if he hadn’t been caught staring at Mateo in the locker room freshman year. And pray Mateo had forgotten about it.

The Shadows' Empress (Part 8)

Roland sat on his bed thinking about how he was going to complete his task. There was no way he could open it by any conventional means. Which, to him, sucked. It seemed the most important things were never easy, and he hated that life worked that way. The young man listened, sitting quietly to the noise coming from outside of his room. There was none. He felt like people were listening to him through the door, but he had to get another look at the box.

            Sliding down onto the floor, Roland sat on the cheap, clue carpet on his bedroom floor. He scooted over to his left a bit so that he could reach behind him and slide the box out from it’s hiding spot while watching the door. No one entered his bedroom, so he slid the box into the light of his bedroom, making sure to keep it concealed behind his right leg so that if someone did open the door they wouldn’t see the box.

            As soon as Roland felt the old, wooden box against the outside of his right thigh he glanced down at it, then back at his bedroom door. He suddenly began to feel as if there were security cameras in his room where there were none before. Ignoring the feeling, he studied the box, noting the red symbols that he’d remembered from his dream. For a second, he contemplated breaking the box open. His dad would be going into town tomorrow to pick up some groceries—a task the kids rarely participated in. He could destroy it with one of the hammers that Jacob kept in the shed while the twins were busy playing outside.

            It sounded like a decent plan. However, despite how frail the box appeared, Roland seriously doubted he would succeed. If the virile young man couldn’t open a box that was barely holding itself together with his bare hands, there was no way a hammer would work, either. There was something about it that seemed supernatural. The markings had an innocuous feeling that meshed with a demonic one. And one of them was gone.

            When had that happened? There were seven when he put the box under his bed, and now there were only six. The area where the seventh symbols was felt cold under Roland’s fingers while the rest emitted a faint heat.

            And then he remembered the visions he’d had in his dream. The dream within a dream. Roland hated those.

            There was a brisk knock coming from the other side of the door. It sounded like it was coming from the top.

            “Hey, bud… It’s pizza night,” Roland’s father said, quite cheerily through the large wooden slab.

            Roland quickly pushed the box back underneath his bed, making sure his sheets were perfectly draped over the edge so no one would suspect anything. Then, he stood up and rushed over to the door and opened it up.

            “Pepperoni!” Jacob heard his son’s stomach growl and he laughed until he cried.

            “One large pepperoni…check,” Jacob typed Roland’s order into the memo app on him smartphone.

            The pair walked downstairs, and Roland sat on the couch to watch television with his younger siblings. They were watching cartoons until the pizza arrived at their house. It was also movie night, and they’d picked out a superhero movie. Spencer was huge fan of Harley Quinn, and Batman.

            Roland looked over at his dad who was placing the order as he paced around the kitchen. The phone in Jacob’s hand reminded Roland of when he took a picture of the map on top of the blueprints. He leaned to the right, sliding his own smartphone out of his pocket. He opened the photo gallery app. The first photo that came up was the picture he took of the map. In his dream.

            His heart began to pound in his chest as he turned the screen off and put the phone back into his pocket.

            ‘No fucking way!’ Roland tried to keep a straight face, maybe smile a little at his siblings rolling around on the carpet. But in his mind, he was jumping with joy!

            ‘I can’t believe that worked!’

            The joy didn’t last too long, though. Roland could even feel his appetite slowly dissipate when he realized that the vision he’d had must have been just as real as the picture he took.

            Spencer stared at his older brother, noticing Roland’s attitude go from “normal” to “my dog died” in just a few second. He climbed up onto the couch and hugged his older brother.

            “What’s wrong?” Spencer asked looking at Roland. The younger boy stared directly into his brother’s eyes the way he did when he was trying to read people’s minds. He couldn’t actually do so, but he liked to try.

            Roland smirked at his brother to reassure him that things would be fine. “I’m alright. Just had a weird dream.”

            “Like a nightmare?” Spencer asked?

            “Exactly. Been having them a lot, lately.”

The Shadow Man (Part 11)

“Well…” Jesse began, feeling very awkward about telling someone—especially a stranger—something that would make him sound crazy. “I saw someone in the woods. Just behind the first few trees over there,” Jesse pointed towards the woods behind a house where he ran to chase after the shadow figure that hid in the cave. By this point, he wasn’t sure if he should explain everything exactly as it happened, or to leave out the part about the man he saw being a shadow.

“Okay,” Officer Perez led Jesse to continuing his story. “What happened after you saw this person?”

“I thought the might have had something to do with Olivia’s disappearance because he was staring at me in the area where I found her watch.”

Jesse had a sudden thought; if the shadow man had Olivia, then where was she when the two encountered each other? Had the shadow already hidden her in the cave? Was he waiting for Jesse to come look for her?

Officer Perez wrote down notes in her notepad about Jesse recounting of the story. When she noticed that he’d stopped, she asked him if he was okay thinking he might have a concussion.

“Do you need to sit down?” She asked.

“No, I’m fine. I was just wondering…”

“Yes?”

“If he had Olivia, where was she when he was watching me pick up her watch?”

Perez had no idea how to answer that. In fact, she was wondering the same herself. The police officer had an inkling that Jesse was trying to counteract his story by asking such a question when he realized part of his story didn’t add up, but he seemed sincere. Instead of calling him on it, Perez wanted to get his entire story down on paper before she started speculating.

“Let’s hear your entire story first, then we’ll worry about that,” she said with a smile.

“I followed the man into the woods to a cave that was on the other side. But then I started feeling dizzy. I think I was hallucinating, or something. I saw some big grey cats that looked like they were shadows, and they attacked me while the man went into the cave.”

Jesse chuckled at the last part thinking if he played it off he could tell her as much as possible without sounding too crazy. Perez stared at the young man with a bewildered expression on her face. She’d heard a lot of crazy things in her nine years as a police officer, but nothing like that.

“Cats? Shadow cats?”

“Or something…I know, it sounds crazy. I think it was just part of a dream I had when I passed out. I’ve been taking Percocet that was prescribed for pain…”

“And you think maybe they had something to do with this…dream?”

Jesse nodded. He didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t think his story was believable, so he did his best to retell it so that something that didn’t makes sense would sound normal. The only way he could think to do that was to say it was a dream and blame it on his medication. ‘What now?” Jesse thought. ‘Am I gonna get committed? For all she knows, it was a weird dream I had when I passed out.’

The young man stared at the ground feeling incredibly stupid for saying anything at all. He wondered if this feeling he had was what people who had psychotic episodes felt. Knowing no matter what they said from that point on nobody would believe them.

“Alright, I think I have everything I need,” Officer Perez said realizing for the first time that Jesse had blood dripping from the inside of his shirt in three parallel lines. She smiled again and reminded Jesse “If there’s anything else you remember let us know,” handing Jesse her card.

“Okay,” Jesse returned the officer’s smile. He looked down at the business card she’d handed him. ‘I didn’t know cops had these things. I thought they just wrote their number on a sticky note, or something.’

Jesse felt a hand on his left shoulder, causing him to jump in fright.

“Whoa, whoa, it’s just me,” Jesse’s dad laughed. “The officer told me that you used your Percocet.

“Yeah, why?”

“You think maybe the does is too high? Or…maybe, possible, you took too much?”

“What, you think I’m a drug addict now?” Jesse asked in annoyance as he stuffed the card Officer Perez gave him into his back pocket.

“Nah, buddy. It’s not that. I’m just shocked you took it when you said you didn’t want them. You feeling alright?”

Jesse thought about his answer for a few moments. “Yeah, Dad, I’m alright. I just had this weird ache on my left side. My ribs haven’t fully healed, yet, I guess.”

“Alright. But, you let me know if it gets worse, eh?”

“I will,” Jesse said, his father pulling him in for a bear hug. Jesse hugged his father back, wincing at the pain in his side.

“Where’s your brother?” Jesse’s father asked surveying the dissipating crime scene? “He usually follows you everywhere…”

The Pits (12/12)

For the first time in several months, Max felt his life was getting back to normal. If you can call it that. He was going through a major transition in his life; starting college and moving out of his mother’s house. Max decided to go to a school that was two states away from home. After the events that occurred months ago that resulted in the deaths of his two closest friends and having to go to their funerals, he felt like he wouldn’t be able to move on if he stayed too close to home. A university in Michigan sounded nice. Far enough away that he could leave his past behind, but close enough to home that he could visit on longer breaks.

The new college student was more excited to leave home than he felt he should be. But, that was okay. He had always felt like he was in the way; a nuisance to his parents. This way, he wouldn’t be in their way and wouldn’t suffer the consequences for it. Who was Max kidding? He hadn’t had to deal with any of that since he was sixteen. Still, he’d never been able to get used to things being normal. Now was a good opportunity to finally feel like his life meant something.

Max and his new roommate, Ethan, had hit it off immediately upon meeting each other. The two young men found themselves in a new environment, completely alone despite being surrounded by people for most of the day. They decided to explore the campus, looking for the locations of all of their classes so that neither of them would get lost on the first day.

Ethan was a Biology major, which Max—a Chemistry major—thought was cool. He figured they could help each other since they had some of the same classes together. It would be like when he asked Simon for help back in…Max shook his head to make himself stop thinking about his friends. They were gone, and he wanted to move on, which Max found a more difficult task than forgetting people used to be.

“You alright?” Ethan asked? He’d seen Max shake his head, but a bit confused because he hadn’t asked a question.

“Huh? Yeah! I’m fine,” Max replied. “Just realized what homesickness was.”

“Yeah…I know what you mean,” Ethan said offering a small smile. “I’ve never been away from home until last night. I could barely sleep.”

“You’ve at least slept over at your friends’ houses, right?”

Ethan shook his head, “Nope. I was homeschooled, and most of the kids in my neighborhood were either a lot older or a lot younger than me. Didn’t have many friends.”

“That sucks…” Max thought for a second that maybe it was for the best. Ethan never had friends to lose in the first place. “On the bright side, you never had to leave any friends behind. That sucks, too.”

“I’ll bet,” Ethan nodded. “I’m guessing…you’ve had to do that a lot?”

“With a couple friends, recently. And all of my family accept my mom.”

“Damn…” Ethan felt bad knowing his new best friend’s life must have been more tragic than his own. However, it gave Ethan an idea. “Well, we’re nowhere near home, so we should just start over here!”

Max chuckled at how suddenly Ethan’s happiness could manifest itself. “Sure!”

The two friends were walking down a hallway that supposed to lead to a game room. Max forgot what it was called—something related to the school mascot—that was at the end of the hallway. All of the lights were out, so Ethan suggested they go downstairs to get some food from one of the many restaurants that operated on-campus. As they turned around, Max was instantly on edge, something he hadn’t felt since his escape from the Pits. Something about the janitor that was moping an area near to the intersecting hallway put Max off.

‘Where’d he come from?’

An image of Simon yelling at Max to run flashed in his mind, and he instinctively grabbed Ethan’s hand. Ethan looked at Max’s hand grasping his, thinking Max’s life had been rougher than he’d thought. To reassure Max, Ethan reciprocated, holding onto Max hand. After all, his parents had always told him to help other people when given the opportunity.

As they walked, Max could feel his heart beat faster. By the time the two were close to the janitor, he was feeling chills running down his spine almost as fast as Max wanted to run from the man cleaning the floor. The janitor’s hat concealed his face, and his coveralls covering nearly everything else. Max was afraid the janitor was lash out at him and his new friend as they walked by, but he didn’t. Max felt his heart rate decrease and he began to relax when Ethan whispered, “I thought the janitors wore jeans and a polo shirt with the school colors on it…”

Max’s heart rate increased again, and he almost ran away, with Ethan in tow, when he noticed that Ethan wasn’t walking anymore. He turned to see what was wrong with Ethan to see blood dripping from the other young man’s neck. It started at a trickle at first, but Ethan’s head began to tilt back tearing more of the skin as it did so. In seconds, the front of Ethan’s body was covered in thick, shiny, crimson blood, and he collapsed backwards onto the floor where the janitor had been mopping.

“Damn kids. I just cleaned the floor,” said a raspy, familiar voice.

Max looked up in horror, still holding onto Ethan’s hand. The Janitor took off his hat with the same hand he was holding his knife in.

“You’re shitting me…” Max muttered. He looked into the eyes of the old man who murdered his friend, Gio, and several cultists.

“I told you, if I could still see you when I finished killin’ them cult bastards, I’d be commin’ for ya,” The old man growled. “When I was done countin’, you were hangin’ upside down from a tree.”

“B-but…I wasn’t…I mean…” Max stammered. He didn’t know what to say, but that wasn’t stopping him from trying to talk.

The old man put his hat back on, raising his knife to Max’s throat. “Should’ve just dies with your friends.”

The Shadows' Empress (Part 6)

For once in a very long time, Roland woke up much more peacefully than he’d slept. He didn’t open his eyes immediately. Instead, he laid in bed thinking about the dream he had last night. At first, the light coming through his windows shining through his eyelids made him feel safe. And then, he remembered what he’d discovered in the last few moments locked inside that office in the hotel. He made his best attempt at holding the tears back. When he finally lost the battle feeling the warm tears rolling down his cheeks, Roland felt something he hadn’t since he was about twelve years old: the feeling that he was being watched. Roland opened his eyes and stared up at his observer. It was his father, Jacob.

            “Oh, morning, Dad,” Roland said with a smile. “I had a feeling someone was watching me.”

            “Did ya?” Jacob raised an eyebrow. “How long were you awake?”

            “Just a couple of minutes.”

            “Did you have another bad dream, bud?”

            Roland froze for a second, “How did you know? Did I yell, again?”

            “Nope,” Jacob smiled, reach over to his son’s face. “What was so bad about it that it made you cry when you woke up?”

            Roland was taken aback. He had seen some variation of this question coming, and he still wasn’t ready for it. Possibly because he didn’t think he dad would ask it so soon. So, he lied.

            “I had a dream that some people broke into the house, dragged me out, and made me watch while they blew up the house with you and Scarlet and Spencer in it.”

            That’s obviously not what happened, but even the thought of that terrified Roland. Because of how intense that sounded, he began to wonder which was worse; the fake nightmare, or the real one.

            “Ah, yeah…that’s pretty messed up,” Jacob said, rubbing Roland’s lower right leg. “It’s a good thing that was just a dream.”

            “Yep…”

            “You hungry? I made bacon, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast.”

            “Uh, sure. I’ll be down in just a sec.”

            “Good,” Roland’s father said as he stood up. “Because someone needs to mow the lawn and I’ve got to get to work.”

            Roland stared at his dad for a few moments. “But, you work from home. I thought that’s why you wanted to be a writer?”

            “Yes, but I have a midnight deadline, and I nave to crank out the last thirty pages.”

            “Holy crap, Dad!”

            “I know, I know! This is why you don’t procrastinate. You end up like your old man!” Jacob said with a chuckle while walking into his office.

            Forcing himself out of bed, Roland went over to his dresser, and pulled out a pair of camouflage shorts and a black tank top, figuring it would be hot outside after he ate breakfast. It was always hot this early in the morning in central Texas. He decided he’d just take a shower when he was done with the lawn. He’d likely end up doing so anyway to rinse of the sweat.

            When Roland got downstairs, his sister, Scarlet, was already in the living room, watching cartoons. Roland sat next to his younger brother with his plate of food.

            “Why aren’t you done, yet?” he asked, tousling Spencer’s hair. “I thought you two were inseparable.”

            “I don’t wanna go in there,” Spencer said while he smoothed his messy blond hair.

            “Why not?” the older boy asked.

            Instead of answering, Spencer hopped off of his chair at the dining room table, and brought his empty plate to the sink, dropping it in. The small boy then ran upstairs with his stuffed animal held tightly in his arms, closing the door behind him.

            The irony was not lost on Roland when he couldn’t help but mutter, “You’re too young to be acting like a teenager. The older boy put his plate in the sink as well and went out to the backyard to get the lawnmower. Fortunately for Roland, it didn’t take him too long to get the rather large backyard squared away. He was proud of himself for finishing his chore in record time; fourteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds, according to his Smart Watch.

            Roland pushed the lawnmower to it’s resting place in the shed that his father had built. As the machine rolled into the small building, it hit a bump where the ground and floor at the entrance were not level. Jacob kept saying he was going to fix it, but he never did. Instead of making things difficult for himself, Roland pulled the lawnmower backwards and pushed the handlebar down to avoid the bump. However, the teen’s hands were sweaty enough for him to lose his grip and the heavier portion of the lawnmower that was painted bright red and covered in lawn trimmings slammed down onto the floor inside the shed. Just as Roland was hoping his dad hadn’t heard the noise a box fell from a shelf above the doors that he had forgotten existed, bouncing off of the machine, causing an even louder metal ting sound.

            Hoping he didn’t breaking anything important—the box and its contents, or the lawnmower—Roland pushed the mower into the far back of the shed thinking he’d pretend the weather caused it to break if it didn’t work next time. After that, he picked up the small, wooden box, turning it right-side-up. He’d never seen the box before. He could tell there was something in it, something heavy, by the sounds it made when Roland moved the box around. The only thing that seemed familiar about it were the markings. Instead of writing on it in Sharpie there were symbols.

            ‘They look like the ones on the map…’

            Roland’s heart started racing. There’s no way this could be happening! He wondered if his dad would know he took it, and just as quickly, decided he didn’t care. He was too excited about this situation to let this chance pass. He left the shed with his new package in tow and closed the door and locked it. Roland went back into his house, passed his sister still watching television, up the stairs. He stood at the top of the stairs. The room to his brother’s bedroom was closed as was the door to his father’s office.

            ‘Good…’

            Walking fast, with his heartbeat seemingly getting faster with each step, Roland made it into his room, closed the door, and slid the box under his bed, far enough that no one would ever see it.

            ‘Now to get the lock off.”